I've been working hard on putting together things for our Beltane community celebration & just finished making the menu of what I'm cooking myself for the feast! Please come join us!

Japantown before and after the West End neighborhood was demolished to create Capitol Mall in the 1960s. 

West End was a Sacramento neighborhood located between the Sacramento River and the Capitol and was redeveloped into what is now Downtown Commons and Capitol Mall. Neighborhoods of color were pushed out and demolished. Areas affected included Japantown, located between 3rd and 5th and L and O streets. The California History Section's Photo Collection includes views of Japantown before and after the redevelopment of Capitol Mall. The first photo, from 1938, provides a view of 4th and L Street looking west, showing many Japantown businesses like Nippon Theater on the left and the Aki Company on the right. The second photo, from 1980, shows the rear-view of the building that replaced these businesses during redevelopment: the Sacramento Union Newspaper building. After the Union folded, their building was demolished. Since 2005, what once was the heart of Japantown is now a fenced-off vacant lot.  

Interested in learning more? Join us for a talk about this once bustling neighborhood of West End, and the vibrant communities who once called it their home, and how Sacramento leaders erased this place. For more information and to register, visit: https://libraryca.libcal.com/event/11317410

Ready some free Christmas noir fun?

LOA Live presents I’m Dreaming of a Noir Christmas: Classic Crime Thrillers of the 1960s

With Geoffrey O’Brien, Sarah Weinman, Gene Seymour, and David Lehman Tuesday, December 5th

6:00 to 7:00 pm Eastern

To cap LOA LIVE’s fall season, a killer lineup of panelists explores classic crime thrillers of the 1960s, from Donald Westlake-writing-as-Richard Stark’s taut smash-and-grab heist novel The Score to Patricia Highsmith’s eerie potboiler The Tremor of Forgery.  

Join Geoffrey O’Brien, editor of Crime Novels of the 1960s, along with noir maven Sarah Weinman (The Real Lolita), cultural critic Gene Seymour, and poet David Lehman (The Mysterious Romance of Murder) for an arresting dive into nine astonishingly inventive novels that pulse with the energies of a turbulent, transformative decade. 

REGISTER

Mask up & come say hi on Feb. 05, 2024!

[Photo ID: Rainbow painted background. The bottom, right corner is white with some logos on it and a QR code. Text reads: 'LGBTQIA+ Wellness Resource Fair. Free entry. Open to all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their families. For questions or if you'd like to sponsor, email [email protected]. We will have health screenings, mental health specialists, info about support groups & financial wellness, plus many more booths! Allendale UMC 3803 Haines Rd N., St. Petersburg, FL 33703. Feb 5, 2024. 5pm-8:30pm.' /End ID] Source

For my followers interested in languages and/or literary translation, I found a really cool looking online conference on Eventbrite called Manchester In Translation. You don't have to be based in Manchester, but the events take place from 20th-22nd February during UK day time (depends on the events you register for) and they're streamed on YouTube, so it seems fairly accessible! Not sure if the recordings will be available afterwards, but there's no harm in registering and seeing if that option becomes available. Did I mention it's free to register as well? :D

I've registered for the keynote, a panel called Queering Translation and the second panel called Keeping Underrepresented Literatures Alive Through Translation. I'm hoping that the Underrepresented Literatures panel will be recorded cus tragically I'm back to school on that day.

There's also a few workshops for translation from Italian, Hindi or Kurmanjî into English if that's up your street.

Here's the link to register if you're interested!

The Escondido Public Library partners with the Persian Culture Center to celebrate Persian New Year on Saturday, March 30, 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.!

Learn about Nowruz and Persian culture  with traditional Persian live music by Niloufar Shiri, dance performances from the Iranian School of San Diego dance academy, crafts, and Persian refreshments.

Lots of free music in Kamloops this weekend they are streaming on YouTube and Facebook as well. Really enjoying it so far

The Body Cannot Be Cancelled - poetry reading with Radical Notion Publishing

Sat 11 Nov 2023 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM GMT

The Radical Notion cordially invites you to a gathering of poetry, conversation, and community. This Saturday feminist poets will breathe life into their work, live, via Zoom. 

Join us in a spirited celebration of poetry and solidarity as we unveil The Body Cannot Be Cancelled, a stirring anthology that represents selected poetry from The Radical Notion's first three years.

Engage with an unflinching exploration of embodiment and the female body. As we edge into the ecological consequences of de-materialization, these poems anchor us again in the pulsing reality of women’s lived bodies, our incarnation and the abuses we have endured under millennia of patriarchy. 

