World Literature Book Club via West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Participants will join us for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (HarperCollins, 2008) eds. Joyce Carol Oates and Christopher R. Beha. This month’s selections are:
April 1: The Identity Club by Richard Burgin
April 8: Son of the Wolfman by Michael Chabon
April 15: Night Women by Edwidge Dandicat
April 22: Television by Lydia Davis
April 29: Aurora by Junot Diaz
We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays)
RSVP:
For the Zoom link, please send an e-mail request to wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the Subject line.
NOTE: This event repeats at 2 pm via Woodland Hills Branch Library, LAPL.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-29
Zine Club via Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for Zine Club, where our group members meet in a virtual space to co-work, chat, and share inspiration for whatever projects we’re working on. Zine Club is based on the idea of gathering together to create zines, share zines we like, zines we are working on, music to make zines to, and much more.
Zine content can be personal, political, niche, artistic, or visual—there are no rules! We have zines for all ages by local and international zinesters. You can browse the collection at any of our eight zine library locations, or search our catalog to place a hold and have your zines delivered to your nearest branch.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/zine-club-1
Mystery Book Club: Midwinter Murder Club via Woodland Hills Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join our monthly Mystery Book Club meeting via Zoom on the first Monday of every month, except holidays, which will meet the following Monday.
Discussion is facilitated by Mary C. Schaffer. Books are read in advance of the meetings and are available to borrow from the Woodland Hills Branch Library Reference Desk, or you may place a copy on hold through the library catalog or Libby app.
The book selection for April 1 is Midwinter Murder Club by Robert Thorogood.
Where: Woodland Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-40
Book Club at Platt Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Practice English conversation in our Book Club every week with others who love books! The book club will provide you with extra motivation to practice reading, listening, and discussing in English each week. Expand your vocabulary with the Book Club. Join us every Monday evening!
Contact the literacy coordinator for more information: plattliteracy@lapl.org
Where: Platt Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-22
History Book Club: Ida: A Sword Among Lions at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, by author Paula J. Giddings.
This book is a Pulitzer Prize Board citation to Ida B. Wells, as an early pioneer of investigative journalism and civil rights icon.
Ida B. Wells was born into slavery and raised in the Victorian age yet emerged—through her fierce political battles and progressive thinking—as the first “modern” black women in the nation’s history.
Wells began her activist career when she tried to segregate a first-class railway car in Memphis. After being thrown bodily off the car, she wrote about the incident for black Baptist newspapers, thus beginning her career as a journalist. But her most abiding fight would be the one against lynching, a crime in which she saw all the themes she held most dear coalesce: sexuality, race, and the law.
Paula J. Giddings is the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor in Afro-American Studies at Smith College and the author of When and Where I Enter and In Search of Sisterhood.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/history-book-club-ida-sword-among-lions
National Poetry Month Event: Poetry Reading & Open Mic with Gustavo Hernandez. at Irvine Valley College – In-Person Event
In honor of National Poetry Month there will be a Poetry Reading and Open Mic event at the Writing Center, featuring Orange County Poet Laureate Gustavo Hernandez, author of Flower Grand First (Moon Tide Press, 2021).
Bring your family and friends! The Humanities faculty and the Puente Program are hosting this event.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Irvine Valley College
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm (Sign-ups at 6:30 pm)
Address: Irvine Valley College, Writing Center (Liberal Arts Bldg. 103)
Website: https://www.ivc.edu/events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D173078579
R.U.P.O. at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event
RUPO Open Mic is back every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at a new time- 7pm to 9pm. Sign-ups are at 6:30pm and in person only, $4 cash admission. See you then!
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Back to the Grind, Riverside
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Sign-ups at 6:30 pm)
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom Event
This free Monday Night Community Writing Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Baker earned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and Transnational Literatures at California State University Channel Islands, teaching courses on creative writing and contemporary African literatures. Raquel has published poetry in Africology and The Arrow; fiction in Enculturation, The Daily Palette, The Womanist, and Crux; and non-fiction in Little Village; and has done readings with the Ventura County Poetry project. Raquel lives for talking about all things about the craft and social meanings of literature!
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-871734861437
Under Mic Influence: Featured Readings & Open Mic at LB Unified – In-Person Event
If you need an open mic, beautiful people, tasty eats, dope inspiration, good libations, and good vibrations, we have you covered!
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and @djkevjam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
In the tradition of Funkmosphere, Monday Night Delight, Melodic Mondays, Project Blowed, Griot Cafe, and Lady Basco’s Speakeasy, we come to light things right back up and take the poet & the MC to new heights. Every 1st and 3rd Monday, you will be Under Mic Influence. Come level up with carefree, high-caliber spitters, and leave ready to get the bars up & come back for more!
Featured guest TBA.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mic-influence-tickets-388452220047
Paula J. Johnson & Smithsonian American Table: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us via Santa Monica College – Online Event
American Table is a sweeping history of food and culture that summons everyone to the table for a fresh look at some of the people, ingredients, events, and movements that have shaped how and what we eat.
About the Author: Paula Johnson is a Curator in the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and is responsible for strengthening and maintaining the food history and marine resources collections. She is also the Project Director for the Smithsonian’s multi-faceted American Food History Project and director and co-curator for the exhibition, FOOD: Transforming the American Table. She is an inaugural member of the editorial collective for Gastronomica: The Journal for Food History and received the 2020 Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities Award. Johnson is working on a book about Julia Child’s home kitchen for publication in Fall 2024.
NOTE: See site to register and for details.
Where: SMC Library
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.smc.edu/calendar/#event-details/797075ce-91c3-44e4-bf45-648d9e8a00f1
Book Launch & Reading: Jacqueline Chio-Lauri & Kristin Sorra & Mami King via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Author Jacqueline Chio-Lauri and illustrator Kristin Sorra will present their book, Mami King.
This new picture book, MAMI KING: HOW MA MON LUK FOUND LOVE, RICHES, AND THE PERFECT BOWL OF SOUP is a mouthwatering story about a man determined to create a delicious soup and win the hand of his true love
Rejected by the parents of the girl he loves for being poor, Ma Mon Luk strikes out from China and boards a steamship headed for the Philippines in 1918.
He vows to make a fortune and return for his beloved. Ma creates a chicken noddle soup he calls mami—”ma” for his name and “mi” for noodles—and peddles it as a street vendor. He eventually earns enough to open his own restaurant and wins the approval of the parents of his true love. Joyful illustrations from award-winning illustrator Kristin Sorra and heartwarming text from debut picture book author Jacqueline Chio-Lauri blend together to create a delicious story about creativity, perseverance, and the perfect bowl of soup. Satisfy your hunger with this Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
Jacqueline Chio Lauri is a writer, anthologist, and editor. Her work includes The New Filipino Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from around the Globe, and We Cook Filipino: Heart-healthy Recipes and Inspiring Stories from 36 Filipino Food Personalities and Award-winning Chefs. She currently resides in Manchester, England.
