Join us for the upcoming summer season of the acclaimed ALOUD series! Make a free reservation, purchase tickets, or become a Member today to take advantage of this unique opportunity to engage with world-renowned writers, thinkers, and performers at the Central Library and beyond.
ALOUD
Conversations, Readings and Performances — Where Los Angeles engages with today’s top writers, thinkers, and performers to listen, learn, and exchange ideas.
Upcoming Events › ALOUD
Sorry, no upcoming events. Check out some past events.
Anxiously Yours:
A Night of Our Collected Anxiety
Curated by Amanda Stern
Dreams, Genes, & Machines:
Are We Living Science Fiction?
Dr. Achuta Kadambi
Dreams, Genes, & Machines:
Are We Living Science Fiction?
Dr. William Tarpeh
Rights Night:
Our Rights, Our Issues
Randall Kennedy
Daniel Mendelsohn
Daniel MendelsohnModern Love
Daniel JonesLost & Found at the Movies:
True Lies
Featuring Lulu Wang
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi CoatesWriting on the Wall
Gajin Fujita and Shepard FaireyEmily Nussbaum
Emily NussbaumCANCELLED
Branching Out:
Lake View Terrace Branch Library
Reading by poet Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Pop Sounds of California:
Conversation and Dance
Jon Pareles, The NYT Chief Pop Music Critic
Branching Out:
Edendale Branch Library
Featuring a program curated by Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement
Branching Out:
Memorial Branch Library
Performance by the Bob Baker Marionette Theater
Branching Out:
North Hollywood
Amelia Earhart Regional Library
Reading by Nancy Ma and Remy Ortiz
The Future of Movies
Jordan Horowitz, Stephanie Allain, and Franklin Leonard
Branching Out:
Vermont Square Branch Library
Reading by Paul Carter
Rights Night
14th Amendment
Nina Shaw in conversation with Melissa Goodman
Rights Night
1st Amendment
David Kaye in conversation with Katherine Lo
Michael Pollan
Michael PollanAnand Giridharadas
Anand GiridharadasRights Night
2nd Amendment
Dave Cullen in conversation with Ryan Pascal
Valerie Jarrett
Valerie JarrettRachel Cusk
Rachel CuskOttessa Moshfegh
Ottessa MoshfeghJill Abramson
Jill AbramsonMarlon James
Marlon JamesWe Want to Negotiate:
The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom
Joel Simon and Federico Motka
Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018
David Kipen and guest readersStories From a Life Lived Along the Border
Reyna Grande, Jean Guerrero, Octavio SolisOf Love & War
Lynsey AddarioThe Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
Kwame Anthony Appiah and Njideka Akunyili CrosbyThe Library Book
Susan OrleanHow to Cover the World: The Promise and Peril of Journalism in the Digital Age
Gerard Ryle and Joel SimonHistory of Violence: A Novel
Édouard LouisPoets Eloise Klein Healy and Kim Dower
A WeHo Reads co-presentationThere There: A Novel
Tommy OrangeThe Browns of California:
The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation
Miriam Pawel and Kathleen Brown
From Prison to President: The Letters of Nelson Mandela
A reading, conversation, and celebrationBruce Lee and the Afro-Asian Culture Connection
W. Kamau Bell, Jeff Chang, Shannon LeeHeart Berries: A Memoir
Terese MailhotThe Heritage:
Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism
Howard Bryant and Dr. John Carlos
A Higher Loyalty:
Truth, Lies, and Leadership
An Evening with James Comey
Planet of the Blind:
A Poet’s Journey
Steve Kuusisto
The Mars Room
Rachel KushnerShould We Praise the Mutilated World?
