Tag: Poetry

Table Reading

Presented by The Fred Rogers Dewey Legacy Project

Presented by the FRDLP. Hosted by Renée Petropoulos

Join us for a session of careful, attentive live reading and interpretation of “What is Authority?” by Hannah Arendt and The School of Public Life by the late Fred Dewey. Table Reading sessions are hosted at Beyond Baroque, led by Renée Petropoulos and the Fred Rogers Dewey Legacy Project (FRDLP).

Historically, these sessions presented texts from the work of Hannah Arendt, but the FRDLP is celebrating Dewey’s work by reviving this series with one of his own texts, The School of Public Life. This project involves participants reading aloud around a table and interpreting the text as each pulls meaning from it. The activity is a public interpretation of ideas, read together without “expertise,” but with mind and heart. Following Dewey’s commitment to her work, this series will include readings of Hannah Arendt as we move through the months.

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.

Palabras Literary Salon (Nov 2026 edition)

Palabras Literary Salon celebrates BIPOC poets + writers for intercultural community building.

Come enjoy an afternoon with Palabras Literary Salon, a BIPOC-centered literary community event with host Jen Cheng in Chinatown Los Angeles.

Our September edition features acclaimed poet Lynne Thompson. Our event has a guest readers circle, a curated invited list of diverse BIPOC poets, writers, playwrights, and creatives to read 3-minutes of writing to celebrate this salon’s theme of “misdemeanors.” This theme is about the crimes against your body, your heart, your soul.

All are welcome to attend – especially bring your allies and others curious to hear BIPOC voices.

Our guest readers circle includes award-winning poets and writers in addition to emerging artists: Aditi Khorana, Lory Bedikian, Alexandra Nichole Salazar, Jia-Rui Cook, M. Anne Kalai, José Enrique Medina, Pōmaikaʻi Hanakahi-Gushiken, two Macondistas Pat Alderate and Felipe Garcia, and three other poets laureateTina Demirdjian, Rhonda Mitchell, Jen Cheng. Light reception is provided.

This salon series has been around for 4+ years and is volunteer-run + grassroots-driven. If each attendee donated $10 or more, we could cover our costs. We need everyone to pitch in on the honor system. If you can afford more, we would would appreciate your donation to help support other community members. We believe in accessibility, so if you need a scholarship ticket, please privately email the host (JenCvoice@gmail.com) with the subject header “scholarship.”

Please kindly help us with your early RSVP here to attend and join in the facilitated discussion. Previous events have sold out so please join the waitlist if the RSVPs are full – people do cancel! We are asking for RSVPs for priority entry due to limited capacity.

Everyone is welcome. Drop-ins are welcome.

Please arrive by 12:45pm as we would like to start at 1pm and finish by 2:30pm to have time for post event mingling, community conversation, and reception.

Please budget for time to get your street parking in the neighborhood. There is free parking if you take the time to walk several blocks. There is a $5 parking lot across the street on Broadway at Mandarin Plaza and other neighborhood lots.

We are glad to have you celebrate with us on Saturday, November 21, 2026 at 1pm at Studious Coworking in Chinatown (418 Bamboo Lane, Los Angeles, CA 90012).

More about Palabras Literary Salon

With a mission to create intercultural community building, Jen Cheng founded Palabras Literary Salon , inspired by our elders of civil rights consciousness raising and Maya Angelou’s salons in the Harlem Renaissance. As a facilitator, Jen Cheng, brings home-cooking and light snacks to the event as we build bridges by breaking bread together. We sit in a non-heirarchical circle, without a stage. This is not an open-mic. Talk-story and witnessing are ways we can build better understanding of our humanity. If you are interested in being invited as a guest reader, please attend a salon to see if this format is a fit for your writing. Note: This event is an independent project and not affiliated with Jen’s role with the City of West Hollywood. More about the salon on Jen’s website: www.jencvoice.com/palabras

More about our featured poet

Lynne Thompson was the 4th Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, her poetry collections include Beg No Pardon (2007), winner of the Perugia Press Prize and the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award; Start With A Small Guitar (2013), from What Books Press; and Fretwork (2019), winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. Thompson’s honors include the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award (poetry) and the Stephen Dunn Prize for Poetry as well as fellowships from the City of Los Angeles, Vermont Studio Center, and the Summer Literary Series in Kenya. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Poem-A-Day (Academy of American Poets), New England Review, Colorado Review, Pleiades, Ecotone, and Best American Poetry, to name a few.

A lawyer by training, Thompson sits on the boards of the Los Angeles Review of Books and Cave Canem and is the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Scripps College, her alma mater. She facilitates private workshops, most recently for Beyond Baroque, Poetry By the Sea Conference, Moorpark College Writers Festival, and Central Coast Writers’ Conference. Thompson is a native of Los Angeles, California, where she resides.

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Graphic: @JenCvoice

Exterior photo is from July 2024 edition of Palabras Literary Salon featuring Sonia Guiñansaca (Nostalgia and Borders). Event graphics by Jen Cheng. Interior photo is from Sept 2026 edition of Palabras Literary Salon.

All graphics designed by Jen Cheng. No generative AI is used in our work.

Michael Lewis with Jeremy Hobson

Michael Lewis with Jeremy Hobson, discussing his book, “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State”

Please note:

— Tickets cannot be re-sold on re-seller platforms. Re-sold ticket will not be honored.

— Tickets are non refundable and are not transferable.

— All ticket holders should be ready to show ID at the event.

— The name(s) you provide during registration will be on a will-call list at the event, where you will check-in and get your ticket to enter the theatre.

