Black Fire This Time Vol. 2
TOMORROW Wednesday Apr. 24 · 6:30pm
The Museum of African Diaspora
685 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105
co-presented by the Museum of African Diaspora
Join MoAD and Litquake for a live poetry reading and celebration of the publication Black Fire This Time Vol. 2 with featured poetsJudy Juanita, Tureeda Mikell, Karla Brundage, Thurman Watts, Sheila Smith McCoy, and Katherine Takara. In this follow-up volume in the Black Fire This Time series, over 75 poets and writers come together on the ongoing theme of "Black is Beautiful, Black is Powerful, Black is Home." FREE
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Bikes & Books: Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day
Saturday Apr. 27 · 10am-6pm
Multiple Locations
co-presented by Books Not Bans and SF Bicycle Coalition
It’s the most bookish day of the year! Saturday, April 27 is Independent Bookstore Day, and to celebrate our vibrant city, we’re partnering with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Books Not Bans to challenge you to visit as many bookstores as you can – by bike! FREE
It’s a perfect weekend adventure, seeing the city and refreshing your TBR stack at the same time. At each stop, take a selfie and tag #sfbikestobookstores on Instagram or Twitter, and get a raffle ticket for each bookstore you visit, plus an extra five raffle tickets if you're a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition! We’re raffling off prizes from many of the participating bookstores, and the first person to make it to every single participating store will get a $50 gift card from Fabulosa Books. |
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 | | Pic 1: Litquake cofounders, Jack Boulware and Jane Ganahl, looking like it's their first rodeo. Pic 2: 1999 readers with Jack and Jane, still confused, in the background. |
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| Like all good ideas, Litquake was hatched over drinks in a bar. And not just any bar, but the Edinburgh Castle in the Tenderloin. A few dozen rounds in 1999 and Litquake was born squalling in earnest as 22 writers and a jazz duo took to the Bandshell in Golden Gate Park for one day only.
“...nobody appeared to be paying much attention to literature in the Bay Area at that time. To my eyes, the entire city had succumbed to a dotcom frenzy of quick and easy money, and nobody was writing books...I met a young woman at a Writers’ Grotto party, she mentioned she was a writer, and when asked what she was writing, she replied, ‘Well, right now I’m writing for Pampers.com.’ It felt like literature was over, and the internet had won.”*
But it hadn't. Shocking to everyone involved, 500 people showed up that first year, and they left wanting more of our celebration of San Francisco's literary tradition. 25 years on, they still do.
Looking back, what's hard to miss in the history of Litquake is the many writers and literary entities who were integral to those early years are still very much thriving or, if changed or gone, left an indelible mark—Chronicle Books, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, The Writer's Grotto, S.F. Examiner, Don Asmussen, Edinburgh Castle, Ishmael Reed, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, City Lights, Zyzzyva, a list that would choke Gutenburg's printing press or the ones developed centuries earlier by Chinese nobles, Korean Buddhists, and the descendants of Genghis Khan.
We're nothing without our community, the very one we are built to celebrate. 25 years of Litquake is 25 years of San Francisco refusing to forget who we really are: people connecting to people through our stories. The oldest and finest tradition there is.
*from Litquake co-founders' 2017 interview with LitHub's Jane Ciabattari |
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Ethel Rohan's Sing, I with Litquake ED Norah Piehl
Thursday May 2 · 6pm
Ireland House · 1 Post Street, Suite 2300 SF, CA 94104
co-presented by Consulate General of Ireland, San Francisco
Join Ethel Rohan, award-winning novelist and Norah Piehl of Litquake for a reading and discussion from Sing, I, Ethel’s critically acclaimed new novel. Sing, I tells the story of Ester, whose life is turned upside down after a robbery in the sleepy town of Half Moon Bay. In a story critics have called “romantic, thrilling, and pitch-perfect”, Sing, I asks a burning question: how do we know we’re living our best life? FREE
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One City, One Book: Kathryn Ma's The Chinese Groove with Natalie Baszile
Saturday May 4 · 2pm
Koret Auditorium, Main Library· 100 Larkin Street SF, CA 94102
sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
For One City, One Book's main event, former Litquake board member Kathryn Ma discusses her book, The Chinese Groove, the story of 18-year-old Shelley's journey from China's Yunnan Province to San Francisco, where he confronts familial discord, cultural adaptation and personal aspirations while leaning on the notion of the "Chinese groove" to navigate his new reality. Ma will be in conversation with another former Litquake board member Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy. FREE |
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Oakland Arts & Lectures: Dr. Darcie Little Badger w/ Tommy Orange
Sunday May 5 · 3pm
Oakstop · 1723 Broadway Street, Oakland, CA 94612
co-presented by Oakland Arts and Lectures & Sistah Scifi
Join us for Dr. Darcie Little Badger in conversation with Tommy Orange, discussing their newest novels, Sheine Lende and Wandering Stars, respectively. Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer whose critically acclaimed fantasy writing has received the Newbery Honor, was a LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Tommy Orange was born and raised in Oakland, California. His first book, There There, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award.
You will have the opportunity to win signed copies of Sheine Lende signed by Dr. Darcie Little Badger or Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange thanks to the support of the City of Oakland. Attendees must be present to win. FREE
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Launch Party Celebrating R.O. Kwon's Exhibit
Monday May 20 · 7pm
Verdi Club · 2424 Mariposa St, San Francisco, CA 94110
co-presented by Green Apple Books
Join us for the launch party celebrating R.O. Kwon's highly-anticipated second novel, EXHIBIT! Kwon will be joined in-conversation by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Meet us at the historic Verdi Club for a night of literary splendor. VIP tickets available for meet-and-greet preparty with Kwon plus a copy of the book, a drink ticket, and more. FREE for students, $5-$50 |
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SongWriter Live with Susan Orlean and Diana Gameros
Thursday June 13 · 7pm
The Commons · 2601 Mariposa St San Francisco, CA 94110
co-presented by KQED
Litquake and KQED Live present a night with SongWriter, a podcast that turns stories into songs (featured guests include Questlove, Joyce Carol Oates, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Roxane Gay, and Craig Finn of The Hold Steady).
In this special live recording event, bestselling author Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief, The Library Book) will share a story from her recent collection On Animals, and local songwriter Diana Gameros will play a brand new song written in response. SongWriter’s creator Ben Arthur will host, and engage the artists in a conversation with UC Berkeley researcher Laura Simone Lewis on animal intelligence. $29 |
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