Let poetry be your anchor in these times. We look forward to sharing this space of empowerment and inspiration with you.

Join the guestlist: https://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/3251313/chk/265e/?modal_widget=true&widget=true

Preorder The Body Cannot Be Cancelled: https://theradicalnotion.org/product/tbcbc-poetry/

At 12pm EST today I have the honor of giving the keynote speech at POC Creati-Con!  POC Creati-Con is a free virtual mini-conference focusing on the BiPoC creator marketing and management experience with a strong focus on the impact of Covid-19, civil injustice, loss of physical community and essential transition to digital fluency on BiPoc and BiPoc spaces. This conference not only provides a space to learn from each other on the intersection of marketing and these areas of impact, but also build community and market creative skills. Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/474341261383396/ Image description: text: POC Creati-Con Keynote Jay Justice close up photo of a dark-skinned Black person with black hair pulled back in a ponytail, smirking, wearing a desert camo N7 armor and holding a prop gun from the game Mass Effect 2

hosting a reading in this amazing record store (Bric A Brac Records in Chicago) on Saturday from 2p-5p! Stop by, hear some poems, grab some vinyl ❤️

w/ Parker Young, Daniel Borzutzky, Mallory Smart, Johannes Göransson, Nathan Hoks, Zachary Swezy, & Evan Williams

[feat. presses X-R-A-Y x Maudlin House x Future Tense Books x Coffee House Press x Black Ocean x Action Books x Tarpaulin Sky Press]

I am SO excited to announce a Beltane celebration that I'm doing with @next_millennium_mystical_gifts

Everyone is welcome to stop by, everything is free! We have a feast that I'm cooking for, craft projects like spell jars & mini maypole making to take home, tarot spreads (byo cards!), handmade flower crowns & ribbon adornments for your hair, a may day basket raffle full of goodies, learn about Beltane & most importantly, community!

Please feel free to bring foods, tarot cards(or other divination methods) or whatever! Volunteers are needed to help set up & assist in minor activities, contact me for more information. Share this around!

Join the California History Section on Thursday, November 16th at 4pm as local historian William Burg discusses his book, Wicked Sacramento, exploring how early 20th-century civic reformers demolished multiracial neighborhoods, including one of Sacramento’s most vibrant ones, the West End, and answers the question of how we commemorate the history and legacy of a place that no longer exists. For more information and to register for this free virtual event, please visit the registration page. 

Hey guys! For anyone interested, I’ll be reading a poem on August 12th from 8-9 pm with the OutWrite LGBTQ Literary Festival! It’s virtual, free, and really, really cool. The whole thing goes from the 11th to the 13th, and there’s gonna be panels, discussions, and readings on all things queer. It’ll also be streamed and saved on YouTube if you’ve got things going on that weekend, but if not, you can RSVP for free here!

[Photo ID: Yellow and orange gradient colors with streaked texture. Text reads: 'May Day Educational and Social Gathering. Hosted by St Pete Food Not Bombs. Come say hello to TFR, learn about FNB, meet other progressive groups! May 1, 2024. 6-8pm. Allendale Church, St Pete, FL.' Logos for Trans Florida Resources and St. Pete Food Not Bombs appear on the bottom on each side of the image. /End ID]

[Photo ID: Light purple and streaked pink colored background. Text reads: 'May Day Educational and Social Gathering. Hosted by St Pete Food Not Bombs. Calling any progressive groups that would like to come table information about their groups and discuss ways to make a better world for all. Please spread the word to colleges and high schools and working people however you can. May 1, 2024. 6-8pm. Allendale Church, St. Pete, FL.' St Pete Food Not Bombs logo in the bottom right corner. /End ID] Please reach out to the St. Pete FNB FB group or IG account if you're interested in your group setting up for this event. You will need to provide your own table. FB event is here.

Hey, friends! I’m going to be doing a free, live-streamed event later this month with James Morehead and Morgan Liphart! We’ll be reading poems and chatting about them and I am so excited!! The event is free but you do have to register in order to get access to the livestream, which you can do here:

Join us upstairs on Saturday, November 18 at 2:00 p.m. for a special Cultural Fair Series presentation: Afghan Culture & Art!

Meet with successful Afghan professionals Wazma Taheri and Mumtaz Momand; learn about Afghanistan and Afghan women’s clothes with presenter Marva Saydee; enjoy live Afghan music and an Attan dance performance by Naim Hakimi and his team; browse Shughla Karzai’s artwork exhibition and create your own artwork.

The program is generously sponsored by California Humanities.