BY JESSICA LANGLOIS

From: L.A. Weekly

I was reading Claudia Rankine’s book Citizen: An American Lyric in a hotel bar in downtown Los Angeles Saturday afternoon when I got a series of texts from my partner, who was in Ventura County, sitting by a lake and writing poetry.

The police were harassing him. Three white men with guns. He is brown-skinned and has a thick beard. They’d threatened to tase our dog, a rambunctious puppy. “I’m so scared,” he wrote me.

Continue reading “Can the Nation’s Largest Writers’ Conference Transcend Lit’s Lack of Diversity?”

Poets & Allies for Resistance and Monthly Open Mic

A monthly poetry event focusing on social justice issues, featuring an open mic and book giveaway, and hosted by: Khadija Anderson.

Features: Karimah Tennyson-Marsh and Xternal Mind. More info: Khadija Anderson 206-381-2567. Bring 1-2 poems about Social Justice or come to listen!

Where: The Sidewalk Cafe

Date: Monday the 4^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm (6:45 open mic sign-ups)

Address: 2057 N. Los Robles (at Woodbury), Alta/Pasdena, CA 91104

Website: http://www.facebook.com/groups/792556747483331/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 4/04/16 – 4/10/16”

Magnanimous, calamitous Los Angeles—finding the city’s lyrical rhythm in honor of National Poetry Month …

From: [citizine]

We might all think we’re poets after three IPAs and a tequila chaser, but when people ask Mike Sonksen about his occupation, he actually gets to say he’s a poet. Before you question the legitimacy of a profession in poetry, might we remind you that poetry may actually predate literacy on this planet?

Continue reading “Mike the PoeT’s Spoken Word Guide to LA”

By Alex Espinoza

From: The L.A. Times

When he was young, Juan Felipe Herrera wanted to be a public speaker. “I dreamed of standing in front of an audience and giving these long speeches,” he explains by phone. But then he discovered poetry, and the color of the world changed. “People talk about seeing things through rose-colored glasses, but I started seeing things through poetry-colored glasses.”

On April 9, Herrera will be awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize’s 2015 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. “You’ve written poetry, prose, children’s books, young adult books and even plays,” I ask him. “Is there something you haven’t achieved that I don’t know about? Did you climb Mt. Everest?”

Continue reading “Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate, on eating too many chilaquiles and returning to L.A.”

From: Labloga

The angels here
have pigeon’s wings
blue collars
washed in sweat
the common salt
in tears
tongues swirl
in a stew of cultures
singing asphalt songs
in the mist of seagulls
bebop atop
the San Andreas
a humble plate
of beings

– “Los Angeles” by Kamau Daáood (from The Coiled Serpent)

Continue reading “Review:Here Comes The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles”

The Instant at Ham & Eggs Tavern

Writ Large Press presents The Instant, a monthly reading series that serves up local and visiting literary contributors, unique live music/performance and everyone’s favorite go-to food in a cup, Instant Ramen.

Episode 2, features:

Vickie Vertiz was born and raised in Bell Gardens. Her writing explores the intersections of feminism, class, and Latino sub-cultures through everyday beauty. Her writing is widely anthologized, found in publications such as Open the Door (from McSweeney’s and The Poetry Foundation). Her poetry collection, Swallows was released in 2013 by Finishing Line Press.

Jervey Tervalon grew up in Los Angeles, received his MFA from UC Irvine, where he wrote his first novel Understand This, based on his experiences at Locke High School. He has written six novels, now teaches at UC Santa Barbara, and in 2012 co-created the now-annual LitFest in Pasadena.

Jade Chang has covered arts and culture as a journalist and editor. She is the recipient of a Sundance Fellowship for Arts Journalism, the AIGA/Winterhouse Award for Design Criticism, and the James Houston Memorial Scholarship for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. The Wangs vs. the World is her debut novel.

Jesse Bliss is writer and co-creator of the chapbook I Love myself Golden, based on a decade of teaching creative writing at Central Juvenile Hall through the Inside OUT Writers program.

Toni Ann Johnson is an actress and writer, and won the 1998 Humanitas Prize and the Christopher Award for her teleplay Ruby Bridges and a second Humaitas Prize in 2004 for the teleplay Crown Heights about the 2001 Crown Heights riots. Her debut novel Remedy for a Broken Angel (2014) won numerous awards.

And a live music intermission by Runson Willis III.

Where: Ham & Eggs Tavern

Date: Monday the 28^th

Time: 8 pm – 11:45 pm

Address: 433 W. 8^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90014

Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1338625232821708/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 3/28/16 – 4/03/16”