LIVE! From City Lights

LIVE! From City Lights episodes:

• 07.26.2019

  George Albon in Conversation with Maxwell Shanley

  George Albon celebrates the release of his book, Lyric Multiples: Aspiration, Practice, Immanence, Migration (published by Nightboat), in conversation with Maxwell Shanley. Lyric Multiples comprises four essays written over the last decade. The subject is poetry but the essays range over...

  
• 07.12.2019

  Juliana Spahr

  Juliana Spahr discusses her book, Du Bois’s Telegram: Literary Resistance and State Containment, published by Harvard University Press. In 1956 W. E. B. Du Bois was denied a passport to attend the Présence Africaine Congress of Black Writers and Artists...

  
• 06.28.2019

  Adam Hochschild

  Adam Hochschild discusses the subject of his new book, Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Essays, published by University of California Press. Adam Hochschild is a journalist and author who has written on issues of human rights and social...

  
• 06.21.2019

  Appreciating Jean-Patrick Manchette

  City Lights presents Donald Nicholson-Smith and James Brook discussing the life and work of the seminal French crime writer, Jean-Patrick Manchette, celebrating the recent release of Ivory Pearl, published by New York Review Books. Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942–1995) was a genre-redefining...

  
• 06.14.2019

  V. Vale & Mindaugis Bagdon on William S. Burroughs

  V. Vale and Mindaugis Bagdon in conversation with City Lights events director Peter Maravelis discussing William S. Burroughs’ “The Revised Boy Scout Manual” An Electronic Revolution, edited by Geoffrey D. Smith and John M. Bennett with an afterward by V....

  
• 06.07.2019

  Preserving Fire: The Prose of Philip Lamantia

  City Lights celebrates the release of Preserving Fire: Selected Prose by Philip Lamantia, edited by City Lights’s own Garrett Caples and published by Wave Books. Readings by Will Alexander, Micah Ballard, James Brook, Chris Carosi, Steve Fama, Brian Lucas, and...

  
• 05.24.2019

  John Freeman, Jaime Cortez, and Rebecca Solnit

  John Freeman in conversation with Jaime Cortez and Rebecca Solnit, celebrating the release of FREEMAN’S LITERARY JOURNAL: POWER ISSUE, published by Grove Press. Co-presented by Litquake. From the voices of protestors to the encroachment of a new fascism, everywhere we...

  
• 05.10.2019

  Darius James

  The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University and New York Review Books in conjunction with City Lights present an afternoon with Darius James celebrating the eagerly awaited re-release of his seminal novel Negrophobia: An Urban Parable, introduction by Amy...

  
• 05.03.2019

  Six By Ten: Stories From Solitary

  City Lights Books celebrates the release of Six by Ten: Stories from Solitary (published by Haymarket Books) with book editors Mateo Hoke and Taylor Pendergrass, and special guests Alexa Gelbard and Mohammed “Mike” Ali. Six by Ten explores the mental,...

  
• 04.26.2019

  John Sims and Special Guests

  City Lights welcomes multi-media conceptual artist, writer and activist John Sims to celebrate the release of his video poem chapbook, A Blazing Grace and the AfroDixieRemixes: The San Francisco Session. Joined by Terry Blackhawk, Sylvia L. Blalock, Drew Dellinger, and...

  
• 04.19.2019

  Léonora Miano

  Léonora Miano in conversation with City Lights events coordinator Peter Maravelis celebrating the release of her book, Season of the Shadow, published by Seagull Press. Co-presented by the Cultural Services of the Consul General of France. This powerful novel presents...

  
• 04.12.2019

  Forrest Gander and Jonathan Santlofer with Susan Steinberg

  Forrest Gander and Jonathan Santlofer celebrate the release of their two books: Be With, by Forrest Gander, published by New Directions & The Widower’s Notebook: A Memoir by Jonathon Santlofer, published by Penguin. Conversation moderated by Susan Steinberg. A conversation...

  
• 04.09.2019

  The Situationists and May 1968: An Evening with Ken Knabb

  City Lights presents Ken Knabb, leading translator of Guy Debord and the Situationist International, discussing the situationists’ key influence on the nationwide May 1968 revolt in France, and how that astonishing social eruption remains relevant to our present-day world. Ken...

  
• 04.05.2019

  Margaret Randall

  City Lights welcomes Margaret Randall celebrating the release of Time’s Language: Selected Poems (1959-2018) from Wings Press. Opening statement by Kate Hedin, publisher at Wings Press. Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, photographer and social activist. Born in New...

  
• 03.29.2019

  Ingrid Rojas Contreras

  Ingrid Rojas Contreras celebrating the release of her debut novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree, published by Doubleday. Joining her to read from the book are special guests Nancy Jooyoun Kim,  Juliana Delgado Lopera, and Baruch Porras-Hernandez. A mesmerizing debut...

