Mimi Lok: Last of Her Name
2019-12-03 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Mimi Lok discusses her new book, Last Of Her Name, with Rachel Khong.
Praise for Last Of Her Name
“Last of Her Name is a mesmerizing and deeply felt debut that affirms all that is great about short fiction. Lok’s collection brings startling intimacy to her characters, all of them struggling with dislocation and belonging. “Woman in the Closet,” has to be considered a new classic. I can’t think of a collection that better speaks to this moment of global movement and collective rupture from homes and history, and the struggle to find meaning despite it all.”— DAVE EGGERS, author of The Parade
“What a basket of jewels! Each of these stories is elegant, poignant and multi-faceted. A true pleasure.”— GISH JEN, author of The Girl at the Baggage Claim
“A truly beautiful and wide ranging collection. There is love, longing, grief, displacement, endurance. And from the gut punch of the opening story to the wonderful novella that anchors the book, not a word is wasted. So many lines spoke directly in my ear: “Night after night they sleep, but rarely at the same time. Without knowing it they take turns watching each other.” A book to stay up with, a book that will make you not want to sleep..”— PETER ORNER, author of Maggie Brown & Others
About Last Of Her Name
LAST OF HER NAME is an eye-opening story collection about the intimate, interconnected lives of diasporic women and the histories they are born into. Set in a wide range of time periods and locales, including 80s UK suburbia, WWII Hong Kong and urban California, LAST OF HER NAME features an eclectic cast of outsiders: among them, an elderly housebreaker, wounded lovers, and kung-fu fighting teenage girls.
In the novella “The Woman In The Closet,” a homeless woman finds refuge in the unlikeliest of places, while in “Motet”, a teenage girl navigates art and emotional allegiances with her ex-opera singer stepmother. In “The Wrong Dave,” a soon-to-be-married architect takes up a covert correspondence with a grief-stricken woman who may or may not be writing to the right person. “Wedding Night” centers on an unconventional romance threatened by societal mores. The title story follows the parallel, interweaving journeys of a mother and daughter as they grapple with their respective foes, taking us from the suburbs of England to a Chinese village on the eve of World War II, and exploring the hidden lives and secret histories within an immigrant family. Collectively, LAST OF HER NAME offers a unique exploration of love, longing, and endurance.

Dave Eggers / The Captain and the Glory
2019-12-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Book Passage San Francisco, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA, 94111, United States
When the decorated Captain of a great ship descends the gangplank for the final time, a new leader vows to step forward. Though he has no experience, no knowledge of nautical navigation or maritime law, and though he has often remarked he doesn’t much like boats, he solemnly swears to shake things up. Until one day a famous pirate appears on the horizon.

Dave Eggers is the author of twelve books, including The Parade; The Monk of Mokha; The Circle; Heroes of the Frontier; A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award; and What Is the What, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of France’s Prix Médicis Étranger and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His nonfiction and journalism have appeared in The Guardian, the New Yorker, The Best American Travel Writing, and the Best American Essays. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, and cofounder of Voice of Witness, a book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. He is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing and tutoring centers with locations around the country, and of ScholarMarch, which connects donors with students to make college accessible. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into forty-two languages. He lives in Northern California with his family.

How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell: Book Discussion and Author Visit!
2019-12-04 18:00 - 20:00 | The Ruby, 23rd and bryant street, san francisco, 94110
“I’m suggesting that we protect our spaces and our time for non-instrumental, noncommercial activity and thought, for maintenance, for care, for conviviality.” —Jenny Odell
Join us in reading HOW TO DO NOTHING by Jenny Odell and discussing it together! Because this book has resonated deeply with so many of us here at The Ruby (and, indeed, speaks so much to the mission of our space itself!), here’s a chance to discuss it all together as a group. The author, Bay Area native Jenny Odell, will join us for part of the discussion! Come with your questions and thoughts.
Thanks to the generosity of Melville House, the first 7 Rubies who sign up will receive a free book! (If you already own the book, please let us know so we can pass it along to someone who doesn’t yet!)
For a taste of the book, check out Jenny Odell’s Medium post: https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f59bbb
“To capitalist logic, which thrives on myopia and dissatisfaction, there may indeed be something dangerous about something as pedestrian as doing nothing: escaping laterally toward each other, we might just find that everything we wanted is already here.”

