BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Litseen - ECPv6.15.11//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://litseen.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Litseen REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20190310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20191103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20200308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20201101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20210314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20211107T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T143000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T212729Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T212729Z UID:55645-1582376400-1582381800@litseen.com SUMMARY:Ann Harleman Reading from TELL ME\, SIGNORA DESCRIPTION:Ann Harleman will read from and discuss her new novel\, TELL ME\, SIGNORA.  Kate Hagesfeld\, a recent widow\, travels to Italy just after 9/11 to restart her career as an archaeologist.  Caught up in efforts to aid political refugees\, she must make the choice of a lifetime.  Ann is the author of four previous books: Happiness; Bitter Lake; Thoreau’s Laundry; The Year She Disappeared.   “A wonderful talent!” (The Washington Post); “Stellar” (O\, The Oprah Magazine); “verbal razzle-dazzle…mystery…a dexterous writer” (The New York Times) URL:https://litseen.com/event/ann-harleman-reading-from-tell-me-signora/ LOCATION:Book Passage\, 1 Ferry Building\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94111\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200203T215748Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200203T215748Z UID:55417-1582392600-1582398000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Day of Remembrance with author Duncan Ryuken Williams DESCRIPTION:Day of Remembrance:\nDuncan Ryuken Williams discusses his book\, American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War. Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals the little-known story of how\, in the darkest hours of World War II when Japanese Americans were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps\, a community of Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history\, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. \nSponsored by Oakland Asian Cultural Center\, Eastwind Books of Berkeley\, and Berkeley JACL. \nOACC’s 2020 Day of Remembrance programs are supported in part by the CA State Library Civil Liberties grant. URL:https://litseen.com/event/day-of-remembrance-with-author-duncan-ryuken-williams/ LOCATION:Oakland Asian Cultural Center\, 388 9th St Ste 290\, Oakland\, CA\, 94607\, United States CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-14.png ORGANIZER;CN="Eastwind Books":MAILTO:eastwindbooks@gmail.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T004348Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T004600Z UID:55052-1582398000-1582405200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Alan Kaufman\, Maxine Chernoff\, and Jake Marmer – Three Jewish Writers at The Beat Museum DESCRIPTION:ALAN KAUFMAN \nAlan Kaufman is a novelist and memoirist known for his storytelling power and who’s been not only praised by everyone from Dave Eggers\, Etgar Keret and Sapphire to David Mamet\, Hubert Selby Jr. and Thane Rosenbaum but has been compared by critics to such prose masters as Henry Miller\, I.B. Singer and Jack Kerouac. His books include The Berlin Woman\, Matches\, Jew Boy\, Drunken Angel and several anthologies\, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and The Outlaw Bible of American Art. \n\nMAXINE CHERNOFF \nMaxine Chernoff has written 17 books of poetry\, most recently Under the Music (MadHat Press\, 2019)\, and 6 works of fiction. An NEA fellow in poetry in 2013\, she is also recipient of the 2009 PEN Translation Award. She was a 2016 Visiting Writer at the American Academy in Rome. She is a professor of Creative Writing at SFSU\, where she chaired the department for 20 years. \nMaxine Chernoff at SF State \n  \n\nJAKE MARMER \nJake Marmer is a poet\, performer\, and educator. His latest poetry collection Cosmic Diaspora is forthcoming from Station Hill Press in May 2020. He is also the author of The Neighbor Out of Sound (2018) and Jazz Talmud (2012)\, both published by the Sheep Meadow Press. His klez-jazz-poetry record Hermeneutic Stomp was released by the Blue Fringe Music 2013. Jake is the contributing editor and poetry critic for Tablet Magazine. Born in the provincial steppes of Ukraine\, in a city that was renamed four times in the past 100 years\, Jake considers himself a New Yorker\, even though he lives in the Bay Area. For more info\, see jakemarmer.com. URL:https://litseen.com/event/alan-kaufman-maxine-chernoff-and-jake-marmer-three-jewish-writers-at-the-beat-museum/ LOCATION:The Beat Museum\, 540 Broadway\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94133\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Terry-Adams-at-2016-Beat-Museum-Poetry-Festival-by-Bob-Booker.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T015739Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T015739Z UID:55149-1582398000-1582405200@litseen.com SUMMARY:THERE 32 DESCRIPTION:NEXT THERE: THERE 32  will be Saturday\, February 22\, 2020\, at East Bay Booksellers\, 5433 College Avenue in Oakland\, guests TBA. \nTHERE was featured prominently in the San Francisco Chronicle! \nTHERE (THe Eastbay Reading Extravaganza) is a reading series showcasing emerging and established writers from Oakland and Berkeley\, with the occasional San Franciscan. For more than four years. Doug hosted it on the (usually) third Friday of each month at Octopus Literary Salon in Uptown Oakland. It also features a live original musical performance by a local musical artist at “halftime” of each month’s reading\, and Doug’s famous original LitQuiz literary trivia contest. It’s from 7:00-9:00pm. THERE has been putting the there back in Oakland since 2015! But sadly\, the Octopus was forced to close its doors in August ’19\, so now THERE is relocating to East Bay Booksellers in the Rockridge district of Oakland\, resuming February 22\, 2020. URL:https://litseen.com/event/there-32/ LOCATION:East Bay Booksellers\, 5433 College Avenue\, Oakland\, 94618 CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/THERE.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200222T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200131T200645Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200131T200645Z UID:55329-1582398000-1582405200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Sean Negus and Caroline Goodwin at Alley Cat Books DESCRIPTION:Join us to celebrate the publication of Hurricane Music (Sean Negus) and Custody of the Eyes (Caroline Goodwin). \n  URL:https://litseen.com/event/sean-negus-and-caroline-goodwin-at-alley-cat-books/ LOCATION:Alley Cat Books\, 3036 24th St\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94110\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/alleycatlogo.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T170000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200219T012722Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200219T012722Z UID:55795-1582466400-1582477200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Polyglot Author Kiran Bhat Reads from we of the forsaken world (and open mic) DESCRIPTION:Come out to Kiran Bhat’s upcoming reading from his new book We of the Forsaken World at Oakland’s Café Uccello (340 14th St) next Sunday February 23rd from 2-5 pm. All ages\, open mic to follow.