City of West Hollywood
Home MenuWeHo Reads 2018
The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division (www.weho.org/arts) presents WeHo Reads, a celebrated literary series featuring noteworthy authors. This is an archive of events we presented in 2018.
For the current year's schedule please visit www.weho.org/wehoreads
Follow us at @WeHoReads and @WeHoArts.
PAST 2018 EVENTS
Individual WeHo Reads programs are co-sponsored or co-presented by the West Hollywood Library, the Friends of the West Hollywood Library, and Book Soup. For more information on WeHo Reads contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org.
WeHo Reads and Book Soup present: Andre Aciman discusses and signs Call Me By Your Name
Friday, February 23, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City of West Hollywood's Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Author Andre Aciman discusses and signs his novel, Call Me By Your Name, upon which the acclaimed film of the same name is based. He will be in conversation with Abdi Nazemian.
Free Admission. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/2217248948501673
WeHo Reads and Book Soup present: Chelsey Johnson in Conversation with Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater Kinney)
Thursday, March 22, 2018, 7pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City of West Hollywood's Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Join Book Soup and the City of West Hollywood's WeHo Reads program for Chelsey Johnson in conversation with Carrie Brownstein (of Portlandia, Sleater Kinney), discussing and signing her debut novel, Stray City.
Twenty-four-year-old artist Andrea Morales escaped her Midwestern Catholic childhood--and the closet--to create a home and life for herself within the thriving but insular lesbian underground of Portland, Oregon. But one drunken night, reeling from a bad breakup and a friend's betrayal, she recklessly crosses enemy lines and hooks up with a man. To her utter shock, Andrea soon discovers she's pregnant--and despite the concerns of her astonished circle of gay friends, she decides to have the baby.
A decade later, when her precocious daughter Lucia starts asking questions about the father she's never known, Andrea is forced to reconcile the past she hoped to leave behind with the life she's worked so hard to build. A thoroughly modern and original anti-romantic comedy, Stray City is an unabashedly entertaining literary debut about the families we're born into and the families we choose, about finding yourself by breaking the rules, and making bad decisions for all the right reasons.
Tickets: $27.00 (+ tax) (include one copy of Stray City): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chelsey-johnson-in-conversation-w-carrie-brownstein-discusses-stray-city-tickets-42370971717
An Evening with Tennessee Williams
Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 7 pm - 8 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (West Hollywood Library, Second Floor)
The Friends of the West Hollywood Library in collaboration with the West Hollywood Library and the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program present actor Sebastian Galvez in An Intimate Evening with Tennessee Williams. Directed by Tony Award-Winning actor Paul Sand, the presentation showcases Tennessee Williams shortly before he meets the love of his life Frank “Frankie” Merlo. Addressing the audience directly, “Tennessee” shares stories of his life that are so vividly reflected in his work. We learn of the struggles of his early years, his first successes, the price of his fame and his later years of dissolution and decline. Not above blatant Hollywood gossip, he also shares stories of the stars with whom he worked. But throughout the evening, the focus is love.
Admission is free, RSVP required, 1 RSVP per email: https://wehotennesseewilliams.eventbrite.com
Book Soup and the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program present: Michael Imperioli discussing and signing his debut novel "The Perfume Burned His Eyes"
Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Book Soup and the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program present Michael Imperioli, in conversation with author Mark Haskell Smith, discussing and signing his debut novel, The Perfume Burned His Eyes
"Matthew is a sixteen-year-old living in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1976. After he loses his two most important male role models, his father and grandfather, his mother uses her inheritance to uproot Matthew and herself to a posh apartment building in Manhattan. Although only three miles away from his boyhood home, "the city" is a completely new and strange world to Matthew. Matthew soon befriends (and becomes a quasi-assistant to) Lou Reed, who lives with his transgender girlfriend Rachel in the same building. The drug-addled, artistic/shamanic musician eventually becomes an unorthodox father figure to Matthew, who finds himself head over heels for the mysterious Veronica, a wise-beyond-her-years girl he meets at his new school. Written from the point of view of Matthew at age eighteen, two years after the story begins, the novel concludes with an epilogue in the year 2013, three days after Lou Reed's death, with Matthew in his fifties." - Akashic Books
Tickets: $28 (+tax) (includes one copy of The Perfume Burned His Eyes): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michael-imperioli-discusses-signs-his-debut-the-perfume-burned-his-eyes-tickets-43373390980
WeHo Reads Celebrates National Poetry Month:
Route 66 Through the Eyes of Poets
Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 7 pm - 8 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (West Hollywood Library, Second Floor)
West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Kim Dower curates a free poetry reading as the sun goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard. This event follows up on last year's magical 'Sunset Strip through the Eyes of Poets' National Poetry Month event.
Free Admission. RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-route-66-through-the-eyes-of-poets-tickets-38855689413
One City One Pride kickoff & Harvey Milk Day celebration: Dear Harvey reading
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City of West Hollywood's Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Join the City of West Hollywood's One City One Pride festival and WeHo Reads program for a free staged reading of Patricia Loughrey's Dear Harvey organized and produced by Celebration Theatre, the world's oldest LGBTQ theatre. There will be light refreshments served as part of this event.
