A virtual conversation with Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky & Stan Cox!
2020-05-19 12:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Presented by City Lights & Democracy Now!
This event is free & will be broadcast on Crowdcast. Sign up here to attend!
Amy Goodman in discussion with Noam Chomsky and Stan Cox about the prospects for the Green New Deal, how the pandemic does–and does not—affect the struggle for climatic and economic justice, among other relevant topics.
Amy Goodman is a broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and the host Democracy Now! She joins us from New York City. Stan Cox is the author of the new book The Green New Deal and Beyond just published by City Lights, and joins us from Salina, Kansas. Noam Chomsky, author of the foreword to The Green New Deal and Beyond, is a scholar, academic, and author of numerous books including Because We Say So with City Lights. He joins us from Tucson, Arizona.
WE THANK OUR CO-SPONSORS: Alternative Radio,The Climate Mobilization, CODEPINK, Counterpunch, The Gund Institute, Haymarket Books, The Institute for Social Ecology, Post-Carbon Institute, Post Growth Institute, Project Censored, Research and Degrowth, Truthout

See Black Women
2020-05-19 16:00 - 17:15 | CA
‘See Black Women’ is presented as part of the Art+Action Coalition’s COME TO YOUR CENSUS campaign, which aims to inspire and galvanize Census participation by all communities. This two-part conversation held in collaboration with Art+Action Coalition Partners YBCA and Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), will take place LIVE on Tuesday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 26 from 4-5:15pm (PST) on YBCA and MoAD’s Facebook pages.
To insist upon being seen and heard is an act of resistance. Telling one’s story, recording a community’s legacy, and creating visual representations of one’s ancestry are methods of resisting erasure. During these two conversations, the participants seek to answer questions including: How do we cite and honor our existence? How do we ensure our labor is acknowledged and our stories are heard for us to receive our fair share—both in civic and artistic arenas?
The first talk includes Erica Deeman / @erica_deeman, Lava Thomas/ @lavathomas , Angela Hennessy /@thehouseofhennessy and Sage Stargate.
The second on 5/26 with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo /@bluekaza, Tahirah Rasheed, Asya Abdrahman/ @asyaabdrahman, & Sam Vernon / @samevernon
Both panels are curated and moderated by Ashara Ekundayo @blublakwomyn under her #ArtistAsFirstResponder platform
For more information about the See Black Women panel conversation visit: https://ybca.org/event/2020-see-black-women/

Alissa Carpenter with Jen Oleniczak Brown - How to Listen and Be Heard (Zoom Livestream)
2020-05-19 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
Tuesday, May 19, 5:00pm • Free Zoom Livestream Event • Presented with Shack 15
Moderated by Jen Oleniczak Brown
Too often, people avoid difficult conversations; but these discussions often need to happen to bring people together so we can all succeed.
There’s no denying that our workplaces are more diverse than ever. Age, race, gender—there are so many different perspectives and experiences being brought to the table. And the best employees and leaders know that harnessing the power of these differences will build stronger teams, ideas, and organizations. But how do we do this? If we all think, feel, and act so differently, how do we get anything done?
The first step is recognizing that these differences exist. And that they’re here to stay. We need to respect and embrace our varied viewpoints, and then we can start to communicate across (not against) them.
How to Listen and How to Be Heard shows you how to bridge the conversation gap and use your unique voice to start powerful conversations. This book is about learning how to communicate with, through, and alongside what makes us different. It’s about open dialogue and practical tools that get everyone on the same page—or at least in the same room. It’s not about quick fixes or the absence of conflict; it’s about working toward authentic communication in the workplace—for managers, employees, and colleagues from all fields. It’s about remembering that we’re all here to work together.
Alissa Carpenter is a multigenerational workplace expert and owner of Everything’s Not Ok and That’s OK, where she provides training, consulting, and speaking services to organizations all over the world. Carpenter has delivered a TEDx talk on authentic workplace communication, and has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, ABC, FOX, and CNN Money.
Jen Oleniczak Brown is the Founder of The Engaging Educator (EE), a women-owned and operated company dedicated to helping people find their unapologetic, authentic, and best voice/communication style through improv-based education. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, Bustle, and Moneyish. She is also the author of Improv(E): Using Improv to Find Your Voice, Style, and Self.

Cara Black with Jacqueline Winspear
2020-05-19 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Hosted by Peter Maravelis
Two masters of crime fiction discussing the writing of fiction that takes place in World War Two Europe. They explore topics that closely parallel many of the issues of the day as well as discussing the challenge and complexities of placing one’s writing in a dynamic historic period.
This is a virtual event that will be hosted by City Lights on the Zoom platform. You will need access to a computer or other device that is capable of accessing the internet. If you have not used Zoom before, you may consider referencing Getting Started with Zoom.
————
(Click Here) to make reservations
Event is free, but reservations are required
————
Books for this event may be purchased at BOOKSHOP.ORG at the following links :
>To purchase Three Hours in Paris click here<
>To purchase The American Agent: A Masie Dobbs Novel click here<
————
Cara Black’s most recent book is
Three Hours in Paris
Published by Soho Press
Cara Black, doyenne of the Parisian crime novel, is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this gripping story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself. Cara Black is also the author of the bestselling Aimee Leduc Series. The most recent release being Murder in Bel-Air published by Soho Books.
Visit: www.carablack.com
—
Jacqueline Winspear’s essay “Writing about War” will be published in the new anthology
Private Investigations: Mystery Writers On The Secrets, Riddles and Wonders In Their Lives
published by Seal Press
Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the Masie Dobb’s Series, following the exploits of the renowned psychologist and investigator Masie Dobbs through her exploits in WW2 London. The most recent novel in the series is The American Agent (number 15) published by Harper Collins. Additional books in the series include: To Die But Once; In This Grave Hour; Journey to Munich and many others.
Visit: www.jacquelinewinspear.com

