Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/07/22 – 02/13/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

At Skylight: Daniel Alexander Jones & Omi Osun Joni L. Jones Present: Love Like Light & Particle and Wave at Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event

Daniel Alexander Jones in conversation with Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, will present the books: Love Like Light and Particle and Wave, respectively.

Daniel Alexander Jones’ Love Like Light: Plays and Performance Texts (53rd Street Press) collects the author’s texts of Bel Canto, Black Light, Blood: Shock: Boogie, clayangels, Duat, Phoenix Fabrik, and The Book of Daniel into a shifting transformational body of work. Each play is a provocation to the possibility of a more just and loving world. It’s a reunion of the avant-guards of New York, Austin, and Minneapolis, among others, and includes an interview and essays by others.

Particle and Wave: A Conversation (53rd State Press) is a companion volume, and features a book-length conversation between Daniel Alexander Jones and poet, scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs about Love Like Light, and the ways that love, like lights, suffuses everything and is the condition and power of change in the world.

Joni Osum Joni L. Jones is an artist/scholar/facilitator who employs black feminist aesthetics and theatrical jazz principles in her performance work, her pedagogy, and her facilitation. Her most recent book is Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Ase, and the Power for the Present Moment (Ohio State University Press). She is Professor Emerita from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas, at Austin.

NOTE: See Site for book purchases, guidelines, and event details.         

Where: Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event

Date: Monday the 7th

Time: 7:30 pm

Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-daniel-alexander-jones-presents-love-light-particle-and-wave-omi-osun-joni-l-jones

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Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/13/21 – 09/19/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Daniel Barban Levin, with Selina Fillinger, & Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir via Book Soup – Online Event

Join us to hear Danile Barban Levin, in conversation with actress and playwright Selina Fillinger, discuss his book, Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir.

In September 2010, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates at Sarah Lawrence College if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected,

Talia’s father. Larry Ray, was just released from prison after three years for a custody dispute. He arrived from a communal house called Slonim Woods and stayed for the whole year.  Over time, the forceful and intense Ray convinced the young women he alone could help them “achieve clarity,” and eventually they moved to an apartment in Manhattan, beginning years of manipulation and abuse.

Danile Barban Levin was one of the original residents of Slonim Woods 9, and Ray coached him through a difficult break-up, slowly drawing him into his web. After two years of escalating physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, Daniel found the strength to break away.

In April 2019, a New York Magazine story, “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,” exposed Ray’s crimes to the world, and in February 2020 he was finally indicted on charges of extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, and money laundering.

This brave, lyrical and redemptive memoir spans the two years Daniel Barban Levin spent in the grip of a megalomaniac, and reveals how a group of friends were led from a campus into a cult without the world even noticing.

NOTE: See Site for details and registration.

Where: Book Soup – Online Event

Date: Monday the 13th

Time: 6 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/daniel-barban-levin-conversation-selina-fillinger-discusses-slonim-woods-9-memoir

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/13/21 – 09/19/21”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/22/21 – 02/28/21

Another busy week of literary events in L.Á. Workshops, open mics, book clubs, readings, a kids events or two. catch Tod Goldberg discusses his new book of short stories The Low Desert: Gangster Stories via Skylight or poet Kevin Young via USC Visions and Voices. Or read a poem or two at the Definitive Soapbox and other open mics this week. Get to your computer L.Á. and support your local literary community. #losangelesliterature Continue reading Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/22/21 – 02/28/21

Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/15/21 – 02/21/21

Another busy week of live streamed literary events in the Los Ángeles literary community. This week is especially noteworthy because UC Riverside’s annual Writers Week is this week. It’s a weeklong literary festival, now entering its 44thy year. Featured writers are three Poets Laurates past and present Rita Dove, Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera. Other writers include Mike Davis, Nalo Hopkins, and Tommy Pico, among others. Check out all the week’s events and support your local literary community! #losangelesliterature

Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Denise Hamilton, Alex Espinosa & Aimee Bender Present Speculative LA Fiction Anthology via Skylight Books – Online Event           

Join editor Denise Hamilton and contributing authors Alex Espinosa & Aimee Bender to hear themdiscuss the new anthology Speculative Los Angeles.

