Bookseller Happy Hour: BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
2020-11-16 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Choosing our “best” books of the year is always a challenge, but talking about them is anything but. Grab a beverage and join us from the comfort of home as our booksellers reveal which books made the cut—and made their mark on us this year.
Register for this free Crowdcast event here!

Rooting Your Voice in Community: A Poetry Class with Alan Chazaro
2020-11-16 19:00 - 21:30 | CA
“Contemporary U.S. poetry is vibrant, complicated, and realer than ever — something that gives me hope as a writer,” says instructor Alan Chazaro. “It’s a family I’m proud to be a part of, and one that can teach us how to become our best creative selves while representing not only individual perspectives, but those of communities.”
In this online class, we will tap into the wider world we are rooted in–and the communities we are shaped by–as sources of inspiration for our poems. Each session will provide generative writing exercises, prompts, group dialogues, and select reading materials that will align with centering our voices within our respective communities.
Whether thinking from the perspective of an immigrant or using our gardening club as a source of philosophy, we will tune in to the spaces that define us off the page in order to expand ourselves on the page. While reading the work of contemporary poets from various communities such as Jose Olivarez, Danez Smith, and Sara Borjas, we will ask questions of ourselves in our own writing. Who do we speak for? How is community creatively and genuinely reflected in our poetry? And in what ways can we express who we are within the larger context of the cultures, traditions, and heritages that we claim?
Alan says, “After five weeks in this class, you will gain a deeper sense of the techniques and craft used by living, eclectic poets, while also gaining a sense of what community you speak for and what that looks like in poetic form.”
November 16 – December 14
5 Mondays, (PST) 7:00pm – 9:30pm

$274.35 for members
$295 for non-members

TICKETED VIRTUAL EVENT: Walk with Obi: Coast Redwoods on Fire
2020-11-17 15:00 - 16:30 | CA
Take a once-in-a-lifetime virtual walk with Obi Kaufmann as he explores habitat recovery & restoration of a burned coast redwood forest.
PRESENTED BY HEYDAY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SEMPERVIRENS FUND. Books provided by Bookshop Santa Cruz.
The story of the coast redwood is the story of a genetic lineage that stretches back to a time before the dinosaurs. Having evolved over the past several hundred million years to emerge as we find them today, the tallest tree to ever have lived on planet earth, coast redwoods are responsible for unique habitats that harbor a wealth of biodiversity found nowhere else. Although California’s mighty redwood forests can survive fire, flood, and a slew of other natural stressors, the onslaught of climate breakdown and a cacophony of other human-made threats presents unprecedented challenges to these precious, irreplaceable ecosystems.
Join Obi Kaufmann, author of The Forests of California (Heyday/September 2020), as he journeys into an old-growth redwood grove, one owned and managed by Sempervirens Fund that burned just a few months ago, to reveal the ecological mechanisms already at work repairing the battered forest. Despite the compounded injuries of fire, fragmentation, climate, and poor-policy, Obi’s profound message of good stewardship and hope as an actionable tool is an important and timely perspective, not only towards the conservation of the forest, but to the future of our own human residency in this beautiful and perilous place, California.
Live Q&A with attendees following the event.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKET INFORMATION.

Nadia Eghbal: The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure
2020-11-17 17:00 - 18:00 | CA
Tune in at 5:00pm PT on 11/17/20 to watch the public live stream of this talk on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Long Now Live.
Nadia Eghbal is particularly interested in infrastructure, governance, and the economics of the internet – and how the dynamics of these subjects play out in software, online communities and generally living life online.
Eghbal, who interviewed hundreds of developers while working to improve their experience at GitHub, argues that modern open source offers us a model through which to understand the challenges faced by online creators. Her new book, Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, is about open source developers and what they tell us about the evolution of our online social spaces.
Eghbal sees open source code as a form of public infrastructure that requires maintenance, and that offers us a model through which to understand the challenges faced by online creators on all platforms.

FREEMAN'S: Best New Writings on LOVE
2020-11-17 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
John Freeman with Robin Coste Lewis, Tommy Orange, and Matt Summell
John Freeman celebrates the latest installment of the journal that is called “a powerful force in the literary world” (Los Angeles Times.) Freeman’s turns to one of the greatest elevating forces of life: love

FREEMAN’S: Best New Writings on LOVE
Edited by John Freeman
Published by Grove Press
This is a virtual event that will be hosted by Litquake and City Lights as part of the LITQUAKE 2020 Festival 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.
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Event is free, but registration is required.
(CLICK HERE) to register. (link to be posted soon!)
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(Click Here) to purchase book (link to be posted soon!)
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John Freeman celebrates the latest installment of the journal that is called “a powerful force in the literary world” (Los Angeles Times.) Freeman’s turns to one of the greatest elevating forces of life: love

FREEMAN’S: Best New Writings on LOVE
Edited by John Freeman
Published by Grove Press

In a time of contentiousness and flagrant abuse, it often feels as if our world is run on hate. Invective. Cruelty and sadism. But is it possible the greatest and most powerful force is love? In the newest issue of this acclaimed series, Freeman’s Love asks this question, bringing together literary heavyweights like Tommy Orange, Anne Carson, Louise Erdrich, and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk alongside emerging writers such as Gunnhild Øyehaug and Semezdin Mehmedinović.
Mehmedinović contributes a breathtaking book-length essay on the aftermath of his wife’s stroke, describing how the two reassembled their lives outside their home country of Bosnia. Richard Russo’s charming and painful “Good People” introduces us to two sets of married professors who have been together for decades, and for whom love still exists, but between the wrong pair. Haruki Murakami tells the tale of a one-night stand that feels like a dying sun.
Together, the pieces comprise a stunning exploration of the complexities of love, tracing it from its earliest stirrings, to the forbidden places where it emerges against reason, to loss so deep it changes the color of perception. In a time when we need it the most, this issue promises what only love can bring: a solace of complexity and warmth.

