Wednesday 4/27: Percival Everett, Brynn Saito, and Maxine Hong Kingston celebrate the release of Saito’s new collection of poetry (Power Made Us Swoon) from Red Wing Press. Talk about star power! Free, 7 p.m., City Lights Bookstore.
The Literary Speakeasy presents Martinis and Poetry, hosted by James J. Siegel, featuring Amy Berkowitz, Robin Ekiss, Nazelah Jamison, Nick Johnson, and Richard Loranger. Free, 7 p.m., Martuni’s.
Thursday 4/28: Boadiba and Neeli Cherkovski are the readers tonight when Jack Hirschman hosts Thursdays at Readers. Free, 6:30 p.m., Readers Bookstore at Fort Mason.
Poet Jason Schneiderman (American Poetry Review and The Best American Poetry) reads from his new collection, Primary Source. Free, 7 p.m., Books, Inc. in the Castro.
Friday 4/29: Celebrate Haiku in North Beach with Lean Frog and Mother Hen’s Productions at a release party for Haiku Revisited: Volume 2 featuring Wes “Scoop” Nisker, MC Louis Cuneo, Bob Booker, Tobey Kaplan, Jeanne Lupton, Clive Matson, Florence Miller, and Amos White, plus sax and guitar accompaniment by Lucho and Toko Wu. Free, 7 p.m., The Beat Museum.
Rag Zine, after publishing for two years, presents its first public event: a launch party for issue #5. Readers include figures of the flourishing East Bay scene: Isobel O’Hare, Paul Corman Roberts, Stacia Biltekoff, Laura Close, Fred Dodsworth, Darius Sohei, Freeman Ng, and Rj Equality Ingram. Free, 7 p.m., Octopus Literary Salon.
Saturday 4/30: Today is National Independent Bookstore Day. Visit your favorites! Many bookstores will be having special events, readings, and parties. This is an important event for your favorite booksellers, sometimes referred to as “Christmas in May.”
Lacuna, an art installation + free library of 50,000 books for the Bay Area Book Festival, is hosting an Indie Book(store) Day Reading / Sorting / Potluck Party. Featuring readers such as Paul Corman-Roberts, Amos White, Abe Becker, Noor Al-Samarrai, and singer/songwriter Hassan El-Tayyab. Free, 380 Carlson Blvd, Richmond, CA 94804 from 11–6 p.m. (reading 2-3 p.m., music 3-3:30 p.m.).
Jesse Prado (I’ve Been on Tumblr), Alexandra Naughton (American Lady), and Lake Lady (Better Day) are celebrating the release of new books, along with guests Fasayo Adeyeye, Amy Berkowitz, and Geri Young-Whee. Free, 5 p.m., Alley Cat Books.
Sunday 5/1: Poetry Flash presents father and son poets, Willis Barnstone (Mexico in My Heart: New and Selected Poems) and Tony Barnstone (Pulp Sonnets). Free, 3 p.m., Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland.
Alan Black and Frances Stroh inaugurate a new reading series, Stranger Than Fiction, featuring Tom Barbash (The Last Good Chance), Rachel Howard (The Lost Night), Julia Scheeres (Jesus Land), Maury Zeff, Frances Stroh (Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss), and Alan Black (Made in Glasgow). Free, 3 p.m., Edinburgh Castle Pub.
Monday 5/2: Sarah Fran Wisby is the featured presenter at the open-to-the-public class at SF State, Writers On Writing. Free, 7 p.m., Humanities Building, SF State.
Quiet Lightning strikes tonight, curated by Christine No and Bel Pablador. Fourteen writers are featured in Quiet Lightning’s distinctive mix-tape format. Discounted beers provided by Lagunitas. Free, 7 p.m., 41 Ross.
Tuesday 5/3: Ali Eteraz (Native Believer) reads along with journalist and short story writer Vanessa Hua (NY Times, SF Chronicle, the Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, etc.). Free, 7 p.m., City Lights Bookstore.
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This week’s theatre recommendation is a spectacularly good production of Hamlet by Shotgun Players in Berkeley. Director Mark Jackson effectively cut the play to the bone (it still runs for two-and-a-half exciting hours), then he cast an ensemble of seven seasoned actors, each of whom learns every part. In performance, it’s “Hamlet Roulette” as the actors pull their assigned roles for the night from Yorick’s skull. The result is much more than a gimmick: the ensemble is amazing, the direction is straightforward yet subtle and sophisticated. Critics have called it “mind bending,” and “awe-inspiring.” Very highly recommended! Read a review 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, E S O Martin. Read an interview here.
And here’s some older video of one of last week’s SF notables, Siamak Vossoughi.
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If you have a Bay Area event listing you’d like us to consider for Notable SF, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible, and include the date of the event in the subject line.
