Beach-loving surfer Alberta has been the only black girl in town for years. Alberta’s best friend, Laramie, is the closest thing she has to a sister, but there are some things even Laramie can’t understand. When the bed and breakfast across the street finds new owners, Alberta is ecstatic to learn the family is black-and they have a 12-year-old daughter just like her.
Tag: Underrepresented Voices
Harry Dodge reads from “My Meteorite” in conversation with Leslie Dick
Is love a force akin to gravity? A kind of invisible fabric which enables communications through space and time? Artist Harry Dodge finds himself contemplating such questions as his father declines from dementia and he rekindles a bewildering but powerful relationship with his birth mother. A meteorite Dodge orders on eBay becomes a mysterious catalyst for a reckoning with the vital forces of matter, the nature of consciousness, and the bafflements of belonging.
Alya Mooro discusses “The Greater Freedom”
Alya will be discussing her book, “The Greater Freedom,” which is part memoir, part social commentary. Topics covered will include fighting shame and guilt (facing up to the ‘invisible jury’ ), the importance of telling our stories, balancing two very different cultures and whether the expectations we place on Middle Eastern women are realistic. From dating to drugs, religion to rebellion, this will be a lively, eye-opening talk and will include an exclusive reading by Alya from the book.
Thabile Makue discusses and signs “‘mamaseko” at Book Soup
Named after the poet’s mother, ‘mamaseko is a collection of introspective lyrics and other poems dealing with the intersections of blood relationships and related identities. Thabile Makue questions what it means to be beings of blood–to relate by blood, to live by blood. In her poems Makue looks for traces of shared trauma and pain and asserts that wounds of the blood are healed by the same.
Thabile Makue reads from “‘Mamaseko”
Named after the poet’s mother, ‘mamaseko is a collection of introspective lyrics and other poems dealing with the intersections of blood relationships and related identities. Thabile Makue questions what it means to be beings of blood—to relate by blood, to live by blood. In her poems Makue looks for traces of shared trauma and pain and asserts that wounds of the blood are healed by the same.
Cathy Park Hong, in conversation with Maggie Nelson, discusses and signs “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning”
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative–and it’s relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses and signs “Untamed Shore”
Renowned author Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s first thriller, “Untamed Shore,” is a coming-of-age story set in Mexico which quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.
Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She’s bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
Cecilia Vicuña: New And Selected Poems
Herb Alpert Award-winner Cecilia Vicuña has embodied a life of political and social activism through poetry, visual art, film, and performance. In her new bilingual collection, New and Selected Poems, Vicuña and her translator, Rosa Alcalá, are artist-witnesses to a natural world that is a storehouse of sacred words, seeds, threads, and songs. In Vicuña’s vision, art is life and intimacy with it is transformative. In celebration of this new collection, Vicuña will give a poetic reading, followed by a conversation with curator Camila Marambio, the founder/director of Ensayos, a nomadic interdisciplinary research program in Tierra del Fuego.
A conversation with Lynell George
Los Angeles-based journalist and essayist, Lynell George will share her insights on Los Angeles and sign copies of her new book “After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame,” a collection of her essays, evocative photographs, profiles, and reportage focused on her native city.
Location: Allendale Library of Pasadena, 1130 South Marengo Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106
The Beauty of the Beast: Queer Poetry Night
LOS ANGELES, CA, February 28th 2020—As a part of Influx’s free monthly queer poetry reading series, the series’ February 28th event will begin at 8pm at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts (681 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90291) and will feature LA based queer poets: Ryka Aoki, Cori Bratby-Rudd, Féi Hernandez, Christine Imperial, Hank Henderson, among others. This particular event is unique—Influx Collectiv is collaborating with Dissonance Press and all performing queer poets are therefore also contributors to Dissonance’s first anthology, Under The Belly of the Beast (edited by Cori Bratby-Rudd) which will be available for purchase at the show. This themed queer poetry night is called, “The Beauty of the Beast.”
About Influx:
Founded in 2018, Influx is now run by its original co-founder Cori Bratby-Rudd and collaborator Diana Gutierrez (who often hosts). Influx Collectiv is a queer poetry reading series that connects LA based poets, promotes queer events, and provides a space and platform for queer creators and queer content. Influx is for audience members to hear stories that reflect their own, and for performers to find an audience who understands. We host events monthly and each reading features new poets and takes place at a different location throughout Los Angeles. Influx Collectiv was recently featured in an article by VoyageLA, the Alhambra Source, and the Occidental. We can be found through our website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
About Dissonance Press:
Dissonance Press is a workspace and test platform for writing projects that subvert or repurpose how literature is made and read. By doing so, we hope to foster modes of writing that creatively respond to expectations, limitations, and exclusions of the literary machine. We seek work that actively challenges the perception of the author as solitary genius, in favor of work that stresses collaboration, serialization, and creation of shared narrative. We also produce works in overlooked genres, such as prayer books, photo albums, quilts, cookbooks and letters, that help uncover the ingenuity and brilliance of writers whose cultural, religious, economic, and social positions made it difficult or impossible to create work within traditional literary forms.
About Under The Belly of the Beast:
“Join us for the book release of Under The Belly of the Beast!
LOS ANGELES, CA, February 28th 2020—As a part of our free monthly queer poetry reading series, our February 28th event will begin at 8pm at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts (681 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA ) and will feature LA based queer poets: Ryka Aoki, Cori Bratby-Rudd, Féi Hernandez, Christine Imperial, Hank Henderson, among others. This particular event is unique—Influx Collectiv is collaborating with Dissonance Press and all performing queer poets are therefore also contributors to Dissonance’s first anthology, Under The Belly of the Beast (edited by Cori Bratby-Rudd) which will be available for purchase at the show. This themed queer poetry night is called, “The Beauty of the Beast.”
This event is also going to feature a RAFFLE!
We are currently offering:
— 2 FREE Tickets to VOLTA by Cirque du Soleil
–$100 gift card to ProjectQ
Anyone who purchases a copy of Dissonance Press’s anthology Under The Belly of the Beast will be automatically entered into the raffle.
You can purchase the anthology here:
https://www.dissonancepress.com/under-the-belly-of-the-beast
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