ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

AI and Inequality: How Machines Keep Us Poor, Sick, and Discriminated Against

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This third program in our AI series focused on the critical issue of inherent biases in AI technologies, especially as they are deployed in law enforc...

AI in the Spotlight: Revolutionizing Creativity and Industry in the Arts

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From generating new forms of artistic expression to transforming industry practices, artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of creativit...

Wandering Stars

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tommy Orange, the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There, returns to ALOUD with one of TIME Magazine’s most antic...

Mind and Machine: Understanding AI’s Impact on Youth Mental Health

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for the first of a special ALOUD series on AI, where we take a compelling look into the interaction between young people and AI systems, explo...

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Leslie Jamison has become one of our most beloved contemporary voices, a scribe of the real, the true, and the complex. The New York Times best-sellin...

Alphabetical Diaries

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The award-winning, beloved author of Pure Colour, Sheila Heti returns to ALOUD with her new thrilling confessional Alphabetical Diaries. Over ten year...

The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for a conversation with one of our country’s most prominent rabbis, Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR, discussing her new book,&nbsp...

Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, Cristina Rivera Garza traveled from her home in Texas to Mexico City in search of an old unresolved criminal file. "My name is Cristina River...

To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ALOUD welcomes two-time Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize–winner Tracy K. Smith with her remarkable book To Free the Captives: A...

Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Renowned art conservator Rosa Lowinger reveals in her beautiful memoir Dwell Time a journey of her difficult childhood in Miami growing up among peopl...

An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning journalist Santi Elijah Holley brings us a long overdue look at the Shakur family, who, for over fifty years, have inspired generations ...

First Gen: A Memoir

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From former White House aide to President Obama and Harvard graduate Alejandra Campoverdi comes a riveting, unflinching memoir on navigating social mo...

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her bestselling books, celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein documents the effects of branding, austerity, and climate profiteeri...

The Rabbit Hutch

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join Tess Gunty to discuss her debut novel The Rabbit Hutch, the winner of this year’s National Book Award. In her darkly funny and remarkable novel...

Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” Héctor Tobar

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"'Stories about empire,' Tobar writes, 'move us because they're echoes of the memories that reside deep in our collective consciousness.' Latinos, aft...

Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“This surprising look at the nature of primates has a lot to say about what it means to be human.”―Publishers Weekly Renowned primatologist a...

Writer/Scholar/Target: Online Harassment and the Threat to Free Expression

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, writers and journalists have been increasingly targeted for their work by waves of online harassment. From the missives of QAnon, to...

Surviving Homelessness & Foster Care

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David Ambroz, best-selling author of A Place Called Home, shares his story of survival on the streets of New York City and later through violence in f...

The Power of Trees—Exclusive L.A. Appearance!

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, The Hidden Life of Trees began the conversation that trees can communicate with each other. Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book changed the ...

Tiny Beautiful Things From the Page to the Screen

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling author Cheryl Strayed takes the ALOUD stage to discuss the transformation of her popular book, Tiny Beautiful Things, to the television sc...

Sea of Tranquility

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning and bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel comes to the ALOUD stage to discuss her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility, with National Boo...

Dust Child

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join international bestselling author and poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai in conversation with a host of The Vietnamese podcast Kenneth Nguyen to discuss...

Finding the Words

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I wrote this book in the hopes of making grief less frightening, mysterious, and lonely for those of us who suddenly find ourselves on this difficult...

A Guest at the Feast

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrated Irish writer Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn, The Master) returns with a new book of scintillating essays, A Guest at the Feast. This collection bl...

How P-22 United Our City: Love Letters to LA’s Favorite Cat

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This program features personal stories by various individuals who made a connection with P-22 and understand the immediate need for wildlife protectio...

The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Performance artist, comedian, activist, and local elected official Kristina Wong began sewing masks three days into the COVID-19 shutdown and spreadin...

An Evening With George Saunders

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Called the "best short-story writer in English," (Time) George Saunders is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and ...

Something in Common

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy and renowned author and social scientist Dr. Robert D. Putnam join ALOUD for a wide-ranging conversation abou...

Creators in Residence Showcase

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This event marks the culmination of the inaugural Los Angeles Public Library Creators in Residence, highlighting new original work by photographer Kwa...

An Evening with Cody Keenan

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Cody Keenan, President Obama’s chief speechwriter, and Jon Favreau, co-host of Pod Save America and founder of Crooked Media, to discuss Keenan...

Dramatizing the Black Experience

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the pandemic, the George Floyd protests, and the country’s ongoing efforts to reconcile its racist past and address ongoing racial in...

Una noche con Yesika Salgado / An Evening With Yesika Salgado

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

La emergente superestrella literaria y activista de la positividad corporal se está ganando al mundo por su forma poco convencional de interpretar el...

