Nathaniel Mackey in conversation with Fred Moten, celebrating the launch of his new poetry collection, "Double Trio," published by New Directions. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete.

You can purchase copies of "Double Trio" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/staff-picks/double-trio-tej-bet-sos-notice-nerv/

Nathaniel Mackey was born in Miami, Florida, in 1947. He is the author of several books of fiction of "exquisite rhythmic lyricism" (Bookforum), poetry, and criticism and has received many awards for his work, including the National Book Award in poetry for Splay Anthem, the Stephen Henderson Award from the African American Literature and Culture Society, the Bollingen Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Mackey is the Reynolds Price Professor of English at Duke University.

Fred Moten is an American cultural theorist, poet, and scholar whose work explores critical studies, black studies, and performance studies. Moten is Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at University of California, Riverside and the University of Iowa. His scholarly texts include "The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study" which was co-authored with Stefano Harney, "In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition," and "The Universal Machine" (Duke University Press, 2018). He has published numerous poetry collections, including The Little Edges, The Feel Trio, B Jenkins, and Hughson's Tavern. In 2020, Moten was awarded a for "[c]reating new conceptual spaces to accommodate emerging forms of Black aesthetics, cultural production, and social life."

This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Nathaniel Mackey with Fred Moten

An appreciation of Jack Kerouac’s unique contribution to American literature with talks by Ann Charters, Jean-Christophe Cloutier, Ann Douglas, Tim Hunt, Joyce Johnson, Hassan Melehy, and Regina Weinreich, with readings by Tony Torn, and a birthday greeting by David Amram. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis.

On Thursday, March 10, 2022, City Lights, at the birthplace of the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat movement, celebrated Jack Kerouac’s centenary, with an illuminating exploration of his writing. Moving beyond the hype and fetishization of his personality, some of the country's leading Kerouac scholars take a deep dive into his work. Learn about books you haven’t yet read, his innovations in prose, the influence of his Franco-American background and how he discovered his unique voice.

City Light features one of the largest selection of Jack Kerouac books in the world. Check out our stock at this link: https://citylights.com/author/jack-kerouac/

This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation/

Still Outside: Jack Kerouac at 100

D. S. Marriott in conversation with Frank B. Wilderson III, celebrating the publication of D. S. Marriott’s "Before Whiteness: City Lights Spotlight No. 21," published by City Lights Books. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and was hosted by Peter Maravelis with an opening statement by Garrett Caples.

You can purchase "Before Whiteness: City Lights Spotlight No. 21" directly from City Lights at a 30% discount here: https://citylights.com/general-poetry/before-whiteness/

Poet and scholar D.S. Marriott was born in Nottingham and educated at the University of Sussex, UK. He is the author of the poetry collections "Incognegro"(Salt, 2006), "Hoodoo Voodoo" (Shearsman, 2008), "The Bloods" (Shearsman, 2011), and "Duppies" (Commune Editions, 2019). His chapbooks include "In Neuter" (Equipage, 2012) and "Lative" (Equipage, 1992). His work is sometimes associated with the Cambridge school of poetry. In his critical and creative work, Marriott, of Jamaican heritage, draws on postcolonial thought and thinkers such as Frantz Fanon and is a leading theorist of Afro-pessimism. His critical books include "On Black Men" (Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press, 2000), "Haunted Life" (Rutgers University Press, 2007), and "Whither Fanon? Studies in the Blackness of Being" (Stanford University Press, 2018). He has taught at many universities and is currently based in Oakland, CA.

Frank B. Wilderson III is a writer, dramatist, filmmaker and critic. He is a full professor of drama and African American studies at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of "Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of US Antagonisms" (Duke University Press, 2010), "Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile & Apartheid" (South End Press, 2008), "Gramsci’s black marx: Whither the slave in civil society?" (Social Identities 9.2 , 2003) and "Afropessimism" (Liveright, 2020). He has received numerous honors for his work including The Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement of the Highest Order, The Maya Angelou Award for Best Fiction Portraying the Black Experience in America, an American book Award, amongst others. Wilderson has been described as one of the first writers in the tradition of Afro-pessimism.

This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

D. S. Marriott in Conversation with Frank B. Wilderson III

City Lights presents Eileen Myles, joined by Fanny Howe, Maggie Nelson, Camille Roy, Laurie Weeks, Simone White, Frank Wilderson, and Jillian Weise, celebrating the publication of "Pathetic Literature," edited by Eileen Myles and published by Grove Atlantic. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis.

You can purchase copies of "Pathetic Literature" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/pathetic-lit/

“Literature is pathetic.” So claims Eileen Myles in their bold and bracing introduction to "Pathetic Literature," an exuberant collection of pieces ranging from poetry to drama to prose to something in between, all of which explore those so-called “pathetic” or sensitive feelings around which lives are built and revolutions are incited.

From confrontations with suffering, embarrassment, and disquiet, to the comforts and consolations of finding one’s familiar double in a poem, "Pathetic Literature" is a swarming taxonomy of ways to think differently and live pathetically on a polarized and fearful planet.

To learn more about Eileen Myles and the other participants, visit: https://citylights.com/events/eileen-myles/

This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Eileen Myles and Friends

LIVE! From City Lights welcomes poet, critic, theorist and McArthur fellow Fred Moten in celebration of his latest poetry collection, “perennial fashion presence falling.” 

In conversation with award-winning poet Douglas Kearney, Moten shares some pieces from his book, which hold an innate quantum curiosity about the infinitude of the present and the ways in which one could observe the history of the future. Moten approaches the sublime, relishing the intermediary space of microtonal thought.  

Fred Moten works in the Departments of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University. He is concerned with social movement ,aesthetic experiment and black study and has written a number of books of poetry and criticism, including National Book Award finalist “The Feel Trio.” Moten is a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

You can purchase copies of “perennial fashion presence falling” directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/266548/

This was a virtual event hosted by Douglas Kearney and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.

Fred Moten in conversation with Douglas Kearney

LIVE! From City Lights celebrates author Robert Greenfield and his latest publication “True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times.” 

Much like Greenfield’s previous biographies, “True West” delves deeply into the life of world-famous playwright and actor Sam Shepard, whose work was matched by his equally dramatic life and relationships. Greenfield interviewed dozens of people who knew Shepard well, and makes the case for Shepard as not just a great American writer but a unique figure who first brought the sensibility of rock ‘n’ roll to theater. 

Robert Greenfield is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and the author of “Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out.” He lives in California. 

