R.U.P.O. Open Mic at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event (Check to Verify)
RUPO Open Mic is 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 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – 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 2nd
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-1002905566547
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.
Every 1st & 3rd Monday of the month.
Featured guest TBA.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 2nd
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
Virtual Book Club: Table for Two at La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event
The La Crescenta Library Virtual Book Club meets weekly on Tuesdays at 11am on Zoom. Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for your Zoom invite to attend the book club. For adults.
In September we will be discussing Table for Two by Amor Towles. An immersive collection of short works of fiction set in turn-of-the-millennium New York and Golden Age Hollywood. The book features 6 short stories and a novella that centers on Evelyn Ross, a character from Towles’ debut novel The Rules of Civility.
Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11334228
The Darkest Hour Book Club: Anywhere You Run at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Anywhere You Run by author Wanda M. Morris. Copies available at the library. For adults.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11334250
Feminist Book Club: American Mermaid at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book American Mermaid: A Novel by author Julia Langbein.
American Mermaid follows a young woman braving the casual slights and cruel calculations of a winner-take-all society and discovering a beating heart in her own fiction: a new kind of mermaid who will fight to keep her voice and choose her place. Brilliantly sharp, funny and thought-provoking” (Madeline Miller), this “absolute weirdo masterpiece” (Jean Kyoung Frazier)” is “a shapeshifting novel composed of wildly divergent elements [which] succeeds brilliantly” (Tom Perotta).
Julia Langbein, a sketch and stand-up comedian for many years, holds a doctorate in Art History and is the author of a non-fiction book about comic art criticism (Laugh Lines, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022). She wrote the viral comedy blog The Bruni Digest (2003-7), which reviewed New York Times critic Frank Bruni’s restaurant reviews every week, and has since written about food, art, and travel for Gourmet, Eater, Salon, Frieze, and other publications. A native of Chicago, she lives outside of Paris with her family.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E.Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event
Author Readings at Page Against the Machine, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Dark Heart Press presents an in-store group reading featuring Daniel W. Wright, Kevin Ridgeway, Wendy Rainey, and Curtis Hayes.
𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝗹 𝗪. 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 is a poet, editor, and fiction writer. Wright most recently released his debut novel, 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 (Back of the Class Press) and the poetry split, 𝘛𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵’𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 (Liquid Lunch Press, with Gabriel Ricard). He is the author of numerous collections of poetry and two works of prose. His work has appeared in numerous print and online journals. Wright currently resides in St. Louis, MO, where you can usually find him in a bar or a bookstore.
𝗞𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘄𝗮𝘆 is the author of several collections of poetry. Kevin’s latest books are 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 (Luchador Press) and 𝘈 𝘓𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘚𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘵 2 (with Gabriel Ricard, Back of the Class Press). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘚𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘸𝘣𝘰𝘺, 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘙𝘢𝘨, 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘺 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘚𝘩𝘰 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, and 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘵: 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (Moon Tide Press), among others. He lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.
𝗪𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘆 is author of 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩: 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 and 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘸𝘢𝘺. She is a contributing poetry editor on 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. Her poetry has appeared in 𝘕𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘸𝘣𝘰𝘺, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 and beyond. She is a 2022 recipient of the Annie Menebroker Poetry Award and a runner-up in the 2022 Angela Consolo Mankiewicz Poetry Prize. She studied poetry with Jack Grapes in Los Angeles and creative writing with Gerald Locklin at California State University, Long Beach.
𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗲𝘀 has worked in sawmills, greasy spoons, and as a grip, gaffer, and set builder in film production. He’s been a truck driver, a boat rigger, a print journalist and a screenwriter. He is a graduate of the California State University, Long Beach, Creative Writing Program and his poetry has been featured in 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘞𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺, and other small presses.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=887565046741399&set=gm.1627740407770476
Conchas y Café Zine Workshop with DSTL Arts – Online Event
Be a part of a new fall bilingual writing workshop series with DSTL Arts online.
2024 – 2025 Publishing Year
Conchas y Café Zine; Vol. 10
Series/Issue 1: 9/3/24–12/17/24
Theme: Life’s Paths/Los caminos de la vida
Google Classroom Enrollment Code: rvdizwy
See links for details.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd (through 12/17/24)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Google Classroom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar or https://www.dstlarts.org/conchasycafezine
Creativity Book Club: Catching the Big Fish at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Do you think of yourself as creative, or wish that you were? Do you get inspired by a book of reflections, or do you prefer an actual workbook with tasks and prompts? Do you wish you had more people to talk with about painting, poetry or pottery? Here is the time and the place; you just need to be here with us.
Be a part of the start – and let 2024 be your most creatively satisfying year yet!
Participants will discuss Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by author David Lynch.
About the book club leader
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 3rd
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/40594
Women and Books: The Library Book by Susan Orlean at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join the book club for a hybrid (in-person and online) discussion of The Library Book by author Susan Orlean. For adults.
Summary provided by the publisher:
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.'” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.
Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10749619
Poets Beyond Cages: Readings by Formerly Incarcerated Artists & Activists at Page Against the Machine, Long Beach – In-Person Event
This event features readings by formerly incarcerated artists and activists sharing their experiences through the transformative art of poetry.
The evening will feature readings by Ra Avis, Asia Johnson, Kamál Marañón, Charlie Nguyen, David Nguyen, and Tony Koji Wallin-Sato.
𝗥𝗮 𝗔𝘃𝗶𝘀 is an award-winning blogger and author. She is a formerly-incarcerated person, a reluctantly-optimistic widow, and a generational storyteller. Ra works in incarceration awareness and grief education and writes regularly at Rarasaur.com.
𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻 is a writer, storyteller, and filmmaker. Her chapbook, 𝘈𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮, was released in 2018 and her directorial debut, 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦, was released in 2022. When Asia isn’t helping to uplift the stories of those impacted by the criminal legal system and making her dream of a world without cages come true, she is writing poetry.
𝗞𝗮𝗺𝗮́𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻̃𝗼́𝗻 is a writer, artist, canine behaviorist, and nature aficionado. Poetry, spoken word, and music have always been a presence in his life, beginning with his mom who had her “husband”, Prince, playing during his birth which inspired him to follow in her footsteps into the cultured worlds of music and poetry. He has survived and coped with prison and life because of poetry and all forms of art, and because of his abundant gratitude for all of creation.
𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗡𝗴𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗻, formerly incarcerated, current scholar, and future lawyer. After spending about eight years in the juvenile justice system, that experience has propelled him on the pathway to searching for not only justice for all, but freedom from within. Part of that search for freedom is using forms of media such as poetry to express oneself, work through trauma, and grow.
𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗡𝗴𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗻 is a dedicated community advocate who is committed to social justice and equity. His journey from adversity to advocacy has fueled his passion for empowering and uplifting communities. Through his education, leadership, and community-driven initiatives, he strives to inspire positive change and create a brighter future for all.
𝗧𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗞𝗼𝗷𝗶 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻-𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗼 currently works with formerly and currently incarcerated students in higher education. He has hopped trains, built houses, painted siding, cooked ramen, sold drugs, stolen from banks, and written a few long form narratives as a journalist. He has two books of poems and is featured in over a few dozen publications and anthologies.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Other Worlds Book Club: Witch King at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Witch King by author Martha Wells, facilitated by Leo Lukin.
