ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

Call Me Burroughs

04 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

William Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, author of Naked Lunch, and influence to scores of artists, writers, and musi...

The Days of Anna Madrigal

31 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The Days of Anna Madrigal, the suspenseful, comic, and touching ninth (and final) novel in Armistead Maupin’s bestselling Tales of the City series, ...

Orfeo: A Novel

29 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This new work by the MacArthur Award-winning novelist begins when composer Peter Els opens the door to find the police on his doorstep. His home micro...

Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music

24 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Hailed as one of the most inspiring women of our time, musician and activist Angélique Kidjo shares the story of her world in the memoir, Spirit Risi...

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

22 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

This first sweeping history of Parks' life challenges perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. Theoharis offers a compe...

A Tribute to Wanda Coleman

19 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

A Tribute to Wanda Coleman with Terrance Hayes and Douglas Kearney. Music by David Ornette Cherry and featuring Stephen Kessler, Ron Koertge, Laurel A...

Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography

15 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In a series of meditative essays, the award-winning writer Richard Rodriguez turns his perceptive gaze to the desert—in both the physical and spirit...

Queens of Noise - Music, Feminism and Punk: Then and Now

10 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

McDonnell’s Queens of Noise: The Real Story of The Runaways is a testimonial to the inspiration and insecurity of the trailblazer, a look at the Los...

The Un-Private Collection: Artist as Activist

12 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

World-renowned visual artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat’s provocative yet poetic work addresses issues of social repression among women, in her nat...

An Evening With Anjelica Huston

10 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Capa photographed her as a toddler; she chatted with Brando and Steinbeck in her living room. Academy Award-winning actress/director Anjelica H...

Michael Connelly

06 Dec 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In Connelly’s newest courtroom drama, lawyer Mickey Haller defends a murder case in which the murder victim was his very own former client, a prosti...

The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter

22 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

As an activist lawyer and leading member of the African National Congress, Albie Sachs lost his right arm and the sight in one eye when his car was bo...

L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food

14 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Roy Choi, border-crossing chef and co-founder of the Kogi BBQ taco truck, pays homage to the city that he loves in this memoir, a tale of his journey ...

Making History Graphic

13 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Hailed as the creator of war reportage comics, Joe Sacco uses darkly funny short-form comics to recount conflicts, including his latest book The Great...

The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation

08 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when formerly estranged peoples look at their entwined history together? After attending a Zen Peacemaker retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau i...

The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons

06 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In her new collection of selected stories, Taraghi—one of Iran’s best-known and most critically acclaimed authors—draws on her childhood experie...

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

23 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges ...

Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

16 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Weisman offers a long-awaited follow-up to The World Without Us, his brilliant thought experiment that considered how the Earth could heal if relieved...

Tell, Not Show: The Pleasure of Not Writing for the Movies

11 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Seven years after the publication of the extraordinary novel After This, the National Book Award-winning author returns with Someone, a transformative...

Moby Dick: How Scientists Came to Love the Whale

04 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

How was our understanding of whales transformed from grotesque monsters, useful only as wallowing kegs of fat, to playful friends of humanity and bell...

MaddAddam: A Novel

03 Oct 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In Atwood’s dark and hilarious new novel, a man-made plague has swept the earth, but only a small group survives. In a world only Atwood could imagi...

Remixing Moby Dick: Media Studies Meets the Great White Whale

27 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Over a multi-year collaboration, playwright and director Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, Melville scholar Wyn Kelley, and media expert Henry Jenkins have develop...

Body Politics: Art, Identity and Memory

25 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning Los Angeles-based visual artist Alison Saar explores her own artistic practice and that of the Luba people of Central Africa with Africa...

For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action and the Law

20 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Kennedy—a Harvard Law professor, former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and author of the New York Times best-seller Nigger: The S...

Wilson: An Intimate Portrait

17 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg clears away myths and misconceptions in this penetrating portrait of one of America’s most influenti...

The Un-Private Collection: A New Museum for Los Angeles

13 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Los Angeles is a city of renowned private collections that have become public museums: The Getty, the Hammer, the Norton Simon, The Huntington, and so...

