BookSwell

After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail.

What makes a memory? What makes an idol? Through what queer lenses do we examine ourselves and our community?What makes a memory? What makes an idol? Through what lens do we examine ourselves and our community?This discussion brings together a poet and author, a photographer, and a culture writer to discuss how they point a critical lens at themselves and their community. Charles Jensen is the author of Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres (Santa Fe Writer’s Project 2024) and the collection of poetry Instructions between Takeoff and Landing (University of Akron Press 2022). Manuel Betancourt is the author of The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men (Penguin Random House 2024). Aaron Jay Young is a portrait photographer and the author of Queen (Padlock Publishing 2023). The event will open with an original poem read by Jen Cheng, current West Hollywood City Poet Laureate and author of Braided Spaces (2023).WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. More information and events at www.weho.org/wehoreads. BookSwell, a literary events and media company dedicated to lifting up writers from historically excluded communities, is producing the WeHo Reads Read More ...

What is gained and what is lost when history is appropriated, and misappropriated, by filmmakers, novelists, and other creative artists? With stunning video clips and dramatic photographs, Emmy Award-nominated producer Joshua M. Greene explores existential and pedagogical issues surrounding the transmission of Holocaust memory. The audience is challenged to reconsider beloved movies and books by hearing an informed exposition of what lies behind the messages of popular media. The program features excerpts from Academy-Award-winning movies, scenes from Mr. Greene’s acclaimed documentary, “Witness: Voices from the Holocaust,” as well as cite the first-person accounts of witnesses that were woven in the narrative of the book of the same name. RSVP for complimentary tickets.

Author Ilana Kaplan discusses "Nora Ephron at the Movies" with Ephron biographer Kristin Marguerite Doidge.

Two sisters: one deaf, one hearing -- this is their true story. Joshua M. Greene and Renee Hartman co-wrote this haunting memoir of Renee's early life when she and sister Herta, faced the unimaginable -- together. After their parents are taken away by Nazis in Czechoslovakia, Renee, who could hear, and Herta, who was deaf, go on the run, only to be captured and sent to Bergen-Belsen. The two have to fight to survive the darkest of times together. Join author Joshua M. Greene, in conversation with HMLA's Chief Impact Officer Jordanna Gessler. ASL interpretation provided.