ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

One of our greatest American writers returns to the small Iowa town of Gilead—the setting of her earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning novel—in the unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Hear Robinson read and reflect on this masterpiece of prose, where the small town of Gilead becomes as quintessential to the rich fabric of American life as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.

When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? When their deployments end and they return—many of them changed forever—how do they recover some facsimile of normalcy? MacArthur award-winning author David Finkel discusses the struggling veterans chronicled in his deeply affecting book, Thank You for Your Service with Skip Rizzo, Director for Medical Virtual Reality at the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC—who has pioneered the use of virtual reality-based exposure therapy to treat veterans suffering from PTSD. Presented in association with The L.A. Odyssey Project.

Two powerful poets read from their work and discuss how poetry can become an active tool for rethinking race in America. Robin Coste Lewis reads from her upcoming poetry collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus, which lyrically catalogs representations of the black figure in the fine arts, with Claudia Rankine—a poet whose incendiary new book, Citizen: An American Lyric—is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our often named "post-racial" society.

Co-presented with the Consulate General of Poland.It’s been twenty-five years since the ultimate victory of the Solidarity movement in Poland, a revolution that ultimately led to the fall of communism. Adam Michnik, a Solidarity activist jailed by the Polish communist regime for his dissident activities, and now among Poland’s most prominent public figures, discusses the legacy of that revolution with Yasmine El Rashidi, a young intrepid Cairo-based journalist whose essays and articles on the (unfinished) Egyptian revolution were nominated for an Amnesty International Media Award. Can a velvet revolution offer any useful lessons to a bloody one?

In this master work by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Héctor Tobar tells the miraculous and emotionally textured account of the thirty-three Chilean miners who were trapped beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. Join us to hear this astounding account of the personal histories that brought "Los 33" to the mine and the spiritual elements that surrounded their work in the deep down dark.

In his thrilling new biography, Lahr—longtime New Yorker theater critic--gives intimate access to the life and mind of Williams- shedding new light on his warring family, his lobotomized sister, his sexuality, and his misreported death. In the sensational saga of Williams’ rise and fall, Lahr captures his tempestuous public persona and backstage life where Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan and others had scintillating walk-on parts. Maupin joins Lahr for a fascinating conversation about one of the most brilliant playwrights of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation’s sense of itself.

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are among the most adapted works of literature—why would two young, debut novelists take on the classics today? Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey offers a playful and fragmented remix of Odysseus’s long journey home. Told from the perspective of a minor player in the Trojan War, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles adds new dimension to the Greek heroes. Together at ALOUD for the first time, these young authors discuss the hubris and heart it takes to rewrite a classic with a fresh and contemporary voice.Presented in association with The L.A. Odyssey Project.

Two filmmakers share and discuss excerpts from their new documentaries that illuminate indigenous stories rarely seen on film. Bering: Balance and Resistance, by Lourdes Grobet—one of Mexico’s most renowned photographers—lyrically reflects on an Inuit community’s search for new values while struggling to reconcile the past. In Indian 101, filmmaker Julianna Brannum focuses on lessons taught by her great aunt LaDonna Harris, the Comanche activist who helped negotiate the return of sacred ground to the Taos Pueblo Indians. Far apart geographically, these two communities are irrevocably linked as they navigate their contemporary history.

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow grew up in an out-of-time African-American Louisiana town where slavery’s legacy felt astonishingly close, reverberating in the elders’ stories and the near-constant wash of violence. Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward writes powerfully about the poverty of her Mississippi childhood and the pressures it brought on men and women, revealing disadvantages that bred a certain kind of tragedy. In this conversation, two accomplished storytellers take the stage to discuss their memoirs that pay homage to the troubled past of the South with emotional honesty and moments of stark poetry.

For forty years, Heyday Books has been publishing California's stories—stories no one else has told—from native peoples and newly arrived immigrants, stories about the delicate Calliope hummingbirds and 14,000 foot peaks, to the explorations of California's most original thinkers, poets, and visual artists. Bancroft's new book describes an organization run on passion and devoted to beauty. Malcolm's friend and colleague, Vincent Medina, a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Area, will join the discussion.