Spend the Summer with ALOUD!

Next month, ALOUD launches into its summer season with 11 wide-ranging programs exploring performance, identity, animals, writing, and more. Join us!

On Tuesday, June 3, the season kicks off with a special visit to the U.S. by acclaimed English author Edward St. Aubyn in conversation with KCRW “Bookworm” Michael Silverblatt about Lost for Words, his first work since completing The Patrick Melrose Novels.

ONE Magazine covers from the 1950s and 1960s, courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries

Performance takes center stage as veterans of the dance world Wendy Perron, Simone Forti, and Victoria Marks convene on Tuesday, June 10 to discuss new ways of bringing words and movement together. Later, on Monday, June 23, ALOUD joins with WordTheatre to present the newest epistolary from celebrated author and playwright Denis Johnson, “The Starlight on Idaho.” In this unique adaptation – not quite a story and not quite a play – actors Chris Bauer (True Blood), Jeff Perry (Scandal), and others bring voice to Johnson’s adventurous words, with Johnson joining the crew for a post-performance Q&A.

On Saturday, June 28, in collaboration with ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, ALOUD presents “DearONE,” a dramatic reading of letters from ordinary queer Americans written to L.A.’s ONE Magazine, the first openly gay and lesbian periodical in the United States.

Machine Project, one of L.A.’s most experimental and dynamic programming teams, turns their curatorial eye to the Central Library on Saturday, July 26. Through sound, dance, and site-specific video installations, artists from the gallery will transform various areas of the Library into an interactive multimedia playground, inviting the audience to explore the space in new and unique ways.

On Wednesday, June 18, renowned writers Michelle Huneven and Mona Simpson delve into a discussion about love’s tangled and complex morality on the occasion of their new books with eminent psychoanalyst and theorist Dr. Christopher Bollas. Genre-defying British writer Geoff Dyer shares from his new book, Another Great Day at Sea, on Thursday, June 26.

Science historian Laurel Braitman, science writer Kathryn Bowers, and cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz discuss the astonishing connection between human and animal health on Thursday, July 10. danah boyd, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, skewers misunderstandings and anxieties about the online lives of teens with media scholar Henry Jenkins on Tuesday, July 29.

Novelist and journalist Francisco Goldman reflects on the challenges of embracing Mexico City as home in his new poetic and philosophical work, The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle on Thursday, July 17. And closing out the season on July 30, writer and former Clinton speechwriter and policy advisor Eric Liu examines the rise of the Chinese American dream in his new collection of personal essays, A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream.

The ALOUD summer calendar is now online, so make your reservations for these free programs before it’s too late!

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