Wednesday 7/29: If you have the time to get in line early, you can meet former President Jimmy Carter at Books Inc., Opera Plaza, where he’ll be signing copies of his new memoir, A Full Life: Reflections at 90. Free, 4:30 p.m., Books Inc., Opera Plaza.
Curator Paul Corman Roberts‘s popular Oakland series, Passages On The Lake, features Joel Landmine, Luke Warm Water, Carla Christensen, Sean Taylor, and musical guest Lake Lady. Free (donation requested), 7 p.m., The Terrace Room.
All Points But The Center: A Feminist Reading Series features Daphne Gottleib, Olga Zilberbourg, Ariel Gore, and Sandra Wassilie. There will be a free mini-workshop before the reading, open to everyone. Free, 7 p.m., E. M. Wolfman.
Thursday, 7/30: The Bay area literary community has certainly not forgotten Richard Brautigan. Allison Green has written a memoir of a road trip she took tracing the route of Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America. Intrigued? Tonight, Green will read from the memoir, Ghosts Who Travel With Me: A Literary Pilgrimage Through Brautigan’s America . Free, 7 p.m., Modern Times Bookstore Collective.
Friday 7/31: If you can afford to spring for a ticket, you might want to attend McSweeney’s Festive Occasion: This Party Will Not Be Gray. Many literary lights will be in attendance, and the party will benefit McSweeney’s transition to a non-profit organization. It’ll be good fun and good company. Why not? $40, 7 p.m., Green Apple Books on the Park.
Nomadic Press presents Kira Lynne Allen and Melinda Noack, with music by Sol. Free (donations kindly requested), 7 p.m., Nomadic Press.
Saturday 8/1: MAPP (the Mission Arts Performance Project) goes down in the Mission district on the first Saturday of every other month. Tonight’s the night! The MAPP encompasses spoken word, music, performance, gallery shows, circus acts—you name it! Locations are spread throughout a multi-block area of the Mission and range from coffee shops to galleries to performance spaces to private homes and garages. It’s for fun and for free! If you have yet to make this scene, give yourself a treat. Free, 6 p.m.–10 p.m., Red Poppy Art House (and multiple other venues).
Monday 8/3: The great Bird & Beckett Book Store presents POETS!, featuring Casey Newbegin and Jenna Littlejohn, followed by an open mic. Free, 7 p.m., Bird & Beckett.
Tuesday 8/4: SOMArts Cultural Center presents The News: To Thy Clown Self Be True, described as “a monthly cabaret that spotlights new, queer work by Bay Area artists: 10-minute or less performance pieces, experiments, and works-in-progress by pre-selected solo artists, groups, or troupes.” Free (pass-the-hat donations), 7:30 p.m., SomArts.
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This week’s theatrical recommendation is California Shakespeare Theater’s wonderful production of Pedro Calderón’s masterpiece, Life Is A Dream, from the Golden Age of Spanish Theatre. During the renaissance, both Spain and England boasted great public theatres focused on large themes of philosophy, religion, politics, and history. Shakespeare fans unfamiliar with the Spanish Golden Age will be delighted to see familiar Elizabethan themes presented in foreign dress, recognizable but strangely different at the same time. Theatre lovers familiar with Calderón will appreciate Nilo Cruz’s fine new translation/adaptation, an excellent cast of actors, and skillful direction by Magic Theatre’s renowned artistic director Loretta Greco. Read a review here. For further information, click here.
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This week’s featured local author is Jacob Kahn. Click here to read an interview.
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