Source:: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-do-nothing-by-jenny-odell-book-discussion-and-author-visit-tickets-70826603277

My Life, My Stories / Intergenerational Holiday Party
2019-12-04 18:00 - 21:30 | Red Victorian, 1665 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
When was the last time you went to a party with someone older than 70 who was not your grandma? Let’s celebrate 2019 together!
Please join us for the evening and meet people of all generations. If you’ve been to one of our intergenerational events or have never heard of us, it doesn’t matter, because ALL are welcome! The event is FREE, but younger adults, please consider BYOB/F to share with others. Invite your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and partners!
Come hear about what MLMS does in your community and learn about ways to get involved next year. We offer a memoir making program where every volunteer is matched with an older adult and they work together over the course of 3-4 months to create a memoir for the senior author.
RSVP here.

Charlton D. McIlwain in conversation with E. David Ellington
2019-12-04 19:00 - 20:30 | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Charlton D. McIlwain in conversation with E. David Ellington
discussing Charlton D. McIlwain’s new book
Black Software: The Internet, Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter
published by Oxford University Press

Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today’s digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. As Charlton D. McIlwain shows in this book, the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know. In fact, it spans nearly five decades and involves a varied group of engineers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, journalists, and activists. But this is a history that is virtually unknown even in our current age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Black Lives Matter.
Beginning with the simultaneous rise of civil rights and computer revolutions in the 1960s, McIlwain, for the first time, chronicles the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet. In turn, he argues that the forgotten figures who worked to make black politics central to the Internet’s birth and evolution paved the way for today’s explosion of racial justice activism. From the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice.Through archival sources and the voices of many of those who lived and made this history, Black Software centralizes African Americans’ role in the Internet’s creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe.
Charlton D. McIlwain is Vice Provost of Faculty Engagement & Development at New York University, and Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU’s Steinhardt School. He is also the Founder of the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, and the co-author of Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns, winner of the 2012 APSA Ralph Bunche Award.
E. David Ellington is Founder & Executive Chairman of the Silicon Valley Blockchain Society (SVBS). SVBS is a global, invite-only, private, member-driven ecosystem supporting blockchain and cryptocurrency related projects across industries and for social impact. SVBS members are active investors primarily in technology. They collectively represent more than $1.5 Trillion in investment capital. The SVBS mission is three words: “Fund the Revolution.”

Michael Frank: What is Missing
2019-12-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Michael Frank discusses his new novel What Is Missing with Lindsey Crittenden.
Praise for What Is Missing
“Michael Frank’s masterful and psychologically acute first novel—which leads us with equal confidence through the light-saturated streets of Florence and the hushed and polished halls of Upper East Side New York—asks the most urgent questions about biology and nurture, about filial and parental love, and about what we’re willing to suffer to find out who we are. This is a wise and necessary book, one I’ve been recommending ardently to everyone I know. ” —Julie Orringer, author of The Flight Portfolio
“This sophisticated erotic triangle of a novel is by turns sensuous and harrowing, driven by a point of view roulette masterfully played. For a reader unfamiliar with the experience of assisted reproduction, Michael Frank’s novel is an eye-opener. The ethics-testing extremes here left me thinking about the dire need to balance power between women and men long after I sped to the last page.” —Rachel Howard, author of The Risk of Us
“The novel is filled with trenchant moments of sweetness and betrayal, as well as a stunning reveal of the harrowing gauntlet infertile women go through to conceive. This is an intricate and dynamic examination of familial ties: both what strengthens them and what can tear them apart.” — Publisher’s Weekly
About What Is Missing
Costanza Ansaldo, a half-Italian and half-American translator, is convinced that she has made peace with her childlessness. A year after the death of her husband, an eminent writer, she returns to the pensione in Florence where she spent many happy times in her youth, and there she meets, first, Andrew Weissman, an acutely sensitive seventeen-year-old, and, soon afterward, his father, Henry Weissman, a charismatic New York physician who specializes in—as it happens—reproductive medicine.
With three lives each marked by heartbreak and absence—of a child, a parent, a partner, or a clear sense of identity—What is Missing offers Costanza, Andrew, and Henry the opportunity to make themselves whole when the triangle resumes three months later in New York, where the relationships among them turn and tighten with combustive effects that cut to the core of what it means to be a father, a son, and—for Costanza—a potential mother.