John Freeman was the editor of Granta until 2013. His books include How to Read a Novelist, Tales of Two Cities, Tales of Two Americas, and Maps, his debut collection of poems. He is executive editor at the Literary Hub and teaches at the New School and New York University. His work has appeared in the New Yorker and the Paris Review and has been translated into twenty languages.
Robin Coste Lewis is the poet laureate of Los Angeles. In 2015, her debut poetry collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus (Knopf) won the National Book Award in poetry––the first time a poetry debut by an African-American had ever won the prize in the National Book Foundation’s history, and the first time any debut had won the award since 1974. Lewis’s writing has appeared in various journals and anthologies, such as Time Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Transition, and Best American Poetry.
Tommy Orange is an American novelist and a writer from Oakland, California. His first book There There was one of the finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Orange was also the recipient of 2019 American Book Awards. Orange is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations of Oklahoma.
Matt Sumell is a graduate of University of California, Irvine’s MFA programme, and his fiction has since appeared in the Paris Review, Esquire,Electric Literature and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

About LITQUAKE:
San Francisco’s annual Litquake literary festival was founded by Bay Area writers as a week-long literary spectacle for book lovers, complete with cutting-edge panels, unique cross-media events, and hundreds of readings. Since its founding in 1999, the festival has presented close to 1400 author appearances for an audience of over 32,000 in its lively and inclusive celebration of San Francisco’s thriving contemporary literary scene. Litquake seeks to foster interest in literature, perpetuate a sense of literary community, and provide a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing as a complement to the city’s music, film, and cultural festivals.
www.litquake.org

Shannon Messenger with Roshani Chokshi
2020-11-17 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
We are absolutely thrilled to invite you to celebrate the launch of Unlocked, Shannon Messenger’s latest novel in the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series, which follows Sophie, a girl who discovers she’s from another world that exists side by side with ours—and one that has given her amazing abilities.
In this extra special installment of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, the story picks up right from Legacy’s particularly devastating cliffhanger. But chapters alternate between Sophie and Keefe’s perspectives to give readers deeper insights into both beloved characters. New powers will be discovered. Hard truths from the past will come to light. And all of your favorite characters will find themselves tested in ways they never imagined. Unlocked also includes a comprehensive guide to the world of the Lost Cities, featuring new character and world details that have never been revealed before—plus fun bonuses like Keeper-themed recipes, a detailed map of the Lost Cities, and gorgeous full-color illustrations.
Shannon will be chatting with Roshani Chokshi, the author of the instant New York Times best-selling first book in the Pandava series, Aru Shah and the End of Time, and its sequels, Aru Shah and the Song of Death. and Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes. She also wrote the New York Times best-selling YA books The Star-Touched Queen series and The Gilded Wolves series.
Don’t wait – RSVP early to guarantee your spot in this webinar. Shannon’s presentations are always so much fun and sell out early.

Ishmael Reed with Tennesee Reed
2020-11-17 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Each reading from their new books of poetry published by Dalkey Archive
Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues
by Ishmael Reed
Califia Burning: Poems 2012-2019
by Tennessee Reed
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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.
Event is free, but registration is required.
(CLICK HERE) to register.
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Purchase Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues (CLICK HERE) link to be posted soon
Purchase Califia Burning: Poems 2012-2019 (CLICK HERE) link to be posted soon
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about Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues
The poems in this collection were written between 2007 and 2020. They range from poems based on events that occurred around the house to cataclysmic space events. Some of the poems were commissioned. “Moving Richmond” was part of a public art installation created by Mildred Howard. The poem, in huge letters forged into weathering steel billboards greets passengers who enter the new Bay Area mass transit hub in Richmond. Other poems were commissioned by musicians. “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” was performed by Gregory Porter. “Red Summer, 2015” appeared in print first and then was set to music by David Murray. The longest poem in the book, “Jazz Martyrs,” was begun when I learned about the number of black Jazz greats who didn’t live past the age of forty. I have been fortunate to live beyond the age of 80. I’ve found out who my best friends are. The ones who got me there.
about Califia Burning: Poems 2012-2019
A new collection of poems from the poet Tennessee Reed produced between the years 2012 and 2019.
Ishmael Reed is the award-winning author of over twenty-five books including Mumbo Jumbo, The Last Days of Louisiana Red, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down and Juice!. He is also a publisher, television producer, songwriter, radio and television commentator, lecturer, and has long been devoted to exploring an alternative black aesthetic: the trickster tradition, or Neo-Hoodooism as he calls it. Founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley for over thirty years, retiring in 2005. In 2003, he received the coveted Otto Award for political theater. His most recent essay collection, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, was published in 2019 by Baraka Books of Montreal. He lives in Oakland, California.

A graduate of UC Berkeley, Tennessee Reed is Secretary of Oakland PEN, and the author of the collections Circus in the Sky (I. Reed Books), Electric Chocolate (Raven’s Bones Press), and Airborne (Raven’s Bones Press). She received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Mills College in 2005.

