BookSwell

A celebration of Tinderbox in Three Acts (BOA Editions LTD, 2023) by Cynthia Dewi OkaIn her fourth poetry collection, Cynthia Dewi Oka performs a lyric accounting of the anti-Communist genocide of 1965, which, led by the Indonesian military and with American assistance, erased and devastated millions of lives in Indonesia. Under the New Order dictatorship that ruled by terror for over three decades in the aftermath, perpetrators of the killings were celebrated as national heroes while survivors were systemically silenced. Drawing on US state documents that were only declassified in recent years, Oka gives form and voice to the ghosts that continue to haunt subsequent generations despite decades of state-produced amnesia and disinformation. In service of recovering what must not be remembered, A Tinderbox in Three Acts (BOA Editions, LTD.) repurposes the sanitized lexicon of official discourse, imagines an emotional syntax for the unthinkable, and employs synesthetic modes of perception to convey that which exceeds language. Here, the boundary between singular and collective consciousness is blurred. Here, history as an artifact of the powerful is trumped by the halting memory of those power sought to destroy. Where memory fails, here is poetry to honor the dishonored, the betrayed, the lost Read More ...

An in-person ecopoetics poetry workshop facilitated by Douglas ManuelAs climate change rages, as our carbon footprints expand, as more and more folks become climate refugees, as more and more animals disappear or stumble into extinction, ecopoetry that bears witness to these tragedies, explores them and troubles them, becomes more and more needed, more imperative. In this generative workshop, after a brief discussion differentiating ecopoetry and nature poetry, participants will have the opportunity to trope off of, remix, and reimagine poems by Camille Dungy, Donika Kelly, Craig Santos Perez, Brenda Hillman, and others so that they can add their voices to the chorus of poets calling to us to act, change, and be better for our present moment and for the future. *One scholarship will be awarded to a QTPOC/BIPOC L.A.-residing individual who would like to join but does not have the means to do so. Please email us if interested at info@beyondbaroque.orgWorkshop attendees are expected to participate in a respectful, constructive, and considerate manner. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our workshops, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, fellow participants, or facilitator.About the FacilitatorDouglas Manuel was born in Anderson, Indiana and now resides Read More ...

An evening of poetry in celebration of Linda Ravenswood's newest collection (Black Spring Press Group, 2023).Celebrated poet Linda Ravenswood presents Cantadora - Letters from California, a collection of 44 hybrid texts which read as maps, diary entries, manifestos, dream fragments, and lists. Her branching perspective of the 500+ years span of the (so-called) Conquest of Mexico by Cortés and the Spanish army (1521-present) explores reverberations across landscapes & cultures of the American West that are still being navigated. The voices explore past, present, & future histories of those who dwell in the West. Some histories explored include WWII Holocaust survivors of Los Angeles, relocated NDN children of the 19th century, Chontales people of the Yucatán encountering ships of Cortés, border blurring, intersectional feminism, and 21st-century balancing acts of Latinidad. This extraordinary collection is a tour de force of poetic craft, colonial sensitivity, intellect, and conscience. In celebration of Cantadora - Letters From California, Linda Ravenswood alongside Chicano poet Matt Sedillo, author Jennifer Lewis, & L.A. Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson will join us for an evening of poetry readings in-person at Beyond Baroque. Celebrate the publication of Cantadora: -Letters from California (The Black Spring Press Group) with an evening of readings Read More ...

Booksigning and panel discussion with celebrity photographer Carell Augustus and celebrities featured in the iconic book, Black Hollywood.Malik Books and Pan African Film Festival join forces to present an evening of Black History. Black-Owned, Independent Book Store Brings the Love of Reading to the Pan African Film Festival with Panel Discussion and Booksigning featuring celebrity photographer Carell Augustus, Author of "Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments" Mon Feb 13, 2023 at 7PM Malik Books - Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall 3650 W M.L King Blvd Los Angeles, Ca 90008Free Admission. Pre-Ordering book is strongly encouraged. Order at MalikBooks.comCarell along with celebrities featured in the book will host a booksigning and panel discussion about classic Hollywood with today's iconic Black entertainers. This coffee table photo book features over sixty-five Black entertainers. CONFIRMED CELEBRITIES: To Be Announced!Link to Pre Order - Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments by Carell AugustusOnce Upon a Time in Black HollywoodBlack Hollywood: Reimaging Iconic Movie Moments is a groundbreaking take on Hollywood's most beloved films, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singin' in the Rain, Mission: Impossible, Forrest Gump, and more. Carell, a visionary, has created a "who's who" of today's Black entertainers featured in iconic cinematic scenes, renewing readers' Read More ...

