Senior Writing Group at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
Kathy Katims, founder of Saved by a Story, will be leading an ongoing writing group for seniors. New members are welcome to all sessions.
Write to prompts, share (if you want), connect with fellow seniors in the neighborhood, hone your writing skills, and find your story. RSVP is recommended but not required. If you RSVP Kathy will send you a welcome packet, guidelines, and a reminder the day before the meeting. More information and to RSVP, email Kathy at kathleenkatims@gmail.com or call 310-569-3492.
Where:Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address:861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/senior-writing-group
Book Club: The Midnight Library via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL– OnlineEvent
Join our monthly online Book Club meeting to discuss The Midnight Library by author Matt Haig.
RSVP:
Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the monthly Google Meet virtual link.
Where:Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:4:45 pm
Address:Online Event (see site)
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-branch-book-club-3
Evening Book Club: The Great Divide at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL– In-PersonEvent
Join our facilitated discussion of The Great Divide by author Cristina Henríquez.
It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada’s bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.
Text from Publisher.
Where:Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:5 pm
Address:
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10632566
Book Talk: Lindsay Ellis, with Jamie Loftus, & Apostles of Mercy at Chevalier’s Books– In-PersonEvent
Lindsay Ellis, in conversation with Jamie Loftus, will discuss her first contact novel Apostles of Mercy.
First Contact has not been going well. The nations of Earth are rapidly militarizing against the arrival of the Superorganism, an alien civilization that promises to destroy humanity before it can develop into a real threat. The Superorganism has done it before–to their distant transient relatives–and they could easily do it again. But the alien Ampersand and his human interpreter Cora Sabino are done with trying to save humanity from both the Superorganism and itself; to them, this is a civilization that does not deserve to be saved.
Ampersand’s enemies will not consider any form of truce; the greatest threat to them is not from the Superorganism, but from an increasingly fearful and violent human civilization newly aware of their existence. Cora and Ampersand must go to extreme measures to take back what was stolen and prevent wholesale human extermination–but in doing so they may be no better than the civilizations they are trying to escape.
Lindsy Ellis is a New York Times bestselling author, Hugo Award finalist, and video essayist who creates online content about media, narrative, literature, and film theory. After earning her bachelor’s in cinema studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she earned her MFA in film and television production, with a focus in documentary and screenwriting, from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She lives in Long Beach, California. Her debut novel, Axiom’s End, was an instant New York Times bestseller.
Jamie Loftus is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, and podcaster. She’s worked as a staff writer on Teenage Euthanasia, Robot Chicken, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She writes, hosts, and co-hosts popular limited-run podcasts.
Where:Chevalier’s Books
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:6 pm
Address:133 N. Larchmont Blvd., LosAngeles, CA 90004
Justin Huang and Jen Winston Present Books: The Emperor and the Endless Palace and Greedy: Notes For a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Justin Huang will present and discuss his book,The Emperor and the Endless Palace: A Romantasy Novel.
In the year 4 BCE, an ambitious courtier is called upon to seduce the young emperor—but quickly discovers they are both ruled by blood, sex and intrigue. In 1740, a lonely innkeeper agrees to help a mysterious visitor procure a rare medicine, only to unleash an otherworldly terror instead. And in present-day Los Angeles, a college student meets a beautiful stranger and cannot shake the feeling they’ve met before. Across these seemingly unrelated timelines woven together only by the twists and turns of fate, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime.
Jen Winston will present and discuss her book, Greedy: Notes For a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much.
Within the treacherous walls of an ancient palace and the boundless forests of the Asian wilderness to the heart-pounding cement floors of underground rave scenes, our lovers are inexplicably drawn to each other, constantly tested by the worlds around them. As their many lives intertwine, they begin to realize the power of their undying love—a power that transcends time itself…but one that might consume them both.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Book Soup
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:7 pm
Address:8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website:https://www.booksoup.com/event/justinian-huang
Meditation Monday with Alex Petunia via Los Angeles Poet Society –OnlineEvent
Alex Petunialeads Meditation Monday, Self-Care for the Writer every 2ndMonday of the month by L.A. Poet Society via Zoom.
Bring your writing favorites and be prepared for: breathing meditation and writing prompts and support.
Register:losangelespoetsociety@gmail.com
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where:Los Angeles Poet Society
Date:Monday the 10th
Time:7 pm – 9 pm
Address:Online Event on Zoom: 840 2975 5764
Website:https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
R.U.P.O. at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event
RUPO Open Mic is back every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at a new time: 7pm to 9pm. Sign-ups are at 6:30pm and in person only, $4 cash admission. See you then!
NOTE:See site for link and details.
Where:Back to the Grind
Date:Monday the 10th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website:https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
At Skylight: Jennifer Romolini &Ambition Monsterat Skylight – In-Person Event
Jennifer Romoliniwill discuss her new bookAmbition Monster, a memoir about workaholism, the addictive nature of ambition, and the humbling process of picking yourself up when the world lets you down—an anti-girl-boss tale for our times.
Written with self-deprecation and wit, Ambition Monster is a gutsy and powerful look at workaholism and the addictive nature of achievement, the lingering effect of childhood trauma, and the failures of our modern rat race.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Skylight
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:7 pm
Address:1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website:https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jennifer-romolini-presents-ambition-monster
At Highland Park Brewery: Alex Espinoza with Guests &The Sons of El Reyat Skylight Off-site at Highland Park Brewery – In-Person Event
Alex Espinoza will present and discuss his new novel The Sons Of El Rey, an epic story about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond.
Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores—Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes—were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife Elena.
Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father’s gym while Freddy’s own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.
With alternating perspectives, Ernesto and Elena take you from the ranches of Michoacán to the makeshift colonias of Mexico City. Freddy describes life in the suburban streets of 1980s Los Angeles and the community their family built, as Julian descends deep into our present-day culture of hook-up apps, lucha burlesque shows, and the dark underbelly of West Hollywood. The Sons of El Rey is an intimate portrait of a family wading against time and legacy, yet always choosing the fight.
Alex Espinosa was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and raised in suburban Los Angeles. He is the author of the novels Still Water Saints and The Five Acts of Diego León, as well as a book of nonfiction, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime. Alex teaches at UC-Riverside where he serves as the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing.
This event will be moderated by Miss Barbie-Q and feature readings by Greg Mania and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Skylight at Highland Park Brewery
Date:Monday, the 10th
Time:7 pm
Address:1220 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Jacqueline Winspear &The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18)at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jacqueline Winspearpresents her latest Maisie Dobbs novel,The Comfort of Ghosts.
London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.
Maisie’s quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie’s first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband’s life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.
NOTE:See site for signing prior to event and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Monday the 10th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website:https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Jacqueline-Winspear-discusses-The-Comfort-of-Ghosts
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond BaroqueLiterary Arts Center –OnlineZoomEvent
This free Monday Night Community Writing Workshop led byRaquelBakerisa workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Bakerearned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and Transnational Literatures at California State University Channel Islands, teaching courses on creative writing and contemporary African literatures. Raquel has published poetry in Africology and The Arrow; fiction in Enculturation, The Daily Palette, The Womanist, and Crux; and non-fiction in Little Village; and has done readings with the Ventura County Poetry project. Raquel lives for talking about all things about the craft and social meanings of literature!
Where:Beyond Baroque – Online event
Date:Monday the 10th
Time:7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address:Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website:https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops orhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-919269508847
No Pulp Open Mic at Work Evolution Laboratories, Long Beach – In-PersonEvent
No Pup Open Mic is held every 2nd and 4th every month, for all ages.
8th Floor.
@MALMALMALORY
Where:Work Evolution Laboratories (2 HR. PARKING at Harvey Milk Promenade Park)
Date:Monday the 10th
Time:8:30 pm – 11 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address:235 E Broadway Suite 800, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website:https://www.instagram.com/nopulp_media/ or https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Nonfiction Book Club:Poverty, by Americaat Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-PersonEvent
Join us to discuss the book,Poverty, by America, by authorMatthew Desmond.
Copies are available at the library. For adults.
Where:Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10635531
Book Party:Caterpillar Summerat Lancaster Library, LACL – In-PersonKids Event
Join us the Kids Book Party to discuss the story,Caterpillar Summer, by authorGillian McDunn. Then we will make origami fish.
This book selection is appropriate for Grades 4 – 8.
Where:Lancaster Library, LACL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 601 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10750006
NoName Book Club at Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library, LAPL–In-PersonTeen Event
Teens! Come hang out with Noname Book Club to learn about activism and eat pizza! This ‘Radical Hood Library’ helps community members both inside and outside carceral facilities with revolutionary books.
Best for Ages 14-18.
Where:Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 2211 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noname-book-club-pizza-party
Poetry Open Mic via Westwood Branch Library, LAPL–Online Event
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love! You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy. Emceed by Wyatt Underwood.
RSVP:
To receive a Zoom invitation, please contact wwood@lapl.org.
Where:Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6 pm
Address:Online Event (see site)
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-open-mic
One Book, One County Book Club:L.A. Weatherat John C. Fremont Branch Library, LACL – OnlineEvent
Join us for One Book, One County Book Club discussion of the novelL.A. Weatherby authorMaría Amparo Escandón.
Published in 2022,L.A. Weatheris a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
RSVP:
The book club meets virtually via a Google Meet link. Please email khughes@lapl.org for the link.
Where:John C. Fremont Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6 pm – 7 pm
Address:Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/one-book-one-county-3
*NEW* Queer Kids Collective Book Club:Bloomat Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Queer Kids Collective Book Club participants will discussBloom,by authorKevin Panetta and illustrator Savanna Ganuchean.
Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom…that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.
Writer Kevin Panetta and artist Savanna Ganucheau concoct a delicious recipe of intricately illustrated baking scenes and blushing young love, in which the choices we make can have terrible consequences, but the people who love us can help us grow.
Kevin Panetta is a comic book writer. He has worked on books for properties like Steven Universe, Regular Show, Bravest Warriors, and WWE. His creator-owned series, Zodiac Starforce, is now on it’s second volume and his first graphic novel, Bloom, is published by First Second (2019). He came to writing after years dedicated to comics as a reader, shop employee, and convention organizer. He lives in Washington, DC with his cool wife and two cool dogs.
Savanna Ganucheau is a comic artist from New Orleans, Louisiana with a BFA in Film from The University of New Orleans. She made her start in comics by self-publishing and selling her work in small comic book shops around New Orleans. Alongside creating the popular webcomic George and Johnny, Savanna’s artwork has appeared in notable publications including Jem and the Holograms, Adventure Time Comics, and Lumberjanes. Her first graphic novel Bloom is published by First Second.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Cellar Door Bookstore
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6 pm
Address:473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website:https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/new-queer-kids-collective-book-club
The Art and Craft of Writing Poetry with Romaine Washingtonvia Inlandia Institute – OnlineEvent
Discover the art and craft of writing poetry with generative prompts and other forms of poetic inspiration. Brief group feedback will help you uncover images and language that resonate for you and for your audience.
