LitFest Pasadena Comes to the Pasadena Playhouse District May 19 to 20, 2018
The Two Day Literary Festival Includes Dozens of Readings, Panels, and Literary Performances and Features Over 150 Authors at Venues Across the Pasadena Playhouse District
Pasadena, CA (February 21, 2018) –
Save the date for the 7th annual LitFest Pasadena coming up on May 19 and 20, 2018. LitFest Pasadena treats Southern California audiences to an exciting and thought provoking weekend full of diverse literary readings, panels, performances, and activities for all ages and interests. It’s held at venues and on sidewalks throughout the Pasadena Playhouse District.
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It begins every Wednesday at 7:30 pm. Early arrivals step to the mic, sharing a poem in progress to receive much needed feedback. Then they provide feedback to others. V. Kali, author of Hymn (World Stage Press), sits next to the donation box and front entrance and welcomes attendees as they arrive. As host, V. has been a warm presence each week for years, her long beautiful natural hair a thing of legend. As the crowd grows, the list of open mic readers expands before the feature grabs everyone’s attention. Murmurs of “mmm hmm” and “that’s right” arise from the crowd. After, it’s the community-the open mic readers’-turn at the mic. It’s their chance to bring down the house.
William Glassley and A Wilder Time at the Last Bookstore
41st Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
“IT’S THE BROKEN PARTS that matter” claims Vickie Vértiz, in a note to her poem “Nahuatl — A Revenge,” which features what she calls “imperfect” translations from the indigenous Nahuatl language into English. Vértiz’s imperfect translations recall what theorists Emily Apter and Jacques Lezra, following Walter Benjamin, call “untranslatables”: philosophical concepts that both invite and prevent transfer between languages, words that call out to be reinvented in their new language context precisely by resisting translation. In Vértiz’s poems, Latinxs living in California share “untranslatable” experiences that take place between English and Spanish. Her poems transform displacement and a polluted cityscape into sources of resistance and aesthetic restructuring. The visually and sonically rich setting of these poems may be polluted — by toxic air, water, and soil; toxic masculinity and white supremacy — but Vértiz celebrates what her community grows in this toxic ground and voices their untranslatable experiences.
Join us for a special event for Gabriel Gale’s Ages of Oz: A Fiery Friendship, written by Lisa Fiedler and illustrated by Sebastian Giacobino. This book is for readers who wish to join Glinda on a magical quest in search of “Truth Above All” (Middle Grade and for anyone who loves the Wizard of Oz).
The L.A. connection is strong in the winner of the Grammy Award for album notes.
Yoga for Writers at Hyde Park-Mariam Matthews Branch Library, LAPL–YA Event
The last time La Palabra was held at Avenue 50 Studios in December, host Karineh Mahdessian couldn’t hold back tears that spoke to the deep connections she’s made during her time as host of the long running open mic reading series. Karineh’s time was coming to a close. The community she helped nurture packed the back room to help send her off.