Free Admission, RSVP required: https://onecityonepridedearharvey2018.eventbrite.com
WeHo Reads and One City One Pride present the Lambda Literary Awards Finalists
Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City of West Hollywood's Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Join the City of West Hollywood's One City One Pride festival and WeHo Reads program for readings from the 30th Annual Lambda Lit Award Finalists.
Free Admission, RSVP required: https://onecityonepridelambdalit2018.eventbrite.com
WeHo Reads and One City One Pride present Lillian Faderman discussing and signing Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death
Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd, 90069 (City of West Hollywood's Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library)
Join the City of West Hollywood's One City One Pride festival, WeHo Reads program, and Lesbian Speaker Series as Lillian Faderman (Gay L.A., Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle) discusses and signs her new book Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death.
Free Admission, RSVP required: https://onecityonepridelillianfaderman.eventbrite.com
Seymour Stein in conversation with Henry Rollins
Wednesday, July 11, 2018, 7pm
City Council Chambers, 625 N San Vicente Blvd.
Book Soup and the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads present Seymour Stein, in conversation with Henry Rollins, discussing and signing Siren Song: My Life in Music. Seymour Stein is America's greatest living record man. Not only has he signed and nurtured more important artists than anyone alive, now sixty years in the game, he's still the hippest label head, travelling the globe in search of the next big thing. Since the late fifties, he's been wherever it's happening: Billboard, Tin Pan Alley, The British Invasion, CBGB, Studio 54, Danceteria, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, the CD crash. Along that winding path, he discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars: Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Madonna, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, and many others. Brimming with hilarious scenes and character portraits, Siren Song's wider narrative is about modernity in motion, and the slow acceptance of diversity in America - thanks largely to daring pop music. Including both the high and low points in his life, Siren Song touches on everything from his discovery of Madonna to his wife Linda Stein's violent death.
Ask anyone in the music business, Seymour Stein is a legend. Sung from the heart, Siren Song will etch his story in stone. (St. Martins Press)
Tickets ($29) are required for this event and include one copy of Siren Song to be received at check in. A book signing with Seymour Stein will follow the talk. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-seymour-stein-in-conversation-with-henry-rollins-tickets-46851376729
A limited number of free tickets (which do not include a copy of the book) are available to residents of the City of West Hollywood. Tickets will be made available at 6:30pm the day of the event to the first 20 people who present a driver’s license, lease agreement, or utility bill showing proof of residency in West Hollywood (please doublecheck that your address is in West Hollywood here: www.weho.org/streets).
WeHo Reads:
Lambda Lit Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellows Reading
Wednesday, August 8, 2018, 7 pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Join the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and Lambda Literary for a WeHo Reads event featuring readers from the 2018 Lambda Lit Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices.
The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices was established in 2007 and is the first of its kind ever offered to LGBTQ writers: a one-week intensive immersion in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, genre fiction and playwriting which allows authors to be mentored by the very best writers of the LGBTQ community, to develop one’s craft, and build a strong community of peers.
Free admission. No RSVP necessary. Parking is free with validation at the event.
For more info: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/writers-retreat/
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Tickets ($29+tax, includes one copy of A Star is Born) are for sale at www.booksoup.com. A limited number of free tickets (which do not include a copy of the book) are available to residents of the City of West Hollywood with valid proof of residency, and will be given out beginning at 6 pm on the event day.
WeHo Reads: Patt Morrison and Larry Mantle
Friday, September 28, 2018, 7 pm
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
The Friends of the West Hollywood Library and the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division will present Los Angeles Times journalist Patt Morrison in conversation with KPCC radio host Larry Mantle, discussing Morrison’s new book Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper, on Friday, September 28, at 7:00 p.m. in the West Hollywood Park Public Meeting Room/City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069. The evening will include a book signing and a reception to celebrate the Library’s seventh anniversary, and is part of the City’s WeHo Reads literary series.
Books will be for sale by Angel City Press. A book signing will follow the conversation. The Friends of the West Hollywood Library will host a reception as part of this event.
For more information, call Friends of the Library at 323-929-2359 or check Facebook @WeHoFOL and @WeHoReads.
Admission is Free. Parking is free with validation. RSVP requested: https://wehoreadspattmorrison.eventbrite.com
WeHo Reads: Eloise Klein Healy and West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Kim Dower
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Books will be for sale by West Hollywood bookseller Book Soup. A book signing will follow the conversation.
The Friends of the West Hollywood Library will host a reception as part of this event.
Co-presented by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and ALOUD, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ celebrated literary series of conversations, readings and performances. An official selection of Lambda LitFest LA 2018.
Free Admission, RSVP at anotherphase.eventbrite.com Parking is free with validation at the event.
WeHo Reads: Patrisse Cullors Live
Saturday, October 6, 2018, 6 pm
Plummer Park's Fiesta Hall
7377 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Lambda Lit with support from the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division presents a WeHo Reads event featuring Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter in live podcast taping with Eric Newsome and the LA Review of Books (LARB) Radio Hour. Topics covered will include Patrisse’s memoir, LGBT issues, and Black Lives Matter. Part of Lambda LitFest LA. The conversation will last approximately 35 minutes to be followed by an audience Q&A.