Join Bel Canto Books as we celebrate the launch of AND OTHER MISTAKES by debut author Erika Turner with C.B. Lee (A CLASH OF STEEL).Bel Canto Books is honored to host the book launch of AND OTHER MISTAKES by debut author Erika Turner. Erika will be joined conversation by C.B. Lee, author of A CLASH OF STEEL.RSVP required; please select the ticket option that best fits your group. Attendees will be required to follow all current COVID-19 restrictions. This is an outdoor event in the garden at The Hangout (2122 E 4th Street, LB).ABOUT THE BOOKA teenage girl deals with insecurities, a stressful family life, tension with friends, and being on the cross-country team, in And Other Mistakes—a debut Young Adult coming-of-age novel by Erika Turner about accepting one’s selfABOUT THE AUTHORErika Turner is a writer, a poet, and the daughter of storytellers. Sometimes, she writes songs she may one day share. Once, in a Brooklyn community center, she read James Baldwin's quote "You can't tell the children there's no hope," and she carries those words from the city to the desert and beyond. She lives in California with her family and a dog who is suspicious of stationary street Read More ...

BET On BLACK: The Good News About Being Black in America Today with Actress, Media Personality and Author Eboni K WilliamsMalik Books Presents in partnership with PAFF 2023BET On BLACK: The Good News About Being Black in America Today. Discussion and Booksigning with Eboni K Williams Moderator: Devyn Bakewell - Author & Assistant Managing Editor Los Angeles Sentinel/Los Angeles Watts Times Wednesday February 15, 2023 at 7PMMalik Books - (Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall) 3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Ste 245 Los Angeles, Ca 90008. Event Format: Discussion, Q & A, and Booksigning Ticket: Includes Admission and one Book (BET On BLACK)BET On BLACK: The Good News About Being Black in America TodayJournalist, attorney, and star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York reshapes the cultural landscape of achievement by showing why Black unity is crucial to individual and collective success.Eboni K. Williams knew that an important part of her mission as a media personality would be to unabashedly place Blackness on a pedestal. Williams has long known that Blackness is a rich, expansive place that centers resilience, excellence, beauty, panache, and brilliance. But these notions of Blackness have long been distorted by American racism, where for generations Read More ...

A celebration of The Certain Body (Four Way Books, 2022) by Julia GuezIn the long limbo of post-viral syndrome, Julia Guez aptly frames the recursive paralysis of pandemic rhetoric, whose seeming transitions always arrive at the same uncertainty: “and then what / and then / what, what / then.” The Certain Body captures life with illness—how the body moves through disease and rests in the liminal space of otherness. Following the speaker through a harrowing and disorienting SARS-Cov-2 infection, readers witness the poet’s gradual refortification as Guez traverses all facets of sickness: its mercies, its pleasures, its gratitudes, its reliefs, its gorgeousnesses. Probing, sharp poems centering an awareness of human ephemerality answer the words of Viktor Shklovsky: “And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony.” In “If Indeed I Am Ill,” Guez writes, “These sonatas, these scores, tell me / what of them will last when everything falls away—” Through these lyric expressions, Guez shows us not just how art can heal but how healing is art, a modality of acceptance, the meaning in the process, a mosaic of imperfections that creates and embraces what Read More ...

An afternoon celebrating three years of the VCP SoCal Poets with an in-person reading. New and existing board members will be introduced.Join the VCP SoCal Poets for an afternoon of poetry readings by Laurel Ann Bogen, Michael C Ford, Rick Lupert, E Amato, Beth Ruscio, Robert Krut, and Ashaki Jackson. To celebrate the start of its 3rd year as a virtual poetry series, the VCP SoCal Poets will hold its first live reading of notable Los Angeles-based poets at Beyond Baroque. New and existing board members will be introduced as founding executive director, Jerry Garcia, steps down. About the organization VCP SoCal Poets is a non-profit organization committed to the cultivation and advancement of poetry in Southern California. Founded during the Covid-19 pandemic, its goal is to provide the camaraderie and spirit of the original Valley Contemporary Poets founded by Nan Hunt in 1980.This event is Free & In-Person at Beyond Baroque. Masks are required while inside our center.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, fellow attendees, or performers.If you Read More ...