Get Lit #66 (Music by: TBA)
2020-11-17 19:00 - 21:30 | Ale Industries, 3096 E 10th Street, Oakland, CA, 94601, United States
12–15 writers reading new work + live music + beer made on site + tacos just down the street: pure magical Get Litness.
We’re headed into our 5th consecutive year at Ale Industries as we celebrate writers taking risks and reading never-before-read work (rough drafts/debuts) within a 3-minute time limit + live music. All ages are welcome. Emceed by Abe Becker.
Doors open at 7:00 PM; show starts at 7:30 PM sharp! Suggested donations of $10-25 will be kindly requested at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF). Donate ahead of time via the Eventbrite ticket link on this event!
Get beer. Get tacos. Get lit.
This month’s performers: TBA
Music by: TBA
Nomadic Press Safe Space Statement
White supremacy and white supremacist-capitalist values permeate this country, including every state, county, city, and political persuasion. This includes the Bay Area. Illustrations of this range from the more obvious neo-nazi hate groups to all-white reading lineups, white terrorist shootings to labeling racial equity work in the literary community as censorship, mass incarceration to the voices most often published. Nomadic Press unequivocally stands against all iterations of white supremacy.
We are works in progress, continually doing the work of internally dismantling white supremacist values that have been inherited by virtue of being in the US. Simultaneous with this internal work, Nomadic Press utilizes a racial equity lense (as proposed by Race Forward) to dismantle white supremacy within publishing and the literary communities in which we work. We are not perfect, and we are always trying to be better.
Nomadic Press events are active, real-time safe spaces for those who have been intentionally silenced and marginalized, and we will work to ensure that the marginalized continue to take their rightful place in our communities.
Direct and timely non-violent communication and de-escalation techniques will be utilized to privately call in instances of racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, or misogyny whether in the content of one’s reading or in one’s interactions with members of the community. If, after being called in privately for a mediation, a community member is unwilling to acknowledge and address the harm they have caused, we will protect the safety of this space by revoking a reader’s access to the microphone. We encourage community members to come to us if someone has violated these guidelines away from the microphone. If the situation warrants (i. e., instances of sexual predation, violence, or threats of violence), we will make the information public to inform our communities of the present danger.
We are communities in progress. We must be better, always, and we ask that we work together to ensure that the safety of our most vulnerable members is prioritized above all else.
Read more about our safe space process here: www.nomadicpress.org/safespaceprocess
Poster by: Jevohn Tyler Newsome

Alta Asks Live: Rancho Obi-Wan’s Steve Sansweet
2020-11-18 12:30 - 13:30 | CA
The force is strong with Steve Sansweet, ruler of the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the known world. He’ll join us on Wednesday, November 18, at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time to guide us through his vast universe of treasures.

The force is strong with Steve Sansweet, ruler of the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the known world. Jedi master of Petaluma, California’s Rancho Obi-Wan, Sansweet is an author, Star Wars expert, and former head of fan relations at Lucasfilm. He’ll join Alta Asks Live and Alta editor at large Mary Melton on Wednesday, November 18, at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time to guide us through his vast universe of treasures and explain his passion for galaxies far, far away. REGISTER
About the guest:
Steve Sansweet is head of Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the Guinness World Records–certified largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia (ranchoobiwan.org). Located in Northern California on the outskirts of Petaluma, it is open for prebooked tours and events. Sansweet has written or coauthored 18 Star Wars books and many articles and has appeared on numerous television and online shows and podcasts. He was director of content management and head of fan relations at Lucasfilm Ltd. for 15 years and after retirement served as a consultant for the company. Prior to Lucasfilm, Sansweet had a 26-year career as a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Conversations with Authors - Deborah Tannen (Virtual Event)
2020-11-18 16:00 - 18:00 | CA
Deborah Tannen’s newest work, Finding My Father: His Century-Long Journey from World War I Warsaw and My Quest to Follow, traces her father’s life from turn-of-the-century Warsaw to New York City in an intimate memoir about family, memory, and the stories we tell.
Deborah is University Professor and Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University and author of many books and articles about how the language of everyday conversation affects relationships. She is best known as the author of New York Times bestseller You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. This is the book that brought gender differences in communication style to the forefront of public awareness. In addition to her eight books for general audiences, Deborah is author or editor of sixteen books and over one hundred articles for scholarly audiences. She is also a frequent guest on television and radio news and has been featured in and written for most major newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, HuffPost, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, People, and The Harvard Business Review. She lives with her husband in the Washington, D.C., area.
Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club remains a classic examination of the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. Her other novels are The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement, all New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins, two children’s books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, and numerous articles for magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, and National Geographic.

Virtual Event: Night of Memoir with Alden Jones and Rick Moody
2020-11-18 17:00 - 18:00 | online
Join us on Wednesday, November 18 at 5pm PST for a special Night of Memoir with writers Alden Jones and Rick Moody,
as they discuss their latest books and answer your questions about the art of memoir!
If you’re enjoying Green Apple’s virtual events, consider making a donation here to help sustain our programming.
Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84986160532
About The Wanting Was a Wilderness
How did Cheryl Strayed turn a solo hike into an inspirational memoir, beloved by millions? Memoirist and professor Alden Jones sets out to explore why. But when a sudden personal crisis occurs while she is writing, Jones realizes she must confront some difficult truths, both in her life and on the page. THE WANTING WAS A WILDERNESS is a profoundly original work that blends criticism, craft analysis, and a memoir of Jones’s own time in the wilderness. The result is a celebration of WILD and a map of our long path to self-discovery.
About The Long Accomplishment
Rick Moody, the award-winning author of The Ice Storm, shares the harrowing true story of the first year of his second marriage in this eventful, month-by-month account.
At this story’s start, Moody, a recovering alcoholic and sexual compulsive with a history of depression, is also the divorced father of a beloved little girl and a man in love; his answer to the question “Would you like to be in a committed relationship?” is, fully and for the first time in his life, “Yes.”
And so his second marriage begins as he emerges, humbly and with tender hopes, from the wreckage of his past, only to be battered by a stormy sea of external troubles—miscarriages, the deaths of friends, and robberies, just for starters. As Moody has put it, “This is a story in which a lot of bad luck is the daily fare of the protagonists, but in which they are also in love.” To Moody’s astonishment, matrimony turns out to be the site of strength in hard times, a vessel infinitely tougher and more durable than any boat these two participants would have traveled by alone. Love buoys the couple, lifting them above their hardships, and the reader is buoyed along with them.

Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City
2020-11-18 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
William Sites in conversation with John Corbett
exploring the new book
Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City
published by University of Chicago Press
Exploring acclaimed Jazz Master Sun Ra’s deep-rooted connection to the City of Chicago and its relation to AfroFuturism.
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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.
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Event is free, but registration is required.
(CLICK HERE) to register.
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(CLICK HERE) to purchase the book (link to be posted soon)
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Sun Ra (1914–93) was one of the most wildly prolific and unfailingly eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader also espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. In Sun Ra’s Chicago, William Sites brings this visionary musician back to earth—specifically to the city’s South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 he lived and relaunched his career. The postwar South Side was a hotbed of unorthodox religious and cultural activism: Afrocentric philosophies flourished, storefront prophets sold “dream-book bibles,” and Elijah Muhammad was building the Nation of Islam. It was also an unruly musical crossroads where the man then known as Sonny Blount drew from an array of intellectual and musical sources—from radical nationalism, revisionist Christianity, and science fiction to jazz, blues, Latin dance music, and pop exotica—to construct a philosophy and performance style that imagined a new identity and future for African Americans. Sun Ra’s Chicago shows that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city—and that by excavating the postwar black experience of Sun Ra’s South Side milieu, we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways.
William Sites is associate professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.
John Corbett is the co-owner of the Chicago art gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey, as well as a founder of the Sun Ra Archives.
What has been said about Sun Ra’s Chicago:

“Sun Ra’s Chicago is a masterful account of the musician’s formative years. Sites deftly applies a wider lens to his biography, analyzing the urban spaces and networks that shaped Sonny Blount’s transformation from an itinerant musician into the otherworldly philosophical leader of the Arkestra. This book is essential reading not only for Sun Ra listeners but for readers interested in the crosscurrents of Black intellectual thought and the utopian possibilities, past and present, of America’s cities.” Erik S. Gellman, author of Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay

“Like its subject, Sun-Ra’s Chicago is a category buster—social history, musicology, urban studies, hermeneutics, cultural reclamation—and as such, a revelation. Sites tells a story of countercultural ferment in 1950s south side Chicago that is detailed and provocative. Sun Ra, Alton Abraham, and the members and friends of the Arkestra were truly a ‘creative class’ long before that term, as we know it, was coined.” Larry Bennett, author of The Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism

Perfectly Queer Reading "Lesbians Who Sleuth"
2020-11-18 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
Wednesday, November 18, Perfectly Queer features mystery novels with Lesbian sleuths. Authors Laury Egan, Cheryl Head, and Anne Laughlin

In November, Perfectly Queer features mystery novels with Lesbian sleuths. Authors Laury A. Egan, Cheryl Head, and Anne Laughlin will read and discuss their work from New Jersey, North Carolina, and Chicago respectively on Wednesday, November 18, 7pm Pacific. They are staying up late for us, folks, so tune in! To get the Zoom link, rsvp Going or Interested or email perfectlyqueersf@gmail.com.
Books will be available from Dog Eared Books Castro in-person at 489 Castro St. in San Francisco or online at https://www.shopdogearedbookscastro.com/
https://bit.ly/34tQ4ax

Deborah Madison, An Onion in My Pocket
2020-11-18 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Acclaimed and bestselling culinary author Deborah Madison (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) will join us for a virtual event to share An Onion in My Pocket, her warm, bracingly honest memoir that gives us an insider’s look at the vegetarian movement.
Register for this Crowdcast event here!
An Onion in My Pocket is a true delight to read as she uncovers her love for all real foods, peeling off layer by layer like an onion, recounting her own personal, culinary, and gardening experiences, and her adventures with family and friends. It’s a most timely book and a joy to read.” —Lidia Bastianich
You can make a donation to help support Bookshop Santa Cruz here. Thank you!

Thanks to her beloved cookbooks and groundbreaking work as the chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, Deborah Madison, though not a vegetarian herself, has long been revered as this country’s leading authority on vegetables. She profoundly changed the way generations of Americans think about cooking with vegetables, helping to transform “vegetarian” from a dirty word into a mainstream way of eating. But before she became a household name, Madison spent almost twenty years as an ordained Buddhist priest, coming of age in the midst of counterculture San Francisco. In this charmingly intimate and refreshingly frank memoir, she tells her story—and with it the story of the vegetarian movement—for the very first time. From her childhood in Big Ag Northern California to working in the kitchen of the then-new Chez Panisse, and from the birth of food TV to the age of green markets everywhere, An Onion in My Pocket is as much the story of the evolution of American foodways as it is the memoir of the woman at the forefront. It is a deeply personal look at the rise of vegetable-forward cooking, and a manifesto for how to eat well.
DEBORAH MADISON, a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, is the award-winning author of fourteen cookbooks, including The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Vegetable Literacy. Her books have received four James Beard Foundation awards and five awards from the IACP; in 2016 she was inducted into the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Hall of Fame. She lives in New Mexico.

Little Hill
2020-11-18 20:00 - 22:00 | CA
Alli Warren reads with Jena Osman for the Poetry Project virtual events series.
Motion Studies and Little Hill, the new books of Jena Osman and Alli Warren, both exist at the precarious intersection of surveillance and escape, power and its holes, in the sexy and frustrated dailiness of resistance. These books ask how to live while indignant and horrified, implicated in that which is struggled against, always accountable to something more than what is known or knowable, to each other.