Witch King is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we identify with, alongside breathtaking action and adventure, and the wit and charm expected from one of the leading writers of her generation.
Martha Wells has written many novels, including the New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, which has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards. Other titles include Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 3rd
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/other-worlds-book-cluskykight:b-2
At Skylight: Jose Pimiento, with Dave Baker, & Luminous Beings at Skylight – In-Person Event
Jose Pimiento, in conversation with Dave Baker, will present and discuss his book Luminous Beings.
Ty and Burger have known each other since before they could walk. But this shared history is nothing compared to their plans for the future: step one, make a killer documentary about humanity’s recent brush with extinction; step two, apply to film school together; step three, achieve legendary status as the next great filmmaking duo. But Ty has a secret that will ultimately shake the foundations of their friendship and force them both to wonder if growing up means letting go of the people they once were.
Set over the course of a single day, Luminous Beings explores the many facets of friendship and love, the heavy burden of a well-kept secret, the boundless tenacity of the human spirit, and, yes, the furriest of all zombified mammals. But don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. Just the end of the squirrel.
Jose Pimienta was raised in Mexicali, Baja California, and now resides in Los Angeles, California, where they work on comics and storyboards for animation and film. Suncatcher was their debut author/illustrator graphic novel. Twin Cities is their first middle grade graphic novel. In their stories, they focus on the importance of Latinx culture and the experience of growing up on the border.
Dave Baker is a writer and illustrator living in Los Angeles. His previous works include: Forest Hills Bootleg Society (Simon & Schuster), Everyone is Tulip (Dark Horse), Mary Tyler MooreHawk (Top Shelf), among many others. He also co-wrote and produced an Alien Vs Predator 10 episode animated series, which has been shelved due to the Fox / Disney merger. Ask him about it some time, it’s a pretty funny story. (and by funny, it’s really depressing as fuck, but what are you gonna do?)
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jose-pimienta-presents-luminous-beings-w-dave-baker
Eve Driver & What We Can’t Burn at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Eve Driver will present and discuss her book What We Can’t Burn.
The author was a fossil fuel divestment activist from Massachusetts who was coming to believe capitalism was at the root of the climate crisis. Tom was a clean energy entrepreneur from a rural village in Kenya who believed the activist approach was suspended from the real-world experiences of those facing the worst of the crisis’ effects. They met as juniors at Harvard, launching a journey in which their conflicting perspectives almost tore their unlikely friendship apart.
Raw, funny, and lyrical, What We Can’t Burn is a memoir in two voices about coming of age in a world confused and divided about how to save itself. Set in both Kenya and the United States, this timely story is a singular testament to the power of dialogue, humor, and friendship to help us find our place among the many currents of change-making that cut across the world today.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/eve-driver-discusses-what-we-can%E2%80%99t-burn
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest David Hideo Maruyama – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with host Rick Lupert presents guest reader David Hideo Maruyama and an open mic.
David Hideo Maruyama was a part of Aisarema, the nonprofit wing of the shuttered Amerasia Bookstore during 90s to early 2000s. It produced the Asian Pacific American Arts journal called dIS*orient Journalzine, and he was an editor. He was included in the anthology Voices of Leimert Park Redux, and he is currently working on a body of poetry, prose and essays to be compiled into a multi-genre text in the literary vein of Jean Toomer’s Cane or Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt
Tuesday Night Project Presents Tuesday Night Café Open Mic – In-Person Event
Save the date for Tuesday Night Cafe on September 3rd @ 7:30pm – join them for another evening of art, community, friends, and vibes!
Where: Tuesday Night Café
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012
Website: https://www.tuesdaynightproject.org/tnc-schedule
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night 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 5th Tuesday of the month we celebrate Women and Femme voices only on the mic. This open mic is hosted by Yesika Salgado and Jasmine Williams, with music and vibes by DJ Faucet.
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 the theater.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Tuesday, the 3rd
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
Book Party Book Club: Good Night, Irene at San Dimas Senior Center – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea. For adults.
Abandoning her abusive fiancé in New York in 1943 to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe, Irene Woodward befriends Dorothy Dunford as they join the Allied soldiers streaming into France after D-Day where they are embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald, and where Irene learns to trust again through their friendship.
Copies of the book are available for check-out at the library. New members welcome!
Where: San Dimas Senior Center
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 201 E. Bonita Ave., San Dimas, CA
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10575327
Book Club: The Sanatorium at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Participants will discuss The Sanatorium byauthor Sarah Pearse. This is a detective must uncover the dark history of a luxury hotel in the Alps if she has any hope of stopping the deaths that won’t let up. All are welcome!
RSVP:
For Zoom link email, sstamm@lapl.org.
Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/chatsworth-book-club-12
Mystery Book Club: Southern Man at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Southern Man by author Greg Iles. For adults.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct, Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11334276
Poets Café: Celebrating Poetry via KPFK 90.7 FM – Live On-Air Event
Poets Café celebrates Poetry. This program is a weekly half-hour literary arts discussion and reading program featuring guest authors and their works.
NOTE: Poetry From Around the World is a segment of this series offered monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: KPFK 90.7 FM
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Health Matters Book Club at Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the Health Matters Book Club on Zoom and share a health book or article you are reading. We discuss a wide range of health topics, including: healthy eating and cook books, mental health, aging, exercise, and preventative health. This book club meets the first Wednesday of every month.
RSVP:
Email pcoima@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link for the event.
Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/health-matters-book-club-2
Good Trouble Reading Group: ChinesePoetry at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join Dr. Andrea Liss on Zoom for our next Good Trouble Reading Group. We’ll be discussing a selection of Chinese poetry from the anthologies Women of the Red Plain: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Women’s Poetry and Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Migrant Worker Poetry.
The Good Trouble Reading Group shares books that engage themes of social justice with love and family at their core. Our group leader, Dr. Andrea Liss, is a Professor Emerita of Visual Culture and Cultural Theory at California State University San Marcos and a local Echo Park resident. Her teaching and research focus on feminist visual culture and writing, visual art, and photography related to historical events and representations of social justice, particularly through the work of African American women.
RSVP:
Email eden@lapl.org and we’ll send you a link to read our poetry selection online, as well as the Zoom link to attend.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-chinese-poetry
Cookie Time with Jessie Sima at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Kids Event
Desert before Dinner!
Go on a time twisting adventure with New York Times bestselling author Jessie Sima as they share their newest picture book, Cookie Time! Jessie will read their book, draw, and then sign books. Best for cookie lovers ages 4+.
From the New York Times bestselling creator of Not Quite Narwhal comes a tasty picture book about two kids who get into time travel shenanigans while trying to skip waiting for cookies to bake!
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/cookie-time
2nd & 3rd Grade Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
2ND & 3RD GRADE BOOK CLUB: Meets monthly, generally on the first Wednesday of each month at 4:30 pm.