You can purchase copies of “True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times” directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/true-west-sam-shepards-life-work/

This was a virtual event hosted by Peter Maravelis, in conjunction with Crown Books, and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.

Robert Greenfield discussing the life and work of Sam Shepard

LIVE! From City Lights celebrates author Mircea Cărtărescu and his latest publication, “Solenoid.” 

Grounded in the reality of late 1970s/early 1980s Communist Romania, Solenoid ruminates on the exchange possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present. 

Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist. He has published more than twenty-five books. His work has received the Formentor Prize (2018), the Thomas Mann Prize (2018), the Austrian State Prize for Literature (2015), and the Vilenica Prize (2011), among many others. His work has been translated in twenty-three languages. His novels include “Blinding” (published by Archipelago Books,) “Nostalgia” (published by New Directions) and “Solenoid” (published by Deep Vellum.)

You can purchase copies of “Solenoid” directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/solenoid-tr-sean-cotter/

This was a virtual event hosted by Peter Maravelis, in conjunction with Deep Vellum and the Romanian Cultural Institute, and made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation.

Mircea Cărtărescu in conversation with Mauro Javier Cardenas

City Lights LIVE celebrates the publication of Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems by Joyce Mansour (Translator: Emilie  Moorhouse), published by City Lights Books.

Join us as we dive into the works of iconic Surrealist poet, Joyce Mansour, who emerged from Paris in the 1950s. Mansour is best known for her unfiltered poetry and her participation in the post World War II circle of Surrealist poets.

“Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems” by Joyce Mansour is a bilingual anthology of her striking works. In this episode, Emilie Moorhouse, translator and author of the book's introduction, discusses Mansour's unwavering voice with Garrett Caples, American poet and City Lights editor. Mansour, through her work, expresses her frustration with a patriarchal society that views women as objects rather than multidimensional individuals. Mansour's poetry is as necessary as ever.

You can purchase copies of "Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/emerald-wounds-sel-poems/.

Joyce Mansour Tribute and Book Launch

City Lights LIVE presents Brandon Shimoda and Emily Luan reading from their books,“Hydra Medusa” and “In 回 / Return,” published by Nightboat Books.

“Hydra Medusa” by Brandon Simoda takes us through the poet's day-to-day life as he works five jobs and raises his child. His collection of poems and essays touches on the realities of living on the US-Mexico border. Shimoda documents the realities and oftentimes horrors of living in the desert as he encounters his own past and ancestry as a Japanese American individual. Brandon Shimoda is a poet and author of eight books of poetry and prose. He teaches at Colorado College. 

“In 回 / Return” by Emily Luan is rooted in the classical tradition of the Chinese “reversible” poem. "In 回 / Return” is engaged in the act of looking back—toward an imagined homeland and a childhood of suburban longing, through migratory passages, departures, and etymologies, and into the various holes and voids that appear in the telling and retelling of history. Emily Luan is a former Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. 

You can purchase copies of "Hydra Medusa” and “In 回 / Return” at https://citylights.com/.

Brandon Shimoda with Emily Luan

City Lights LIVE and Duke University Press celebrate the publication of “The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront” by Cisco Bradley, published by Duke University Press. 

In “The Williamsburg Avant-Garde” Cisco Bradley documents the rise and fall of the underground music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and the early 2010s. Drawing on interviews, archival collections, musical recordings, videos, photos, and other ephemera, Bradley explores the scene’s social, cultural, and economic dynamics. Bradley not only documents some of the most vital music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; he helps readers better understand the formation, vibrancy, and life span of experimental music and art scenes everywhere. 

Cisco Bradley is Associate Professor of History at the Pratt Institute and author of “Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker,” also published by Duke University Press. 

Lee Ranaldo is a Grammy nominated musician, composer, visual artist, writer, and producer. He is a founding member of Sonic Youth and continues to work on numerous solo projects. His artwork and videos have been on view in galleries and museums across the globe. He is the author of the books “Some Writings on Music and Musicians,” “Against Refusing,” and “How Not To Get Played On The Radio." He makes his home in New York State. 

You can purchase copies of “The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront” at https://citylights.com/williamsburg-avant-garde-experimental/ 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

Cisco Bradley in Conversation With Lee Ranaldo

City Lights LIVE and The New Press celebrate the publication of “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine” by Norman Solomon, published by The New Press. Solomon is joined in conversation with Kris Welch. 

“War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine” exposes the dynamics between media and politics and how the American Military conceals perpetual war. More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign policy: a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public. "War Made Invisible" is an eloquent moral call for counting the true costs of war. 

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include “War Made Easy,” “Made Love,” “Got War,” and "War Made Invisible" (The New Press). He lives in the San Francisco area. 

Kris Welch is a producer/host at KPFA-FM radio in Berkeley, California. 

You can purchase copies of “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine” at https://citylights.com/muckraking/war-made-visible/.

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Norman Solomon in Conversation with Kris Welch

City Lights LIVE in conjunction with Princeton University Press presents Joanna Moorhead in conversation with Wendi Norris celebrating the newly published book “Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington” from Princeton University Press. 

An illustrated biography of the pioneering British artist and writer, Leonara Carrington, tracing her life and work through the many places around the world where she lived. 

The British-born artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) is one of the vanguards in the history of women artists and the history of Surrealism. The interests of this visionary—feminism, ecology, the arcane and the mystical, the interconnectedness of everything—are now shared by many. Challenging the conventions of her time, Carrington abandoned family, society, and England to embrace new experiences and forge a unique artistic style in Europe and the Americas. In this evocative illustrated biography, writer and journalist Joanna Moorhead traces her cousin’s footsteps, exploring the artist’s life, loves, friendships, and work. 

Joanna Moorhead is a British journalist and author whose critically acclaimed memoir, “The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington,” chronicles her relationship with Carrington, her cousin. Moorhead writes for the Guardian, the Observer, the Times (London), and many other publications. 

Wendi Norris is the founder and head of Gallery Wendi Norris, a leading international art gallery based in San Francisco. She champions critically acclaimed modern and contemporary artists and artists’ estates, including several associated with the Surrealist movement. Gallery Wendi Norris fosters their artists’ legacies by placing their work in museum exhibitions, building dynamic institutional and private collections, participating in top-tier biennials and art fairs, and educating the public. Since establishing the gallery in 2002, Wendi Norris has curated over 150 solo and thematic exhibitions. 