Award-winning poet explores new formal terrain in seven long poems against the violence of the present political moment.
“[Warren] has begun writing longer poems, putting her stamp on a running notational mode whose other practitioners include Stephanie Young, Anselm Berrigan, and Jacqueline Waters. I think you can hear the durational projects, the self-conscious day-scores, of Bernadette Mayer and of Lewis Warsh farther back in the tradition.”—Brian Blanchfield, pen.org
The third full-length collection from Bay Area poet Alli Warren, Little Hill comprises seven long poems written with propulsive prosody in a daybook fashion, examining our present, politically charged moment. These poems are at once energetic and contemplative, intimate and direct, as Warren focuses her attention on capitalism, gender, love, inequality, and resistance. Despite the dystopian now, Warren finds promise in the smallest human instances of tenderness, ecological connection, and political solidarity. Little Hill is about learning to live and love in the 21st century while not shying away from all there is to struggle against.
Praise for Little Hill:
“In Little Hill Alli Warren’s principle method is articulation of exquisite units of speech (thought) that, maintaining separation, are capable of connection. The line might be a sentence or a part of one . . . I mean a delicious sense of grammatical distinctness is maintained. The poet, also a lone unit, seems to exist less in relation than as that lone one, condemning this hard world with its villain work and elusive hierarchies. The language is precise, lush, unexpected and often thrilling. Articulation would seem to be the true other, or maybe nature is. The book is gift more than condemnation, though as the latter it’s unsparing. Still, it’s a gift.”––Alice Notley, author of For the Ride and Benediction
“The number of gasps and everything else gets lost in the concentration of Little Hill. Alli Warren keeps company with those rare poets whose every new book is their best. ‘This is an old machine with a pulley / It makes music work,’ Warren writes, reworking the ancient technology of poetry to a shine! Dear Poet, thank you for the wow WOW wowing!”––CAConrad, author of While Standing in Line for Death
“Reading Alli Warren’s Little Hill, I find it incredible that amidst the relentless circulation of capital and commodities—and despite attempts to make all life yield to the logics of extraction, work, accumulation, and the entrepreneurial self—a remainder is created, that of poetry. Little Hill embodies a poetics of radical uncertainty, one that attends to its horrific condition of possibility and is produced through the unmooring catastrophes that define our present moment: the destruction of the earth, mass imprisonment, late-capitalism—the litany does not end there. ‘I saw the death of the earth in a child’s toy,’ she writes. Everywhere the speaker looks there is ‘congealed shit, sometimes on sale.’ Yet yearning, even as it is raised tentatively, is not crushed. In and against it all, a question is raised—the question of what it means to love in times of terror.”—Jackie Wang, author of Carceral Capitalism

Marin Poetry Center Present Jane Hirshfield & Meryl Natchez
2020-11-19 08:00 - 17:00 | Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St, San Francisco, CA, 94118, United States
November 19, 2020
Jewish Community Center/Marin Poetry Center Present Jane Hirshfield & Meryl Natchez
Mill Valley poet Jane Hirshfield’s most recent, ninth poetry collection is Ledger (Knopf, 2020). Among her many honors are the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. A former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she was elected in 2019 to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Meryl Natchez, the chair of the Marin Poetry Center, is a poet, translator and reviewer. Her fourth book, Catwalk, was released in June from Longship Press. The two poets will read from their new books and talk about their experiences as writers during a time of crisis, the importance of community, and their shared sense of reverence for the natural world. This event is cosponsored by The Marin Poetry Center.

Crashing galaxies and conspiracy theories
2020-11-19 08:00 - 17:00 | CA
Crashing galaxies and conspiracy theories

Facebook event
Tickets from Eventbrite (£4 Regular nerds / £3 Concessions)
Nerd Nite Brighton is back! Evidence-based entertainment in the comfort of your own living room. We have two nerdishly passionate speakers, nerdy news and our fabulous quiz. It’s BYOCAB (bring your own cake and beer). Be there and be square!
Hosted by Dr Mick Taylor, our speakers this month are:
Dr Jillian Scudder: The Galaxy is crashing. (Don’t worry.)
Ben Bailey: We Are All Conspiracy Theorists Now
All proceeds from our online events will go to a different local charity each month. This month we are supporting Impact Initiatives. Established 40 years ago, Impact Initiatives aims to give individuals and communities the support they need to improve their quality of life and feel a part of a wider community. From social activities or after school care to advocacy or counselling, employment support or housing they support people of all ages.
Our speakers this month:
Jillian Scudder
Jillian is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio. Her research focuses on how and why galaxies form stars, and the physics of how galaxies collide. She has a popular astronomy book in paperback: Astroquizzical: a beginner’s guide to the cosmos. Twitter @Jillian_Scudder.
Ben Bailey
It’s been a great year for conspiracy theories. What used to be a fringe hobby for eccentrics and an amusing sideshow for sceptics is now a driver of world events. Join Ben as he surfaces for air after spending months lost in an ever-expanding warren of insane rabbit holes. What happened? And who can he really trust? Naturally, he’s had no choice but to deliver his findings in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.
Ben is a journalist and musician who sometimes gives talks on nerdy topics. He is probably on several blacklists and is almost certainly considered a threat to national security, but he could also just be a government shill. No one really knows, not even him.

Special Event for Kids: Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver with Varian Johnson and Lisa Yee — Alien Superstar (Virtual Event)
2020-11-19 10:00 - 12:00 | CA
mmy Award winner Henry Winker and Lin Oliver are back for the second installment of the New York Times bestselling middle grade series that Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney calls “truly out of this world!”
After escaping his oppressive red dwarf planet and landing a role on a popular Hollywood sitcom, Buddy Burger seems destined for high-flying success. His legions of fans love his six eyes, his suction cup feet, and even his excessive need for avocados. It seems nothing can stop his rise to super-stardom—until the arrival of Citizen Cruel, a shape-shifting Squadron member sent from Buddy’s home planet to bring him back by any means necessary. Will Buddy conquer this clever and unpredictable enemy? How long can he continue to keep his alien identity secret from his friends and fans? Is there enough guacamole on Earth to sustain him? And chips to go with it? Action-packed and full of laughs, Alien Superstar: Lights, Camera, Danger! is the second book in the exciting New York Times bestselling middle grade series.
Henry Winkler is an Emmy Award–winning actor, writer, director, and producer who has created some of the most iconic TV roles, including Arthur “the Fonz” Fonzarelli on Happy Days and Gene Cousineau on Barry.
Lin Oliver is a children’s book writer and a writer and producer for both TV and film. She is currently the executive director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She and Henry both live in Los Angeles.
Varian Johnson is the author of nine novels, including The Parker Inheritance, which was named a 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor Book and a 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book among other accolades. His middle grade caper novel, The Great Greene Heist, has been named to over twenty-five state reading and best-of lists. In addition, Varian has written for the Spirit Animals: Fall of the Beasts middle-grade fantasy series as well as novels and short stories for YA audiences.
Lisa Yee’s debut novel, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, won the prestigious Sid Fleischman Humor Award. Her other novels for young people include Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, So Totally Emily Ebers, Absolutely Maybe, and a series about a 4th grader, Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) and Bobby the Brave (Sometimes). She also the author of American Girl’s Kanani books, the DC Super Hero Girls middle grade novel series, Good Luck, Ivy, and the Lea Clark series.

