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Home MenuWeHo Reads 2019
The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division (www.weho.org/arts) presents WeHo Reads, a celebrated literary series featuring noteworthy authors. Here is an archive of our 2019 events.
For the current listings visit www.weho.org/wehoreads.
Follow us at @WeHoReads and @WeHoArts.
PAST 2019 EVENTS
WeHo Reads: The Liberation of Ivy Bottini - A Memoir of Love and Activism
Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 7pm
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 highlighting the new book The Liberation of Ivy Bottini, A Memoir of Love and Activism featuring a conversation between feminist, LGBTQ activist, and West Hollywood icon Ivy Bottini and biographer Judith V. Branzburg.
Colorful, charismatic, magnetic, brilliant are just a few of the words used to describe Ivy Bottini, a woman who was at the forefront of the NOW movement and the second wave of feminism. She helped found the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women and in 1969 designed the NOW logo that is still used today. She moved to LA County in 1971 and became an activist for many LGBT causes, co-founding the Coalition for Human Rights, the Los Angeles Lesbian/Gay Police Advisory Board, AIDS Network LA, and AIDS Project LA. Her stories of transformative personal growth, sacrifice and activism are not only inspirational and educational, but also a model for activism from a leader in two of the most important liberation movements of the past half century—women’s liberation and gay and lesbian liberation.
A book signing will follow, with books available for sale by Book Soup. Presented by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division and sponsored by the City's Lesbian Speaker Series, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the LA LGBT Center - Senior Services, Hollywood NOW, and the June Mazer Lesbian Archives.
Free Admission. RSVP requested at
https://wehoreadsivybottini.eventbrite.com
For more info on this event please contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org
WeHo Reads: Beverly Park: The Kiddieland that Inspired Walt Disney by Jay Jennings
Tuesday, February 12, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free Admission
Join the City of West Hollywood's Arts Division for a WeHo Reads event featuring the launch of a new book Beverly Park: The Kiddieland that Inspired Walt Disney and an opening reception for an exhibition in the West Hollywood Library featuring photographs from the book.
Beverly Park holds a special place in the hearts of local Los Angeles area natives who frequented this special amusement park from 1943 to 1974. Located at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega Boulevards on the border of West Hollywood where the Beverly Center now stands, it was a unique experience that touched the lives of anyone who ever went there. It was best known for its canopied birthday parties, but it was just as popular for the park's entertaining thrill rides, celebrity sightings and as a place where divorced parents took their kids on weekends. Beverly Park had a magnetic appeal to it, resulting in generations of families going there to enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere, complete with Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, boat ride, roller coaster, and haunted castle, all the while captivating children from all walks of life into coming back, week after week, for more than 30 years.
Free Admission. RSVP here.
WeHo Reads: Sissy, A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Join the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division, Book Soup, and ONE Archives for a WeHo Reads event featuring Jacob Tobia, in conversation with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, discussing and signing, Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story.
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), is a heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above.
From the moment a doctor in Raleigh, North Carolina, put "male" on Jacob Tobia's birth certificate, everything went wrong. Alongside "male" came many other, far less neutral words: words that carried expectations about who Jacob was and who Jacob should be, words like "masculine" and "aggressive" and "cargo shorts" and "SPORTS!" Naturally sensitive, playful, creative, and glitter-obsessed, as a child Jacob was given the label "sissy." In the two decades that followed, "sissy" joined forces with "gay," "trans," "nonbinary," and "too-queer-to-function" to become a source of pride and, today, a rallying cry for a much-needed gender revolution. Through revisiting their childhood and calling out the stereotypes that each of us have faced, Jacob invites us to rethink what we know about gender and offers a bold blueprint for a healed world--one free from gender-based trauma and bursting with trans-inclusive feminism. From Jacob's Methodist childhood and the hallowed halls of Duke University to the portrait-laden parlors of the White House, Sissy takes you on a gender odyssey you won't soon forget. Writing with the fierce honesty, wildly irreverent humor, and wrenching vulnerability that have made them a media sensation, Jacob shatters the long-held notion that people are easily sortable into "men" and "women." Sissy guarantees that you'll never think about gender--both other people's people's and your own--the same way again.