\n\nAbout We of the Forsaken World…:\n\n\nIn a distant corner of the globe\, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother\, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe\, the chief’s second son is born\, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers. In one of the world’s sprawling metropolises\, a homeless one-armed woman sets out to take revenge upon the men who trafficked her. And\, in a small village of shanty shacks connected only by a mud-and- concrete road\, a milkmaid watches the girls she calls friends destroy her reputation. \nIn we of the forsaken world… Kiran Bhat tells the stories of four worlds falling apart\, through the structure of four linguistic chains\, comprised of the accounts of four people witnessing the decline of these worlds\, in four acts. Like modern communication networks\, these sixteen stories connect along subtle lines\, dispersing at the moments where another story is about to take place. they flow together and disconnect. Each story is a parable of its own\, into the mind of a distinct human being. These are the tales of not just sixteen strangers\, but many different lives\, who live on this planet\, at every second\, everywhere. \n\n\nAbout Kiran Bhat:\n\nKiran Bhat is the author of the poetry collections Autobiografia (Letrame Editorial\, 2019) and Kiran Speaks (White Elephant Press\, 2019)\, as well as the Kannada-language travelogue Tirugaatha (Chiranthana Media Solutions\, 2019) and the novel We of the Forsaken World (Iguana Books\, 2019). He has traveled to over 130 countries\, lived in 18 different places\, and speaks 12 languages. He considers Mumbai his spiritual base\, but currently lives in Melbourne.\n\nOpen mic to follow\, headlined by Sheryl Bize-Boutte (author of Running for the 2:10)\, Christopher Bernard (author of the novel Meditations on Love and Loss at the Liars’ Café)\, Mary Mackey (author of The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams)\, Pamela McCorduck (author of This Could Be Important\, a history of AI technology) Kristen Caven (author of The Souls of Her Feet\, a modern Cinderella)\, Linda Brown\, and Joan Gelfand (poet and author of the upcoming novel about tech culture and Silicon Valley\, Extreme).\n\nFood provided\, drinks for purchase! We would love to see more guests! URL:https://litseen.com/event/polyglot-author-kiran-bhat-reads-from-we-of-the-forsaken-world-and-open-mic/ LOCATION:Cafe Uccello\, 340 14th Street\, Oakland\, 94612 CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/kiran_bhat_profile.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T173000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191227T064431Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191227T064431Z UID:54587-1582473600-1582479000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Silent Book Club SF DESCRIPTION:Bring a book\, bring a friend\, and join Silent Book Club for an afternoon of reading! At Silent Book Club\, there’s no assigned reading. All books and all ages are welcome. \nWe’ll kick off introvert happy hour at 4pm with some light chatter and informal book recommendations before settling in to read quietly\, but if you’d rather just pull up a chair and read\, by all means do so. No one will be shushed or shamed. The bar will be open for late afternoon libations. \nHappy reading and hope to see you there! \n\nPlease note: this event will be at The Bindery\, 1727 Haight. \nRSVP appreciated but not required. \nPhoto by Cody Pickens for O Magazine URL:https://litseen.com/event/silent-book-club-sf-5/ LOCATION:The Bindery\, 1727 Haight St\, San Francisco \, 94117\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Silent-Book-Club-at-The-Bindery-in-San-Francisco-by-Cody-Pickens.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200223T180000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200221T005652Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200221T005652Z UID:55986-1582480800-1582480800@litseen.com SUMMARY:SF in SF with Juliette Wade\, Tiffany Trent\, and Mike Chen DESCRIPTION:Please join us for an evening of reading and conversation with authors Juliette Wade\, Tiffany Trent\, and Mike Chen\, in conversation with Bay Area writer\, editor\, and raconteur Terry Bisson. \nJuliette Wade’s first novel\, Mazes of Power\, is just out from Daw; a work of sociological science fiction\, it follows a deadly battle for succession in a world where brother is pitted against brother in a singular chance to win power and influence. Wade’s short fiction has been published in Analog\, Clarkesworld\, and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines\, and she runs the popular Dive into Worldbuilding video series and blog. With a B.A. in Japanese\, an M.A. in Linguistics\, and a Ph.D. in Education\, Wade has spent time living in France and Japan. Now she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her Australian husband and two teenage boys. \nTiffany Trent is the author of The Unnaturalists and The Tinker King\, and of the Hallowmere series. Her short stories have appeared in Clockwork Cairo\, Willful Impropriety\, After the Fall\, and others. With Stephanie Burgis she is the editor of the Locus Award finalist for Best Anthology\, The Underwater Ballroom Society. Trent teaches creative writing in the online MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University. She lives with her husband and two awesome kids\, and geeks out over beekeeping\, suburban homesteading\, weird science\, pie\, and martial arts. \nMike Chen‘s new novel A Beginning at the End\, is set among people struggling to survive and connect in post-pandemic San Francisco; his first book\, Here and Now and Then\, followed a time-traveling secret agent–and father–torn between a life in the future and one in the past. In addition to writing fiction\, Chen has been a tech writer\, Word Press developer\, and sports journalist. He lives in the Bay Area with his family\, and is ready to explain why Jean-Luc Picard is the greatest human in real or fictional history. \nDoors open at 6:00 pm; event begins at 6:30 pm. As always\, Borderlands Books will be on hand with copies of the authors’ works for sale. URL:https://litseen.com/event/sf-in-sf-with-juliette-wade-tiffany-trent-and-mike-chen/ LOCATION:American Bookbinders Museum\, 355 Clementina St\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94103\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-73.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200224T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200224T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200216T011730Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200216T011730Z UID:55864-1582567200-1582576200@litseen.com SUMMARY:In Search of My Robot: Media\, Racialized Gender\, and Creativity DESCRIPTION:Robots\, like any technology\, are not “objective” or “universal”; instead\, machines reveal the process of social formation. This talk by poet\, scholar\, and new media artist Margaret Rhee demonstrates how forms of difference—such as race\, gender\, and sexuality—are shaped by and co-constitutive with technological developments. Specifically\, Rhee illustrates how the robot is a locus of racialization for Asian Americans within modernity’s distinction between humans and machines. \nRhee is the author of Love\, Robot\, named a 2017 Best Book of Poetry by Entropy Magazine and awarded a 2018 Elgin Award by the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the 2019 Best Book Award in Poetry by the Asian American Studies Association. For more information\, visit artsdesign.berkeley.edu. \nMargaret Rhee is a poet\, scholar\, and new media artist. She is the author of Love\, Robot\, named a 2017 Best Book of Poetry by Entropy Magazine and awarded a 2018 Elgin Award by the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the 2019 Best Book Award in Poetry by the Asian American Studies Association. Her poetry chapbooks include Yellow and Radio Heart; or\, How Robots Fall Out of Love\, and forthcoming collection Poetry Machines: A Letter to a Future Reader\, a collection of lyrical essays on poetry\, and the intersections of cinema\, art\, and new media. Currently\, she is completing her monograph How We Became Human: Race\, Robots\, and the Asian American Body. She was a College Fellow in Digital Practice in the English Department at Harvard University and a member of MetaLab @ Harvard. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in ethnic studies with a designated emphasis in new media studies. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Study at SUNY Buffalo and co-leads Palah 파랗 Light Studios\, a creative space for poetry\, participation\, and pedagogy through technology. \nPresented by the Berkeley Center for New Media; cosponsored by the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Comparative Literature. URL:https://litseen.com/event/in-search-of-my-robot-media-racialized-gender-and-creativity/ LOCATION:Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive\, 2155 Center St.\, Berkeley\, CA\, 94704\, United States CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/In-Search-of-My-Robot-Media-Racialized-Gender-and-Creativity.