Join Bel Canto Books as we celebrate the launch for BLACK CANDLE WOMEN with Diane Marie Brown + Ashley M. Coleman.Bel Canto Books is honored to host the book launch of BLACK CANDLE WOMEN with debut author Diane Marie Brown. Diane will be joined conversation by Ashley M. Coleman, author of GOOD MORNING, LOVE.RSVP required; please select the ticket option that best fits your group. Attendees will be required to follow all current COVID-19 restrictions. This is an outdoor event in the garden at The Hangout (2122 E 4th Street, LB).ABOUT THE BOOKPractical Magic meets The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and The Mothers in this warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women living under one roof and the family curse--any person they fall in love with dies--that stems back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’ French Quarter.ABOUT THE AUTHORDiane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC's Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Read More ...

Matthew Desmond with Michael Tubbs discussing his book, "Poverty, by America" Join us for an in-person* Live Talks Los Angeles event:  Thursday, March, 2022, 8pm  Matthew Desmond with Michael Tubbs  discussing his book, "Poverty, by America"    TICKETS: $46 General Admission ticket + signed copy of the book $20 General Admission ticket Additional books available for purchase at event Face masks recommended ASL interpreter provided upon request. Free parking at the venue The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. Poverty, by America is one of the most anticipated books of 2023: It’s the latest from best-seller Matthew Desmond, who won the Pulitzer in 2017 for Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City. Over the last few years, Desmond’s spent time with dozens of people who live in poverty, while doing a deep-dive into abundant data and research. Through this work, he's uncovered a story about how our society works to keep poor people poor, while rewarding its richhest citizens. How do we become poverty abolitionists and usher in a new age of shared prosperity? Come hear Desmond speak about Read More ...

A night of music and poetry featuring A.K. Toney, Rhys Langston, Tori Gesualdo, and music by The Cesar Hernandez QuintetBeyond Baroque presents an evening of diatonic feels in rhyming verse & auxiliary prose. Inspired by Rhys Langston’s first track in Grapefruit Radio (published by Black Market Poetry), this powerhouse line-up features three poets based in Los Angeles; multi-media artist Rhys Langston, drummer/spoken-word poet A.K. Toney & the magic of Tori Gesualdo. Enjoy the poetry followed by a stellar performance with The Cesar Hernandez Quintet! Doors open 7:30 p.m. Performances begin at 8:00 p.m. About the artists: A.K. Toney is a Griot, writer, and educator. He currently is a Literacy Coordinator, Artist teacher and owner of Reading Is Poetry. Although Toney has yet to publish a full volume of poetry, he is currently working on his first book and album chronicling his life as a poet in the Leimert Park Village area in Los Angeles, CA. As a Griot Toney has learned the art of storytelling while playing percussion instruments. He often deeply emerges himself into rhythms of African Oral Tradition and Jazz from a modern urban perspective. A.K. follows the role of the Griot singing and playing the message, loving, Read More ...

A reading with former & current Francisco Homes residentsJoin us for a reading with the writers of the Francisco Homes, a collection of transitional homes for formerly incarcerated communities. These writers come together on Thursday nights for writing workshops where they share stories, laughs, challenges, feedback, and life lessons. The pieces they share (and the writers who penned them) come out of various contexts. Some authors composed these pieces while incarcerated; other work has come from the time the group spends together each Thursday—particularly during their sacred twelve-minute free writes. Many of the authors' pieces can be found in the Francisco Homes anthology Free Writers: A Collection of Our Truths.Regardless of the writing's provenance or destination, these authors are united through their participation in the Francisco Homes Writing Workshop at some point between 2019 and 2023, and the collection of pieces chosen for this reading showcase the writers' experiences, ideas, and talents. The event will feature readings by current and former residents of The Francisco Homes: John Njoroge Charles Mebane Daryl Thompson
 Ronnie NodayRill AlexanderGilbert SalazarRonald PattersonJohn SanchezJessie Garciaand the participation of USC professors Ben Pack, Zen Dochterman, Emily Artiano, and Stephanie Bower. About the organization: The writers of The Read More ...