Sex, Art and Power: Writer to Writer with Garth Greenwell and Lidia Yuknavitch
2020-05-19 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
Moderated by Keiko Lane
Program will air Tuesday May 19th, 7:00 PM PST

Register (for free) to watch this program’s debut

In our Writer to Writer series, two writers who are fans of each other’s work come together for a conversation. Garth Greenwell’s most recent book, Cleanness, was described in Harpers as “an electrifying portrait of sex’s power to lacerate and liberate, to make and unmake our deepest selves…The book’s sex scenes unfold like revelations, effortlessly braiding inner drama with precisely choreographed intimacy.” And Greenwell, writing in The New Yorker, has called Lidia Yuknavitch’s sex scenes “remarkable among current American novelists, not just for their explicitness but for the way she uses them to pursue questions of agency, selfhood, and the ethical implications of making art.” Come listen in as two of contemporary literature’s most incendiary writers talk about the relationships between queer bodies and sex, language and literary citizenship, and the moral and artistic complexities of desire and power. Moderated by Keiko Lane, writer, poet, and former faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Recommended Reading

Garth Greenwell, Cleanness
Lidia Yuknavitch, Verge
Order your copies from one of our independent bookstore partners

Jennifer Ackerman, The Bird Way at Bookshop Santa Cruz
2020-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
This is an advanced event listing. Please check back for updated information, or sign up for our events emails.
This free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests, please email info@bookshopsantacruz.com by May 17th.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds — how they live and how they think.
“There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” This is one scientist’s pithy distinction between mammal brains and bird brains: two ways to make a highly intelligent mind. But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries. What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They’re also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own–deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also, ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play.
Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of–well–birdness: A mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own. Young birds that devote themselves to feeding their siblings and others so competitive they’ll stab their nestmates to death. Birds that give gifts and birds that steal, birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves, birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call–and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter.
Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It’s what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.
Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for three decades. She is the author of eight books, including The Genius of Birds, which has been translated into twenty languages and the forthcoming The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think. Her articles and essays have appeared in Scientific American, National Geographic, The New York Times, and many other publications, Ackerman is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Editor by Steven Rowley | A GGP Virtual Book Chat on Zoom
2020-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Join us on Zoom on Tuesday, May 19 at 7 PM Pacific for a virtual book chat about one of Kathleen’s favorite books, THE EDITOR by Steven Rowley. We expect Steven Rowley to join us!

Zoom meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82390231644
We’ll be playing excerpts of the audiobook from our audiobook partner, Libro.fm. You can get your audiobook here: bit.ly/LibroEditor
If you’d prefer paper, here’s a link to our website where you can order a copy for shipment from our warehouse: bit.ly/GGPEditor
“What happens when you write that novel and it finally finds a home at a publishing house? If it’s 1992 and your editor is Jackie O, you are forced to look deeper and answer the questions you been avoiding your whole life — this is a must-read for any aspiring writer!”— Kathleen
April 2019 Indie Next List
“Steven Rowley’s new novel is exactly the balm I needed in today’s climate. Focusing on a young writer who discovers that his editor is none other than Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the book explores both romantic and familial relationships in a humorous and touching manner. Although the writing is wickedly barbed and the zingers fly at the speed of a 1940s rom-com, The Editor is so much more. There is real heart in the writing as well as real love between the characters. It’s a true delight and the kind of book people who loved Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine or Less will truly enjoy. Just be prepared with a box of tissues and your favorite cocktail (Jackie would suggest daiquiris).”
— William Carl, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA
Description
From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus comes a novel about a struggling writer who gets his big break, with a little help from the most famous woman in America.
After years of trying to make it as a writer in 1990s New York City, James Smale finally sells his novel to an editor at a major publishing house: none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie–or Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known in the office–has fallen in love with James’s candidly autobiographical novel, one that exposes his own dysfunctional family. But when the book’s forthcoming publication threatens to unravel already fragile relationships, both within his family and with his partner, James finds that he can’t bring himself to finish the manuscript.
Jackie and James develop an unexpected friendship, and she pushes him to write an authentic ending, encouraging him to head home to confront the truth about his relationship with his mother. Then a long-held family secret is revealed, and he realizes his editor may have had a larger plan that goes beyond the page…
From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus comes a funny, poignant, and highly original novel about an author whose relationship with his very famous book editor will change him forever–both as a writer and a son.
About the Author
Steven Rowley is the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, which has been translated into nineteen languages. He has worked as a freelance writer, newspaper columnist, and screenwriter. Originally from Portland, Maine, Rowley is a graduate of Emerson College. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
Praise For…
One of:
NPR’s Favorite Books of 2019
Esquire’s “Best Books of 2019 (So Far)”
Southern Living’s “25 Beach Reads Perfect for Summer”
PopSugar’s “Buzzy Books to Read This Spring”
Town & Country’s “Must-Read Books of Spring 2019”
Cosmopolitan’s “13 Best Books Coming Out in April”

Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody on Paul Valéry
2020-05-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody discusses his translation of The Idea of Perfection: The Poetry and Prose of Paul Valéry.
About The Idea of Perfection
A fresh look into the monumental work of Paul Valéry, one of the major French literary figures of the twentieth century.
Heir to Mallarmé and the symbolists, godfather to the modernists, Paul Valéry was a poet with thousands of readers and few followers, great resonance and little echo. Along with Rilke and Eliot, he stands as a bridge between the tradition of the nineteenth century and the novelty of the twentieth. His reputation as a poet rests on three slim volumes published in a span of only ten years. Yet these poems, it turns out, are inseparable from another, much vaster intellectual and artistic enterprise: the Notebooks.
Behind the published works, behind the uneventful life of the almost forgotten and then exceedingly famous poet, there hides another story, a private life of the mind, that has its record in 28,000 pages of notes revealed in their entirety only after his death. Their existence had been hinted at, evoked in rumors and literary asides; but once made public it took years for their significance to be fully appreciated. It turned out that the prose fragments published in Valéry’s lifetime were not the after-the-fact musings of an accomplished poet, nor his occasional sketchbook, nor excerpts from his private journal. They were a disfigured glimpse of a vast and fragmentary “exercise of thought,” a restless intellectual quest as unguided and yet as persistent, as rigorous, and as uncontainable as the sea that is so often their subject.
The Idea of Perfection shows both sides of Valéry: the craftsman of sublimely refined verse, and the fervent investigator of the limits of human intellect and expression. It intersperses his three essential poetic works—Album of Early Verse, The Young Fate, and Charms—with incisive selections from the Notebooks and finishes with the prose poem “The Angel.” Masterfully translated by Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody, with careful attention to form and a natural yet metrical contemporary poetic voice, The Idea of Perfection breathes new life into poems that are among the most beautiful in the French language and the most influential of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Paul Valéry is one of the major figures of twentieth-century French literature. After a promising debut as a young symbolist in Mallarmé’s circle, Valéry withdrew from public view for almost twenty years, and was almost forgotten by 1917 when the publication of the long poem La Jeune Parque made him an instant celebrity. He was best known in his day for his small output of highly polished lyric poetry, and posthumously for the 28,000 pages of his Notebooks. He died in 1945.
Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody was born in Columbus, Ohio. He has translated the work of French and Belgian poets, including Benjamin Fondane, for which he was awarded the Susan Sontag Prize for Translation. He is the author of two volumes of poetry in French and one in English, and has worked as a typesetter, a programmer, and a private tutor in Greece.

Oakland Virtual Slam ft. Joyce Lee!
2020-05-19 20:00 - 22:00 | CA
GANG GANG. We might be stuck inside but that doesn’t mean we can’t come together and have a poetry slam! We’ll be hosting the slam on zoom and Bay Poets Unite will be live streaming our virtual slam on facebook, youtube, and twitter! We got a $50 prize for 1st place!
📝Workshop starts at 7:15 PM on Zoom (Meeting ID: 868-4725-4912)
🎙Virtual Slam starts at 8:15 PM on our facebook page!
Sign Up List for the Virtual Slam. Deadline is Mon 11:59pm (https://forms.gle/nmF9ZtqFWR23XnLY7)
Our feature is the amazing Joyce Lee:
Joyce Lee is an International storyteller and performance poet. Her performances of her own creative non-fiction writing constantly receive standing ovations and encores from her fans and personal heroes.
Joyce Lee is an explorer of emotional and physical life. She travels the world and writes but is not a travel writer, instead, each place she wanders, each country, is allotted by her to introduce its own spirit. Joyce listens to that spirit and takes notes. Sometimes the note is a memory, sometimes a story, but every time a poetic gift to her audience. She currently resides in Bogota, Colombia with plans to move to elsewhere in 2020 to complete her first novel.

Alta Asks Live: Peter Orner
2020-05-20 12:30 - 13:00 | CA
Where do Peter Orner’s characters come from? Will the global pandemic appear somehow in his future work? And what comes next for the award-winning author and Dartmouth College professor? Orner will join Alta Asks Live and host Heather Scott Partington on Wednesday, May 20 at 12:30 p.m. PST to discuss his short story collection, Maggie Brown & Others, and much, much more. REGISTER: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/alta-asks-live-peter

Todd Miller: Empire of Borders
2020-05-20 16:00 - 18:00 | CA
Todd Miller discusses his recent book Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the US Border around the World
This author presentation, discussion and Q and A will stream here https://www.facebook.com/revbooksnyc/
The United States is outsourcing its border patrol abroad—and essentially expanding its borders in the process.
Buy the book at a special price here https://www.revolutionbooks.org/book/9781784785116
Register today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/todd-miller-empire-of-borders-expansion-of-us-borders-around-the-world-tickets-105612824802
Journalist Todd Miller reveals in Empire of Borders, the nature of US borders has changed. These boundaries have effectively expanded thousands of miles outside of US territory to encircle not simply American land but Washington’s interests. Resources, training, and agents from the United States infiltrate the Caribbean and Central America; they reach across the Canadian border; and they go even farther afield, enforcing the division between Global South and North.
*Empire of Borders* traces the rise of this border regime. It delves into the practices of “extreme vetting,” which raise the possibility of “ideological” tests and cyber-policing for migrants and visitors, a level of scrutiny that threatens fundamental freedoms and allows, once again, for America’s security concerns to infringe upon the sovereign rights of other nations.
In Syria, Guatemala, Kenya, Palestine, Mexico, the Philippines, and elsewhere, Miller finds that borders aren’t making the world safe—they are the frontline in a global war against the poor.