You can purchase copies of  “Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington” at https://citylights.com/surreal-spaces/  

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

Joanna Moorhead

City Lights LIVE presents John Szwed in conversation with Raymond Foye celebrating the publication of “Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith,” published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 

“Cosmic Scholar" follows the life and legacy of Harry Smith, the brilliant eccentric who transformed twentieth century art and culture. He was an anthropologist, filmmaker, painter, folklorist, mystic, and walking encyclopedia. He taught Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe about the occult, swapped drugs with Timothy Leary, sat at the piano with Thelonious Monk, lived with (and tortured) Allen Ginsberg, argued film with Susan Sontag, and received one of the first Guggenheim grants. He was always broke, always intoxicated, compulsively irascible, and unimpeachably authentic. Harry Smith was, in the words of Robert Frank, “the only person I met in my life that transcended everything.” 

In “Cosmic Scholar”, John Szwed patches together, for the first time, the life of one of the twentieth century’s most overlooked cultural figures. 

John Szwed is the author or editor of many books, including biographies of Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, and Alan Lomax. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 2005 was awarded a Grammy for “Doctor Jazz”, a book included with the album Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax. A former Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, and Film Studies for 26 years at Yale University, he was also a Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University, and served as the Chair of the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Philadelphia with his family. 

Raymond Foye is a writer, curator, editor and publisher. From 1978-80 he worked as a literary editor with City Lights Books where he edited “The Unknown Poe” (1980). He also edited two issues (Nos 29 & 30) of Beatitude magazine. His show The Heavenly Tree Grows Downward (James Cohan Gallery, New York) was the first exhibition to feature the artworks of Harry Smith, and was named one of the ten best exhibitions of 2002 by the New York Times (Holland Cotter). He is also currently preparing an edition of “Cosmologies: The Naropa Lectures of Harry Smith”, to be published in October 2023. 

You can purchase copies of “Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith” at https://citylights.com/cosmic-scholar-life-times-harry-smit/  

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

John Szwed discussing the life and work of Harry Smith

City Lights LIVE presents investigative journalist Justine Barron, in conversation with Rabia Chaudry, Alex Vitale, Kim Brown and Sierria Warren, to celebrate the release of "They Killed Freddie Gray: The Anatomy of a Police Brutality Cover-Up Hardcover," published by Arcade Books. 

"They Killed Freddie Gray" exposes a conspiracy among Baltimore leaders to cover up what actually happened to Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody in April 2015. A viral video showed an officer leaning on Gray’s back while he cried out in pain. But the autopsy concluded he was fatally injured later that morning while the van was in motion—during a multi-stop “rough ride”—from sudden impact to his head. None of the officers were convicted of any crimes based on this theory.

"They Killed Freddie Gray" solves the mystery of Gray’s death by uncovering new evidence of how he was killed by police and how his cause of death was covered up. This book includes a detailed map with annotations by the author, photographs, and a foreword by Rabia Chaudry. 

Justine Barron is an investigative journalist whose work focuses on crime, corruption, and media criticism, with a special emphasis on Baltimore. She is also an acclaimed storyteller and four-time winner of the Moth storytelling competition. In 2017, she co-investigated and co-hosted Undisclosed: The Killing of Freddie Gray. Justine grew up in Maryland and attended Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English. She holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Duke University. She now lives in Miami, Florida. 

Kim Brown has been covering national and international politics for over 10 years and has been a sought-after voice on issues on race and culture. She is the host of the Real News show Stir Crazy.

Rabia Chaudry is an attorney, advocate, and author of the New York Times bestselling "Adnan’s Story" and the critically acclaimed "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family". Rabia received her Juris Doctorate from the George Mason School of Law. 

Alex S. Vitale is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. He is also the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The Appeal, USA Today, Vice News, and other media outlets. 

Sierria Warren is a mother, activist, podcaster, and comedian. She witnessed the police van’s stop at Mount and Baker streets during Freddie Gray’s fatal encounter with Baltimore City police. 

You can purchase copies of “They Killed Freddie Gray: The Anatomy of a Police Brutality Cover-Up Hardcover” at https://citylights.com/they-killed-freddie-gray/  

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

Justine Barron And Friends

City Lights LIVE celebrates the publication of “The Unsettled” by Ayana Mathis, published by Alfred A Knopf, with a discussion between Ayana and Angela Flournoy.

From the best-selling author of “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie,” a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama. This is a story about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival.

From the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter in Philadelphia in 1985, Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter’s squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there.

A brilliant, explosive, vitally important new work from one of America’s most fiercely talented storytellers.

Ayana Mathis' first novel, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” was a New York Times bestseller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. and has been translated into sixteen languages. Her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Guernica and Rolling Stone. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. She was born in Philadelphia, and currently lives in New York City, where she teaches writing in Hunter College’s MFA Program.

Angela Flournoy is the author of “The Turner House,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel won the VCU Cabell First Novel Prize and was also a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an NAACP Image Award. She is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, and her nonfiction has appeared in many publications, including The Nation, The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.

You can purchase copies of “The Unsettled” at https://citylights.com/unsettled-2/.

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Ayana Mathis in conversation with Angela Flournoy

City Lights LIVE and Litquake celebrate the final issue of John Freeman’s distinguished journal “Freeman’s: Conclusions,” published by Grove Atlantic, with John Freeman, joined by Jaime Cortez, Elaine Castillo, and Oscar Villaon.

Over the course of ten years, “Freeman’s" has introduced the English-speaking world to countless writers of international import and acclaim, from Olga Tokarczuk to Valeria Luiselli, while also spotlighting brilliant writers working in English, from Tommy Orange to Tess Gunty. Now, in its last issue, this unique literary project ponders all the ways of reaching a fitting conclusion.

For Sayaka Murata, keeping up with the comings and goings of fashion and its changing emotional landscapes can mean being left behind, and in her poem “Amenorrhea,” Julia Alvarez experiences the end of the line as menopause takes hold. Yet sometimes an end is merely a beginning, as Barry Lopez meditates while walking through the snowy Oregonian landscapes. While Chinelo Okparanta’s story “Fatu” confronts the end of a relationship under the specter of new life, other writers look towards aging as an opportunity for rebirth, such as Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, who takes on the role of being her own elder, comforting herself in the ways that her grandmother used to. Finally, in his comic story “Everyone at Dinner Has a Max von Sydow Story,” Dave Eggers suggests that sometimes stories don’t have neat or clean endings—that sometimes the middle is enough.