Romaine Washington, M. Ed., is the editor of These Black Bodies Are…A Blacklandia Anthology and the author of Purgatory Has an Address (Bamboo Dart Press) and Sirens in Her Belly (Jamii Publications). She has been published in various anthologies and periodicals, including Inlandia Institute’s San Bernardino Singing anthology and “Cholla Needles 32, 36 and 39.”
Ms. Washington is a graduate fellow of The Watering Hole, South Carolina, and the Inland Area Writing Project at the University of California, Riverside. She was a public school educator for over twenty years and has developed a social justice curriculum available for free on her website: https://www.romainewashington.com/. The proud mother of two sons, Romaine Washington is a native Californian from San Bernardino who resides in the Inland Empire.
NOTE: See site for registration & details. RSVP required.
Where:Inlandia Institute
Date:Tuesday, the 11th(On Alternating Tuesdays)
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address:Online Event (see site)
Website:https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/
Silver Lake Book Club:at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Participants will discuss Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by author Jamie Ford.
Where:Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address:2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/silver-lake-book-club-6
World Cultures Reading Circle:The Covenant of Waterat Westchester-Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Participants will discuss the second half of The Covenant of Water: a Novel by author Abraham Verghese.
New members welcome.
Where:Westchester-Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address:7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-cultures-reading-circle-9
Non-fiction Book Club:Poverty, by Americaat Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book,Poverty, by America, by author Matthew Desmond.
This book selection is appropriate for adults.
Where:Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10635537
Book Club Tuesday:In the Dream Houseat Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will have a facilitated discussion of the book,In the Dream House, by author Carmen Maria Machado.
Copies of the current title are available to check out at the customer service desk while supplies last. The book is also available on audiobook and e-Book format through Libby. New members are always welcome!
This book selection is appropriate for adults.
Where:Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 4035 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate, CA 90280
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10618206
Steve Hyden, with Ian Cohen, &There Was Nothing You Could Doat Book Soup – In-Person Event
Steve Hyden, in conversation withIan Cohen, will discuss his book,There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland.
Veteran rock critic Steven Hyden shows exactly how this record became such a pivotal part of the American tapestry. Alternating between insightful criticism, meticulous journalism, and personal anecdotes, Hyden delves into the songs that made—and didn’t make—the final cut, including the tracks that wound up on its sister album, 1982’s Nebraska. He also investigates the myriad reasons why Springsteen ran from and then embraced the success of his most popular (and most misunderstood) LP, as he carefully toed the line between balancing his commercial ambitions and being co-opted by the machine.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Book Soup
Date:Tuesday, the 111h
Time:7 pm
Address:8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website:https://www.booksoup.com/event/steve-hyden
Open Mic at The Library Coffee House, Long Beach – In-Person Event
This Open Mic is hosted by Chad Brian Poetry.
Sign-ups at 6:45 pm. All ages welcome.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where:The Library Coffee House
Date:Tuesday, the 111h
Time:7 pm
Address:3418 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website:https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Book Talk: Bakari Sellers, with Areva Martin, & The Moment at Malik Books, Culver City – In-Person Event
Bakari Sellers, in conversation with Areva Martin, will discuss his book The Moment.
Book Talk with Bakari Sellers offers a unique opportunity for book lovers to engage in insightful discussions with the renowned political commentator and author, Bakari Sellers. Hot of the printing press is Bakari Sellers new book The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn’t and How We All Can Move Forward Now.
Moderated by Areva Martin: Multi- Award-Winning Civil Rights Lawyer, CNN Legal Analyst, and TV/Radio Host.
NOTE: Ticketed event includes admission and signed copy of The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn’t and How We All Can Move Forward Now by Bakari Sellers.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Malik Books, Westfield Culver City Mall, Suite 2820
Date:Tuesday, the 111h
Time:7 pm
Address:6000 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230
Website:https://malikbooks.com/events-1 or https://malikbooks.com/events-1/ola/services/book-talk-with-bakari-sellers
Into That; The Experience with Tina Hornat North Figueroa Bookshop Off-site at Junior High LA – In-Person Event
Join us for a celebration of Tina Horn’s new book Why Are People Into That? A Cultural Investigation of Kink, where some of the best performance artists in the biz titillate you with acts inspired by the book’s fetish themes! Raunchy readings, dark burlesque, in your face drag, and much more!
Ticket includes a copy of the book. Get your tickets at site link!
PLEASE NOTE: this event will take place at Junior High LA, located at 603 S Brand Blvd, Glendale, with North Figueroa Bookshop selling books on-site.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Junior High LA
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7:30 pm
Address:603 S. Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA
Website:https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lvmy9rya
Mystery Book Club:Safe and Sound at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Mystery Book Club participants to discuss the novel Safe and Sound by author Laura McHugh.
Six years after their cousin vanished from their home while they were sleeping, two sisters set out to learn the truth behind what happened—even if it puts their own lives in danger—in this haunting thriller from the internationally bestselling author of What’s Done in Darkness.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:pages: a bookstore
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7 pm – 9 pm
Address:904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-22
Book Launch: Joel Leon, with Cyrus Aaron, &Everything and Nothing at Onceat Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Join essayist and cultural critic Joel Leon,in conversation with storyteller and community organizer Cyrus Aaron, to discuss his debut collection of essays, Everything and Nothing at Once.
Joel Leon, also known as Joél L. Daniels., is a performer and storyteller from the Bronx. Currently, he’s creative director at the New York Times’ T Brand Studio. Joél specializes in leading conversations surrounding race, masculinity, mental health, and the performing arts. His TED Talk on healthy co-parenting has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. His essays have been featured in the New York Times, Ebony, the Independent, and more.
Cyrus Aaron is a creative storyteller and community organizer committed to the legacy and care of Black art and expression. As an advocate of voice and doer of language, The Fire This Time Festival playwright creates space for Blackness in film, literature, theater, music and performance art.
NOTE:See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Reparations Club
Date:Tuesday the 11th
Time:7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address:3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website:https://rep.club/products/joel-leon-event
At Skylight: Rufi Thorpe, with Stephanie Danler, &Margo’s Got Money Problemsat Skylight – In-Person Event
Rufi Thorpe, in conversation with Stephanie Danler, will discuss her book Margo’s Got Money Problems.
This book is a laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender and outrageous tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s also an examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.
Where:Skylight
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7 pm
Address:1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Art Book Launch: The Steven Keene Art Bookat Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Hat and Beard presents: The Steven Keene Art Book.
Steve Keene is the most prolific American painter of all time, producing more than 300,000 hand-painted works via his studio/chainlink fence cage where he paints more than 50 paintings at a time.
NOTE:See site for link and details.
Where:Stories Books & Café
Date:Tuesday the 11th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website:https://storiesla.com/events
Environmentalist Book Club:Birnam Woodat Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well & the West L.A. Group of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter welcomes the Environmentalist Book Club. Participants will discussBirnam Wood, by authorEleanor Cattan.
Are you passionate about the environment? Do you love to read? Do you want to engage in meaningful discussions about pressing environmental issues with likeminded folks?
Every month, we will discuss a book that revolves around nature, the environment, or environmentalism. We will read capaciously, and will discuss books old and new, fiction and nonfiction, sobering and hopeful.
Where:Village Well Books & Coffee
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/34842
Vroman’s Ed: The Artist’s Way with Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald (3 Weeks) at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Is the creative quality alive in you? Join us for a three-week mini exploration into The Artist’s Way.
Our inner creative needs support and community. Together we will explore limiting beliefs and fears that get us stuck. We will find inspirational activities to unleash the creative process!
Instructor bio: Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald is a psychoanalyst working with artists, designers and everyday creative people.
She teaches a 12-week course on Discovering the Artist’s Way at ArtCenter College of Design – Extension.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7 pm
Address:709 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 120, Pasadena, CA 91001
Website:https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Ed-The-Artists-Way-with-Dr-Kathleen-Fitzgerald-June-2024
Nicola Yoon & One of Our Kindat Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Nicola Yoon will present and discuss her novel One of Our Kind.
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents’ outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.
Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website:https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Nicola-Yoon-discusses-One-of-Our-Kind
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Reader Jimmy Jazz –OnlineZoomEvent
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with hostRick Lupertpresents guest readerJimmy Jazzand an open mic.
Jimmy Jazzis a writer from San Diego, CA. His latest work is The Book of Books. Also by Jimmy Jazz: The Sub, House of the Unwed Mother & The Cadillac Tramps.
Where:Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address:Online event (see site)
Website:https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt
Into That; The Experience with Tina Hornat North Figueroa Bookshop Off-site at Junior High LA – In-Person Event
Join us for a celebration of Tina Horn’s new book Why Are People Into That? A Cultural Investigation of Kink, where some of the best performance artists in the biz titillate you with acts inspired by the book’s fetish themes! Raunchy readings, dark burlesque, in your face drag, and much more!
Ticket includes a copy of the book. Get your tickets at site link!
PLEASE NOTE: this event will take place at Junior High LA, located at 603 S Brand Blvd, Glendale, with North Figueroa Bookshop selling books on-site.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Junior High LA
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7:30 pm
Address:603 S. Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA
Website:https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lvmy9rya
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show –In-PersonEvent
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted byDeForest Wright,all are invited to attend.
Featured poet of the month:
Mauro W. Monteirois an Angeliño by choice. Carioca by chance.
NOTE:Details at event link. Check to Verify.
Where:Unurban CoffeeHouse
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address:3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website:https://www.facebook.com/groups
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic at Greenway Court –In-PersonEvent
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
The 3rdTuesday of the month will be SLAM NIGHT.
NOTE:See sign-ups, details, and guidelines at website link.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to the theater.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where:Greenway Court Theatre
Date:Tuesday, the 11th
Time:9 pm – 11 pm
Address:544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website:https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ orhttps://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/womenfemmes-night
Mystery Book Club:Wrong Place, Wrong Time at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person& Online Hybrid Event
Participants will discuss the novel,Wrong Place, Wrong Time, by authorGillian McCallister.
RSVP:
Please email wvally@lapl.org with Mystery Book Club in the subject line for information on the title to be discussed and the Zoom link.
Where:West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:10:30 am – 12 pm
Address:19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-43
Book Club:The Spy Who Came in From the Cold at Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel,The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by authorJohn LeCarre.
All are welcome.
Where:Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:11 am – 12 pm
Address:1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington, CA 90744
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/wilmington-book-club-9
Wednesday Book Club:Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore at Westchester-Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel,Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by authorRobin Sloan.
New members welcome.