Lunch Poems: Margaret Ross
2019-12-05 12:10 - 12:50 | Morrison Library, UC Berkeley, 2000 Carleston Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Margaret Ross is the author of A Timeshare. Her poems and translations appear in The New Republic, The Paris Review, and POETRY. Her honors include a Fulbright arts grant, a VSC/Luce Chinese Poetry & Translation Fellowship, and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship. She currently teaches at Stanford University where she is a Jones Lecturer.

Teen Poetry Night
2019-12-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
A night for teens recite their original work. Teens from local high schools will perform: “A mic for your poem, your breath, and your soul. A space for your comrades, your thoughts to unroll. Bring paper or not, or perform on the spot, we’re all here to listen to the words that you brought.”
Contact Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes (mflasherduz@gmail.com) or Erin Rodoni (erin_rodoni@hotmail.com) to sign up to perform an original work of poetry.

Peter Kline and Susan Steinberg
2019-12-05 19:30 - 21:00 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Peter Kline discusses his new poetry collection Mirrorforms with Susan Steinberg.
Praise for Mirrorforms
In Mirrorforms, Peter Kline has invented and perfected a new poetic form; in and through its strict and tricky confines, he takes the reader on remarkably diverse journeys. From a sexy Godhunger out of Donne (“Is there a place for me / deep in a secret pocket / of your black leather jacket / to pass eternity?”) to wordplay worthy of Stevens (“Whatever // ––whiffles your whirligig / ––pips you ––pops your Bud/ ––puts pepper in your pud…”). From dramatic Monologues (Shapeshifter, Narcissist, Catcaller) through various Studies, to a beautiful and moving series of elegiac Votives, these mirrors reflect — and reflect upon— loneliness and estrangement; vulnerability and kink: a wide spectrum of the shadings of our emotions. One of the speakers tells us, “I’ve been a courtesan / to an immense Amen.” Amen to that, and to seeing, someday soon, Kline’s funhousing “Mirrorform” take its rightful place in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics. -Moira Egan
With laser focus and a fixed stare, Peter Kline’s Mirrorforms shows us how brevity can reflect an expansive emotional spectrum, marrying wit and pathos in the most unexpected ways. Risky and formally inventive, playful yet rigorous, these poems work like mirrors facing one another; they give a sense of the infinite—the endless joys, losses, and mysteries that make our world.-Bruce Snider
About Mirrorforms
Peter Kline’s Mirrorforms is a daring, experimental collection of poems in which language reaches its most pressurized state. Kline has invented a new poetic form, the mirrorform, which he uses with musical verve to essentialize thought and intensify feeling. The result is that these poems achieve jewel-like precision: each darkly glinting facet reveals the nuances and ambiguities of longing, transgression, and faith. These poems are sharply ironic, darkly funny, and ferocious, and mark out a unique place in contemporary American poetry.

Dan Pfeiffer
2019-12-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 101 Zellerbach Hall #4800, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
I’m incredibly grateful to be able to be part of something that I think makes a small bit of difference in helping people cope with this time and most importantly, to think about ways to take action to ensure we don’t live in this time for that long.
—Dan Pfeiffer, Delaware News Journal

Speakers Series

Dan Pfeiffer

Dan Pfeiffer combines wry wit, spot-on political instincts, and formidable storytelling chops in an optimistic exploration of how politics and digital media interact in modern-day America. The former White House communications director, noted political strategist and commentator, and Pod Save America co-host is credited with breaking new ground in harnessing the power of social media during the Obama presidential campaign and subsequent administration. He is the author of the New York Times #1 best-seller Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter and Trump—a colorful account of how politics, the media, and the internet changed during the Obama presidency alongside the evolution of social media. Far from a jaded insider, Pfeiffer infuses his talks with optimism for America’s political system, and stresses the value and impact of civic engagement.
Cal Performances’ Speaker Series is a season-long series of presentations by some of the leading creative and intellectual voices of our time—thinkers, activists, strategists, satirists, journalists, and pioneers at the leading edge of culture and politics.