John Freeman is the founder of the literary annual “Freeman’s” and the author and editor of ten books, including “Dictionary of the Undoing,” “The Park,” “Tales of Two Planets,” “The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story,” and, with Tracy K. Smith, “There’s a Revolution Outside,” “My Love”. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Orion, and been translated into over twenty languages. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York City, where he teaches writing at NYU and is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf.

Jaime Cortez is a writer and visual artist based in Watsonville, California. His fiction, essays, and drawings have appeared in diverse publications that include “Kindergarde: Experimental Writing For Children,” “No Straight Lines,” a 40-year compendium of LGBT comics, “Street Art San Francisco,” and “Infinite Cities,” an experimental atlas of San Francisco. He wrote and illustrated the graphic novel “Sexile” for AIDS Project Los Angeles in 2003. “Gordo” is Jaime’s debut collection of short stories, and was published by Grove Atlantic to national acclaim in 2021. Jaime received his BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MFA from UC Berkeley. 

Elaine Castillo, named one of “30 of the planet’s most exciting young people” by the Financial Times, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut novel “America Is Not the Heart” was named one of the best books of 2018 and has been nominated for the Elle Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, the Aspen Words Prize, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Book Award, and the California Book Award.  Her essay collection “How To Read Now” was published to wide acclaim in July 2022, and was chosen as the September pick for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club, among others. Her latest longform essay on grief, dog rescue and the politics of dog training is forthcoming this fall from Scribd. She is currently working on her second novel, to be published in late 2024/early 2025.

Oscar Villalon is the editor of “ZYZZYVA." His work has been published in The Believer, Freeman’s, VQR, Stranger’s Guide, Alta, and many other publications. He lives with his wife and son in San Francisco.

You can purchase copies of “Freeman’s: Conclusions” at https://citylights.com/freemans-conclusions/ 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

John Freeman and Friends

City Lights LIVE and Liveright Books celebrate the publication of “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights” by Dylan C Penningroth, published by Liveright Books, with a discussion between Dylan and Richard Thompson Ford.

A prize-winning scholar draws on astonishing new research to demonstrate how Black people used the law to their advantage long before the Civil Rights Movement.

The familiar story of civil rights goes something like this: Once, the American legal system was dominated by racist officials who shut Black people out and refused to recognize their basic human dignity. Then, starting in the 1940s, a few brave lawyers ventured south, bent on changing the law—and soon, everyday African Americans joined with them to launch the Civil Rights Movement. In "Before the Movement," historian Dylan C. Penningroth overturns this story, demonstrating that Black people had long exercised “the rights of everyday use,” and that this lesser-known private-law tradition paved the way for the modern vision of civil rights. Well-versed in the law, Black people had used it to their advantage for nearly a century to shape how they worked, worshipped, learned, and loved. Based on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses, "Before the Movement" recovers a vision of Black life allied with, yet distinct from, “the freedom struggle.”

Dylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and history at the University of California, Berkeley. Recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and author of the award winning "The Claims of Kinfolk," he lives in Kensington, California. 

Richard Thompson Ford is the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He writes for both scholarly and popular audiences and has published in newspapers and journals such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many others. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.” 

You can purchase copies of “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights” at https://citylights.com/before-the-movement-hidden-hist-of-bla/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Dylan C Penningroth in conversation with Richard Thompson Ford

City Lights LIVE and Beacon Press celebrate the publication of “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (the 10th Anniversary Edition)” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, published by Beacon Press, with a conversation between Roxanne and Manu Karuka Vimalassery.

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.

With growing support for movements, such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, a New York Times bestselling author, grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Dunbar-Ortiz is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, and is the author or editor of many books, including “Not a Nation of Immigrants, Blood on the Border,” and “Loaded” (published by City Lights), amongst other titles. She lives in San Francisco. 

Manu Karuka Vimalassery is the author of “Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad” (2019). He is a co-editor, with Juliana Hu Pegues and Alyosha Goldstein, of “On Colonial Unknowing,” a special issue of “Theory & Event,” and with Vivek Bald, Miabi Chatterji, and Sujani Reddy, he is a co-editor of “The Sun Never Sets: South Asian Migrants in an Age of U.S. Power” (2013). He is a member of the Council for Collaborative Inquiry, and an assistant professor of American Studies at Barnard College.

You can purchase copies of “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (the 10th Anniversary Edition)” at https://citylights.com/indigenous-peoples-hist-of-the-u-s/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz in conversation with Manu Karuka Vimalassery

City Lights LIVE! presents "Insurgent Beatitudes: The History of a Cultural Center,” a conversation between Elaine Katzenberger, Amy Scholder, and Paul Yamazaki, moderated by David L. Ulin. 

Continuing its 70th anniversary celebratory programming, City Lights Books brings together those who are at the heart of its core. 

City Lights was founded as a cultural hub, providing space and encouragement for a creative cross-pollination across the arts, as well as the realms of politics, philosophy, and social change. Here’s a chance to hear about our history from some of the folks who’ve made significant contributions over the years, working alongside Lawrence Ferlinghetti and beyond, guiding City Lights into its present and future. 

David L. Ulin is the author or editor of nearly twenty books, including "Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles,” shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the novel "Ear to the Ground." His fiction has appeared in Black Clock, The Santa Monica Review, Scoundrel Time, and Zyzzyva, among other publications. 

Elaine Katzenberger is the executive director of City Lights and the publisher of City Lights Books. 

Amy Scholder is a literary editor, documentary filmmaker, and a former editor at City Lights Books where she began her career. 

Paul Yamazaki has been a bookseller since 1970. He has been the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers for more than thirty years.

Insurgent Beautitudes: The History of a Cultural Center

City Lights LIVE! celebrates the publication of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” from City Lights Books, edited by Lynn Lewis, with a conversation between the editor and contributors Hilary Moore and Malkia Devich-Cyril.
 – Edited by Lynn Lewis – published by City Lights Books 

“Women Who Change the World” examines the inspiring oral histories of women fighting for justice and radical social change at community, state, and national levels. 

Award-winning oral historian Lynn Lewis brings together the stories of nine exceptional women, from their earliest formative experiences to their current strategies as movement leaders, organizers, and cultural workers. Each chapter is dedicated to one activist–Malkia Devich-Cyril, Priscilla Gonzalez, Terese Howard, Hilary Moore, Vanessa Nosie, Roz Pelles, Loretta Ross, Yomara Velez, and Betty Yu. Reflecting on the paths their lives have taken, they talk about their struggles and aspirations, insights and victories, and what keeps them in the fight for a better world. 

