Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Tuesday, January 22
7:00 PM
WORD/PLAY
Game Night at The Booksmith
We have new panelists, new games, and new ARCs - but don't worry, we'll have the same old pizza.
So, who'll be sweating for arbitrarily-awarded points in made-up games of literary ridiculata this time around?
We'll have some regulars - you know them, you love them:
Faith Adiele. the original Obama, is the author of Meeting Faith, a memoir about becoming Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, which received the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir; writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home (PBS), a documentary film about growing up with a Nordic-American mother and then traveling to Nigeria as an adult to find her father and siblings; and editor of the international anthology, Coming of Age Around the World. Named as one of Marie Claire magazine’s “5 Women to Learn From,” Adiele, who was educated at Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has been featured on NPR; in a pilot for a new reality show; in a national television ad; on the Tavis Smiley show; and in “A Day in the Life of Faith Adiele” (a 2-page center spread in Pink Magazine). A contributor to O: The Oprah Magazine, Essence, and Transition, Adiele is Associate Professor at California College of the Arts and currently serves as the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, where she is completing Twins, a memoir that will complete the story begun in the PBS film.
Casey Childers: Co-Founder of the Bay's premiere competitive-reading series, WRITE CLUB SF, and co-hosts the semi-weekly podcast of the same name. He can be found on iTunes as well as live on stage of The Make-Out Room on the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Ken Grobe has tackled his writing career with the verve and focus of a moth in a lamp store. He has edited graphic novel adaptations based on classic works from Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, and Douglas Adams. As an author, he's published short stories and comic books. As a journalist, he's contributed to national publications and co-founded Want Magazine, an online publication
dedicated to the art of User Experience design. He's also an award-winning advertising writer and creates sketches and videos for SF comedy stalwarts Killing My Lobster.
Dinah Sanders: is an Awesomeness Coach, Discardian, and Blogger living on the web and in San Francisco. In addition to writing about Discardia — the holiday she founded — and making your life better, she also provides planning, productivity and workflow coaching services.
Steven Westdahl: Steven was co-founder of the multimedia production company Collective Works in Atlanta and publisher of a half dozen variously titled 'zines and is co-founder and co-host of WRITE CLUB SF alongside fellow cornerman Casey Childers.
We'll also a Word/Play virgin, who best be getting his wits together:
Kevin Smokler is the author of forthcoming essay collection Practical Classics: 50 Reasons the Reread 50 Books you Haven't Touched Since High School and the editor of Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2005. He lives in Cole Valley and loves the heck out of Booksmith.
$15 = Unlimited pizza, an open bar, and 2 hours of finally putting your BA in English to good use. Tickets in the store oronline at Brown Paper Tickets (and advance ticket purchases really are a good idea; how else will we manage to have enough Club Deluxe to satiate everyone?)
Friday, January 25
7:00 PM
St. Cyprian’s and The Rumpus Present
NICK FLYNN
THE REENACTMENTS
In conversation with Rebecca Solnit
With music by Penelope Houston and Cass McCombs
For Nick Flynn, that game we all play -- the who-would-play-you-in-the-movie-of-your-life game -- has been resolved. The Reenactments chronicles the surreal experience of being on set during the making of the film Being Flynn, from his best-selling memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, and watching the central events of his life reenacted: his father's long run of homelessness and his mother's suicide. Flynn tells the story of Robert De Niro's first meeting with his real father in Boston and of watching Julianne Moore attempt to throw herself into the sea. The result is a mesmerizingly sharp-edged and kaleidoscopic literary tour de force as well as a compelling argument about consciousness, representation, and grief.
Flynn will talk with San Francisco writer, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit, the author of thirteen books about art, landscape, public and collective life, ecology, politics, hope, meandering, reverie and memory, including Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, and A Field Guide To Getting Lost.
Penelope Houston is a Bay Area musician and artist. In 1977 she formed the iconic punk band, the Avengers. Her dark literate folkrock can be heard on her most recent album On Market Street.
Cass McCombs was born in 1977 and raised in Northern California. He in a child of the 70s…Rather than fulfilling the stereotype of confessional singer-songwriter, he describes the lifestyle and feelings of those that surround him, with more love than judgment. McCombs is a mirror.
All profits with be donated to Delivering Innovation In Supportive Housing
(DISH), a supportive housing/homeless services organization.
Tickets $10
We’ll be there with books. Please join us all!
