This summer, our critically-acclaimed ALOUD series welcomes memoirists, musicians, poets, novelists, journalists and others to the historic downtown Central Library and beyond for an exciting season of conversations, readings, and performances.
Starting the season off with a bang, on Thursday, Jun. 2, ALOUD presents Eddie Huang – chef, food personality, bestselling Fresh Off the Boat author, and inspiration behind the hit television show of the same name – at the Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo. In a conversation with Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu, Huang discusses his brash new memoir, Double Cup Love, about family, food, and broken hearts. DJ SOSUPERSAM kicks off the evening with a pre-show set. Tickets available at lfla.dev/aloud.
On Tuesday, Jun. 7, acclaimed novelist Judith Freeman shares her arresting, lyrical new memoir set in the patriarchal cloister of Utah in the 1950s and 1960s and the circumstances that informed her course to becoming a writer, with fellow novelist Michelle Huneven.
Writer Yaa Gyasi brings her debut novel, Homegoing – the sweeping account of the many descendants of two half-sisters born in 18th-century Ghana – to ALOUD on Thursday, Jun. 9, for a conversation with comparative mythologist and Afro-Future feminist scholar Ayana A.H. Jamieson.
On Monday, Jun. 20, songwriters, authors, and multi-GRAMMY Award winners Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry share a special evening of music and conversation, reflecting on the intersection of poetry and song.
Award-winning journalist Ben Ehrenreich discusses his new book, The Way to the Spring, and his vivid reporting from Palestine with writer and former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker Amy Wilentz on Wednesday, Jun. 29.
In partnership with PEN Center USA, on Thursday, Jul. 7, ALOUD presents the culminating event of PEN’s 2016 Emerging Voices Fellowship to mark the program’s 20th anniversary with readings from this year’s Fellows: Marnie Goodfriend, Jian Huang, Wendy Labinger, Natalie Lima, and Chelsea Sutton.
On Tuesday, Jul. 12, groundbreaking poets and friends Eileen Myles and Maggie Nelson join ALOUD to read both poetry and prose, discuss their radical and genre-bending work, and as Myles says, to “let thoughts rip.”
On Thursday, Jul. 14, ALOUD presents a live broadcast (on KPFK 90.7) of rare 1960s recordings of author and civil rights advocate James Baldwin, followed by a conversation with KPFK host Brian DeShazor and two writers deeply influenced by Baldwin’s work: novelist Nina Revoyr and Melvin L. Rogers, Associate Professor of Political Science and African-American Studies at UCLA.
Writer Gretel Ehrlich reports on the devastating effects of climate change in Greenland and the effort to share the news at last fall’s Paris climate talks – dashed when terrorists struck the city – in a dialogue with journalist Neal Conan on Tuesday, Jul. 19.
And closing out ALOUD’s twenty-third season, on Tuesday, Jul. 26, artist Sally Mann takes the stage of the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills to discuss family, race, mortality, the American South, and her critically acclaimed and National Book Award finalist work, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs. Mann will be in conversation with New York Times-bestselling author Anthony Marra.Tickets available at lfla.dev/aloud.
Reservations for the Summer 2016 are now open to the public at lfla.dev/aloud. Tickets to “An Evening with Eddie Huang” and “An Evening with Sally Mann” are also on sale at lfla.dev/aloud. Become a Member of the Library Foundation and receive special discounts to ticketed offsite events!