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200224T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200224T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T192213Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T192213Z UID:55589-1582570800-1582578000@litseen.com SUMMARY:John Sayles at City Lights Books DESCRIPTION:Yellow Earth \nfrom Haymarket Books \n\nRich layers of shale oil are discovered under Yellow Earth\, North Dakota and the neighboring Three Nations Indian reservation. All hell breaks loose. \n\n\nIn Yellow Earth\, the site of Three Nations reservations on the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota\, Sayles introduces us to Harleigh Killdeer\, chairman of the Tribal Business Council. “An activist in his way\, a product of the Casino Era\,” Kildeer\, who is contracted by oil firm Case and Crosby\, spearheads the new Three Nations Petroleum Company. \nWhat follows\, with characteristic lyrical dexterity\, insight\, and wit\, introduces us to a memorable cast of characters\, weaving together narratives of competing worlds through masterful storytelling. \nSet shortly before Standing Rock would become a symbol of historic proportions of the brutal confrontation between native resistance and the forces of big business and law enforcement\, the fate of Yellow Earth serves as a parable for our times. \nJohn Sayles works as a fiction writer\, screenwriter\, actor and feature film director.  His novel Union Dues (1978) was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Critics’ Circle Award.  He has written over a hundred screenplays and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.  He has directed 18 feature films\, with another\, I Passed This Way\, currently in progress.  His films Matewan and Lone Star\, as well as his previous novel A Moment in the Sun\, are often used for instruction in History and American Studies courses.  Yellow Earth is his fifth novel. \nWhat has been said about the work of John Sayles: \n“John Sayles is a living master. Yellow Earth reminds me what novels are for.” —Jennifer Haigh\, author of Heat and Light \nFilmmaker Sayles … is also a highly imaginative short story writer with a sure ear for dialogue\, a keen eye for group dynamics\, a flair for quickly establishing intriguing mise-en-scènes\, and the ability to animate a great spectrum of flinty characters … Sayles expresses his compassion and concern for those who struggle with poverty and prejudice\, seeking both to provoke and entertain.” —Booklist\n“Many writers can render credible characters in a credible world\, but only a few can do so with a warmth and a humor that is as wise as it is true.” —Chicago Sun-Times\n“[Sayles’s] ancestry is more like the reportorial vigor Jack London on one side and a little of the sweet impressionism of Stephen Crane on the other.” —The New York Times\n“John Sayles is one of the most important public historians of our generation.” —William Cronon\, President of the American Historical Association\n“John Sayles is the very paradigm of the contemporary independent filmmaker. By raising much of the funding for his films himself\, Sayles functions more independently than most directors\, and he has used his freedom to write and produce films with a distinctive personal style and often clearly expressed political positions.From The Return of the Secaucus Seven to Sunshine State\, his films have consistently expressed progressive political positions on issues including race\, gender\, sexuality\, class\, and disability.”  —University of Illinois Press\nSayles is a terrific writer. His breathtaking precision and attention to detail can make E.L. Doctorow’s historical novels look puny and slapdash by comparison. His ability to map the intersections of scores of plots and hundreds of fictional and real-life characters is truly stunning.”  —Adam Langer\, San Francisco Chronicle URL:https://litseen.com/event/john-sayles-at-city-lights-books/ LOCATION:City Lights Bookstore\, 261 Columbus Ave\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94133\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/John_Sayles-f_medium-2e0097448a3bb1f5b7c9528d1bb99d88.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T173000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T011950Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T011950Z UID:55093-1582651800-1582657200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Contemporary Writers Series: Aria Aber DESCRIPTION:Aria Aber was raised in Germany\, where she was born to Afghan refugees. Her debut book\, Hard Damage\, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in 2019. Aber’s poems are forthcoming or have appeared in the New Yorker\, New Republic\, Kenyon Review\, Yale Review\, Poem-A-Day\, Narrative\, Muzzle Magazine\, Wasafiri\, and others. She holds awards and fellowships from Kundiman and Dickinson House and was the 2018–19 Ron Wallace Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Aber is the spring 2020 Li Shen Visiting Writer at Mills College. URL:https://litseen.com/event/contemporary-writers-series-aria-aber/ LOCATION:Mills Hall Living Room\, Mills College\, 5000 MacArthur Blvd\, Oakland \, CA\, 94613\, United States CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/photo-of-Aria-Aber.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191227T030937Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191227T030937Z UID:54572-1582657200-1582662600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Megan Fernandes with Sam Sax DESCRIPTION:Megan Fernandes reads from her new collection of poetry \nGood Boys \npublished by Tin House Books \nIn an era of rising nationalism and geopolitical instability\, Megan Fernandes’s Good Boys offers a complex portrait of messy feminist rage\, negotiations with race and travel\, and existential dread in the Anthropocene. The collection follows a restless\, nervy\, cosmically abandoned speaker failing at the aspirational markers of adulthood as she flips from city to city\, from enchantment to disgust\, always reemerging—just barely—on the trains and bridges and barstools of New York City. A child of the Indian ocean diaspora\, Fernandes enacts the humor and devastation of what it means to exist as a body of contradictions. Her interpretations are muddied. Her feminism is accusatory\, messy. Her homelands are theoretical and rootless. The poet converses with goats and throws a fit at a tarot reading; she loves the intimacy of strangers during turbulent plane rides and has dark fantasies about the “hydrogen fruit” of nuclear fallout. Ultimately\, these poems possess an affection for the doomed: false beloveds\, the hounded earth\, civilizations intent on their own ruin. Fernandes skillfully interrogates where to put our fury and\, more importantly\, where to direct our mercy. \nMegan Fernandes is a writer and academic living in New York City. She is the author of The Kingdom and After (Tightrope Books 2015). Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the New Yorker\, Tin House\, Ploughshares\, Denver Quarterly\, Chicago Review\, Boston Review\, Rattle\, Pank\, the Common\, Guernica\, the Academy of American Poets\, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency\, among others. She is a poetry reader for the Rumpus and an Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California\, Santa Barbara and an MFA in poetry from Boston University. \nSam Sax is a queer Jewish writer and educator. He’s received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts\, Lambda Literary\, The MacDowell Colony\, the Blue Mountain Center\, and the Michener Center for Writers. He’s the winner of the 2016 Iowa Review Award and his poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review\, Gulf Coast\, Ploughshares\, Poetry\, and other journals. \n  URL:https://litseen.com/event/megan-fernandes-with-sam-sax/ LOCATION:City Lights Bookstore\, 261 Columbus Ave\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94133\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/front-cover-of-Good-Boys.