Kristin Sorra is an award-winning children’s book illustrator. Born in Baltimore, MD to Filipino immigrants, Kristin loved to draw and create. She attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and received a BFA in Communications Design with a focus in Illustration. Her work has taken many creative turns, but she finds it most rewarding to illustrate books that continue to challenge and inspire young readers. Kristin lives with her husband and their blended family in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Long Beach
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Fiction Book Club: And Then There Were None at Donald Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
This lively group of avid readers meets on the first Tuesday of each month to discuss a work of fiction. Books selected for discussion can be new or old and come from a wide array of genres, styles, and authors.
Participants will discuss the mystery novel, by author Agatha Christie.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/fiction-book-club-0
Feminist Book Club: A Council of Dolls at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Feminist Book Club participants will discuss A Council of Dolls: A Novel by author Mona Susan Power.
This is the long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried…It’s a gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people.
Mona Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is the author of three previously published works of fiction, The Grass Dancer, Sacred Wilderness, and Roofwalker. Her short stories have been published by The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, and more. Mona is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives and teaches in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/feminist-book-club-council-dolls
Conchas y Café Zine Writing Workshop via DSTL Arts – In-Person Event
Conchas y Café is a DSTL Arts bilingual community writing workshop series for adults that produces a biannual zine by the same name, featuring artwork and creative writing produced by our community and program participants.
The goal of Conchas y Café is to bring together our community under the arts, building skills and arts-literacy, so that more adults may appreciate the cultural and economic value the arts bring to our lives. The content taught through this workshop series is primarily for new and emerging poets and writers, or people returning to creative writing after a long-term absence from the craft.
The Conchas y Café workshop series spans 15 weeks, and is an ongoing program offered every trimester. Our program participants write on a new theme for their zine every trimester and celebrate its release with a public reading.
Enrollment via Google Classroom required for workshop participation and full access to session handouts.
For any questions regarding Conchas y Café, feel free to contact us directly by email at Info@DSTLArts.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday the 2nd (through April the 30th)
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/conchasycafezine
Rebecca Searle, with Jessica Knoll, & Expiration Dates at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Rebecca Searle, in discussion with Jessica Knoll, will discuss and sign Expiration Dates.
Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.
Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.
Jessica Knoll is the New York Times bestselling author of Bright Young Women, The Favorite Sister and Luckiest Girl Alive—now a major motion picture from Netflix starring Mila Kunis. She has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at Self. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their bulldog, Franklin.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Rebecca-Serle-Expiration-Dates-April-2-Author-signing
Creativity Book Club: Bird by Bird & The Artist’s Way at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join the new Village Well book club offshoot, Creativity Book Club, where participants will be led in conversation by Judith Martin-Straw to discuss Bird by Bird by author Anne Lamott and The Artist’s Way by author Julia Cameron.
Be a part of the start – and let 2024 be your most creatively satisfying year yet!
Judith Martin-Straw has been teaching creativity classes, yoga, and meditation for almost 20 years. She is also the Publisher of CulverCityCrossroads.com, a daily local news website. Her poetry has been published in the Beyond Baroque anthology Echo 681, and has been featured in the “Readers Write’ section of The Sun.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/34215
Anna Schechtman & The Riddles of the Sphinx at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Anna Schechtman will present and discuss her book, The Riddles of the Sphynx.
The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, spearheaded The New Yorker’s popular crossword section.
In this fascinating work—part memoir, part cultural analysis—she excavates the hidden history of the crossword and the overlooked women who have been central to its creation and evolution, from the “Crossword Craze” of the 1920s to the role of digital technology today. As she tells the story of her own experience in the Crossword, she analyzes the roles assigned to women in American culture, the boxes they’ve been allowed to fill, and the ways that they’ve used puzzles to negotiate the constraints and play of desire under patriarchy.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/anna-schechtman
North Fig Reading Group: Los Angeles Political Economyat North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
The Political Economy Book Group participants will discuss Fire this Time, by author Gerald Horne.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Hanif Abdurraqib, with Traci Thomas, & There’s Always This Year at Reparations Club Off-site at Zipper Concert Hall – In-Person Event
Acclaimed poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib, in conversation with Traci Thomas, will discuss his book There’s Always This Year.
This book celebrates the author’s personal reflections on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, Lebron James.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Zipper Concert Hall
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 200 S. Gend Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://rep.club/products/hanif-abdurraqib-event
At Skylight: Maggie Thrash, with Suzy Exposito, & Rainbow Black at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Maggie Thrash, in conversation with Suzy Exposito, will present and discuss her book, Rainbow Black: A Novel.
Join us for a brilliant, deliriously entertaining novel from the acclaimed author of Honor Girl. Rainbow Black is part murder mystery, part gay international fugitive love story—set against the ’90s Satanic Panic and spanning 20 years in the life of a young woman pulled into its undertow.
Lacey Bond is a 13-year-old girl in New Hampshire growing up in the tranquility of her hippie parents’ rural daycare center.
Then the Satanic Panic hits. It’s the summer of 1990 when Lacey ’s parents are handcuffed, flung into the county jail, and faced with a torrent of jaw-dropping accusations as part of a mass hysteria sweeping the nation. When a horrific murder brings Lacey to the breaking point, she makes a ruthless choice that will haunt her for decades. This is an addictive, searing, high-octane triumph, an imaginative tour de force about one woman’s tireless desire to be free.
Maggie Thrash is the author of the critically acclaimed graphic memoirs Honor Girl (a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee) and Lost Soul, Be At Peace, as well as two novels for young adults. Rainbow Black is her adult debut. Born and raised in Atlanta, she lives in New Hampshire.
Suzy Exposito is a culture columnist with the Latino Initiatives team at the Los Angeles Times. She joined the newsroom as a music reporter in October 2020 and previously spearheaded the Latin music section at Rolling Stone. Exposito has also written for NPR, Pitchfork and Revolver.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-maggie-thrash-presents-rainbow-black-w-suzy-exposito
Group Poetry Event: Senator Anthony Portantino, with Linda Ravenswood and Brian Sonia-Wallace, & The Poet Politician at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Senator Anthony Portantino will launch his new book, The Poet Politician, in Celebration of National Poetry Month. He will be joined by poets and writers Linda Ravenswood and Brian Sonia-Wallace.
Senator Anthony Portantino represents California’s 25th State Senate District, which stretches along the 210 Freeway from Sunland/Tujunga to Upland. He proudly represents the Rose Bowl, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Griffith Park, Warner Brothers, Disney, Caltech and the Claremont Colleges.
Linda Ravenswood BFA MA, PhD is a poet and performance artist from Los Angeles. Her accolades include an Oxford Prize in Poetry (2022) and the Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry (2023). She is the founding editor of The Los Angeles Press, est. 2018, and the co-founder of the Poet Laureate program in Glendale, California. Her recent collections include Cantadora-Letters from California (Eyewear London/The Black Spring Press Group, 2023), The Stan Poems (Pedestrian Press, 2022), Tlacuilx-Tongues in Quarantine (HINCHAS Press, 2021), and XLA Poets (HINCHAS Press, 2020). Find her at thelosangelespress.com
Brian Sonia-Wallace has been described as a “creative genius” by the LA’s Department of Cultural Affairs and “disappointingly normal” by the New York Times. He’s written for the Guardian, Rolling Stone, and more. He has been the resident writer for Amtrak, the Dollar Shave Club, and Mall of America to name a few. His company, RENT Poet, was featured on NPR’s How I Built This.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Tuesday Night Café: Season Opener: Featured Guests & Open Mic at Tuesday Night Project – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Tuesday Night Project is back every 1st & 3rd Tuesday in the courtyard with our “Season Opener” Show! Join us at the Union Center for the Arts on April 2nd, 2024, at 7:30 pm for art, music, community, friends, and fun!