Wherever There's a Fight: 10th Anniversary Reading
2019-12-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St Ste 290, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
Come celebrate the 10th Anniversary Edition of Wherever There’s a Fight, Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi’s sweeping story of the social movements and activists who have changed California and made ripples beyond.
Elaine Elinson was the communications director of the ACLU of Northern California and editor of the ACLU News for more than two decades. She is a coauthor of Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines, which was banned by the Marcos regime.
Stan Yogi is the coauthor, with with Laura Atkins, of the children’s book Fred Korematsu Speaks Up. He managed development programs for the ACLU of Northern California for fourteen years and is the coeditor of two books, Highway 99: A Literary Journey through California’s Great Central Valley and Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography.
Presented by Eastwind Books and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center
Event is wheelchair accessible. Free and open to the public.

After Hours: Jose Antonio Vargas
2019-12-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Main Reading Room, Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
Friday, December 6th | 7:00pm
Wine reception at 6:30pm for registered guests.

Pultizer Prize-winning journalist and author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, Jose Antonio Vargas is one of the most well-known undocumented immigrants in the U.S. He will address migration versus immigration and examine what it means to be American.
Registration recommended. Registration opens November 18th.
Adults and high school students only.
Add to my:iCal/Outlook
When:Friday, December 6, 2019
Time:7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Where:Mill Valley Public Library – Main Reading Room, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, California, 94941
Event Type:Library, Adult
Contact:(415) 389-4292

The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: Tyrone Williams
2019-12-06 19:00 - 21:00 | The Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA, 94109, United States
The Poetry Center is honored to host Tyrone Williams, presenting this year’s annual George Oppen Memorial Lecture, in its 34th iteration since the inaugural talk in 1985. The Oppen Lecture is supported by the Dorothy A. Fowler Trust. Admission is $10, $5 low income, and free for SF State students.

In times of dire word-thirst due to a malabsorption of History’s artifacts, we turn to Tyrone Williams’s codes & keys to crack the truly ‘alter’ political realms. Master of micro-tonic excavations of symbolic significance, Williams pares down the logical fripperies of Civilizations’ intentionalities. Here, neither the world-out-there nor the world-in-here predominate, but rather an intermundia of “belaborated” rites & rituals sound out some of the rarest and most provocative poetry of our times. —Rodrigo Toscano

Tyrone Williams was born in Detroit, Michigan and earned his BA, MA, and PhD at Wayne State University. He is the author of a number of chapbooks—including Convalescence (1987); Futures, Elections (2004); Musique Noir (2006); and Pink Tie (2011), among others—and his six books of poetry include c.c. (2002), On Spec (2008), The Hero Project of the Century (2009), Adventures of Pi (2011), Howell (2011), and As Iz (2018). A limited-edition art project, Trump l’oeil, was published by Hostile Books in 2017.
Williams’s work draws on a variety of sources to challenge and investigate language, history, and race. In a 2011 interview with the Volta, Williams noted, “I don’t ‘revere’ the English language but I use it and, on occasion, abuse it.” And of his interest in grammar and linguistics, he stated: “every grammatical marker is purposeful…every torque of the language renders ‘meaning’ problematic—which seems to me the precise ‘condition’ of African-American existence in particular and ‘American’ life in general.”
He and Jeanne Heuving edited the anthology, Inciting Poetics (2019), and Williams is the editor of African American Literature: Revised Edition (2008). He teaches literature and theory at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. More at his website, Heretofore.

Featured audio, George Oppen at The Poetry Center:
Charles Reznikoff and George Oppen: February 19, 1963
George Oppen: February 21, 1968
George Oppen: October 29, 1969

A World Without Wars - Part 2
2019-12-06 19:00 - 21:00 | The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
IN CELEBRATION OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE 6TH OVERTHROWING CAPITALISM ANTHOLOGY

NINA SERRANO
ARNOLDO GARCIA
JULIE ROGERS
DIEGO DE LEO
JEANNE POWELL
CAROL DENNEY
NILOUFAR TALEBI
HILTON OBENZINGER
AGNETA FALK
LAPO GUZZINI
SARAH MENEFEE
MAURO FORTISSIMO
MARIA CRISTINA GUTIERREZ
GENNY LIM
MARTIN HICKEL
LISBIT BAILEY
ADRIAN ARIAS
PAULINE CRAIG
KAREN MELANDER MAGOON
JACK HIRSCHMAN