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191227T173726Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191227T173726Z UID:54700-1582657200-1582662600@litseen.com SUMMARY:John Sayles: Yellow Earth DESCRIPTION:John Sayles works as a fiction writer\, screenwriter\, actor and feature film director. His novel Union Dues (1978) was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Critics’ Circle Award. He has written over a hundred screenplays and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has directed 18 feature films\, with another\, I Passed This Way\, currently in progress. His films Matewan and Lone Star\, as well as his previous novel A Moment in the Sun\, are often used for instruction in History and American Studies courses. Yellow Earth is his fifth novel. \nAbout Yellow Earth: \nRich layers of shale oil are discovered under Yellow Earth\, North Dakota and the neighboring Three Nations Indian reservation. All hell breaks loose. \nIn Yellow Earth\, the site of Three Nations reservations on the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota\, Sayles introduces us to Harleigh Killdeer\, chairman of the Tribal Business Council. “An activist in his way\, a product of the Casino Era\,” Kildeer\, who is contracted by oil firm Case and Crosby\, spearheads the new Three Nations Petroleum Company. \nWhat follows\, with characteristic lyrical dexterity\, insight\, and wit\, introduces us to a memorable cast of characters\, weaving together narratives of competing worlds through masterful storytelling. \nSet shortly before Standing Rock would become a symbol of historic proportions of the brutal confrontation between native resistance and the forces of big business and law enforcement\, the fate of Yellow Earth serves as a parable for our times. URL:https://litseen.com/event/john-sayles-yellow-earth/ LOCATION:Moe’s Books\, 2476 Telegraph Avenue\, BERKELEY\, 94704-2322 CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/front-cover-Yellow-Earth.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Moe's Books":MAILTO:owenmoes@gmail.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T223148Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T223148Z UID:55659-1582657200-1582664400@litseen.com SUMMARY:JoAnne Silver Jones\, Headstrong at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes JoAnne Silver Jones for a discussion and signing of her new book\, Headstrong. After a sudden assault by a stranger left Jones with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)\, fractured hands\, and PTSD\, she learned—with the help of a community that gave her the foundations of hope—to live with TBI in a society bursting with violence. \nShe didn’t see the hammer. For a fraction of a second JoAnne Jones saw a young black face\, framed by a black hoodie\, and then she descended into a place where she felt and saw nothing. Jones survived this sudden assault by a stranger\, but it left her with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI)\, fractured hands\, and PTSD. Headstrong tells the story of how she learned to live with the daily challenges of TBI. It brings the reader into a life traumatized by violence and set in the context of a society full of violence and vocal\, visible white supremacists. Woven throughout Jones’s account are the stories of how medical professionals\, friends\, family\, and strangers became a foundation strong enough to hold her during the worst of times\, and to give her the buoyancy to find a path toward hope. \n“Eloquently told\, Jones invites us into her harrowing journey from violence and brain injury to hope. With unflinching honesty\, she shows how her determination to heal\, led her to excavate the emotional legacy of her family and develop the emotional muscle to move beyond being a victim. If ever we needed a story of resilience against tough odds\, now is the time.” —Hilary Jacobs Hendel\, author of the award-winning book\, It’s Not Always Depression \n \nJoAnne Jones is Professor Emeritus at Springfield College in Massachusetts\, where she worked for twenty-five years. While at Springfield College\, Dr. Jones served as Associate Dean of the School of Human Services and Acting Dean of the School of Social Work. Before Springfield College\, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts\, Amherst\, and an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at the University of Calgary\, School of Social Welfare. Her teaching and research focused primarily on social justice issues. In addition to teaching\, she has consulted with public and private organizations in relation to diversity\, inclusiveness\, and excellence. She is a cofounder of the firm Diversityworks Consulting. \n URL:https://litseen.com/event/joanne-silver-jones-headstrong-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/headstrong-jones-750-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191124T170158Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191124T170158Z UID:53746-1582659000-1582664400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Emily Nemens: The Cactus League DESCRIPTION:Emily Nemens discusses her new novel The Cactus League. \nPraise for The Cactus League \n“Emily Nemens’s magnificent debut is a masterwork of great empathy and detail\, uncovering the realms of incredible pain and beauty enmeshed within every level of America’s pastime. If you love baseball\, you won’t put it down\, and if you don’t love baseball\, you might by the end.” —J. Ryan Stradal\, author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Kitchens of the Great Midwest \n“A debut? You’ve got to be kidding.The Cactus League reads like the work of a seasoned novelist. The way the story’s tension ramps\, the richly drawn characters\, the indelible imagery—you’ll never see a ball park the same—not to mention Emily Nemens’s knowledge of America’s pastime is downright encyclopedic. And while all those things are true\, absolutely true\, the heart of this amazing novel is Emily’s understanding of the crucibles faced by those both in the limelight and out of it. Goodyear and the rest of the gang are a cast for the ages. Hip hip hooray for this achievement.” —Mitchell S. Jackson\, author of Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family \n“The Cactus League is not just another baseball novel. I can’t think of another book that so carefully examines the complex ecosystem of professional sport. With both compassion and objectivity\, Emily Nemens deftly depicts the rich lives and stories that swirl beneath the ‘meaningless’ innings of spring training.” —Chris Bachelder\, author of The Throwback Special \nAbout The Cactus League \nAn explosive\, character-driven odyssey through the world of baseball from Emily Nemens\, the editor of The Paris Review \nJason Goodyear is the star outfielder for the Los Angeles Lions\, stationed with the rest of his team in the punishingly hot Arizona desert for their annual spring training. Handsome\, famous\, and talented\, Goodyear is nonetheless coming apart at the seams. And the coaches\, writers\, wives\, girlfriends\, petty criminals\, and diehard fans following his every move are eager to find out why—as they hide secrets of their own. \nHumming with the energy of a ballpark before the first pitch\, Emily Nemens’ The Cactus League unravels the tightly connected web of people behind a seemingly linear game. Narrated by a sportscaster\, Goodyear’s story is interspersed with tales of Michael Taylor\, a batting coach trying to stay relevant; Tamara Rowland\, a resourceful spring-training paramour\, looking for one last catch; Herb Allison\, a legendary sports agent grappling with his decline; and a plethora of other richly drawn characters\, all striving to be seen as the season approaches. It’s a journey that\, like the Arizona desert\, brims with both possibility and destruction. \nAnchored by an expert knowledge of baseball’s inner workings\, Emily Nemens’s The Cactus League is a propulsive and deeply human debut that captures a strange desert world that is both exciting and unforgiving\, where the most crucial games are the ones played off the field. URL:https://litseen.com/event/emily-nemens-the-cactus-league/ LOCATION:Green Apple Books on the Park\, 1231 9th Ave\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94122\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Nemens.