The Blank Page: Literature, Hip-Hop and Freedom

11 Sep 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In MK Asante’s new memoir Buck, the award-winning writer, filmmaker, poet and professor scripts his rise from Philadelphia dealer and delinquent to ...

Never Built: Los Angeles

31 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

What might our city look like if the master plans of prominent architects had been brought to fruition? This panel—including architects, an architec...

Catastrophe in California: A Reappraisal of the St. Francis Dam Collapse

24 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In March of 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles—designed by William Mulholland as a reservoir for the California Aqueduct—collapsed. Th...

Songs in the Key of Los Angeles

19 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The recently published Songs in the Key of Los Angeles showcases the rich sheet music collection of the Los Angeles Public Library, and is the fruit o...

Yet Do I Marvel: Black Iconic Poets of the 20th Century

12 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In this Los Angeles segment of the Poetry Society of America’s 2013 national series, three distinguished poets will celebrate the lives and poetry o...

El Planeta—From Plankton to Afghanistan: A Poetry Reading

21 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In his newest book, Senegal Taxi, California’s Poet Laureate—and teacher and activist—turns his gaze to Africa. For this special evening, Herrer...

A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris

19 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

On the morning of November 7, 1938, a seventeen-year-old Jewish refugee, Herschel Grynszpan, walked into the German embassy in Paris and assassinated ...

Magical Partnerships: Remembering Samuel Beckett

12 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a rain-soaked Beckett knocks on your door with a new manuscript. What was it like to collaborate with, publish, and know the genius? Seaver (w...

Americanah: A Novel

07 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

The award-winning author of Half a Yellow Sun delivers a powerful new story of love and culture clash between two Nigerian friends across several deca...

Red Doc>

31 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Fifteen years ago, in Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson, critically acclaimed poet, essayist, translator and classics professor, wrote about a boy nam...

Why Does the World Exist?

30 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Holt, an irreverent detective of metaphysics and science, dives deep into conversation with Caltech cosmologist Sean Carroll, to try and answer the mo...

Bodies, Women, The World

24 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and the new memoir In the Body of the World, discusses the female body and the world’s re...

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum

23 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin brings her singular perspective to the thrilling journey through the revolution in...

The Graphic Canon: Illustrating the World's Great Literature

22 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Basking in the golden age of the graphic novel, a group of talented visual artists teamed up to adapt the greatest literature of all time. The Graphic...

The Making of the Great Bolaño: The Man and the Myth

17 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Panel discussion with author Ben Ehrenreich; Barbara Epler, president, New Directions; author Mónica Maristain; and poet-translator David Shook. Mode...

Granta's Best Young British Novelists

24 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, Granta devoted an entire issue to new fiction by 20 of the "Best of Young British Novelists" and did so again ten years later. From Martin Am...

The Bonobo and the Atheist

18 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Esteemed primatologist de Waal discusses his pioneering research on primate behavior, the latest findings in evolutionary biology, and insights from m...

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

11 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

At age twenty-six, in the wake of a divorce and her mother’s death, Cheryl Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific...

Caroline Kennedy and Eloise Klein Healy

10 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Caroline Kennedy, editor of eight New York Times bestselling books on American history, politics, law, and poetry, discusses her new anthology, Poetry...

The Book of My Lives: A Memoir

05 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Hemon returns to his childhood roots in Sarajevo, a small blissful city where he used to write bad poetry, play soccer, and listen to American music. ...

From the Ground Up: Sustainable Coffee Culture

22 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

More valuable than gold, more ubiquitous than water, what is really brewing behind the $100 billion global coffee industry? Local coffee connoisseurs ...

A Photograph Brought to Life: A Novelist Reimagines Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother"

20 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Many generations have been moved by Dorothea Lange’s iconic image of "Migrant Mother," photographed during the Great Depression. In her decades-span...

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel

15 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Borrowing the ambitious structure of a self-help guide, Hamid, a radically inventive storyteller and author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, tells the...

