The Library Foundation of Los Angeles Announces Fall 2023 ALOUD Season

Featured Authors Include National Book Critics Circle and GRAMMY Awardwinner Zadie Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winner and United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, Former White House Aide Alejandra Campoverdi, L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist Lauren Groff, National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award-winner Santi Elijah Holley, and others.

(Los Angeles, CA – August 22, 2023) The Library Foundation of Los Angeles announces the fall 2023 ALOUD season with a dynamic lineup featuring acclaimed authors, visionary poets, and insightful journalists. “This season, ALOUD is presenting important and relevant voices to examine the topic of Identity, a theme that encompasses self-discovery and connection. Presented by writers who delve deeply into exploring their own lives and creative work, the conversations this season seek to help us better understand who we are individually, collectively helping us comprehend who we are in our communities and as part of the broader world. This is part of ALOUD’s larger commitment to engage L.A. with our City libraries,” says Jessica Strand, Director of Public Programs.

Kicking off our season on September 6 is award-winning journalist and influential social critic Naomi Klein with her intellectual adventure story of a “Mirror World.” Famed British author Zadie Smith comes to L.A. to discuss her new historical novel about literary London and a celebrated court case; Women’s health advocate Alejandra Campoverdi talks to comedian Aida Rodriguez about the impact of being a first-generation Latina; acclaimed novelist Lauren Groff brings us a story of survival in the colonial wilderness; prominent writer and essayist Santi Elijah Holley is in conversation with Dr. Melina Abdullah about the inspiring story of the Shakur family and their influence on Black justice and liberation; esteemed conservator Rosa Lowinger discusses her memoir and her turbulent journey with family, connection, and art with journalist Carolina A. Miranda; notable poet Tracy K. Smith shares her new book about Black life and the toll of America, and writer Cristina Rivera Garza who brings us on the journey of finding justice for her sister.

This season, ALOUD is proud to partner with L.A.’s top-rated indie bookstore Skylight Books and “Bookseller to the great and infamous,” Book Soup.

All programs are free of charge and take place at the Mark Taper Auditorium at the Los Angeles Central Library unless otherwise noted. For more information or to make reservations, please visit lfla.org/aloud.

Full list of programs below:

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
Naomi Klein
In conversation with Cory Doctorow
Wednesday, September 6, 2023 @ 7:00PM

Co-presented with Skylight Books

In her best-selling books, celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein documents the effects of branding, austerity, and climate profiteering on our societies and our souls. Using her own story of an antithetical doppelganger, she looks at what she refers to as the “Mirror World” of our destabilized present, full of doubles and confusion. This is just the beginning of her part comic memoir and part chilling reportage about the world we’re living in and a path beyond confusion and despair.

Klein will be in conversation with the Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author Cory Doctorow.

The Fraud
Zadie Smith
In conversation with David L. Ulin
Wednesday, September 20 @ 7:00PM

The Aratani Theatre

Co-presented with Skylight Books

Highly acclaimed novelist Zadie Smith comes to Los Angeles to discuss her new historical novel, The Fraud, based on real events involving the “Tichborne Trial,” one of the longest and most controversial trials in England during the Victorian Age. Looking at Jamaica and Britain, truth and fiction, and fraudulence and authenticity, Smith mines with great precision the intricacies and inequities of a trial that divided a country.

Smith will be in conversation with renowned writer, editor, and book critic David L. Ulin.

First Gen: A Memoir
Alejandra Campoverdi
In conversation with TBD
Thursday, September 21 @ 7:00PM

Books to be purchased through Book Soup

From former White House aide to President Obama and Harvard graduate Alejandra Campoverdi comes a riveting unflinching memoir on navigating social mobility as a first-gen Latina. She offers a broad examination of the unacknowledged emotional tolls of being a trailblazer. Join us as we follow Campoverdi’s journey, from being a child of welfare to becoming a candidate for U.S. Congress. Part memoir, part manifesto, First Gen is a story of generational inheritance, aspiration, and belonging – a poignant journey to “reclaim the parts of ourselves we sacrificed in order to survive.”

