‘Cruising’ Maps the Cultural History of L.A.’s Hookup Spots
By John Birdsall
FROM: L.A. Times
I had a favorite study carrel at UC Berkeley: third-floor Moffitt Library, northeast corner. The bathroom — folded within an interior wall, set off, secluded — was weird, though. Someone had taken the time to punch a raw opening through the metal partition separating two stalls. It was as big in diameter as a Coke can, sometimes lined with wadded toilet paper, and framed with scrawled hieroglyphics (arrows, initials). I dismissed it as crazy, an elaborate work of vandalism, but it nagged at me. While I studied James Joyce and Virginia Woolf and stressed about my senior thesis, the men’s room was undergoing a silent and illogical transformation.
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Los Ángeles at Ground Level: Letters To My City by Mike Sonksen
By Brian Dunlap
FROM: Lit Pub
The poet Mike Sonksen knows more about Los Ángeles than almost anyone. It began when he was a kid, his father and both grandfathers introducing him to the sprawling city by taking him on destination drives. Due to his father’s love of architecture, having, “taught me about…Frank Lloyd Write from an early age,” Sonksen “had a natural interest in maps and geography.” Those drives fostered that interest, dipping in and out of distinctly planned and inhabited neighborhoods that made up the patchwork quilt of, not only the city, but Los Ángeles County.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 7/08/19 – 7/14/19
Your Author Series: Robin Benway at El Sereno Branch Library, LAPL – Teens Event
Please join us as Your Author Series welcomes YA author Robin Benway, as part of our Summer Author Program and Summer Reading challenge. The author will be speaking about her YA novel, Far from the Tree, which received the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her work has won many awards and her novels have been published in more than twenty countries.
Where: El Sereno Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 8th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 5226 S. Huntington Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-starring-robin-benway
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Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ ALOUD Series Update
By Brian Dunlap
I received this email last week from the Library Foundation. It’s about the revamped ALOUD Reading Series. I know everybody in the Los Angeles literary community was upset last fall when the Library Foundation abruptly announced sudden changes to its staff–the firings of ALOUD Director Louise Steinman and Associate Director Maureen Moore–and to its central program, ALOUD, a program no one thought needed any retooling. However, major retooling has befallen ALOUD, and according to this email, very little, if any, literary programming is actually featured in any of its announced programming.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 7/01/19 – 7/07/19
A is for ACTION: A Social Justice Book Club for Kids at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – Kids Event
Literature can transform the way we look at the world, deepening our understanding of even the most complex issues of today.
Check out the book of the month from the library, read it, then come join us for the conversation and crafts! Children ages 5+ and their families are welcome.
Our book for July is: Last Stop On Market Street, by Matt de la Pena, which received the 2016 Newberry Medal and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. Library copies are available to borrow at the Information Desk.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/action-social-justice-book-club-kids
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2 Local Poets: ‘The Spirit of Activism Has Always Been in LA Poetry’
By Steve Chiotakis
FROM: Greater L.A./KCRW
Southern California may not get the credit it deserves for its strong literary community and a great spoken word scene. However, poets Shonda Buchanan and Mike Sonksen tell Greater LA the poetry community could be the most diverse scene in the city of Los Angeles.
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Poet Bridgette Bianca on Connecting Through Spoken Word
Emerging poet and professor bridgette bianca discusses her life, work and the local literary community. Continue reading Poet Bridgette Bianca on Connecting Through Spoken Word
The Green of Sunset
By Dania Alkhouli
FROM: Moon Tide Press Blog
Believing in fate is a foundational part of my life, so when I was perusing my list of books to indulge in next, something called me to John Brantingham’s The Green of Sunset. For starters, I think it was the title. I hear sunsets get called everything but green, and this had me seeking out the elements of a sunset often unseen, like reading between the rays of a departing sun, and that’s something I needed this week.
Los Angeles Literature Events 6/24/19 – 6/30/19
Empathy & Heroism Book Club at Central Library, LAPL – Teen’Scape Event
The Empathy &Heroism Book Club for teens will meet to discuss the book, All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/empathy-heroism-book-club-15
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Good Reads Review of Ablution by Ingrid Calderon-Collins
By Kayla King
FROM: Good Reads
Reading Ingrid M. Calderon-Collins’ Ablution, takes readers through the early days of love and beyond. Time passes, as it must. The narrative built within these poems, traverses the relationship between these lovers with a close lens, many titled with just a month and year. It feels too intimate at times, and readers might be compelled to look away, but that’s only a sign to keep reading.
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