This is the debut title in a new city-based anthology series featuring all-new stories with speculative, sci-fi, and paranormal themes—each using distinct neighborhood settings as a launching pad.

Denise Hamilton is the author of seven crime novels and the editor of the anthologies Los Angeles Noir and Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics. She is a former Los Angeles Times journalist and a proud LA native, and editor of Speculative Los Angeles.

Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico to parents from the state of Michoacan and raised in suburban Los Angeles. He is the author of two novels and his most recent book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime. He is the Tomas Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at UC Riverside.

Aimee Bender is the author of six books, and has received many literary awards. Her work has been translated into sixteen languages, and her short fiction published in numerous journals. She lives in LA with her family and teaches creative writing at USC.

NOTE: See site for event details.    

Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Crowdcast event

Date: Monday the 15th                      

Time: 6:30 pm (PDT)                            

Address: Online event

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-speculative-los-angeles-group-reading-editor-denise-hamilton-and-contributors   

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Los Angeles Literature Events: 11/30/20 – 12/06/20

All Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Learning Circle: The 1619 Project via John C. Fremont Branch Library – Online Event      

A Learning Circle is an opportunity to learn together. Join us as we study The 1619 Project, an ambitious undertaking by The New York Times to reexamine the legacy of slavery and the repercussions that exist to this day.

Email jcfrmt@lapl.org for participation details and related book list.

Where:  John C, Fremont Branch Library, LAPL – Online event (see site)

Date: Monday the 30th                                                                        

Time: 1:30 pm                                                                          

Address:  LAPL – Online event       

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/learning-circle-1619-project

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Los Angeles Literature Events: 8/24/20 – 8/30/20

Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

116742783_2715181558712186_4661525944619345215_nTeens Speak Up Against Injustice: The Assignment via American Jewish University Online Event

Join us on Zoom to heat how a chance meeting in a bookstore propelled author Liza Wiemer to write her book, The Assignment, which explores how two teens found the courage to speak up against antisemitism and hatred.

NOTE: See site for details and ticket information.

Where: American Jewish University – Online event

Date: Monday the 24th

Time: 4 pm – 4:45 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/398268867839936

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Los Angeles Literature Events 6/22/20 – 6/28/20

Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

UCLA-Writing-Project-logoUCLA WP Writers Project Teachers Event – Online

UCLA Writing Project presents: Launching Writer’s Workshop (Grades Pre-K – 6th), and online event held for five “packed” days, June 22 – June 26.

We’ll immerse ourselves in the nitty-gritty of Writer’s Workshop: helping students generate topics, constructing pointed and powerful mini-lessons, incorporating mentor texts, responding to young writers, and dabbling in publishing and celebration options, too. All will learn the experience being a writer in a workshop classroom. (May be eligible for LAUSD PD hours)

NOTE: RSVP at website link, to see costs and details.

Where: Online event (Register in advance)

Dates: Monday the 22nd at 9am – Friday the 26th at 2pm

Time: 9 am – 2 pm

Address: Online event

Website: https://facebook.com/event/546825142692698/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 6/22/20 – 6/28/20”

Los Angeles Literature Events 6/15/20 – 6/21/20

Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

20200614_154528Free Online Writing Class for All Ages with Writer Eric Kaplan

Join us for a free online writing event with writer Eric Kalan (Futurama, Big Bang Theory, etc.) for a “Learn to Write” class online. When this six-week class ends you will know how to tell a story and write a short script. It’s free to download and free to join.

Where: Online

Date: Monday the 15th

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

Address: ZOOM

Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1223428574716573/

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Why Luis J. Rodriguez is Perpetually on the Run

By Patrick J. Kiger
FROM: L.A. Times

LuisMost mornings, poet, memoirist and essayist Luis J. Rodriguez gets up around 5 a.m. at his San Fernando Valley home, reads for a few minutes for inspiration and then quickly goes to his computer to start writing. “I read, and then it’s, hey, man, I’ve got to do something!” he says. “If I can get a couple of hours in the morning, then I’m happy.”

Continue reading “Why Luis J. Rodriguez is Perpetually on the Run”