The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places

13 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Krause, a musician and naturalist and one of the world’s leading experts in natural sound, explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural...

Nathan Englander

06 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Considered one of the masters of the short story form, Nathan Englander offers fiction that is both edgy and timeless. His new collection, the title o...

Citizenville: Connecting People and Government in the Digital Age

27 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Is it possible for Americans to better their future by reinventing their relationship with government? Newsom, lieutenant governor of California and S...

The Feminine Mystique: Where Are We 50 Years Later?

22 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Betty Friedan's groundbreaking book is now 50 years old, and the global struggle for gender equality is-according to many-the paramount moral struggle...

A Guide to Living on our Radioactive Planet

12 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Gale, one of the world's leading experts on radiation, together with writer Eric Lax, draw on the most up-to-date research and on Gale's extensive exp...

Writing and the Art of Not Knowing

07 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

"We work in the dark," said Henry James. "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task." Two completely original, and often hilarious writers...

Shooting Reflections: Film and Social Change

30 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

From acting in award-winning films such as Before Night Falls, Frida, and Milk, to directing a forthcoming feature on Cesar Chavez, Luna's passion for...

The Reenactments

25 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to see your life reenacted as film? Could you imagine watching Robert De Niro play your father, Julianne Moore your mother? Describi...

Mid-Century Modern: Architecture, Photography, and the Good Life in Cold War California

18 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for a conversation about the hugely influential photographer Maynard L. Parker, who aimed his lens at the mid-century masterworks of the L.A. ...

Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti

16 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Veteran journalist Wilentz, a passionate longtime observer of Haiti, reports on the uncanny resilience of the confounding country that emerged from th...

The Dude and The Zen Master

11 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In their new book, Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges and world-renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman offer an intimate glimpse into the conversations between ...

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

11 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

It is these three prayers- asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating the goodness in our lives, and feeling awe at the world around us- ...

An Evening with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey

30 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Meditations on captivity, knowledge and inheritance permeate Trethewey’s poems, as she reflects on her own interracial, complicated—and ut...

Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World

20 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

With excursions into culture and public policy, a theoretical physicist named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” e...

In Search of a Form: Two Writers Talk About the Essay

09 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Mendelsohn, who has devoted his career to nonfiction—memoir, translation and criticism—discusses his latest collection of essays, (Waiting...

Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West

08 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Martínez, an award-winning author and performer, takes us on a deeply personal tour of the 21st century West—far from our romantic illusions of...

Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America

31 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of 9/11 and the growth of a worrying animosity towards American Muslims, Patel—author, activist, and presidential advisor—argu...

An Evening With Tom Wolfe

30 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Master American chronicler Tom Wolfe, author of more than a dozen books—including, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Electri...

Taking the Kitchen to the Street: Experiments in Flavor and Form

18 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The culinary experience has turned into an experiment through the hands of Chef Ludo’s guerilla style pop-up restaurant LudoBites and Chef Roy&r...

A Woman Like Me

11 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

From stardom at Motown at age sixteen, to obscurity and near destitution, to an amazing career revival in her sixties when she sang at President Obama...

The Future of African American Literature and the Paradox of Progress

10 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Locke, whose new novel The Cutting Season is set at a Louisiana plantation re-purposed for weddings and Civil War reenactments, joins Edwards (Charism...

Journey Through The Ruins of Empire

02 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

From the intellectuals who remade China, Turkey and Iran, to East-West encounters in Benares to the footprints of the Buddha in the small towns of Ind...

Playing the Future: How Games Are Changing the Way We Live

28 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Play is an inherent part of life. How are games revolutionizing the way we educate our children, think about the future, and engage with each other? G...

Freedom, Literature, and Living on the Run

25 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Rushdie, recipient of the 2012 Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award, honoring his commitment to public libraries and literature, discusses Joseph...

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

19 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine a world where kids got gold stars for grit and curiosity. Paul Tough introduces us to a new generation of scientists and educators who are rad...

What Light Can Do: Writing as Attention

15 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Hass, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate, is also a luminous essayist. In this talk and discussion with poet Carol Muske-Duke...