VIRTUAL EVENT: Stephanie Danler and Anna Wiener
2020-05-20 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
Join us on Wednesday May 20th at 5:00pm PDT on Instagram Live for a conversation between Stephanie Danler and Anna Wiener on her new memoir Stray.
About Stray
From the bestselling author of Sweetbitter, a memoir of growing up in a family shattered by lies and addiction, and of one woman’s attempts to find a life beyond the limits of her past. Stray is a moving, sometimes devastating, brilliantly written and ultimately inspiring exploration of the landscapes of damage and survival.
After selling her first novel–a dream she’d worked long and hard for–Stephanie Danler knew she should be happy. Instead, she found herself driven to face the difficult past she’d left behind a decade ago: a mother disabled by years of alcoholism, further handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm; a father who abandoned the family when she was three, now a meth addict in and out of recovery. After years in New York City she’s pulled home to Southern California by forces she doesn’t totally understand, haunted by questions of legacy and trauma. Here, she works toward answers, uncovering hard truths about her parents and herself as she explores whether it’s possible to change the course of her history.
Lucid and honest, heart-breaking and full of hope, Stray is an examination of what we inherit and what we don’t have to, of what we have to face in ourselves to move forward, and what it’s like to let go of one’s parents in order to find a peace–and family–of one’s own.

Litquake on Lockdown: Ishmael Beah and Little Family
2020-05-20 18:00 | CA
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Sierra Leone child-soldier memoir, A LONG WAY HOME, comes this powerful new novel about young people living at the margins of society. LITTLE FAMILY portrays the lives of five youth who have improvised a household in an abandoned airplane, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together. Join us to celebrate release of this remarkable debut work of fiction from Ishmael Beah, whom Vanity Fair has called “arguably the most-read African writer in contemporary literature.” FREE, $5 suggested donation
Streamed live on Crowdcast and Facebook Live!
Books are available from your favorite indie bookstores, or order from bookshop.org!

Speakers

Ishmael Beah
Ishmael Beah, born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, is the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, and the novel Radiance of Tomorrow. His newest novel, Little Family, is a profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the… Read More →

Alia Volz, in conversation with Joe Loya, discusses Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco
2020-05-20 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
During the ’70s in San Francisco, Alia’s mother ran the underground Sticky Fingers Brownies, delivering upwards of 10,000 illegal marijuana edibles per month throughout the circus-like atmosphere of a city in the throes of major change. She exchanged psychic readings with Alia’s future father, and thereafter had a partner in business and life. Decades before cannabusiness went mainstream, when marijuana was as illicit as heroin, they ingeniously hid themselves in plain sight, parading through town–and through the scenes and upheavals of the day, from Gay Liberation to the tragedy of the Peoples Temple–in bright and elaborate outfits, the goods wrapped in hand-designed packaging and tucked into Alia’s stroller. But the stars were not aligned forever and, after leaving the city and a shoulda-seen-it-coming divorce, Alia and her mom returned to San Francisco in the mid-80s, this time using Sticky Fingers’ distribution channels to provide medical marijuana to friends and former customers now suffering the depredations of AIDS.
Exhilarating, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreaking, Home Baked celebrates an eccentric and remarkable extended family, taking us through love, loss, and finding home. (Houghton Mifflin)
This will be a live stream event on Crowdcast. The event is FREE and you can register here.

Red Light Lit
2020-05-20 19:00 - 20:30 | CA
Red Light Lit is having its first virtual reading series hosted by comedian, Luna Malbroux. Featured readers include Peter Thomas Bullen, Lara Coley, Jenee Darden, Ingrid C Keir, Kar Johnson, Thea Matthews, Loria Mendoza, Mackenzie Studebaker, Kristina Sergeevna Ten and more. The show is curated by Jennifer Lewis and will have some special guests! If you are not in the Bay Area, this is your chance to join us as we explore love relationships and sexuality in the time of quarantine.
Make sure to log-on early, the show will only hold 100-people.
THE SHOW IS FREE AND EVERYONE IS WELCOME!!!!
However, if you want to support Red Light Lit to ensure we can continue publishing emerging writers, you can donate via Eventbrite up to 24-hours after the show.
ZOOM INFORMATION:
Meeting ID: 948 0831 7020
Password: [REDACTED]
Join from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android device:
Web Link: https://tinyurl.com/y87b3hwz
One tap mobile
+12133388477,,94808317020#,,1#,646053# US (Los Angeles)
+16692192599,,94808317020#,,1#,646053# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 213 338 8477 US (Los Angeles)
+1 669 219 2599 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
000 800 040 1530 India Toll-free
000 800 050 5050 India Toll-free