Free admission. RSVP requested at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lambda-litfest-la-presents-live-with-patrisse-cullors-tickets-49875416714
WeHo Reads: Michael York discusses The Readiness Is All
Friday, November 9, 2018, 7 pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Join the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division for a WeHo Reads event featuring Michael York discussing his new book The Readiness Is All: My Odyssey of Healing from Mayo Clinic to John of God and Beyond.
Inspirational, entertaining, and heroic, Michael York's odyssey reveals more than one person's encounter with disease - it will empower anyone confronting adversity, especially those turning to the soul for hope. The book chronicles his experiences with Amyloidosis, a blood plasma disorder from which he suffered and for which he as treated for among other therapies, with two stem cell transplants.
Michael York is an actor known for starring in films such as Franco Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Joseph Losey’s Accident, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret with Liza Minnelli, Something for Everyone with Angela Lansbury, the all-star Murder on the Orient Express, The Last Remake of Beau Geste, as d’Artagnan in The Three(and The Four) Musketeers, the title role in Logan’s Run, playing himself in Billy Wilder’s Fedora and opposite Burt Lancaster in The Island of Dr. Moreau. He has written several books including an autobiography Accidentally on Purpose (Simon & Schuster, 1991), A Shakespearean Actor Prepares (Smith and Kraus, 2000), Dispatches from Armageddon (Smith and Kraus, 2001), and Are My Blinkers Showing: filmmaking in the new Russia (Da Capo Press, 2005).
A book signing will follow the event. Books will be for sale by West Hollywood bookseller, Book Soup.
Free admission. RSVP requested at https://wehoreadsmichaelyork.eventbrite.com, Parking is free with validation at the event.
WeHo Reads: Tales from The Strip, A Century in the Fast Lane
Tuesday, December 4, 2018, 7 pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Join the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division for a WeHo Reads event featuring the authors of Tales from The Strip: A Century in the Fast Lane - Van Gordon Sauter, Robert Landau, and Frans Evenhuis.
Tales from The Strip: A Century in the Fast Lane (Angel City Press, 2018) is a thought-provoking—and riotous—amble from Doheny to Crescent Heights on America’s most famous strip, the Sunset Strip. From its legendary hotels and clubs to its notorious mobsters to its thriving intellectual haunts, life on the Sunset Strip from its earliest days makes Tales from The Strip a path of plenty—direct from the keyboard of journalist and raconteur Van Gordon Sauter, with visuals created, researched, curated, and designed by Robert Landau and Frans Evenhuis.
For everyone who ever danced at the Whisky a GoGo, bought spats at gangster Mickey Cohen’s haberdashery, longed to go to the Playboy Club, frolicked at the Roxy, tangoed at Ciro’s, rocked and rolled at Tower Records, or rubbed shoulders with Sir Elton John at Book Soup, this event will be a wonderful trip both down memory lane and Sunset Boulevard.
A book signing will follow the event. Books will be for sale by Angel City Press.
A reception hosted by the Friends of the West Hollywood Library will be a part of this event.
Free admission. RSVP requested at: https://wehoreadstalesfromthestrip.eventbrite.com, Parking is free with validation at the event.
WeHo Reads: Congo Stories - Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed
Monday, December 10, 2018, 7 pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and Book Soup present a WeHo Reads event featuring John Prendergest & Fidel Bafilemba, with Ryan Gosling & Chou Chou Namegabe (Congolese journalist), discussing and signing Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed
Featuring the life story of Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. From the author of the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Not on Our Watch, John Prendergast co-writes a compelling book with Fidel Bafilemba--with stunning photographs by Ryan Gosling--revealing the way in which the people and resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been used throughout the last five centuries to build, develop, advance, and safeguard the United States and Europe. The book highlights the devastating price Congo has paid for that support. However, the way the world deals with Congo is finally changing, and the book tells the remarkable stories of those in Congo and the United States leading that transformation.
Through Gosling's photographs of Congolese daily life, Bafilemba's profiles of heroic Congolese activists, and Prendergast's narratives of the extraordinary history and evolving social movements that directly link Congo with the United States and Europe, Congo Stories provides windows into the history, the people, the challenges, the possibilities, and the movements that could change the course of Congo's destiny. (Grand Central Publishing)
Tickets (available on Eventbrite) are $29 and include one entry and one copy of Congo Stories to be received at check in. A book signing will follow the talk. Free parking validation will be provided at the event.
20 free tickets (which do not include a copy of the book) will be provided to West Hollywood residents upon providing proof of residency via a government ID, lease or utility bill. Please confirm your address is in West Hollywood by visiting www.weho.org/streets. There is a limit of 2 tickets per person, and tickets may not be resold. These tickets can be reserved in advance until tickets no longer remain by emailing Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org. The physical tickets must be picked up by 6 pm on the night of the event, or they will be released to those on standby.
Questions about the event? Please call Book Soup at 310-659-3110 or visit www.booksoup.com
For more information on the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program, please visit www.weho.org/wehoreads.
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