Moving the Center: African Literature in African Languages

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a world-renowned Kenyan writer, scholar, and social activist. Ngũgĩ’s diverse body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, articles, essays, and poems, which have been translated into over 60 languages. A Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine, he has received numerous awards and 11 honorary doctorates. Ngũgĩ refers to himself as a “language warrior” because of his fight for the recognition of his native Gĩkũyũ and other marginalized languages.

Richard Ali A Mutu

Richard Ali A Mutu was born in Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1988. He won the Mark Twain Award in 2009, and published his first novel, Tabu’s Nightmares, written in French, in 2011. His novel Mr. Fix-It, the first novel written in Lingala to be translated into English, appeared from Phoneme Media in 2017. Ali was the only writer working in indigenous languages for the Africa 39 anthology, which showcased the continent’s most talented writers under forty, including Chimamanda Adichie and Dinaw Mengetsu. He works as a lawyer and writer in Kinshasa, and hosts a weekly television program about Congolese literature.

David Schook

David Shook is a poet, translator, and founder of Los Angeles-based nonprofit publishing house Phoneme Media. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Oxford, Shook has performed his poetry in dozens of countries, from the Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh to London’s Southbank, South by Southwest to PEN Haiti. His writing has appeared in Ambit, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review, and World Literature Today, among many other publications. He is a contributing editor to Ambit, Bengal Lights, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and World Literature Today. Follow Shook on Twitter @yearofpoetry and Instagram @dogamongmen

Reservation Policy for Free Programs:
As most ALOUD at Central Library programs are free of charge, it is our policy to overbook. In the case of a FULL program your free reservation may not guarantee admission. We recommend arriving early. Space permitting, unclaimed reservations will be released to standby patrons at approximately 7 PM.

Standby Policy:
Standby numbers are distributed in person only one hour before the program, on a first-come, first-served, basis. There is no advance wait list for full programs. Standby patrons will be admitted subject to availability. Most programs will be available via podcast.

Book Signing Policy:
ALOUD is one of many free programs at the Los Angeles Public Library made possible by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Most ALOUD author programs are followed by book signings. At least one copy of the author’s book must be purchased from The Library Store in order to participate in any post-program book signing, and you will be asked to show proof of purchase. Please be prepared to show your proof of purchase when you enter the book signing line. Proceeds support the Los Angeles Public Library.