ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library
829 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsALOUD is the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' award-winning literary series of live conversations, readings and performances at the historic Central Library and locations throughout Los Angeles.
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Episodes
Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon
October 21, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 57.6 MBHow did a 19-year-old undocumented migrant worker toiling in the tomato fields of central California become an internationally renowned neurosurgeon? Join us for a story about the importance of family, of mentors, the fight to cure brain cancer, and of giving people a chance.In association with the exhibition, "A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed"
¡REVOLUCIÓN! An Internationalist Homage to the Mexican Revolution
October 16, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 71.3 MBFrom the Russian steppes to Spanish and French anthems for love, liberty and freedom, ¡REVOLUCIÓN! looks at a pivotal historic event-- the Mexican Revolution--through an Internationalist gaze, showcasing a rare ensemble of Chicano musical, visual and performance talent.In association with the exhibition, "A Nation Emerges: The Mexican Revolution Revealed"
Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of An Unrepentant Exile
October 13, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 72.4 MBDorfman, one of Latin America's great writers and ally to President Allende, fled Chile in the wake of the military coup in 1973. His passionate memoir describes the transformative decades of exile, his eventual questioning of allegiance to past and party, and the unimaginable outcome of his return to Chile 17 years later.
The Forgotten Waltz
October 12, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 55.4 MBThe Irish author of The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) discusses her new novel-set in suburban Dublin with an unforgettably spirited heroine- that explores the momentous romance of everyday life and the volatile arena of family and marriage.
From Nickerson Gardens to National: An End in Sight to Violence in Inner-City America?
October 07, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 74.1 MBAward-winning criminologist Kennedy, who orchestrated the \"Boston Miracle\", a revolutionary method for gang intervention in the mid-1990s, writes about this successful approach in his new book, Don't Shoot, and discusses solving the problem of crime in our country today, along with the launch of \"Operation Ceasefire\" in Los Angeles with Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Charlie Beck.
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
October 04, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 69.2 MBIn a personal account of the communal power of women to change history, the founder of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace chronicles the unthinkable violence she's confronted living through civil war and the peace she helped to broker by empowering her countrywomen and others around the world to take action.
Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America
September 28, 2011 03:00 - 1 minute - 59 MBIn a provocative and controversial history, Winkler, a constitutional lawyer, disputes that guns--not abortion, race, or religion--are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Co-presented with the Council of the Library Foundation
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
September 27, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 68.4 MBFrom the best-selling author of 1491-a study of the pre-Columbian Americas- comes a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.
The Dolphin in the Mirror: Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphin Lives
September 21, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 73.2 MBReiss, a leading expert on dolphins (adviser for the Oscar-winning film, The Cove), offers both a scientific revelation and an emotional eye-opener in this reflection on one of the greatest intelligences on the planet.
One Day It'll All Make Sense
September 17, 2011 03:00 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBCommon, the Grammy award-winning hip-hop artist and actor was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. on Chicago's rough South Side. In his soulfully candid memoir, he unleashes himself line by line--from his childhood to tragic losses, from addiction to love--revealing the inner-makings of an extraordinary life.
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
September 16, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBIn this sequel to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and her unforgettable family in a multilayered narrative that contrasts the perfectly lit, Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother's childhood and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of her own.
Conscious Capitalism: Start Something That Matters
September 08, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 60 MBMycoskie, the man behind TOMS Shoes and Goldhirsh, founder of GOOD, discuss alternatives for creating work that simultaneously fulfills our hunger for material success, philanthropic impact, and personal meaning.
Leo Braudy: The Hollywood Sign
July 22, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBIt took fifty years and more before a former real-estate billboard atop Mt. Lee became the world-wide symbol of Hollywood. How did it happen? A master interpreter of popular culture examines why the Hollywood sign is unique in the way cities show themselves to the world.
Fire Monks: Wildfires in California
July 20, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 67.6 MBWhen a massive wildfire blazed across California in June 2008, five monks risked their lives to save Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Pyne-- wildfire expert and the country's pre-eminent fire historian-- and Busch-- author and longtime Zen student-- discuss the ways of wildfires in the West and what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind. Program one of four, co-presented with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
L.A. Crime Writers: "We Murder, so You Don't Have To..."
July 15, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 72.1 MBFour veteran Los Angeles crime writers discuss the genre they love and the stories that keep them up at night. Paula L. Woods (Charlotte Justice mystery series) talks murder and mayhem with Haywood (Cemetery Road), Hirahara (Blood Hina), and Smith (Moist).