We read new releases of early grade fiction. Book selection is done by voting at each meeting for the following month’s meeting.
Participants will discuss Emma McKenna, Full Out (The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class #1) (Paperback)
Emma McKenna is thrilled for her first day at a new school–but when her former best friend (now her enemy) shows up in class, Emma’s quest to start over socially may take a tumble.
Where: pages: a bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-3rd-grade-book-club-8
Creative Writing Workshop with TonyDuShane at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Los Feliz Branch Library for a free 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.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-tony-dushane-1
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 Zoom Event Zoom ID: 826 5843 0669 Password: justice
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event Zoom ID: 826 5843 0669 Password: justice
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1qCfCyPfKm/?hl=en
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 the Los Angeles Poet Society.
Guests TBA
This program is offered weekly on radioollin Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: 101.5 FM
Date: Wednesday the 4th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
History Book Club: The Wager at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by author David Grann.
The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.
David Grann is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. Killers of the Flower Moon was a finalist for the National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of The White Darkness and the collection The Devil and SherlockHolmes. Grann’s investigative reporting has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E.Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/history-book-club-wager
Book Talk & Signing: Erwin Chemerinsky, with Jeff Chemerinsky, No Democracy Lasts Forever at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Erwin Chemerinsky, one of America’s leading legal scholars and Dean of Berkeley Law will discuss his new book about the Constitution’s threat to democracy, No Democracy Lasts Foever.
This book audaciously asserts that the only way a polarized America can avoid secession is to draft a new Constitution.
The Constitution has become a threat to American democracy. Due to its inherent flaws—its treatment of race, dependence on a tainted Electoral College, a glaringly unrepresentative Senate, and the outsized influence of the Supreme Court—Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School and one of our foremost legal scholars, has come to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document can no longer hold.
Much might be fixed by Congress or the Supreme Court, but they seem unlikely to do so. One might logically conclude that amending the Constitution would solve the problem, yet logic seldom takes precedent, given that only fifteen of the 11,848 amendments proposed since 1789 have passed. Chemerinsky contends that without major changes, the Constitution is beyond redemption in that it has created a government that can no longer deal with the urgent issues, such as climate change and wealth inequalities, that threaten our nation and the world.
Yet political Armageddon can still be avoided, Chemerinsky writes, if a new constitutional convention is empowered to replace the Constitution of 1787. Just as the Founding Fathers replaced the faulty Articles of Confederation that same year, we must, No Democracy Lasts Forever argues, rewrite the entire Constitution from start to finish.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Mystery Book Club: Southern Man at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – Online Event
Participants will discuss the novel Southern Man by Greg Iles. For adults.
Copies of the book are available for check-out at the library. New members welcome!
Where: Agoura HIlls Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct, Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11334280
Ryan Elizabeth Penske & The Dreamers at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Ryan Elizabeth Penske will discuss her novel The Dreamers.
An tale of survival, magic, and romance…
Teenage Stella Grey has always felt an intense recurring sense of déjà vu…often plagued by strong dreams that feel more real than her waking moments. One ill-fated morning, her dream from the night before actually comes to life, as she awakens and finds her house ransacked and her mother unconscious near their broken-in front door. Her next moments are scary, shocking, and earth-shattering as she is kidnapped and delivered to a Gothic mansion, The Manor de Rêves.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/ryan-elizabeth-penske
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in the Palms Up Academy curriculum and manifests their mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join them at the intersection of Historic Filipinotown & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: SIPA HQ
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
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
At Skylight: Danzy Senna, with Sam Sanders, & Colored Television at Skylight – In-Person Event
Danzy Senna, in conversation with Sam Sanders, will discuss her book Colored Television.
Join Skylight for a brilliant dark comedy about love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial- identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of Caucasia.
Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles. The gig magically coincides with Jane’s sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel—a centuries-spanning epic her artist husband, Lenny, dubs her “mulatto War and Peace.” Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp.
But things don’t work out quite as hoped.
Funny, piercing, and page turning, Colored Television is Senna’s most on-the-pulse, ambitious, and rewarding novel yet.
Danzy Senna is the author of four previous works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia and, most recently, New People, as well as a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.
Sam Sanders is an award-winning reporter, radio host and podcaster. He currently cohosts Vibe Check from Stitcher Podcasts, with Zach Stafford and Saeed Jones. In 2022, The New York Times named Vibe Check one of the 10 best podcasts of the year and the show was awarded with a Signal Award in 2022 for best pop culture podcast. Previously, Sam Sanders launched and hosted the NPR radio show and podcast It’s Been A Minute.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-danzy-senna-presents-colored-television-w-sam-sanders
Vroman’s Ed: Romance Writing Workshop with Amy Spaulding at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
From Meet Cute to HEA: Writing the Modern Romance Novel, with Amy Spaulding will be an 8-week class.
Have you always wanted to write your own HEA (that’s a happily-ever-after)? This class is for anyone interested in writing a romance novel—or who’s started one but feels like they need some help getting to that happy ending! In this 8-week course, bestselling author Amy Spalding will teach you the fundamentals of romance novels.
From Meet Cute to HEA: Writing the Modern Romance Novel will focus on structure, with specialized lectures each week to learn more about each beat, from the setup to the meet-cute, all the way through to that glorious HEA. Topics covered will include genre conventions (yes, like tropes!), dialogue/banter, building tension (sexual and otherwise!), inclusivity/diversity in storytelling, common pitfalls, and more.
Classes will be mostly lecture/discussion, with time set aside each week for writing exercises and brainstorming. The goal is for each writer to leave class with a full outline of their romance novel, as well as some example scenes and exercises they may be able to use in the manuscript as well.
Students will also leave class with resources: each week’s presentation will be sent out to all students, as well as additional links for further examples/education.
Amy Spalding is the author of several adult and YA novels, including the bestselling romance For Her Consideration, We Used to Be Friends and YA romance The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, the Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, and more. She is a recipient of the 2023 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for the authentic, funny, and diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community in her books.
Amy grew up in St. Louis and now lives in Los Angeles. She has a B.A. in Advertising & Marketing Communications from Webster University and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. Amy studied longform improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
*This class will be held on the following dates – 9/4, 9/11, 9/18, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/30, and 11/6 (with no class on 9/25 & 10/23) and will take place in the Vroman’s Meeting Room located next door to Vroman’s Main Store in the Atrium at 709 E. Colorado Blvd. Suite 120.
(Please register by end of day 9/3/24)
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Ed-Romance-Writing-Class-with-Amy-Spalding-Sept
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 4th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/ or https://www.facebook.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom
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 Rooja Mohassessy, an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University, Oregon. Her ekphrastic debut collection, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine (Feb 2023) was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elir Poetry Award. Rooja has been featured on NPR, The Hive Poetry Collective, and other poetry podcasts and radio stations. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Nimrod, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Rumpus, The Journal, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Her work is also anthologized in California Fire & Water, A Climate Crisis Anthology, and Colossus: Body, a compilation of writings by Californians writing on the themes of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. Rooja is an editorial assistant at the journal Prairie Schooner.
