ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Gay, Straight and the Reason Why
06 Oct 2010
Contributed by Lukas
What causes a child to grow up gay or straight or bisexual? Neuroscientist LeVay summarizes where the quest for a biological explanation of sexual ori...
National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead
05 Oct 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a mind-boggling multi-media tour through the early days of an institution whose alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture: A...
The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam
01 Oct 2010
Contributed by Lukas
More than half of the worlds' 1.3 billion Muslims live along the tenth parallel, as do roughly sixty percent of the world's 2 billion Christians. Gri...
A World Without Islam?
29 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for an illuminating journey through history, geopolitics, and religion to investigate whether Islam is indeed the cause of some of today's mos...
Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership
24 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Hyde--MacArthur Fellow and author of the ground breaking study of art and commerce The Gift--offers a stirring defense of our cultural commons, that v...
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
23 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter chronicles a watershed event in American history-- the decades-long migration of African Americans from the South to...
My Hollywood
22 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The new novel by the celebrated author of Anywhere But Here tells the story of two women whose lives entwine and unfold behind the glittery surface of...
An Evening with Jonathan Franzen
17 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In Freedom, his first novel since The Corrections Franzen comically and tragically captures the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of mid...
Making Our Democray Work: A Judge's View
16 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Fascinating stories of key Supreme Court decisions, told from a unique perspective, illuminate this original and accessible theory of the United State...
Drugs, a Daughter, and Death: Mark Twain's Final Years
28 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Trombley, the preeminent Twain scholar at work today (and the president of Pitzer College), cracks open the enduring mystery of Mark Twain's final dec...
Reweaving the Social Fabric of Skid Row
23 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A panel discussion and conversation about a public art theater project that chronicles the emergence of a permanent community and culture in what has ...
Sing ALOUD
21 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Join us in a celebration and exploration of traditional American vocal music, drawn from several rich sources of community singing- from 19th century...
Hamlet's Blackberry
16 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
How do the technologies we use every day affect our state(s) of mind? One of the country's leading commentators on the information culture ponders the...
Performance/Anxiety
14 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Two L.A.-native novelists read and discuss fiction, theatre, magic spells, cats, MFAs, and some other stuff.
Truth in Fiction: Navigating History
09 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Two brilliant young writers-both daughters of the 1960s and '70s civil rights, black power and feminist political movements-read and discuss the inspi...
Newer Poets XV
01 Jul 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing six accomplished poets from the Los Angeles literary world in a lively showcase of poetic voices and styles.
Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
30 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits offers a sane and bracingly honest perspective on the challenges of motherhood.
The Black Body
24 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Black, white and biracial contributors to a brave and unprecedented anthology take on the challenge of interpreting the black body's dramatic role in ...
Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times
23 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A book and a documentary film chronicle how a family built a paper to greatness and how the confluence of a family feud and a cultural-economic catacl...
James Workman: Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought
18 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Workman, a skilled storyteller, uncovers the universal politics of water and draws wisdom from tragedy in the Kalahari desert-opening our eyes to the ...
John Ashbery's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
16 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A staged reading of John Ashbery's great, dense work-one of the defining poems of the 20th century. Six readers, accompanied by projected text and ima...
Timur and the Dime Museum
11 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Operatic Vaudeville with a Bohemian Attitude Blending a tenor's haunting vocals with cabaret-inspired reinventions of songs both old and new. Fea...
Advancing Urban Agriculture in Los Angeles
04 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
This panel of experts will present and analyze the urban agriculture programs emerging in Los Angeles, with a focus on key topics such as policies, ch...
That Old Cape Magic
03 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and Nobody's Fool offers a novel of deep introspection and great comedy-the story of a marriage and ...
WAR
27 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The author of A Perfect Storm turns his empathetic eye to a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanista...
Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective
26 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A deft and exhaustively researched account of a near-forgotten chapter of Newton's extraordinary life. Levenson, a documentary filmmaker and head of t...
Crossing the Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978
18 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Melding memoir and history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author fuses his early life in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt with an account of...
Tattoos on the Heart: Stories of Hope and Compassion
14 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Father Greg (affectionately known as G-dog), pastor of Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights since 1986, has made it his mission to help at-risk youth. His...
An evening with Isabel Allende
11 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In her new novel, Island Beneath the Sea, the master storyteller introduces yet another unforgettable woman-a slave and concubine determined to claim ...
Ilustrado
06 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Syjuco's daring debut novel opens with Crispin Salvador, lion of Philippine letters, dead in the Hudson River. Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary P...
How Memories Get Made
29 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The world-renowned neuroscientist Gary Lynch, subject of McDermott's new book, discusses his decades-long obsessive pursuit to uncover the mechanism b...
The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
28 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A work of brilliant and compassionate reporting, \"a must-read for everyone who cares about women, justice, fairness, the military, and the United Sta...
Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields
22 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Bowden, award-winning Tucson-based author and journalist reveals the story of the disintegration of Ciudad Juárez. Interweaving stories of the city&#...
Richard Wagner's Ring: Eros, Mythos, and Ethos--A Lecture by Maestro James Conlon
20 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Conlon, music director of LA Opera and one of the world's preeminent conductors, will discuss Wagner's monumental work, challenging preconceptions whi...
