Wednesday 9/7: UC Berkeley’s Holloway Reading Series presents its annual faculty reading, featuring C.S. Giscombe, Robert Hass, Lyn Hejinian, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, John Shoptaw, and Mary Szybist. A major event. Free, 6:30 p.m., Hearst Field Annex, Room D37, UC Berkeley.
Thursday 9/8: Yes, the academic year is underway! UC Berkeley’s Morrison library presents a monthly prose reading series, Story Hour in the Library. You don’t have to grow out of it! This month’s reader is NoViolet Bulawayo (We Need New Names). Free, 5 p.m., Morrison Library, UC Berkeley.
The Booksmith presents John Jodzio (celebrating the release of Knockout). Jodzio will be joined by local writers Kate Folk, Dave Madden, and Kara Vernor. Hosted by Evan Karp, in his new role as event coordinator for The Booksmith. Free, 7:30 p.m., The Booksmith.
Friday 9/9: Multiple award-winning Indian novelist Anuradha Roy reads from her newest novel, Sleeping on Jupiter. Free, 7 p.m., Book Passage, Corte Madera.
Commune Editions presents David Lau, Wendy Trevino, Cheena Marie Lo, and Jasper Bernes. Free, 7:30 p.m., Studio One.
Saturday 9/10: Babylon Salon presents a great lineup for its fall reading: Ramona Ausubel, J. Ryan Stradal, Tess Taylor, Frances Stroh, and John Jodzio. This should be quite a night. Free, 6 p.m. The Armory Club.
Diane Di Prima and others will celebrate the release of a tribute album for AIDS activist/poet Ronnie Burk (who died in 2003) from Unrequited Records—Ronnie Burk: A Man of Letters. Besides Ms. DiPrima, expected participants include Lorna Dee Cervantes, Inés Hernández-Ávila, Elaine Katzenberger, Monica Sanchez, Mia Kirsi Stageberg, and Todd Swindell. Free, 7 p.m., Alley Cat Books.
Sunday 9/11: Chana Bloch, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Mills College (Swimming in the Rain: New and Collected Poems, 1985-2015) and Susan Cohen (A Different Wakeful Animal). Free, 2 p.m., Bird & Beckett Books.
Poetry Flash presents Susanne Dyckman (A Dark Ordinary) and Elizabeth Robinson (On Ghosts). Free, 3 p.m., Diesel, A Bookstore.
Monday 9/12: Perfectly Queer presents “Two Generations.” Edmund Zagorin ( The Face of our Town) is a “millennial techie” and novelist Daniel Curzon (How To Cyberbully Your Teacher) is a retired professor of creative writing. Mr. Curzon is also the author of the 1971 gay classic, Something You Do in the Dark. Free, 7 p.m., Dog Eared Books, Castro.
Tuesday 9/13: Mauro Javier Cardenas (The Revolutionaries Try Again) in discussion with Oscar Villalon, plus a performance by the Word for Word Performing Arts Company. Free, 7:30 p.m., Green Apple Books on the Park.
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This week’s theatre recommendation is Othello, presented by Marin Shakespeare Company. This very good production is in the news due to the unusual back story of the actor playing Othello, who recently served twenty-three years in jail, convicted of child abuse. Today, Dameion Brown acknowledges his guilt, but insists that at the time “he didn’t know better.” While in prison, Dameion Brown was cast as MacDuff in a prison production of Macbeth, directed by Marin Shakespeare’s Lesley Currier. Currier has been doing Shakespeare workshops in California prisons, but this is the first time that a former inmate student has been cast in a public production by Marin Shakespeare Company. Prior to taking on the role of Othello in this professional production, his prison performance as MacDuff was Brown’s only acting experience. Is he up to the mark? We’d say he is brilliantly successful, and the production, over all, is of high quality. Read about Dameion Brown’s personal journey here. Read a review of Othello (with a link for ticket information) here. And, by the way, his adult children proudly attended on opening night.
For 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, Evan Kennedy. Read an interview here.
And here’s some video of one of last week’s SF notables, Bonnie Kwong.
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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.