AUTHOR REYNA GRANDE IN CONVERSATION WITH CBC HOST JOHN FREEMAN
2020-11-19 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
The Distance Between Us
BY REYNA GRANDE

Grande puts a human face on the fraught issue of immigration in her acclaimed memoir. At age nine, Grande leaves Mexico as an undocumented immigrant to join her father in the United States—El Otro Lado, or “the other side.” The pursuit of happiness is elusive and filled with tragedy, but Grande finds her own path, becoming the first person in her family to go to college. A 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, The Distance Between Us has been selected by many citywide reading programs throughout the U.S.

Author: Rand Quinn, Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools
2020-11-19 18:00 - 19:00 | online
Quinn discusses the contentious racial politics that emerged from school desegregation and why the school district gradually resegregated despite a court mandate.
San Francisco’s school board is once again rethinking its student assignment system. Debates over student assignment trace back over a half century and map the long struggle to desegregate the city’s schools. In Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools, Rand Quinn explains the contentious racial politics that emerged from school desegregation and why the school district gradually resegregated despite a court mandate. Student assignment — once the remedy for government discrimination through busing and other desegregative mechanisms — soon became a tool intended to create diversity.
Rand Quinn is associate professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the origins and political consequences of private sector engagement in public education, the politics of race and ethnicity in urban school reform and the impact of community-based institutions, organizations and action in education.

VIRTUAL: Reza Farazmand / City Monster
2020-11-19 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Booksmith and The Bindery host New York Times bestselling author and artist Reza Farazmand for his first graphic novel City Monster!
Please note: This is a ticketed event, with each ticket including a *signed* copy of City Monster. The book can be picked up from Booksmith in San Francisco or we can ship it to you, anywhere in the world. We’re currenrly offering free shipping throughout San Francisco and the East Bay, otherwise additional shipping fees will apply (we’ll invoice you separately once the book ships). If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email events@booksmith.com.
City Monster is set in a world of supernatural creatures and follows a young monster who moves to the city. As he struggles to figure out his future, his new life is interrupted by questions about his mysterious roommate—a ghost who can’t remember the past. Joined by their neighbor, a vampire named Kim, they explore the city, meeting a series of strange and spooky characters and looking for answers about life, memories, and where to get a good beer.
With Reza’s signature style, and familiar snark, this graphic novel is equal parts irreverent and insightful, the perfect vehicle for conveying the utter absurdity of our bizarre and confusing times.
Reza Farazmand lives and draws in Los Angeles. He started putting his comics on the internet in college at PoorlyDrawnLines.com and was soon surprised to learn that this activity could make for an actual career. His work has since been featured in and around such places as television sets, websites, magazines, and now this book. When he’s not writing or drawing, Reza enjoys drinking coffee and looking at things on screens. He is generally a pretty good guy.
Please note: This is a ticketed event, with each ticket including a *signed* copy of City Monster. The book can be picked up from Booksmith in San Francisco or we can ship it to you, anywhere in the world. We’re currenrly offering free shipping throughout San Francisco and the East Bay, otherwise additional shipping fees will apply (we’ll invoice you separately once the book ships). If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email events@booksmith.com.
To order additional signed copies of City Monster, order here.
​
This is an all-ages, virtual event that begins at 6pm PST. Duration of event is subject to author’s preference.

You're Going to Die: ALL THE FEELS 2020
2020-11-19 18:30 - 21:00 | CA
Thursday, November 19, 2020
6:30 PM 9:00 PM
GLOBALLY (map)

You’re Going to Die: ALL THE FEELS 2020
an ONLINE Open Mic & Listening Space
for communal connection & mortal vulnerability
w/Ned Buskirk, the You’re Going to Die Team
& music Hugo de la Lune!
Thursday, November 19th
Virtual Doors at 6:30pm
Show at 7pm
REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/3jlX4ut
You’re Going to Die: ALL THE FEELS 2020
…an ONLINE open mic & listening space, an excavation & deepening for ourselves, with our community & the world, the communal offering for us to explore the conversation of death & dying, to embrace our mortality, to grieve, bereave & honor what we’ve lost, love & stand to lose eventually… while still somehow celebrating, together, the extraordinary fact of being ALIVE at all.
Sign-ups will be during the Zoom Call & the list will fill up quickly, so if you want to share, say so sooner rather than later.
If you’re going to perform, keep it under 5 MINUTES. That’s right: 5 MINUTES. WE WILL TIME YOU. And YES – We will, as kindly & gently as possible, let you know when your time is UP.
Poetry, prose, music, dancing, artwork, photography, 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.
Like so many other artists & nonprofits with a live event focus, much of our in person work for the foreseeable future is cancelled. For this special online event, we suggest that people pay between $10-50, but do not hesitate to go above or below based on what feel is possible. And PLEASE, if you are 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.
YOU CAN DONATE VIA…
VENMO: https://venmo.com/YG-2D – @YG-2D
or
PAYPAL: chelsea@yg2d.com