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 4th
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-1004502613357
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Featured Guest Laura Sermeño at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights will feature Laura Sermeño.
Laura Sermeño was born in Montebello, CA, raised & educated in Sur El Monte —UCLA matriculated, educated by her people only, from the classrooms to the streets. While in her second year of studies at UCLA in 2012, she began to unfold her art of poetry by auditioning for spoken word performances. In 2015, she was accepted into the Voices of our Nation’s (VONA) Southern California Regional Workshop, focusing on Poetry as Documentary. In 2017, along with her womxn-centered writing circle, Las Lunas Locas, her poetry was published in an anthology. She never traditionally captured the art of poetry-making, instead relying on her inner beat and only the most raw inspiration with which to write. She claims celestial goddess power, speaks truth and hopes to give mexicana princesas a good name. She now teaches & resides in Pasadena, CA.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 4th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events or https://www.facebook.com/events/the-ugly-mug/laura-sermeno-at-the-ugly-mug/1835697286912403/
Book Club Discussion: The Night Watch at Hermosa Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Our book discussion will feature The Night Watch by author Jayne Anne Phillips.
Books are available for check out at the library. For adults.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Hermosa Beach Library, LACL
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 10:30 pm – 11:30 pm
Address: 550 Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11427959
Open Mic Night at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
Join the Anaheim Central Library every first Thursday of the month at 5:00 p.m. for Open Mic Night at the Anaheim Central Library! Poets, singers, songwriters, storytellers, writers, comedians, supporters, and listeners are welcome! The event will include a featured reading or musical performance by a published poet or musician.
Performer sign-ups begin at 4:45 p.m. The event is held in the multi-purpose room on the basement level of the Anaheim Central Library, 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim CA 92805 (near the corner of Broadway & Harbor). Hope to see you there!
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 500 West Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-mic-night-at-anaheim-central-library-tickets-699278188887
Sasha Abramsky & Chaos Comes Calling at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sasha Abramsky will discuss her book Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America.
This book is a harrowing tale about how polarization threatened to break apart two American communities and how one found a way back while the other splintered.
Donald Trump’s November 2016 electoral victory was the beginning of four years of demagogy, presidential name-calling, and—ten months into a pandemic—an incitement to violence that led a mob of thousands to descend on the Capitol in Washington, DC. Fueled by suspicion, conspiracy, and bigotry, a faction of Americans had decided to seize control. But the biggest effect of this right-wing wave may not have been on our national politics, but on the local governments of communities around the country.
In Chaos Comes Calling, Sasha Abramsky investigates the empowerment of the far-right over the past few years, stoked by the Trump presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic. He tells the parallel stories of two communities, Shasta County, California and Sequim, Washington, where toxic alliances of QAnoners, anti-vaxxers, Christian nationalists, militia supporters and other denizens of the far-right have worked to take control of the levers of power.
The trajectories of both communities expose the stark divisions and extremism that have come to define our political landscape over the past decade and offer revealing glimpses of what the future may hold. While Sequim ultimately recalibrated in 2021, returning to rationality, Shasta County has descended further into a climate of intolerance and toxic divisiveness.
Chaos Comes Calling vividly captures both the regressive forces gaining momentum all over the country and the tireless efforts of citizens determined to organize against them.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sasha-abramsky
Bee Sacks and Jett Allen & The Lover at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Bee Sacks and Jett Allen will discuss their new novel The Lover, which depicts a cis woman falling in love, not just with a lover, but with an ideology that offers her a long-sought sense of belonging. What, this novel asks is: has Zionism cost us as Jews? To celebrate the launch of the paperback edition—the first book of Bee’s bearing their true name!—they will be in conversation with Jett Allen to discuss living inside Zionism and the process of undoing it.
The Lover is a provocative, immersive, gorgeously written love story reminiscent of Marguerite Duras’s classic novel. Both books portray a seductive love affair in a post-colonial setting, atmospheric with rich material reality, that raises unsettling questions about inequality, power, and complicity. At once beautiful and disturbing, propulsive and poignant, The Lover will entrance readers and hold them spellbound.
Bee Sacks is the author of two novels: The Lover and City of a Thousand Gates, which was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction. A former journalist, they worked at Vanity Fair for several years before moving to Palestine-Israel to study sacred Jewish texts. Bee now lives in Los Angeles with their dog, Pupik.
Jett Allen is a cartoonist and writer based in Los Angeles. His comics have appeared in The New Yorker, The LA Times, Jewish Currents, MUBI and more. Jett’s graphic film criticism series Trans Classic Movies (TCM) for Into has been nominated for Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Online Comic and Outstanding Series, and was shortlisted for the Cartoonist Studio Prize. His work has been supported by the New Jewish Culture Fellowship.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Borth Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday, 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-m0blt1tq
Alexis Castellanos, with Axie Oh, & Guavas and Grudges at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person YA Event
Alexis Castellanos, in conversation with Axie Oh, will discuss her romance novel, Guavas and Grudges.
This story is a rom-com about teens from rival bakeries who create a recipe for disaster when they fall for each other,
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Release: Gabor G. Gyukics, with Mimi Tempestt, Allison Hedge Coke, Travis Hedge Coke, Susan Hayden & Matt Sedillo & detoxification of the body at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
“Before our present circumstance was looming gabor g gyukics… detoxification of the body maintains a lingual balance remaining primed and capable, within our partial seasons as it continues to script his recognition of our “ennui” seemingly akin to the Georgics yet within our warped existential conundrum. Will Alexander, poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and visual artist, author of Refractive Africa; finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and winner of the California Book Award in Poetry 2022. “gyukics spins and unspins words. These poems are full of play and humor anchored by just enough ache and ring. In this work we dance the moment, understand the history, honor the old stories but know that they do not rule us, and feel the “impossibilism” that Gyukics paints for us. —Kim Shuck, 7th Poet Laureate Emerita of San Francisco
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90026
Website: https://www.susanhayden.com/events
Tonalli Open Mic via Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Event
This reading event is held every 1st Thursday of the month by the L.A. Poet Society.
Host and features TBA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Tonalli Open Mic
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event: Zoom: 897 1039 1895
Website: https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/ or https://www.facebook.com/LosAngelesPoetSociety/
Lit Angels – Healing Through Writing: Tarot & the 12 Questions with Francesca Lia Blockat Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Francesca Lia Block, MFA, is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award, and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.
Lit Angels offers classes that provide just that—a fun and freeing way to work out the creative muscles and eliminate the stumbling blocks that might be holding you back, not only in your writing, art, or performance projects, but in all areas of your life—uplifting and refreshing your mind and soul, improving relationships, work, and your outlook on the future. Taught by top-level working professionals, Lit Angels classes cultivate community and connection, something we all desperately need in these challenging times.
Come make some magic at the Village Well! All genres and levels are welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday, the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41773
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is our most popular story time and is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Your Author Series: Charlotte Cheng & I Miss You Most at Chinatown Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join the Chinatown Branch Library in welcoming Charlotte Cheng as she discusses her new book I Miss You Most.