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T194500 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200225T213000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T210602Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T210602Z UID:55238-1582659900-1582666200@litseen.com SUMMARY:The MFA in Writing Program presents Cristina García in conversation with Omar. F. Miranda DESCRIPTION:Cristina García is the author of seven novels\, including: Dreaming in Cuban\, The Agüero Sisters\, Monkey Hunting\, A Handbook to Luck\, The Lady Matador’s Hotel\, King of Cuba\, and\, most recently\, Here in Berlin; two Latinx anthologies: Cubanísimo: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature and Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature; and a collection of poetry\, The Lesser Tragedy of Death. García’s work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into fourteen languages. She’s the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship\, a Whiting Writers’ Award\, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University\, and an NEA grant\, among others. Currently\, she is playwright-in-residence at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. \nOmar F. Miranda is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of San Francisco. He teaches courses in British Romantic-era literature\, and his research focuses on exile and the birth of global celebrity culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As a second-generation Cuban exile from Miami\, he grew up in a community that\, while attempting to recreate it abroad\, invariably longed for its true homeland across the Florida Straits. URL:https://litseen.com/event/the-mfa-in-writing-program-presents-cristina-garcia-in-conversation-with-omar-f-miranda/ LOCATION:McLaren Complex – MC252\, USF\, 2130 Fulton Street\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94118\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Cristina-Garcia.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200205T072827Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200205T072827Z UID:55475-1582740000-1582743600@litseen.com SUMMARY:the system must be tried DESCRIPTION:SF writer Kevin Simmonds reads from the system must be tried\, sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission. URL:https://litseen.com/event/the-system-must-be-tried/ LOCATION:Readers Bookstore\, Fort Mason Center\, Building C\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94123\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/D228B545-EA1C-4BB6-83C4-774AD7F25053.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Friends of the San Francisco Public Library":MAILTO:info@friendssfpl.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T200000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T213351Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T213351Z UID:55647-1582741800-1582747200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Around the World DESCRIPTION:This year marks the 25th anniversary of the UN Conference of Women in Beijing\, but what kind of progress has really been made? One billion girls and women still lack the skills\, education\, and rights needed to participate in the labor market. Eighty percent of human trafficking victims are girls. Early marriage is still prevalent in many African countries and women’s economic participation rates are now on the decline globally. \nOne woman who has spent her life working to improve the lives of women and advocate for a just and fair world is Karen Sherman. Sherman has spent her life advocating for women in war-torn and transitional countries such as Iraq\, Afghanistan\, Bosnia\, Congo\, Nigeria\, Rwanda\, South Sudan\, Kosovo\, and the former Soviet Union. Sherman now serves as President of the Akilah Institute\, Rwanda’s only women’s college\, and was a senior executive at Women for Women International\, an organization that helps women survivors of war to rebuild their lives. \nIn her new memoir “Brick by Brick” Sherman tells\, not only her own story of moving her family to Kigali\, Rwanda in 2012\, but also those of women who survived the Rwandan genocide\, and how it forever changed her life. She’ll join us to discuss the book\, how economic empowerment brings choice for women\, what role governments and the private sector can play in supporting women\, and how women globally can be more connected to one another. URL:https://litseen.com/event/building-hope-and-opportunity-for-women-around-the-world/ LOCATION:World Affaris Auditorium\, 312 Sutter Street\, Suite 200\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94108\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ORGANIZER;CN="Abigail Welhouse":MAILTO:abigail@scottmanningpr.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200221T004500Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200221T004500Z UID:55979-1582741800-1582749000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Author visit and discussion with Anna Wiener\, author of UNCANNY VALLEY DESCRIPTION:oin us for a visit and discussion with local author Anna Wiener\, author of UNCANNY VALLEY. Anna Wiener is a contributing writer to The New Yorker online\, where she writes about Silicon Valley\, startup culture\, and technology. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic\, New York\, The New Republic\, and n+1\, as well as in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017. Anna will be in discussion with Ruby member Natalie So. \nThanks to the publisher\, we have 10 copies available to the first 10 Rubies who sign up for this event! You will be notified if you are one of the ten. We hope to have a discussion about the book itself\, so please purchase a copy from one of our local bookstores or borrow from a local library! \nAbout UNCANNY VALLEY \nA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a January 2020 IndieNext Pick. An Amazon Best Book of January. One of Vogue’s 22 Books to Read This Winter\, The Washington Post’s 10 Books to Read in January\, ELLE’s 12 Best Books to Read in 2020\, The New York Times’s 12 Books to Read in January\, Esquire’s 15 Best Winter Books\, Paste’s 10 Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2020\, and Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2020. \n“A definitive document of a world in transition: I won’t be alone in returning to Uncanny Valley for clarity and consolation for many years to come.” —Jia Tolentino\, author of Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion \nThe prescient\, page-turning account of a journey in Silicon Valley: a defining memoir of our digital age \nIn her mid-twenties\, at the height of tech industry idealism\, Anna Wiener—stuck\, broke\, and looking for meaning in her work\, like any good millennial–left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco\, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance\, dubious success\, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination\, glory\, and\, of course\, progress. \nAnna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift\, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies\, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty\, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head\, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building. \nPart coming-age-story\, part portrait of an already-bygone era\, Anna Wiener’s memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying\, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition\, unregulated surveillance\, wild fortune\, and accelerating political power. With wit\, candor\, and heart\, Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability\, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration\, ambivalence\, and disillusionment. \nUnsparing and incisive\, Uncanny Valley is a cautionary tale\, and a revelatory interrogation of a world reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning to understand. URL:https://litseen.com/event/author-visit-and-discussion-with-anna-wiener-author-of-uncanny-valley/ LOCATION:The Ruby\, 23rd and bryant street\, san francisco\, 94110 CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-71.