Adam Mansbach & W. Kamau Bell
2019-12-06 19:30 - 21:00 | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
Adam Mansbach is a novelist, screenwriter, humorist, and cultural critic, as well as the author of the “children’s books” Go the F*** to Sleep and You Have to F***king Eat. His other books include Rage Is Back, The End of the Jews, and Angry Black White Boy. F***, Now There Are Two of You is his latest book.
Sociopolitical comedian W. Kamau Bell is the host and executive producer of the CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell and author of The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian.

Soul Food for Thought Open Mic Night
2019-12-06 19:30 - 21:30 | Manny’s, 3092 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, San Francisco, 94108, United States
Come to Manny’s for our monthly open mic nights. Poets, readers, performers – all are welcome here!
December 6th, the one and only Randy James will be organizing our monthly open-mic night for the community. Anyone with something to read in welcome to our strange. Be BRAVE and be BEAUTIFUL.
Sign-up at 7PM.
See you there!
****event will be taking place at the front.

East Bay Alternative Book & Zine Fest
2019-12-07 11:00 - 17:00 | Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland, CA, 94609, United States
2019 marks the 10th year of EBABZ! This year, we’re “Renewing Our Vows” with a gaudy, affectionate, wedding-themed fest. Whether you’re tabling, volunteering or browsing, we hope you can make it out to enjoy a fun, festive day of zines!

Lightning Strikes: A benefit for Saint Mary's Rising Writers
2019-12-07 14:00 - 17:00 | Dolby Chadwick Gallery, 210 Post Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA, 94108, United States
DATE & TIME:

Saturday, December 7, 2019 – 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

LOCATION:
Dolby Chadwick Gallery 210 Post St #205, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA
View a map and get directions.

DESCRIPTION:

Lightning Strikes II is art catalogue, art opening, poetry reading and fundraiser that features 22 pairings of poets and visual artists. The 44 contributors are distinguished by their exceptional talent and often world-renowned reputations. This diverse group includes visual artists, writers, actors, curators, musicians, editors, a Buddhist priest, and the Chief Attorney of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. They have received impressive recognitions for their creative efforts, including a Pulitzer Prize, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Golden Globe, Grammy awards, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, roles as U.S., New York State, and San Francisco Poet Laureates, membership to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pushcart Prizes, National Book Awards, a Pew Fellowship, and a National Humanities Medal given by Barack Obama.
This event is open to ticket-holders only.
We greatly appreciate your contribution. 100% of the ticket proceeds goes to support the MFA in Creative Writing program scholarship fund at Saint Mary’s College, founded by poets Brenda Hillman and Robert Hass.
Please note: Due to high demand and limited space, many ticket-holders will need to stand during the reading. Thank you in advance for your patience, and for your enthusiasm for this exciting event. Lightning Strikes II is accompanied by a hard cover 68 page, limited-edition fully illustrated catalogue of the same name. Each ticket-holder will receive a copy.
Lightning Strikes II features 22 pairings of poets and visual artists. The 44 contributors are distinguished by their exceptional talent and often world-renowned reputations. This diverse group includes visual artists, writers, actors, curators, musicians, editors, a Buddhist priest, and the Chief Attorney of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. They have received impressive recognitions for their creative efforts, including a Pulitzer Prize, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Golden Globe, Grammy awards, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, roles as U.S., New York State, and San Francisco Poet Laureates, membership to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pushcart Prizes, National Book Awards, a Pew Fellowship, and a National Humanities Medal given by Barack Obama.
Poet and artist pairings:
Naomi Shihab Nye and John DiPaolo
Devorah Major and Mayme Kratz
Billy Collins and Gary Ruddell
Peter Coyote and Kai Samuels-Davis
Jane Hirshfield and Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann
Charlie Pendergast and Alex Kanevsky
Brenda Hillman and Vanessa Marsh
Tess Taylor and Ann Gale
Ada Limón and David Kelso
Tamsin Smith and Danae Mattes
Renny Pritikin and Maria Porges
Kathleen Brennan and Lisa Russell
Erik Campbell and Éric Antoine
David Whyte and Louise LeBourgeois
Dean Rader and Robert Kingston
Robert Hass and Edwige Fouvry
Louise Glück and Lisa McCutheon
Matt Gonzalez and Ian Kimmerly
Tom Waits and Lou Ros
Sara Mumolo and Travis Collinson
Matthew Zapruder and Elizabeth Fox
Jack Hirschman and Matt Gonzalez
Dolby Chadwick Gallery has been an ardent supporter of young and emerging creative talent since its founding more than twenty-three years ago. Since the galleries inception the promotion of the literary arts has been a meaningful complement to that of the visual arts. Lightning Strikes II continues in the spirit of this tradition, championing burgeoning creative talent and fostering community relations through its support of the literary scholarship program at Saint Mary’s College.