A girl remembers her grandfather fondly in this heartwarming, comforting picture book about coping with loss. The memories of a beloved grandpa bring sadness but also solace to the young girl in this glowing and nourishing book. We see the close and lively relationship they shared and all the ways she has been enriched by knowing him—the ways he will always be there for her. This book is just right for starting necessary conversations about grief and for paying tribute to the loved ones we’ve lost.
Those attending the program will have the opportunity to take home a copy of I Miss You Most. Intended for Pre-school and up.
Where: Chinatown Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 10 am
Address: 639 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-charlotte-cheng-0
Book Club: Station Eleven at Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join the Book Club discussion of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. For Adults.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 208 N Harvard Ave N, Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11606003
First Fridays Book Club at Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join Memorial Branch Library for a lively book discussion. Each month, we select a different title to read and discuss.
Call the Memorial Branch at 323-938-2732 to find out the month’s featured title.
Where: Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/first-fridays-book-club
Sheri T. Joseph, with Daniel Taplitz, & The Edge of the Known World at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sheri T. Joseph, in conversation with Daniel Taplitz, will discuss her book The Edge of the Known World.
This novel is a riveting speculative fiction adventure and love story about family, genetic privacy, and the onrushing future of surveillance technology.
Alexandra Tashen is a brilliant student, adoring daughter, merry wit, and exuberant prankster. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learns the truth: She is a refusé, an illegal refugee smuggled into the Allied Nations as an infant. Everyone from her birth region carries a harmless but detectable bit of viral DNA from a flu vaccine. If detected by the rapid genetic testing at security screens, Alex will be returned to the Federation and a likely death. Her adoptive father developed a gene therapy to mask her g-marker, but it is not fully effective. Every g-screen presents a nerve-racking one-in-ten chance of getting caught.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sheri-t-joseph
Book Signing: Laura Taylor Namey, with Joan F. Smith, & With Love, Echo Park at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Celebrate Laura Taylor Namey’s book With Love. Echo Park with a special conversation with Joan F. Smith and a signing event at The Ripped Bodice.
Everyone is welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Chelsea Bieker, with Rufi Thorpe, & Madwoman at Skylight – In-Person Event
Chelsea Bieker, in conversation with Rufi Thorpe, will discuss her novel Madwoman.
This novel tells a gripping story of motherhood and motherloss and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, marking Chelsea Bieker as a major fiction talent.
Chelsea Bieker is the author of the debut novel Godshot, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a Barnes & Noble Pick of the Month. Her story collection, Heartbroke won the California Book Award and was a New York Times “Best California Book of 2022.” She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, as well as residencies at MacDowell and Tin House. Raised in Hawaii and California, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.
Rufi Thorpe is the author of Margo’s Got Money Troubles; The Knockout Queen, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award; Dear Fang, with Love; and The Girls from Corona del Mar, which was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. A native of California, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-chelsea-bieker-presents-madwoman
Open Mic Night at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Tia Chucha’s monthly open mic held every first Friday of the month.
See site for contact info.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd Olympic Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.instagram.com/tiachuchas/?hl=en
Mike De Socio, with Nick Wolny, & Morally Sally Straight at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Mike De Socio, in conversation with Nick Wolny, will discuss Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America.
In Morally Straight we meet James Dale, the poster child of Scouting who took his fight for inclusion to the Supreme Court; Steven Cozza, the 12-year-old scout in California who started a movement for inclusion called Scouting for All; Jennifer Tyrrell, the lesbian den mother whose expulsion from the Scouts reignited the gay membership controversy; Zach Wahls, the son of lesbian moms who led the final push for policy change; and an array of other previously unknown Scouters who played smaller—but no less crucial—roles in the fight for full inclusion.
Mike De Socio is an award-winning independent journalist who writes about social justice and solutions. He grew up in New Jersey, where he became an Eagle Scout, and later earned a degree in journalism from Boston University. His work has been published in theWashington Post, Bloomberg, the Guardian, Fortune, Xtra, YES! Magazine, and more. He now lives with his partner in upstate New York.
Nick Wolny is a professional editor, journalist, and business consultant based in Los Angeles.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/mike-de-socio-morally-straight-how-fight-lgbtq-inclusion
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music is offered every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and hosted by Loranzo Frank.
Featured guest: Sunshine Lombre, a dancer and poet specializing in expressing sensuality and emotional authenticity through her words and movements.
Tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 6th
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.depoet.info/swaam or https://www.depoet.info/swaam
First Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series & Open Mic with host Cynthia Alessandra Briano at Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
FIrst Fridays at Rapp Saloon: Open Mic & Featured Readers, will be this week, and is offered every 1st Friday of the month by host Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
The Rapp Saloon Poetry Reading Series will return to its original format with each Friday hosted and curated as follows:
First Friday: Cynthia Alessandra Briano
Second Friday: Russell Greene
Third Friday: Elena Secota
Fourth Friday: Jim Bolt
Fifth Friday: James Evert Jones
This is a hybrid event, live in-person while offering a Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event
Date: Friday, the 16th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.facebook.com/RappSaloonReading or https://www.instagram.com/rappsaloon/?hl=en
Western Edge Writers Workshop at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Writers and aspiring writers, join the Eagle Rock Branch Library for a group that supports writing endeavors of all genres: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and memoir.
Please emaileaglrk@lapl.orgfor the writing prompt.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 10 am
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/western-edge-writers-0
Saturday Book Discussion: Half-Known Life at Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library for wide-ranging conversations. Copies are available at reference and as ebooks. This is our second year reading off of the New York Times “100 Notable Books” of the year.
Participants will discuss Half-Known Life by author Pico Iyer.
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 11 am
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/saturday-book-discussion
Book Club Discussion: Better the Blood at Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library for a lively discussion about the thriller Better the Blood by Michael Bennet, about a Māori detective investigating a serial killer seeking revenge for the 160-year-old murder of a Māori chief during the British colonization of New Zealand.
Limited copies of the book are ready for checkout at the circulation desk. It is also available electronically on Libby and hoopla. RSVP with Karla at jfrson@lapl.org or 213-734-8573.
Where: Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2211 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-better-blood
Book Club Discussion: The Japanese Lover at Los Feliz Branch Library – In-Person Event
Join the Book Club Discussion in their discussion of Isabel Allende’s 2015 novel The Japanese Lover.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-2
Orange County Zine Fest at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
All-ages community celebration of independent artists, writers, designers, and creators tabling at the Anaheim Central Library The event is from 11am-4pm at the Anaheim Central Library!
We’ll see you there!
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 11 am – 4 pm
Address: 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://www.instagram.com/oczinefest/?hl=en or https://www.oczinefest.com/
Storytime with Mark Feuerstein & One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
This Storytime is co-hosted by Chevalier’s Books and Civic EQ. Civic EQ is a newsletter for parents who want to brush up on civics so we can inspire civic curiosity in our kids.
Storytime with Civic EQ at Chevalier’s Books aims to bring together the many civic voices that the organization works with, from Sesame Workshop, PBS Kids, to many other civic “influencers” that help parents feel more confident in their own civic literacy.