The life stories of these inspiring women reveal the many ways the experience of injustice can catalyze resistance and a commitment to making change. They demonstrate how the relationships and bonds of collective struggle for the common good not only win justice, but create hope, love, and joy. 

Lynn Lewis is an oral historian, educator, and community organizer. She is the author of “Love and Collective Resistance: Lessons from the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project” and is the former executive director and past civil rights organizer at “Picture the Homeless.” Lewis is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a 2022/2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Oral History Fellowship. She makes her home in New York City. 

Malkia Devich-Cyril is an organizer, activist, movement builder, writer, poet, educator, public speaker, and social justice leader in the areas of Black liberation and digital rights in expansive and profound ways that connect racialized capitalism to the digital economy. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, Malkia reflects on the responsibility of lineage, conferred by her mother, a leader of the Harlem Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Related to this is the theme of belonging: to family, community, and movement and the importance of narrative struggle to make meaning and build power to change material conditions. At the time of this interview, Malkia was formulating an analysis around the relationship between grief, grievance, and governance as a critical strategy to win freedom. Malkia, who also goes by Mac, was born and raised in New York City, and lives in Oakland, California. 

Hilary Moore is an organizer, educator and author who works within an anti-racist framework that links movements to abolish the police and the military with environmental justice, racial justice, and anti-imperialist struggles in the U.S. and internationally. She draws connections between eco-fascism, white supremacy, policing, the military, and surveillance that forecasts many of the dynamics we see today. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, she reflects on the process of her own political development and explores the meaning of belonging, creating community and connection. She describes the importance of mentorship and the role of storytelling as a way to build connection, leadership, and movement. Born in Sacramento, California, and raised in rural northern California, Hilary now lives in Louisville, Kentucky. 

You can purchase copies of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” at https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/women-who-change-the-world-stories-from/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Lynn Lewis and Friends

City Lights LIVE! presents Myriam Gurba in conversation with visual artist MariNaomi to celebrate the release of Gurba’s new book “Creep: Accusations and Confessions,” published by Simon and Schuster. 

A ruthless and razor-sharp essay collection that tackles the pervasive, creeping oppression and toxicity that has wormed its way into society—in our books, schools, and homes, as well as the systems that perpetuate them—from the acclaimed author of “Mean,” and one of our fiercest, foremost explorers of intersectional Latinx identity. 

A creep can be a singular figure, a villain who makes things go bump in the night. Yet “creep" is also what the fog does—it lurks into place to do its dirty work, muffling screams, obscuring the truth, and providing cover for those prowling within it. 

“Creep” is Myriam Gurba’s informal sociology of creeps, a deep dive into the dark recesses of the toxic traditions that plague the United States and create the abusers who haunt our books, schools, and homes. Through cultural criticism disguised as personal essay, Gurba studies the ways in which oppression is collectively enacted, sustaining ecosystems that unfairly distribute suffering and premature death to our most vulnerable. Yet identifying individual creeps, creepy social groups, and creepy cultures is only half of this book’s project—the other half is examining how we as individuals, communities, and institutions can challenge creeps and rid ourselves of the fog that seeks to blind us. 

With her ruthless mind, wry humor, and adventurous style, Gurba implicates everyone from Joan Didion to her former abuser, everything from Mexican stereotypes to the carceral state. Braiding her own history and identity throughout, she argues for a new way of conceptualizing oppression, and she does it with her signature blend of bravado and humility. 

Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true crime memoir “Mean,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice. O, The Oprah Magazine, ranked “Mean” as one of the best LGBTQ books of all time. Publishers Weekly describes Gurba as having a voice like no other. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The Paris Review, Time, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers. She lives in Pasadena, California. 

MariNaomi (they/them) is the award-winning author and illustrator of “Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume,” “Ages 0 to 22,” “Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories,” "Turning Japanese," “I Thought YOU Hated ME,” the “Life on Earth” trilogy, “Dirty Produce,” and “I Thought You Loved Me.” Their work has appeared in nearly 100 print publications, and has been featured on websites such as The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, SF Examiner, and BuzzFeed. Their comics have been translated into French (Devenir Japonaise, Editions IMHO, 2021), German, and Russian. 

You can purchase copies of “Creep” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/creep-accusations-confessions/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Myriam Gurba

City Lights LIVE celebrates the publication of “the delicacy of embracing spirals” by mimi tempestt, published by City Lights, with a conversation between the poet and Truong Tran. 

Incendiary, lyrical poems of liberations from the phantasm of Black womanhood. 

Wedding fierce, jagged lines to an uncompromisingly lyrical flow honed over years of performance, mimi tempestt writes poems that are by turns cerebral, profane, revolutionary, comedic, erotic, and sentimental. “the delicacy of embracing spirals” is her second book, an investigation of the ways in which the personal narrative of Black womanhood can be expressed through a radically human lens. With a visual sensibility that eventually explodes across the page, the collection begins with microcosmic poems of personal struggle and spirals out to macrocosmic texts of social and political critique. The book culminates in a fantastic account of the impossible staging of a play where the lives of the characters and the audience are at stake. 

A blend of theatre and melodrama, narrative and lyricism, the delicacy of embracing spirals ranges from a confrontation with abusive lovers and predatory promoters, to an excoriation of police brutality and gender oppression, to a critique of the commodification of Black artists for white consumption. mimi tempestt expresses an ongoing dialectical consciousness about being Black, being woman, being queer, being radical, and most essentially, being complicatedly human. The poems engage with the “performance” of oppression that can deter the possibilities of selfhood, liberation, and autonomy, asking three central questions: “What haunts you? What hunts you? Who and what are you hunting?” 

mimi tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Creative/Critical Ph.D. in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her first book, “the monumental misrememberings,” was published with Co-Conspirator Press/The Feminist Center for Creative Work in 2020. In 2021, she was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices & Writers, and was a Creative Fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Interim Poetics, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Berkeley, CA. 

Truong Tran is a Vietnamese-American poet, visual artist, and teacher. He is an author of five collections of poetry and a children’s book. As a visual artist, Tran is best known for mixed-media pieces, though he has worked in multiple mediums.

You can purchase copies of “the delicacy of embracing spirals” at https://citylights.com/delicacy-of-emracing-spirals/.  

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

mimi tempestt

City Lights LIVE! presents "Found in Translation: Adventures in Language." As part of its 70th Anniversary programming, City Lights celebrates literature in translation with a discussion moderated by Olivia E. Sears, featuring Gabriela Alemán, Dick Cluster, Gillian Conoloy, Elaine Katzenberger, Emilie Moorehouse, and Mark Schafer. 