Celebrated gender nonconforming writer, producer, and performer Jacob Tobia has quickly established themself as a breakout voice for the nonbinary, genderqueer, and trans communities. Named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and one of the OUT 100, Jacob was a producer for Amazon’s Emmy Award-winning show Transparent and created, coproduced, and hosted Queer 2.0, a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ series on NBC News. With bylines everywhere from The New York Times to TIME to Teen Vogue, Jacob has blazed a trail for gender nonconformity and contributed to the chorus of queer voices challenging normative notions of gender and sexuality, advocating for inclusivity and empathy, and helping others embrace and own their truths.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson currently stars as “Mitchell Pritchett” on the Award-‐winning ABC comedy Modern Family. Currently filming its 10th season, the show has earned five Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Ferguson has also received five Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and three People’s Choice Award nominations for "Favorite Comedic TV Actor."
Tickets ($26+tax, includes one copy of SISSY) are on sale from Book Soup here. 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 6:15 pm on the night of the event, or they will be released to those on standby.
For more info about this event please call Book Soup at 310-659-3110 or visit www.booksoup.com
The City of West Hollywood's Arts Division and Book Soup present:
WeHo Reads: Too Much is Not Enough by Andrew Rannells
Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
From the star of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and HBO’s Girls, comes the heartfelt and hilarious coming-of-age memoir of a Midwestern boy surviving bad auditions, bad relationships, and some really bad highlights as he chases his dreams in New York City. When Andrew Rannells left Nebraska for New York City in 1997, he, like many young hopefuls, saw the city as a chance to break free. To start over. To transform the fiercely ambitious but sexually confused teenager he saw in the mirror into the Broadway leading man of his dreams.
In Too Much Is Not Enough, Rannells takes us on the journey of a twentysomething hungry to experience everything New York has to offer: new friends, wild nights, great art, standing ovations. As Rannells fumbles his way towards the Great White Way, he also shares the drama of failed auditions and behind-the-curtain romances, the heartbreak of losing his father at the height of his struggle, and the exhilaration of making his Broadway debut in Hairspray at the age of twenty-six. Honest and hilarious, Too Much Is Not Enough is an unforgettable look at love, loss, and the powerful forces that determine who we become. A book signing will follow the talk.
Tickets ($26+tax, includes one copy of Too Much is Not Enough) are on sale from Book Soup here. 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 6:15 pm on the night of the event, or they will be released to those on standby.
For more info about this event please call Book Soup at 310-659-3110 or visit www.booksoup.com
WeHo Reads celebrates National Poetry Month: Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco and former West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Kim Dower
Wednesday, April 10, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free Admission
Join the City of West Hollywood's Arts Division for an event celebrating National Poetry Month featuring a conversation between the authors of two new poetry collections: Inaugural Poet (for Barack Obama) Richard Blanco’s How to Love a Country and former West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Kim Dower’s Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave.
Following the conversation, there will be a book-signing with books available for sale by Book Soup, and a reception hosted by the Friends of the West Hollywood Library.
Admission is free. Free validated parking will be provided in the adjacent 5 story Public/Park Parking structure. For more info on this event contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, mche@weho.org.
RSVP: https://wehoreadsrichardblancokimdower.eventbrite.com
WeHo Reads celebrates National Poetry Month: Lingua Franca, curated by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Charles Flowers
Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free admission
Join the City of West Hollywood's Arts Division in our celebration of National Poetry Month. Inspired by Adrienne Rich's Dream of a Common Language, join us for a reading of international poetry by poets from Belgium, India, Iran, Poland and Puerto Rico, among other countries, curated by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Charles Flowers.
Featuring poets
Kazim Ali, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Elena Karina Byrne, Blas Falconer, Piotr Florczyck, and Vandana Khanna.
Admission is free. Free validated parking will be provided in the adjacent 5 story Public/Park Parking structure. A small reception will follow the event and books by the poets will be for sale.
RSVP: https://wehoreadslinguafranca.eventbrite.com
For more info on this event, contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, mche@weho.org
WeHo Reads/One City One Pride: Lambda Lit Award Finalists Reading
Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Each year the City of West Hollywood's Arts Division hosts the annual Lambda Lit Award Finalists reading as part of One City One Pride.
Admission is free. Free validated parking will be provided in the adjacent 5 story Public/Park Parking structure.
For more info on this event, WeHo Reads or One City One Pride contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, mche@weho.org
PRISM Comics Presents: Crush: First Love, New Talent
Sunday, June 30, 2019, 2:30pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Prism Comics will present an LGBTQ comic anthology about first (queer) love. There will be readings from the book followed by a book-signing. The reading will be presented as part of One City One Pride's "Day of Art" festival. Click here to learn more about the Day of Art event.