St. Cyprian’s Church (2097 Turk Street at Lyon, San Francisco)
_____________________________________________________LITERARY EVENTS at THE BOOKSMITH / FEBRUARY 2013
Friday, February 1
6:30 – 9:30 PM
BOOKSMITH BOOKSWAP: SEX EDITION
February means romance, but this year we decided to skip the hearts and flowers and go straight to the birds and the bees.
That's right, we're having our first-ever SEX-THEMED BOOKSWAP. Bring a book that makes you blush. You'll share it in small groups, and at the end, we'll have a big, rowdy, white-elephant swap.
$25 gets you dinner, an open bar, swag, and the chance to REALLY get to know each other. Amy Stephenson, resident Booksmith pervert, to host.
Our special guest this evening is Eric Berkowitz, a San Francisco-based author, journalist and civil rights lawyer. He has published widely on a variety of subjects, including domestic violence, sexual politics and history, and corruption in the state justice system. His book,Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire, has received rave reviews worldwide and, in addition to the UK, it is set for release in Japan, China, and Turkey.
Tickets in the store or online at Brown Paper Tickets!
Sunday, February 3
3:30 – 5:30 PM
NANOWRIMO YOUNG WRITERS PROJECT READING
Join the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Programs at the annual 'Thank Goodness It's Over' reading for an opportunity to support, encourage, and celebrate the incredible artistry of the youth in our community. In November, nearly 100,000 young writers took part in NaNoWriMo‘s rapidly growing YWP, a challenge that asks kids and teens to write an entire novel, from scratch, in the month of November. This event has no entry fees, judges, or prizes. Participants write for the thrill of writing. This reading features students from participating classrooms throughout the Bay Area as they read short excerpts from their novels!
The inspiration behind The Sessions:
Tuesday, February 5
7:30 PM
CHERYL COHEN GREENE
AN INTIMATE LIFE:
Sex, Love, and My Journey as a Surrogate Partner
In this riveting memoir, Cheryl T. Cohen Greene shares some of her most moving cases, and also reveals her own sexual coming-of-age.An Intimate Life opens with Cohen Greene’s work with Berkeley-based poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, who was confined to an iron lung after contracting polio at age six. His short essay “On Seeing A Sex Surrogate” was adapted by screenwriter/director Ben Lewin into a major motion picture titled The Sessions, with Helen Hunt portraying Cheryl and John Hawkes portraying Mark.
For the past forty years, Cohen Greene has worked as a surrogate partner, helping clients to confront, consider, and ultimately accept their sexuality. Beginning with a rigid Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, where she was taught to think sex and sexual desires were unnatural and wrong, Cohen Greene struggled to reconcile her sexual identity.
As the 1960s presented social upheaval and the Sexual Revolution, Cohen Greene found herself drawn to alternative sexual paths, and ultimately achieved a rich and rewarding career as a surrogate partner. Surrogate partnership as a profession was first developed by noted sex researchers Masters and Johnson in the 1960s, and since its inception has remained in the shadows. An Intimate Life offers a candid look into the personal and professional life of a surrogate partner, examining the cultural and emotional ramifications of pursuing something most people do not immediately understand
“Cheryl Cohen Greene’s book allows us to share in her beautiful work. We read about sexual healing and we are healed ourselves. Give yourself the gift of reading this book and getting a glimpse of what is possible.” -- Helen Hunt
“A rare look at a worthy and fascinating subject. At its core a love story, Cheryl Cohen Greene’s memoir demystifies surrogacy and debunks its creaky myths with an empowering sense of dignity and truth. Raw, brave, touching and -- above all -- unflinchingly honest.” -- John Hawkes
"An Intimate Life is bolder, more sensitive, more touching, more entertaining, more informative, and just plain more fascinating than I ever could have hoped. This is a wonderful book on so many levels.” -- Isadora Alman, author of Doing It: Real People Having Really Good Sex
Cheryl T. Cohen Greene has been in private clinical practice as a surrogate partner and Consultant in Human Sexuality since 1973. She was trained in the Masters and Johnson modality and was on the training staff of San Francisco Sex Information for 19 years. Cohen Green is a certified Sex Educator and Clinical Sexologist, and in 2004 she earned her DHS (Doctor of Human Sexuality) from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. She is currently the Vice President of IPSA (International Professional Surrogates Association). She was one of the founders of BASA (Bay Area Surrogates Association). Cohen Green is a frequent media guest, and has been interviewed on Larry King Live, the the National Geographic Channel, the WE Channel, and CNN, among others.