Our first storytime will be with actor Mark Feuerstein, who will read from “One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote” by author Bonnie Worth and illustrators Aristides Ruiz and Joe Mathieu.
Laugh and learn with fun facts about voting, the history of democracy in America, and more—all told in Dr. Seuss’s beloved rhyming style and starring The Cat in the Hat!
“Voting is something we do every day. It’s a way we can choose that gives us our own say.”
Perfect for story time and for the youngest readers, One Vote, Two Vote, I Vote, You Vote also includes an index, glossary, and suggestions for further learning.
Mark Feuerstein is an American actor, writer, and director.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90004
Special Author Event: Dara Henry & Hanukkah Pajamakkahs at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join pages: a bookstore for local children’s author Dara Henry’s debut launch on Saturday, September 7 at 11:00 am in our courtyard.
We are thrilled to have a special launch party and storytime with crafts and giveaways to celebrate local children’s author Dara Henry on the launch of her debut picture book Hanukkah Pajamakkahs!
This is a free event, but we appreciate RSVPs. RSVP at site link.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 11 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/special-author-event-dara-henry
Mini Mid-Autumn Festival: Featuring Storytime & Signing with Benson Shum at Bel Canto Books, KUBO Long Beach – In-Person Event
Bel Canto Books is delighted to host a Mini Mid-Autumn Festival featuring author Benson Shum, presenting his book Mooncakes Mean Family, with pop-up vendors and children’s activities!
Jade and Crystal love the Mid-Autumn Festival because it means it’s time to make a tasty treat—mooncakes! Crystal’s favorite part of the delicious dessert made of lotus seed paste is the yummy salted egg yolk at the center, meant to represent the moon. Join the sisters as they gather with their family for a memorable meal together!
Complete with fun facts about the holiday in the back of the book, young readers will want to revisit this story again and again.
Exciting, easy-to-read books offer the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.
Benson Shum is an author-illustrator who enjoys creating and telling stories through animation and illustration. He is originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, but now lives in sunny southern California.
NOTE: See site for full schedule.
Where: Bel Canto Books, KUBO Long Beach
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 12 pm – 4 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA
Kids Graphic Novel Book Club: Four Eyes at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Book Club participants will discuss Four Eyes, by author Ken Ogle and illustrator Dave Valeza.
This is a humorous and heartwarming middle-grade graphic memoir about fitting in, facing bullies, and finding the right pair of glasses.
Sixth grade isn’t as great as Rex thought it would be. He’s the only kid who hasn’t had a growth spurt, and the bullies won’t let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there’s a cute girl in his class, who may or may not like him back. With so much going on, everything is a blur—including Rex’s vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliest pair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.
In this true coming-of-age story, Rex has his sights set on surviving sixth grade, but now he’s got to find a way to do it with glasses, no friends, and a family that just doesn’t get it!
Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, recipient of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. His original graphic novel series, Four Eyes, is based on the highs and lows of his middle-school years growing up in Texas. Under the pen name Rey Terciero, he authored Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as well as Swan Lake: Quest for the Kingdoms. Before becoming a full-time writer, Rex worked as an editor in New York for many years and championed a number of licensed titles, including the New York Times bestsellers Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice, and Neil Patrick Harris’s The Magic Misfits. Rex now writes full time from his home in California. When he’s not busy writing, Rex can be found hiking with his dog, playing Mario Kart with his friends, or reading a new favorite book. Learn more about Rex at rexogle.com.
Dave Valeza grew up in Covina, California, after emigrating with his family from Manila, Philippines. Pursuing his love of drawing, Dave earned a bachelor’s degree in illustration and a master’s degree in sequential art. He’s a passionate visual storyteller, and he especially loves drawing people, fashion, and technology. In his spare time, Dave enjoys biking and doodling around Savannah, Georgia, where he lives with his husband, cat, and dog. Find out more about Dave and his work at davevaleza.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/kids-graphic-novel-book-club-four-eyes
Your Author Series: Charlotte Cheng & I Miss You Most at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join Central Library in welcoming Charlotte Cheng as she discusses her new book I Miss You Most.
A girl remembers her grandfather fondly in this heartwarming, comforting picture book about coping with loss. The memories of a beloved grandpa bring sadness but also solace to the young girl in this glowing and nourishing book. We see the close and lively relationship they shared and all the ways she has been enriched by knowing him—the ways he will always be there for her. This book is just right for starting necessary conversations about grief and for paying tribute to the loved ones we’ve lost.
Those attending the program will have the opportunity to take home a copy of I Miss You Most. Intended for Pre-school and up.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-charlotte-cheng-1
Catch the Mic: Paris to L.A. at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Central Library for the finale of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad and launch of the L.A. 2028 Cultural Olympiad, featuring poets in Paris and Los Angeles.
Beyond Baroque presents an international Poetry Marathon celebrating the theme of “Art + Sports” with performances by more than 30 Los Angeles-based poets who will be appearing simultaneously live in Paris and Los Angeles as part of a cultural handover from the City of Paris to the City of Los Angeles. In honor of the L.A. 2028 Olympics, eight L.A. poets selected as Paris Olympiad Poets will travel to Paris to perform in the finale of the Poetic Games of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad, and 28 L.A. poets will perform at Catch the Mic: Paris to L.A. at Mark Taper Auditorium at Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library.
NOTE: See site for details. Seating available on a Stand-By basis.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/catch-the-mic-paris-to-la-tickets-994089346997?aff=oddtdtcreator
Andrew Matarazzo & Bedlam at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Andrew Matarazzo will discuss his novel Bedlam.
When an obscure virus shifts into a full-blown epidemic, a group of teens are forced to navigate a city plagued with infected beings. The insidious disease targets older and weaker cells, leaving in its wake a landscape of parentless survivors. They find refuge in a warehouse facility where they encounter some friendly faces, and some unfamiliar ones. Amid their daily trials, splintered pieces of a larger conspiracy begin to emerge. Personalities clash and desperation boils…until the creatures they face are no longer the only threat to their survival.
Andrew Matarazzo is no stranger to fiction or drama, having appeared as an actor in shows like ‘Teen Wolf.’ Now, he’s crafting stories of his own. Filled with hair-raising twists, unbreakable bonds, and page-turning chapters, both Bedlam and Sweven are strong introductions to Matarazzo’s writing.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/andrew-matarazzo-bedlam-sweven
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join the Studio City Branch Library 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.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-2
L.A. Skater Zine Workshop at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The West LA Library is right in front of Stoner Park, one of the most iconic skate parks in LA and across the country. Zine librarians Ziba Perez and Danielle Fox will teach participants how to make zines to document and archive LA skate culture and the history of Stoner Park. If you join us, you’ll also get a special treat—an original photography zine from this year’s National Skate Day event at the park!
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/la-skater-zine-workshop
Saturday Afternoon Poetry – Online Zoom Event (Check to Verify)
Poetry Writing Workshop led by MANI SURI (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning bitter or sweet for Four Feathers Press online edition: Bitter Sweet by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, September 20th)
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (See site)
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Pond Water Society Event: GT Foster, Charlie Wren & Courtney Montgomery at Private Residence – In-Person Event
We paint, we write, we read, we create things, we talk, we listen.