WeHo Reads: Lambda Lit Fellows Reading
Wednesday, August 7, 2019, 7pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices (a program of Lambda Literary) 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. The Retreat is an opportunity to be mentored by the very best writers of the LGBTQ community, to develop one’s craft, make connections with publishing industry professionals and build a strong community of peers. This reading will highlight the work of this year's retreat fellows, who will read from writings work-shopped at the retreat.
WeHo Reads and One City One Pride present the Lambda Literary Awards Finalists
Wednesday, May 23, 2019, 7pm
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
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
Seymour Stein in conversation with Henry Rollins
Wednesday, July 11, 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: City of Immortals
Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 7pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free admission. RSVP requested.
https://wehoreads-immortals.eventbrite.com
Join the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division for a WeHo Reads event celebrating the hauntingly unforgettable new book, City of Immortals: Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by writer, photographer, and longtime West Hollywood resident Carolyn Campbell.
Released just in time for Halloween, City of Immortals is a first-person account of the most famous cemetery in the world. Featuring new unpublished material, the volume contains over 100 original color photographs, and an illustrated pull-out map of the legendary necropolis – the result of Campbell’s three decades of research, study, and photography.
Established in 1804 by Napoleonic decree, Père-Lachaise is a 107-acre labyrinth boasting the final resting places of more celebrated artists, architects, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers and actors – Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Frédéric Chopin, Isadora Duncan, Amedeo Modigliani, Sarah Bernhardt, and Colette to name a few – than any other location in the world. It is also a magnificent open-air museum of sculpture and architecture, representing the first revolutionary design in memorial parks and the fourth most popular destination for the 65 million tourists who visit Paris each year (behind the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe).
The author’s talk will include a slide show, a Q&A, a raffle of a free book and giveaway souvenir photos to people who show up in costume dressed as someone buried at the cemetery. A book signing will follow, with books available for sale by Book Soup. Published by Goff Books.
For more info on this event please contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org
WeHo Reads/West Hollywood Artists and Icons: Felice Picano
Wednesday, December 11, 2019, 7pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Free admission. RSVP requested. https://wehoreads-felicepicano.eventbrite.com
Longtime West Hollywood resident and literary icon Felice Picano presents "Coming to Hollywood: 1935-2000, in Words and Pictures" sharing his research on LGBTQ Hollywood for his two novellas, along with readings from the novellas. He will also share the impact that living in West Hollywood has had on his artistic and literary career. Felice's newest book is Justify My Sins: A Hollywood Novel in Three Acts.
Felice Picano’s first book was a finalist for the PEN/ Hemingway Award. Since then, he has published twenty volumes of fiction, poetry, and memoirs. Considered a founding member of modern gay literature along with other members of the Violet Quill Club, he founded two publishing companies: SeaHorse Press and Gay Presses of New York. Among his award-winning books are the novels Like People in History, The Book of Lies, and Onyx. He lives and works in West Hollywood.
For more info on this event please contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org
How the NFL D*mn Near Killed Me, and Ended Up Saving My Life
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 7pm
City Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library
625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Book Soup and the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program present Ryan O’Callaghan discussing and signing My Life on the Line: How the NFL D*mn Near Killed Me, and Ended Up Saving My Life
Ryan O'Callaghan's plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in a politically conservative corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man from his family and from TV and film routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on the darkest secret he kept buried inside was not an option: better death with a secret than life as a gay man. As a kid, Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. He was recruited by the University of California, Berkeley, where he spent five seasons, playing alongside his friend Aaron Rodgers. Then it was on to the NFL for stints with the almost-undefeated New England Patriots and the often-defeated Kansas City Chiefs.
Bubbling under the surface of Ryan's entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. When the league caught him smoking pot, he turned to NFL-sanctioned prescription painkillers that quickly sent his life into a tailspin. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time. Nearing the twilight of his career, Ryan faced the ultimate decision: end it all, or find out if his family and football friends could ever accept a gay man in their lives. (Edge of Sports)
Ryan O’Callaghan will be in conversation with his co-author Cyd Ziegler. A booksigning with both men will follow the program. Tickets (Free-$30) are available on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-ryan-ocallaghan-tickets-74314700269 Free tickets do not include a copy of the book. $30 tickets include a copy of the book.
Questions about the event? Please call Book Soup at 310-659-3110.