City Lights was conceived as an international project. From the very beginning, from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s own translations of Jacques Prévert , and on to some of the exciting authors City Lights publishes today, the world in translation has been at the core of the City Lights mission. Spend an evening with the editors and translators who have helped shape the translation program at City Lights. 

Dick Cluster is a writer and translator living in Oakland, California. He translated Gabriela Alemán’s “Poso Wells” and “Family Album: Stories.” 

Gillian Conoloy is a poet, editor, and translator. Her new collection is “Notes from the Passenger,” released from Nightboat Books in May 2023. Conoley’s translations of three books by Henri Michaux, including “Thousand Times Broken,” appeared in English for the first time, with City Lights Books. 

Elaine Katzenberger is the executive director of City Lights and the publisher of City Lights Books. 

Emilie Moorehouse is a teacher, writer, translator, and environmentalist. She translated “Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems” by Joyce Mansour for City Lights Books. 

Mark Schafer is a literary translator, a visual artist, and a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he teaches Spanish. City Lights recently published his translations of Belén Gopegui’s “Stay This Day and Night with Me” (2023) and “The Scale of Maps “(2010), a novel by Alberto Ruy Sánchez entitled “Mogador: The Names of the Air” (2004), and “Dawn of the Senses: Selected Poems,” an anthology of poems by Alberto Blanco. 

This event was made possible with the support of the Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press and the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more about Center for the Art of Translation visit: https://www.catranslation.org/. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Found In Translation: Adventures in Language

City Lights LIVE, The New Press, and Princeton University Press celebrate the publication of two new books: “America Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration” by Benjamin Weber, published by The New Press, and "To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care” by Christopher Paul Harris, published by Princeton University Press. 

“American Purgatory” is a vivid work of hidden history that spans the wars to subjugate Native Americans in the mid-nineteenth century, the conquest of the western territories, and the creation of an American empire in Panama, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. "American Purgatory" reveals how “prison imperialism”—the deliberate use of prisons to control restive, subject populations—is written into our national DNA, extending through to our modern era of mass incarceration. Weber also uncovers a surprisingly rich history of prison resistance, from the Seminole Chief Osceola to Assata Shakur—one that invites us to rethink the scope of America’s long freedom struggle. 

To “Build a Black Future” examines the spirit and significance of this insurgency, offering a revelatory account of a new political culture—responsive to pain, suffused with joy, and premised on care—emerging from the centuries-long arc of Black rebellion, a tradition that traces back to the Black slave. Drawing on his own experiences as an activist and organizer, Christopher Paul Harris takes readers inside the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to chart the propulsive trajectory of Black politics and thought from the Middle Passage to the present historical moment. Carefully attending to the social forces that produce Black struggle and the contradictions that arise within it, Harris illustrates how M4BL gives voice to an abolitionist praxis that bridges the past, present, and future, outlining a political project at once directed inward to the Black community while issuing an outward challenge to the world. 

Benjamin Weber is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis. He has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, Alternate ROOTS, the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, and as a public high school teacher in East Los Angeles. He makes his home in Davis, California. 

Christopher Paul Harris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and International Studies at University of California, Irvine. His research interests range from Black political thought, culture, aesthetics, and social movements to broader questions concerning the possibility of revolutionary transformation in the 21st century. Advancing an abolitionist critique of the capitalist world-system, his work aims to understand the political lives, thought, and cultures of the Black diaspora and the underlying social forces that shape them. 

You can purchase copies of “America Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/amer-purgatory-prison-imperialism/. 

You can purchase copies of “To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/to-build-a-black-future-radical-politi/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Benjamin Weber & Christopher Paul Harris

City Lights LIVE, Beacon Press, and Refugee Immigrant Transitions celebrate the publication of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” by Bill Ong Hing, published by Beacon Press. 

“Humanizing Immigration” is the first book to argue that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice; and offers a humanitarian approach to reform and abolition. Representing non-citizens caught up in what he calls the immigration and enforcement “meat grinder”, Bill Ong Hing witnessed their trauma, arriving at this conclusion: migrants should have the right to free movement across borders—and the right to live free of harassment over immigration status. 

He cites examples of racial injustices endemic in immigration law and enforcement, from historic courtroom cases to the recent treatment of Haitian migrants. Hing includes histories of Mexican immigration, African migration and the Asian exclusion era, all of which reveal ICE abuse and a history of often forgotten racist immigration laws. 

While ultimately arguing for the abolishment of ICE, Hing advocates for change now. With 50 years of law practice and litigation experience, Hing has represented non-citizens—from gang members to asylum seekers fleeing violence, and from individuals in ICE detention to families at the U.S. southern border seeking refuge. 

Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. Previously on the law faculties at Stanford University and Golden Gate University, he founded the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and directs their Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing teaches Immigration Law & Policy, Migration Studies, Rebellious Lawyering, and Evidence, is the author of 6 books, and was co-counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court asylum precedent-setting case "INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca" (1987). 

Jane Pak is Co-Executive Director at Refugee and Immigrant Transitions and Adjunct Professor in the Masters in Migration Studies program at the University of San Francisco (USF). Her scholarship and praxis are informed by Critical Refugee Studies; liberatory education; and transnational solidarity. Jane is most energized when engaging with diverse communities and knowledge in collective contexts. Her background is in strategy, development, and research in education and refugee contexts. She has worked in community, nonprofit, government, and business sectors. Jane’s work for justice is motivated by a multi-generational family history of forced migration, resistance, and service. 

You can purchase copies of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” at https://citylights.com/humanizing-immigration-ht-transfor/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Bill Ong Hing

City Lights celebrates No.23 in the "Spotlight Poetry Series"

Roberto Harrison reads from his work. Introduction by Garrett Caples. Julien Poirier will also be reading from his work. In person event held in City Lights' Poetry Room, hosted by Peter Maravelis. 

Purchase "Isthmus to Abya Yala" By Roberto Harrison here: https://citylights.com/isthmus-to-abya-yala-spotlight-23/ 

A conjuration of ancient consciousness aimed at rehumanizing our contemporary cyborg condition.

“Abya Yala”–“land of life” or “land of vital blood”–is a Pre-Columbian term of the Guna people of Panamá and Colombia to refer to the American continent and more recently has signified the idea of a decolonized “New World” among various Indigenous movements. In Isthmus to Abya Yala, Panamanian American poet Roberto Harrison summons a mythic consciousness in response to this political and spiritual struggle.