  
• 03.15.2019

  Tosh Berman

  City Lights presents Tosh Berman, author of TOSH: Growing Up In Wallace Berman’s World, in conversation with Natalia Mount, chief curator at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, CA. Tosh Berman is a Los Angeles-based writer, poet, and avant-garde publisher, notably...

  
• 03.11.2019

  Ana Raquel Minian

  Ana Raquel Minian discussing the subject of her new book Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration from Harvard University Press. Ana Raquel Minian is Assistant Professor of History and of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford...

  
• 03.08.2019

  Richard Rhodes

  Richard Rhodes discussing the subject of his new book ENERGY: A Human History, published by Simon and Schuster. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes reveals the fascinating history behind energy transitions over time—wood to coal to oil...

  
• 03.01.2019

  Gabriela Alemán with Mauro Javier Cardenas and Dick Cluster

  City Lights presents Gabriela Alemán, speaking alongside special guests Mauro Javier Cardenas and Dick Cluster to celebrate the release of her newest book Poso Wells. Opening statement by City Lights Publisher/Executive Director Elaine Katzenberger. Poso Wells is published by City...

  
• 02.26.2019

  Daegan Miller

  Daegan Miller discussing the subject of his book This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent from University of Chicago Press. Working in a tradition that stretches from Thoreau to Rebecca Solnit, Miller offers nothing less than a new...

  
• 02.22.2019

  Viet Thanh Nguyen, Thi Bui, and Meron Hadero

  Viet Thanh Nguyen, Thi Bui, and Meron Hadero celebrate the new anthology The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen, from Abrams Image. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer), and contributors Thi Bui (The Best...

  
• 02.19.2019

  William Middleton

  William Middleton in conversation with City Lights’ Paul Yamazaki discussing the subject of his new book Double Vision: The Unerring Eye of Art World Avatars Dominique and John de Menil published by Alfred Knopf. (recorded in the City Lights Publishing...

  
• 02.14.2019

  R.O. Kwon

  R.O. Kwon in conversation with Oscar Villalon (managing editor of ZYZZYVA) celebrating her debut novel, The Incendiaries, published by Riverhead. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Time, Parade, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, PBS,...

  
• 02.11.2019

  Curtis White

  Curtis White reading from his new novel Lacking Character, published by Melville House. The man Paul Auster called “a master of bewitchments” and a founder of the Fiction Collective returns to the novel after twenty years. In the spirit of “transcendental buffoonery,”...

  
• 02.08.2019

  Max Yeh and Sesshu Foster

  Sesshu Foster reads from City of the Future & Max Yeh reads from Stolen Oranges, both published by Kaya Press. Founded in 1994, Kaya Press has established itself as the premier publisher of cutting-edge Asian and Pacific Islander diasporic writers...

  
• 01.31.2019

  Jenny Xie and Jennifer S. Cheng

  Jenny Xie reading from her award-winning poetry collection Eye Level, published by Graywolf Press, Winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Juan Felipe Herrera. Jennifer S. Cheng reading from Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems...

  
• 01.28.2019

  Matthew Dickman and Emily Strelow

  Matthew Dickman celebrates the release of the poetry collection Wonderland from W.W. Norton and Emily Strelow celebrates the release of her debut novel The Wild Birds from Rare Bird Lit. Matthew Dickman is the author of All-American Poem (American Poetry...

  
• 01.25.2019

  Carmen Giménez Smith

  Carmen Giménez Smith celebrating the release of Cruel Futures, City Lights Spotlight Series No. 17. Opening reading by Barbara Jane Reyes. Introduction by series editor, Garrett Caples Cruel Futures, the fifth collection from Latinx feminista Carmen Giménez Smith, is a...

  
• 01.22.2019

  Robert Hass and David Koehn

  Omnidawn Press presents David Koehn celebrating the release of Compendium: Donald Justice’s Prosody Syllabus and Robert Hass reading from his A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry (published by Ecco). Following the presentation of...

  
• 01.18.2019

  Richard A. Walker

  Richard A. Walker celebrates his book Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area from PM Press. This sweeping account of the Bay Area in the age of the tech...

  
• 01.11.2019

  Tommy Orange

  Tommy Orange reading from There There, published by Alfred Knopf. Opening statement by San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck. Not since Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine has such a powerful and urgent Native American voice exploded onto the landscape of contemporary...

  
• 01.04.2019

  Scarlett Sabet & Janaka Stucky

  Scarlett Sabet & Janaka Stucky reading from new works. Scarlett Sabet is a London based poet and performer. She wrote, directed and starred in her poetic short film Burning which was produced by BAFTA-winning producer Charlie Hanson in 2012. Her...

  
• 12.21.2018

  Go Home! Book Release with Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Rachel Khong, Beth Nguyen, and R.O. Kwon

  Feminist Press in conjunction with Asian American Writers’ Workshop present a book release party for Go Home!, edited by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan with foreword from Viet Thanh Nguyen, published by The Feminist Press. Opening statement by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan with...