Where:Westchester-Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:12 pm
Address:7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90o45
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/wednesday-book-club-3
Washington Irving Adult Book Club:The Personal Librarian at Washington Irving Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Adult participants will discuss the novel,The Personal Librarian by authorsMarie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
Copies are available in the branch or in e-audio/e-book format.
Where:Washington Irving Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 12 pm
Address:4117 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/washington-irving-adult-book-club-4
Artesia Book Club:The Frozen Riverat Artesia Library, LACL – In-PersonEvent
Join us to discuss the novel,The Frozen Riverby authorAriel Lawhon.
All interested persons are welcome and invited to attend.
Where:Artesia Library, LACL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address:18801 Elaine Ave, Artesia, CA 90701
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10917582
Book Club:Remarkably Bright Creatures at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Participants will discuss the novel,Remarkably Bright Creatures by authorShelby Van Pelt.
RSVP:
Please email grnhls@lapl.org for participation details and for the Zoom link.
Where:Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address:10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-remarkably-bright-creatures
Adult Mystery Book Club:A World of Curiosities at Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel,A World of Curiosities by authorLouise Penny.
You can pick up your copy at the circulation desk or download it on the Libby or Hoopla apps.
Where:Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 2 pm – 2:45 pm
Address:14561 Polk St., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-mystery-book-club
Poets Café: Celebrating Poetry via KPFK 90.7 FM – Live On-Air Event
Poets Café celebrates Poetry. This program is a weekly half-hour literary arts discussion and reading program featuring guest authors and their works.
NOTE: Poetry From Around the World is a segment of this series offered monthly on the 2ndMonday of the month on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:KPFK 90.7 FM
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address:On-air Event (live)
Website:https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Book Club for Adults:The War That Saved My LIfeat San Gabriel Library, LACL – In-PersonEvent
Join us to discuss the novel,The War That Saved My Lifeby authorKimberly Brubaker Bradley.
It’s World War II, and 10-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. When her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
Copies of this title are available at the Information Desk. For ages 18 and up.
Where:San Gabriel Library, LACL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address:500 S Del Mar Ave, San Gabriel, CA 91776
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10460872
Malibu Library Book Club:The River of Doubt at Malibu Library, LACL – In-PersonEvent
Join us to discuss the novel,The River of Doubtby authorCandice Miller.
This novel brings alive Theodore Roosevelt’s first descent of an unmapped tributary of the Amazon. He and his men endured starvation, disease, and a murder accomplishing a feat that changed the world. For Adults.
Where:Malibu Library, LACL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 23519 West Civic Center, Malibu, CA 90265
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10857096
Reading in Bed with Jessica: L.A. Poet Society via 101.5 FM – Live On-Air Event
Reading in Bed with Jessica hosts poets and writers in conversation and is aired weekly on 101.5 FM.
Jessica Wilson Cardenasis the founder of the Los Angeles Poet Society.
Guests TBA
This program is offered weekly on radioollin Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:101.5 FM
Date:Wednesday the 12th
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address:On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website:https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Adult Book Club:Tom Lakeat Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novelTom Lake by authorAnn Patchett.
Join us on the third Wednesday of every month for our long-running book club for adults!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St, Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-adults-0
Pacoima Book Club:Lady Tan’s Circle of Womenvia Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novelLady Tan’s Circle of Women by authorLisa See.
This is an online mostly fiction book club.
RSVP:
Email pcoima@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/pacoima-book-club-2
Pride Month Reading: Poetry at Di Piazza’s – In-Person Event
This event is hosted by Tamara Madison. Ages 21+.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, other links, and details.
Where:Di Piazza’s Pizza
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups
Dr. Sara Glass, with Raye Schiller, &Kissing Girls on Shabbat: A Memoirat Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Dr. Sara Glass, in conversation with Raye Schiller,will present and discuss her bookKissing Girls on Shabbat: A Memoir.
Gender segregation, deference to men, and fear—of God, the rebbe, outsiders, and the evil lurking inside all of us. That was life as usual for Sara Glass, then known as Malka, growing up in the small, insular Gur Hasidic sect in Borough Park, Brooklyn. As a teen, she had accepted her calling as a servant of God: to become a dutiful wife and bear children. Still, she had questions. Hardest of all was to understand why she so deeply and powerfully felt a love that she was taught to hate—love for someone of her own sex.
In Kissing Girls on Shabbat: A Memoir, Dr. Sara Glass tells her coming-of-age, awakening, and survivor story. With honesty and courage, the author takes us inside the community and family in which she was raised, her two troubled marriages, and her struggles with shame, guilt, and the dread of losing her children.
Sara Glass, PhD, LCSW, is a therapist, writer, and speaker who helps members of the queer community and individuals who have survived trauma to live bold, honest, and proud lives. She lives in Manhattan, New York with her three children.
Raye Schiller is a queer, ex-Orthodox Jewish comedian and writer from New York, based in Los Angeles. Raye has performed standup around the world, including Tel Aviv, Rome, London, and Peru and headlined at the NY Comedy Festival. Raye hosts the popular comedy podcast Yenta! and boasts a devoted social media following with millions of views on their standup clips. For no good reason,
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Diesel, A Bookstore
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:6:30 pm
Address:225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website:https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Sara-Glass-Author-signing
Wiseburn Library Book Club:Remarkably Bright Creatures at Wiseburn Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel,Remarkably Bright Creatures by authorShelby Van Pelt.
Copies of the books are available at the library. For ages 18+.
Refreshments generously provided by the Friends of the Hawthorne and Wiseburn Libraries.
A debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago.
Where:Wiseburn Library, LACL
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Address:5335 W 135th St, Hawthorne, CA 90250
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10724211
Book Launch: Matthew Cuban Hernandez &All Brown Boys Get Trumpets at Art Share L.A. – In-Person Event
Matthew Cuban Hernandez will present and celebrate his new book, All Brown Boys Get Trumpets.
Alysha Wise, Edwin Rodney, Ashley August, Yesika Salgado, Aman Batra, Vannessa Tahay, Theo DeMarco, and Frank Escamilla.
Musical accompaniment: Jp Saxe, Samuel Hummingbird, DJARQD2.
NOTE: $10 at the door; book sold separately.
Where:Art Share L.A.
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address:801 E. 4th Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website:https://artsharela.org/event/matthew-cubans-book-release-all-brown-boys-get-trumpets/
Jennifer Armstrong, with Marci Liroff &So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (and Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It) at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Jennifer Armstrong,in conversation withMarci Liroff,will discuss her book, So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (and Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It).
In So Fetch, New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, offers the first ever authoritative book about this beloved classic that shaped an entire generation. Based off revealing interviews with the director, cast, and crew, So Fetch tells the full story of the making of Mean Girls, from Tina Fey’s brilliant adaptation of a self-help guide for parents of teen girls, to the challenges of casting Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, and the iconic supporting players. So Fetch also explores the film’s lasting cultural influence.
Where:Book Soup
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:7 pm
Address:8818 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069
Website:https://www.booksoup.com/event/jennifer-armstrong-so-fetch
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in our curriculum and manifests our mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join us at the intersection of Historic Filipinotown & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where:SIPA HQ
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30; Open Mic at 8 pm)
Address:3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website:https://www.palmsupacademy.com
At Skylight:Paul Haddad, with Josh Stephens, &Inventing Paradiseat Skylight Books – In-Person Event
AuthorPaul Haddad,in conversation withJosh Stephens,will present and discuss his bookInventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles.
This book is about the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.
In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a violent, dusty, 29-square-mile pueblo with a few thousand souls, largely unchanged since its founding in 1781. By 1930, its size had swelled to within 96% of its current 468 square miles, housing a staggering 1.2 million people. In just 50 years, L.A. had joined the ranks of other world-class cities.
In the tradition of Mike Davis’s classic work City of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopia and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.) debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative that sheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented.
Paul Haddad has penned several nonfiction books exploring the contextual roots of his native Los Angeles, including the critically acclaimed Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 57 Walking Adventures, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. As a writer and contributor, he has examined Los Angeles for such media as the L.A. Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Times (UK), LAist, NPR, and HuffPo. An MFA graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Haddad has been nominated for multiple Emmys as a documentary producer.
Josh Stephens is a veteran teacher and college counselor based in Los Angeles. As a freelancer Josh has contributes to, among others, Planetizen.com, Common Edge Collaborative, Metropolis, Next City, Sierra, In Transition, and Planning Magazine. He also writes for Planetizen’s blog and contributes to its annual list of the top books in urban planning. He is the author of The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond, published by Solimar Books, and of Planners Across America, published by Planetizen Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Skylight
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website:https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jimin-han-presents-apology-w-leland-cheuk
Book Launch: Madeline Cravens, with Maggie Millner, & Pleasure Principalat Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Madeline Cravens’ Pleasure Principal is a brilliant debut, with poetics of quiet resistance and anti-epiphany, of queer surplus and lyric understatement. It draws our attention to a loveable and unlivable world.
Madeleine Cravens was a 2022–2024 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She received her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Max Ritvo Poetry Fellow, Pleasure Principal is her debut poetry collection.
Maggie Millner is the author of Couplets, one of The Atlantic’s top 10 books of 2023 and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Poetry, the PEN/Voelcker Award, and the Lambda Literary Prize in Lesbian Poetry. She is a Lecturer at Yale and a Senior Editor at The Yale Review.
NOTE:See site for link and details.
Where:Stories Books & Café
Date:Wednesday the 12th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website:https://storiesla.com/events
Daniel Handler & And Then? And Then? What Else? At Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Writing as Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler has led several generations of young readers into that special and curious space of being hopelessly lost, and joyfully finding yourself, in the essential strangeness of literature. The wondrous and perilous journey of the Baudelaire orphans sprung from the author’s own path, from his childhood discovery of Baudelaire’s poetry through the countless peculiarities of his pursuit of a literary life—abject failure and startling success, breakthrough and breakdown, concordance and controversy—lit along the way by the books and culture he loved best.
At once a personal memoir and a literary exploration, a how-to book and a critical inquiry, a sequence of stories and a series of events, this is a book not just for anyone curious about the creator of Lemony Snicket, but for anyone who loved books when they were a child, and still loves them now.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:7 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Daniel-Handler-discusses-And-Then-and-Then-What-Else
June Hype Book Club &Truly. Madly. Deeply.at The Ripped Bodice –In-PersonEvent
The Hype Book Club is led by bookseller Paola, and meets every 2nd Wednesday of the month and discusses popular books everyone is talking about.
June’s selection is Truly. Madly. Deeply by author Alexandria Bellefleur.
NOTE: See site for RVSP, guidelines, and details.
Where:The Ripped Bodice
Date:Wednesday the 12th
Time:7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website:https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage –In-PersonEvent
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, atvkaliflowers@gmail.com.
