Blk Girrrl Book Fair and LitFest Pasadena
The last two weeks have been busy in Los Angeles literature. Each of the last two weeks have been capped off by two major events: The 2nd annual Blk Girrrl Bookfair and the 5th annual Litfest Pasadena.
Last weekend was the 2nd annual Blk Girrrl Bookfair. The founder, Tika Lark, a L.A. poet, community activist and independent journalist, founded the Bookfair as a “free, radical feminist bookfair that actively beats down anti-blackness, colorism, patriarch, classism, nationalism, ableism and oppression in the literary and arts world.”
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Los Angeles Literature Events 6/06/16 – 6/12/16
PEN Emerging Voices at Chevalier’s Bookstore
To celebrate the PEN fellowship’s 20th anniversary, PEN Center USA has opened the Emerging Voices Author Series to the public. Free to members who bring their Author Evening ticket; non-members can purchase tickets at https://penusa.org/author-evenings site.
We recommend you read The Stories of Richard Bausch by Richard Bausch, The Color Master by Aimee Bender, and Ron Carlson Writes a Story by Ron Carlson in preparation for the evening, and arrive ready to engage in a discussion about the art of the short story.
Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of short stories. An acknowledged maser of the short story form, he has won numerous awards and fellowships, and is currently a professor at Chapman University.
Ron Carlson’s most recent novel is Return to Oakpine. In his essay collection Ron Carlson Writes a Story he gives rare insight into a veteran writer’s process by inviting the reader to watch over his shoulder as he creates the short story. He is a professor of English and Co-Director of the MFA Program in Writing at UC Irvine.
Aimee Bender is the author of five books, her short fiction has been widely published, as well as heard on PRI’s This American Life and Selected Shorts. She is a professor of English at USC.
Marissa Matarazzo is the author of Drenched: Stories of Love and Other Deliriums. She is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Writing Program at tis College of Art and Design.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com
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‘Where We Find Ourselves’: Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem on the shooting at UCLA
From: The L.A. Times
After news broke that there had been a shooting attack at UCLA Wednesday, the campus was swarmed by law enforcement officers and we later learned that professor William Klug had been killed killed by a former student, who then took his own life). U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, who earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology at UCLA in 1972, composed this poem, “Where We Find Ourselves.”
Where We Find Ourselves
In memory of professor William Klug
and the students of UCLA, 6-1-16
There are
“small massacres” now — yes
it is true, this place where we find
ourselves
so
we put up bluish
plastic chairs, angled desks
glassy projectors against the door
the door, yes — it is all
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Second Issue of S-Curves Released
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.”
Los Angeles Literature Events 5/30/16 – 6/5/16
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 30th
Time: 7 pm – 10:15 pm
Address: 231 N. Maclay Ave., San Fernando, CA 91304
Website: www.facebook.com/events/516354665242278/
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“Poet in Motion”—North Carolina and Transgender Justice
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.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 5/23/16 – 5/29/16
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 23rd
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
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More Than a Princess
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,
Mike the Poet Hosts Open Mic Session at LAHC, Inspiring Students to Share Their Culture
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.
Los Angeles Literature Events 5/16/16 – 5/22/16
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 16th
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”
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