Litseen

Big Ideas Reading Group
2019-04-13 16:00 - 17:00 UTC | Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park , CA, 94025, United States
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to “flow”? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.
For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.
Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

Posted in Literary Discussions

Fire, Rain, Darkness: Three New Books from Sixteen Rivers Press
2019-04-13 18:30 - 21:00 UTC | O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, CA, 94941
Fire, Rain, Darkness: Three New Books from Sixteen Rivers Press

April 13 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

CAMILLE NORTON, BARBARA SWIFT BAUER & MAYA KHOSLA
Book Signing, Meet the poets,
Hear their new works.
Doors 6:30 p.m., Reading 7:00 p.m.
Three new Sixteen Rivers Press poets are pleased to present their works at O’Hanlon Center for the Arts. Their books are A Folio for the Dark by Camille Norton (winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series for Corruption, published by Harper Perennial in 2005), Rain, Like a Thief, by Barbara Swift Brauer (author of At Ease in the Borrowed World) and All the Fires of Wind and Light, by Maya Khosla (winner of the 2003 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize for Keel Bone, published by Bear Star in 2003).

Price: $10.00

Elaine C. Brown & Kelliane Parker at Works in Progress Women's Open Mic
2019-04-13 18:30 - 22:30 UTC | Plymouth Jazz and Justice Church, 424 Monte Vista, Oakland, 94611
a WOMEN-ONLY event featuring poets
Kelliane Parker & Elaine C. Brown (AKA Poet E. Spoken)
with open mic
Hosted by Linda Zeiser
$7 – $10 Admission includes raffle ticket for 1 of 8 copies of Julia’s book DETOURS
6:30 – 7:30 Potluck: bring your favorite dish to share.
7:30 – 10:15 Performance
Produced by Linda Zeiser & Carolyn Stull Zeiser. To reserve open mic slot, contact Linda at (510) 701-1022, ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com, well in advance.
Elaine C. Brown aka Poet E. Spoken is the co-host of My Word Open at Café Leila in Berkeley. Poet E. Spoken has featured and performed at open mics across the country, combining free style poetry with history to get people not only to understand what’s going on in this world but motivate them to change mindsets.
Kelliane Parker is a queer Latinx poet. She co-hosts My Word Open Mic. She has featured throughout the Bay Area. Her work has been published in several anthologies and featured in an art and poetry collaboration, “Have You Heard Us Yet?” She is an activist, giving voices to survivors of sexual assault and dissociative disorders.

Fire & Rain: Ecopoetry of California contributors read
2019-04-14 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
Publisher Lucille Lang Day and poet Joan Gelfand are joined by several Bay Area colleagues who are among the 150 contributors throughout the state whose poems make up “Fire & Rain: Ecopoetry of California” (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018). http://www.scarlettanager.com/ “Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, edited by Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan, is not only a beautiful and thorough anthology but an homage to California, its varieties of landscapes, and the amazing poetry it has evoked. Like no other collection in its focus, it presents for the reader experiences of life and personal perspectives on the region while also providing an invaluable resource for teachers of creative writing and literature and the ecology, habitats, and species of the state.” — Pattiann Rogers, recipient of the John Burroughs Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Nature Poetry http://www.scarlettanager.com/fire-and-rain.html

Second Sunday Poetry series
2019-04-14 15:30 - 17:00 UTC | Brit-Marie’s Restaraunt, 1369 Solano Avenu, Albany, CA
Second Sunday Poetry series presents a reading by Ron Campbell, Grace Grafton, and Sarah Haba, curated by Barb Reynolds, Britt-Marie’s Restaurant, 1369 Solano Avenue, Albany, free, 3:30-5:00 (510/527-1314, brittmariesolano.com)

GEARS TURNING w/ Kim Shuck
2019-04-14 16:00 - 18:00 UTC | Adobe Books, 3130 24th St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Join us for an afternoon of wonderful poetry by SF Bay Area based poets, artists, and musicians with your host Kim Shuck.
To participate in the open mic session, please arrive by 4 and plan to listen to all of the featured poets. Seating/space is limited.

Posted in LIVE POETRY

LOTERIA READING SERIES No. 1: La Luna, La Arãna, La Estrella
2019-04-14 16:30 - 17:30 UTC | Institute Of advanced Uncertainty, P.O. Box 460908, San Francisco, 94146
LOTERIA READING SERIES, No. 1: La Arãna, La Luna, La Estrella
An afternoon reading with
Raina J. León
Thea Matthews
MK Chavez
Sunday, April 14th, 2019
Doors: 4PM
Program: 4:30PM
Free Entry
Institute Of advanced Uncertainty
@ McRoskey 3RD FLOOR FACTORY LOFT
1687 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

New Poetry & 100 Years of Ferlinghetti at Odd Mondays
2019-04-15 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Folio Books, 3957 24th St, San Francisco , CA, 94114, United States
Shauna Hannibal, Fernando Martí, and Zack Rogow, three poets with new collections, read from their work and from the work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti at “New Poetry & 100 Years of Ferlinghetti,” the Odd Mondays for April 15. Celebrate National Poetry Month and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s first century at Folio Books, 3957 24th St. in Noe Valley. 7pm start. Free admission and free refreshments–including birthday cake!
Here’s more about the poets who are reading:
Shauna Hannibal is the author of Hannibal (Forklift Books, 2017), her debut collection of poetry which Laura Kasischke has called “a wildly important and game-changing book by a poet whose sensibility brings us, through poetry, an entirely new way of seeing the world, ourselves in it, and the art of the poem.” She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson. She lives in San Francisco near Golden Gate Park and is working on her 2nd book while training to become a massage therapist.
Fernando Martí is a poet, story-writer, printmaker, architect, and housing activist. Originally from Ecuador, he has been deeply involved in San Francisco’s struggles for affordable housing, community land and climate justice since the mid-90s. His work reflects his formal training in urbanism, his roots in rural Ecuador, and his current residence in the heart of Empire. His poetry and prints inhabit the space between ancestral traditions of place and utopian construction in the age of catastrophic climate change. His artwork can be seen regularly on justseeds.org, and his writing has appeared in publications as varied as El Tecolote,Left Turn and Shelterforce, as well as a ‘zine called Amor y Lucha.
Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of more than twenty books or plays. His poetry collections include Irreverent Litanies; as well as The Number Before Infinity, and Talking with the Radio. His coauthored play Colette Uncensored had a staged reading at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and ran in London and San Francisco. Rogow’s blog, Advice for Writers, has more than 200 posts. He serves as a contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader. www.zackrogow.com

POETS! - featured readers followed by an open mic
2019-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA

POETS! - Ronald Sauer & Agnetta Falk followed by an open mic
2019-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
POETS! – Ronald Sauer & Agnetta Falk followed by an open mic

The Diesel Readers Book Group -- In the Midst of Winter
2019-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
Monday, April 15th
7:00pm

East Bay Booksellers invites you to The Diesel Readers Book Group’s discussion of In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende, on Monday April 15th at 7pm.
An instant New York Times bestseller, In the Midst of Winter is about three very different people who are brought together in a mesmerizing story that offers “a timely message about immigration and the meaning of home” (People).
During the biggest Brooklyn snowstorm in living memory, Richard Bowmaster, a lonely university professor in his sixties, hits the car of Evelyn Ortega, a young undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, and what at first seems an inconvenience takes a more serious turn when Evelyn comes to his house, seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant, Lucia Maraz, a fellow academic from Chile, for her advice.
As these three lives intertwine, each will discover truths about how they have been shaped by the tragedies they witnessed, and Richard and Lucia will find unexpected, long overdue love. Allende returns here to themes that have propelled some of her finest work: political injustice, the art of survival, and the essential nature of—and our need for—love.

** The Diesel Readers is an ongoing group, and is open to all. **

Event date:

Monday, April 15, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618

Herbert Marcuse:Philosopher of Utopia
2019-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Monday, Apr 15, 2019 7:00 PM
Location:
The basement at Moe’s
2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley
Website
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a little-known German scholar when he became one of the 20th century’s most unlikely pop stars: a celebrity philosopher. In the 1960s, his argument for a “principled utopianism” catalyzed the ideals of a rebellious generation, and Marcuse became an intellectual guide for activists and revolutionaries around the world. The legacy of his contribution to a radical shift of consciousness has resonated in social-change movements ever since.
This comics-format biography brings Marcuse’s life, work, and times to a new generation. From his youth in Weimar Germany and early studies with Martin Heidegger, to his emigration from Nazi Germany along with colleagues of the Frankfurt School, to his rise as one of its major theorists along with Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, to his status as a countercultural icon, readers are introduced to the theories and circumstances that made Marcuse into one of the world’s most influential intellectuals.
Mentor to a young Angela Davis and often referred to as the unofficial faculty advisor to the New Left, Marcuse’s controversial critique of the “comfortable unfreedoms” of post-WWII capitalism entered popular consciousness with the 1964 publication of One-Dimensional Man, which sold over 100,000 copies in its first years in print. His argument for the possibility of a more humane and sustainable world was grounded in a personal knowledge of the violence of authoritarianism, and the risk of its resurgence. Perennially relevant, radical, and inspiring, Marcuse’s concept of the Great Refusal —”the protest against that which is”—is a guide for our times.
PRAISE
“Nick Thorkelson’s exploration of the ideas and personality of Herbert Marcuse is exactly the sort of comic book I have longed to read. It is engaging, artful, and explores the world of revolutionary ideas. Books like this keep the fire going inside.”––Joe Sacco
“I believe that Marcuse’s ideas can be as valuable today as they were fifty years ago.”––Angela Y. Davis, from the foreword
“Thorkelson’s graphic life of Herbert Marcuse is a riotous romp through 20th-century philosophy. The story of a man who exists at the eye of storm of ideas, of movements and of social strategies. With workers and students on the streets of Paris once more, Marcuse’s life and work has never been more relevant.”––Kate Evans, author of Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Nick Thorkelson is a cartoonist living in Boston. He has done cartoons on local politics for The Boston Globe and in support of organizations working on economic justice, peace, and public health. He is the co-author and/or illustrator of The Earth Belongs to the People, The Underhanded History of the USA, The Legal Rights of Union Stewards, The Comic Strip of Neoliberalism, and Economic Meltdown Funnies, and has contributed to a number of nonfiction comics anthologies. He is working on a graphic novel about the end of the Sixties, A Better World Is Possible. Nick also moonlights as a musician, animator, graphic designer, and painter.
Andrew T. Lamas teaches urban studies and critical theory at the University of Pennsylvania, is co-editor of The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements (Temple University Press, 2017), and serves on the boards of the International Herbert Marcuse Society, the Radical Philosophy Review, and the Bread and Roses Community Fund.

The Effect of Tech on San Francisco with Cary McClelland and Kim-Mai Cutler
2019-04-16 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Manny’s, 3092 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, San Francisco, 94108, United States
San Francisco is changing at warp speed. Famously home to artists and activists, and known as the birthplace of the Beats and the LGBTQ movement, in recent decades the Bay Area has been reshaped by Silicon Valley, the engine of the new American economy.
The richer the region gets, the more unequal and less diverse it becomes, and cracks in the city’s facade–rapid gentrification, an epidemic of evictions, rising crime, atrophied public institutions–have started to show.
Who has been displaced? How has San Francisco become the City emplematic of wealth disparity? What are the intersections between racism, gentrification, wealth creation, and politics amongst all of these changes.
Here to be in conversation are Cary Mclelland, who wrote the book Silicon City to investigate how the growth of the digital economy has affected San Francisco and journalist Kim-Mai Cutler.

See Less

Erica Jong and Francesca Bell
2019-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | The Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael, 94903
Kanbar Auditorium, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center
200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael
This special event is cosponsored by the Marin JCC and Red Hen Press.

Fear of Flying, Erica Jong’s first and most famous novel, published in 1973, blew conventional thinking about women, marriage and sexuality out of the water, selling over 37 million copies and translated into over 45 languages including Chinese and Arabic. Her novel articulated what women thought but which, through decades of silent complicity with the status quo, was never voiced.
In the four decades since Fear of Flying, she has published over 25 books in 45 languages, including 9 works of fiction as well as celebrated non-fiction volumes. She has switched between fiction, non-fiction and poetry, becoming one of the most evocative poets of her generation with seven published volumes, and winning Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize. Her awards include: The Fernanda Pivano award The Sigmund Freud Award, the Deauville Award and The United Nations Award for excellence in literature.
This reading celebrates her new book of poetry, The World Began with Yes, from Red Hen Press. In a dark time, these poems celebrate life.
Francesca Bell’s poems appear in many magazines including B O D Y, burntdistrict, ELLE, Flycatcher, New Ohio Review, North American Review, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Spillway, Tar River Poetry, and Zone 3. She has been nominated ten times for the Pushcart Prize and won the 2014 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle. Her translations, from Arabic and German, appear in Berkeley Poetry Review, Blue Lyra Review, Circumference | Poetry in Translation, Four by Two, Laghoo, and The Massachusetts Review. She co-translated Shatha Abu Hnaish’s book of poems, A Love That Hovers Like a Bedeviling Mosquito (Dar Fadaat, 2017), and Red Hen Press will publish her first collection, Bright Stain, in 2019. She is the events coordinator for the Marin Poetry Center and the former poetry editor of River Styx.

Philosopher of Utopia: Celebrating the New Graphic Biography of Herbert Marcuse
2019-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Nick Thorkelson, Andrew T. Lamas, and a special guest TBD
discussing the new book
Herbert Marcuse, Philosopher of Utopia: A Graphic Biography
by Nick Thorkelson, edited by Paul Buhle and Andrew T. Lamas, with a foreword by Angela Y. Davis & published by City Lights Books
This comics-format biography brings Marcuse’s life, work, and times to a new generation. From his youth in Weimar Germany and early studies with Martin Heidegger, to his emigration from Nazi Germany along with colleagues of the Frankfurt School, to his rise as one of its major theorists along with Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, to his status as a countercultural icon, readers are introduced to the theories and circumstances that made Marcuse into one of the world’s most influential intellectuals.
Mentor to a young Angela Davis and often referred to as the unofficial faculty advisor to the New Left, Marcuse’s controversial critique of the “comfortable unfreedoms” of post-WWII capitalism entered popular consciousness with the 1964 publication of One-Dimensional Man, which sold over 100,000 copies in its first years in print. His argument for the possibility of a more humane and sustainable world was grounded in a personal knowledge of the violence of authoritarianism, and the risk of its resurgence. Perennially relevant, radical, and inspiring, Marcuse’s concept of the Great Refusal —”the protest against that which is”—is a guide for our times.
“Nick Thorkelson’s exploration of the ideas and personality of Herbert Marcuse is exactly the sort of comic book I have longed to read. It is engaging, artful, and explores the world of revolutionary ideas. Books like this keep the fire going inside.”––Joe Sacco
“I believe that Marcuse’s ideas can be as valuable today as they were fifty years ago.”––Angela Y. Davis, from the foreword
Nick Thorkelson is a cartoonist living in Boston. He has done cartoons on local politics for The Boston Globe and in support of organizations working on economic justice, peace, and public health. He is the co-author and/or illustrator of The Earth Belongs to the People, The Underhanded History of the USA, The Legal Rights of Union Stewards, The Comic Strip of Neoliberalism, and Economic Meltdown Funnies, and has contributed to a number of nonfiction comics anthologies. He is working on a graphic novel about the end of the Sixties, A Better World Is Possible. Nick also moonlights as a musician, animator, graphic designer, and painter.
Andrew T. Lamas teaches urban studies and critical theory at the University of Pennsylvania, is co-editor of The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements (Temple University Press, 2017), and serves on the boards of the International Herbert Marcuse Society, the Radical Philosophy Review, and the Bread and Roses Community Fund.

Matt Richtel, An Elegant Defense
2019-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019 – 7:00PM

This is an advanced event listing. Please check back for updated information, or sign up for our events emails.
This free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests, please e-mail info@bookshopsantacruz.com by April 14th.
The immune system impacts every aspect of our lives, including sleep, mood, fitness, nutrition, brain function and aging, and is the ultimate key to wellness and longevity. And yet, it is widely misunderstood. Many people operate under the misconception that they can “boost” their immune system to stay healthy. The truth is the immune system is an incredibly intricate balance within the body (its complexity rivals that of the human brain). The more we understand about how this “elegant defense” operates, the more we can improve our lives.
Magnificently reported and soulfully crafted, An Elegant Defense is the first major narrative exploration of the immune system. Through science and storytelling, Richtel describes the remarkable discovery of the immune system over the last seventy years and explains in vivid detail how this complex system works, how we interact with it, and the risks we inflict on ourselves when we meddle with its natural balance.
Richtel brings the science to life through the stories of four intimate and extraordinary medical stories: a cancer patient risen from the grave, an HIV patient considered a medical marvel, and two “invisible” women who suffer the stark injustice of autoimmunity. The story of Jason Greenstein, a close friend of the author, is particularly poignant as Richtel recounts Jason’s fight with cancer and astounding reaction to experimental treatment.
Throughout the narrative, Richtel accessibly weaves leading-edge scientific discovery through interviews and anecdotes from dozens of the world’s leading scientists. The breadth of his research and reporting is remarkable, including insight into the work of immunologist James Allison, who just this month won the Nobel Prize for his work disrupting the communication between cells and the immune system to “trick” cancer. The strides made by the immunologists in the book offer a glimpse at a future of longer, more comfortable life and of authentic understanding of the forces that drive survival.
But Richtel argues that the most powerful first-line of health lies within each of us: our behavior, our attitudes, and the choices we make. Whether common knowledge or counterintuitive advice, An Elegant Defense will enlighten readers about how every facet of life connects to the immune system. Richtel explores fascinating questions – from why boosting your immune system is a myth to what’s behind the explosion of autoimmune disorders in recent decades (a concern for 50 million Americans).
Among the thought-provoking topics Richtel explores in the book:

Why you should avoid using antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers

The close connection between mental health and the immune system

Why women are more likely to get sick than men

The impact of obesity and modern diets on the immune system and gut health

Why parents shouldn’t freak out when kids eat dirt or pick their noses

Why Amish people have fewer allergies than the rest of the population

The frontline of cancer treatments, and whether immunotherapy is the wonder fix some have promised

Are there “superviruses” that may be resistant to drugs and spread like wildfire across the globe?

How modern life and our “always on” culture puts unprecedented stress on the very system that keeps us healthy

Richtel also reflects on a striking paradox: immunology, once a backwater science and now arguably the center of modern medicine, has given us two profound gifts. One is a trove of medicine so powerful it can revive a cancer patient from their deathbed, reverse a deadly autoimmune disorder, and tinker with our immune systems at the deepest, molecular level. But the second gift is a little-grasped lesson that these tools are desperate, last-line measures. Eventually, death comes for us all, and Richtel explains why our immune system is complicit in this inevitability from the day we’re born.
Perfect for readers of popular science and books like The Emperor of All Maladies and I Contain Multitudes, An Elegant Defense will illuminate truths about the literal bodyguard within us all. I hope you’ll take a close look at this advance copy and consider a review or other coverage in the spring. And please let me know if you’d like additional review copies or more information.
MATT RICHTEL is a reporter at the New York Times. He received the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of articles he expanded into his first nonfiction book, A Deadly Wandering (2014), an investigation of a fatal distracted-driving crash, about which the New York Times Book Review hailed, “It deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America’s high-school curriculums.” A New York Times bestseller, A Deadly Wandering was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews, Winnipeg Free Press, and Amazon.com. Richtel has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, PBS NewsHour, and other major media outlets. He lives in San Francisco, California. Visit him online at www.mattrichtel.wordpress.com.

Literary Cafe presents: An Evening with Erica Jong
2019-04-16 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Kanbar Center for the Performing Arts, 200 N. San Pedro Rd, San Rafael, 94903
Erica Jong, author of the acclaimed Fear of Flying, reads selections from her new book of poetry, The World Began with Yes (Red Hen Press). In a dark time, poems celebrate life. The evening will include a poetry reading by Francesca Bell, audience Q&A, and book signings.
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong’s first and most famous novel, published in 1973, blew conventional thinking about women, marriage and sexuality out of the water, selling over 37 million copies and translated into over 45 languages including Chinese and Arabic. Her novel articulated what women thought but which, through decades of silent complicity with the status quo, was never voiced.
In the four decades since Fear of Flying, she has published over 25 books in 45 languages, including 9 works of fiction as well as celebrated non-fiction volumes such as What Do Women Want?, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Live, an anthology on – well, sex – called Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex, that she edited, and in 2012, a Kindle Single, A Letter to the President, which bravely takes on the issues facing American women today. She has switched between fiction, non-fiction and poetry, becoming one of the most evocative poets of her generation with seven published volumes, and winning Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize. Her awards include: The Fernanda Pivano award, The Sigmund Freud Award, the Deauville Award and The United Nations Award for excellence in literature.
$8-$12.
Presented by Kanbar Center for the Performing Arts @ The Osher Marin JCC.

JELANI COBB In Conversation with Hilton Als
2019-04-16 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
JELANI COBB
In Conversation with Hilton Als
Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:30 pm
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater
Series: Social Studies
Buy Tickets | Buy Series Tickets | 415.392.4400

Jelani Cobb has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2015, writing on subjects of race, politics, history, and culture. Cobb’s books include The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, and the collection, The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays. He has also contributed essays and articles to the Washington Post, The New Republic, Essence, Vibe, The Progressive, and TheRoot.com. Across his body of work, Dr. Cobb regularly interrogates intersections of race, social justice, and American politics, suffusing them with his characteristic incisiveness and wit. His awards include the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, and fellowships from the Fulbright and Ford foundations. Dr. Cobb was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Commentary, “for combining masterful writing with a deep knowledge of history and a deft reporter’s touch to bring context and clarity to the issue of race at a time when respectful dialogue on the subject often gives way to finger-pointing and derision.” He is the Ira J. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, specializing in post-Civil War African American history, 20th century and modern American politics, and the history of the Cold War.
Hilton Als is an essayist, author, and has been the lead theatre critic for The New Yorker since 2012. Als received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, “for bold and original reviews that strove to put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context, particularly the shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race.” He is the author of The Women, and White Girls, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Non-fiction. His writing, regardless of form, explores race, sexuality, class, art, and American identity provocatively, exploding the boundaries of the genre in which it is contained.

Lori Gottlieb
2019-04-16 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94705, United States
Lori Gottlieb

Presents Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

2904 College Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94705

Bright: Mui Poopoksakul in conversation with Saskia Vogel
2019-04-16 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
APRIL 16, 2019 | 7:30PM
Bright: Mui Poopoksakul in conversation with Saskia Vogel

The Bindery | 1727 Haight Street | San Francisco, CA

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Mui Poopoksakul talks about her translation of Duanwad Pimwana’s Bright, the first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation, with Saskia Vogel, moderated by Laura Goode.

“Bright will prove to be seminal for Thailand’s place in the literary world.” — Prabda Yoon, author of Moving Parts

When five-year-old Kampol is told by his father to sit in front of their run-down apartment building and await his return, the confused boy does as he’s told—he waits and waits and waits, until he realizes his father isn’t coming back anytime soon. Adopted by the community, Kampol is soon being raised by figures like Chong the shopkeeper, who rents out calls on his telephone and goes into debt extending his customers endless credit.
Dueling flea markets, a search for a ten-baht coin lost in the sands of a beach, pet crickets that get eaten for dinner, bouncy ball fads, and loneliness so merciless that it kills a boy’s appetite all combine into this first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation. Duanwad Pimwana’s urban, at times gritty vignettes are balanced with a folk-tale-like feel and a charmingly wry sense of humor. Together, they combine into the off-beat, satisfying, and sometimes magical coming-of-age story of an unforgettable young boy and the timeless legends, traditions, and personalities that go into his formation.

“Duanwad Pimwana has a knack for finding the gap between who we are and who we’d like to be, and deftly inserting her scalpel there. Across the villages and cities of Thailand, her characters exist in a state of constant anxiety, unable to fit in but having nowhere else to go.” —Jeremy Tiang, author of State of Emergency

CONTACT:

Leslie-Ann Woofter
lwoofter@catranslation.org
415.512.8812

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TRANSLATOR
Mui Poopoksakul

Mui Poopoksakul is a lawyer turned translator with a special interest in contemporary Thai literature. She is the translator of Prabda Yoon’s The Sad Part Was and Moving Parts, both from Tilted Axis Press. She is translating a novel and a story collection by Duanwad Pimwana, both forthcoming in 2019 from Two Lines Press and Feminist Press, respectively. A native of Bangkok who spent two decades in the U.S., she now lives in Berlin, Germany.

AUTHOR
Saskia Vogel

Saskia Vogel was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in its sister city, Berlin, where she works as a writer and Swedish-to-English literary translator. Her debut novel Permission will be published in five languages in spring 2019. It’s being adapted for television. Previously she worked as Granta magazine’s global publicist and as an editor at the AVN Media Network, where she reported on pornography and adult pleasure products. She volunteers her time as the honorary secretary of SELTA and as part of the team that organizes Viva Erotica, an annual film festival in Helsinki that explores the art, history, and culture of sex on film.

APRIL 16, 2019 | 7:30PM
Bright: Mui Poopoksakul in conversation with Saskia Vogel

The Bindery | 1727 Haight Street | San Francisco, CA

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Mui Poopoksakul talks about her translation of Duanwad Pimwana’s Bright, the first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation, with Saskia Vogel, moderated by Laura Goode.

“Bright will prove to be seminal for Thailand’s place in the literary world.” — Prabda Yoon, author of Moving Parts

When five-year-old Kampol is told by his father to sit in front of their run-down apartment building and await his return, the confused boy does as he’s told—he waits and waits and waits, until he realizes his father isn’t coming back anytime soon. Adopted by the community, Kampol is soon being raised by figures like Chong the shopkeeper, who rents out calls on his telephone and goes into debt extending his customers endless credit.
Dueling flea markets, a search for a ten-baht coin lost in the sands of a beach, pet crickets that get eaten for dinner, bouncy ball fads, and loneliness so merciless that it kills a boy’s appetite all combine into this first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation. Duanwad Pimwana’s urban, at times gritty vignettes are balanced with a folk-tale-like feel and a charmingly wry sense of humor. Together, they combine into the off-beat, satisfying, and sometimes magical coming-of-age story of an unforgettable young boy and the timeless legends, traditions, and personalities that go into his formation.

“Duanwad Pimwana has a knack for finding the gap between who we are and who we’d like to be, and deftly inserting her scalpel there. Across the villages and cities of Thailand, her characters exist in a state of constant anxiety, unable to fit in but having nowhere else to go.” —Jeremy Tiang, author of State of Emergency

CONTACT:

Leslie-Ann Woofter
lwoofter@catranslation.org
415.512.8812

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Jenny Odell
2019-04-16 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Jenny Odell discusses her new book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.
Praise for How To Do Nothing
“Self-help for the collectively minded, How to Do Nothing is as thoughtful and morally serious as it is fun to read. This book will change how you see the world.”—Malcolm Harris, author of Kids These Days
“Your chaotic, fraught internal weather isn’t an accident, it’s a business-model, and while ‘thoughtful resistance’ isn’t ‘productive,’ Odell proves that it is utterly necessary.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Radicalized and Walkaway
“In a media and tech ecosystem simultaneously obsessed with “digital detox” and building personal brands, How to Do Nothing is a breath of fresh air grounding readers in the complex, interdependent actual ecosystems of the physical world. Jenny Odell writes with remarkable clarity and compassion. Each chapter reads like going on a fascinating walk through a park in conversation with an old friend (who happens to also be able to tell you about every single bird in the park, which is awesome). It’s a book I already know I’ll be returning to and referencing for a long time.”—Ingrid Burrington, author of Networks of New York
About How To Do Nothing
A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention—and our personal information—that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we’ve been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world
Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance.
So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.
Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.

Eve Bunting, Little Yellow Truck
2019-04-17 16:00 - 18:30 UTC | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019 – 4:00PM

This is an advanced children’s event listing. Please check back for updated information, or sign up for our events emails.
This free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs and sitting areas are usually set up for open seating about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests, please e-mail info@bookshopsantacruz.com by April 15th.
Ever feel too small, not adequate enough, or worried about what role you play in an important task? Little Yellow Truck did too. As lumberyard owner Riley gears up for a busy day and a new project, he assigns tasks to his many trucks. A dump truck, a flatbed truck, a concrete mixer, and a little yellow truck all stand by ready to help. From hauling trash to pouring concrete, one by one they are all assigned tasks, except for Little Yellow Truck. Is there nothing he can do to help?
There’s no reason for Little Yellow Truck’s worry as Riley has just the right task and an important role at that! Written by acclaimed children’s author Eve Bunting, this story reinforces the message that even the smallest helper can make a lasting impact and that sometimes waiting is the hardest part. Social emotional learning can be explored through this title because feelings of disappointment and uncertainty can lead to discovery—specifically Little Yellow’s discovery of belonging.

Eve Bunting has written over 250 children’s books, winning numerous awards and honors. One day, as she was passing a builder’s yard, she saw several large trucks—and one little yellow truck, all by itself among the big guys. “I’m going to write a story about that little truck”, she thought, “and I’ll show that it’s important too.” Sometimes that is how story ideas originate. Her books include Ghost Cat and Mr. Goat’s Valentine. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Chris Nealon / with Jessica Laser
2019-04-17 18:30 - 20:30 UTC | Maude Fife Room, UC Berkeley, 2000 Carleston Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
READINGS ARE FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Readings begin at 6:30pm unless otherwise noted. 2018-2019 Holloway events will be held in the MAUDE FIFE ROOM (315 Wheeler Hall)
For updates and event announcements, join the Holloway Facebook group

Oliver Nachtwey in conversation with Adrian Daub
2019-04-17 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
City Lights inconjunction with the Goethe Institut and Verso Books present
Oliver Nachtwey in conversation with Adrian Daub

discussing the subject of Oliver Nachtwey’s new book
Germany’s Hidden Crisis:Social Decline in the Heart of Europe
from Verso Books
Translated by Loren Balhorn and David Fernbach
Recipient of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation 2016 Hans-Matthöfer-Preis for Economic Writing.