Poetry from California to Krakow
Robert Hass and Adam Zagajewski
All the Things I Lost in the Flood
Laurie Anderson in performanceJasper Johns | Unfolding Language Literary Series
Hanif Abdurraqib, Brendan Constantine and Amy GerstlerUnbreakable Spirit:
The Freed Angola Three
Robert King and Albert Woodfox
Exit West
Mohsin HamidJasper Johns | Unfolding Language Literary Series
Rigoberto González, Douglas Kearney, Chris KrausMisfits Unite
Lidia Yuknavitch and Amber TamblynThe Monk of Mokha
Dave Eggers and Mokhtar AlkhanshaliExiled from Cairo: Humor as Dissent
Bassem YoussefHaiku in Zapotec: From Oaxaca to Japan and Back
Jane Hirshfield and Víctor TeránThe Runaway Species:
How Human Creativity Remakes the World
David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt
Oaxaca’s Third Gender:
Man, Woman, Muxe
Víctor Cata, Maritza Sanchez, Bamby Salcedo
La Lengua Sin Frontera (Language Without Borders): Three Indigenous Poets
Natalie Diaz, Layli Long Soldier, Natalia ToledoThreat of Extinction:
Language Activism and Preservation
Bob Holman, Vincent Medina, Odilia Romero Hernández and Virginia Carmelo with linguist Leanne Hinton
An American Genocide:
California Indians, Colonization, and Cultural Revival
Benjamin Madley and Greg Sarris
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve:
From Fiction to Faith
Stephen Greenblatt
Rebellion! Public Art and Political Dissent: Oaxaca and L.A
Chaz Bojórquez and artist collective TlacolulokosMoving the Center: African Literature in African Languages
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Richard Ali A MutuResist, Disrupt, Transgress: Four Poets
Chiwan Choi, Natalie J. Graham, Ashaki M. Jackson, and TK LêAn Evening with Sherman Alexie
You Don't Have to Say You Love MeMissing Persons: Two Novelists
Maile Meloy and Marisa SilverAn Evening with Arundhati Roy
The Ministry of Utmost HappinessAn Evening with Roxane Gay
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) BodyAn Evening with Alan Alda
If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face?An Evening with Dennis Lehane
In conversation with writer and producer Attica LockeThe Evolution of Beauty
Richard O. PrumIn a Western Light: Poetry at the Edge of America
Readings by poets Victoria Chang, Brendan Constantine, Kim Dower, Blas Falconer, Amy Gerstler, Doug Kearney and Brynn SaitoFrom L.A. to the Outback: Two Novelists
David Francis and Jane Smiley→
TEST EVENTKingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards
25th Anniversary Celebration and Reading by 2017 AwardeesInfidels: A Novel
Abdellah TaïaAn Evening with Cheech Marin
In conversation with "La Marisoul" HernandezThe Idiot: A Novel
Elif BatumanTides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean
Jonathan WhiteNight Sky with Exit Wounds
Ocean VuongThe Constitution and the Presidency
Erwin ChemerinskyAn Evening with George Saunders
Lincoln in the BardoEccentric Embodiment:
Tales and Truths
Valeria Luiselli and Guadalupe Nettel
This Close to Happy:
A Reckoning with Depression
Daphne Merkin and Jill Soloway
Shakespeare in Today’s America
James Shapiro and Lisa WolpeThe Sellout: A Novel
Paul BeattyWhere Memory Leads: A Holocaust Scholar Looks Back
Saul FriedländerWitness to the Revolution:
Draft Resistance in 60’s Los Angeles
David Harris, Winter Dellenbach, Bob Zaugh and author Clara Bingham
3 Writers on Fear and Loathing
Sara Benincasa, MariNaomi, Shanthi Sekaran and Michelle TeaCoyote America
Dan FloresHiding in Plain Sight:
The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror
Alexa Koenig, Victor Peskin and Eric Stover
Magical Mess:
Reflections on Objects and Memories
Barry Yourgrau and Aimee Bender
School of Prince
Tisa Bryant, Lynnée Denise, Ernest Hardy and Greg TateHow to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
David France, Dr. Mark H. Katz and Tony Valenzuela in conversationMoonglow
Michael ChabonStories from the City
Rebecca SolnitThe Terranauts
T.C. BoyleThe Wonder
Emma DonoghueThe Black Panthers:
Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution
Ericka Huggins, Phyllis Jackson, Norma Mtume, Melina Abdullah
Time Travel: A History
James GleickThe Body in Question: Two Poets
Sharon Olds and Robin Coste LewisThe Year of Voting Dangerously
Maureen DowdAn Evening with Colson Whitehead
The Underground RailroadTracktown: On the Run
Alexi PappasAn Evening with Sally Mann
Hold Still: A Memoir with PhotographsLive From the Vault:
Rare Recordings of James Baldwin
Nina Revoyr and Melvin L. Rogers
Why We Write
Eileen Myles and Maggie NelsonPEN Emerging Voices:
A Reading
20th Anniversary Celebration
Composed:
The Intersection of Poetry and Song
Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry
Homegoing: A Novel
Yaa GyasiThe Latter Days:
A Memoir
Judith Freeman
An Evening with Eddie Huang
Double Cup Love:On the Trail of Family, Food and Broken Hearts in China
Two Walkers, Two Writers, Two Cities
Vivian Gornick and David L. UlinTwo Writers Reflect on War and Peace
Maxine Hong Kingston and Viet Thanh NguyenBarbarian Days: A Surfing Life
William FinneganThe Bricks That Built the Houses
Kate TempestWriting Our Future
Readings from Graduate Writing Programs of the SouthlandThe Further Adventures of Mr. Cilantro Man
U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe HerreraDictionaries and the Bending of Language
John McWhorter and Mark Z. DanielewskiH is for Hawk
Helen MacdonaldIn a Western Light: Poetry at the Edge of America
Featuring Victoria Chang, Brynn Saito, Brendan Constantine, Percival Everett, Piotr Florczyk, William Archila, and Jenny FactorEmpire of Words:
An Unsentimental Journey to the Birth of the OED
Jamaica Kincaid and Sarah Ogilvie
Radio Imagination:
Octavia E. Butler’s Los Angeles
Panel Discussion with Ben Caldwell, Ayana A. H. Jamieson, Douglas Kearney, and Nisi Shawl
An Evening with Sebastião Salgado
In conversation with writer Pico IyerThe Salt of the Earth
A documentary about Sebastião SalgadoA Little Life: A Novel
Hanya YanagiharaDeep Time: Ancient Lives and Modern Eyes
Rachel Sussman and Ursula K. HeiseThe Blue Line: A Novel
Ingrid BetancourtKinds of Blue: Two Poets
Elizabeth Alexander and Kevin YoungBurning Voices: Stories that Fuel Us
Luis J. Rodriguez, Michael Meade, and John DensmoreWhat the Eye Hears:
A History of Tap Dancing
Brian Seibert With performer Sarah Reich and saxophonist Danny Janklow,
Tap Music Project
A Wild Swan: Fairy Tales Reimagined
Michael CunninghamThe Witches: Salem, 1692
Stacy SchiffA House of My Own
Sandra CisnerosBetween the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi CoatesThen Comes Marriage: United States v.
Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA
Roberta Kaplan and Lillian Faderman
Impossible Idealism: Inventing a Moral Life
Jessica Jackley and Larissa MacFarquharFates and Furies
Lauren GroffThe Art of Memoir
Mary KarrAn Evening with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer
The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global RealitiesUnspeakable Empathy
Leslie Jamison and Meghan DaumTo Live and Eat in L.A.:
Food Justice in the Age of the Foodie
Panel discussion with Ron Finley, Elizabeth Medrano and Neelam Sharma
Love, Los Angeles:
A Conversation in Words and Images
Lynell George and Marisela Norte
Song of Myself:
Walt Whitman in Other Words
Trilingual readings and conversation with Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Christopher Merrill and Sholeh Wolpé
To Live and Dine in L.A.:
Menus and the Making of the Modern City
Panel discussion with Chefs Joachim Splichal, Cynthia Hawkins, and Ricardo Diaz
An Evening with Judy Blume
In conversation with Alex Cohen, co-host of KPCC's "Take Two"Ordinary Light: A Memoir
Tracy K. SmithPrayers for the Stolen
Jennifer ClementThe Light in Her Eyes
Julia Meltzer and Laura NixCrow Fair: Stories
Thomas McGuaneUnveiling North Korea with Fact and Fiction
Adam Johnson and Blaine HardenThe War in Ukraine: Propaganda and Reality
Timothy D. Snyder and Masha GessenStory/ Time: The Life of An Idea
Performance by Bill T. Jones with Talli Jackson and Erick Montes ChaveroFor Want of a Better Word: Two Writers Turn to Visual Art
Bernard Cooper and Benjamin WeissmanAfrofuturism: The Hidden Code
Paul D. Miller aka DJ SpookyBeliever: My Forty Years in Politics
An Evening with David AxelrodExpanding Our Universe: An Astronomer and a Cosmologist Walk into a Room…
Wendy L. Freedman and Sean CarrollThe Sculptor: A Graphic Novel
Scott McCloudGuantánamo Diary
Larry Siems and Nancy HollanderSilver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
An Evening with Patton OswaltWho We Be: Race and Image at the Twilight of the Obama Era
Jeff Chang and Justin SimienOn Such a Full Sea: A Novel
Chang-rae LeeCulture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class
Panel Discussion with Scott Timberg, Barbara Bestor and John McCreaAn Evening with Carlos Santana
The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to LightThe Future of the Religious Past: Assessing The Norton Anthology of World Religions
Jack Miles, Reza Aslan, and Rabbi Sharon Brous33 Artists in 3 Acts
Sarah ThorntonLila: A Novel
Marilynne RobinsonThe Warrior’s Return: From Surge to Suburbia
David Finkel and Albert "Skip" RizzoThe Poet as Citizen
Robin Coste Lewis and Claudia RankineFomenting Democracy: From Poland’s Solidarity to Egypt’s Tahrir Square
Adam Michnik and Yasmine El RashidiHomer…the Rewrite