Cannibal Island: An Artist Lecture with Short Films, Curious Images and Free Conundrums
July 13, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBMcMillen--part sculptor, installation artist, printmaker, cultural anthropologist and L.A. native-- has been creating environmental installations with architectural references that deal with themes of time, change, and illusion since the 1970s, and his work is the subject of a current retrospective at the Oakland Museum of Art. Join us for a glimpse into McMillen's creative process and current obsessions.
Newer Poets XVI: A Reading
July 08, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 69.2 MBIn this popular, long-running event, six talented Los Angeles poets present short readings of their work. Hosted by Suzanne Lummis, Los Angeles Poetry Festival, and Richard Modiano, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Huxley on Huxley: Panel Discussion and Film Excerpts
June 22, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBThe Hollywood home of Laura and Aldous Huxley, psychedelic pioneer and author of Brave New World, was a hotspot for the West Coast artistic avant-garde like Igor Stravinsky and Christopher Isherwood. Join us for a discussion of the Huxleys' influence on American culture, plus excerpts from Mary Ann Braubach's 2009 documentary, Huxley on Huxley.
Alina Simone: A Tragic-comic Journey Through the Indie Rock World
June 17, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65.5 MBIn her wickedly bittersweet and hilarious novel You Must Go and Win, the Ukrainian-born, critically acclaimed singer traces her bizarre journey through the indie rock world, from disastrous Craigslist auditions with sketchy producers to catching fleas in a Williamsburg sublet. Simone performs songs from her newly released Make Your Own Danger album.
We Are Here: We Could Be Everywhere
June 15, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 79.2 MBAre the media arts a sensitizing force? What is media art's capacity to respond to political conditions? Cultural practitioners and scholars explore the role artists play as innovators of media technology and instigators in the public and media art realms. Co-presented with Freewaves
Catastrophe, Survival, Music and Renewal: New Orleans Culture Post-Katrina
June 07, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 78.6 MBHBO's Treme (from the creators of The Wire) is set in the aftermath of the greatest man-made disaster in American history. Join us for a discussion of New Orleans' music and its unique culture as reflected in one of episodic television's most powerful dramas.
Adam Hochschild, "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918"
June 03, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBHochschild (King Leopold's Ghost), one of America's best narrative historians, examines one of the greatest and most puzzling examples of civilized evils in history and the now obscure civilians and soldiers who waged a bitter, often heroic, struggle against it.
Melissa Faye Greene, "No Biking in the House Without a Helmet"
June 01, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 76.9 MBIn the eight years after her four children left home, Melissa Greene and her husband adopted five children from orphanages in Bulgaria and Ethiopia. She chronicles their adventures from the front lines of parenthood.
Gary Snyder, "Song of the Turkey Buzzard: The Poetry of Lew Welch"
May 27, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 81.7 MBJoin Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Snyder and friends for an evening of spoken word to celebrate the work of Beat poet Lew Welch, on the 40th anniversary of his disappearance.
John Sayles, "Some Time in the Sun"
May 20, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 69.5 MBIn his monumental new novel, Sayles-the great indy filmmaker-travels from the Yukon gold fields, to New York's bustling Newspaper Row, to Wilmington's deadly racial coup of 1898, to the bitter triumphs at El Caney and San Juan Hill in Cuba, and to war zones in the Philippines.
Francisco Goldman, "Say Her Name"
May 18, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 70.6 MBWritten in the aftermath of his wife's death, Goldman's tale weighs the unexpected gift of love against the blinding grief of loss.
Gary Shteyngart, "Super Sad True Love Story"
May 13, 2011 03:00 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBShteyngart, one of the New Yorker's "Best Under 40" novelists, offers a devilishly funny cyber-apocalyptic vision of an America future that seems eerily like the present.
Jamaica Kincaid, "See, Now, Then"
April 27, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 71.5 MBKincaid, former New Yorker staff writer and author of more than ten books, is known for her candid and emotionally-charged writing. She reads from her forthcoming novel about a family's life in a small Vermont town and discusses her creative process.
The Origins of Political Order: A Conversation
April 22, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBHow did tribal order and society evolve into the political institutions of today? Drawing on a vast body of knowledge-- two celebrated scholars discuss the origins of democratic societies and raise essential questions about the nature of politics.
Jacques D'Amboise, "I Was a Dancer"
April 21, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 63.5 MBOne of America's most celebrated classical dancers writes of his years with Balanchine, Robbins, LeClercq, and Farrell-the irresistible story of an exhilarating life in dance.
Joyce Carol Oates, "A Widow's Story"
April 15, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 68.6 MBAn intimate work by one of America's great writers chronicles the unexpected death of her husband of forty-eight years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.
Rebecca Skloot, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"
April 13, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 67.6 MBSkloot's stunning narrative about the use and misuse of medical authority delves into the life of a poor Southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks, whose cells-taken without her knowledge-became one of the most important tools in medicine.