– Update! – As we consider the ongoing pandemic and want to make the space as available to our community as possible, masking is required in our courtyard and inside the UCA lobby. We will have masks available on site. If you can’t join us in-person, we will continue to stream our shows on YouTube.
Johnnie Concordia hosts, with beats by Freak Butterfly & MezoHalo.
Featuring: Kuni Yoshida, MaraSi, Union, Randa Jarrar, Priska & the Open Mic lottery.
Where: Union Center for the Arts
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 120 Judge John Aliso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4yD_P9Oy6Y/?hl=en
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic + Featured Reader Tami Hattis – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and featured guest Tami Hattis
Tami Hattis is a poet and writer and the author of her debut collection, Colors of My Pain, which interrogates the constructs of beauty, gender and selfhood as much as our nation’s failures of empathy and curiosity. See more at https://www.tamilani.com/book
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
NOTE: Details at event link. Check to Verify.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups or https://www.facebook.com/events/213407634459999/?active_tab=discussion
Fernando Funes Presents: The Dazed & Confused Poetry Club at The Glendale Room – In-Person Event
The Dazed & Confused Poetry Club event is a special National Poetry Month edition of a performance by booked poets an Open Mic.
April is a month-long celebration of our beloved art form, so producer Fernando A. Funes has brought together some of his favorite poets for a special one-night celebration of lines, rhymes, and verse!
Poetry Club!
April is a month-long celebration of our beloved art form, so producer Fernando A. Funes has brought together some of his favorite poets for a special one-night celebration of lines, rhymes, and verse!
Featuring:
Alex Petunia is the author of the collection Tending My Wild and is leader of the Meditation Monday workshops through LAPS.
Sophia Lau is a writer and educator and is currently working on her first nonfiction book.
Jesenia Chávez is a writer and educator and the author of the collection This Poem Might Save You (Me).
Christian Lozada is the son of an immigrant Filipino and a descendent of the Confederacy. His heart beats with hope and exclusion. He co-authored the poetry book Leave with More Than You Came With from Arroyo Seco Press and the history book Hawaiian in Los Angeles. His new collection is titled He’s a Color Until He’s Not.
Ceasar K. Avelar is the current Poet Laureate of Pomona and the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems.
And we got an open mic! See site for sign-ups.
Where: The Glendale Room
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 8 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 7:45 pm)
Address: 127 Artsakh Ave., Glendale, CA 91206
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dazed-and-confused-poetry-club-2024-tickets-815625045467
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays SLAM and special events) they hold open mic night. In a standard slam, there are five judges that are selected. Before the competition begins, the host may bring up a sacrificial poet who is not competing in the slam but is scored by the judges in order for them to calibrate their scoring.
NOTE: See sign-ups, details, and guidelines at website link.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Tuesday the 2nd
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/open-mic-night
Book Club: The Maid at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Book Club participants will discuss the mystery novel, The Maid, by author Nita Prose.
Molly’s orderly life as a hotel maid is upended the day she enters the suite of infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black dead.
RSVP:
Email sstamm@lapl.org for Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/chatsworth-book-club-5
Poets Café: Poetry Event via KPFK 90.7 FM – Live On-Air Event
Poets Café celebrates National Poetry Month and hosts poets in discussion. It’s aired weekly on KPFK.
This program is offered weekly on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: KPFK 90.7 FM
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/oe
Social Justice Book Club: The Proudest Blue at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Check out the book of the month at your local library and bring your thoughts and feelings to the conversation.
Participants will discuss The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family by Muhammad Ibhha.
RSVP:
Please register at http://tinyurl.com/3be34rer.
For more information, email cquinn@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/social-justice-book-club
Feedback Circle Workshop via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
The Feedback Circle workshop is appropriate for writers who have at least 5 poems ready for revision. Participants will have opportunities for feedback in small groups, large groups, and one-on-one settings. Much attention will be paid to giving feedback to others compassionately and equitably. Craft-focused feedback will be strongly encouraged, and a review of elements of craft will be made available to facilitate this focus.
Maximum class size: 12 people
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Wednesday the 3rd (Six weeks: continues on April 10th,17th, and 24th)
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/feedback
Creative Writing Workshop with Tony DuShane at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a free 90-minute writer’s workshop presented by UCLA instructor Tony DuShane, screenwriter of the film Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, based on his novel of the same name. This workshop is open to adults only.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-tony-dushane-28
Be the Change: Social Justice Writing Workshop with James Coats – Online Event
Be the Change, a Social Justice Writing Workshop, is held every 1st Wednesday of the month and led by poet and author James Coats.
Workshop is free: name your own price.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event Zoom ID: 826 5843 0669 Password: justice
Website: N/A
Reading in Bed with Jessica: L.A, Poet Society via 101.5 FM – Live On-Air Event
Reading in Bed with Jessica hosts poets and writers in conversation and is aired weekly on 101.5 FM.
Jessica Wilson Cardenas is the founder of Los Angeles Poet Society.
Guests TBA
This program is offered weekly on radioollin Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society via www.radioollin.com 101.5 FM
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Richard Walter & Deadpan at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Richard Walter will present and discuss his book, Deadpan.
Deadpan is a mordantly funny novel that skewers prejudice and scoffs at ignorance, opposing hate with humor. (Heresy Press LLC).
Richard Walter is an author of best-selling fiction and nonfiction, celebrated storytelling educator, screenwriter, script consultant, lecturer, and retired professor who led the screenwriting program in the film school at UCLA for several decades.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/richard-walter
Anne de Marcken & It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Anne de Marcken will present and discuss her book, It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over.
Anne de Marcken is a writer and interdisciplinary artist. Winner of The Novel Prize, her debut novel, It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, was simultaneously published by New Directions (US), Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Giramondo (AU) in March of 2024. She is also author of the lyric novella, The Accident: An Account (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), and her writing has been featured in Best New American Voices, Ploughshares, Narrative, Entropy, Glimmer Train, Southern Indiana Review, on NPR’s Selected Shorts and elsewhere. She is an Artist Trust Fellow (2017) and recipient of the Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction, the Stella Kupferberg Memorial Prize, the Mary C. Mohr Short Fiction Award and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer Award, in addition to numerous jury and audience prizes for her feature film Group (2002).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-ltni6wwz
RECESS Open Mic Is Back at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic Is Back at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in our curriculum and manifests our mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join us at the intersection of Historic Filipinotown & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: SIPA
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30; Open Mic at 8 pm)
Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com https://www.instagram.com/p/C3blXIZJERV/
At Skylight: Ari Gold and Ethan Gold, with, & Father Verses Sons at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Ari Gold and Ethan Gold, in conversation with Steve Gaydos and Natasha Leggero, will present and discuss their collection, Father Versus Sons.