In his poems, with mystic fervor, Harrison finds phonetic unities concealing conceptual oppositions he must transcend. Invoking “mobilian” as an ur-language against racism and toward an all-inclusive humanity–in opposition to the “mobile” of phone-mediated existence–the poems of "Isthmus to Abya Yala" burn with a visionary ardor that overpowers rationality through an intensive accumulation of imagery. They even sometimes manifest as visual poems in the form of drawings he calls “Tecs,” opposing the dominance of technology to the advocacy of pan-Indian nationhood by 19th century Shawnee leader Tecumseh. “Tecumseh Republic” is the poet’s name for a new post-racial, post-national, post-binary, post-colonial, holistic and earth-oriented society with no national borders, with Panamá, the isthmus, as its only entry and exit.

Roberto Harrison’s poetry books include "Tropical Lung: exi(s)t(s)" (Omnidawn, 2021), "Tropical Lung: Mitologia Panameña" (Nion Editions, 2020), "Yaviza" (Atelos, 2017), "Bridge of the World" (Litmus Press, 2017), "culebra" (Green Lantern Press, 2016), "bicycle" (Noemi Press, 2015), "Counter Daemons" (Litmus Press, 2006), "Os" (subpress, 2006), as well as many chapbooks. With Andrew Levy, Harrison edited the poetry journal "Crayon" from 1997 to 2008. He was also the editor of Bronze Skull Press which published over 20 chapbooks, including the work of many Midwestern poets. Most recently, Harrison served as a co-editor for the "Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance" anthology. He was the Milwaukee Poet Laureate from 2017–2019 and is also a visual artist. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife, the poet Brenda Cárdenas.

Julien Poirier teaches poetry in the San Francisco public schools and at San Quentin State Prison. His book "Out of Print" was published by City Lights in 2016. He is also the author of "El Golpe Chileño" (2010), "Stained Glass Windows of California" (2012), and "Way Too West" (2015), among other volumes. With Garrett Caples, he edited Incidents of "Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems" (2016) by Frank Lima for City Lights. He is also a co-founder of Ugly Duckling Presse Collective, where he edited a poetry newspaper, "New York Nights," as well as an anthology of writing by Jack Micheline, "One of a Kind" (Ugly Duckling, 2008), and a book of travel journals by Bill Berkson, "Invisible Oligarchs" (Ugly Duckling, 2016). He is currently the mastermind behind the mail art publication Night Mail.

Originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Roberto Harrison With Julien Poirier

Jordan Elgrably in conversation with Sarah AlKahly-Mills, with readings from both authors. 

City Lights celebrates the publication of "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, published by City Lights Books.

You can purchase copies directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/stories-from-the-center-of-the-world/

"Stories from the Center of the World" gathers new writing from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, offering a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. The authors included in the book come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco.

In “Asha and Haaji,” Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektaria Anastasiadou‘s “The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,” two students in Istanbul from different classes — and religions that have often been at odds with one another — believe they can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb‘s story, “Counter Strike,” is about queer love among Beiruti adolescents; and Salar Abdoh‘s “The Long Walk of the Martyrs” invites us into the world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, who are having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In “Eleazar,” Karim Kattan tells an unexpected Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists — Israeli occupation forces — are mostly absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar El Akkad‘s “The Icarist” is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away.

Contributors include: Salar Abdoh, Leila Aboulela, Farah Ahamed, Omar El Akkad, Sarah AlKahly-Mills, Nektaria Anastasiadou, Amany Kamal Eldin, Jordan Elgrably, Omar Foda, May Haddad, Danial Haghighi, Malu Halasa, MK Harb, Alireza Iranmehr, Karim Kattan, Hanif Kureishi, Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, Diary Marif, Tariq Mehmood, Sahar Mustafah, Mohammed Al-Naas, Ahmed Naji, Mai Al-Nakib, Abdellah Taia, and Natasha Tynes.

Jordan Elgrably is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator, whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi, and The Paris Review. Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review, he is the cofounder and former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles (2001-2020), and producer of the stand-up comedy show “The Sultans of Satire” (2005-2017) and hundreds of other public programs. He is based in Montpellier, France and California.

Sarah AlKahly-Mills is a Lebanese-American writer. Her story “The Salamander” is included in the new book "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, and just published by City Lights. Her fiction, poetry, book reviews, and essays have appeared in publications including Litro Magazine, Ink and Oil, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Review, PopMatters, Al-Fanar Media, Middle East Eye, and various university journals. Born in Burbank, CA, she now lives in Rome, Italy.

Originally hosted live in City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. 

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation cosponsored with Golden Thread Productions. citylights.com/foundation

Jordan Elgrably with Sarah AlKahly-Mills

Celebrate Gil Cuadros with Kevin Martin, Rafael Pérez-Torres, & Amy Scholder. Opening by Greyson Wright & readings by Joseph Cassara & Flavia Elisa Mora.

City Lights & the SF LGBT Center celebrate the publication of 
"My Body Is Paper: Stories and Poems" by Gil Cuadros, edited by Pablo Alvarez, Kevin Martin, Rafael Pérez-Torres, & Terry Wolverton, foreword by Justin Torres. Published by City Lights Books. 

Purchase "My Body Is Paper" here: https://citylights.com/my-body-is-paper-stories-poems/ 
Purchase "City of God" here: https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/city-of-god/

Since "City of God" was published by City Lights 30 years ago, it has become an unlikely classic (an “essential book of Los Angeles” according to the LA Times). The book has touched those who find in his work a singular evocation of Chicanx life in Los Angeles around the time of the AIDS epidemic, which took his life in 1996. Little did we know, Cuadros continued writing exuberant works in the period between his one published book & his untimely death at 34. This recently discovered treasure, "My Body Is Paper," is a stunning portrait of sex, family, religion, culture of origin, & the betrayals of the body. Tender & blistering, erotic & spiritual, Cuadros dives into these complexities which we grapple with today, showing us how to survive these times & beyond.

Gil Cuadros (1962–1996) was a groundbreaking gay Latino writer whose work explored the intersections of sexuality, race, & spirituality. Diagnosed with HIV in 1987, Cuadros channeled his experiences into "City of God," capturing the raw emotions of living with a life-threatening illness. His lyrical intensity & unflinching honesty shined a light on marginalized communities & familial expectations. "City of God" has gone on to become a classic of Chicanx literature.

Kevin J. Martin is the executor of the Estate of Gil Cuadros, & a longtime copyeditor & writer. He serves as Senior Writer & Associate Editor for MagellanTV, where he writes on various topics related to art & culture. 