The Use and Abuse of Literature
April 07, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBWhat is literature? How might we restore it to the center of our lives? Garber, Harvard English professor and Ulin, book critic for the Los Angeles Times, explore how reading can be a \"revolutionary act\" in the digital age.
The Nature of Observation
April 06, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 74 MBHow does a poet view time, the slant of light on a windowsill? How might a theoretical cosmologist approach those same phenomena? Hirshfield and Carroll---both at the vanguard of their disciplines-- discuss different (and perhaps similar) points of entry into the realm of observation and metaphor.
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana"
March 30, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 61.2 MBLemmon, a former ABC news reporter, tells the remarkable true story of an unlikely entrepreneur who, against all odds, saved her family and inspired her community in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
David Brooks, "The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement"
March 25, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 62.2 MBThe New York Times columnist uses revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and cognition to paint a surprisingly moving picture of how we can educate our emotions to lead richer lives.
Art Collectives and the Current State of Literary Culture
March 23, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 76.4 MBA reading and panel discussion Moderated by Susan Salter Reynolds, L.A. Times book reviewerWith Chuck Rosenthal, Alicia Partnoy, Ramón Garcia, & Gail Wronsky. Projected paintings by Gronk.Members of the L.A.-based Glass Table Collective read their work and discuss publishing outside the lines.
Colin Thubron, "Climbing Through Memory and Magic in Tibet"
March 18, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBTwo of the world's most respected travel writers discuss pilgrimages to exceptional places, mining one's personal history, and the holiest mountain on earth.
Annie Murphy Paul, "Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives"
March 16, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 80.2 MBWhat makes us who we are? An award-winning science journalist and a leading scientific investigator delve into the rich history of ideas about how we're shaped before birth.
Shepard Fairey, "MAYDAY: The Politics of Street Art"
March 08, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 72.8 MBThe Los Angeles-based artist and designer behind the ubiquitous Obey Giant stencil and the now legendary Obama HOPE poster, talks about his life, his work and his move from the street to large-scale museum exhibitions.
Joan Schenkar and Kathleen Chalfant,"The Talented Miss Highsmith"
March 02, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65 MBPatricia Highsmith's dazzling, dangerous novels entered the American consciousness in classic films such as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Join us for an evening celebrating Highsmith: Schenkar's author talk that captures Highsmith's brilliance in creating disturbing fictions, a dramatic presentation by Obie Award- winning actress Chalfant, and never-before seen photos.
Destiny and Desire: A Novel
February 25, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 67.1 MBOne of literature's masters offers a wild, riveting saga that explores passion, magic and corruption in modern Mexico, mixing ancient mythologies with the avarice of the twenty-first century.
How the West Was Lost
February 23, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBOne of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people and best-selling author of Dead Aid reveals the economic myopia of the West and the radical solutions it needs to adopt in order to assert itself as a global economic power once again.
The Short Sory and the Art of Not Knowing
February 17, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65.1 MBTwo brilliant young writers (among the New Yorker's \"Twenty Under Forty\" noted fiction writers) read and discuss their work and the role of the unexpected in writing fiction.
Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford
February 11, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 65.9 MBShe eloped with Winston Churchill's nephew, severing her ties to privilege. She fought in the Spanish Civil War and joined the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama. She bore witness to the defining history of the 20th century. Jessica Mitford: queen of the muckrakers.
Is There a Conservative Assault on the Supreme Court?
February 09, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 70.7 MBChemerinsky-- founding dean at U.C. Irvine School of Law-- and Eastman-- Kennedy Chair in Law at Chapman University-- debate whether the country's highest court has been ideologically motivated during recent decades, thus denying justice to millions of Americans.
What's the Matter with Capitalism?
February 04, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 67.2 MBBarnes, successful entrepreneur (Working Assets Long Distance) and Appleby, eminent historian (The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism) discuss whether the market can effectively serve both private interest and public good. Can capitalism be upgraded for the 21st century?
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
January 26, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 69.5 MBIn a voice that is humble, elegiac, and practical, the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior contemplates the meaning of family, the politics of war, and the striving for peace in this unconventional memoir
The Tell-Tale Brain
January 21, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 69.8 MBFrom autism to basic self-awareness, \"the Marco Polo of neuroscience\" traces the strange links between neurology and behavior, probing the mystery of human uniqueness.
The Imperfectionists
January 19, 2011 03:00 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBRachman's witty novel-- about the the ragtag staff of an English language newspaper in Rome facing financial oblivion-- is based on his own experience as a foreign correspondent.