I know, I am way late on this story as the second issue of the online journal S-Curves was released close to two months ago. Better late than never.

As posted by Editor/Publisher Faith Currant in her Editor’s Note, she says about this issue, “[W]e didn’t set out to curate around a theme, but also as with our first issue, a theme showed up anyway. Our contributors all chose to explore identity — who we are, who others think we are, who we are in relation to our self-image, our families, our lovers and the world around us.” And as per their mission S-Curves continues to focus on writers from Topanga Canyon. There are poems from Tucker Weiss and Becky Sanvictores and the new voice Joe Gutesha that Faith Currant says has the”ability to observe and deconstruct his own experiences and inner world without self-pity or sentimentality, and with a great deal of maturity and compassion.”

Continue reading “Second Issue of S-Curves Released”

Memorial Mental Monday at House of Brews

An open mic venue that gathers every Month. 6:30 Sign-up start to be on the Mic. Poets, Musicians, Singers, Dancers, Comics, Magicians attend sooooooo…. come and express your self.

The venue was started by Melba aka Mama Hazze and Poet, Mor’Reese 9 years ago; and has been doing well since thanks to the talented Jewels in the community. Currently Hosted by Poet, Evy Spirit Luv Child and our tag Team Victor Sotomayor, Gabby & Jessica Delgato, and Micheal De Los Angeles who are the bones & blood of Mental Monday!

Where: House of Brews

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 10:15 pm

Address: 231 N. Maclay Ave., San Fernando, CA 91304

Website: www.facebook.com/events/516354665242278/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/30/16 – 6/5/16”

by Luis J. Rodriguez
From: LAPL BLOG

 

North Carolina has some of the most diverse terrain of any state—from the Great Smoky Mountains, which includes the Blue Ridge peaks of the massive Appalachian mountain range, to the Outer Banks on the Atlantic coast. The state is rich in bio-diversity, history, and people. North Carolina was home to the first English settlement and is one of the original 13 colonies. The Cherokee are among the state’s first peoples. Although many Cherokees were removed during President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 (catapulting the infamous “Trail of Tears”), the tribe maintains a reservation here. The state’s biggest city, Charlotte, is a financial center. And Raleigh-Durham is known as the Triangle, encompassing higher-learning research institutes like Duke University, North Carolina State University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tobacco is big here—as are turkey farms, textiles, furniture, processing plants, and more. The state had slave plantations but also a divided legislature during the U.S. Civil War. The state joined the confederacy later than other southern states and only after the attack on Fort Sumter, signaling the start of war that eventually took 40,000 North Carolinian lives.

Continue reading ““Poet in Motion”—North Carolina and Transgender Justice”

Cheryl Della Pietra at Book Soup

Author Cheryl Della Pietra discusses and signs Gonzo Girl, a story inspired by her time as Hunter S. Thompson’s assistant. A recent college grad, trying to make it in the world of New York publishing with no connections, settles for an unpaid magazine internship while slingling drinks on Bleecker Street. She jumps at the opportunity to work as an assistant to a famous author, hoping to get her manuscript to an experienced editor.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 23^rd    

Time: 7 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/cheryl-della-pietra-discusses-and-signs-gonzo-girl

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/23/16 – 5/29/16”

by Nadia Villanueva

From: Cultural Weekly; Tomorrow’s Voices Today

Nadia Villanueva is a young aspiring journalist and writer. She is a full-time college student in the process of gaining her BA in Journalism. She hopes to work for a major newspaper or magazine in the future but for now works locally on school newspapers. On her free time, she writes her own personal essays, poems, and short stories.

 

When I was five they told me I could be whatever I wanted so I said I’d be a princess.
I found the idea of a castle, fancy dress, and handsome prince impressive.
Disney sold me the idea that you weren’t happy till you had this.
So in my mind this was my future,

Continue reading “More Than a Princess”

by Nadia Villanueva

From: Harbor Tides

Culture week was expressed in a different kind of way, when poet and teacher Mike Sonksen, a.k.a. Mike the Poet, visited LAHC. On May 12, the quad area of the cafeteria was set up with a microphone and some chairs for the audience, and with the encouragement of host Sonksen telling students to go up and read poetry, a small version of an open mic night began.

Sonksen began the event with some of his own poetry. “This is the 562” was a poem that spoke of appreciation for Long Beach, the city he grew up in, where he praised the many characteristics and people that made Long Beach the city it is.

Continue reading “Mike the Poet Hosts Open Mic Session at LAHC, Inspiring Students to Share Their Culture”

Ryan Quinn at Book Soup

Author Ryan Quinn discusses and signs The Good Traitor, the story of a crisis in the American intelligence community, when the US ambassador to China is killed in a suspicious plane crash, just days after a news article links Chinese spies to US business interests. Investigations lead to hackers, complications, and geopolitical conspiracies that challenge the world’s two superpowers.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 16^th   

Time: 7 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/ryan-quinn-discusses-and-signs-good-traitor

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/16/16 – 5/22/16”

Another installment of Mike Sonksen’s series “Tomorrow’s Voices Today”

From: Cultural Weekly

Alexis Espinoza is a high spirited student of passion. From painting, to writing, to photography, he indulges himself in whatever form of art he’s partaking in. An aspiring psychologist, he aims to get to know the human mind closer, and use this to help others. Through his art he is able to explore his own mind and translate the untranslatable into a physical spectacle.

Tragedies

After Walt Whitman

WHY! Who makes much of a tragedy?
As to me, I know nothing else but tragedies,
Whether I walk the streets of Los Angeles,
Or peer upon caprice projects and ghettos, kids up to no good hustling up and down their neighborhood,
Continue reading “ALEXIS ESPINOZA: “TRAGEDIES””

A Different Kind of Daughter at Chevalier’s

Author Maria Toorpakai tells of her harrowing journey to play the sport she knew was her destiny, first living as a boy and roaming the violent back alleys of Peshawar, and rising to become the number one female squash player in Pakistan. In A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Site, Maria describes how squash went from being a salvation to a death sentence, and how she moved halfway across the globe to pursue her dream.

Where: Chevalier’s Books

Date: Monday the 9^nd  

Time: 7:15 pm

Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/09/16 – 5/15/16”

From: Prairie Schooner

The Prairie Schooner Book Prize is now open! In honor of the 2016 Book Prize season, Book Prize Coordinator Katie Schmid Henson will interview authors about the process of constructing a manuscript and bringing it to publication. This week, Katie interviews brilliant poet and Prairie Schooner contributor Ashaki M. Jackson about grief rituals, submission rituals, and her two forthcoming chapbooks.

Continue reading “‘You will lose yourself’: the rituals of grief in the poetry of Ashaki M. Jackson”