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm—Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm —TBA;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested:$5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE:See site for further details and any change in the schedule. Contactkaliflowers@gmail.comor call (323) 293-2451
Where:The World Stage
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address:4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website:https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque–OnlineZoomEvent
Beyond Baroque’s longest-running free poetry workshop is offered on Zoom and welcomes new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please sign up for each workshop session at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, and you will be contacted with instructions on how to join the meeting.
The workshop facilitator this quarter isRooja Mohassessy, an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University, Oregon. Her ekphrastic debut collection,When Your Sky Runs Into Mine(Feb 2023) was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elir Poetry Award.Roojahas been featured on NPR, The Hive Poetry Collective, and other poetry podcasts and radio stations. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Nimrod, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Rumpus, The Journal, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Her work is also anthologized inCalifornia Fire & Water, A Climate Crisis Anthology, andColossus: Body,a compilation of writings by Californians writing on the themes of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.Roojais an editorial assistant at the journal Prairie Schooner.
Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. There’s an instructive video that might help.
The workshop can sometimes reach high levels of attendance, which means not everyone will get a chance to read every session.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where:Beyond Baroque
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:8 pm – 10 pm
Address:Online event (see site)
Website:https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops orhttps://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-920603809777
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Featured Guest Jonathan Humanoid at The Ugly Mug –In-PersonEvent
HostBen Triggand Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights featuresJonathan Humanoid.
Jonathan Humanoid (he/they/ghost) writes poems and is constantly confused. He would like to believe that the writing poetry thing helps with the being confused, but there’s no evidence to support this. He writes in the hopes that others will feel less alone by reading his work as he feels less alone by sharing it. Jonathan has had poems in Freeze Ray, Fight Evil With Poetry first anthology, and sh*t Men Say To Me! An Anthology, Challenging Toxic Masculinity. He likes making old school DIY chapbooks and has put out three so far called: I Was Never Going to be Normal, How to Accept That Your Words Are Going to Outlive You, and the latest one All the Light In Me. His first official chapbook This Is the Ship I Used to Be, which explores his experiences with Borderline Personality Disorder, was released recently through Arroyo Secco Press. Jonathan is grateful to have so many people who love him. He is glad to finally be one.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where:The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date:Wednesday, the 12th
Time:8 pm – 10 pm
Address:261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website:https://www.facebook.com/events
Book Club for Adults: The Perfumist of Parisat Lawndale Library, LACL – In-PersonEvent
Participants this month will discuss The Perfumist of Paris by author Alka Joshi, the final book in The Jaipur Trilogy.
Where:Lawndale Library, LACL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:10:30 am
Address: 14615 Burin Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10896493
Robertson Readers Book Club: Going Infiniteat Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Join us on the second Thursday of every month for book club. We will discuss the book and share any other interesting books we have been reading. New members are welcome! Each book will be available for checkout at the circulation desk beginning three weeks prior to the book club meeting date.
Participants this month will discuss Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by author Michael Lewis.
Where:Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:4 pm
Address:1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-readers-book-club-0
Koreatown Book Club: The Library Book at Pio Pico – Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Susan Orlean’s The Library Book has been often described as several titles in one: part memoir, part homage to libraries, and part mystery.
We will be discussing this national bestselling book as a starting point to talk about how the library can enhance the lives of the Koreatown adult community.
Light refreshments will be served.
Where:Pio Pico – Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:4:30 pm
Address:1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/koreatown-book-club
Mystery Book Clubvia Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Join us on Zoom for a suspenseful discussion of mystery books. New members are always welcome. Copies of each month’s selection are available for checkout at the circulation desk.
RSVP:
For the Zoom link, please email venice@lapl.org.
Where:Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:5 pm
Address:Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-45
Brentwood Writers Workshopat Daniel Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Are you a writer looking for creative ways to manifest your story and, most importantly, keep moving forward? Are you interested in collaborating with others to explore:
What makes a story interesting?
Why audiences invest in characters?
How to inject insight into your stories?
How to strengthen story elements?
The Brentwood Writers Workshop is looking for fellow writers to gather, brainstorm, and bring their experience and skills to their fellow writers. We’re here to workshop ideas, coach each other through challenges, and support and inspire one another, all with the goal of making traction on our writing projects.
Where:Daniel Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:5:30 pm
Address:11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/brentwood-writing-group
One Book, One County: Discussion of L.A. Weather at Felipe de Neve Branch Library, LAPL – In-PersonEvent
Join us for a discussion of L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and snacks. A free copy of the book will be available, while supplies last, for discussion participants.
L.A. Weather is available in English in print, eBook and eAudiobook from the Los Angeles Public Library.
Where:Felipe de Neve Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address:2820 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/one-book-one-county-discussion-la-weather
Not So Secret Society: The Red Palace at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book The Red Palace by author June Hur.
Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father’s approval.
But Hyeon is suddenly thrust into the dark and dangerous world of court politics when someone murders four women in a single night, and the prime suspect is Hyeon’s closest friend and mentor. Determined to prove her beloved teacher’s innocence, Hyeon launches her own secret investigation.
In her hunt for the truth, she encounters Eojin, a young police inspector also searching for the killer. When evidence begins to point to the Crown Prince himself as the murderer, Hyeon and Eojin must work together to search the darkest corners of the palace to uncover the deadly secrets behind the bloodshed.
June Hur is a bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author of YA historicals, including The Silence of Bones, The Forest of Stolen Girls, The Red Palace, and A Crane Among Wolves. Born in South Korea, June spent her formative years in the USA, Canada, and South Korea before studying History and Literature at the University of Toronto and working at the city’s public library. Her work has been featured in Forbes, NPR, The New York Times, CBC, and KBS. June resides in Toronto with her family and can be spotted writing in coffee shops.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Cellar Door Bookstore
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:6 pm
Address:473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website:https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/not-so-secret-society-red-palace
Poetry Reading & Talk: Christian Weissman, with Jen Winston, & Her, Him & I at Chevalier’s Books– In-PersonEvent
Christian Weissman, in conversation with Jen Winston, will discuss his poignant collection of poetry and prose, Her, Him, & I.
Introspective, vulnerable, and tantalizing, this is a love letter to queerness—capturing the joy, grief, ecstasy, and hope that accompany it. The poems tackle the complexities of infatuation, heartache, sexual assault, and toxic masculinity.
Across three acts, the author offers readers an unfiltered view into his psyche through several romantic relationships. These poems magnify the reality of exploring emotional and physical intimacy with multiple genders, all while navigating the journey of self-love.
Christian Weissmann is a writer and actor from Chicago. He’s appeared on shows such as Saved By The Bell, Dear White People, and Girl Meets World. His essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Byline and the Huffington Post. He lives in Los Angeles with his extensive record collection.
Jen Winston (aka @JENEROUS) is a writer and bisexual living in Brooklyn. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much, which BuzzFeed named a Best LGBTQ+ Book of 2021. Jen runs a newsletter called The Bi Monthly and has famously been an underwear model. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, dogs, and iPhone.
Where:Chevalier’s Books
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:6 pm
Address:133 N. Larchmont Blvd., LosAngeles, CA 90004
Thrival Open Mic at Hot Java, Long Beach – In-Person Event
All arts community open mics & community plugs. All ages. More info on Instagram @thrivalopenmic.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, other links, and details.
Where:Hot Java
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2101 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Million Dollar Action Tour with Rachel Rodgers: Live in LAat Reparations Club Off-site Location – In-Person Event
Rachel Rodgers is going on a Million Dollar Action Tour this June to connect with readers and help them take action towards their financial well-being right there in the room. Join her on Thursday June 13th at 6:30 PM in LA for a fireside chat, interactive workshop and book signing!
NOTE:See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Rep Club Off-site Location
Date:Thursday the 13th
Time:6:30 pm
Address: 610 East California Avenue Glendale, CA 91206
Dual Book Launch Celebration: Poet Hollie Hardy and Author Emily Jon Tobias & Guests at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us for an evening featuring new works by: Emily Jon Tobias (Monarch: Stories), Hollie Hardy (Lions Like Us), Arthur Kayzakian (The Book of Redacted Paintings), and Jennifer Lewis (The New Low).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Book Soup
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:7 pm
Address:8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website:https://www.booksoup.com/event/-poet-hollie-hardy-emily-jon-tobias
Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series: Jonathan Humanoid, Angelina Saenz & Tony Koji Wallin Sato at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Poets is hosted by Nikolai Garcia and Mauricio Andres Moreno and offers readings by 3 SoCal poets every 2nd Thursday of the month. Features this month include:
Jonathan Humanoid has had poems in Freeze Ray, Fight Evil with Poetry first anthology, and sh*t Men Say To Me! An Anthology, Challenging Toxic Masculinity. He likes making old school DIY chapbooks and has put out three so far called: I Was Never Going to be Normal, How to Accept That Your Words Are Going to Outlive You, and the latest one All the Light In Me. His first official chapbook This Is the Ship I Used to Be, which explores his experiences with Borderline Personality Disorder, was released recently through Arroyo Secco Press.
Angelina Saenz M. Ed, MFA is an award-winning educator and poet whose work focuses on memory, mujeres and motherhood. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Workshop for Writers of Color and a Macondo Writer’s Workshop Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in venues such as Diálogo, Split this Rock, Out of Anonymity, Angels Flight Literary West, Every Other, co*ckpit Revue Paris and The Acentos Review. She is the author of her debut book of poetry Edgecliff in 2021 and her second collection Maestra in 2024.
Tony Koji Wallin Sato is a Japanese American who works with formerly/currently incarcerated individuals in higher education, and a freelance journalist covering the criminal justice system through the lens of his own incarcerated experience. He holds an MFA in creative writing and was the winner of the Jody Stultz Award for Poetry in the 2020 edition of Toyon Literary Magazine. His first chapbook of poems, Hyouhakusha: Desolate Travels of a Junkie on the Road, was published in 2021 through Cold River Press. His first book of poems, Bamboo on the Tracks: Sakura Snow and Colt Peacemaker, was selected by John Yau for the 2022 Robert Creeley Memorial Award and is forthcoming. His work appears or due to be released in Cultural Daily, AAWW’s The Margins, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and Neon Door.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Page Against the Machine
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:7 pm
Address:2712 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website:https://www.facebook.com/events
L.A. Book Launch: Kate Spencer, with Lauren Billings, & One Last Summer at The Ripped Bodice –In-PersonEvent
Kate Spencer, in conversation with Lauren Billings, will present her romance novel One Last Summer.
There will be a book signing to follow.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:The Ripped Bodice
Date:Thursday the 13th
Time:7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website:https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Play House: An Evening of Poetry an Prose with Jorell Watkins & Guests Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Jorell Watkins celebrates the launch of his debut poetry collection Play House, joined by readersAlexandria Hall, Mitchell Jacobs, and Brian Lin.
Jorrell Watkins is from Richmond, VA. He is an alum of Hampshire College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He received fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, Fulbright Japan, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His chapbook, If Only the Sharks Would Bite, won the inaugural Desert Pavilion Chapbook Series in Poetry. Currently, he is a PhD. student in Creative Writing at USC.