  
• 12.14.2018

  Lynne Tillman

  Lynne Tillman presents her novel, Men and Apparitions, from Soft Skull Press. Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. Her novels are Haunted Houses; Motion Sickness; Cast in Doubt; No Lease on Life, a finalist for...

  
• 12.07.2018

  Vegas Tenold

  Vegas Tenold discussing his new book Everything You Love Will Burn published by Nation Books. Six years ago, Vegas Tenold embedded himself among the members of three of America’s most ideologically extreme white nationalist groups-the KKK, the National Socialist Movement,...

  
• 11.30.2018

  Joseph Lease

  Joseph Lease reading from his new poetry collection The Body Ghost from Coffee House Press. Spare, airy, exacting poems whose quietness is often at an ironic counterpoint to their fiery leftist politics. “Promise me the rich can’t sleep,” Joseph Lease...

  
• 11.16.2018

  Release Party for HOWL: The Album Box Set

  Our release party for the new vinyl box set of Howl and Other Poems from Craft Recordings with Bill Belmont, Dennis McNally, San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck, and more. Craft Recordings, the Catalog division of Concord Music, is pleased...

  
• 11.09.2018

  Joyce Carol Oates 4

  Joyce Carol Oates reading from her new short-fiction collection Beautiful Days from Harper Collins. The diverse stories of Beautiful Days, Joyce Carol Oates explore the most secret, intimate, and unacknowledged interior lives of characters not unlike ourselves, who assert their...

  
• 11.02.2018

  Jenn Pelly and Greil Marcus Discussing The Raincoats

  Jenn Pelly in conversation with Greil Marcus about The Raincoats, presented in conjunction with City Lights and the Rock and Roll Book Club of San Francisco, celebrating a new edition in the 33 & 1/3 series, The Raincoats, by Jenn...

  
• 10.19.2018

  Michael Hardt and Joshua Clover

  Michael Hardt in conversation with Joshua Clover discussing Michael Hardt’s new book Assembly co-authored with Antonio Negri published Oxford University Press. Michael Hardt teaches in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is the author of Gilles Deleuze: an Apprenticeship...

  
• 10.12.2018

  The Novel of the Tupinamba Indian by E.F. Granell

  City Lights celebrates the publication of The Novel of the Tupinamba Indian (published by City Lights) with translator David Coulter, editor Garrett Caples, and actor Robert Ernst. Written by Galician surrealist artist and communist revolutionary E.F. Granell, The Novel of...

  
• 09.26.2018

  sam sax and D.A. Powell

  A celebration of the release of sam sax’s poetry collection Madness published by Penguin Books. D.A. Powell opens the reading and then sam sax reads from Madness. In this ­­­powerful debut collection, sam sax explores and explodes the linkages between desire,...

  
• 09.21.2018

  David Harvey and Richard A. Walker

  David Harvey and Richard A. Walker discussing the subject of David Harvey’s new book Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason from Oxford University Press. In Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey not only provides...

  
• 09.14.2018

  Brian “B+” Cross and Jeff Chang

  Brian “B+” Cross in conversation with Jeff Chang to celebrate the release of his new book Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed, published by University of Texas Press. A magnificent retrospective of the world’s preeminent hip-hop/rap photographer. Ghostnotes offers a unique...

  
• 09.07.2018

  Mark Bray

  Mark Bray discussing his book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook from Melville House. In a smart and gripping investigation, historian and former Occupy Wall Street organizer Mark Bray provides a one-of-a-kind look inside the movement, including a detailed survey of its...

  
• 08.31.2018

  Jerome Rothenberg and Friends

  Jerome Rothenberg and friends celebrating the release of Technicians of the Sacred, Third Edition: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, Revised and Expanded, 50th Anniversary Edition, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, published by University of California...

  
• 08.24.2018

  Who Reads Poetry? with Don Share

  City Lights welcomes Don Share, editor of Poetry Magazine, and the book Who Reads Poetry? 50 Views from Poetry Magazine published by University of Chicago. This anthology of the best of the magazine’s View from Here feature brings in non-poets...

  
• 08.17.2018

  Barbara Jane Reyes 2

  Barbara Jane Reyes celebrating the release of her new poetry collection, City Lights Spotlight Series No. 16, Invocation To Daughters. David Brazil opens the reading with poems from his book in the Spotlight Series, Holy Ghost. The fifth collection from...

  
• 08.03.2018

  Micheline Aharonian Marcom and Rikki Ducornet

  Micheline Aharonian Marcom in conversation with Rikki Ducornet celebrating the release of The Brick House by Micheline Aharonian Marcom from AWST Press. The Brick House is an illuminated book about a house where people go to dream. It is a book...

  
• 07.27.2018

  Cristina García

  Cristina García celebrating the release of Here In Berlin: A Novel from Counterpoint Press. Here in Berlin is a portrait of a city through snapshots, an excavation of the stories and ghosts of contemporary Berlin—its complex, troubled past still pulsing...