Rafael Pérez-Torres is professor of English & Gender Studies at UCLA & author of "Movements in Chicano Poetry and Critical Mestizaje," co-author of "Memories of an East L.A. Outlaw," & co-editor of "The Chicano Studies Reader." 

Amy Scholder is a literary editor & documentary filmmaker known for amplifying the stories of marginalized artists & activists. Amy began her career as an editor at City Lights. She has since served as US Publisher to Verso Books, later joining 7 Stories Press as Editor & Chief. In 2008, Scholder left 7 Stories to become the executive editor of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Scholder was approached by director Pratibha Parmar & producer Shaheen Haq to help finish their hybrid documentary feature, "My Name Is Andrea," about Andrea Dworkin. She became an executive producer of the film, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

Joseph Cassara is the author of "The House of Impossible Beauties" (Ecco), winner of the 2019 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction & finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. A graduate of Columbia University & the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he currently serves as the George & Judy Marcus Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.

Flavia Elisa Mora is a queer, Mexican migrant artist, activist, & community organizer raised in occupied Ramaytush Ohlone land, in La Mission. Her main two foci are muralismo & Flor y Canto poesía. Flavia’s work delves into the exploration of her identity, relationships, migration story, family & community history. She is a published writer, performs poetry throughout the Bay, & is one of the lead artists for the mural "Alto al Fuego en la Misión," located on 24th and Capp, SF.

Event originally broadcast from City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. citylights.com/foundation

Gil Cuadros Tribute and Book Launch

Kit Schluter celebrates the publication of "Cartoons," (City Lights) & Garrett Caples celebrates the publication of "Proses: Incomparable Parables! Fabulous Fables! Cruel Tales!" (Wave Books).

Purchase "Cartoons:" https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/cartoons/
Purchase "Proses:" https://citylights.com/general-fiction/proses-incomparable-parables-fabulous/

About "Cartoons:"
Set in the uncanny valley between Bugs Bunny & Franz Kafka, "Cartoons" is an explosive series of outrageous, absurdist tales. "Cartoons" proposes itself as a genre of imaginary writing in opposition to the realism of most contemporary U.S. fiction, aligning itself with the French symbolism & Latin American fabulism its author is known to translate. A giant cricket with a tiny Kit Schluter in a jar, an umbrella who confuses the words porpoise and purpose in its quest for self-fulfillment, a pair of slugs go on a bender, these are just a few denizens of its pages, suffused with a fairy tale-like animism. A microwave oven decries microaggressions. A beer bottle is filled with regret. An escalator mechanic’s shoe conceals a terrible secret.

Kit Schluter’s recent work has appeared in Boston Review, BOMB, & Brooklyn Rail. He is author of the poetry collection "Pierrot’s Fingernails" (Canarium Books) as well as numerous chapbooks & artist editions of poems & stories. Schluter is included in the latest edition of "Best American Experimental Writing" (Wesleyan UP, 2020), edited by Carmen Maria Machado, Joyelle McSweeney, Jesse Damiani & Seth Abramson. He has translated widely from French & Spanish, including works by Rafael Bernal (New Directions), Marcel Schwob (Wakefield Press), & Olivia Tapiero (Nightboat Books). He recently illustrated Sebastian Castillo’s novel "SALMON." Kit coordinates production & design for Nightboat Books and lives in Mexico City.

About "Proses:"
In the grand tradition of poet’s fiction, "Proses: Incomparable Parables! Fabulous Fables! Cruel Tales!" is a collection of nine phantasmagorical stories by poet & City Lights editor, Garrett Caples.
Turning its back on the ethos of traditional narrative, "Proses" draws on Marcel Schwob, magical realism, & speculative fiction for inspiration, projecting worlds dominated by dream logic & impossible  dimensions. Spectral nuns, xenobots, explosive phraseology, & even Ringo Starr are some of the unexpected dilemmas confronting the various protagonists. Poets such as Andrew Joron, Kit Schluter, & Claude Grind make cameo appearances. While each story is a standalone, the collection amounts to an intricate whole, as themes, objects, & characters recur, encouraging readers to enjoy the book sequentially. Regardless of how it's enjoyed, "Proses" is both a satire of the world of contemporary poetry & a celebration of that world’s fantastic, infinite imagination.

Garrett Caples is the author of "Lovers of Today" (Wave Books, 2021), "Power Ballads" (Wave Books, 2016), "Complications" (2007), & "The Garrett Caples Reader" (1999), a collection of outtakes, "The Rise & Fall of Johnny Volume" (2020), & a bilingual selection, "Noches Apátridas" (Unstated Nights, 2019). He’s also written a book of essays, "Retrievals" (2014), & a pamphlet, "Quintessence of the Minor" (2010). He’s the editor of Philip Lamantia’s "Preserving Fire: Selected Prose" (2018), Samuel Greenberg’s "Poems from the Greenberg MSS" (2019), & Michael McClure’s "Mule Kick Blues and Last Poems" (2021), as well as the co-editor of "The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia" (2013), "Particulars of Place" (2015) by Richard O. Moore, "Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems" (2016) by Frank Lima, & "Arcana: A Stephen Jonas Reader" (2019). He is an editor at City Lights Books, where he curates the Spotlight Poetry Series.

Originally broadcast from City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, May 22, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. citylights.com/foundation

Kit Schluter with Garrett Caples

Savannah Shange in conversation with Patrick Camangian discussing the subject of Savannah Shange's new book, Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco, published by Duke University Press.

In Progressive Dystopia, Savannah Shange explores the potential for reconciling the school's marginalization of Black students with its sincere pursuit of multiracial uplift and solidarity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and six years of experience teaching at the school, Shange outlines how the school fails its students and the community because it operates within a space predicated on antiblackness. Seeing San Francisco as a social laboratory for how Black communities survive the end of their worlds, Shange argues for abolition over either revolution or progressive reform as the needed path toward Black freedom.

Savannah Shange is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and principal faculty in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Patrick Camangian is an associate professor in the Teacher Education Department at the University of San Francisco. He has been an English teacher since 1999, beginning in the Los Angeles Unified School District where he was awarded "Most Inspirational Teacher" by former mayor Richard Riordan and the school's student body. Professor Camangian currently volunteers in the Oakland Unified School District teaching English. He has collaborated with groups such as California's People's Education Movement, the Education for Liberation national network, and San Francisco's Teachers 4 Social Justice.

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Savannah Shange

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