Alexandria Hall is the author of Field Music (Ecco, 2020), a winner of the National Poetry Series. She holds an MFA from NYU and is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at USC. She is co-host of the podcast, You Shouldn’t Let Poets Lie to You. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Bennington Review, LARB Quarterly Journal, The Yale Review, No Tokens, and other publications. She lives in Los Angeles. Brian Lin is a doctoral graduate of the USC program in creative writing and literature. His stories and essays can be found in Electric Literature, The Offing, The Rumpus, The Margins, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Brian has completed a novel and is working on a nonfiction book.
Mitchell Jacobs is a writer from Minnesota, currently living in Los Angeles, where he serves on the editorial board of Ricochet Editions. His work has appeared in journals such as Best New Poets, Cincinnati Review, Ploughshares, and Southern Review, as well as the Slowdown podcast through American Public Media. He is the winner of the 2024 Prufer Prize in Poetry from Pleiades.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where:Village Well Books & Coffee
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website:https://shop.villagewell.com/events/38370
Lori Tucker Sullivan &I Can’t Remember If I Criedat Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Lori Tucker Sullivanwill discuss her book,I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy.
I Can’t Remember if I Cried is part music history, part memoir, based around interviews with rock widows conducted by Lori Tucker-Sullivan—who herself lost her husband in 2010. With each widow that Lori interviews, she learns lessons in love, forgiveness, coping, and moving on. The book is framed by the author’s own narrative to create a single thread that links the stories together to ultimately create a tale of how the author’s life is changed through her interactions with these amazing women.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:7 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Lori-Tucker-Sullivan-discusses-I-Cant-Remember-if-I-Cried
Lit Angels Writing Studio Class: Getting Unblocked at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
The Getting Unblocked workshop is led by David Brownstein.
Get Un-Blocked…And Stay in Your Creative Flow. Getting stuck in your writing? Do the road-blocks seem to go forever? This class will give you tools to get moving and keep moving on your creative journey. It happens to everyone at some point. Learn the fun and easy tools to get unblocked.
David Brownstein, PCC, CPCC, is a Creative Career Coach who has helped writers and creatives at all levels of Hollywood do their best work ever. Featured in NYTimes. TedX Speaker. https://hollywoodcoaching.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where:Village Well Books & Coffee
Date:Thursday, the 6th
Time:7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website:https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39196
Live Talks LA: Eric Weiner, with Rain Wilson, Present: Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World and Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life at Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar –In-Person Event
Now a new series on Peaco*ck with Rainn Wilson, The Geography of Bliss is part travel memoir, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide that takes the viewer across the globe to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is.
Eric Weiner is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Geography of Bliss (now a docu-series featuring Rainn Wilson) and The Geography of Genius, as well as the critically acclaimed Man Seeks God and The Socrates Express. A former international correspondent for NPR, his work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the anthology Best American Travel Writing. He lives with his family and a menagerie of animals in the Washington, D.C. area. For more information, visit his website..
Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor best known for playing the inimitable Dwight Schrute for nine seasons on NBC’s, The Office. His robust and diverse career includes television, movies, Broadway, unscripted series, animation, and podcasts. He has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts and spent 10 years doing theatre in NYC before moving to LA. In addition, he is also a NYT Bestselling author, having written The Bassoon King, SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions and his latest book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. He founded a digital media company SoulPancake and co-founded Lide Haiti, an education non-profit that empowers women and girls through the arts and scholarships in rural Haiti.
The Geography of Bliss
Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? In a unique mix of travel, psychology, science and humor, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.
Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life
Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As the author follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar
Date:Thursday, the 13th
Time:8 pm
Address:3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/eric-weiner-with-rainn-wilson/
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore –In-PersonKids Event
Spectacular Storytime is our most popular story time and is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:9:30 am
Address:2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-80
Stranger Than Fiction Book Club:The Girl Who Drew Butterfliesat Agoura Hills Library, LAPL – In-PersonKids Event
This monthly book club features a presentation ofThe Gril Who Drew ButterfliesbyJoyce Sidman. For ages 6 – 12 with parent or guardian.
Where:Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:4 pm
Address:208 Harvard Ave., Claremont. CA 91711
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10726122
Self-Care Book Club: Enchantment at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by author Katherine May.
In Enchantment, the author invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, she begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them.
Katherine May is the New York Times–bestselling author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, which has been translated into twenty-five languages around the world. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Times of London, Good Housekeeping, and Cosmopolitan. She lives by the sea in Whitstable, England.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Cellar Door Bookstore
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:6 pm
Address:473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website:https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/self-care-book-club-enchantment
Thrival Open Mic at Confidential Coffee, Long Beach – In-Person Event
All arts community open mics & community plugs. All ages. More info on Instagram @thrivalopenmic.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, other links, and details.
Where:Confidential Coffee
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 137 W. 6th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Poet Laureate Happy Hour: Gustavo Hernandez & Ching-In Chen at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Need some writing advice or line edits or just someone to give you poetry inspirations….
Can’t make it to our Libro Mobile bookstore? Email
libromobile@gmail.com for a zoom link,
About the OC Poet Laureate:
Gustavo Hernandez is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Flower Grand First (Moon Tide Press) and the micro-chapbooks Form His Arms and Little Fleece (Ghost City Press). His work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Harvard Review, The Slowdown Podcast, and The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series.
Heholds an associate’s degree in English from Santiago Canyon College and a bachelor’s degree in English-Creative Writing from California State University Long Beach. He was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and raised in Santa Ana, California, where he still resides. He is the Orange County Poet Laureate for 2024-2026.
About Redmond’s Poet Laureate
Ching-In Chen is author of The Heart’s Traffic: a novel in poems and recombinant (2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry) as well as chapbooks to make black paper sing and Kundiman for Kin :: Information Retrieval for Monsters. The author is co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities and currently a core member of the Massage Parlor Outreach Project, a Kelsey Street Press collective member and an Airlie Press editor. They are collaborating with Cassie Mira and others on Breathing in a Time of Disaster, a performance, installation and speculative writing project exploring breath through meditation and environmental justice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, other links, and details.
Where:LibroMobile
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., #A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1100627594375020/
Vroman’s Ed: Memoir and the Personal Essay: Finding Your Own Voice with Dinah Lenney (6 Weeks)at Vroman’s (The Atrium) – In-Person Event
Dinah Lenneywill lead a writing workshop on Memoir and the Personal Essay: Finding Your Own Voice for six weeks at Vroman’s.
The best nonfiction is as much about the “who” as the “what”; as in who’s telling the story and why. In this six-week generative workshop, we’ll explore a range of strategies to help us discover our best material and how to bring it to the page. Writers should expect to workshop at least one chapter or stand-alone piece.
Longtime teacher and actor Dinah Lenney (ER, Murphy Brown, Sons of Anarchy) is the author or editor of six books of nonfiction, most recently Coffee, and the anthology of essay and image titled Snapshots. You can follow her on Instagram (@dinahlenney) and link to her TEDX talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBo-hCrKfLQ.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s (The Atrium)
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:6 pm – 8 pm
Address:709 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 120, Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Ed-Memoir-and-The-Personal-Essay-with-Dinah-Lenney
Lane Igoudin, with Stacy Perman,& A Family, Maybe: Two Dads, Two Babies, and the Court Cases That Brought Us Togetherat Book Soup – In-Person Event
Lane Igoudin, in conversation with Stacy Perman,will discuss his bookA Family, Maybe: Two Dads, Two Babies, and the Court Cases That Brought Us Together.
A Family, Maybe is about Igoudin’s rollercoaster journey adopting kids from the LA County foster system.
In his candid and emotional memoir, Lane Igoudin shows the human side of public adoption as he and his partner Jonathan seek to adopt their foster daughters from the Los Angeles County child welfare system
The stress of the foster-to-adopt process, compounded with the mounting, nationwide struggle for LGBTQ+ equality, erodes the sense of peace in Lane and Jon’s home. Still, the girls attach themselves deeply to their adoptive parents, while their dads do all they can to give them the best lives possible.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Book Soup
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:7 pm
Address:8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website:https://www.booksoup.com/event/lane-igoudin
In Conversation: Nicole Hannah Jones, with Angela Rye, & The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story at Malik Books at The Miracle Theatre – In-Person Event
Nicole Hannah Jones, in conversation with Angela Rye, will discuss her book and work, The 1619 Project.
This live event offers a rare chance to delve into the groundbreaking and award-winning work of Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The 1619 Project. These two influential figures will explore pressing topics in an interactive and thought-provoking manner. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a #1 New York Times bestseller and NAACP Image Award winner, presents a compelling perspective on American history and its contemporary implications in her book, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.
Angela Rye is an award-winning host, advocate for social justice, lawyer, commentator, empowering entrepreneur, and CEO of IMPACT Strategies in Washington DC, and is bringing her inclusive thoughts on politics, culture, and history all over the world. She hosts a weekly podcast, is an ESPN correspondent, and has been featured in countless publications and broadcast programs. After receiving award nominations at the NAACP Image Awards, HBO, TV One, CNN, ABC, ESPN, NBC, NPR, etc., the world knows how important her commentary and advocacy efforts are. She has received an Honorary Doctorate from HBCU, Wiley College, and has worked with every branch of our government, from municipal to federal. Angela is a knowledgeable leader, creating strategic partnerships between civil and human rights organizations and the government. Justice is her number one goal for the next generation.
NOTE: Best Ticket includes Admisson and Book – The 1619 Project: The New Origin Story
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Malik Books at The Miracle Theatre
Date:Friday, the 141h
Time:7 pm
Address:226 S Market St, Inglewood St., Inglewood, CA 90301
Website:https://malikbooks.com/events-1 or https://malikbooks.com/events-1/ola/services/nikole-hannah-jones-in-conversation-with-angela-rye-1
L.A. Book Launch: Nina Sharma, with Sam Chanse, & The Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black and Brownat North Figuerao Bookshop –In-PersonEvent
Nina Sharma,in conversation withSam Chanse, will discussThe Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black and Brown.
This is a hilarious and moving memoir in essays about love and allyship, told through one Asian and Black interracial relationship
When Nina Sharma meets Quincy while hitching a ride to a friend’s Fourth of July barbecue, she spots a favorite book, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, in the back seat of his cramped car, and senses a sadness from him that’s all too familiar to her. She is immediately intrigued—who is this man? In The Way You Make Me Feel, Sharma chronicles her and Quincy’s love story, and in doing so, examines how their Black and Asian relationship becomes the lens through which she moves through and understands the world.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:North Figueroa Bookshop
Date:Friday the 14th
Time:7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website:https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lvn0b7yz
L.A. Book Launch: Jonny Garza Villa, with Edward Underhill, &Canto Contigoat The Ripped Bodice –In-PersonEvent
Jonny Garza Villa,in conversation withEdward Underhill, will discuss their queer romance novelCanto Contigo.