When the global pandemic forced his ninety-six-year-old father into isolation, filmmaker Ari Gold became concerned that loneliness would kill his father’s spirits. As a prolific novelist who began writing in his twenties, Herbert Gold’s incredible oeuvre included twenty-four novels, five collections of stories and essays, and eight nonfiction books. So, Ari mailed his father a poem, asking for one in return. Later, Ari’s twin brother, Ethan, also got into the game. Thus, was launched a lifesaving literary correspondence, and a testament to the bonds of family.
This ia a lushly illustrated “correspondence in poems,” ranges across the life, family, and death of a remarkable father. The father and his sons write tenderly of their hunger for connection, about the woman that all three men have lost (a mother, a wife), and about the passion that all three seek. Ultimately, these poems tell a singular story of men bumbling their way towards love.
Ari Gold is a filmmaker and winner of the Student Oscar. His films have been selected at Sundance four times, and his upcoming movies “Helicopter” and “Brother Verses Brother” are companions to this book.
Ethan Gold is a songwriter, performer, and composer residing in Los Angeles and Berlin. He is releasing a trilogy of albums about the modern world, called “Earth City.”
Natasha Leggero is an accomplished actress, writer, and stand-up comedian. Natasha recently starred in BROKE on CBS opposite Jaime Camil and Pauley Perrette and you’ll soon be able to see her on TBS hosting RAT IN THE KITCHEN alongside Celebrity Chef Ludo Lefebvre. Natasha hosts a very successful podcast with her husband and fellow comedian Moshe Kasher titled THE ENDLESS HONEYMOON PODCAST, where the two answer questions and dole out relationship advice. She’s also currently working on a book THE WORLD DESERVES MY CHILDREN that will be released in November 2022.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-catherine-lacey-presents-biography-x-w-chris-kraus
Lian Dolan & The Marriage Sabbatical at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Lian Dolan will present and discuss her novel, The Marriage Sabbatical.
After twenty-three years of building careers and raising kids together, Jason and Nicole Elswick are ready for a break from their daily lives. Jason has spent years planning his dream sabbatical—ditching work for a nine-month-long motorcycle trip through South America. Problem is, that’s Jason’s dream, not Nicole’s. After years working retail and parenting in Portland, Nicole craves the sun of the Southwest and the artistic community in Santa Fe, where she wants to learn jewelry design.
But all sabbaticals come to an end…then what?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Lian-Dolan-discusses-The-Marriage-Sabbatical
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — TBA;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmail.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom Event
Beyond Baroque’s longest-running free poetry workshop is offered on Zoom and welcomes new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please sign up for each workshop session at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, and you will be contacted with instructions on how to join the meeting.
The workshop facilitator this quarter is L.A. Johnson, the author of the chapbook Little Climates (Bull City Press, 2017). She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a PhD from the University of Southern California, where she is currently a Mellon Humanities and University of the Future postdoctoral fellow. The winner of the 2022 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, the 2022 Greensboro Review Poetry Prize, the 2021 Arts & Letters Rumi Poetry Prize, her poems appear in The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, and The Slowdown. She’s received support for her writing from Vermont Studio Center, Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and elsewhere. Find more about her at http://www.la-johnson.com
Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. There’s an instructive video that might help.
The workshop can sometimes reach high levels of attendance, which means not everyone will get a chance to read every session.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-873294927637?aff=erelexpmlt
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Featured Guest Michael Feinstein at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights offers a Reading & Open Micwith featured guest Michael Feinstein.
Michael Feinstein is a poet originally from Tracy, California. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Randolph College, a BA in English – Creative Writing from CSU Long Beach, and an AA in English from Butte College. His poems have appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather Review, Inflectionist Review, Poetry Online, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook Breeds of Breath (Alien Buddha Press, 2020). You can find more of his work at http://www.matthewfeinsteinwriter.com
NOTE: $4 cover fee, cash only. See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 3rd
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/683740557297692
Monthly Open Mic Night at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
Poets, singers, songwriters, storytellers, writers, comedians, supporters, and listeners are welcome! The event will include a featured reading by published poet Jonathan Humanoid. Performer sign-ups begin at 4:45 p.m.
The event is held in the multi-purpose room on the basement level. Hope to see you there! Please call 714-765-1880 at least 72 hours in advance if ADA accommodations are needed.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 5 pm – 6:45 pm
Address: 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://anaheim.net/Calendar.aspx?EID=36178&month=4&year=2024&day=4&calType=0
Book Talk & Signing: Asaf Elia-Shalev & Israel’s Black Panthers at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Asaf Elia-Shalev presents and signs his book, Israel’s Black Panthers.
Israel’s Black Panthers tells the story of the young and impoverished Moroccan Israeli Jews who challenged their country’s political status quo and rebelled against the ethnic hierarchy of Israeli life in the 1970s. Inspired by the American group of the same name, the Black Panthers mounted protests and a yearslong political campaign for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry. They managed to rattle the country’s establishment and change the course of Israel’s history through the mass mobilization of a Jewish underclass.
Asaf Elia-Shalev (@AsafShaloo) is staff writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which distributes his work to dozens of media outlets in multiple languages. He is currently based in Los Angeles but has spent years working in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in the United States and Israel, Elia-Shalev is attuned to cultural nuances and offers a unique blend of insider and outsider perspectives to make this history accessible to readers.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Edward Humes, with Rosanna Xia, & Total Garbage at Deisel, a Bookstore – In-Person Event
Edward Humes, in conversation with Rosanna Xia, will present and discuss his book, Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World.
Total Garbage is an investigative narrative that exposes the pervasive waste embedded in our daily lives—and shows how families, campuses and communities are replacing waste with prosperity, joy and health, even as they help save the planet.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Edward Humes, presents a story-driven, in-depth exploration of how we’ve been duped into accepting ruinous amounts of waste as inevitable, habitual, and normal. But that just sets the stage for the heart of the book: the game-changing individuals and communities showing us the way back from waste, proving by example that our choices truly make a difference. We’ve been told our environmental and climate crises are too big for our choices to matter, but Humes shows that’s total garbage. When they’re viewed as symptoms of a single enemy—waste—the hopelessness, divisiveness and fear slip away. Going green stops being about giving up things we love. It shifts to upgrading to stuff we’ll love better.
Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author whose sixteen previous books include Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash, The Forever Witness, Mississippi Mud, and the PEN Award– winning No Matter How Loud I Shout. Ed and his family, including their rescued racing greyhounds and collie, live in Southern California.
