BookSwell

An in-person poetry workshop and open mic with Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the PoeTMap your past, present and future poetically by celebrating your family history and rendering your personal geographies in a dynamic, collaborative setting. The workshop will culminate with an open mic after you write.About Mike the PoeT Mike Sonksen aka Mike the PoeT is a 3rd-generation Southern Californian. Poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour-guide, his latest book Letters to My City was published by Writ Large Press. He’s written for KCET, Poets & Writers, Wax Poetics, PBS, LA Taco, LA Review of Books, LAist, Boom and the Academy of American Poets. His poetry’s been featured on Public Radio Stations KCRW, KPCC & KPFK & Spectrum News. Sonksen is the Coordinator of the First Year Experience Program at Woodbury University and taught high school before that. He’s been awarded by the Los Angeles Press Club. Follow him on Twitter & IG @mikethepoetLA

An in-person poetry reading and conversation with Latinx poets, publishers, and curators.Join us for a reading and panel discussion with six poets and literary organizers of the literary community in Southern California. The panelists include Latinx leaders in arts organizations, independent bookstore owners, readings & open mic curators, and publishers who are actively creating spaces for artists and writers of color. Along with readings of their own work, the panelists will engage in a conversation that explores the challenges of building a local literary community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer insights into how their personal work intersects to serve a diversity of audiences and build a sustainable future for literary spaces. "Anfitrionas" will be hosted by Venezuelan author Lisbeth Coiman. Free & in-person at Beyond Baroque. All attendees must show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination and an ID. Masks are required.Reservation Policy: Please RSVP if you are planning to attend this event. We accept walk-ins, but priority will be given to people that have registered. Since this event is free of charge it is our policy to overbook. In the case of a full program, your free ticket may not guarantee admission. We recommend arriving early. Read More ...

An in-person reading celebrating Jerry Garcia's newest poetry collection "Trumpets in the Sky."Join us in person for a night of readings with L.A. poets Jerry Garcia and Beth Ruscio. Jerry Garcia is celebrating the release of his newest poetry collection, Trumpets in the Sky, published by Moon Tide Press. The collection is a series of poems that point to the universe while proclaiming the complexities of living on planet earth. These poems are full of astonishment, absurdity, reverence, and social science. He will be joined by poet and actress Beth Ruscio, to read from her latest work, Speaking Parts–a collection which poet Gail Wronsky described as luminous poems that fearlessly buoys the reader "through theatrical make-up sessions, costume changes, death, love, and itchy wigs...Speaking Parts speaks to us in a language that’s inviting, insightful, and alive.” Beth Ruscio's first full-length poetry collection won the 2020 Brick Road Poetry Prize. Free & in-person at Beyond Baroque. All attendees must show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination and an ID. Masks are required.Reservation Policy: Please RSVP if you are planning to attend this event. We accept walk-ins, but priority will be given to people that have registered. Since this event is free of Read More ...

A celebration of Anna Journey's forthcoming poetry collection, "The Judas Ear."Join us for our reopening weekend! We're hosting an in-person reading with poets Anna Journey and David St. John in celebration of Journey’s new collection of poems, The Judas Ear, out this March from LSU Press. Journey's collection has been described as "lush and visceral, her humor warm and sly, and her sensibility metes out tenderness and grotesquerie in equal parts. Like the ear-shaped mushroom named for a biblical betrayer, the poems in The Judas Ear can shift suddenly from wit to pathos, from seductiveness to danger, with a generosity of vision that is at once wise and revelatory." Journey will read from ˆThe Judas Ear, while St. John will read from his in-progress poetry collection, The Sketchbook. In-person at Beyond Baroque. All attendees must show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination and an ID. Masks are required. About the authorsAnna Journey is the author of the poetry collections The Judas Ear, The Atheist Wore Goat Silk, Vulgar Remedies, and If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting, which was selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series, and the essay collection An Arrangement of Skin. She is an associate professor Read More ...

An in-person memorial and celebration of Beyond Baroque's former executive directorPlease join us in celebrating the life and work of Fred Dewey. The former executive director of Beyond Baroque, Fred was a profoundly committed writer, editor, and thinker who devoted his life to championing artists and creating a public sphere for intellectual engagement. The memorial and tribute will feature readings and remembrances from poets, writers, artists, colleagues, and friends. It will be held outside on Beyond Baroque’s back patio, and food and drink will be served. For those unable to attend in-person, it will be streamed live to Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel, where it will also be available for viewing after the memorial. Readings and remembrances by: Linda J. Albertano, Will Alexander, Laurel Ann Bogen, Mike Bonin, Dorit Cypus, Simone Forti, Amélie Frank, Chris Kraus, Pegarty Long, Suzanne Lummis, Matthew Mars, Janet Gollery McKeithen, Bill Mohr, Phoebe MacAdams Ozuna, Brooks Roddan, Amy Scholder, Jack Skelley, Judith Taylor, Suzanne Thompson, A.K. Toney, and others TBA. In-person at Beyond Baroque. All attendees must be vaccinated.About Fred Dewey: Fred Dewey (1957-2021) was a writer, teacher, editor/publisher, curator, and co-founder of the Neighborhood Councils Movement in Los Angeles. The author of The School of Read More ...