There will be a book signing to follow.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:The Ripped Bodice
Date:Friday the 14th
Time:7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website:https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Porochista Khakpour & Tehrangeles at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Iranian American multimillionaires Ali and Homa Milani have it all—a McMansion in the hills of Los Angeles, a microwaveable snack empire, and four spirited daughters. There’s Violet, the big-hearted aspiring model; Roxanna, the chaotic influencer; Mina, the chronically-online overachiever; and the impressionable health fanatic Haylee. On the verge of landing their own reality TV show, the Milanis realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll.
Each of the Milanis—even their aloof Persian cat Pari—has something to hide, but the looming scrutiny of fame also threatens to bring the family closer than ever. Dramatic, biting yet full of heart, Tehrangeles is a tragicomic saga about high-functioning family dysfunction and the ever-present struggle to accept one’s true self.
Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. She is the critically acclaimed author of two previous novels, Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion; a memoir, Sick; and a collection of essays, Brown Album. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Book-forum, Elle, and many other publications. She lives in New York City.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Skylight
Date:Friday the 14th
Time:7 pm
Address:1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website:https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-porochista-khakpour-presents-tehrangeles
Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Every second Friday of the month, Village Well stays open a bit later to provide a platform for local performers through our open mic! All performers are welcome, including musicians, poets, storytellers, comedians, and magicians!
Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length and must be family friendly. Sign ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:30 pm!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where:Village Well Books & Coffee
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:7 pm – 8 pm
Address:9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website:https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27553
Yasmine Cheyenne, with Lizzy Mathis, & Wisdom of the Pathat Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Yasmine Cheyenne, in conversation with Lizzy Mathis,will discuss her book,Wisdom of the Path.
Wisdom of the Path weaves stories of grief, heartbreak, joy, and overcoming that invite you to gather the wisdom you’ve collected throughout your life and use it for your path ahead. Anchored in four guideposts: base camp, intent, walk the talk, and lessons learned, this soulful and warm storytelling guide encourages us to embrace the bumpy roads of our lives with knowledge and knowing that we’re moving forward.
Lizzy Mathis is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Cool Mom Co., Lizzy is an entrepreneur, entertainer, and powerhouse mom of 3. Widely trusted as a representative for modern moms, Lizzy has been featured in top media outlets for her vibrant personality and knowledge in the lifestyle space. You will find her starring in Roku’s #1 rated new series “Honest Renovations.” Additionally, her highly anticipated podcast, The Cool Mom Code, is now live, where she invites celebrity friends & powerhouse moms to have real, unfiltered conversations about parenthood, friendship, and being a modern woman in today’s world
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:7 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Yasmine-Cheyenne-discusses-Wisdom-of-the-Path
Red Light Lit: LA with Hollie Hardy and Guests & Lions Like Us at Beyond Baroque– In-PersonEvent
Beyond Baroque presents an evening of poetry exploring themes of love, sex, and relationships in celebration of Hollie Hardy’s newly released poetry collection, Lions Like Us published by Red Light Lit Press.
Featuring readings by Jeffrey Bryant, Dennis Cruz, Natasha Dennerstein, Rich Ferguson, traci-kato-kiriyama, Rick Lupert, K.R. Morrison, Linda Ravenswood, and Dig Wayne. The evening will be hosted by poet, Jennifer Lewis.
Enjoy a reception before and after the readings.
About the authors:
Hollie Hardy is a poet, educator, and award-winning author of Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press, 2024) and How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press, 2014).
Jeffrey Bryant is a Pushcart-nominated queer poet/writer who lives in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Poetic Diversity, the New Verse News, Poetrysuperhighway.com, Synchroniciti Magazine and Quill and Echo. His work has also appeared in the anthologies The Coiled Serpent from Tia Chucha Press; the 2020 Altadena Literary Review from Shabda Press; Shadowplay Literary Journal from the University of Arkansas and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts from Mystic Boxing Commission Press.
Dennis Cruz is a vital poet who inhabits the voice of the perpetual outsider and the purely American dissident. He has been writing, performing and publishing his work for over 30 years. His latest collection of Poetry The Beast Is We is out now via Punk Hostage Press.
Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne, Australia. She has an MFA from San Francisco State University. Natasha has had poetry published in many journals internationally, including The North American Review and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her collections Anatomize (2015), Triptych Caliform (2016) and her novella-in-verse About a Girl (2017) were published by Norfolk Press in San Francisco. Her trans chapbook Seahorse (2017) was published by Nomadic Press in Oakland and is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Broken: A Life of Aileen Wuornos in 33 poems was published in 2021 by Be About It Press. She lives in Alameda, California, where she is a freelance editor. She was a 2018 Fellow of the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat and writer-in-residence there in fiction in 2023. Forthcoming in 2024 is Apps Poetica from The LA Press
L.A. poet/spoken-word performer Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. He is a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have appeared in numerous anthologies and festivals. He is the author of the novel New Jersey Me (Rare Bird Books), and two poetry collections 8th & Agony (Punk Hostage Press), and Everything is Radiant Between the Hates (Moon Tide Press). Most recently, Ferguson is the lead editor of an anthology of CA poets entitled Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press).
Hollie Hardy is a writer, educator, and author of the newly released Lions Like Us (Red Light Lit Press) and How to Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems (Punk Hostage Press) winner of the Annual Poetry Center Book Award at San Francisco State University. She holds an MFA in Poetry from SFSU, teaches private writing workshops online, and hosts the long-running monthly reading series Saturday Night Special: A Virtual Open Mic. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Bay Area Generations, Cobalt Poets, Colossus, The Common, Dispatches from Quarantine, Eleven Eleven, Fourteen Hills, Migozine, Milvia Street Journal, Mixed Bag of Tricks, Parthenon West Review, Passionfruit Review, sPARKLE & bLINK, Transfer, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX. Learn more at: holliehardy.com
traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer, performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, and community organizer. Their recognition & support includes the Art Matters Foundation; the CA State Senate Breaking Silence Award; ONE Archives Pride Publics; and the NEFA National Theatre Project for TALES OF CLAMOR and PULLproject Ensemble. tkk’s writing, commentary and work appears in numerous media and print publications (including NPR; PBS; Elle.com; Entropy; Chaparral Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Temple UP).
Rick Lupert is the recipient of the 2017 Ted Slade Award, the 2014 recipient of the Beyond Baroque Distinguished service award for service to poetry in Southern California, and a 3-time Pushcart and one time Best of the Net nominee. He created Poetry Super Highway the daily haiku site Haikuniverse and hosted the weekly Cobalt Cafe reading for almost 21 years. (Which lives on as a Zoom series.) He’s authored 28 collections of poetry (most recently It’s Spritz O’Clock Somewhere). He writes a weekly Jewish poetry column for JewishJournal.com and created the daily web comic Cat and Banana with Brendan Constantine.
K.R. Morrison is a Bay Area poet, drummer, and teen educator who since the pandemic, splits her time between San Francisco and a place she calls Mermaid Town, in Southern California. She is a two-time Pushcart nominee and has featured for several curations and podcasts for her first collection of poetry, Cauldrons, published by PaperPress Books. Morrison seeks to cocreate with other artists and educators to construct fresh new communities that liberate families and their youth from old toxic forms of patriarchy. These days she engages this through writing workshops, teen life coaching, and divine feminine cultivation within the juvenile hall injustice system, in Southern California. Her poetry can be found in several publications, and in 9 anthologies in 2023. She plans to release a new collection soon titled, From her Wrist.
Linda Ravenswood BFA MA, PhD, is a poet and performance artist from Los Angeles. Her accolades include an Oxford Prize in Poetry (2022) and the Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry (2023). She is the founding editor of The Los Angeles Press, est. 2018, and the co-founder of the Poet Laureate program in Glendale, California. Her recent collections include Cantadora—letters from California (Eyewear London/The Black Spring Press Group, 2023), The Stan Poems (Pedestrian Press, 2022), Tlacuilx—Tongues in Quarantine (HINCHAS Press, 2021), and XLA Poets (HINCHAS Press, 2020). Find her at thelosangelespress.com
Los Angeles poet Dig Wayne teaches Method Acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in West Hollywood. Originally from Ohio, Dig has lived, worked, and practiced his art in New York City and London. He has published two books of poetry, Hip Pockets and Bongo Skin. His recent collection, One Fell Swoop was published by innateDIVINITYbooks. His poetry has been featured in the literary journals, High Shelf Press XXIX, Juke Joint, Ligeia Magazine, Askew Poetry, Spillway Poetry, Abramlin Press and more recently, the Anthology of Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where:Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date:Friday, the 14th
Time:8 pm – 9:30 pm
Address:681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Graphic Novel Book Club via Bel Canto Books – Online Event
Graphic Novel Book Club hosted by Bel Canto Books as we read and discuss a new graphic novel or memoir on the 3rd Saturday of each month at 10am PT | 1pm ET.
Participants today will discuss Fine: A Comic About Gender by author Rhea Ewing.
As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country.
Where:Bel Canto Books
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:10 am
Address:Online Event (see site)
Santa Monica Reads Kickoff: L.A. Weather at Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Join us from June 15 – August 10 to read and then discuss the Santa Monica Reads event for the summer.
Participants will discuss L.A. Weather by author Maria Amparo Escandon.
Free copies of the book are available while supplies last.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL, North Courtyard
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:10:30 am
Address: 601 Santa Monca Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website:https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles
LGBTQIA Book Club via Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us on the third Saturday of the month for an engaging book discussion.
Participants will discuss Before We Were Trans by author Dr. Kit Heyam.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Silver Lake Branch, LAPL
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:11 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/lgbtq-book-club
Poetry Workshop at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join this inclusive, in-person poetry workshop where poets of all levels can come together, share their work, and foster a vibrant poetry community. Participants are invited to bring a poem, no longer than one page, to read and receive valuable feedback from fellow poets. Engage in thoughtful discussions and provide your own insights on the work of others. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just starting out, this workshop offers a supportive environment to refine your craft, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the power of words.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:11 am
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Antoinette Portis Presents:Not-A-Box CityatChildren’s Book World – In-Person Kids Event
Join authorAntoinette Portiswhen she presents her newest picture book Not-A-Box City.
Antoinette Portis is the author and illustrator of the international bestseller Not a Box (a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a 2007 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book), Not a Stick, A Penguin Story (also chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book), and many more books for children. She attended the UCLA School of Fine Arts and is a former creative director at Disney. Antoinette lives in Southern California.