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191227T064154Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191227T064154Z UID:54584-1582743600-1582749000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Dean A. Strang in conversation with Lara Bazelon DESCRIPTION:Booksmith hosts Dean A. Strang for his new book\, Keep the Wretches in Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial\, the Rise of the Justice Department\, and the Fall of the IWW. He’ll be in conversation with Lara Bazelon (Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction). \nBefore World War I\, the government reaction to labor dissent had been local\, ad hoc\, and quasi-military. Sheriffs\, mayors\, or governors would elevate strikebreakers to deputies or call out the state militia\, usually at the bidding of employers. \nAt the time one of the nation’s largest unions was the Industrial Workers of the World\, also known as the Wobblies. The IWW had members in critical industries across the country. In April 1917\, when the United States entered the war\, the government feared the threat of a labor strike from such a large number of workers could endanger or even halt war production. Officials in the relatively young Department of Justice determined that a more coordinated strategy would be necessary. \nTo prevent stoppages\, the DOJ embarked on a sweeping new effort—replacing gunmen with lawyers. The department systematically targeted the IWW\, resulting in the largest mass trial in U.S. history. The first of four indictments named 166 defendants in September 1917. The Chicago trial started with 112 men accused\, sitting on bleachers\, with one small defense team and a judge and prosecutors who did not know their names or faces. \nIn the first legal history of this landmark federal trial\, Dean A. Strang shows how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamentally different strategy to stifle radical threats and played a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. As the trial unfolded\, it became an exercise of raw force\, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under great external pressure. \n\nDean Strang is familiar to millions through Netflix’s Making A Murderer. He is a criminal defense lawyer in Wisconsin and a visiting professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. Strang is the author of two books of legal history\, his newest\, Keep the Wretches in Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial\, the Rise of the Justice Department\, and the Fall of the IWW\, and his earlier\, Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists\, Clarence Darrow\, and Justice in a Time of Terror. \nLara Bazelon is a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law where she directs the criminal and racial justice clinics. Previously Lara was a trial attorney in the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles and the director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent. She is the author of Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction and a contributing writer for Slate and Politico Magazine. Her essays and op-eds have also been published in the New York Times\, the Atlantic Magazine\, the Washington Post\, and the Los Angeles Times. She lives with her two children in San Francisco and is currently working on a book about motherhood and ambition. \n\nThis event is free and all ages. \nRSVP appreciated but not required. \nIf you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of Keep the Wretches in Order\, order below and be sure to put your request in the special field. URL:https://litseen.com/event/dean-a-strang-in-conversation-with-lara-bazelon/ LOCATION:The Booksmith\, 1644 Haight St\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94117\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/front-cover-of-Keep-the-Wretches-in-Order.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200226T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191120T050407Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191120T050407Z UID:53874-1582745400-1582750800@litseen.com SUMMARY:Creative Writing Reading Series with Chris Feliciano Arnold DESCRIPTION:DATE & TIME:\n\nWednesday\, February 26\, 2020 – 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nLOCATION:\nSoda Activity Center: Claeys Lounge\, 1928 Saint Mary’s Road\, Moraga\, CA 94575\nView a map and get directions.\n\n\n\n\nDESCRIPTION:\n\n\nChris Feliciano Arnold has written essays for The Atlantic\, Harper’s\, Outside\, Vice News\, The New York Times\, and more. His fiction has been published by Playboy\, The Kenyon Review\, Ecotone and other magazines. His work has been noted in The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Short Stories. He has recieved fellowships and scholarships from the National Endowmnet for the Arts\, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference\, and the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon. His first book\, The Third Bank of the River: Power and Survival in the Twenty-First Century Amazon\, is a work of narrative nonfiction published by Picador in June 2018. \n\n\n\n\nADD TO CALENDAR\n\n\nCONTACT:\n\n\nKrista Varela Posell ext. 4762 \nwriters@stmarys-ca.edu URL:https://litseen.com/event/creative-writing-reading-series-with-chris-feliciano-arnold/ LOCATION:Soda Center\, Claeys Lounge SMC\, 1928 Saint Mary's Road\, Moraga\, CA\, 94575\, United States CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Chris_3.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Saint Mary's MFA in Creative Writing":MAILTO:writers@stmarys-ca.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T170000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200203T223717Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200203T223717Z UID:55437-1582790400-1582822800@litseen.com SUMMARY:Poetry Flash presents a book launch for The Collected Poetry and Prose of Lawrence Fixel DESCRIPTION:A book launch celebration for The Collected Poetry and Prose of Lawrence Fixel\, by San Francisco poet Lawrence Fixel\, who passed in 2003 at the age of 86. This long awaited new collection has been edited with an introduction by poet Gerald Fleming. Also appearing and presenting on the work of Lawrence Fixel at this evening will be poets Jack Marshall\, Edward Mycue\, Jo-Anne Rosen\, and poet-painter Patti Trimble\, painter Stephanie Sanchez\, photographer Mark Citret\, psychotherapist Robert Cantor\, and teacher Wendy Berkelman. Michael Heller says. “Lawrence Fixel was one of our most beautiful and original writers.…In a world of dogmas\, false certainties and oppressive realities\, he was an angel of Evanescence itself\, fluid\, ungraspable\, seeking as he wrote ‘to find in that which passes\, that which does not pass.’” Gerald Fleming is a poet and editor; he’s published four books of poems\, most recently One\, edited and published the literary magazine Barnabe Mountain Review\, and is currently editing the limited–edition vitreous magazine One (More) Glass. URL:https://litseen.com/event/poetry-flash-presents-a-book-launch-for-the-collected-poetry-and-prose-of-lawrence-fixel/ LOCATION:Moe’s Books\, 2476 Telegraph Ave\, Berkeley\, 94704 CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-20.png ORGANIZER;CN="Moe's Books":MAILTO:owenmoes@gmail.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T213711Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T213903Z UID:55651-1582826400-1582830000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Karen Sherman - Brick By Brick DESCRIPTION:Karen Sherman\, author of Brick By Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere moved her family from Bethesda\, Maryland to Kigali for a year in 2012 after a 25-year career working on women’s issues in developing countries and embattled parts of the world. More than a memoir of that year\, the book is a tribute to the women she met\, and how their stories profoundly impacted her own life. “In many ways\, our time in Rwanda surprised me.” says Sherman\, “It deepened my sense of perspective for what it takes to be a woman almost anywhere in the world today\, even when that womanhood is threatened or diminished by one’s family\, culture or society. There is much that women in the developed and developing worlds can learn from each other\, especially in this era of mass shootings and #MeToo.” Sherman and her three sons arrived in Rwanda after a tumultuous year in which her bid to become CEO of Women for Women International\, an organization that helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives\, had failed. She had worked there for close to a decade. \n“Like so many people in our modern\, success-driven society\, the job defined me\,” she writes. “But this work was much more than a job. Helping women who had survived war move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency resonated powerfully with me\, given my background and experiences. It felt right\, like what I was supposed to be doing. This failure felt personal. It was devastating.” So\, she took a one-year posting to Rwanda\, hoping it would distance her from the crises in her career and marriage and put her back in touch with the work on the ground. Throughout her career\, she had heard hundreds of personal stories from women who had endured war. The common thread was that all had managed to survive. “Now that we were living in Rwanda\,” she writes\, “I thought maybe\, if I could sit and talk with some of these women\, learn more about their perspectives and choices\, it might help to bring me back to myself.” For the rest of 2012 and into 2013\, Sherman oversaw the completion of a new Women’s Opportunity Center in Kayonza and the transitions of leadership in three of the four African countries where Women for Women worked. Each of the five hundred thousand bricks used to construct the Center were hand made by Rwandan women. “The architects of the Center would often talk about the process of building as ‘brick by brick.’ But I always thought of it as woman by woman\,” Sherman writes in the book’s prologue. “These women\, and so many of the survivors I worked with\, each in their own way\, had been able to build or rebuild their lives one step\, one small change\, in some cases\, one brick at a time\,” she realizes. “They’d held onto their dreams\, forged their own paths\, taken risks\, and led change in their families\, communities\, and countries. They had fully embraced their choices. In that moment I vowed to fully embrace mine.” \nKaren Sherman brings more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur\, strategist\, and executive level manager to her role as President of the Akilah Institute. Throughout her career\, Sherman has combined her expertise\, passion\, and transformative leadership skills to affect lasting change for women in conflict-affected countries and those in transition. She has global and sectoral experience in: Women and girls’ education around the world\, Women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship\, Women in conflict-affected countries. Across her different roles\, Sherman has worked with stakeholders at all levels\, from community groups to corporate leaders and heads of state\, to take programs from concept to scale. Most importantly\, her work has resulted in measurable impacts on women’s income\, health\, decision-making\, and social networks. Sherman serves as a thought leader and spokesperson on global women’s issues through the media\, public appearances\, and diverse social media platforms. She has been featured in multiple publications and was Executive Producer of The Other Side of War: Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope\, published by National Geographic. URL:https://litseen.com/event/karen-sherman-brick-by-brick/ LOCATION:Book Passage\, 1 Ferry Building\, San Francisco\, CA\, 94111\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200207T223455Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T223455Z UID:55662-1582830000-1582830000@litseen.com SUMMARY:FREE OFFSITE EVENT: Amitav Ghosh\, "Unmuting the Brutes" DESCRIPTION:The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz and the Center for Creative Ecologies present Beyond the End of the World Lecture Series\, featuring Amitav Ghosh: “Unmuting the Brutes: Human and Non-human After the Collapse of ‘Civilization.'” Amitav Ghosh will speak at the UC Santa Cruz Music Recital Hall Thursday\, February 27th at 7:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public with registration. Please register here. Books by Amitav Ghosh will be available for sale at this event\, provided by Bookshop Santa Cruz. \nThe idea of the ‘human’ dates back to the founding of modernity\, now hurtling towards collapse. As this process intensifies it may bring about a fundamental reconsideration of modern ideas regarding which entities possess such attributes as agency\, speech\, and reason. If so what kinds of narratives and knowledge traditions can we turn to for guidance about what might lie ahead? \nAmitav Ghosh is an award-winning writer\, who was born in Calcutta and grew up in India\, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He is the author of two books of non-fiction\, including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016)\, a collection of essays\, and ten novels. In 2018 he became the first English-language writer to receive India’s highest literary honor\, the Jnanpith Award. His most recent publication is Gun Island\, a novel. \nBeyond the End of the World comprises a year-long research and exhibition project and public lecture series\, directed by T. J. Demos of the Center for Creative Ecologies\, bringing leading international thinkers and cultural practitioners to UC Santa Cruz to discuss what lies beyond dystopian catastrophism\, and how we can cultivate radical futures of social justice and ecological flourishing. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture. For more information visit BEYOND.UCSC.EDU \nPresented in partnership with the Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture. The Maitra lecture series\, established in 2001\, seeks to enrich the intellectual life of UC Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz community. \nDirections and Parking:\nThe UCSC Music Recital Hall is located at 402 McHenry Rd\, Santa Cruz\, CA 95064\nParking lot attendants will be on site to sell permits and direct guests to available parking in the Performing Arts parking lot #126. The cost for parking is $5. \nIf you have disability-related needs\, please contact the The Humanities Institute at thi@ucsc.edu or call 831-4 URL:https://litseen.com/event/free-offsite-event-amitav-ghosh-unmuting-the-brutes/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Sawyer-Beyond-Ghosh-1.15-1600x900-1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200216T040822Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200216T040822Z UID:55899-1582830000-1582830000@litseen.com SUMMARY:EVES AT THE BEAT: WOMXN READING AT THE BEAT MUSEUM DESCRIPTION:During Women’s History month a constellation of events brought together a group of fabulous womxn+ writers. The meeting of these hearts and minds exploded into something powerful and a new monthly reading series concept was born\, “Eves at the Beat”. \nThis month’s Eves at the Beat is curated by Lauren Ito. \nReaders for this event: \n\nRAINA J. LEÓN\nGREER NAKADEGAWA-LEE\nAMANDA MUNIZ FERNANDEZ\nSKYE CABRERA\nE.K. KEITH\n\n\n“Eves at the Beat” is a monthly first Thursday reading series at The Beat Museum with occasional readings in Kerouac Alley featuring womxn and non-binary people. Each first Thursday there will be a new curator and MC invited from previous months. This will give many people the opportunity to step into these roles and make the culture of the readings more equitable and circular\, rather than hierarchal. \nThis is a donation based event. We will pass a hat so bring a contribution for the readers. \nWe will also be accepting packages of dry goods\, new socks\, and sanitary items for the local homeless community. URL:https://litseen.com/event/eves-at-the-beat-womxn-reading-at-the-beat-museum-3/ LOCATION:The Beat Museum\, 540 Broadway\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94133\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-57.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T200000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200216T012700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200216T012700Z UID:55882-1582830000-1582833600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Lit Starts: Signing+Writing Workshop with Author Constance Hale DESCRIPTION:Please Join Us on Thursday\, February 27 at 7 PM for a Practicing the Craft: \nWrite Character\, Dialogue and Action with Constance Hale \nThe Writers Grotto has launched a light-hearted\, smart series on the writing craft\, called Lit Starts. Each of the books deepens your mastery of the writing craft through fun exercises and lively prompts that will change the way you approach the page. The popular writing coach Constance Hale\, a veteran member of the Writers Grotto and author of the Lit Starts series\, will lead interactive exercises and throw out writing prompts to encourage you to put pen to paper. Readers and writers are equally welcome. \nRead more about the Lit Starts books\, and order copies\, at: https://www.ggpbooks.com/event/litstarts. URL:https://litseen.com/event/lit-starts-signingwriting-workshop-with-author-constance-hale/ LOCATION:A Great Good Place for Books\, 6120 La Salle Ave.\, Oakland\, California\, 94611 CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Lit-Starts.