Newer Poets XVII: A Reading

25 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The seventeenth annual newer poets program is guest curated by three acclaimed poets: Eloise Klein Healy, Arktoi Press; Suzanne Lummis, Los Angeles Po...

Flavor Forward: A Taste of Downtown L.A.

18 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

How are downtown chefs curating our cultural palate? New culinary projects are stirring up a neighborhood renaissance as the city’s best chefs a...

Crazy Brave: A Memoir

11 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

In her new memoir, Harjo, an internationally known performer and writer of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation, explores her own journey to becoming an award-win...

The Kid: A Novel

10 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Precious, the unforgettable heroine of her novel Push. This genera...

Artists and Survivors: Lost and Found in L.A.

29 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The struggles of an artist’s life are re-examined through a modern urban lens by these two critically acclaimed novelists. In Spiotta’s St...

Radio Ambulante: Stories from the Americas

27 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Lost City Radio novelist Daniel Alarcón and team joins us for a special live presentation of Radio Ambulante - the first ever Spanish-language radio ...

A New Deal for Los Angeles

22 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

In less than a decade, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agencies radically transformed Los Angeles as they did other American cities in a s...

Exit: The Endings That Set Us Free

20 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

As a culture, we are often focused on beginnings— the start of things instead of the endings. Acclaimed sociologist and MacArthur prize-winning ...

Tales from the City of Angels: An Evening of Storytelling

14 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Part One: Tales of DesperationM.C.'d by Richard Montoya of Culture ClashJoin in this first-ever edition of live storytelling at ALOUD as six local...

As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda

13 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The popular columnist for the New York Times declares that the proud state of big oil and bigger ambitions matters most in America’s political l...

The Elemental West: Reflections on Moving Water

07 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Two celebrated writers deeply influenced by the riparian and other landscapes of the American West will read from their work and explore how storytell...

An Evening With Novelist Richard Ford

01 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

The Washington Post calls Richard Ford, "One of the finest curators of the great American living museum." In his haunting new novel, Canada, the Pulit...

The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times

25 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

From hired mourners who will scatter your loved one's ashes, to nameologists (who help you name your child)-the sociologist and acclaimed author o...

The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking

23 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

How have unreasonable principles —from negotiating to risk-taking, from investing to hiring— helped billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad i...

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

16 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

If the conscious mind is the only part of the brain we are aware of, then what in the world else is happening up there? Renowned neuroscientist (and n...

Autobiography and the Graphic Novel

11 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Bechdel follows her best-selling graphic memoir, Fun Home, with a second tale of filial sleuthing-this time about her mother: voracious reader, music ...

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice

10 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Upon her mother's passing, Williams inherited three shelves of journals. Not only was it a shock that her mother kept journals, but it was also a ...

Poetics of Protest: Giving Voice to Mexico's Movement for Peace

27 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Javier Sicilia, Mexican poet-turned-activist and leader of Mexico's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, is turning personal horror into hope ...

God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse

25 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Slavoj Zizek, renowned Slovenian critical theorist, dissects and reconstructs three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, showing ho...

Seriously, Just Go To Sleep

20 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Smart, comical, and sensible, this children's book-follow-up to the widely successful Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, offers kids the oppor...

Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup

18 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Smith takes us on a trip-mind-blowing and humorous-deep into the international underground where super-high-grade marijuana is developed, produced, so...

Concrete Rivers: The Emotional Topography of LA

13 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Two celebrated poets read from their most recent work and discuss how Los Angeles has influenced their writing, how some influences overlap and others...

The Anatomy of Harpo Marx

11 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Using film clips and text in a detailed play-by-play of Harpo Marx's physical movements, Koestenbaum celebrates the astonishing range of Harpo's body-...

Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India

06 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Lelyveld, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, offers an intricate portrait of Gandhi's conflicted mission. After shaping his philosophy of nonviolent r...

Imagine: How Creativity Works

04 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

From the best-selling author of How We Decide comes a revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Why did Elizabethan England experience a creat...