Madeline Miller and Zachary MasonDocumenting Indigenous Stories Through Film: An Alternative Lens
Lourdes Grobet and Julianna BrannumThrough Trying Times: Stories of Loss and Redemption in the American South
Charles M. Blow and Jesmyn WardThe Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher
Malcolm Margolin and Kim BancroftThe Human Age: The World Shaped By Us
Diane AckermanPerfidia: A Novel
In conversation with author Walter KirnMachinations in the Library
Art Interventions with Machine Project ArtistsThe Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle
Francisco GoldmanNot Uniquely Human: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health
Laurel Braitman, Kathryn Bowers and Dr. Barbara Natterson-HorowitzDear ONE: Love & Longing in Mid-Century Queer America
A Dramatic Reading adapted and directed by Zsa Zsa GershickDenis Johnson and The Starlight on Idaho
Adapted and directed by Darrell Larson, produced by Cedering Fox. Q&A with Denis JohnsonLove: Three Perspectives
Michelle Huneven and Mona SimpsonMoving, Speaking, Watching: Talk and Dance Performance
Wendy Perron, Simone Forti and Victoria MarksLost for Words
Edward St. AubynNo Further West: The Story of Los Angeles Union Station
Panel discussion with Debra Gerod, Jenna Hornstock, Eugene Moy and Marlyn MusicantCreativity: The Perfect Crime
Philippe PetitSentence After Sentence After Sentence
Three Writers on the Not-Exactly-RandomExtraordinary Ordinary Key of Life
Stand Up Straight and Sing!
Jessye NormanThe Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death
Colson WhiteheadThe Voices of Women in American Poetry
Marilyn Chin, Toi Derricotte, and Percival EverettWriting Our Future
Readings from Graduate Writing Programs of the SouthlandThe Agony and Fun of Fiction
Lorrie MooreThe Crusades of Cesar Chavez
Miriam Pawel and Luis ValdezAll Our Names
Dinaw MengestuA Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah ShourdPlato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away
Rebecca Newberger GoldsteinWriting Los Angeles
Walter MosleyEdward Frenkel and Chris Carter
Love, Mathematics and The X-Files"The Odes of Pablo Neruda: A Bilingual Reading
Olga García Echeverría, Francisco Letelier, Marisela Norte, and David ShookCall Me Burroughs
Barry MilesThe Days of Anna Madrigal
Armistead MaupinOrfeo: A Novel
Richard PowersSpirit Rising: My Life, My Music
Angélique KidjoThe Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Jeanne Theoharis and Ericka HugginsA Tribute to Wanda Coleman
With Terrance Hayes and Douglas KearneyDarling: A Spiritual Autobiography
Richard RodriguezQueens of Noise
Music, Feminism and Punk: Then and NowFrequently Asked Questions
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Why do programs fill so quickly!?
ALOUD provides a unique experience for the public to engage with scholars, authors, and artists in the intimate 235-seat Mark Taper Auditorium. Library Foundation Members have the benefit of reserving for programs in advance of the public. Consider joining as a Member to receive this benefit, and check the website on an on-going basis for program availability. Be sure to subscribe to our email alerts, and visit our Media Archive for podcasts and other media items from our recent programs.
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Where does ALOUD take place?
Unless otherwise noted, ALOUD programs are held at the downtown Central Library’s Mark Taper Auditorium.
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Where should I park?
We recommend taking public transportation due to street closures surrounding Central Library. If driving is required, parking for the Central Library is at the Westlawn Garage at 524 S. Flower Street. For more information, visit the Library’s website.
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Should I purchase the author’s book in advance?
We encourage you to purchase books from The Library Store. All proceeds benefit the Los Angeles Public Library. Books are made available for purchase when you reserve for a program online, and are also on sale at programs. In order to participate in the book signing, you must purchase at least one book from The Library Store. Members receive discounts on purchases.
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Where can I find podcasts and videos of ALOUD programs?
Podcasts and videos from our programs are available free online at our growing Media Archive. Visit the archive at lfla.org/archive to explore hundreds of podcasts and videos spanning 20+ years of ALOUD's history bringing authors, artists, and t thinkers to the Los Angeles Public Library.
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