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20191227T030812Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191227T030812Z UID:54569-1582830000-1582835400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Dodie Bellamy and Anthony Huberman in conversation DESCRIPTION:celebrating the release of \n\n\n\n\nDodie Bellamy Is on Our Mind \nEdited by Jeanne Gerrity and Anthony Huberman \npublished by Semiotext(e) Books\, distributed by The MIT Press \nExamining the genre-bending writing of Dodie Bellamy\, whose work has focused on sexuality\, politics\, feminism\, narrative experimentation\, and all things queer. \nDodie Bellamy Is on Our Mind is the first major publication to address Bellamy’s prolific career as a genre-bending writer. Megan Milks made several trips to San Francisco in order to spend time with Bellamy and craft a provocative and fascinating profile of the writer. Originally delivered as a lecture at the Wattis Institute\, Andrew Durbin’s text takes the form of a personal essay\, expertly weaving anecdotes of his own encounters with Bellamy’s writing with insights into broader themes in her work. Academic Kaye Mitchell takes a close look at the role of shame and its relationship to femininity in particular texts by Bellamy. And Bellamy and her late husband Kevin Killian offer deeply personal\, emotionally wrenching ruminations on topics from the mundane (drawing) to the profound (mortality). These texts\, alongside archival photos and a complete bibliography\, make this book an important compendium on Bellamy. \nDodie Bellamy has lived and worked in San Francisco since 1978. A vital contributor to the Bay Area’s avant-garde literary scene\, Bellamy is a novelist and poet whose work has focused on sexuality\, politics\, feminism\, narrative experimentation\, and all things queer. In her words\, she champions “the vulnerable\, the fractured\, the disenfranchised\, the fucked-up.” \nAnthony Huberman is the Director and Chief Curator of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco and Founding Director of the Artist’s Institute in New York.city li URL:https://litseen.com/event/dodie-bellamy-and-anthony-huberman-in-conversation/ LOCATION:City Lights Bookstore\, 261 Columbus Ave\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94133\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/front-cover-of-Dodie-Bellamy-Is-On-Our-Mind.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T203000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T201609Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T201609Z UID:55168-1582830000-1582835400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Jamel Brinkley DESCRIPTION:The Center for Literary Arts is excited to welcome author of A Lucky Man and finalist for the National Book Award\, Jamel Brinkley in conversation with SJSU’s new fiction professor\, Keenan Norris on Thursday\, February 27\, 2020 in MLK Library Room 225/229 at 7PM. This event is free and open to the public. \nA debut that Entertainment Weekly saw “creating waves within the literary sphere\,” A Lucky Man explores the charged\, complex ties between men whose mistakes threaten their relationships with friends\, lovers\, and family members. The stories in this glittering collection reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them\, especially in a world shaped by race\, gender\, and class—where luck may be the greatest fiction of all. \nJamel Brinkley was raised in the Bronx and Brooklyn\, New York. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in California. \nKeenan Norris’s novel Brother and the Dancer won the 2012 James D. Houston Award for first books set in California. He is the editor of the critical volume Street Lit. His chapbook By the Lemon Tree was published in 2018 and his novella Luster will be published later this year. His short fiction appears in several literary journals\, as well as the anthologies Oakland Noir and Inlandia: A Journey Through the Literature of Southern California’s Inland Empire. He also serves as guest editor for the Oxford African-American Studies Center with a focus on improving the Center’s archive of California scholarship. \nTommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma\, he was born and raised in Oakland\, California. URL:https://litseen.com/event/jamel-brinkley/ LOCATION:SJSU MLK Library\, 150 E San Fernando St\, San Jose\, CA\, 95112\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Jamel-Brinkley.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200126T014112Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200126T014112Z UID:55125-1582830000-1582837200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Suzanne Stein and Anne Lesley Selcer\, reading and in conversation DESCRIPTION:Join us for this reading and conversation with two poet/performers who each have worked and written extensively in relation to contemporary art practices. This event\, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts\, is free and open to the public. \nSuzanne Stein’s poetry publications and performance documents include New Sutras\, The Kim Game\, TOUT VA BIEN\, and Passenger Ship. With the poet Steve Benson\, she is the author of DO YOUR OWN DAMN LAUNDRY\, which documents the 36 improvisational dialogues they performed together between 2011 and 2012. Suzanne was the founding editor\, and for eight years editor-in-chief\, of Open Space\, SFMOMA’s art and language platform and publication. After thirty years’ living and working in the Bay Area\, she resides now in San Diego\, California. \nAnne Lesley Selcer is author of Sun Cycle\, winner of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize and Blank Sign Book\, a collection of essays on art. Her other publications include from a Book of Poems on Beauty\, winner of the Gazing Grain prize\, Banlieusard\, a commissioned book-length text for Artspeak\, and Untitled (a treatise on form) with 2nd Floor Projects. Anne Lesley’s work can be found in Jacket2\, Fence\, Hyperallergic\, Art Practical\, The Chicago Review\, Open Space\, and Gauss PDF\, as well as in art exhibition catalogs. Occasionally working in video\, performance\, or sound\, she is currently engaged in a series of collaborations with artists based on Sun Cycle. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nFeatured: \nSuzanne Stein at Open Space \nSuzanne Stein and Steve Benson\, DO YOUR OWN DAMN LAUNDRY\, at Gauss PDF \nAnne Lesley Selcer\, “What Imaginary Thing Is a Museum?” (on Ana Mendieta)\, at Art Practical \nAnne Lesley Selcer\, “A Playboy Bunny Navigates the Politics of Dystopia” (on Monet Clark)\, at Hyperallergic URL:https://litseen.com/event/suzanne-stein-and-anne-lesley-selcer-reading-and-in-conversation/ LOCATION:The Poetry Center\, San Francisco State University\, 1600 Holloway Ave\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94132\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Selcer-Stein-banner.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200227T210000 DTSTAMP:20260406T125833 CREATED:20200131T201033Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200131T201033Z UID:55333-1582830000-1582837200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Beau Beausoleil: A Glyphic House at Alley Cat Books DESCRIPTION:Join us for a reading from Beau Beausoleil’s latest publication\, A Glyphic House. \nThis Day On The Calendar \nOn this day\nwe are trying to gather\nthe lives and moments\nthat need illuminating \nWe need to remember\nthe women who\nput their work down\non the factory floor \nand walked out\nto strike \nWe need to remember\nthe children\nwho were shot\nin their classrooms \nalong with\ntheir teachers \nThese two contradictory things\nare part of remembering\non this calendar day \nWe mark this day\nwith small poems\nof blood and salt \nTo help us  remember\nthe ones\nwho were spit on \nThe one who were\ndragged from\ntheir cars \nand beaten \nSmall  poems of blood\nand salt on this day \nto help us remember\nthose who were carried to\nthe rope \nAnd those\nwho gathered there\nand stood by\nwatching \nas close as\nmy arm to\nyours \nor even\na hundred cities\naway \nWe mark this day\nwith small poems of blood\nand salt \nshaped\nwith our hands \nPoems that when taken\ninto our lives\nmake us unable\nto swallow and forget \nall the lies that have carried\nus here URL:https://litseen.com/event/beau-beausoleil-a-glyphic-house-at-alley-cat-books/ LOCATION:CA CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR