Litseen

Bay Area Queer Zine Fest Fundraiser
2018-05-25 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
The 2nd annual Bay Area Queer Zine Fest is coming back September 9! What better way to get people pumped about zines than to have a reading. We’re partnering with our dear friends at E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore to bring you a night of zine magic.
Interested in reading? Email baqzfest@gmail.com
** ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION FORTHCOMING **
#BAQZF2018

Source:: https://www.facebook.com/events/450401675397832/

Daniel Gumbiner
2018-05-25 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Daniel Gumbiner discusses his debut novel from McSweeney’s The Boatbuilder.

Praise for The Boatbuilder

“The Boatbuilder is a gorgeous debut about addiction, aspiration, and art on the California coast. It’s radiantly imagined, often moving, always funny, and teeming with life. Daniel Gumbiner isn’t a writer to watch—he’s one to read.” —Anthony Marra

“Daniel Gumbiner brings coastal California into sparkling focus in this moving story of a young man’s transition into adulthood. Told with wit and heart, The Boatbuilder is a meditation on love, loyalty, and the shared experiences that turn strangers into family.” —Tayari Jones

“This book’s alive. The Boatbuilder is a surprising and soulful first novel and it deserves many, many readers.” —Peter Orner

About The Boatbuilder

At twenty-eight years old, Eli “Berg” Koenigsberg has never encountered a challenge he couldn’t push through – until a concussion leaves him with a lingering headache and a weakness for opiates. Berg moves to a remote Northern California town to seek space and time to recover, but soon finds himself breaking into homes in search of pills.
Addled by addiction and chronic pain, Berg meets Alejandro, a reclusive master boatbuilder, and begins to see a path forward. Alejandro offers Berg honest labor, but more important a new approach to his suffering, a template for survival amidst intense pain. Nurtured by his friendship with Alejandro and aided by the comradeship of many of Talinas’s colorful residents, Berg begins to return to himself.
Written in gleaming prose, this is a story about resilience, community, and what it takes to win back your soul.

Rolling Writers - Rolling In The Aisles
2018-05-26 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Rolling Out Cafe, 1722 Taraval St, San Francisco, CA, 94116, United States
Guidelines. This is a night for literary humor, not stand-up comedy. To be considered, send sharp, funny, insightful humor, broad or subtle, that would work well before a live audience. Political humor is discouraged—we get way more than enough of that these days, and most of it is lazy, obvious, and witless. Featured readers will get up to eight minutes at the mic (about 1,200 words). Funny stories, essays, memoirs, and poetry will be eagerly considered, and we’d love love to feature funny original songs and performances of public-domain songs or theatrical pieces. Paste your material, or performance proposal, into the body of an email with the subject line RW Humor: [Your Name] addressed to the host, Jon Sindell, at jsind@sbcglobal.net. You must submit personally—no submissions by representatives will be considered.

“Dying is easy; comedy’s hard.” ~ attributed to many (naturally enough, for comedy is hard, and comedians steal).

About Rolling Writers
Like the baker Rageneau in Cyrano, master baker Bruno Tsé supports the arts. And our pastry-preparing patron of poetry and prose shows love for the muse by giving his Taraval Street café up for lit readings, with themed musical and gustatory accoutrements.
Rolling–Out: 1722 Taraval, between 27th and 28th Avenues,
San Francisco. The L-Taraval streetcar line stops at 26th Avenue.
To submit work for an upcoming theme, please write the host, Jon Sindell, at jsind [at] sbcglobal [net], pasting your work into the body of the email, and marking the subject line as follows: RW [Name Of Show], [Writer’s Name]. You must submit personally—no submissions by representatives will be considered. Unless otherwise indicated on the Upcoming Events page, limit prose submissions to 1,200 words; shorter submissions are preferred. This series primarily features complete works of fiction and memoir, but poetry and reasonably self-contained novel excerpts are presented to a limited extent. Submissions are rolling—we generally consider submissions until a lineup is filled.
Won’t you join us?

MARY Journal Release Reading
2018-05-26 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St #170, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
On Saturday, May 26th, MARY: A Journal of New Writing will be holding a release party for the latest print edition of MARY Journal! Join us from 7pm – 9pm at Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland for a night of celebration and literary readings.

Book Release: Cotton Candy by Jeremy Fernando
2018-05-26 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us at our Uptown, Oakland, location for the much-anticipated release of Jeremy Fernando’s full-length poetry collection, Cotton Candy!
It’s going to be an amazing evening of readings, live music, gnosh / refreshments, and friends of Nomadic Press as we launch this treasure of a book into the universe.
Readings by TBA, pop-up surprise Nomadic Press readers, and of course, the star of the evening, Jeremy Fernando. Books will be available for purchase and there will be a signing following the event ($12 each). Music by TBA!
Hope to see you there!

Saturday Night Special, A "Salty" Open Mic
2018-05-26 19:00 - 21:30 UTC | Nick’s Lounge, 3218 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA, 94703, United States
Is it summer yet? At SNS we’re feeling SALTY and we’re ready to sweat, so bring us your sexiest, SALTIEST, summer stories, poems, songs, stand-up, (whatever) on our theme:
SALT·Y
of language or humor: down-to-earth; coarse.
synonyms: earthy, colorful, spicy, racy, risqué, naughty, vulgar, rude;
informal: tough; aggressive.
Urban Dictionary: The act of being upset, angry, or bitter as result of being made fun of or embarrassed.
As always, we’d love to hear your (three-minute) poems, stories, comedic sketches, songs, or dances, on our optional theme (or any topic).

Our featured readers for May are Christine No & Melissa Stein
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First come first served. Sign-up starts at 7pm and closes when it fills up or when the reading starts, so get there early if you want to read! (Note: Sometimes the list is full by 7:03pm)
Each reader will have 3 minutes maximum. For prose writers this is about one and a half double-spaced pages.
PLEASE NOTE: We are strict about the 3 minute max. When you reach your time limit at SNS, we turn on the disco lights! So, please plan ahead. Practice your piece out loud. Time yourself!
After the reading, stick around for karaoke starting at 10pm
Saturday, May 26, 2018
7 – 9:30 pm
Nick’s Lounge (21+)
3218 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA
1 block south of Ashby BART
Between Fairview St & Martin Luther King Jr Way
FREE!
But bring CASH if you want to buy drinks (which you sort of have to, because there’s a 1-drink minimum!)
Hosted by Hollie Hardy
Please help out by liking our FB page, where you can also find more details and photos from past events:
https://www.facebook.com/Saturday-Night-Special-an-East-Bay-open-mic-112174188880786/
BIOS
Christine No is a Korean American writer, filmmaker and native Los Angelino. She is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, two time Pushcart Prize Nominee and Best of the Net 2017 Nominee. You can find her work in: The Rumpus, sPARKLE+bLINK, Columbia Journal, Story Online, Apogee, Atlas And Alice, and various anthologies. Christine is the Assistant Features Editor at The Rumpus and a contributing writer at Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. She also sits on the Board of Quiet Lightning, a Bay Area based literary organization. She looks good on paper; but, she spills a lot. Like a baby. She lives in Oakland with a pit bull named Brandy. Say hi, here: christineno.com​
Melissa Stein is the author of the poetry collections Terrible blooms (Copper Canyon Press, 2018) and Rough Honey, winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, Harvard Review, New England Review, American Poetry Review, Best New Poets, and others, and she’s received fellowships from the NEA, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony. She’s a freelance editor in San Francisco.

Writers & Poets Reading and Salon | Bay Area Generations #57
2018-05-28 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
Bay Area Generations Show #57
A literary salon featuring curated works of San Francisco Bay Area poets, writers and storytellers, with musical guest. GUEST CURATOR: Anne Wallace. Doors & Wine Bar: 6:30 p.m. Show: 7:30 p.m. Suggested donation $10, includes with chapbook. No one turned away for lack of funds. Wine bar | Easy Access | on Public Transportation.
Event Info: http://bit.ly/BAG57tx
Bay Area Generations literary reading series features paired readers of differing generations in a curated submission based show. Since 2013, over 350 hundred notable authors, poets, writers, playwrights and musicians have read poetry and stories, or performed at this celebrated literary salon.
Website: www.bayareagenerations.com
FB: www.facebook.com/bayareagenerations
Events: www.facebook.com/bayareagenerations/events

Alanna Okun / The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater
2018-05-28 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St, San Francisco , CA, 94117, United States
Booksmith hosts an evening with Alanna Okun, in conversation with Joe Wadlington about her new book The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting. Please join us!

Every knitter knows that as soon as you start making your boyfriend a sweater, he will be out the door before you’re done. But as Alanna Okun has learned, these life lessons are not limited to the curse of the boyfriend sweater.
Like millions of women, Okun finds joy and solace in crafting. And she has also found some essential truths. Starting from when her grandmother first taught her to knit, crafting has been a part of her life, and her family’s. Some people like to fish. Some like to play music. Or run. Okun likes to make things; knitting, crocheting, sewing, decoupage—you name it, Okun has tried it, and even if she turned out to be not very good at it, she found it was good for her.
In a world that shows itself impervious to our need for order and logic, crafting allows Okun to feel a sense of control—even if it’s simply by making a piece of felt do what she wants it to. Crafting has helped keep her severe anxiety at bay, made a scary first apartment more hospitable, and helped her heal from a broken heart. When Okun has two good friends die within a year of each other, it is crafting that helps her find hope again. The art and physicality of making things, whether it’s nerdy embroidery or warm mittens, has helped her cope with life’s internal trauma.
In beautiful prose that belies her youth, Okun’s essays about art, crafts, and mental health will resonate with creative people no matter their medium, and no matter the troubles in their hearts. We can all relate to the need to fix what’s inside by keeping our hands busy.

Alanna Okun is a writer, editor, and crafter. She’s currently a senior editor at Racked, and has written for publications including BuzzFeed, Brooklyn Magazine, and The Hairpin, and appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR, and many other local and national television and radio programs. Alanna lives in Brooklyn with her pet snail and a lot of yarn.

Joe Wadlington has been published in the New Yorker, The Rumpus, Racked.com, and Food & Wine Magazine. He writes essays and satire about dating, casual dining, and how to be polite during both of them. Joe is a crafter and former camp counselor who has educated hundreds of kids on how to felt, bead, and tye-dye. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his weekly writing prompts.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, order below and be sure to put your request in the special field.

The Opioid Crisis with Carl Hart & Leana Wen
2018-05-29 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
Dr. Carl Hart is the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University and the Dirk Ziff Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry. Professor Hart has published numerous scientific and popular articles in the area of neuropsychopharmacology and is co-author of the textbook Drugs, Society and Human Behavior (with Charles Ksir). His most recent book, High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society was the 2014 winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Professor Hart has appeared on multiple podcasts, radio and television shows and in several documentary films including the award-winning The House I Live In. His essays have been published in The New York Times, Scientific American, The Nation, Ebony, The Root, and Brazil’s O Globo.
Dr. Leana Wen is the Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore. An emergency physician and patient and community advocate, she leads the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), the oldest, continuously-operating health department in the United States, formed in 1793. BCHD is an agency with a $130 million annual budget and 1,000 employees committed to improving well-being and combatting disparities through education, policy/advocacy, and direct service delivery. BCHD’s wide-ranging responsibilities include maternal and child health, youth wellness, school health, senior services, animal control, restaurant inspections, emergency preparedness, STI/HIV treatment, and acute and chronic disease prevention. Facing an unprecedented number of people dying from opioid overdose, Dr. Wen issued a blanket prescription for the opioid antidote, naloxone, to all 620,000 residents of Baltimore. Since 2015, this program has saved over 800 lives.

Martha K. Davis
2018-05-29 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Martha K. Davis reads from her new novel, Scissors, Paper, Stone.

Praise for Scissors, Paper, Stone

“With Scissors, Paper, Stone, Martha K. Davis has given us an ambitious coming of (lesbian) age story that is a movingly honest inquiry into the messy, yet still beautiful, transmogrification of what it means to be a family in a post-WWII America ruptured by racism, homophobia, . . and the generational divide. The character of Cathy, the idealistic and unsuspecting . . . mother of an adopted Korean child, is one for the ages: a vessel for all the good intentions and fumbling contradictions of her time.”—Celeste Gainey, author of the GAFFER, final judge for the 2016 Quill Award

“Martha K. Davis writes with rare insight and compassion about the evolving American family and the struggle to belong. Scissors, Paper, Stone is a wise and affecting novel.”—Hilma Wolitzer, author of The Doctor’s Daughter and An Available Man

About Scissors, Paper, Stone

What is considered a family, and who gets to define it? In 1964, despite the racial tension occurring in a post-WWII America, Catherine and Jonathan adopt a baby girl from Korea. This unconventional choice brings disapproval from Catherine’s family, which creates an even closer bond between her and her daughter. Narrated in alternating chapters by Catherine, her adopted daughter Min, and Min’s best friend Laura, Scissors, Paper, Stone spans twenty years of love, loss, and the complex reality of female relationships. By 1985 Catherine is living a risk-free life on her own accord, Laura is dating her way through college, and Min is a massage therapist who has come out as a lesbian and is learning to embrace her Korean heritage. After Min and Laura take a summer road trip together, the shifts in their friendship force all three women to examine the assumptions they’ve been living by and to make choices about the roles they want to play in each other’s lives.

LUNADA Literary Lounge
2018-05-29 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Galería de la Raza, 2857 24th Street, San Francisco , CA, 94110, United States
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 | 7:30 pm
Featuring Roberto Lovato, Fernando Martí, and Jacqueline Scott Ramos. Open Mic sign-up at 7pm.
De bajo la luna llena, hecha de leche y maiz, de las flores de primavera… At the height of Spring, Lunada hosts three fiery writer activists engaged in social change: Border-smashing writer and journalist Roberto Lovato; Poet, scholar, and Mission native Jacqueline Scott Ramos; and Fernando Martí poet, storywriter and architect, que hace un poquito de todo.
OPEN MIC: Sign-up at 7pm, 8 spots on the list, 5 min. ea. Poets, slammers, storytellers, emcees, musicians, laureates, veteranos, and first-timers invited to share their voices under our bilingual lunar spotlight.
Hosted by Sandra García Rivera
DOORS OPEN AT 7:00pm
$5.00 Admission

GALERÍA DE LA RAZA
2857 24th Street, at Bryant
SF, CA 94110
LUNADA is the Bay Area’s only full moon bilingual literary ritual & performance gathering devoted to spoken word, música, song, and story. Located in the heart of the Mission District at Galería de la Raza, and guest curated by some of the Bay Area’s most dynamic word slingers and artists, each LUNADA features community poets, local legends, visiting mystics, and other mero meros of the stage. Voted Best Literary Night two years in a row by the SF Bay Guardian, 2016 & 2017.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Roberto Lovato is a San Francisco-based journalist and writer based out of the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto. Prior to joining the Grotto, he was a Visiting Scholar at U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Latino Policy Research. Roberto is also the recipient of a crisis reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center. His journalistic work spans the entire hemisphere and centers on border-smashing issues of our time: immigration, the drug war, national security and climate change. Roberto is a frequent contributor to The Nation magazine and his work has appeared in the Guardian, Guernica, Foreign Policy, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Der Spiegel, Al Jazeera, the American Prospect, Mother Jones, Salon Magazine, La Opinion, and other national and international media outlets. He has appeared as a source or commentator in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, the Washington Post, the Economist and Le Monde Diplomatique. He has also appeared on the network news shows of MSNBC, Univision, the BBC, CNN, CNN en Español, NPR, Radio Bilingue, Democracy Now and Al-Jazeera. He will read from his non-fiction book, a reported memoir about the intimate and political roots of extreme violence among children and youth —and the violent countries that make them so. The most interesting parts of his bio are not yet written…
Fernando Martí es un todero: hace un poquito de todo.He 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 trusts 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. His artwork can be seen regularly on justseeds.org,and his writing has appeared in publications as varied as El Tecolote,Left Turnand Shelterforce, as well as a ‘zine called Amor y Lucha.
Jacqueline Scott Ramos is a poet, actress, public health activist, and scholar, who is native to San Francisco’s Mission district. With roots birthed in the Philippines, Mississippi, the Chickasaw Nation, and Spain—she carries the fiery heart of her ancestral warriors. She is the personification of advocacy and champion of cultural equity—building bridges of justice for social change. For over 10 years, she has worked alongside healthcare professionals at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford on programs that promote positive health and biopsychosocial outcomes for in-risk populations affected by poverty, incarceration, gentrification, substance use, and mental illness. Jacqueline recognizes the profound vitality of communities that have been disenfranchised, and has committed her life to be a beacon of educated hope and a disruptor to pathways of harm.

Jesse Berrett
2018-05-30 18:30 - 20:30 UTC | Green Apple Books, 506 Clement St, San Francisco , CA, 94118, United States
Please join us as we welcome Jesse Berrett for a reading of his newest book Pigskin Nation on Wednesday, May 30th at 6:30 p.m. in our Granny Smith Room!
Historian Berrett debuts with a superb cultural history of the period between 1966 and 1974, when “football, politics and culture entwined themselves in ever more complex ways.” Berrett concisely looks at how NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle used his newly acquired production company, NFL Films, to transform the violent image of the sport by producing films and TV programming that extolled football’s “meaning, glory, excitement, and passion.” The book’s second half explores how politicians tried to capitalize on pro football’s cultural relevance, particularly Richard Nixon’s use of the sport—and his endorsement of conservative coaches such as Vince Lombardi—as part of a “public strategy of rallying mainstream America against the dissent, abnormality, and un-American behavior” that could be linked to groups he sought to marginalize. An epilogue looks at how the battle over football’s meaning continued in the 1980s; Berrett observes that Ronald Reagan’s repeated use of “the Gipper” was used to embody the entire Reagan ethos of America as “still the shining city on a hill.” This thought-provoking sports history nicely looks at the significance professional football has had on American politics and culture.

Michael Oondaatje
2018-05-30 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers – his artistry and aesthetic have influenced an entire generation of writers and readers. Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje’s work also encompasses poetry, memoir, and film, and reveals a passion for defying conventional form. Born in Sri Lanka, the former Ceylon, of Indian/Dutch ancestry, he went to school in England, and then moved to Canada. He is the author of four collections of poetry including The Cinnamon Peeler and most recently, Handwriting. Ondaatje’s work of non-fiction is The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, which unites his love of literature and passion for the art of filmmaking. His works of fiction include In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient, Anil’s Ghost, Divisadero, and The Cat’s Table. His next novel will be Warlight (Knopf, May 2018).

On the Cusp: A Taxing Season
2018-05-30 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The second installment of the new nonfiction reading series On the Cusp based around the theme Moments of Change. The smaller and subtler these moments the better—big, seemingly important life events can work (or not work!), but we’re most interested in unforeseen instants that result in lasting change. For this second event, we’re excited to host the following authors on the theme A Taxing Season:
Joyce Maynard
Maw Shein Win
Joe Clifford
TBD! Submissions open through EOD Apr 15.*

* To submit:

Submissions, which should ideally run between 1000-1500 words — with a maximum of 10 minutes’ reading time — should be sent to On the Cusp organizer Allison Landa, at allison@allisonlanda.com, no later than end of day 4/15/18.

—
Bios and more info coming soon — save the date!
Admission for this event is $5 in advance or $10 at the door. Advance tickets can be ordered soon at this link.

RSVP appreciated but not required. This is an all ages event. The bar opens at 7pm, and event begins at 7:30pm.

Jessica Weisberg
2018-05-30 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Jessica Weisberg discusses her new book, Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Life, Love, Money and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed.

Praise for Asking for a Friend

“Rich with insight and surprising facts, Jessica Weisberg’s ingenious appraisal of America’s guidance-givers doubles as a wholly unexpected history of our national psyche. At long last, the lowly advice column gets its due!”―Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own

“An oddly soothing antidote to the millenarian terrors of today, Jessica Weisberg’s history of ordinary American anxiety is as warm, funny, entertaining, and chattily insightful as the advice-dispensers she portrays. In the centuries before the internet, these were the ones we turned to with questions so obscure, embarrassing, weird, or mortifyingly personal that only a stranger would do.”―Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help

“Jessica Weisberg’s hilarious, enlightening odyssey through the history of advice columns chronicles the evolution of our anxieties over how to act. However weird or offensive some of our questions have been, it’s heartening to know that at least we’ve always been trying. A surprising and delightful read.”―Mac McClelland, author of Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story

About Asking for a Friend

A delightful history of Americans’ obsession with advice–from Poor Richard to Dr. Spock to Miss Manners

Americans, for all our talk of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, obsessively seek advice on matters large and small. Perhaps precisely because we believe in bettering ourselves and our circumstances in life, we ask for guidance constantly. And this has been true since our nation’s earliest days: from the colonial era on, there have always been people eager to step up and offer advice, some of it lousy, some of it thoughtful, but all of it read and debated by generations of Americans.

Jessica Weisberg takes readers on a tour of the advice-givers who have made their names, and sometimes their fortunes, by telling Americans what to do. You probably don’t want to follow all the advice they proffered. Eating graham crackers will not make you a better person, and wearing blue to work won’t guarantee a promotion. But for all that has changed in American life, it’s a comfort to know that our hang-ups, fears, and hopes have not. We’ve always loved seeking advice–so long as it’s anonymous, and as long as it’s clear that we’re not asking for ourselves; we’re just asking for a friend.

Borderlands // an Aunt Lute Open Mic feat. Kim Shuck
2018-05-31 18:30 - 21:00 UTC | Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
“… every step forward is a travesía, a crossing. I am again an alien in a new territory. And again, and again.”
–Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera
Join us for a poetry open mic the last Thursday of May. We want to hear about your new growth, your crossings, what territory you’ve uncovered with the shifting of the seasons. Poets of any level welcome: share with us your undone and your in-process! 15 available open slots, one poem per poet, sign-up upon arrival.

MC and Featured Poet:
Kim Shuck is the current Poet Laureate of San Francisco. She has two full length collections of poetry, one chapbook and one collection of prose poems to her name. Her recent works include Sidewalk NDN (Foothills Publishing, 2014) and Clouds Running In (Taurean Press, 2014). Kim serves on the board of directors for the San Francisco American Indian Cultural Center in planning, is involved with the Cherokee Society of the Greater Bay Area and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. In addition, she is a former Indian Studies instructor and a visual artist who works with traditional textiles.
This event is free and open to the public! Beverages will be provided.
This event is funded in part by the CAC and the NEA. Questions? Email marketing@auntlute.com.

William Brewer reads poems about addiction Mill Valley Library Cosponsored by Marin Poetry Center
2018-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
These moving and dramatic poems tackle the pain of the opioid addiction in West Virginia, how it affects family, addicts and the community. Brewer manages to infuse the poems with beauty and hope as well as speaking in the many voices of the epidemic
Rooted in the physical and spiritual landscape of West Virginia, the poems focus on the small town of Oceana (nicknamed Oxyana for the record number of overdoses there), Oceana acts as a stand-in for West Virginia as a whole, which has the highest OD rate in the country.
The poems are at once dreamlike and visceral, and the images in it draw on the beauty and pain of a West Virginia that is, in Brewer’s words “last on every list,” a state that people in the nation’s capital, only a few hours away, barely acknowledge and clearly don’t care much about.
William Brewer’s book, I Know Your Kind (Milkweed Editions, 2017) was the winner of the National Poetry Series. His work has appeared in Boston Review, The Iowa Review, Narrative (where it was awarded the 30 Below Prize), ZYZZYVA, New England Review, The New Yorker, and other journals. Currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, he was born and raised in West Virginia. For more about William Brewer, see the PBS segment or the ZYZZYVA interview.

Vincent Pizzuto
2018-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Green Apple Books, 506 Clement St, San Francisco , CA, 94118, United States
Join us on Thursday, May 31st at 7:00 p.m. as we welcome Vincent Pizzuto as he reads from his new book Contemplating Christ.
The incarnation has made mystics of us all. What if we read the gospels as if that were true? In his book Contemplating Christ, Vincent Pizzuto offers an exploration of the interior life for modern contemplatives that is as beautiful as it is compelling. With an emphasis on the gospels and Christian mystical tradition, his book explores ancient themes in new and surprising ways. Drawing on his rich experience as an academic and priest, Pizzuto gradually unfolds the Christian mystery of deification to which the whole of biblical revelation and the Christian contemplative life are ordered: through the incarnation, we have all been made “other Christs” in the world.

Maji: An Afro Futurist Community Newspaper Launch Party
2018-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
details TBA

Naked Truth: real. stories. live
2018-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Main Reading Room, Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
Friday, June 1st · 7:00pm
Whether stories are hilarious, poignant, suspenseful, or heartwarming, the one thing you can count on is that our next edition of Naked Truth will be a fantastic night of true, live storytelling. Josh Healey will emcee and tell a story along with Adam Mansbach, Richard Sarvate, and Judi Le.
Registration highly recommended. Click here to register.
Adults and high school students only. Wine reception at 6:30pm for pre-registered guests.

Add to my:iCal/Outlook
When:Friday, June 1, 2018
Time:7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Where:Mill Valley Public Library – Main Reading Room, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, California, 94941
Event Type:Library, After Hours
Contact:(415) 389-4292

Oakland First Fridays at Nomadic Press!
2018-06-01 19:00 - 22:00 UTC | Nomadic Press, 2926 Foothill Blvd, Oakland , CA, 94601, United States
Doors open at 7:00 PM; show starts at 7:30 PM SHARP! Join us at Nomadic Press as we celebrate Oakland First Fridays! Featuring readings by 4-5 Nomadic Press authors in our intimate space amongst the hustle at 23rd and Telegraph Avenue. Come early and catch our authors reading on a street stage just down the block at 6:30 PM. This month features readings by TBD and music by TBD.
To help pay for our space and our artists and ensure that we can continue our robust programming series, we are asking for suggested donations of $10-15 at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF). Nomadic Press books, as always, will be for sale at the event.
Wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.

Michelle Markowitz and Caroline Moss / Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails
2018-06-01 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
Booksmith hosts Michelle Markowitz and Caroline Moss, in town to present Hey Ladies: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails. Join us!

Based on the column of the same name that appeared in The Toast, Hey Ladies! is a laugh-out-loud read that follows a fictitious group of eight 20-and-30-something female friends for one year of holidays, summer house rentals, dates, brunches, breakups, and, of course, the planning of a disastrous wedding. This instantly relatable story is told entirely through emails, texts, DMs, and every other form of communication known to man.

The women in the book are stand-ins for annoying friends we all have. There’s Nicole, who’s always broke and tries to pay for things in Forever21 gift cards. There’s Katie, the self-important budding journalist, who thinks a retweet and a byline are the same thing. And there’s Jen, the DIY suburban bride-to-be. With a perfectly pitched sardonic tone, Hey Ladies! will have you cringing and laughing as you recognize your own friends … and even yourself.

“Hey Ladies! is fresh and seductive. The surface energy is irresistible but like any memorable book it’s the deeper emotion that will stay with you. A must-read for the Millennials and a true joy for the rest of us.” – Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Perfect Couple

“DAMNNNNN!!!! This book is so funny and it feels like you’re reading emails on your phone, so it goes down nice and easy! I devoured this book, just like I devoured that half-handful of almonds I laid out as my entire lunch.” – Megan Amram, NBC’s The Good Place and author of Science…For Her!

“[Buy this book to] remind your newly-engaged friend you were around before the fiancé.” – Vogue

“This is the ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ of our time. By the way, ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ is a total masterpiece. The book, not the movie. The movie is just ok. Anyway, this book is a masterpiece. Share it with your bffs!!”— Emily Gould, author of Friendship

“There’s a level of detail here that can only come from years of paying attention to one’s worst impulses, and there’s something magical about watching those impulses be given free rein here. It’s as petty and profound as Samuel Pepys, and it haunts my dreams.” — Daniel Mallory Ortberg and Nicole Cliffe, co-founders of The Toast

Michelle Markowitz is a writer and director. She recently wrote and directed the pilot “Sidepiece” for Virgin Produced. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Hairpin, Fast Company, Jezebel, and New York, and on The Today Show, Good Morning America, MTV, and more. She lives in New York.

Caroline Moss is a writer and editor with bylines in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Racked, Cosmopolitan, and more. She is a contributing editor of The Wing’s No Man’s Land magazine and a producer at BuzzFeed’s morning show, AM2DM. This is her first book.

Please note: this event will be at The Bindery, 1727 Haight. RSVP appreciated but not required.

Bar opens at 7, event begins at 7:30pm.

Bay Area Poets Coalition
2018-06-02 15:00 - 17:00 UTC | Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, 94702, United States
BAPC OPEN POETRY READING

Upcoming First Saturday Readings in 2018:

March 3, April 7, May 5, June 2

3:00 – 5:00 PM

STRAWBERRY CREEK LODGE
1320 Addison St., Berkeley, CA

Addison is one block south of and parallel to University Ave.
between Acton & Bonar St.
Parking on the street (NOT in the S.C.L. parking lot)
Check in at the front desk and you will be directed to the meeting location
(usually Movie Room, or backyard garden)