The Vaster Wilds
Lauren Groff
In conversation with Melissa Chadburn
Tuesday, September 26 @ 7:00PM
Zipper Concert Hall, Colburn School

Co-presented with Skylight Books

Best-selling novelist Lauren Groff returns to ALOUD with her riveting novel, The Vaster Wilds. Set in the colonial wilderness, the novel is part adventure and part fable about a servant girl who tries to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the turbulence of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.

Groff will be in conversation with writer and activist Melissa Chadburn.

An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created
Santi Elijah Holley
In conversation with Melina Abdullah
Wednesday, October 11 @ 7:00PM

Co-presented with Skylight Books

Award-winning journalist Santi Elijah Holley brings us a long overdue look at the Shakur family who, for over 50 years, have inspired generations of activists, scholars, and music fans. An Amerikan Family is the history of the fight for Black liberation in the United States, as experienced by the Shakurs. From Assata Shakur, the popular author and thinker, living for three decades in Cuban exile to the late, great rapper Tupac to roots in the Black Panther movement, and beyond, the Shakurs have been at the forefront of fighting for racial justice in the United States.

Holley will be in conversation with American academic, civic leader, and co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter Dr. Melina Abdullah.

Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile and Repair
Rosa Lowinger
In conversation with Carolina A. Miranda
Wednesday, October 18 @ 7:00PM

Co-presented with Skylight Books

Renowned art conservator Rosa Lowinger reveals in her beautiful memoir Dwell Time a journey of her difficult childhood in Miami growing up among people whose losses in the Cuban revolution, and earlier by the decimation of family in the Holocaust, clouded all family life. Through Lowinger’s relentless clear-eyed efforts to be the best practitioner possible while squarely facing her fraught personal and work relationships, she comes to terms with her identity as Cuban and Jewish, American and Latinx.

Lowinger will be in conversation with Los Angeles Times’s art and design columnist Carolina A. Miranda.

To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
Tracy K. Smith
In conversation with Morgan Parker
Thursday, November 9 @ 7:00PM
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre

Co-presented with Skylight Books

ALOUD welcomes two-time Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith with her remarkable book To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul. In 2020, heartsick from consistent assaults on Black life, Smith found herself soul-searching and digging into the historical archive for help navigating the “din of human division and strife.” Bearing witness to the terms of freedom afforded her as a Black woman, a mother, and an educator in the 21st century, Smith etches a portrait of where we find ourselves four hundred years into the American experiment.

Smith will be in conversation with poet, novelist, and editor Morgan Parker.

Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
Cristina Rivera Garza
Thursday, November 15 @ 7:00PM

Co-presented with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Skylight Books

In 2019, Cristina Rivera Garza traveled from her home in Texas to Mexico City, in search of an old unresolved criminal file. “My name is Cristina Rivera Garza,” she wrote in her request to the attorney general, “and I am writing to you as a relative of Liliana Rivera, who was murdered on July 16, 1990.” Knowing there is only a slim chance of recovering the file, Cristina is inspired by feminist movements across the world and enraged by the global epidemic of femicide and embarks on a path toward justice. This is her account and the outcome of an amazing journey.

This program is in partnership with the LA Phil’s Pan American Music Initiative and the new ballet called Revolución diamantina, reflecting on the Glitter Revolution in Mexico City, composed by artistic curator Gabriela Ortiz, inspired by Cristina Rivera Garza. Music from the ballet will be performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall from November 16–19.

Sponsors for ALOUD include the Estate of Suzanne E. Aran, ArentFox Schiff LLP, Hearst Foundations, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, individual Library Foundation of Los Angeles donors and members, and additional support provided by the Los Angeles Public Library.

About ALOUD
ALOUD is the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’s series of bold, powerful programs that has presented over 1,200 public programs featuring a range of authors, scientists, thinkers, artists, journalists, and more. The critically acclaimed ALOUD series engages Angelenos in critical civic and cultural discourse, inspiring lifelong learning and exploring. Free and open to the public, programs will continue to evolve as we experiment, take risks, and try new ideas that are informed by the changing world and the audience we serve.

About the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
The Library Foundation of Los Angeles provides critical support to the Los Angeles Public Library resulting in free programs, resources, and services available to the millions of adults, children, and youth of Los Angeles. Through fundraising, advocacy, and innovative programs, the Library Foundation strengthens the Los Angeles Public Library and promotes greater awareness of its valuable resources. For more information, please visit LFLA.org.