Exploring Rumi to Make Sense of Ourselves
2020-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
“Quit being a drop. Make yourself an ocean.” Rumi’s inspiring and deceptively simple poems have been called ecstatic, mystical, and devotional. For writer and activist Melody Moezzi, they became her lifeline.
With the help of her father, who is a lifelong fan of Rumi’s poetry, she immersed herself in Rumi’s rich body of work, and discovered a 13th-century prescription for modern life. Melody’s latest book, The Rumi Prescription, follows her path of discovery as she translates Rumi’s works for herself, gaining wisdom and insight in the face of a creative and spiritual roadblock.
Melody addresses isolation, distraction, depression, fear, and many other everyday challenges we face—arguing that Rumi provides a roadmap for living with intention and ease, embracing love at every turn—despite the divided and chaotic times we live in. By following her journey translating Rumi’s works, Melody provides us a vivid reminder that we already have the answers we seek, if we can just slow down to honor them.
Join Shoshana Simons, Professor and Co-Chair of CIIS’ Expressive Arts Therapy Program, for a conversation about Melody’s life and how the wisdom she found exploring Rumi can help us make sense of our modern lives.
PLEASE NOTE: This event will be hosted live online. Instructions on how to join the webinar will be included in your event confirmation email. If you need additional assistance finding or joining the event, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu.

Mary Karr & Kaveh Akbar
2020-05-20 19:30 | CA
Watch the upcoming webcast on our YouTube channel →
You can support the cost of this public webcast by making a tax-deductible donation. Thank you for your support!
Known for her bestselling memoirs, Mary Karr is also a celebrated poet, essayist, and songwriter from East Texas. Her latest book of poetry, Tropic of Squalor, is in turns hilarious, horrific, tragic, and soothing, and infused with her characteristically deft brandishment of language. Karr’s other books include The Liar’s Club, Cherry, Lit, and The Art of Memoir. She is also a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Poetry magazine. Karr is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.
Kaveh Akbar is a poet, and the author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf and Portrait of the Alcoholic. He is the founder of Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. Akbar also writes a weekly column for the Paris Review called “Poetry RX.” Previously, he ran The Quirk, a for-charity print literary journal. He has also served as Poetry Editor for BOOTH and Book Reviews Editor for the Southeast Review.
Attention ticket holders: We hope you might consider donating your ticket to support the ushers, technical staff and artists who have made this event possible, as well as City Arts & Lectures’ mission of broad access to culture. We also understand if you would like a refund and will happily accommodate that. To request a refund, email City Box Office. To receive acknowledgement of a tax-deductible contribution, no action is required.
Photograph credit: Marlon James (right)

Lyrics & Dirges Ether Edition: May Contagion
2020-05-20 19:30 - 21:00 | CA
Lyrics & Dirges continues its long-running reading series featuring the diverse voices of the East Bay.
With a reading by poets Tureeda Mikell and Sarah Kobrinsky
and by fiction writer Michael Nava!
Lyrics & Dirges: Ether Edition is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Lyrics & Dirges: Ether Edition #4
Time: Mat 20, 2020 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/603664236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 603 664 236
Password: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+13462487799,,603664236#,,#,061152# US (Houston)
+16699009128,,603664236#,,#,061152# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 603 664 236
Password: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/keB99ctCO4

WATV Presents: Ashia Ajani and The Burl Concentrate
2020-05-21 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
We Are The Voices Presents: Ashia Ajani and The Burl Concentrate (curated by Wolfman Books)
Yes! We are so excited for this reading! Ashia Ajani and The Burl Concentrate (Connie Zheng and Sarah Dawn Albani) will each read a short selection from their recent work with a Q+A to follow.
Attendees must register with Eventbrite to get the Zoom address. Thanks!
About the Readers
Ashia Ajani (she/they) is a Black storyteller hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains. Her work explores the layered relationship between the Black diaspora and Western environmental stewardship. They have been published in Sierra Magazine, Sage Magazine and Foglifter Press, among others, and they are a 2019 PEN America Writing for Justice Finalist. She released her first chapbook, We Bleed Like Mango, October 2017.
Sarah-Dawn Albani is a writer and artist, teaching, gardening, and being freaky in Northern California for twenty-one years. Her interdisciplinary work looks for radical ways to improvise our way through the ends of capitalism. Dance and storytelling that seeks to open our networks to the power and potential of the vulnerability therein— form the basis of her most recent works.
Connie Zheng (she/her) is an artist, writer and filmmaker based out of Oakland, CA. In addition to The Burl Concentrate book project, she is working on a film about seeds and a speculative seed catalogue. She is currently a Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts, a Collection Fellow at Kadist, and the Art Director of Quiet Lightning, and will be starting a PhD in Visual Studies at UC Santa Cruz in the fall.
About We Are The Voices
Through a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this project connects Mills College students with local and national poets, performers, writers, and scholars to collaborate around transformative art and critical scholarship.
Led by Mills Professor Sheila Lloyd, We Are the Voices We Have Been Waiting For: Poetry, Performance, and Public Humanities is a five-year, multi-pronged project that brings visiting artists and scholars to campus, broadening the conversation for Mills students and building connections with our local community.