We want to bring like-minded people together for mutual benefit, support and to entertain each other in general.
Hosted by Joanne Qualey Baines, this reading will feature: GT Foster (The Boys Are Not Refined), Charlie Wren, and Courtney Montgomery.
GT Foster, a twice-nominated Pushcart poet, is a California native, retired educator, and 54-year married father and grandfather of 2. Former managing editor of SPECTRUM, a poetry and art quarterly and co-host of Saturday Afternoon Poetry Deep Critique, he resides in Pasadena and has completed his first novel, The Boys Are Not Refined, a Vietnam era, semi-biographic soldier’s story. His poetry has been published by the Pasadena Weekly, San Gabriel Valley Quarterly, Altadena Poetry Review, Spectrum, and elsewhere.
Courtney Montgomery was born with blue eyes that later turned green, a phenomenon that occurs often in people with oceanic brain chemistry. However, she is pretty much anti-bluegrass for reasons she cannot explain. She walked the earth for almost 40 years before realizing she was somewhat Japanese. Her favorite animal is a de-fanged vampire. Courtney has only been arrested once, at the Alibaba Motel, but don’t worry, she served her time and then some. She has never stolen anything she couldn’t have ultimately purchased with the money she later made. However, lately she’s been having sticky-fingered thoughts about the priceless moments of a person she still has yet to become. Finally, Courtney Montgomery has completely changed since this bio was written.
Charlie Wren is a poet, artist and combat veteran turned Buddhist who lives in Los Angeles, CA. Their work examines love and loss, while probing the messy truths of authenticity. Known for an edgy, gritty style, Charlie’s poetry invites readers to confront the darker corners of human experience while seeking truth in vulnerability.
Where: Pond Water Society
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 5 pm – 9 pm
Address: 16504 E. Masline St., Covina, CA 91722
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PondWater/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/1603137803573148/?ref=newsfeed
LibroMobile Monthly Open Mic at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event
Join LibroMobile for our open mic series hosted by Local Poet Kunthon “Katon” Meas, he’ll be featuring local writers & hold the mic for all of you!
RSVP
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday, the 7th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St. A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/libromobiles-monthly-open-mic-2024-09-07-18-00
Phillip V. McHarris, with Richie Reseda, & Beyond Policing at The Rep Club – In-Person Event
Join the Rep Club to hear author and educator Phillip V. McHarris, in conversation with co-founder of Initiate Justice Richie Reseda, discuss his book Beyond Policing.
Philip V. McHarris is an assistant professor in the Frederick Douglass Institute and Department of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. McHarris was a presidential postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University in the Department of African American Studies and the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. He earned his PhD in sociology and African American studies at Yale University. He was named one of the Root 100s Most Influential African Americans in 2020. McHarris has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS and in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and more.
Cell Block Feminist, Hip Hop Artist & Co-founder of Initiate Justice, Richie Reseda is a music, film and content producer, who was freed from prison in 2018. He co-created and co-hosts the Spotify Original podcast Abolition X. While in prison he started Question Culture, the artist-and-worker owned media collective that houses his projects, and co-founded Success Stories, the feminist program for incarcerated men chronicled in the CNN documentary, The Feminist on Cell Block Y.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Rep Club
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/philip-v-mcharris-event
The Griot Café Readings & Open Mic at Shades of Afrika, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Join The Griot Cafe for the Griot Café Open Mic for an evening of poetry hosted by Subject Matter.
Featuring: Yawo Watts.
Share your words and enjoy free herbal teas as you immerse yourself in the magic of verse. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience poetry, evocative storytelling, and African Art. Open Mic starts at 8 pm
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Shades of Afrika
Date: Saturday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
2nd Annual Los Angeles Kids Book Festival at West Hollywood Park – In-Person Event
American Born Chinese Foundation, with Book Soup and Children’s Book World, celebrate children’s literacy and a love of reading with the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Kids Book Festival.
There will be over 70 book vendors, live readings, interactive storytelling, music, arts & craft, and other activities.
NOTE: See site for tickets, parking and details.
Where: West Hollywood Park
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Address: 647 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.lakidsbookfestival.com/
Melrose Trading Post Event by Greenway Arts Alliance at Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax H.S. – In-Person Event
The Melrose Trading Post is a pioneering arts-based marketplace held every Sunday at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, CA with 275 local creative small business vendors, delicious food booths and local live music.
MTP was founded in 1997 with a mission to champion small businesses, art and community. The market funds Greenway Arts Alliance’s arts education programming and provides employment and leadership development opportunities for students at Fairfax High School.
NOTE: Check every Sunday for story time and reading events
Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date: Sunday, the 8th (Every Sunday)
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://melrosetradingpost.org/tickets/
Storytime with Max Greenfield & Good Night Thoughts at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Join Chevalier’s as actor and author Max Greenfield reads from Good Night Thoughts, his new thoughtful story about managing bedtime anxiety.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90004
Kids Storytime: Aline Taireh & Are There Pancakes in Amsterdam? at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join Village Well among the cozy bookshelves for a special kids’ storytime!
What happens when a shy little girl finds the courage to explore a new place? An exciting world is revealed! Follow Margot to a city called Amsterdam where she faces her fears and discovers new things with curiosity and bravery.
Reserve a spot on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41841
Cellar Door Book Club: Perris, California at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Perris, California by author Rachel Stark.
Abandoned first by her father and then her mother, as a girl Tessa is left to live with her abusive stepfather and stepbrother. She survives by finding reserves of strength in herself, and by the surprising, transformative love of another teenage girl, Mel, who sees through Tessa’s tough exterior to the vulnerable, scarred, loving woman inside. When she suddenly loses Mel, too, Tessa stumbles into a saving grace of a different kind with Henry and his mama, Angie, becoming a mother and finding herself in a familial existence that somehow carries her into adulthood—until the day she runs into Mel, who has just returned to Perris after years away.
Rachel Stark grew up in Perris, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from University of California, Riverside, and her master’s degree in creative writing at University of California, Davis. She currently resides in southern Colorado where she writes, runs mountain trails, and teaches yoga.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/cellar-door-book-club-perris-california
Local Poetry Day with Doug Manuel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Join Vroman’s for a night of poetry featuring your favorite local poets, in conversation with Doug Manuel.
Brent Ameneyro is the author of the collection A Face Out of Clay (The Center for Literary Publishing, 2024) and the chapbook Puebla (Ghost City Press, 2023). His E-Lit has been selected for the 2022 Education and Electronic Literature Conference and Art Festival in Italy, as well as for film festivals in Denmark, Barcelona, Canada, and Los Angeles. He was the 2022-2023 Letras Latinas Poetry Coalition Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. He currently serves as the poetry editor at The Los Angeles Review.