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Join us for an in-person and virtual* Live Talks Los Angeles event:

Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 8pm

*Virtual event airs on November 17 at 6pm PT/9pm ET

Michael Lewis

in conversation with Jeremy Hobson

discussing his book, “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State”

TICKETS:

$50 General Admission ticket + signed book

$75 Two General Admisison tickets + ONE signed book

$85 Reserved Section Seat + 2 signed books (Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State

& Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service)

Additional signed books available for purchase at event

The virtual version of this event airs on November 17, 2026, at 6pm PT/9PM ET and is available on video-on-demand for five days. Tickets include a signed book.

Tickets for the virtual event can be purchased here (includes the signed book).

ASL interpreter provided upon request.

Free parking at the venue

An inside look at the early days of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, as told by the public servants it targeted and one of America’s best storytellers.

New York Times best-selling author Michael Lewis has published many books on subjects ranging from politics to Wall Street to sports. His books include: Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short*, The Blind Side, The Undoing Project*, The Fifth Risk, The Premonition*, Going Infinite*, and Flash Boys*. He edited Who Is Government?, an anthology by an all-star team of writers exploring the consequential work of government workers. Lewis is the creator and host of Apple’s #1-rated podcast Against the Rules, a searing look at what’s happened to fairness in American life through the lens of people who depend on public trust. He grew up in New Orleans and lives in Berkeley, California, with his family. (*He has appeared on the Live Talks Los Angeles stage for these books. He has also interviewed Malcolm Gladwell and Walter Isaacson for us.)

Blockers. It wasn’t a compliment. In the new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be―especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn’t get the message―and, most of all, someone who didn’t belong.

Michael Lewis found six of them.

Blockers is the story of people who believed they had a calling, who were convinced they were doing something the country couldn’t do without, and then discovered they were no longer wanted. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods, another helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.

There was also a security guard.

It should come as no surprise that the writer who made subprime mortgages gripping (The Big Short) and who turned baseball statistics into poetry (Moneyball) could transform the first two years of the second Trump administration into a thriller about federal employees. But he does.

And he does something else. He puts before us a clear question: If these public servants can’t survive in government today, then what does that say about us?

Women-Only Open Mic (poetry, comedy, music, etc.)

An open-mic in West LA by women, for women.

Village Well is partnering with Former Miss LA USA, philanthropist and champion of women’s voices, Kaelani Amputch-Curtis to provide a platform for female (and female-identifying) poets, musicians, storytellers, comedians, and performers. While all are welcome to attend, this is an event that aims to amplify women’s voices only. Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length (depending on number of participants). Sign ups begin at 6:30 pm. Mic opens at 7pm!

*This event was founded by trauma-healing poet, Kate Burns in August 2023.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Film Screening with Live Score & Readings

A screening of Robert Weine’s expressionist classic with a contemporary original soundtrack + recitals of poetry and prose.

Beyond Baroque presents a screening of the silent-era horror classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Directed by German filmmaker Robert Wiene, and released in 1920, the film has been widely influential to filmmakers and writers exploring psychological horror and visual storytelling.

The film follows Francis, who recounts his encounters with Dr. Caligari, a sinister figure who manipulates a sleepwalker, Cesare, into committing murders. The story unfolds through claustrophobic spaces and wildly distorted geometric set designs–hallmarks of German Expressionism that transform the film’s psychological unease into a striking visual nightmarish landscape.

The screening in the Wanda Coleman Theater will begin with readings by poet Adrian Ibarra, author of Rivers of Human Blood, and fiction writer Atina Hartunian. Hartunian, who has developed craft talks exploring facets of the horror genre, will also introduce The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Experience the film in community with an original soundtrack composed exclusively for this program by L.A.-based musicians Mason Moy, Jesse Brindze, and Grump, using an array of electronic, string, and wind instrumentation.

Doors Open: 7:00 PM I Readings & Screening: 7:30 PM

About the authors:

Adrian Ibarra is a poet living in Los Angeles, California. He is the author of the chapbook Rivers of Human Blood.

Atina Hartunian is a writer, independent scholar, educator, and first-generation Armenian American based in Los Angeles. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University in 2023. Her honors include a Teaching Fellowship from Anaphora Arts (2024), the Pacific University MFA Merit Scholarship (2021), and residencies with the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, Rockvale Writers’ Colony (2025), and the Carolyn Moore Writing Residency (2026). Hartunian’s work explores horror, perception, memory, diasporic identity, and the unseen through fiction, flash nonfiction, and craft scholarship. Her chapbook Love at First Sip was shortlisted for the C&R Press Summer Tide Pool Chapbook Awards (2025), and her flash piece I’d Rather Lose My Tits Than My Hair received an Honorable Mention in the 2026 Plentitudes Flash Fiction Prize. She is currently developing a five-part Horror Lecture Series that combines literary criticism, close reading, and generative writing.

About the musicians:

Jesse Brindze is a musician, DJ, and artist that can occasionally be found haunting the cinemas and goth clubs of Los Angeles. They enjoy making strange noises with a variety of tools, including guitars, synthesizers, and turntables. You can hear more from them on intermittent Fridays at Club Underground ( or find their other work at www.jessebrindze.com.

Mason Moy is a tubist, bass trombonist, and composer currently in Los Angeles, CA. He frequently makes music exploring extended just intonation, free improvisation, and occasionally using Supercollider. His compositions focus primarily on the use of extended just intonation to push the limits of tonal music. His music has been programmed across the United States by the Hear Now Festival, the James Madison University Wind Ensemble, Kevin Stees, Matt LeVeque, and the Los Angeles Brass Alliance.

Grump is an LA based multidisciplinary artist and curator. Their musical work experiments with sound collages, woodwinds, unorthodox rhythms and drones using samplers, effect pedals and other miscellaneous instruments. They are also the founder and sole operator of online radio and mixed media interface, bed crumb show.

About Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.