Local best-selling author David Talbot in conversation with Rose Aguilar
2020-05-21 17:30 - 19:00 | CA
Grab your favorite beverage and snacks and join THD for a happy hour in a personal conversation between David Talbot, local well-known writer and historian, with Rose Aguilar, our own local journalist and radio broadcast host of Your Call on KALW.
Tickets available via Eventbrite link or by email to social@thd.org.
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/telegraph-hill-dwellers-hosts-a-virtual-happy-hour-with-david-talbot-in-conversation-with-rose-tickets-105441000872
Raffle:
THD has purchased 5 signed copies of David’s newest book:
Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke
All participants in this virtual event will automatically be entered into the raffle to win a copy. Drawing will be held live at the conclusion of this event.

Screenside Chat #3: Norma Liliana Valdez and Alan Pelaez Lopez
2020-05-21 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
Join us for our third Screenside Chat, a new limited-run series where Nomadic Press partners with other small publishers to bring you “fireside chat”-esque readings and conversations between 2–3 writers, all from the comfort of your home. There will be a brief Q&A at the end, as well, for audience members to ask our writers questions.
For this iteration of Screenside Chat, we have paired up with the wonderful YesYes Books. Our writers are Norma Liliana Valdez (author of Preparing the Body, YesYes Books) and Alan Pelaez Lopez (author of to love and mourn in the age of displacement, Nomadic Press).
Amie Zimmerman from YesYes Books will emcee, and J. K. Fowler from Nomadic Press will be working tech and handling the chat.
FREE AND ALL WELCOME!
Showing up is one amazing form of support that we really appreciate. Another is financial. Money = energy to us, and donating sends one signal (of many) that you would like our work to continue. If enjoy spaces like this and can swing it in these tight times, please consider supporting us via:
1) the Cash App to $NomadicPress OR https://cash.app/$NomadicPress;
2) donating via the “ticket” option here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nomadic-press-virtual-open-mic-2-tickets-100581457848;
OR 3) donating through the website at www.nomadicpress.org/donate
We have a short goal for the evening of raising $200.
Zoom Joining Information
Topic: Screenside Chat #3: Norma Liliana Valdez and Alan Pelaez Lopez
Time: May 21, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85956953066
Meeting ID: 859 5695 3066
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,85956953066# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,85956953066# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
Meeting ID: 859 5695 3066
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdfEJbPmJE

Write from the Gut! Virtual Reading + open mic
2020-05-21 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Join the SF Creative Writing Institute for an online reading by former and current students, faculty, and friends to celebrate the end of our Spring 2020 term. The reading will include an open mic. All are welcome.
Please sign up in advance by putting your request in the event comments or direct message Hollie Hardy.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89167370086?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 891 6737 0086
Password: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,89167370086#,,1#,609416# US

Open Mic Night
2020-05-21 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Open Mic at MoAD is going virtual! Hosted by poet Nia McAllister, join us for an evening of spoken word, featuring amazing poets from throughout the Bay Area. Participate or just watch. All interested readers, please sign up to perform below. For those interested in being part of the audience, no need to rsvp. Everyone is welcome.
Sign up to perform on the MoAD website:
https://www.moadsf.org/event/open-mic-night/?instance_id=15674
OPEN MIC THURSDAYS continue. Because we remain closed due to the global pandemic COVID-19, we will host our Open Mic online via ZOOM. Because we had such an awesome first virtual open mic, we will bring them to you TWICE per month instead of once. Look for MoAD Open Mic this month on the FIRST & THIRD THURSDAYS during the closure. Because we love MoAD and MoAD loves you!
DONATIONS OF ANY AMOUNT ARE ALWAYS WELCOME, SO IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO MOAD ONLINE https://www.moadsf.org/support-us/make-a-donation/ OR DONATING THROUGH GIVE BY CELL BY TEXTING THE WORD (USING ALL CAPS): MOADSF TO THE NUMBER: 56512 ON YOUR CELL PHONE, THEN FOLLOW THE LINK PROVIDED TO MAKE A DONATION. ALL DONATIONS WILL GO TOWARDS SUPPORTING MOAD AND CONTINUING TO BRING YOU ENGAGING PROGRAMMING.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/98801482370?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 988 0148 2370
Password: [REDACTED]
The dial-in number for folks without smartphones who only want to listen, not video conference: 669 900 9128
Hosted by poet Nia McAllister, join us for an evening of spoken word, featuring amazing poets from throughout the Bay Area. Participate or just watch. Everyone is welcome.
Our featured artist this month:
NOEL QUIÑONES
Noel Quiñones is a Puerto Rican writer, performer, and community organizer from the Bronx. As a writer, he’s received fellowships from Poets House, the Poetry Foundation, CantoMundo, Candor Arts, and SAFTA (Sundress Academy for the Arts). His work has been published in POETRY, the Latin American Review, Rattle, Kweli Journal, and elsewhere. He is the founder and former director of Project X, a Bronx-based arts organization, and a current M.F.A. candidate in poetry at the University of Mississippi. Follow him at noelpquinones.com or online @noelpquinones.