Rosanna Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her work has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series. Her award-winning book, California Against the Sea, has been praised as a beautiful and revelatory exploration of how we relate to the natural world.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Diesel, a Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 6:30
Address: 225 26th St, Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Edward-Humes-Rosanna-Xia-April-4-Author-signing
Literacy Day Festival Event: Illustrator LeUyen Phamat Once Upon a Time Off-site at Longden Elementary School – In-Person Event
Temple City native LeUyen Pham has illustrated more than one hundred books for children, including the Caldecott Honor Book Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris, and the bestselling Princess in Black series by Shannon and Dean Hale. She is the cocreator, along with Shannon Hale, of the bestselling Friends series. Her own books include Outside, Inside, The Bear Who Wasn’t There, and Big Sister, Little Sister. leuyenpham.com
Award-winning and New York Times bestselling illustrator LeUyen Pham will be featured at the Temple City Literacy Day Festival. Books are available to be purchased ahead of time online to pick up at the event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time at Longden Elementary School
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9501 E Wendon St., Temple City, CA 91780
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/temple-city-literacy-day
Rowan Beaird, with Sarah Tomlinson, & The Divorcess at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Rowan Beaird, in conversation with Sarah Tomlinson, will present and discuss her novel,The Divorcees.
Set in the glamorous, dizzying world of 1950s Reno, where housewives and movie stars rubbed shoulders at gin-soaked casinos, The Divorcees is a riveting page-turner and a dazzling exploration of female friendship, desire, and freedom.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/rowan-beaird
Tonalli Thursdays Open Mic via Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Zoom Event
Angel Miguel Lopez hosts Tonalli Thursdays Open Mic and Featured Readers every 1st Thursday of the month via Zoom.
Features TBA.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Los Angeles Poet Society
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event: ZOOM: 897 1039 1895
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1qMKSfJilR
Jason De León & Soldiers and Kings at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jason De León will discuss his new book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.
Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion-dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.
This book is the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, De León expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Jason-De-Leon-discusses-Soldiers-and-Kings
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is a weekly time to have fun with books with enthusiastic troubadour, Maddi!
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Korean Storytime at Pio Pico-Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join our fabulous storytime volunteer, Misook, for Korean Storytime on the first Friday of every month. You and your little ones will share songs, stories and play. Please note that the storytime is in Korean, but all are welcome.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Pico Pico-Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 10 am
Address: 694 S. Oxford Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/korean-storytime-3
First Fridays Book Club: Caste at Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/first-fridays-book-club
Teens! Take Up Space: Workshop Display at Altadena Main Library – In-Person Teen Event
This month, come by to the Teen Space to help create an interactive display for the library. Collaborate with the Teen Librarian on a Poetry Month display in the Teen Space! Bring your ideas, book recommendations, and creative vision to this program. We will be participating in “black out poetry” to activate the display!
All teens (ages 13-17) are welcome to join!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Altadena Main Library’s Teen Space
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 90019
Website: https://www.altadenalibrary.org/programs/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D172506250
Monthly Open Mic at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event
Join us for an evening of our monthly open mic at LibroMobile, hosted by Local Poet Kunthon “Katon” Meas
RSVP
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: LibroMobile, Santa Ana
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 1150 S Bristol St A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704,
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/libromobile-monthly-open-mic-2024-04-05-18-00
Valerie Castellanos Clark & Unruly Figures at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Valerie Castellanos Clark will present and discuss her book, about the lives and often untold stories of twenty of history’s most fascinating individuals. Of all the rebels and revolutionaries who have acted around the world, these are often overlooked. Whether they are a bit familiar or entirely new to you, each of these historical figures provides a vivid example of what it means to live life on one’s own terms and have a lasting influence on society.
This is a collection of hidden history tales—those of scientists, artists, revolutionaries, activists, heirs to thrones, and so many more—and you are guaranteed to be inspired by how they lived on their own unconventional terms.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/valorie-castellanos-clark-discusses-unruly-figures
Kindest Beast Reading with Ingrid Calderon-Collinsat North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Ingrid Calderon-Collins will present and host the Kindest Beast event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-ltnigqwb
At Skylight: Heather McCalden, with Rosecrans Baldwin & The Observable Universe at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Heather McCalden, in conversation with Rosecrans Baldwin,will discuss her memoir The Observable Universe.
In the early 1990s, Heather McCalden lost both her parents to AIDS. She was seven when her father died, ten when she lost her mother. Raised by her grandmother, Nivia, she grew up in Los Angeles, also known as ground zero for the virus and its destruction.
Entwining a personal search into the history of HIV and her own personal history, with a wider cultural narrative of what the virus and virality mean in our times—interrogating what it means to “go viral” in an era of explosive biochemical and virtual contagion—The Observable Universe is at once a history of our viral culture and a prismatic account of grief in the internet age.
Heather McCalden is a multidisciplinary artist working with text, image, and movement. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and has been awarded residencies by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Mahler & LeWitt Studios. The Observable Universe, winner of the Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize, is her first book. She lives in New York City.
Rosecrans Baldwin is the bestselling author of Everything Now, winner of the California Book Award. Other books include The Last Kid Left and Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down. His debut novel, You Lost Me There, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Open Mic Night at Tia Chucha’s Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Tia Chucha’s hosts an Open Mic Night every 1st Friday of the month.
All are welcome to share their talents in this space.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/
Johanna Flashman, with Ash Czaramota & Beer Hiking Southern California at Vroman’s Off-site at RT Rogers Brewing Co. – In-Person Event
Johanna Flashman, in conversation with Ash Czaramota, will discuss her new book Beer Hiking Southern California.
This book is a guide to the best hikes and microbreweries in Southern California!
Beer lovers and hiking enthusiasts, these 40 Southern California hikes are for you! Each carefully selected hike leads you through a stunning natural landscape and ends near a brewery or a brewpub where a local craft beer awaits you. This full-color guidebook features the best one- to five-hour beer hikes in Southern California. It takes you along Pacific Coast beaches, up to high peaks and stunning waterfalls from the Southern Sierras to Cleveland National Forest, and through the desert landscape of Joshua Tree National Park.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s off-site at Rogers Brewing Co. Sierra Madre
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 38 E Montecito Ave #1, Sierra Madre, CA 91024
L.A. Book Launch: Myriam J.A. Chancy, with Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, & Village Weavers at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join us for the launch of Myriam J.A. Chancy’s new book, Village Weavers.
The author will read excerpts from her novel and be in conversation with Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, author of the short stories collection What We Fed to the Manticore, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Myriam J. A. Chancy is the author most recently of the novel Village Weavers (Tin House). Her previous novel, What Storm, What Thunder, was named a “Best Book of 2021,” by NPR, Kirkus, Library Journal, the Boston Globe, Globe & Mail, shortlisted for the Caliba Golden Poppy Award & Aspen Words Literary Prize, longlisted for Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize & the OCM Bocas Prize, and awarded an ABA from the Before Columbus Foundation. Her past novels include: The Loneliness of Angels, winner of the 2011 Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award, Best Fiction 2010; The Scorpion’s Claw and Spirit of Haiti, shortlisted in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region of the Commonwealth Prize, 2004. She is also the author of several academic monographs, including Harvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters & Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women. Her recent writings have appeared in Whetstone.com Journal, Electric Literature, and Guernica. She is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and HBA Chair of the Humanities at Scripps College in California.
