Wednesday 1/6: Pandemonium Press (1st Wednesdays in the Loft at Spice Monkey) presents “Oakland Noir” with East Bay literary stalwarts Sharon Coleman, Cassandra Dallett, Fred Dodsworth, and Roy Mash, followed by an open mic. Free, 6:45 p.m., Spice Monkey.
Paul Corman-Roberts, Oakland’s leading literary impresario, presents the 20th edition of Passages On The Lake, featuring James Cagney, Doug Cordell, Allie Marini, Sandra Wassilie, Jon Sindell, and musical guest Karlyn DeSteno. Free, 7:30 p.m., The Terrace Room.
Thursday 1/7: Thursdays at Readers presents Palestinian-American poet Lorene Zazou-Zouzounis. and poet/activist/historian/woodworker John Curl. Zarou-Zouzounis has published her poems in eight anthologies, including Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. Former poet laureate of San Francisco, Jack Hirschman, called Curl’s book of poems, Revolutionary Alchemy, a major work, and Curl himself “among the foremost revolutionary American poets since the end of WW2.” Free, 6:30 p.m., Readers Bookstore.
Saturday 1/9: Heyday Books hosts a launch party for Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, edited by Kurt Schweigman and Lucille Lang Day with an introduction by James Luna, and featuring the work of thirty-one poets from twenty-nine tribes.
There will be readings from contributors and short remarks from the editors. Free, 5 p.m., Heyday Books.
Sunday 1/10: The SF Jazz Center presents a jazz + poetry event with Eric Harland’s Voyager and Ishmael Reed. $25-45, 7:30 p.m., SFJAZZ Center, Miner Auditorium.
Monday 1/11: Books, Inc. in the Castro kicks off Perfectly Queer: LGBT Readings, a new monthly series with themed readings. This month’s theme is “New Year, New Books” and features Lori Ostlund (After The Parade), Andrew Demcak (A Little Bit Langston) and Natasha Dennerstein (Anatomize). Free, 7 p.m., Books, Inc. In The Castro.
Tuesday 1/12: Barbara Jane Reyes (To Love as Aswang: Songs, Fragments, Found Objects) and Kathleen Weaver (Too Much Happens: Poetry) read from their new works in North Beach. Free, 7 p.m., City Lights.
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This week’s theatre recommendation is Avenue Q at New Conservatory Theatre Company. The beloved NCTC has been in operation since 1981, with a focus on using theatre to help build the LGBTC community. This very popular production of Avenue Q is being revived for the third successive year. To read a review, click here. For further information, click here.
For more extensive coverage of the Bay Area theatre scene, visit TheatreStorm.
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Evan Karp presents video of this week’s featured local author, Kelly Egan. Read an interview here.
And, finally, recent video of SF Notable, Grace Marie Grafton:
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If you have a Bay Area event listing you’d like us to consider, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible, and include the date of the event in the subject line.
