New Open Mic in Pomona
by Brian Dunlap
Friday was the second edition of the open mic Poetry y Pan at Café con Libros in Pomona, hosted by poets and educators Irene Sanchez and Matt Sedillo. The Reading began shortly after 7:30 pm, the Arts District coming to life with music and food. Next door it sounded like a band was playing a familiar Green Day song, kicking off the weekend.
The feature Besskepp had yet to arrive and in the back sat a pink box of pan for readers and audience alike. The population inside the two-month-old lending library appeared close to 15. When things kicked off Matt Sedillo made quick introductions, then announced the first open mic reader.
Come to hear author and founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Gregory Boyle, discuss and sign his new book Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship.
Please join us to hear Victoria Namkung discuss and sign her novel, These Violent Delights, set in modern-day Los Angeles at Windemere School for Girls, an elite private school where Dr. Gregory Copeland is the beloved chair of the English Department. A married father with a penchant for romantic poetry—and impressionable teenage girls—he operates in plain sight for years, until one of his former students goes public with allegations of inappropriate conduct. This is a literary exploration of the pressures and vulnerabilities so many women and girls face, and analyzes the ways our institutions and families fail to protect or defend us.
Please join us every Monday at 1 pm as we make a zine in our Conchas Y Café Workshop for adults, with DSTL Arts. Our zine will be added to our #LAPLZineLibrary at Baldwin Hills Library!
Please join us for an author Q&A with Guerilla Tacos founder and Chef Wes Avila, along with Richard Parks III, as they discuss his book, Guerilla Tacos. This cook book offers the story of their fame with their taco truck, which stands out in a crowded field because it is so unique and uses only stellar ingredients. With comic illustrations and stories throughout, and the 50 base recipes in this book, this is the final word on the subject.
Come to hear the 2nd Monday Poetry Party hosted by Cadence Collective, and hosted by poets Murray Thomas & Sarah Thursday. This site features poets who have lived, gone to school, worked or regularly been a part of Long Beach, and it always begins with an Open Mic, followed by featured readers of the month.
Come to hear author Douglas Trevor discuss and sign his book, Book of Wonders. This book is a collection of nine stories, and explores unsettling and comic situations in which people lose their bearings, reinvent themselves, or resolve—sometimes haplessly—to make sense of their lives. We are reminded not only of the struggle to connect, but also of what the most unlikely of people may realize they share.
Please join us to hear Steven J. Ross, son of Holocaust survivors, author and professor of history at USC, discussing and signing his new book, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America, in conversation with the host and producer of “Start Making Sense,” The Nation’s weekly podcast Jon Wiener (How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America). The book examines how the Nazis plotted to sabotage the nation’s military installations, propaganda and communications along the Pacific Coast
Please join us to hear the Pulitzer Prize winning author for Hamilton, Ron Chernow, discuss and sign Grant, his newest masterful biography, about Ulysses S. Grant’s life as a general and president, whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency. In conversation with USC professor and author William Deverell, Chernow offers this sweeping and dramatic portrait, that finds the threads that bind the disparate stores together, and makes sense of all sides of Grant’s life, contradictions, and accomplishments.
Los Angeles Literature 