PURCHASE TICKETS

ADD TO CALENDAR

CONTACT:

For more information or questions, write to writers@stmarys-ca.edu or call Krista Varela Posell at extension x4762

Bay Area Poets Coalition Open Poetry Reading
2019-12-07 15:00 - 17:00 | Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, 94702, United States
STRAWBERRY CREEK LODGE
1320 Addison St., Berkeley, CA

Addison is one block south of and parallel to University Ave.
between Acton & Bonar St.
Parking on the street (NOT in the S.C.L. parking lot)

Check in at the front desk and you will be directed to the meeting location
(usually Movie Room, or backyard garden)

All Ages Welcome

Come and enjoy a friendly and informal read-around —
3-5 minutes per poet/reader, or “just listening” is fine too 🙂

After the reading, join us for dinner if you’d like at a nearby restaurant

Eastwind's End of Year Celebration!
2019-12-07 16:00 - 19:00 | Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave., Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Celebrate the end of the year with friends at Eastwind Books of Berkeley! We would like to thank our dedicated volunteers, customers, and community members for all of the support they have given Eastwind throughout the year. Come for the fun, raffle prizes, food and entertainment. Stock up on holiday gifts and books tor the winter break.
Happy Holidays and New Year from Eastwind Staff!

Babylon Salon: Jamel Brinkley and Chia-Chia Lin: Winter 2019
2019-12-07 18:00 - 20:00 | The Armory Club, 1799 Mission St, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
presents our Winter Reading
Saturday, Dec 7, 2019, 6.00 pm
at The Armory Club
1799 Mission Street
(downstairs performance space)

featuring

Jamel Brinkley
(A Lucky Man)
Finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in Fiction
“A Lucky Man is just one of those collections that takes your breath away: the voices we hear, the people we meet, they scratch and pull and ache and rage, revealing secrets we usually keep hidden. Every line is pitch perfect. Jamel Brinkley is a writer of extraordinary talent.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of The King is Always Above the People

Chia-Chia Lin
(The Unpassing)
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
“A singularly vast and captivating novel . . . What makes Lin’s novel such an important book is the extent to which it probes America’s mythmaking about itself.” –Brian Haman, The New York Times Book Review

and many more

I Think About Your Hands - Belgium-based Poet Marina Kazakova
2019-12-07 19:00 - 21:00 | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
As the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death is commemorated this year, a Belgium-based poet Marina Kazakova prepared a poetry programme inspired by and devoted to the great artist and his gorgeous country. The hands drawn by da Vinci in his portrait paintings as well as his famous study of arms and hands probably represent the most exquisite visualisation of hands in the history of art.
Marina will perform a selection of poems inspired by da Vinci’s works, Italy and Russia. The selected poems reflect the scope of human emotion, as well as relevant issues facing present-day world of Europe: hate crimes, migrants, discrimination, body commodification.
***
Marina Kazakova (b. Gorky, Russia, 1983) is a Belgium-based writer, poet and audio-visual artist. Published internationally in magazines and journals (Three Rooms Press “Maintenant”, “AntiNarrative Journal”, “Crannog”, “Duck Lake Books”, “Writing in a Woman’s Voice”), Marina is a frequent performer, she has been shortlisted at different poetry/ film-poetry competitions and was awarded various prizes.
She is author of verse novel “Tishe…Piano”, the film adaptation of which was shortlisted for International Short Film Festival Leuven 2013, Miami Indie Wise Festival 2018, XpoNorth Festival 2018, and got ’The Best Narrative Short’ Award at the International Film Festival behalf Savva Morozov in Moscow in 2015.
Her literature works deal to a large degree with confrontation with the past and explore the challenges posed both by memory and grief.
Marina holds a Master in Public Relations and in Transmedia. Currently, she is PR Officer at ‘Victim Support Europe’ (Brussels) and working on her practice-based PhD in Arts “Lyric Poem. A research on how the unique characteristics of lyric poetry can be expressed in audio-visual medium” at Luca School of Arts (KULeuven).

