Last week was an exciting one for PEN Center USA literary events with performances, readings and various moments of bookish revelry across the city of Los Angeles.

Dissident Poets: I AM NEDA

On Tuesday, February 16, we kicked the week off at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, with an evening of poetry inspired by the events in Iran last summer. In association with Iranian-American poet Sholeh Wolpé, author of "I Am Neda," we collected dozens of poems by prominent poets in support of those who speak out for freedom around the world.

The event featured Maxine Hong Kingston, Eloise Klein Healy, James Ragan and Tony Barnstone reading the work they created specifically for this project, and the actors Earll Kingston, Mozhan Marno, and Brenda Strong reading poetry by Yusef Kumunyakaa, Annie Finch, Joy Harjo, Kim Adonizio, Andrew Hudgins, Sam Hamill, Marvin Bell, Carolyn Forché, David Waggoner, Robert Bly, Thomas Lux and more. All of the poets’ submissions spoke to the unjust circumstances of our world, as well as the hope for change and prosperity in the future.

Iranian vocalist Mamak Khadem performed a live musical accompaniment with a video of revelatory images shot in the streets of Tehran. This evocative video was shot and edited by Iranian artists and sent via express mail to PEN USA the same day as the event.

Signed broadsides of a selection of the featured poems were available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting PEN USA’s Emergency Writers Fund. A few of this very limited print edition broadsides are still available for sale. Please contact electric@penusa.org if you are interested in purchasing one.

Lit Crawl

On Saturday, February 20, PEN USA, Goodreads and Book Soup presented their first Lit Crawl! Aimee Bender, Joseph Mattson and Martin Pousson read wildly entertaining pieces from their work at Malo, then the group traveled along Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake to Tiki Ti, Good Luck Bar and 4100 Bar.

There was a huge turn out as writers and lovers of writers alike channeled their inner Hemingway, Kerouac, Chandler, Parker and the rest, with whiskey, rye and champagne cocktails!

The event was so well attended that another crawl is already in the planning stages for sometime in the next few months. Suggestions for authors and venues are appreciated.

WordTheatre

The week concluded on Sunday, February 21, when PEN USA favorite and New York Times bestselling author TC Boyle was the featured writer at WordTheatre at the Edye in Santa Monica.

Cedering Fox, Artistic Director of WordTheatre, produced yet another amazing collection of performances in her spot-on casting of Miguel Sandoval reading “Sin Dolar” and Jere Burns reading “La Conchita.” As astonishing as these two actors were, TC Boyle blew the audience away when he performed his story “The Lie.”

It was a once-in-a-life-time evening of literary theatre, yet we look forward to WordTheatre marveling us again next month with stories from John Edgar Wideman’s forthcoming collection Briefs.
 
This series will continue to take place at the Edye, part of the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the Santa Monica Performing Arts Center (1310 11th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401) on March 21 with work by John Edgar Wideman and on May 2 with Aimee Bender, Ron Carlson and Brad Watson. Admission is $25 each with the purchase of a flex pass. Individual admissions are $30 in advance and $35 at the door. To find out more about this series, please visit www.WordTheatre.com.

Many thanks to everyone who came out to our events this week. You help keep literary performances alive in Los Angeles. Stay tuned to http://penusa.org where we will soon launch video recordings of this and other of our past literary events.