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri is the author of the story collection What We Fed to the Manticore (Tin House), which was a finalist for the Carol Shields Prize and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in The Minnesota Review, Ecotone, Southern Humanities Review, The Common, and elsewhere. She was born and raised in Northern California and currently lives in California’s beautiful Central Valley with her husband and cat.
NOTE: See site for guidelines & details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 8 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
SWAAM Spoken Word, Art & Music Event at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
SWAAM Spoken Word, Art & Music is hosted by Loranzo Frank and features an Open Mic, Live Band, food and drinks, plus featured guests.
Featured guest TBA.
This event is offered every 1st & 3rd Fridays of the month.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd, Unit 101, Los Angeles, CA 90007, United States
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo
Whiskey and Words: Artist Showcase by LionLike MIndState at Fuego Cocina & Cantina, Pomona – In-Person Event
Come join us for an evening of amazing art and whiskey. Experience the unique talents of the LionLike MindState with another installment of their Artist showcase of Premier Spoken Word Artist, Rising Live Musicians and even Live Comedians! This one-of-a-kind event will leave you inspired and captivated by the power of creativity. Bring your friends and indulge in the harmonious blend of art, whiskey, and good company and Big Words. Don’t miss out on a night that celebrates the intersection of art and expression. Let your spirit soar with Whiskey and Words by LionLike MindState5
NOTE: See site for Zoom details.
Where: Fuego Cocina & Cantina
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 206 E. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
First Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Cynthia Alessandra Briano, via Rapp Saloon – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
First Fridays at Rapp Saloon: Open Mic & Featured Readers, is offered every 1st Friday of the month by host Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
This event is a HYBRID event, with a return to live in-person events while maintaining at HISUA Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA
We invite you to join us in amplifying and celebrating Black voices by bringing a poem or prose excerpt by a Black author to read alongside your own work. All themes/formats welcome. All languages welcome.
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are at 8:15 pm. Zoom ID posted 3 hours prior to event.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event
Date: Friday the 5th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: https://www.facebook.com/RappSaloonReading
Creative Lab: Community Open Mic via Get Lit Players – In-Person Teen Event
Creative Lab: Community jam day. All 4 pathways in one space working together. Followed by an open mic with 20 slots for kids who sign up and a headlining performance from GLPS. This event is for current Get Lit Players and Creative Lab students.
NOTE: See site for Zoom details.
Where: Get Lit Office
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 10 am – 1 pm
Address: 672 S. La Fayette Pl., #10, Los Angeles, CA
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events
Western Edge Writers at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Writers and aspiring writers, join us for a group that supports writing endeavors of all genres: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and memoir.
Please emaileaglrk@lapl.orgfor the writing prompt.
NOTE: See site for Zoom details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 10 am
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/western-edge-writers-0
Japanese Storytime at Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for our fun and lively Japanese Storytime held on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month at 11 a.m. Listen to exciting and entertaining stories, and sing some songs, too.
NOTE: See site for Zoom details.
Where: Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 203 S Los Angeles, St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/japanese-storytime-3
Saturday Book Discussion: at Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for wide-ranging conversations. Copies are available at reference and as ebooks. This is our second year reading off of the “100 Notable Books!”
Participants will discuss What An Owl Knows. The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/saturday-book-discussion
Poetry Workshop at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join this inclusive, in-person poetry workshop where poets of all levels can come together, share their work, and foster a vibrant poetry community. Participants are invited to bring a poem, no longer than one page, to read and receive valuable feedback from fellow poets. Engage in thoughtful discussions and provide your own insights on the work of others. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just starting out, this workshop offers a supportive environment to refine your craft, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the power of words.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Poetry Workshop & Anthology: Leaning In & Letting Go at Glendale Library @ Adams Square – In-Person Event
Join this Glendale Poet Laureate workshop reading and anthology launch.
We’ll develop poems, explore craft alongside featured poets:
Alene Terzian-Zeitounian was the Altadena Poet Laureate from 2010-2012.
Shonda Buchanon is the author of the memoir Black Indian (Wayne State University Press, 2019), award-winning poet and educator born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She lives in Los Ángeles.
Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor and Co-founder of the L.Á. based El Martillo Press.
Raffi Joe Wartanian is the Poet Laureate of Glendale. He is also a musician and educator who teaches writing at UCLA. Wartanian is the proud grandson and great-grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors.
We’ll also celebrate the launch of our anthology Jewel City Review.
This workshop is free and open to the public.
Light refreshments provided.
All levels of experience and language backgrounds are welcome!
Learn more and Ssbmit poems for the Jewel City Review volume 2 at www.eglendalelac.org/poetlaureate
Where: Glendale Library @ Adams Square
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 11 am – 2 pm
Address: 1100 East Chevy Chasr Dr., Glendale, CA 91205
Website: https://glendaleca.libnet.info/event/10341384
A Garden of Verses Poetry Festival at California Botanic Garden – In-Person Event
Kicking off both national Poetry Month and CalBG’s Wildflower Month, guests are invited to walk the paths amongst spring blooms, happening upon multiple poetry stations scattered throughout the Mesa gardens. All ages are welcome at this celebration of the power of poetry to capture the beauty of nature, with activity stations supplementing the poetry readings and allowing guests to create their own poems.
World Stage Press poets include: Maria J Andrade, Patricia Scruggs, Penelope Moffet, Andrew Carter Brown, Blossom, Alice Pero, James Coats, and others.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: California Botanic Garden
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 11 am – 4 pm
Address: 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://www.calbg.org/event/a-garden-of-verses-poetry-festival-2024
Kids Graphic Novel Book Club: The Dog Night at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Book club participants will discuss The Dog Night by authors Jeremy Whitley and Melissa Capriglione.
Jacket Copy:
One day Frankie is a relatively normal middle schooler, with relatively normal challenges, like finding the perfect outfit to wear during their drum solo during the upcoming band concert. The next, they save a friendly golden retriever from bullies and suddenly find themselves in a giant magical doghouse, with a funny looking helmet, talking to a group of dog superheroes called the Pawtheon about a job offer.
If Frankie can prove that they possess the six dog virtues of loyalty, kindness, honesty, justice, stubbornness, and smell, they will be named the Dog Knight and be given the power to fight alongside the Pawtheon and save the world from the forces of chaos.
Jeremy Whitley is a writer of comic books, books, podcasts, and more living in Durham, North Carolina. He is the creator of the Eisner Nominated and Glyph award winning series “Princeless” as well as it’s spin-off “Raven the Pirate Princess” and “The School for Extraterrestrial Girls.” He has also written several books and comics for Marvel Comics including the critically-acclaimed “The Unstoppable Wasp,” “The Future Foundation,” “Champions,” and “Avengers.” He has also written over fifty issues of the “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” comic book series.