Tracy Flick Can’t Win: A Novel

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Fans of best-selling author Tom Perrotta’s Election will remember the signature character Tracy Flick—Reese Witherspoon’s character from the...

Cult Classic: A Novel

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Described as “Hilariously insightful and delightfully suspenseful,” Cult Classic, by acclaimed author Sloane Crosley, takes the reader on a journe...

Let the Record Show: A Conversation With Sarah Schulman

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In conjunction with the orchestra’s performance of John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, a memorial to those he lost to AIDS at the height of the epid...

The Candy House: A Novel

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From the daring Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Jennifer Egan, this program will enter the world of The Candy House, her "sibling novel" to A...

How The Handmaid’s Tale Changed the Conversation About Women

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was adopted for television by creator Bruce Miller, the conversation about women in society has shifte...

Evoke LA

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join MacArthur Fellow and USC Annenberg Professor Josh Kun with the series historians—the Autry associate curator Tyree Boyd-Pates, Pitzer professor...

Secret Identity: A Novel

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The bestselling and award-winning writer Alex Segura, the author of five Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery novels and the acclaimed Archie Meets Kiss story...

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with a guide for our times, arming readers with a resistance reading list, i...

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times shares an u...

ALOUD Cooks

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Food connects us to our past, to our family, our communities and to each other. As we reflect on the past year, we see how food has brought us strengt...

The Sentence

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In her stunning and timely new novel, Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woma...

The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and writer Jelani Cobb will present a collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America, from stories of endu...

Freeman’s: Change

29 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A celebration of the latest installment of John Freeman’s acclaimed literary journal, featuring some of today’s top writers on the hope and pain o...

The Book of Form and Emptiness

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist and filmmaker Ruth Ozeki will discuss her brilliantly inventive new novel about loss, growing up, and the resiliency of our relationships...

Better not Bitter, Living in Pursuit of Racial Justice

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and activist Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five, will join ALOUD with his memoir Better, Not Bitter, whose story of resili...

Ian Manuel on the Power of Poetry

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To kick off our fall season and our theme of resilience, author Ian Manuel will return to ALOUD to discuss the power of poetry. ALOUD on Resilience...

Notes From the Bathroom Line: Humor, Art, and Low-grade Panic from 150 of the Funniest Women in Comedy 

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this "much-needed dose of delight," Amy Solomon, a producer of the hit HBO shows Silicon Valley and Barry, shares from her new collection of ...

Erosion: Essays of Undoing

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Each of us finds our identity within the communities we call home," writes Terry Tempest Williams in Erosion, a galvanizing new collection of essays ...

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest

23 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the world's leading forest ecologists shares from her first book to bring us deeper into her intimate world of trees. In Finding the Mother Tre...

We Run the Tides: A Novel

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The award-winning author Vendela Vida’s latest work, We Run the Tides, is a suspenseful and poignant story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mys...

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Library Foundation welcomes the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat for a conversation about his latest masterful work. D...

The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last half-century, the American short has changed dramatically. In a new anthology, the best and most representative contemporary authors are...

My Time Will Come: A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“Ian is magic. His story is difficult and heartbreaking, but he takes us places we need to go to understand why we must do better,” writes Bryan S...

The Committed

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a highly anticipated sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen returns with an exhilarating spy thriller that ...

Ongoing Challenges of Disability Discrimination in Law, Politics and Society

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As our fractured country moves forward after a year of social unrest and political division—how can we work towards inclusion, equity, and real chan...

Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In her forties, with two children, a spouse, a dog, a mortgage, and a full-time job as a tenured law professor at Georgetown University, Rosa Brooks d...

We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a final call to action from a dearly missed champion of democracy, Elijah Cummings’ new posthumously published memoir offers an inspiring lesson ...

Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity

04 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The first step towards change, writes journalist and activist Paola Ramos, is for us to recognize who we are. In an empowering new work of reportage, ...

Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters

29 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As part of Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles joins the nationwide celebration of 250 years ...

This Is Not My Memoir

07 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“Adventure. Compassion. Hatred. Money. Friendship. Marriage. Theatre. Failure. Beauty. Revelation. Cinema. Success. Death. Creation. And re-creation...

Collaboration & Innovation: Mixografia’s Revolutionary Printmaking

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the first program of a new two-part series on Collaboration & Innovation, ALOUD is excited to explore the rich history of one of L.A.’s forem...

Just Us: An American Conversation

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do we talk about race in America? Two of our country's most award-winning poets and unflinching voices on racism will join ALOUD for their first p...

Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As ALOUD examines the delicate balancing act of power and value in a special series this fall, we’ll consider how technology tips the scales to rede...

Media and Our Present Moment

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The media is a powerful voice driving our perception of the world. But over the last decade, the political divisions across America have threatened th...

The Cost of Inequality

04 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Income inequality in the U.S. is the highest of all the G7 nations, and the wealth gap between America’s richest and poorer families more than doubl...

Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place

21 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“What do we talk about when we talk about Los Angeles today?” asks D.J. Waldie. A writer whose work has been called a “gorgeous distillation of ...

Dreams, Genes, & Machines: Are We Living Science Fiction?

31 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In ALOUD’s first live program, we’ll explore the science of virtual learning. As schools around the country prepare for an online fall semester, h...

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof returned to his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon, the portrait of life in rural America was grim. ...

Gish Jen

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"I think this book could really save the world," said Ann Patchett of Gish Jen’s new dystopian novel The Resisters. This extraordinary story imagine...

NBF Presents: Untold Stories

13 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

2019 National Book Award Finalist Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Sabrina & Corina: Stories) will discuss her work and why the preservation, perpetuatio...

Diane Ravitch

10 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Education is an issue that hits home to every American. One of the foremost authorities on education and the history of education in the United States...

Carl Zimmer

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Quantum mechanics is the most important idea in physics, and physicists themselves readily admit that they don’t understand it. Genetics is another ...

American Oligarchs

31 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Andrea Bernstein, the award-winning journalist, and host of the WNYC/ProPublica podcast Trump, Inc., offers a sweeping new exposé into the multigener...

Dreams, Genes, & Machines: Are We Living Science Fiction? Artificial Intelligence

22 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What if search-and-rescue robots could sense survivors through dense smoke? What if surgical robots could perform impossible surgeries by seeing detai...

Ta-Nehisi Coates

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a special evening celebrating National Book Award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ first book of fiction, he’ll be joined by Ryan Coogler, revo...

Dreams, Genes, & Machines: Are We Living Science Fiction? Gene Editing

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The leaps and advances of science and technology to revolutionize human DNA have sparked fierce public debate about what the future of gene editing ho...

Michael Pollan

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Michael Pollan offers a mind-bending investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place aroun...

Anand Giridharadas

07 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In an impassioned call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike, former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas shines a light on the shad...

Rachel Cusk

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Cusk is an international literary superstar. Her most recent trilogy–Outline, Transit, and Kudos–draws its hero, Faye, through a collage of...

Ottessa Moshfegh

13 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On the heels of one of last year’s boldest, most celebrated novels, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, join us to hear from Ottessa Moshfegh for a cele...

We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As the Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon spends his time taking action on behalf of journalists who are targeted,...

Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018

12 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What might Marilyn Monroe, Cesar Chavez, Susan Sontag, and Albert Einstein have to say about Los Angeles? Their diary entries, along with those of oth...

Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border

14 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling author Reyna Grande’s newest memoir, A Dream Called Home , offers an inspiring account of one woman’s quest to find her place in Ameri...

Of Love & War

02 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur-winning photojournalist and New York Times bestselling author Lynsey Addario has captured audiences with her highly c...

The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity

26 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Who do you think you are? What do you think you are? These questions of gender, religion, race, nationality, class, culture, and all our polarizing, c...

The Library Book

17 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for a special program on the 25th anniversary of the reopening of the Los Angeles Central Library that brings home the inspiring story of how ...

How to Cover the World: The Promise and Peril of Journalism in the Digital Age

12 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Technology has made possible new forms of transnational investigative journalism and fueled the rise of new digital media organizations in the US and ...

History of Violence: A Novel

11 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

"Édouard Louis uses literature as a weapon," says a recent New York Times profile of the internationally bestselling French author. Louis, whose high...

There, There: A Novel

21 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tommy Orange’s There There is an extraordinary portrait of America like we’ve never seen before. Orange, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Ar...

The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation

18 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Miriam Pawel, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of the definitive biography, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, continues to chronicle the...

From Prison to President: The Letters of Nelson Mandela

25 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, comes a new portrait of one of the most inspiring historical figures of the twentieth century. Arrested ...

Bruce Lee and the Afro-Asian Culture Connection

18 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1970’s Bruce Lee captivated African American audiences with his stylish and philosophical kung fu movies. Lee was a rarity—a non-white lead...

What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

12 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The dramatic story of the Flint water crisis is one of the signature environmental disasters of our time—and at the heart of this tragedy is an insp...

Heart Berries: A Memoir

29 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The New York Times bestselling memoir Heart Berries is the powerful, poetic meditation of a woman’s coming-of-age on the Seabird Island Indian Reser...

The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism

20 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

For most of the twentieth century, politics and sports were as separate as church and state. Today, with the transformation of a fueled American patri...

Planet of the Blind: A Poet’s Journey

25 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From the author of several collections of poetry and memoirs, including the New York Times "Notable Book of the Year" Planet of the Blind, Stephen Kuu...

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

25 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Between his tenure as the director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017 under the appointment of President Obama, to his roles as the U.S Attorney for the Sou...

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: How Capitalism Works – and How it Fails

18 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Greece’s former finance minister, international bestselling author, and an activist working for the revival of democracy in Europe, Yanis Varoufakis...