Ralph Angel, Carol Muske-Dukes, Cecilia Wolloch: poetry reading
14 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Imagination. Luminosity. Mystery and grief. Ghost landscapes. Joy and celebration. Join us for a reading by three award-winning California poets.
Poetry Reading
14 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Gale, editor, writer, teacher; Kearney, poet, performer, and librettist; and Shumaker, poet, author and teacher read from their work.
An Evening with Ian McEwan
13 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In his new novel Solar, the best-selling author of Atonement, explores the quest of one overweight and philandering Nobel prize-winning physicist to s...
Pearl of China: a novel
08 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A performative reading and talk, from the bestselling author of Red Azalea and Empress Orchid whose new novel- the powerful story of the friendship of...
Re-Writing the American Dream
06 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Sapphire's fiction, poems and essays have taken on the myths and assumptions of class, gender and race in America. Join us for a discussion of her wri...
The Writer in the World
02 Apr 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Two celebrated authors-one from Kenya, the other from Morocco-examine how writers take on the challenges posed by political and cultural conflict in o...
Three Approaches to Writing Biography
26 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Three new biographies-on Frank Oppenheimer, Frank Gehry, and Joseph Papp-offer completely different strategies for revealing complex and accomplished ...
How Many Billboards? Visual Rights to the City
25 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A panel of outdoor media professionals and legal experts focus on the city's recent debate surrounding LED billboards and illegal signage, raising the...
The Things They Carried
19 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
A reading and conversation honoring the 20th anniversary of one of America's most important novels, a book as vitally important for anyone interested ...
So Much For That
18 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
This enchanting novel by Shriver, author of the bestseller We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a witty and timely exploration of the failure of our health...
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
12 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Mlodinow - a physicist with the grace of a born storyteller - illuminates the improbable ways that chance and probability affect our daily lives.
From the Barrio to the 'Burbs: Crossing Borders & Finding Home in the New Los Angeles
11 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In his remarkable and ambitious new memoir, The Opposite Field, Katz tells a story of good love and failed love, of Los Angeles and Portland and Nicar...
The Union of their Dreams: Power, Hope and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement
05 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on a trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews to chronicle the rise of the United Farm Workers during the heady days of civil rights...
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
04 Mar 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Want to know Isaac Babel's secret influence on the making of \"King Kong\"? Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite autho...
Free Fall: Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
25 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz explains the current financial crisis-and the coming global economic order.
The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg
18 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Crease, a science historian and philosopher, takes us on a tour of ten of the most important victories in our long struggle to understand the world we...
A Windfall of Musicians: Hitler's Emigres and Exiles in Southern California
17 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Crawford, a musicologist, reveals the uniquely vibrant era when Southern California became a hub of unprecedented musical talent.
The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
12 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
What will America look like in 2050? Kotkin, a renowned social and economic trend analyst, argues that the key to America's economic recovery is its r...
Jesus Was a Liberal
09 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
McLennan, Dean for Religious Life at Stanford (and inspiration for Doonesbury's Rev. Scot Sloan) gives voice to millions of liberal Christians and bui...
Shush! Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin
04 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Draitser, Professor of Russian at Hunter College (CUNY), resurrects-with great humor-the world of his Jewish childhood in the Soviet Union.
Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger's
03 Feb 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Page, now a Pulitzer-winning music critic, offers a riveting portrayal of what it is like to live in a psychological world that few understand.
The Swan Thieves: A Novel
29 Jan 2010
Contributed by Lukas
In her new novel The Swan Thieves, the author of the bestseller The Historian offers a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to p...
An Evening with T.C. Boyle
27 Jan 2010
Contributed by Lukas
The settings for Boyle's bold new stories range from a California suburb terrorizedby a mountain lion, to Napoleonic France where a feral child is cap...
The Value of Nothing: Markets and Democracy in a Time of Crisis
21 Jan 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Patel (author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System) asks us to reconsider how democracy might be the route by which we ...
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
15 Jan 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Gawande, a bestselling author and surgeon, takes us on an intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremend...
Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals
13 Jan 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Grandin offers remarkable insights into animal behavior from her unique position at the intersection of autism and science. In her new book, she aims ...
Based on Rumors and Secrets: The World of Palestine, New Mexico
15 Dec 2009
Contributed by Lukas
The new play by L.A.'s premiere Chicano performance group, Culture Clash, molds an intensely personal story into galvanizing theatricality. Join u...
POPS: A Life of Louis Armstrong
09 Dec 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous biographers,?The Wall Street Journal's drama critic and arts columnist paints a gr...
An Evening with Twyla Tharp
08 Dec 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In this audience-collaborative talk, one of America's greatest choreographers shares what she's learned from working with some of the most gifted peop...
Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy
04 Dec 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Griffin inquires into the \"interior life of democracy\" and the divide between theory and practice, continuing the unique \"social autobiography\" sh...
The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
02 Dec 2009
Contributed by Lukas
From the author of Flags of our Fathers and Flyboys, a startling new look at the events that set the stage for WWII.