Melissa Capriglione, creator of the graphic novel Basil and Oregano, is a queer comic artist living in Indiana.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/kids-graphic-novel-book-club-dog-knight
Get Lit Practice via Get Lit Players – In-Person Teen Event
This event is for current Get Lit Players.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Get Lit Office
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 672 S. La Fayette Pl., #10, Los Angeles, CA
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events
Expressions Poetry Reading Series & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us in-person or via Zoom for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
NOTE: See site for Zoom details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-2
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop with Jackie Chou – Online Zoom Event
Poetry Writing Workshop led by Jackie Chou (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning remember or when for Four Feathers Press online edition: Remember When by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, April 19th)
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Book Launch & Reading: Jason Mugabo Perez + Renaissance HS Poets at Bel Canto Books, KUBO – In-Person Event
San Diego Poet Laureate Jason Mugabo Perez and Renaissance High School poets Ashley Vasquez, Jule Loven, Nahlah Sweet, and Georgia Topper will present the book, I Ask About What Falls Away.
Jason Magabo Perez’s second full-length book of poetry is an extended elegy set in the alleyways and Pacific-bound boulevards of San Diego, California during the current global health crisis. Called “an antidote to despair” (Muriel Leung, Imagine Us, The Swarm) and poetry that “complicates notions of solidarity, community and justice, distilling the quotidian into something sacred” (Rachelle Cruz, God’s Will For Monsters), I ask about what falls away serves as an intimate grief manifesto against the daily violations of racial capitalism.
Perez, the 2023-2024 San Diego Poet Laureate, employs a critical and improvisatory assemblage of lyric and litany, narrative and distillation, fragment and refrain to map city, solidarity and history. At once playful and tenacious, I ask about what falls away pays careful witness to working-class uncles, aunties, cousins and youth in rhythm with the anti-colonial wisdom of writers such as Neferti X. M. Tadiar and Aimé Césaire, remixing sorrow with a deep love and knowledge for everyday people.
The Filipino American poet Jason Magabo Perez is the 2023–24 San Diego Poet Laureate. He is the author of Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016) and This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017).
Light refreshments will be served. Kindly RSVP so we can plan accordingly. Please stay home if you feel sick.
NOTE: See site for complete details.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
Pondwater Society Presents: Daniel McGinn and Beth Marquez + Surprises at Pondwater Society (private residence) – In-Person Event
Joanne Qualey Baines hosts Pondwater poetry readings every first Saturday of the month.
We paint, we write, we read, we create things, we talk, we listen.
Featured guests: Daniel McGuinn and Beth Marquez.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Pondwater Society
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16504 Masline Ave., Covina, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/995395532028613/?ref=newsfeed
Cafecito & Conchas: Ashley Granillo, with Jesenia Chavez, at Tia Chucha’s Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Author Ashley Granillo, in conversation with Jesenia Chavez, will present her middle grade book, Cruzita and the Mariacheros.
Jacket Copy:
Cruzita is going to be a pop star. All she has to do is win a singing contest at her favorite theme park ang get famous. But she can’t go to the theme park this summer. Instead, she has to help out at her family’s bakery, which has been struggling ever since Tío Chuy died.
Ashley Granillo is a Mexican American writer and musician. She holds an MFA in fiction with cross genre experience in screenwriting from the University of California Riverside, Palm Desert.
Jesenia Chavez is a proud Chicanita, public school teacher, poet and storyteller. Her writing is inspired by her parents’ migration to Los Ángeles from Chicuahua, Mexico, her teaching career, her sense of loss in the rapidly changing landscape of the city and the small moments in between when she can catch her breath and put pen to paper. Her debut collection is This Poem Might Save You (Me) (Alegría, 2022).
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/
Hundred Years’ War On Palestine: Book Club Discussion (p 168-end) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Saturday Book Club participants will discuss The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi, specifically pages 168 to the end of the book.
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 (Paperback) is a landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.
Rashid Khalidi is the author of Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage, among others. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many other journals. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/hundred-years-war-palestine-book-club-discussion-p-168-end
Why We Write Event: First Saturdays at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Don’t miss this National Poetry Month celebration with WSP poets:
Carlos Ornelas is the author of the forthcoming collection, Villains Vernacular (Riot of Roses Publishing, 2024).
Ron L Dowell is the author ofWatts Uprise (World Stage Press, 2023) and Crooked Out of Compton.
Shane Murray is the author of 90s Poetry Book: 90s Hip-Hop and R&B Songs Turned into Poetry (World Stage Press, 2022).
Carolina Rivera is a bilingual-educator, writer, actor and documentarian—born in El Salvador. She is the author of the short story collection …after… (World Stage press, 2015) and the poetry collection In A Corner of Your Country (Bellucci, Palms, Carmichael Publishing, 2023).
Hosted by Anastasia Fenald is the author of Help Me, I’m Here (World Stage Press, 2022) and The Art of Job Hunting (Riot of Roses Publishing, 2023).
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: World Stage Press
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://events.humanitix.com/wsp-april
Occult Experiments: Queer Transdisciplinary Poetics at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque presents an immersive gathering exploring the intersection of queer identities, the avant-garde, and mystical practices. The program will feature a mix of poetry, prose, & performance by: Shelley Marlow, Brooke Palmieri, Noel Alumit and K. Bradford. After the performances, the authors will be in conversation moderated by poet and scholar, Ramón García.
Shelley Marlow is a writer and visual artist whose work explores queer joy, and practical and ritual magic. In 2015, Marlow’s novel Two Augusts In a Row In a Row, was published by Publication Studio, Portland; with art editions by Publication Studio, Hudson, NY and Publication Studio, London (2017). Marlow received an Acker Award for avant-garde writing, (2017). Halloween in Edinburgh, from their new manuscript, The Wind Blew Through Like A Chorus Of Ghosts was published in Belladonna* Collective’s Lesbian All Stars series (2022). Recent artwork and writing appear in the Brooklyn Rail; Hyperallergic; Lambda Literary; Evergreen Review; Altered Bodies catalogue; and The St. Petersburg Review. Marlow has read and exhibited their work extensively. Marlow edited prose for Ping Pong Magazine, out of the Henry Miller Library, and ran writing workshops for unhoused young LGBTQIA adults at Arts In the Woods, Troy, NY.
Brooke Palmieri is an artist, writer, and educator working at the intersection of memory, history, and gender-bending alternate realities. In 2018 they founded CAMP BOOKS, a platform and traveling bookshop promoting access to queer history through cheap prints and zines; workshops and installations; and the collaborative construction of archives related to LGBTQIA+ activism and the long history of gender non-conformity. Their writing has recently been featured in anthologies by Pilot Press and Sticky Fingers Publishing, and their work has been exhibited at Gaada, the Glasgow Women’s Library, The Bower, and Chelsea Space. From September to November 2023, they were the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Huntington, working on a piece of creative non-fiction about witchcraft, class, and gender non-conformity: Bargain Witch, forthcoming in Autumn 2025 with Dopamine Books.
Noel Alumit is a multidisciplinary artist who wrote the novels Talking to the Moon and Letters to Montgomery Clift. His most recent book is the short story collection Music Heard in Hi-Fi and Other Stories from Rebel Satori Press. He won the Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association and the James Duggins Mid-Career Prize. He was named one of Out Magazine’s “Out 100” and was a California State Commissioner on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. Noel has a BFA in Drama and a Master of Divinity in Buddhist Chaplaincy. He is currently an Associate Editor at Lion’s Roar Magazine.