All Ages Welcome

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

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

soirée rosé: the art of happy hour
2018-06-02 17:00 - 19:00 UTC | Pause Wine Bar, 1666 Market St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
You’re invited to “soirée rosé: the art of happy hour” presented by Author L.B. Lewis to celebrate the pre-release of her third book, One Way Home.
This happy hour is the sixth in a series of events to build community and support in San Francisco for L.B. Lewis’s writing. She’ll be offering a short update and books will be available for purchase.
Complimentary glass of rosé and bites for the first 25 attendees. Pink and white dress strongly encouraged.
Drawing a diverse global crowd, last happy hour sold out. RSVP now to add your name to the guest list at www.LBLewis.com.
About L.B. Lewis:
Hot, indie author nominee writing about loans, life and love, L.B. Lewis’s debut novel, THE RIGHT OF WAY (MODERN TRILOGY BOOK 1), reached #283 in the Kindle Store and has received five-star reviews from The Manhattan Book Review and Readers’ Favorite. Her second book in the series, A MINOR DETOUR (MODERN TRILOGY BOOK 2) was chosen by The Wishing Self Book Awards and ZYZZVA for respective programs. ONE WAY HOME (MODERN TRILOGY BOOK 3) will be published early 2018. She has spoken about her writing at Capital One, Institute of the Future, Mechanics’ Institute, Wayra UK, TechHub London and TravelTech Lab London.

Babylon Salon, featuring R.O. Kwon & Michael David Lukas
2018-06-02 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | The Armory Club, 1799 Mission St, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Come join us Saturday, June 2, when Babylon Salon welcomes novelist and NEA Literature Fellow R.O. Kwon (The Incendiaries); novelist and Fulbright Scholar Michael David Lukas (The Last Watchman of Old Cairo); freelance journalist and EATER restaurant critic Rachel Levin (Look Big: and Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of all Kinds); short story writer and Steinbeck Fellow Katie Flynn; and spoken word poet Jarvis Subia reading from their work. @ The Armory Club: 1799 Mission Street, San Francisco, 94103. FREE. Doors at 5:30 PM, reading at 6:00 PM. www.babylonsalon.com

POETS! - featured readers to be announced followed by an open mic
2018-06-04 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles)

MICHAEL POLLAN presents HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND: ​What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us ​About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, ​and Transcendence
2018-06-04 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Monday, June 4, 2018, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Tickets available now!
​When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into the experience of various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research.
A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan’s “mental travelogue” is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both struggle and beauty, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.
–​
Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.
Please note:
Each ticket includes one copy of How to Change Your Mind. Signing and additional details coming soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Nikole Hannah-Jones
2018-06-04 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
City Arts & Lectures presents Nikole Hannah-Jones in conversation with Alexis Madrigal.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative reporter who covers civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine. In 2016, she helped found the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a news trade organization dedicated to increasing the ranks of investigative reporters of color. Prior to joining The New York Times, Nikole worked as an investigative reporter at ProPublica in New York City, where she spent three years chronicling the way official policy created and maintains segregation in housing and schools. Before that, she reported for the largest daily newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, The Oregonian in Portland, where she covered numerous beats, including demographics, the census and county government. She is writing a book on school segregation called, The Problem We All Live With.

SIN
2018-06-05 08:00 - 17:00 UTC | Public Works, 161 Erie Street, San Francisco , CA, 94103, United States
SIN
Tales of vice and veniality, peccadillos, trespasses, and indiscretions from the faux pas to the unforgivable
Featuring:
Nadya Lev ~ Eating Ortolans & Other Violent Delights
Seth Rosenblatt ~ Getting Biblical: Cannibalism, Literature & the Wrath of God
Michael Gene Sullivan ~ Battle of the Bard
Kathleen Antonia ~ Greed Has A Name: Robert Newsom
Casey Selden ~ Green with Envy in the Great White North
Meghan Dahl ~ James Joyce is NSFW
Curated by Christian Cagigal
Artwork by Imogen Speer
Tuesday, June 5
Public Works SF: 161 Erie St, San Francisco
Doors at 6:30 for pre-salon cocktails and conversation; talks begin at 7:30
General Admission $15
Limited Reserved tickets $25
Ages 21+

Chasing Mercury: A Novel by September Williams
2018-06-05 12:00 - 14:00 UTC | Mechanics Institute, 57 Post St 4th Floor Boardroom, San Francisco, CA, 94104, United States
An epileptic Black ballerina and a Powwow dancer meet in the Montreal Airport. They are both scheduled to perform in 1973 Cold War Berlin. During the transatlantic crossing their love evolves. On a long layover in Zurich, he stuns her by depositing many hundreds of thousands of dollars into his Swiss bank account, to which he adds her name with no true explanation. Is she an accomplice to something, or is this just love in the time of mercury poisoning?
September Williams’ debut novel is a romance-suspense-memoir that connects human rights, environmental justice and romance. Williams is also a Bay Area physician, bioethicist, and filmmaker.

Featuring

September Williams