Lit: A Memoir
18 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
A new memoir by the author of The Liar's Club, about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write b...
Everything You Wanted to Know about Polish Theater (But Were Afraid to Ask)
17 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a fascinating discussion on the Polish theater tradition and what makes Polish theater so vital today.
Poetry Reading and Panel Discussion
13 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Three distinctive voices in contemporary American poetry read their work and engage in an informal group discussion on their craft.
Sonata Mulattica
10 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In a lyric narrative inspired by history and imagination, the former U.S. Poet Laureate re-creates the life of a biracial nineteenth-century virtuoso ...
An Evening with Orhan Pamuk
06 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In announcing the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy said of Orhan Pamuk: his \"quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, Is...
An Evening with Orhan Pamuk Part II
06 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In announcing the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy said of Orhan Pamuk: his \"quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, Is...
TIME
05 Nov 2009
Contributed by Lukas
From jet-lag to aging to cryogenic freezing, acclaimed scholar, historian, and memoirist Hoffman offers a broad, eye-opening look beyond the clock.
Bicoastal Binge: Dining Through the Years in LA and NY
30 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
West coast vs. east coast culinary histories collide as two of the nation's best restaurant critics trade stories about the art of eating-- past and p...
The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights
29 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Khan--the first woman, first Asian, and first Muslim to serve as the Secretary General of Amnesty International--sheds a much needed light on the righ...
Chronic City
28 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In this new novel, the acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn portrays a Manhattan that is beautiful and tawdry, tragic and forgiving, devastating an...
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
23 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Gail Collins, brilliant New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years.
The Holocaust by Bullets
21 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Desbois, a French Catholic priest, has devoted his life to confronting anti-Semitism and furthering Catholic-Jewish understanding. Since 2001 he and h...
Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgetting
15 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the inspiring tale of Deogratias (Deo), a young medical student from the mountai...
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
14 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
A shy manifesto and an impractical handbook by one of America's finest writers.
Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud
10 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In this intimate exploration, one of America's most gifted and provocative public intellectuals peels back the layers of a remarkable life.
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
08 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
A renowned professor of computer science recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell in a historical graphic novel that explicates ...
An Evening with Garrison Keillor
06 Oct 2009
Contributed by Lukas
The host and writer of \"A Prairie Home Companion\" knows how to spin a yarn. Join us for an evening of inspired storytelling, as Keillor converts the...
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
25 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Sandel--whose Justice course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard-- hallenges us to think our way through the hard moral challenges w...
No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes about Himself and our Way of Life in the Process
24 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
No toilet paper! No plastic containers! No new clothes! No eating out! Beavan discusses-and screens film clips about-- his family's yearlong experimen...
The Boat
17 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In his first book, Le writes stunningly inventive stories that take us from the slums of Columbia to the streets of Tehran; from a tiny fishing villag...
The Anthologist
16 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In re-imagining the lives and loves of history's great poets, Baker creates a seductive meditation on poetry and artistic expression.
A Gate at the Stairs
11 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
In her long-awaited new novel, set after the events of September 2001, Moore brings us up against the heart of racism, the shock of war, and the carel...
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
10 Sep 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Can the social connectedness that arises in the aftermath of a disaster-whether natural or manmade-lead us to a new vision of society?
Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future
06 Aug 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Why, when many of the problems of the twenty-first century require scientific solutions, are Americans paying less and less attention to scientists? H...
Why Design Matters
05 Aug 2009
Contributed by Lukas
How do notions of social responsibility and sustainability, in terms of design, impact the response to the growing density of Los Angeles and beyond? ...
Visions in the Desert: Searching for Home in the West
31 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
An evening of stories and songs by Rubén Martinez, with Joe Garcia and featuring John Schayer and Ruben Gonzalez High end art colonies materiali...
Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
24 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Urban and rural collide in this wry, inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm.
The Contemporary City: Urbanism in Flux
22 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
What alternative avenues for urbanism can be developed as existing models have been undermined by the current economic crisis? How will issues of pla...
Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California
17 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
An award-winning journalist chronicles the life of her great-great grandfather, a brilliant gold-rush era entrepreneur and financier, who rose from st...
Erased
16 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Abandonment, life, death (and, oddly, Cleveland) are explored in the hilarious second installment of Jim Krusoe's trilogy of novels about resurrection...
Riverbig: A Novel
10 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
\"Crimes litter the floor of California's great Central Valley like fallen plums . . . Old ties of blood, friendship, and memory are harshly tested . ...
A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age
09 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Tabloid crimes, the Roaring 20's, and the onset of the Depression form the backdrop of Rayner's captivating tale of how the City of Angels lost its so...
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
01 Jul 2009
Contributed by Lukas
A New Yorker reporter's definitive account of how decisions made behind closed doors in Washington spiraled out around the world, often with unintende...
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
25 Jun 2009
Contributed by Lukas
Ansary, native of Afghanistan and astute cultural interpreter, tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world sees it, from the time of Mo...
The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics
24 Jun 2009
Contributed by Lukas
One of the world's best-known cognitive scientists explains why understanding language is critical in politics and why Reason is not as reasonable as ...