That We May Live: Dorothy Tse and Natascha Bruce in conversation
2020-05-21 19:00 | CA
Virtual Event

Surreal stories for a surreal time. Hong Kong surrealist writer Dorothy Tse and translator Natascha Bruce join Calico editor Sarah Coolidge to talk about That We May Live.
That We May Live, the first book in the brand-new Calico Series, brings you work by some of today’s most exciting writers from China and Hong Kong, including Dorothy Tse (tr. Natascha Bruce), Zhu Hui (tr. Michael Day), and Enoch Tam (tr. Jeremy Tiang). Lightly touching on issues of urbanization, sexuality, and propaganda, the collection builds a world both utterly disorienting and disturbing familiar, prompting the question: Where does reality end and absurdity begin in a world pushed to its very limits?
This event is presented by The Center for Literary Arts of San Jose and will be streamed live on Facebook and Instagram.

CONTACT:

Leslie-Ann Woofter
lwoofter@catranslation.org
415.512.8812

AUTHOR
Dorothy Tse

Dorothy Tse is an award-winning writer from Hong Kong. She has published three story collections in Chinese and one in English, Snow and Shadow (translated by Nicky Harman). She was cofounder of the Fleurs des lettres literary journal and currently teaches literature and creative writing at Hong Kong Baptist University.

TRANSLATOR
Natascha Bruce

Natascha Bruce translates fiction from Chinese. Her work includes short stories by Hong Kong surrealist writer Dorothy Tse, Lonely Face by Singapore’s Yeng Pway Ngon and, with Nicky Harman, A Classical Tragedy by Xu Xiaobin.

EDITOR
Sarah Coolidge

Sarah Coolidge received her BA in comparative literature from Bard College. She enjoys reading books in Spanish and English, and she writes essays on photography and international literature.

This is Now - Facts in Crisis
2020-05-21 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
This event is online.
Join us online when political commentator, author, and international affairs expert Tom Nichols returns for a new conversation. You may know Nichols from his bestselling book, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters.
Since his previous visit with us in 2017, the book has become even more relevant: in a time of public emergency and political unrest, self-styled “experts” are pontificating, posting, and tweeting inaccurate opinions as fact. How do we cut through the noise to find the truth? How do we determine who deserves our trust and attention?
With his wicked wit and his vast wealth of knowledge, Tom Nichols walks us through it all. Reserve a spot to hear his conversation with journalist-in-residence Angie Coiro.
**Registration will close one hour before the event; please reserve your spot early to guarantee access, as registrations are limited. One registered attendee will be given access to an event per email; please make sure that each registered attendee in your “order” has a unique email address associated with their name.**
If you wish to support our community programs, tax-deductible donations can be made online at keplers.org/donate

The Racket : The Long Gone w/ Keith Wilson
2020-05-21 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
We’re doing a weekly reading series while the world continues to be what it is.
This week we’re celebrating Chicago-based poet Keith Wilson. He’s the author of the much lauded collection from Copper Canyon Press Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love.
Our theme – THE LONG GONE – digs into the idea of what we long for in the past and in the future. The people, the places, the experiences – all of those we’ve left behind.
Doors at 7. Show at 7:15.
ZOOM ROOM LINK TO COME.
The Readers (for now):
Keith Wilson
Kristina Sergeevna Ten
Kevin Dublin
Sydney Vogl

VIRTUAL EVENT: Rick Hanson, Neurodharma
2020-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Bookshop Santa Cruz invites you to join us for an online event with psychologist and bestselling author Rick Hanson, Ph.D., who will discuss his new book, Neurodrama: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness. The breakthroughs of the great teachers are not reserved for the chosen few. Learn seven practices for embodying them ourselves in daily life to handle stress, heal old pain, feel at ease with others, and rest in the sense of our natural goodness.
Register for this free Crowdcast event here.
“This deeply researched and compassionate guide offers an easy-to-follow road map for creating day-to-day inner peace in today’s increasingly complex world.” –Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Throughout history, people have sought the heights of human potential—to become as wise and strong, happy and loving, as any person can ever be. And now recent science is revealing how these remarkable ways of being are based on equally remarkable changes in our own nervous system, making them more attainable than ever before. In Neurodharma, the follow up to his classic Buddha’s Brain, New York Times bestselling author Rick Hanson, PhD, not only explores the new neuroscience of awakening, but also offers a bold yet plausible plan for reverse-engineering peak experiences, sense of oneness, and even enlightenment itself. And he does so with his trademark blend of solid science and warm encouragement, guiding you along this high-reaching path with good humor, accessible tools, and personal examples. A groundbreaking yet practical book, Neurodharma shares seven practices for strengthening the neural circuitry of profound contentment and inner peace—qualities that offer essential support in everyday life while supporting the exploration of the most radical reaches of human consciousness. Step by step, it explains how to apply these insights in order to cultivate unshakable presence of mind, a courageous heart, and serenity in a changing world. The breakthroughs of the great teachers are not reserved for the chosen few. Dr. Hanson shows how we can embody them ourselves in daily life to handle stress, heal old pain, feel at ease with others, and rest in the sense of our natural goodness.
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times bestselling author. His books are available in 28 languages and include Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha’s Brain, and Mother Nurture. To date, his books have sold over 750,000 copies in English. He edits the Wise Brain Bulletin and has numerous audio programs. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA and founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he has been an invited speaker at NASA, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and other major universities, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. He and his wife live in San Rafael, California, and have two adult children.