Ugly Beauty
2019-12-07 20:00 - 22:00 | The Beat Dance Studio, 2560 9th St., Berkeley, CA, 94710, United States
Poetry & Performance Art Open Mic

Howard Zinn Book Fair: Strike! Discovering Our Power
2019-12-08 10:00 - 18:00 | San Francisco City College, 1125 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA, 94110
Howard Zinn Book Fair 2019
Sunday December 8th
10am to 6pm
City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus
1125 Valencia Street
We are pleased to announce that the 6th Annual Howard Zinn Book Fair will take place on December 8, 2019 at CCSF Mission Campus. The theme of this year’s book fair is “Strike! Discovering Our Power.” We selected this theme to celebrate the ways in which everyday people discover their ability to work together. Inspired by the wave of strikes across the United States in the past year, the massive General Strikes in India, and the recent uprisings in Algeria and Sudan, we expand the idea of the strike to include all of the ways people can take collective action to preserve their homes, protect life on earth, respect indigeneity, shut down the machinery that produces racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and inequality, and build movements that are strong enough to last. The Strike! is not only about withdrawing our labor, but about redirecting it to create a better world.
The Howard Zinn Book Fair will host dozens of 90 min session slots for workshops, readings, panels and performances.

Small Press Book Bazaar!
2019-12-08 11:00 - 16:30 | SF MoMa, 151 Third St., San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Free and open to the public; museum admission is free on this day

Meet us at SFMOMA and around the Bay for Local Affairs, a series dedicated to local arts communities. Join us as we celebrate Bay Area culture and artists of all disciplines, and share ideas, good will, food, and drink.
This holiday season, join us for a festive book sale on opening day of the new exhibition Printed Publics: Contemporary Art and Design Publishing in the Bay Area. In collaboration with The Black Aesthetic, Cantíl, Colpa Press, The Poetry Center, and Small Press Distribution, we’ve invited a number of small local presses to present their diverse wares. Get a jump on holiday gift buying — or shop for yourself!

Vendors
2727 California Street
Atelos
Aunt Lute Books
Commune Editions
Fiction Advocate
Floss Editions
illetante collective
Kelsey Street Press
KRUPSKAYA
LAND AND SEA
Most Ancient
NIAD Art Center
Night Diver Press
Nomadic Press
Project Kalahati
RE/Search
RITE Editions
Sming Sming Books
Stripe SF
TBW Books
Transgress Press
Undertone Collective
Visible Publications
Wolfman Books

Girls Who Run the World
2019-12-08 17:00 - 19:00 | JCCSF, 3200 California St , San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
Sunday, Dec 8
Starts at: 5:00 pm

TICKETS

General Admission $20
Members get 10% off.
Pop-Up Kid Entrepreneur Maker Fair: 4:00 pm
Panel Discussion: 5:00 pm
Excited about this program? Your support makes it possible. Please consider donating with your purchase.
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With Diana Kapp, Robyn Sue Fisher,
Jane Marie Chen & Tina Sharkey
Future entrepreneurs, take note! Learn from three bold businesswomen who are changing the rules and shaping a supportive business environment for women entrepreneurs. Find out how Robyn Sue Fisher (Smitten Ice Cream), Jane Marie Chen (Embrace) and Tina Sharkey (Brandless) turned their creative ideas into winning companies while breaking down barriers. Join us for this important conversation and walk away inspired! The discussion will be moderated by Diana Kapp, author of the new woman-to-woman playbook Girls Who Run the World: 31 CEOs Who Mean Business. For ages 12 and up!
Make an afternoon of it!
Join us at 4:00 pm in the Pottruck Family Atrium for a pop-up maker fair featuring crafts and products from local kid entrepreneurs. Smitten Ice Cream will also be scooping samples for you to taste!
“All girls should dare to dream big, and Girls Who Run the World gives them the tools to not only achieve those dreams, but to change the world while they’re doing it.”
– Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global
Robyn Sue Fisher is the founder and CEO of Smitten Ice Cream. An ice cream fanatic with a knack for invention, Robyn founded Smitten Ice Cream in 2007 to spread joy and create the freshest, most flavorful ice cream the world had ever known.
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help the 15 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer.
Tina Sharkey is the co-founder of Brandless, a direct-to-consumer brand that makes hundreds of fairly-priced, consciously curated, high-quality items.
Diana Kapp is a journalist and the author of Girls Who Run the World. Her feature pieces on education, culture, Silicon Valley and entrepreneurship have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and San Francisco Magazine, among others.