About Not-A-Box City: Don’t miss the long-awaited companion to Not a Box, winner of a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award. This picture book with its visual humor and simple dialogue is great for fans of Mo Willems and Crockett Johnson. Bunny wants to build a cardboard city. Bunny stacks one cardboard box on top of another and another. Bunny doesn’t want any help. Bunny doesn’t need any help, either. But what’s a cardboard city without friends? Written and illustrated with the same delightful simplicity that made Not a Box such a hit, the playtime possibilities of a stack of boxes and friendship will inspire and excite any child who has ever journeyed into the world of make-believe.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Children’s Book World
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:11 pm
Address: 10580 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles,CA90064
Website:https://www.childrensbookworld.com/event
Vroman’s Special Storytime: Arlene Abundis &Into the Mighty Seaat Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Arlene Abundis will present and discuss her children’s book,Into the Mighty Sea.
When Mariel’s emotions become a big sea of color, she must learn to sail through or get lost in the swells in Into the Mighty Sea by debut author Arlene Abundis and acclaimed illustrator Cynthia Alonso.
This story is about a girl with big emotions who learns that sometimes taking a step back can be exactly what you need.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:11 am
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
3-Week Manga Workshop with Sebraé Harrisand Inlandia at Riverside Main Library – In-Person Event
Join Inlandia Institute at Riverside Main Library for a creative workshop introduction to the inner workings of the Japanese comic medium, Manga, which will explore terminology, story, character design, and paneling to create your own one shot or series! Presented by animator and mangaka, Sebraé Harris.
Sebraé Harris – AKA “StarLite Crystal” – is an African American artist, entrepreneur, and professional mangaka. He started drawing at the age of four and began taking art seriously when he was eight. Sebraé is a graduate of Riverside City College with degrees in Fine & Applied Arts, Animation, and Business & Entrepreneurship. The Vermillion Speedateer is his first manga/comic series.
NOTE: See site for registration & details.
Where:Inlandia at Riverside Main Library
Date:Saturday, the 15th(On Alternating Saturdays)
Time:1 pm – 3 pm
Address:3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501
Website:https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2328
Juneteenth Celebrationat Hawthorne Library, LACL –In-Person Kids & Family Event
Learn about the Juneteenth holiday and make a gratitude journal to take home. For ages 5 – 12 with a parent or caregiver.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where:Hawthorne Library, LACL
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:2 pm – 3 pm
Address:12700 Grevillea Ave, Hawthorne, CA 90250
Website:https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/events?a=Children or https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10772101
Antics: A UCI MFA Reading Series at Beyond Baroque– In-PersonEvent
Beyond Baroque presents exciting readings by UCI MFA students and alumni.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where:Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address:681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/antics-a-uci-mfa-reading-series-tickets-911685023447?aff=oddtdtcreator
Queer Kin: Pride Month Poetry Readings at The Pop Hop– In-PersonEvent
Queer Kin is a free event for poetry lovers + bookshop fans to enjoy poetry readings by queer Poet Laureates and award-winning poets!
Celebrate June Pride Month with this free event for poetry lovers and bookshop fans to enjoy poetry readings by queer Poet Laureates and award-winning poets: Ching-In Chen, Jen Cheng, Angela Peñaredondo, Shameka Cunningham, and Vickie Vértiz.
Musical guest Syd Matisse opens the event.
Attendees are invited to discuss with the poets, get book signings, and learn more about the Highland Park bookshop, The Pop-Hop. Free events are made possible with your donations and shopping with this beloved indie bookstore. RSVP requested but not required. Drop-ins are welcomed. Donations are appreciated to help support the bookshop. No one turned away for lack of funds. Please message the organizer @JenCvoice for questions.
Ching-In Chen is the Poet Laureate of Redmond, WA, a lifelong educator, community organizer, poet, and the author of The Heart’s Traffic (Arktoi/Red Hen Press, 2009) and recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017). They are an assistant professor teaching creative writing and performance classes at the University of Washington – Bothell and the current Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House. They are also a community organizer, specifically in Asian American communities, in coalition with other communities of color and LGBTQIA+ communities. Find them on social media @chinginchen.
Jen Cheng is the current Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, author of a poetry collection Braided Spaces, and a 2023 California Arts Council Fellow. She is a multidisciplinary artist who blends East-West cultural influences in a new form, Feng Shui Poetry. With stories for tween audiences, mystery detective fans, and queer love, Jen is a cross-pollinator and community curator. Find her on social media @JenCvoice.
Angela Peñaredondo is a queer Filipinx writer, interdisciplinary artist, educator and scholar. Peñaredondo is the author of nature felt but never apprehended (Noemi Press), All Things Lose Thousands of Times (Inlandia Institute, Winner of Hilary Gravendyk Regional Prize) and Maroon (Jamii Publications). Find them on social media @domainedenarwhal.
Shameka Cunningham is a writer, poet, performance artist and teacher from Los Angeles. She has performed around the U.S. and abroad. She is the host of Let The Poem Feed You. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Stetson University. You can find her on Instagram @laughterislanguage
Vickie Vértiz’s writing has been featured in the New York Times magazine, Huizache, the Los Angeles Review of Books, KCET Departures, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among many publications. Her second book Auto/Body won the 2023 Sandeen Poetry Prize from the University of Notre Dame. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, VONA, CantoMundo, and Macondo. Vértiz teaches writing at UC-Santa Barbara. She lives in Los Angeles. Her social media is @vickievertiz.
More info about musical guest Syd Matisse is on her instagram, @sydmatisse.
NOTE: See site for further details and information.
Where:The Pop Hop
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:2 pm – 4 pm
Address:5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website:https://www.thepophop.com/calendar
Juneteenth Celebration: Paris Is Burning Event at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore –In-Person Event
This event is a muti-part celebration.
Cinema Conciencia will be hosting a pride event at 2 p.m. with vendors, resources, and two discussions pre & post a film screening at 6 pm! This is an event for all ages, but film is rated for adult content.
Bamby Salceda will conduct an intergenerational conversation from 4pm – 5pm and the film will screen at 6 pm -7:15 pm
“Paris is Burning” (1990), directed by Jennie Livingston, is a vibrant documentary that dives into the house ballroom scene of New York City in the 1980s, a place where it was a safe haven for trans & queer black and people of color to do drag pageantry. This film walks us through the meanings of every category, pose, performance, including the lifestyle in the houses that each mother and father created. RATED R for its CW (read content warning below).
Drinks and snacks will be for sale, but attendees are welcome to bring their own food and drinks.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:2 pm – 8 pm
Address:12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Slymar CA 91342
Website:https://www.instagram.com/p/C7XnAjDPAt0/?hl=en
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series & Open MIc at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us in-person or via Zoom for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St,, Studio City, CA 91604
Website:https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-3
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Readings: Molly Silver, Karen Scott & Tara A. O’Brien Elliott at Lamanda Park Branch Library – In-PersonEvent
Poetry Readings hosted by DKC & JRT, will feature:
Molly Silver is a Los Angeles based actor, writer, and producer. Born “The only Jew in Knoxville, Tennessee”—Molly got her start like all the greats – making home movies with the handheld camera she got for Hanukkah when she was 11.
Karen Scott N/A
Tara A. O’Brien Elliott is an award-winning poet and educator whose work ahs appeared in Ninth Letter, Gargoyle, Gulf Stream, MER, One Art, Cimarron Review, 32 Poems, The Normal School, Birmingham Poetry Review, Philadelphia Stories, and many other journals. (Check to verify)
+ Poets published in Four Feathers Press online edition: Moon Stones.
Don Kingfisher Campbellhosts and curates these events.
Where:Lamanda Park Branch Library, Altadena
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:3 pm – 5 pm
Address:140 S. Altadena Dr., Pasadena CA
Website:http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Greg Kaplan &The Journeyat Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Greg Kaplanwill present and discuss his book,The Journey: How to Prepare Kids for a Competitive and Changing World.
Greg Kaplan wishes parents would stop thinking, “What should I do to get my kid into a good college?” and instead ask: “How can I best prepare my child for what comes next?” Having practiced law and worked in investment banking early in his career before pivoting to working with students, parents, and educators. He knows what the world—and its population of college admissions officers—Is looking for in today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders: Grit. Leadership. Passion.
Where:Vroman’s
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:3 pm
Address:695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website:https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Greg-Kaplan-discusses-The-Journey
Jazmine Joyner, with Tachelle Cruz, & DEVOUR at Bel Canto Books KUBO – In-Person Event
Bel Canto hosts Jazmine Joyner,in conversation withRachelle Cruz, to discuss her graphic novel, DEVOUR.
In this horror graphic novel from award-winning writer Jazmine Joyner and illustrator Anthony Pugh, American Gods meets Get Out in a dark retelling of the West African legend of Anansi the Spider
Devour tells the story of the Turner family, who move to Alabama to care for their ailing matriarch, Vassie, when she begins suffering from dementia. But Vassie isn’t just any old lady; she’s the last of a line of powerful root women who have been caring for the community since her ancestors were first captured and enslaved by white plantation owners.
Jazmine Joyner is a Black disabled nonbinary femme who has been working in various parts of the comics industry for years. From being the first Black woman on the West Coast to own a comic shop to being an award-winning comics journalist, they have committed their life to their love of comics. They are based in Southern California and have written for Women Write About Comics, The Comics MNT, and others. Devour is their debut graphic novel.
Rachelle Cruz is the author of God’s Will for Monsters, which won an American Book Award in 2018 and the 2016 Hillary Gravendyk Regional Poetry Prize. She co-edited Kuwento: Lost Things, an anthology of Philippine Myths with Lis P. Sipin-Gabon. The second edition of her comics text resource, Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing and Creating Comics, was published in 2021. Her work has also appeared in Strange Horizons, Poets & Writers Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Yellow Medicine Review, among others.
RSVP
This event will be held indoors at KUBO LB (3976 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach CA).
Where:Bel Canto, KUBO Long Brach
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:4 pm
Address:3976 Atlantic Avenue Long Beach, CA 90807
Website:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-devour-with-author-jazmine-joyner-tickets-902521946437
Juneteenth Celebration: Chef Keith Corbin & California Soulat The Book Jewel – In-Person
Join us for a Juneteenth celebration with Chef Keith Corbin, two-times James Beard Award nominated executive chef and co-owner of Alta Adams, and the L.A. Times bestselling author of California Soul.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where:The Book Jewel
Date:Saturday, the 8th
Time:5 pm
Address:6259 W. 87thSt., Westchester, CA 90045
Website:https://www.instagram.com/p/C7H-0ILARYk/?hl=en
Special Event:Rufi Thorpe &Margo’s Got Money Trouble: A Novelat pages: a bookstore – In-PersonEvent
Bestselling authorRufi Thorpewill present her hometown launch of new novel,Margo’s Got Money Trouble.
Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an Only Fans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
Rufi Thorpe is the author of The Knockout Queen, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award; Dear Fang, with Love; and The Girls from Corona del Mar, which was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. A native of California, she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Where:pages: a bookstore
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:5 pm
Address:904 Manhattan Beach Ave., Manhattan Beach Blvd., CA 90266
Website:https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/special-author-event-rufi-thorpe
LARB Event:SHORT STORIES: Anna Dorn, Jean Chen Ho, Ben Loory & Jack Skelley at Permanent Records Roadhouse – In-PersonEvent
Everybody World and Los Angeles Review of Books present: SHORT STORIES, a night of shorts and short stories, featuring the best of the short story for, with readings by:
Anna Dorn, Jean Chen Ho, Ben Loory, and Jack Skelley.
Music from Mo0d and drinks from Madre Mezcal.
Anna Dorn is the author of the novels Vagablonde, Exalted, and Perfume & Pain. Exalted was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her next book, American Spirits, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in 2026. She lives in Los Angeles.
Jean Chen Ho is the author of Fiona and Jane, one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022, longlisted for the Story Prize, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Vulture, Vogue, Oprah Daily, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Electric Literature. Her fiction, essays, and criticism appear in New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Los Angeles Times, Guernica, and other publications. Ho is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Chapman University. She lives in Los Angeles. Her piece, “Travel Sarah,” can be found in issue no. 41, Truth, of the LARB Quarterly Journal.
Ben Loory is the author of the collections Tales of Falling and Flying and Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, both from Penguin Books. His fables and tales have appeared in The New Yorker, Fairy Tale Review, BOMB Magazine, and A Public Space, and been heard on This American Life and Selected Shorts. He lives and teaches short story writing in Los Angeles.
Jack Skelley is the author of the novel The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker (Semiotext(e), 2023), and Myth Lab: Theories of Plastic Love (Far West Press, 2024). Jack’s other books include Monsters (Little Caesar Press), Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson (Fred & Barney Press), and Interstellar Theme Park: New and Selected Writing (BlazeVOX). Jack’s psychedelic surf band Lawndale released two albums on SST Records, and has a new album, Twango.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:Permanent Record Roadhouse
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:6 pm – 9 pm
Address:1906 Cypress Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
Website:https://lareviewofbooks.org/event/short-stories-2024/
L.A. Book Launch: Marsha de la O & Creature, with Kim Young and Guests Holaday Mason at Beyond Baroque– In-PersonEvent
Marsha de la O will present her new book, Creature, with guest poets Kim Young and Holaday Mason.
Written during the last five years of the poet’s father’s life, Creature is a book about love, destruction, and the self, all standing in relation to family and the natural world. The poems themselves try to move toward what can’t be said by finding connection with other life forms.
Marsha de la O’s new book, Creature, came out from Pitt Poetry Series in January 2024, published through the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her previous book, Every Ravening Thing, also from Pitt, came out in 2019. Antidote for Night won the 2015 Isabella Gardner Award and was published by BOA Editions. De la O’s first book, Black Hope, was awarded the New Issues Press Poetry Prize and was published by New Issues Press, Western Michigan University. Black Hope won an Editors’ Choice, Small Press Book Award. She has been featured various times at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC, presented at AWP, and given workshops and readings at various colleges and universities including UCLA, UCSB, UC Riverside, the University of Pittsburgh, Sacramento Poetry Center, College of the Redwoods, Cal Lutheran, and other venues. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College and has published extensively in journals and anthologies, including two recent poems in The New Yorker.
Kim Young is a writer, teacher, and author of poetry book Night Radio, winner of the Agha Ali Shahid Poetry Prize and finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; Tigers, a collection of prose poems; and two poetry chapbooks. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Alta, Los Angeles Review of Books, TriQuarterly, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. She edited for many years the literary journal Chaparral, which features interviews and new writing from Maggie Nelson, Jericho Brown, Victoria Chang, and many others. She is currently at work on a hybrid book of memoir, journalism, and biography on the late poet Lee McCarthy.
Holaday Mason is author of five full-length collections of poetry: Towards the Forest, Dissolve, The Red Bowl: A Fable in Poems, The “She” Series: A Venice Correspondence (with Sarah Maclay), and The Weaver’s Body and two chapbooks: Interlude & Light Spilling From its Own Cup. Her sixth collection, As If Scattered, will be published by Giant Claw Press in 2024.
Nominated for several Pushcart awards, She has been published in Hotel Amerkia, Spillway, Solo, Pool, Poetry International, The Laurel Review, and more. She is also a portrait and fine art photographer focusing on the beauty of aging and humans as a part of nature. She served as co-editor for Beyond Baroque’s anthology Echo 681 and she has also lead writing workshops at Beyond Baroque. Currently she is poetry editor for online art and poetry magazine Furious Pure, and she was poetry editor for Mental Shoes. In private practice as a psychotherapist since 1993, she lives in Venice, California, She can be found at #holadaymasonphotography or #holadaymason or www.holadaymason.com or www.holadaymasonphotography.com.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where:Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date:Saturday, the 15th
Time:7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
The Improv Theatre Presents: Storyphile: Readings Hosted by Lee Boek at The Harmony Room at St. B’s –In-Person Event
The Improv Theatre and Storyphile present features:
John Fleck is an American actor and performance artist.
Eloy Torres is an artist, painter, muralist, singer, songwriter and composer.
Carla Sameth is the author of two collections of poetry: One Day on the Gold Line and Secondary Inspections. She is the 2022-2024 Co-Poet Laureate of Altadena.
Rocio Carlos is the author of Coyolxhauqui, Los Angeles, A World Below, and co-author of ex.her.pt.
Jeremy YS Ra is a queer, Chinese-Korean-American poet living in Los Angeles. A Pushcart and Best-of-the-Net nominee, his poems have appeared in Spillway, I-70 Review, Cultural Daily, San Diego Poetry Annual, and Catamaran Literary Reader, among others.
T.J. Troy is Principal Percussionist for MESTO, an internationally recognized orchestra specializing in Middle Eastern Classical Music, and has received global recognition for his virtuosic performances on traditional Arabic Percussion instruments.
Where: The Harmony Room at St. B’s
Date:Sunday, the 15th
Time:8 pm
Address:2109 Chickasaw Ave., Eagle Rock, CA 90041
Website:https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161736894701499&set=a.406375191498
Melrose Trading Post Event: Juneteenth Celebration with World Stage Press Poets by Greenway Arts Alliance at Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax H.S. –In-Person Event
Melrose Trading Post is a reading and spoken word event held every Sunday, rain or shine, at Fairfax High School, and tickets are available online as well as at the ticket booth on Sunday at the event.
A Juneteenth Celebration of Black musicians, poets, authors, artists, dancers and others will shine and celebrate together, including poets & storytellers:
Lynda Larose is a poet and performance artist who has been writing since 1993 and is looking to perform at various theatre festivals around the U.S.
AKold Piece is a writer, poet and spoken word artist. He is the author of The Weather Report a book of Haiku, andis an event host for the Anansi Writers Workshop, and for many poetry and open mic venues..
Nomad the Poet aka Sakile is a lifelong writer and poet.
Flyy High N/A
Sal Da Terra is a mixed media artist and poet and the author of Hummingbird’s Roses, Love’s Rage and I’m Every Woman.
James Coats is an author, poet, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. As a creative change agent, he believes the arts can inspire youth and influence positive change in the world. He is the author of All The Ways You Are Wonderful and Home Is A Voice. His newest poetry collection is Midnight & Mad Dreams
Tommy Domino is a spoken blues poet from Northwest Pasadena now residing in Long Beach. In 2015, his work was published in the anthology Poets and Allies for Resistance. The same year he performed at the 50th Anniversary of the Watts Writers Workshop “Passing the Magic”. In 2016, he was accepted to the Community Literature Initiative (4th module) Program at USC. In 2018, he performed at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) Spoken Word Festival. In February 2018, he released his first collection of spoken blues: Switches, Hot Wheel Tracks & Extension Cords on World Stage Press. He is an author, playwright and photographer.
Check every Sunday for details, story time and reading events.
Where:Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date:Sunday, the 16th(Every Sunday)
Time:10 am – 5 pm
Address:7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website:https://melrosetradingpost.org/tickets/ or https://melrosetradingpost.org/juneteenth-2024/
Drop-In Class at Get Lit Office –In-Person Teen Event
Drop In Class is back! This FREE class offers writing, practice, performance training, and confidence building for poets of ALL experience levels.
info@getlit.org
213.388.8639
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Get Lit
Date:Sunday, the 16th
Time:11 am – 1:30 pm
Address:672 S. Lafayette St., #10, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website:https://www.getlit.org/events?loxi_pathname=%2Fmonth%2F2024%2F6
Bucket List Book Club: Slaughterhouse-Five at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Bucket List participants will discuss Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel by author Kurt Vonnegut.
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”
NOTE: See site for details.
Where:Cellar Door Bookstore
Date:Sunday, the 16th
Time:3 pm
Address:473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website:https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-slaughterhouse-five
Speech Bubble: Comics Bookclub: Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá, & Daytripperat North Figuerao Bookshop –In-PersonEvent
Fábio Moon andGabriel Bá will discuss the trippy, existential, Eisner Award winning graphic novel,Daytripper.
Daytripper follows the life of one man, Bras de Olivias Dominguez. Every chapter features an important period in Bras’ life in exotic Brazil, and each story ends the same way: with his death. And then, the following story starts up at a different point in his life, oblivious to his death in the previous issue—and then also ends with him dying again. In every chapter, Bras dies at different moments in his life, as the story follows him through his entire existence—one filled with possibilities of happiness and sorrow, good and bad, love and loneliness. Each issue rediscovers the many varieties of daily life, in a story about living life to its fullest—because any of us can die at any moment.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:North Figueroa Bookshop
Date:Sunday the 16th
Time:5 pm
Address:6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website:https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lv7alwb6
Bloomsday Psychedelia at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents Psybernetic Dreaming with Ria Live Cinema and Live Music. Imagine the flaneur Bloom wondering around Dublin tripping on mushrooms ala mind-altering psychogeography. 6 to 9pm, free admission. Laughtears.com.
NOTE: See site for further details and information.
Where:Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date:Sunday, the 16th
Time:7 pm
Address:681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html or https://www.laughtears.com/
Focus on Craft Book Club:Best Laid Plansat The Ripped Bodice –In-PersonEvent
June’s Focus on Craft Book Club is led by editor and teacher Jeanne De Vita and meets on the 3rdSunday of the month.
This month’s discussion will focus onBest Laid Plansby authorRoan Parrish.
Roan Parrish’sBest Laid Plans: A Novel (Garnet Run Book 2)is about a man who’s been moving his whole life finally finds a reason to stay put.
Please join us. No membership is required.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where:The Ripped Bodice
Date:Sunday the 16th
Time:7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address:3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website:https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
