Author: Evan Karp

In 2006, Kim Rosen arrived at the Tasaru Safe House in Narok, Kenya, and stood before a group of Maasai girls who had run away from their homes, and their tribe’s traditions of female genital mutilation and early marriage, seeking education and an alternate way of life. “I went with very personal, in a way, Read More

Disaster has long been an obsession for Oakland poet Madison Davis, whose debut book of that name is out this week from Bay Area press Timeless Infinite Light. “I think it came of my own experience of loss and grief,” she said by phone. “I’ve lost a lot of people; I deal with my brother’s Read More

Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Jeremiah Barber were sitting on their couch, horrified by Donald Trump’s 100-day plan. “It occurred to us that he’s such a performative person, and that he was speaking our language in some way,” Contreras, a writer, said. “We wanted to see what it would be like if we were to do Read More

In the midst of a feud with the poet Denise Levertov about the possibilities of politically motivated art, George Oppen wrote his only essay, “The Mind’s Own Place,” in 1962. Frances Richard presents a close reading of that essay for the George Oppen Memorial Lecture, presented annually by The Poetry Center since 1985. “I always ask myself as Read More

Cleve Jones’ new memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, begins with a single-sentence paragraph: “The movement saved my life.” “That’s not rhetoric, that’s not hyperbole: The movement saved my life,” he reiterated by phone. “I was going to kill myself. I was planning it when I was 15, and then I read about Read More

For two months in 1913, the San Francisco Bulletin published daily installments of the autobiography of an anonymous prostitute the paper called Alice Smith. Her story, despite the impact it had on society at the time, was nearly forgotten and is collected for the first time in more than 100 years in Alice: Memoirs of a Read More

It started with the simple, perhaps under-asked question: “Wouldn’t it be fun if we did something really crazy?” So said City Lights events director Peter Maravelis about the origins of the Dada World Fair — a two-week celebration of the avant-garde art movement’s centennial, which started Nov. 1. Maravelis was talking with Martin Schwartz of Read More

In the beginning of her first book, House A (Omnidawn), Jennifer S. Cheng writes: “It is important to note that before language, children experience memories as image and sound, which is to say they experience them as poetry.” Composed of three sections, each written in a different form, House A reconstructs this childlike experience of the world by blending the literal Read More

Now in its 17th year, Litquake began when a group of friends organized an afternoon of readings in Golden Gate Park. Over the years, it’s become a backbone of the Bay Area literary world, bringing together lovers of the written word over a 10-day festival that averages 10 events per night. It’s also grown into an organization Read More

Litquake runs Oct. 6-15 and begins with an opening-night gala celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare, with poet Gary Soto, harpist Shelley Phillips and a special performance by San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Dressing up is encouraged. Here are some of the highlights of the festival: Saturday: Litquake San Rafael returns for the third year, with a day full Read More