Upward social mobility represented a core promise of life under the “old” West German welfare state, in which millions of skilled workers upgraded their Volkswagens to Audis, bought their first homes, and sent their children to university. Not so in today’s Federal Republic, where the gears of the so-called “elevator society” have long since ground to a halt. In the absence of the social mobility of yesterday, widespread social exhaustion and anxiety have emerged across mainstream society. Oliver Nachtwey analyses the reasons for this social rupture in postwar German society and investigates the conflict potential emerging as a result. He concludes that although the country has managed to muddle through thus far, simmering tensions beneath the surface nevertheless threaten to undermine the German system’s stability in the years to come.
>visit this link to read an interview with Olver Natchwey<
Oliver Nachtwey is Associate Professor of Social Structure Analysis at the University of Basel, and a fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. His research interests include labour and industrial sociology, political sociology, the comparative study of capitalism, and social movements.

Adrian Daub is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, where he directs the Program in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies. He is the author of Tristan’s Shadow: Sexuality and the Total Work of Art (2013), Four-Handed Monsters: Four-Hand Piano Playing and Nineteenth Century Culture (2014) and (with Charles Kronengold) The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism (2015). His essays and cultural criticism have appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Zeit in German, and in n+1, The New Republic and the Los Angeles Review of Books in English.”
The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. They promote knowledge of the German language abroad and foster international cultural cooperation. They convey a comprehensive image of Germany by providing information about cultural, social and political life in our nation. Their cultural and educational programs encourage intercultural dialogue and enable cultural involvement. They strengthen the development of structures in civil society and foster worldwide mobility.

What has been said about Germany’s Hidden Crisis:
“A true masterpiece. Focusing on the case of Germany—which has long been mispresented and misperceived as a paragon of economic success and political stability—Oliver Nachtwey offers a detailed account of the crisis of contemporary capitalism. Moving at the forefront of leading theories of political economy, the book develops an empirically grounded synthetic perspective on ‘regressive modernity,’ a concept of which much can be expected for future progress in the study of capitalist development.”
– Wolfgang Streeck

“A major critical review of Europe’s most important country, its socio-economics, its politics, and its self-diagnoses.”
– Göran Therborn

“In this comprehensive sociological study, the author assembles sobering news from Germany, a country the elites of which routinely pride themselves of presiding over a stable, prosperous, and socially inclusive society. To which there is even some truth, comparatively speaking. Yet capitalism thrives on credible promises and on hopes being redeemed. As elsewhere in the West, German elites are increasingly distrusted and hopes frustrated, giving rise to virulent fears and anxieties. As private and public debt, near-stagnation and growing inequality shape gloomy perceptions, a disjunction occurs between ongoing technical and economic modernization, on the one hand, and the notion of ‘progress’ that used to be associated with it. This is a condition for which Nachtwey coins the term ‘regressive modernity’. Among its characteristics are a decline of collective action and public goods production and the ‘de-institutionalization’ of social and economic conflict. Instead of anything resembling organized class struggle, we see symptoms of diffuse and ‘anomic’ rebelliousness ranging from short-lived ‘occupy’-style mobilizations to the outbursts of rightist mobs. Nachtwey has written a lucid analysis highlighting the social causes of our current perplexities.”
– Claus Offe

“It needs at once sociological imagination, an interpretive sense for statistics and explanatory sharpness to be able to decipher the anxious and conflict-laden atmosphere in a country that looks extremely well-ordered, affluent and healthy from the outside. Oliver Nachtwey, impressively combining these three talents, has managed to prompt such a necessary change of perspective with regard to contemporary Germany: In his fascinating study he not only informs us about how downward mobility, precariousness and polarization have grown over the last decades in Germany, but also about how people suffering from these developments fight against the downgrading of their lives—be it by inventing new forms of protest, be it by joining nationalist movements. A must to read for everyone interested in the dark side of the economic wealth of Western countries.”
– Axel Honneth

“Oliver Nachtwey has written an empirically grounded book of great topicality. He focuses on Germany, but his analysis is of much wider relevance. Nachtwey reveals that the ‘elevator effect’, which reduces the significance of social distinctions, is finished. A ‘downward escalator effect’ now makes class disparities visible again. Growing insecurity, increasing inequality and swelling precarianization lead to a renaissance of both left-wing revolts and right-wing authoritarianism.”
– Marcel van der Linden

“An insightful account of the crises threatening German stability.”
–Morning Star