K. Bradford (they & them) is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, writer, and cultural innovator. K.’s public works activate imaginative world-building, radical, intersectional collectivity, and post-colonial, post-binary liberation practices. Over the last twenty years, K. has founded and directed transformational arts installations, events, and programs in Austin, Chicago, and LA, including the Qosmos Projects, One Mile, Gender Fusions, The Raw Works, & more. K. holds an MFA in Writing and in Art + Technology from CalArts and lives in Los Angeles.
Ramón García is the author of two books of poetry, The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015) and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010), and a monograph on the artist Ricardo Valverde (University of Minnesota Press, 2013). García has published poetry, fiction and scholarly work in a variety of journals, anthologies and museum catalogs. His poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry anthology The Floating Borderlands: Twenty-Five Years of US-Hispanic Literature, The American Journal of Poetry, Los Angeles Review and Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas. He is a Professor at California State University, Northridge, lives in Los Angeles and is currently serving as Vice-President of the Board of Trustees at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center.
NOTE: See site for further details, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 7 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain host the Griot Café Open Mic & Poetry event every Saturday evening at Shades of Africa in Long Beach. See site to subscribe for reminders, etc.
Feature: Gia Scott Heron.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
L.A. Get Down Festival: A Celebration of Hip Hop & Spoken Word at The Greenway Court Theatre – In-Person Event
L.A. Get Down Festival is held on weekends in the month of April (National Poetry Month) at the Greenway Court Theatre.
Open Mic Hip Hop Cipher is hosted by Todd McCray and DJ Donkingski tonight.
$10 admission.
Where: The Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Saturday the 6th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 544 North Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://greenwaycourttheatre.org/lagetdown2024/ or https://greenwaycourttheatre.org
Writers’ Workshop with Tongo Eisen-Martin at Buena Vista Branch Library, Burbank – In-Person Event
Join us for a fun afternoon of writing exercises, brainstorming, and discussion.
This month, San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin shares writing strategies rooted in the belief that every human being is a perfect vessel of art. We’ll come to see that our minds and hearts have everything we need to share great insight, innovative language, and powerful messages to aid the human journey.
Register at burbanklibrary.org/events.
Where: Buena Vista Branch Library, Burbank
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 300 N Buena Vista St, Burbank, CA91505
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C41EVVgPq0R/
Mystery Book Club at West Los Angeles Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club participants meet on the first Sunday of each month to discuss a mystery, thriller, or suspense book picked by the group. Copies of the book are available for check-out at the West Los Angeles Branch Library.
Where: West Los Angeles Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-32
Acid Verse the Universe Poetry Reading via Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Event
Acid Verse the Universe Poetry Reading features contributor readings by:
Gloria Almanza, Sel Borge, La Toya A. Hampton, Nikolai Garcia, Raquel Reyes-Lopez, Bryan Franco & Mike the Poet Sonksen.
Hosted by Jesse Tovar of @authorpopups and welcomed by your two editors, tauri @cowboy_slug_ and soledad con carne @soledadconcarne.
Where: Los Angeles Poet Society
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Event: Zoom ID 872 3502 9704
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4uWT3XOOTW/
Graphic Novel Launch: Maple Lam & Monkey King and the World of Myths at Once Upon a time, Montrose – In-Person Kids Event
Explore the legend of the Monkey King through Maple Lam’s Monkey King and the World of Myths: The Monster and the Maze.
Local creator Maple Lam is launching her debut graphic novel with Once Upon A Time and will share a part of the story with the audience, answer any questions, and then sign books. Best for ages 8+.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Tiny Poems Zine Workshop at Heavy Manners Library – In-Person Event
Calling all diarists, notes app poets, and quote collectors! In this workshop, attendees will discuss different poetic forms and write six tiny poems based on fun, low-stress prompts. After writing their poems, attendees will learn how to format their poems into a little zine to share with friends, strangers, lovers, secret crushes, etc. Please bring a laptop and a diary if you have one. All other materials will be provided, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Where: Heavy Manners Library
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1200 North Alvarado Street Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tiny-poems-workshop-47-tickets-857119426277
National Poetry Month Workshop with Zaha Zainabu via FB – Online Event
Jaha Zainabu will lead an online weekly poetry workshop during the month of April to celebrate National Poetry Month titled: Going Deeper with Jaha.
This event will be a four-week journey into the heart of storytelling,
NOTE: See WEBSITE for RSVP and details.
Where: Jaha Zainabu Online
Date: Sunday the 7th (continuing on the 14th, 21st, & 28th)
Time: 3 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: JAHAZAINABU@GMAIL.COM
National Poetry Month Workshop with A.K. Toney at Elysian Valley Arts Collective – In-Person Event
Poetry Book Rhythms: A Start to Finish Writing Art Performance Class Series is free and is led by A.K. Toney.
Join poet, spoken word performer and educator A.K. Toney for a journey into learning poetry, creating your own poetry art book, making rhythms to accompany your poetry and performing at a spoken word show in the heart of Frogtown.
A.K. Toney, a modern-day Griot, has dedicated his life to writing, performing and teaching poetry to young people. With over twenty years of experience in education and writing workshops, Toney has taught workshops and performed at some of our city’s most revered spaces including Angel’s Gate Cultural Center, LA County Museum of Art, The Natural History Museum and has worked as an educator with LAUSD and Vista Americorps, Watts Learning Center K-5 Charter School.
NOTE: See WEBSITE for RSVP and details.
Where: Elysian Valley Arts Collective
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1901 Blake Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://www.evartscollective.com/event-details/
Poet Laureate Ode to the Land Reading Event at Altadena Library Off-site at Zorinthian Ranch – In-Person Event, identity, and history
Join Altadena Co-Poets Laureate Carla R. Sameth and Peter J. Harris as they host the culminating Ode to the Land reading featuring Shonda Buchanan and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo along with teen and adult workshop members, who will share their words connecting place, land, family, identity, and history,
All ages welcome, Teens (8th – 12th Grade), Adults.
NOTE: See WEBSITE for RSVP and details.
Where: Zorinthian Ranch
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 4087 Fair Oaks Ave, Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.altadenalibrary.org/programs/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D169493128
Santa Monica Review Launch Party: Spring 2024 Issue at The Edye, SMC – In-Person Event
Celebrating the Spring 2024 Issue of Santa Monica Review, edited by Andrew Tonkovich, with readings by contributors, including:
Tinna Flores, Janice Shapiro (Bummer and Other Stories), Kareem Tayyar (Let Us Now Praise Ordinary Things), and Charles Hood (Nocturnalia: Nature in the Western Night).
Welcome by novelist Claire Vaye Watkins (Gold Fame Citrus).
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: The Edye, SMC Performing Arts Center
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: https://www.smc.edu/news/2024/2024-03-20-santa-monica-review-spring-2024-issue-launches.php
Queer Romance Book Club: Heated Rivalry at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
April’s Queer Romance Book Club participants will discuss Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2), by author Rachel Reid. Bookseller Binta leads this book club. Please join us.
No membership is necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 7th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 