Lory Bedikian’s second book Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body won the 2023 Prairie Schooner/Raz-Shumaker Book Prize in Poetry forthcoming September 2024 from the University of Nebraska Press and her first collection The Book of Lamenting won the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Several of Bedikian’s poems received the First Prize Award in the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry as part of the 2022 Nimrod Literary Awards. Her work is published in Tin House, Gulf Coast, The Los Angeles Review, BOULEVARD, The Adroit Journal, Orion, wildness, and was featured on Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Poetry Unbound podcast. Her poem “The Mechanic,” is included in the anthology Border Lines: Poems of Migration, KNOPF, 2020. Bedikian’s manuscript-in-progress received a 2021 grant from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. New work appears in Massachusetts Review’s “Revisiting WOMAN: An Issue, 50 Years Later.” Bedikian earned an MFA from the University of Oregon. She teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Blas Falconer is the author of four books, including Rara Avis (Four Way Books 2024), as well as the coeditor of two anthologies, Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets and The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity. The recipient of a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers, he teaches in San Diego State University’s MFA program and is the editor in chief at Poetry International Online.
Cherene Sherrard is a poet, scholar, and essayist. She is the author of two poetry collections, Vixen, and Grimoire, and an award-winning chapbook, Mistress, Reclining. Recent creative nonfiction and poetry have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Hidden Compass, Ecotone, Terrain.org, Blackbird, Water~Stone Review, and elsewhere.She is a professor of English at Pomona College.
Douglas Manuel was born in Anderson, Indiana and now resides in Whittier, California. He received a BA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, an MFA in poetry from Butler University, and a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Testify (2017) and Trouble Funk (2023). His poems and essays can be found in numerous literary journals, magazines, and websites, most recently Zyzzyva, Pleiades, and the New Orleans Review. He has traveled to Egypt and Eritrea with The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program to teach poetry. A recipient of the Dana Gioia Poetry Award and a fellowship from the Borchard Foundation Center on Literary Arts, he is an assistant professor of English at Whittier College and teaches at Spalding University’s low-res MFA program.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 695 E Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Storytime + Signing: Sherrie L. Smith & Pearl at Bel Canto, KUBO – In-Person Event
Sherrie K. Smith will present her children’s book, Pearl.
We will be celebrating Sherrie L. Smith’s new graphic novel Pearl at KUBO, Long Beach.
In a beautifully crafted and captivating graphic novel from award-winning writer Sherri L. Smith and Eisner-nominated artist Christine Norrie, a Japanese American girl must survive years of uncertainty and questions of loyalty in Hiroshima during World War II.
Sherri L. Smith is the prolific author of multiple award-winning children’s books, including The Blossom and the Firefly, Flygirl, Orleans, and several books in the Who Was series. She has written for Bart Simpson comics, James Cameron’s Avatar comics, and Wonder Woman. Her books have appeared on a number of state reading lists and have been named as Junior Library Guild, Children’s Book Council, and American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults selections. Sherri teaches creative writing in the MFA in Children’s Writing program at Hamline University, and has taught at Goddard College and Old Dominion University. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner and a disreputable cat. Visit her online at sherrilsmith.com.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Bel Canto, KUBO LB
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach CA 90807
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events
Outdoor Lit Book Club: What an Owl Knows at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel What an Owl Know: The New Science of the Wrord’s Most Enigmatic Birds by author Jennifer Ackerman.
In What an Owl Knows, the author joins scientists in the field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their young, and move about from season to season. Ackerman brings this research alive with her own personal field observations; the result is an awe-inspiring exploration of owls across the globe and through human history, and a spellbinding account of the world’s most enigmatic group of birds.
Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for more than three decades. Her previous book, The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think, was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her New York Times bestselling book, The Genius of Birds, has been translated into twenty-five languages and was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2016 by The Wall Street Journal, a Best Science Book by NPR’s Science Friday, and a Nature Book of the Year by The Sunday Times. Her other books include Birds by the Shore: Observing the Natural Life of the Atlantic Coast, Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body, and Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity. Ackerman’s articles and essays have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and many other publications. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/outdoor-lit-book-club-what-owl-knows
Local Author Book Discussion: Dreams in Incarceration at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Cillian Dunne and David Spivey became good friends during the research for Dreams in Incarceration. One from Dublin, Ireland, one from Inglewood, California, the two joined forces to lyrically tell the story of David’s transition from gang life, to serving time in California’s deadliest prisons, and to now, where he is a motivational speaker. This event focuses on the psychology of incarcerated people as they consciously work to better themselves, and the challenges that come with it.
Inspired by real-life events, Dreams in Incarceration is a hyper-visual exploration of the physical and psychological battles that former gang member David Spivey faced during his 15-year incarceration in California’s deadliest prisons.
About the participants:
Cillian Dunne is an investigative storyteller who writes narrative non-fiction books. He has written about a Spotlight investigation into boarding school student/teacher relations scandals, prison & gang psychology, and most recently, he spent some time in Central America researching a cold war espionage story.
David Spivey is a formerly incarcerated gang member who is now a motivational speaker. With over 150,000 Youtube subscribers, David preaches a positivity to those who may follow in his path. Additionally, he is a mental health professional at a hospital just minutes from where he was raised.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41516
Obscenesters Book Club: Yes, Roya at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join North Figueroa Bookshop for Obscenesters Book Club with Tina Horn.
Book Club participants will read and discuss Yes Roya by author C. Spike Trotman.
Wylie Kogan is an aspiring artist, stumping for work in 1963 California. When a fawning fan letter grants him access to his cartoonist hero, the wealthy and celebrated Joseph Ahlstrom, he’s quick to take advantage of a proffered portfolio review…but winds up learning more than he ever wanted to about Joe when he stumbles across some of his idol’s illicit fetish art.
His hasty, ill-considered theft of a drawing triggers a series of events he never planned on…most of which involve Joseph’s imposing and resolute partner, Roya.
This universally-lauded erotic classic of poly femdom, originally published in black and white, is now available in brilliant FULL COLOR!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lzn94zft
Fantasy Romance Book Club: Lore of the Wilds at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
September’s Fantasy Romance Book Club is led by bookseller Taylor C, and participants will discuss the novel Witch of the Wild Things by author Raquel Vasquez.
Everyone is welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 8th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Dynasty Typewriter: Will Arbery + Kaia Gerber at Library Science at Dynasty Typewriter – In-Person Event
Join Dynasty Typewriter for the launch of CORSICANA/ EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING, a new collection of plays by Will Arbery, in conversation with Kaia Gerber of Library Science at Dynasty Typewriter!
In this two-play volume, acclaimed playwright Will Arbery explores the dynamics within tight-knit communities of outsiders working together to persevere against despair, whether intimate or cosmic. From wildly different angles, Corsicana and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing both examine the shape-shifting specters of grief, the pull of desire and dreams, and the universal human need for receiving and giving care.
Will Arbery is a playwright and screenwriter. His other plays include Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Plano, You Hateful Things, and Wheelchair. Awards include a Whiting, Obie, Lucille Lortel, and New York Drama Critics’ Circle. He’s currently under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club, Adventureland, and The Metropolitan Opera. He was a writer and producer on Succession (HBO).
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Dynasty Typewriter
Date: Sunday, the 8th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-m0bko5rw
Los Angeles Literature 