This is Now with Angie Coiro: The Future of Cannabis
2019-04-17 19:30 - 20:30 UTC | Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park , CA, 94025, United States
Cannabis is here to stay. While it’s still blacklisted by the federal government, recreational marijuana is legal now in ten states, Washington DC, and the Northern Mariana Islands. And the market for CBD – the non-psychoactive pot ingredient touted for relief of stress, epilepsy, and countless other ills – is expected to hit 22 million dollars in three years. Meanwhile, regulation of cannabis for both getting high and for medical treatment lags hopelessly behind its use. Who’s going to make the rules if the feds sit this one out? And with inroads made by major corporations into what had been a thriving underground market, what becomes of the old mom and pop operations, and the criminal cartels that capitalized on prohibition?
KLF’s news and culture series This Is Now goes to pot for one night, welcoming two experts to break this down for us:
David Downs is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author who covers cannabis policy and legalization. As the cannabis editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, he founded GreenState.com. Downs is the co-author of the new crop science book Marijuana Harvest (2017) by Ed Rosenthal and David Downs. He has guest lectured at Loyola Law School, and UC Berkeley Extension, and shared in a 2018 Scripps Howard Award for Breaking News for his “Wine Country Fires” reporting.
Dr. Danielle Ramo is Director of Research Operations at Hopelab, where she oversees the design and implementation of research efforts across Hopelab’s projects. Danielle is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UC San Francisco and a licensed psychologist. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Being Adept prevention intervention program (Beingadept.org), and regularly speaks to teens, parents, and school administrators throughout the Bay Area about adolescent substance abuse.

Lyrics & Dirges: A "Weekly" Reading Series
2019-04-17 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Wednesday, April 17, 7:30pm
This Recurring Event is at Pegasus Books Downtown
Lyrics & Dirges: A Monthly Weekly Reading Series
In celebration of National Poetry Month, our flagship reading series Lyrics & Dirges is going weekly! (For April only).
Lyrics & Dirges features a mix of prominent, emerging and beginning writers. Currently in its ninth year, its aim is to highlight various forms of writing in an effort to spotlight the diverse literary community of the Bay Area. Hosted and curated by Sharon Coleman and Mk Chavez.

Event date:

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94704

Event Category:

Shattuck Location

Pamela Nadell
2019-04-17 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Pamela Nadell discusses her new book, America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today.

About America’s Jewish Women
What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people–from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity.
The twin threads binding these women together, she argues, are a strong sense of self and a resolute commitment to making the world a better place. Nadell recounts how Jewish women have been at the forefront of causes for centuries, fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights, and feminism, and hoisting banners for Jewish rights around the world. Informed by shared values of America’s founding and Jewish identity, these women’s lives have left deep footprints in the history of the nation they call home.

BINDERY: Edna in a Bottle (tastes funny)
2019-04-18 08:00 - 22:00 UTC | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
Edna in a Bottle (tastes funny) is a new San Francisco comedy hour at The Bindery in the Haight district. Edna and her friends are trapped in a bottle and dying to perform! A colorful splash of sketch scenes, story-telling, circus talent and wacked-out adult comedy. And there’s nothing wrong with an eating contest here and there. Mark your calendars and come let us out of the bottle!

Tickets are $12-25, sliding. Seating is limited, and this show often sells out — there’s no guarantee tickets will be available at the door, so arrive early. Online sales close at 4pm the day of the show.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.

This event is 18+.

Doors open at 7:30pm. Show starts at 8pm.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

More details coming soon — save the date and join us!

Author Talk: Susan Alexander Red Diana
2019-04-18 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA, 94102
Author Susan Alexander will discuss her most recent book “Red Diana”, a psychological thriller. Set in San Francisco, the book is a sequel to “A Quicker Blood”.

Damon Krukowski
2019-04-18 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
discussing the subject of his new book

Ways of Hearing
by Damon Krukowski
forward by Emily Thompson
published by MIT Press

A writer-musician examines how the switch from analog to digital audio is changing our perceptions of time, space, love, money, and power.
Our voices carry farther than ever before, thanks to digital media. But how are they being heard? In this book, Damon Krukowski examines how the switch from analog to digital audio is changing our perceptions of time, space, love, money, and power. In Ways of Hearing—modeled on Ways of Seeing, John Berger’s influential 1972 book on visual culture—Krukowski offers readers a set of tools for critical listening in the digital age. Just as Ways of Seeing began as a BBC television series, Ways of Hearing is based on a six-part podcast produced for the groundbreaking public radio podcast network Radiotopia. Inventive uses of text and design help bring the message beyond the range of earbuds.
Each chapter of Ways of Hearing explores a different aspect of listening in the digital age: time, space, love, money, and power. Digital time, for example, is designed for machines. When we trade broadcast for podcast, or analog for digital in the recording studio, we give up the opportunity to perceive time together through our media. On the street, we experience public space privately, as our headphones allow us to avoid “ear contact” with the city. Heard on a cell phone, our loved ones’ voices are compressed, stripped of context by digital technology. Music has been dematerialized, no longer an object to be bought and sold. With recommendation algorithms and playlists, digital corporations have created a media universe that adapts to us, eliminating the pleasures of brick-and-mortar browsing. Krukowski lays out a choice: do we want a world enriched by the messiness of noise, or one that strives toward the purity of signal only?
Damon Krukowski is a writer and musician. Author of The New Analog: Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World, he has taught writing and sound (and writing about sound) at Harvard University. He was in the indie rock band Galaxie 500 and is currently one half of the folk-rock duo Damon & Naomi. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Visit Damon’s website: http://www.dadadrummer.com/