Third Thursdays @ Willow Glen Library
2020-11-19 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
Third Thursdays @ Willow Glen Library
Thursday, November 19, 7:00pm
featuring Patricia J. Machmiller & Mimi Ahern
online on Zoom (login to come)
or find your local number here
Patricia J. Machmiller began writing haiku in 1975 with Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi, founders of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS). With Jerry Ball, and now Emiko Miyashita, she writes a column of haiku commentary, “Dojin’s Corner,” for GEPPO, the YTHS newsletter. She has two books of haiku, Blush of Winter Moon (Jacaranda Press, 2001) and Utopia: She Hurries On (Swamp Press, 2017). Her haiku have twice been honored with the Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Award. With Fay Aoyagi she translated the haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi, Kiyoko’s Sky (Brooks Books, 2002). She has four books of haiga, including Mountain Trail: Following the Master (www.lulu.com). The three others, The Sweet Reverence of Little Birds, Wild Heart of One Bird Singing, and Yard Birds: The Impertinence of Ordinary (all at www.lulu.com) were done in collaboration with the artist, Floy Zittin, and the calligrapher, Martha Dahlen. Her latest book, Zigzag of the Dragonfly: Writing the Haiku Way, (YTHS, 2020) encapsulates what she has learned about writing haiku. She is also a brush painter and printmaker; some of her haiga, can be seen at www.dandelions.us.
The creative process has intrigued Mimi Ahern for over 50 years. Midlife, she became serious about it, returning to school to earn an interdisciplinary masters in Creativity at San Jose State University. Throughout her personal and professional life (as a teacher, designer, and staff developer) this interest in creativity has continued. For the past decade, her creative energy has been focused on haiku, which she was first drawn to in 2006 at PCSJ’s first Poetry Festival organized by Sally Ashton. At noon, in a Kelly Park Trolley, she was smitten when listening to members of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS) read their own haiku. More interested in process than product, she does manage to finish some haiku, submit them for publication, and enjoy seeing them in print. Mimi Ahern has been a member of PCSJ since she first discovered the Thursday night readings at the Willow Glen Bookstore and Jean Emerson, the moderator, invited her to a workshop in her home. Now President of YTHS, she really is consumed with the poetry of haiku.
Upcoming at Third Thursdays:
TBA

Mazza Writer in Residence Wendy Trevino, with Zaina Alsous
2020-11-19 19:00 - 20:30 | CA
“A Border, like race, is a cruel fiction.” Mazza Writer in Residence Wendy Trevino, with Zaina Alsous, reading and in conversation

Thursday, November 19 – 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Register to Attend
—or—
Watch Live Stream at YouTube
Under the heading “A border, like race, is a cruel fiction”—a line from a poem in Wendy Trevino’s remarkable book, Cruel Fiction—Trevino, The Poetry Center’s Mazza Writer in Residence for Fall 2020, will be joined, as part of her week-long residency, by Palestinian American poet Zaina Alsous, both poets reading and in conversation with one another and the audience. With emcee, alex cruse.
This remote access event starts promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific Time, and is free and open to the public. Real-Time Captioning provided on request (Media Captioning provided after the event); for reasonable accommodations please contact poetry@sfsu.edu.
Supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation. Co-sponsored by The Poetry Center and AMED: the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative at the College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University, with our thanks to Professor Rabab Abdulhadi.

Wendy Trevino’s Cruel Fiction (Commune Editions) tells the truth about life as we know and endure it, restlessly picking at the hangnails of both history and heartbreak. Trevino posits race as a “cruel fiction,” nationality as its attendant mythology. Trevino asks: How do we resist these fictions without reproducing their murderous, hierarchical logics? For Trevino, “poetry is not enough” as long as we are not enough. Trevino’s insurgent colloquialism is a sleight of hand. Cruel Fiction speaks plainly but never simply. Trevino reflects on the lies with which we arm ourselves to refute the lies used against us. Against the near-orgasmic collective delusions of Obamamania, Trevino recounts solidarities fostered during the Occupy movement. Exhilarating sonnet sequences titled “Popular Culture & Cruel Work,” and “Brazilian Is Not a Race” interrogate the inter-sections of pop and protest.
—Momtaza Mehri, Somali-British poet, Young People’s Laureate for London 2018-19

Wendy Trevino was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. She now lives and works in San Francisco. Her chapbook 128–131 was published by Perfect Lovers Press in 2013. Her chapbook Brazilian Is Not a Race was published by Commune Editions in 2016, followed by her first full-length book, Cruel Fiction, also from Commune Editions, 2018. Her chapbook #YourHarveyWeinstein was also published by Spoilsport Editions—an online press she started with writer Oki Sogumi—in 2017. Her poems have appeared in various print and online journals, including Abraham Lincoln, Armed Cell, the Capilano Review, LIES, Macaroni Necklace, Mondo Bummer, ELDERLY, and Open House. Wendy is not an experimental writer.
Zaina Alsous is a prison abolitionist, a daughter of the Palestinian diaspora, and a movement worker in South Florida. Her poetry, reviews, and essays have been published in POETRY Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The New Inquiry, Adroit, and elsewhere. She edits for Scalawag Magazine, a publication dedicated to unsettling dominant narratives of the U.S. South. Her chapbook Lemon Effigies won the Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize and was published by Anhinga Press. Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Theory of Birds, won the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, selected by Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah, and was published by the University of Arkansas Press, Fall 2019. Born and raised in North Carolina, she currently lives in Miami, Florida, while pursuing an MFA in poetry and teaching undergraduate writing at the University of Miami. More at zainaalsous.com

from “Brazilian Is Not A Race,” Wendy Trevino

A border, like race, is a cruel fiction
Maintained by constant policing, violence
Always threatening a new map. It takes
Time, lots of people’s time, to organize
The world this way. & violence. It takes more
Violence. Violence no one can confuse for
Anything but violence. So much violence
Changes relationships, births a people
They can reason with. These people are not
Us. They underestimate the violence.
It’s been awhile. We are who we are
To them, even when we don’t know who we
Are to each other & culture is a
Record of us figuring that out.

An Unnatural History of America A panel discussion on the work of Charles Bowden
2020-11-19 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Join the bookstore’s Stephen Sparks and a panel of writers for a discussion of the work of the late Charles Bowden, whose “Unnatural History of America” series has just been published in full by the University of Texas Press.
More information on participants soon. For more on Charles Bowden, read this tribute on Aeon.
“Like the beasts and criminals he admired, Bowden was a complicated, contradictory creature. He loved dogs, dirt, wine, worms, Cadillacs, cacti. He held backyard parties to watch summer cereus flowers bloom at midnight, and owned scores of guns but was reluctant to shoot them lest they scare the birds.” — Wes Enzinna, Harper’s Magazine
This event will be streamed on our Crowdcast channel.
REGISTER HERE.
About Charles Bowden
Charles Bowden (1945-2014) was the author of many acclaimed books about the American Southwest and US-Mexico border issues, Bowden was a contributing editor for GQ, Harper’s, Esquire, and Mother Jones and also wrote for the New York Times Book Review, High Country News, and Aperture. His honors included a PEN First Amendment Award, Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, and the Sidney Hillman Award for outstanding journalism that fosters social and economic justice. He wrote The Red Caddy in 1994.

Great Good Gifts for the Holidays #3: Adult Nonfiction
2020-11-19 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Please join us on Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 7 PM PST for staff recommendations on adult nonfiction in this third episode of our Great Good Gifts for the Holidays series.
The Zoom meeting will be at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81183755875
This is our third recommendations night of the season. Mark your calendar for these events too:

11/5: Cook books and Gift Books;
11/12: Kids’ books and graphic novels
12/3: Adult fiction
12/10: Recommendations for the Hard-to-Shop-For Person on Your List

Location:

Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81183755875

Oakland, CA 94611
United States

Speaking Axolotl Reading and Open Mic
2020-11-19 20:00 - 22:00 | Nomadic Press/Fairmount, 111 Fairmount Ave, Oakland, CA, 94611
A Latinx poetry reading series y open mic that happens every third Thursday (unless otherwise noted) in “The Chapel” at Nomadic Press. Decolonized beats provided by the one-and-only L7. Hosted by Josiahluis Alderete.
This month’s features are TBA.
Donations will be kindly requested to help pay the features and cover the cost of the space.
The 10-slot open mic list opens at 7:30 PM and fills up pretty quick so if you plan on reading get there early
Free parking in the back of the building and the closest BART station is 19th Street BART in Oakland (about a 15-minute walk straight down Broadway).

W. KAMAU BELL: RACE & JOURNALISM
2020-11-20 12:00 | CA
W. KAMAU BELL: RACE & JOURNALISM
in conversation with Chan’Cellore Makanjuola
Co-presented with UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Friday, November 20, 2020
12:00pm Pacific Time
KQED Broadcast: 12/06/2020, 12/08/2020, 12/09/2020

TICKETS

This year, journalists were out in the streets, covering racial reckoning and protest. Inside newsrooms, which are overwhelmingly white, media organizations are beginning to confront inequity in their own ranks. When the country’s newsrooms are mostly led by a privileged class of white men, what does that mean for the kinds of stories that get covered, missed, undervalued? In a first time co-presentation with UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, cultural critic, comedian, and CNN docu-series host W. Kamau Bell joins graduate student Chan’Cellore Makanjuola for a lunchtime conversation about race, storytelling, identity and the future of journalism.

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.

Chan’Cellore Makanjuola is an award-winning filmmaker from Plano, Texas. She is a second-year graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, with her concentration in documentary filmmaking, and she is the co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) UC Berkeley Chapter.

Panel: How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America
2020-11-20 12:00 - 13:00 | online
Celebrate the release of How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America, the latest addition to the Voice of Witness book series, with a roundtable conversation about Indigenous narratives, visibility, and storytelling.
Zoom Registration
SFPL YouTube Live

How We Go Home, edited by oral historian Sara Sinclair, shares contemporary first-person Indigenous stories in the long and ongoing fight to protect Native land, rights, and life. In myriad ways, each narrator’s life has been shaped by loss, injustice, resilience, and the struggle to share space with settler nations. In this roundtable conversation, narrator Ashley Hemmers will be joined by the book’s editor, Sara Sinclair, and News from Native California editor, Terria Smith, to discuss representation and visibility of Indigenous communities today.
This event is cosponsored by Voice of Witness (VOW), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against—injustice. The VOW Book Series depicts human rights issues through the edited oral histories of people—VOW narrators—who are most deeply impacted and at the heart of solutions to address injustice. The series explores issues of race-, gender-, and class-based inequity through the lenses of the criminal justice system, migration, and displacement. The VOW Education Program connects over 20,000 educators, students, and advocates each year with these stories and issues through oral history-based curricula, trainings, and holistic educational support.

Tania Amochaev: One Hundred Years of Exile
2020-11-20 16:00 - 17:30 | CA
In “One Hundred Years of Exile: In Search of My Father’s Russia” San Francisco author Tania Romanov tells the story of her journey through one hundred years of history to find peace with her father.

This event is in English and will be held on Zoom on November 20, 2020, at 4.00 pm PST (SF), 7 pm EST (NY). There will be a limited number of seats; please contact Globus Books via FB messenger to register. We will also be live streaming the event on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GlobusBooksSF/videos) and later will share the edited version of the program.

Daughter and father were both exiled from their homelands as infants; both knew life in refugee camps. The family’s immigration to San Francisco heralded a promising new future—but while Tania just wanted to be an American, her father could not trust that this was his final asylum. His fears and his resistance to assimilation left Tania with deep resentment.

Decades later, his unexpected death made Romanov explore her Russian heritage. A meeting with a last surviving member of the Russian royal family sent Tania on a quest in time and space. Cossacks, revolution, escapes, Stalin’s Purges: the Amochaevs’ family story reflects Russian history.

Tania Romanov is an award-winning travel photographer and the author of three books, “Mother Tongue: A Saga of Three Generations of Balkan Women”, “Never a Stranger”, a travel story collection; and “One Hundred Years of Exile: A Romanov’s Search for Her Father’s Russia.” (2021). A Solas Award winner, Tania’s work has also been featured in multiple travel anthologies and translated into Serbo-Croatian and Russian. Born in the former Yugoslavia, Tania fled the country and spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Trieste, Italy, before emigrating to the United States. She went through San Francisco’s public schools, U.C. Berkeley, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, eventually serving as CEO of three technology companies. When not on the road, Tania splits her time between San Francisco and Sonoma County.

This program is produced and hosted by author Zarina Zabrisky.