Third Thursdays at Willow Glen Library feat. Rachelle Escamilla!
2020-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Featured reader: Rachelle Escamilla!
Open mic to follow.
Free and open to the public with Eventbrite registration, tix booth closes at 6:30pm on 5/21.
Rachelle Escamilla is the descendant of campesinos and cannery workers from San Benito County, California. Her first book, “Imaginary Animal”, won the 2014 Willow Books Literature Award for Poetry and is being adapted into an off Broadway play in New York with Director Katherine Wilkinson. Her second collection of poetry “me drawing a picture of me[n]” was published in 2019 (Willow Publishing). Escamilla is the producer and host of the longest running poetry radio show in the United States, Out of Our Minds, and the founder of the Poets & Writers Coalition at San Jose State University.

You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes Online!
2020-05-21 19:00 - 22:00 | CA
You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes Online!
an ONLINE Open Mic w/Ned Buskirk, the You’re Going to Die team & music from Trevor Bahnson!
Yeah. It’s an ONLINE OPEN MIC.
I need it. You need it. Let’s do it.
Thursday, May 21st
Virtual Doors at 7pm
Show at 7:30pm
REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/35RWDmt
TICKETING:
Like so many other artists & nonprofits with an event focus, much of our work for the foreseeable future is cancelled. For this special online event we suggest that people pay between $10-50, but don’t hesitate to go above or below based on what feels possible. And PLEASE, if you are suddenly in financial danger, DO NOT pay us. We’re just happy you’re alive & able to join. If you’re still earning income (or are just generally resourced), we very much welcome your generosity.
Venmo: @YG-2D
Paypal: chelsea@yg2d.com
You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes Online!
is an ONLINE open mic event, the communal offering for us to gather during these uniquely difficult times, to witness & be witnessed, to embrace our shared mortality together, to grieve, bereave & honor what we’ve lost & love… while all the while making room for simply being ALIVE.
Sign-ups will be during the Zoom Call, with directions posted when you enter & the list will fill up quickly, so if you want to share, say so sooner rather than later.
And if being seen/heard doesn’t sound appealing to you right & you’d like simply to be an audience member, you can absolutely keep your camera + mic off, & journal or meditate or lay flat on your face (or do whatever you’d like to do to make sure the call serves you best)!
Poetry, prose, music, dancing, comedy, drama, happy, sad, & on & on & on… Remember: EVERYTHING GOES… so share whatever you want. And you don’t have to perform anything; the audience is as essential as the performers.
If you’re going to perform, keep it under 5 MINUTES. That’s right: 5 MINUTES. WE WILL TIME YOU. And YES – NED WILL VIRTUALLY HUG YOU WITH A NEDDY BEAR IF HE HAS TO!
Please contact ned@yg2d.com with any questions, concerns or feedback!
Looking forward to sharing a special evening together…
Mortally Yours,
the You’re Going to Die Team
www.yg2d.com

Karolina Waclawiak: Life Events
2020-05-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Karolina Waclawiak discusses her new novel Life Events.
Praise for Life Events
“Waclawiak writes with emotional precision and explores the tragedy of existence by masterfully walking the line between suffering and hope.” —Arianna Rebolini, BuzzFeed
“Life Events is a hypnotic novel that beautifully grapples with fundamental questions about how to die and how to live. Karolina Waclawiak transports the reader into the streets of Los Angeles, the deserts of the southwest, the apartments of the dying, and a woman’s life at a moment of profound change. Filled with compelling, provocative details about the work of “exit guides” for terminally ill people, Life Events is both a mid-life bildungsroman and a meditation on self-determination. I can’t stop thinking about this novel.” —Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
“In this exquisite novel, Karolina Waclawiak rightfully recasts the American West as the territory of wandering dreams and dreamers and the land where this life and the improbable afterlife most often collide. Life Events is a deeply moving meditation on death and the dying, the fierce weight of marriage and family, and the unrelenting absurdity of being alive.” —Hannah Lillith Assadi, author of Sonora
About Life Events
A woman at a crossroads learns the only way to reclaim her life is to help others die
Karolina Waclawiak’s breakout novel, Life Events, follows Evelyn, who, at thirty-seven, is on the verge of divorce and anxiously dreading the death of everyone she loves. She combats her existential crisis by avoiding her husband and aimlessly driving along the freeways of California looking for an escape—one that eventually comes when she discovers a collective of “exit guides.” Evelyn enrolls in their training course, where she learns to provide companionship and a final exit for terminally ill patients seeking a conscious departure.
She meets Daphne, a dying woman still full of life; Lawrence, an aging porn king; and Daniel, who seems too young to die and whom Evelyn falls for, despite knowing better, not to mention the exit guide code. Each client opens something new in Evelyn, allowing her a chance to access her own grief and confront the self-destructive ways she suppresses her pain. When Evelyn travels through the Southwest to an afterlife convention to further her death education, she must finally face her complicated relationship with her alcoholic father and reconcile her life choices.
Sensitively observed and darkly funny, Life Events is a moving, enlivening story of the human condition: the doldrums of loneliness, the consuming regret of past mistakes, and the thrill, finally, of finding meaning—and love—where you least expect it.