DA do SF 7
2019-12-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Specs Bar, 12 William Saroyan Place, San Francisco, CA, 94133, United States
Come to SPECS Bar on Sunday, December 8 at 6pm as 3RP Co-directors Peter Carlaftes & Kat Georges present their annual Dada Journal MAINTENANT reading with Bay Area contributors –SF Poets & Legends Carol Dorf, Lorene Zouzounis, Robert Duncan, Jack Hirschman, Maw Shein Win, Allison Davis, Tom Stolmar, Marc Olmsted, Suzy Kaplan Olmsted, Richard Stone, Neeli Cherkovski, Mahnaz Badihian, Gerald Nicosia, Mara Patricia Hernandez, Santiago Amaya, Julian Mithra, and all the way from Brussels –Marina Kazakova!!!
We will have copies of our internationally renowned MAINTENANT 13: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art on hand for purchase and signing.
And stay for a special musical performance by Fitz and Webber –Wendy Fitz on Piano and Steve Webber on Bass. 8-10pm.
Spec’s Bar is in North Beach, right across the street from City Lights Bookstore at 12 William Saroyan Place. Admission its free. Showtime is 6-8, but to get the full Spec’s experience, come early and stay late!!

Mondo Bummer 10th Anniversary Non-Reading
2019-12-08 18:00 - 20:00 | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
Join us in celebrating Mondo Bummer’s 10th anniversary!
Mondo Bummer started in 2009 as sort of a joke and grew into a small press / mail art project that’s published 40+ titles. In honor of the fact that Mondo Bummer hasn’t published anything new in a few years, the theme of this event is not-publishing and not-writing.
Mondo Bummer authors including Lauren Levin, Taylor Brady, Sarah Fontaine, Wendy Trevino, and others will give short talks on not-writing and/or do anything other than read poems.
There will be
*cake
*Mondo Bummer books (and other things) for sale
More information about Mondo Bummer at http://mondobummer.com

San José Poetry Slam
2019-12-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Caravan Lounge, 98 S Almaden Ave, San Jose, CA, 95113, United States
feature: tba
Hosted by Santa Clara Couty Poet Laureate Mighty Mike McGee
doors and sign up list opens at 6:00pm
sign up list closes at 6:55pm
Show starts at 7pm
cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place
Follow the Slam on Facebook!
Caravan Lounge
98 S Almaden Ave
in downtown San José at the corner of San Fernando St. and Almaden Ave.
Admission Free
21 and over, cash bar (they do have an atm)

Bedtime Stories: Beach Fest
2019-12-09 08:00 - 17:00 | San Francisco Eagle, 398 12th St., San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
It’s been cold, and, “we need the rain,” can only go so far. We at Bedtime Stories are ready to have a Beach party to beach about that, holidays, family, work, the state of the world, and more! Enjoy the heated indoor section of the Eagle, comedy, lyric, and storytelling, and allow us to transport you somewhere new.
Doors begins at 8:00pm, not long after SF Eagle’s weekly open mic. Suggested donation of $5 at the door, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Performances by
Sage Curtis
JD Fierce
Luigi Diazz
& more!
Bedtime Stories is:
A variety show with a reading series vibe
Original content from local artists
“An introvert’s dream night out”
“A show where your eyes don’t need to be glued to the stage. You can stare into space, close your eyes, relax a little.”
