Aloud @ Los Angeles Public Library

With excursions into culture and public policy, a theoretical physicist named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” explores how we decide which scientific questions to study, how we go about answering them, and how science might radically revise our understanding of the world.

Mendelsohn, who has devoted his career to nonfiction—memoir, translation and criticism—discusses his latest collection of essays, (Waiting for the Barbarians), with novelist and essayist Lethem (The Ecstasy of Influence), as the two celebrate (and commiserate) the blessings and curses of the contemporary essay form.

Martínez, an award-winning author and performer, takes us on a deeply personal tour of the 21st century West—far from our romantic illusions of John Wayne, cacti and cowboys—and discusses the political and demographic upheaval in this most iconic of American landscapes

In the wake of 9/11 and the growth of a worrying animosity towards American Muslims, Patel—author, activist, and presidential advisor—argues that prejudice is not just a problem for American Muslims but also a challenge to the very idea of an America founded on the premise of pluralism. In this visionary book, he illuminates how faith can be a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.

Master American chronicler Tom Wolfe, author of more than a dozen books—including, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test—presents us with a panoramic story of America in his most recent novel, Back to Blood. Wolfe joins screenwriter Howard A. Rodman for a conversation that spans Wolfe’s seven-decade writing career, from the days of “new journalism” to how he penned the terms “good ol’ boy” and “the right stuff.”

The culinary experience has turned into an experiment through the hands of Chef Ludo’s guerilla style pop-up restaurant LudoBites and Chef Roy’s roaming Kogi BBQ truck. How do these ephemeral establishments play with the identity of the city and the palates of its inhabitants? Listen in on what promises to be a playful, irreverent journey into the creative minds of these celebrated chefs.

From stardom at Motown at age sixteen, to obscurity and near destitution, to an amazing career revival in her sixties when she sang at President Obama’s pre-inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, LaVette—one of R&B’s legendary singers—discusses her roller-coaster ride through the world of music.

Locke, whose new novel The Cutting Season is set at a Louisiana plantation re-purposed for weddings and Civil War reenactments, joins Edwards (Charisma and the Fictions of Black Leadership) to explore how African American literature, rooted in stories of struggle and dispossession and overcoming all odds, has been affected by the same racial progress that has culminated in the first African American presidency.

From the intellectuals who remade China, Turkey and Iran, to East-West encounters in Benares to the footprints of the Buddha in the small towns of India, Pankaj Mishra takes us on a historical journey through Asia, with detours to explore his own fiction and non-fiction.

Play is an inherent part of life. How are games revolutionizing the way we educate our children, think about the future, and engage with each other? Game designers Essen and Fullerton bridge the gap between art and education with their approach to play, and show us how reality is really just one big game we should all be playing.

Rushdie, recipient of the 2012 Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award, honoring his commitment to public libraries and literature, discusses Joseph Anton, his provocative new memoir—a frank depiction of how he and his family lived with the threat of murder for nine years after being condemned for his writing, and how he struggled for the freedom of speech.

Imagine a world where kids got gold stars for grit and curiosity. Paul Tough introduces us to a new generation of scientists and educators who are radically rethinking our understanding of how children develop character, how they learn to think, and how they overcome adversity.

Hass, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate, is also a luminous essayist. In this talk and discussion with poet Carol Muske-Dukes, he considers the claims on a poet’s attention as he explores art, imagination, and the natural world.

The seventeenth annual newer poets program is guest curated by three acclaimed poets: Eloise Klein Healy, Arktoi Press; Suzanne Lummis, Los Angeles Poetry Festival; and Gail Wronsky, professor, Loyola Marymount University and member, Glass Table Collective.

How are downtown chefs curating our cultural palate? New culinary projects are stirring up a neighborhood renaissance as the city’s best chefs are blending their ethnic and cultural traditions with the contemporary taste of eclectic Los Angeles. Join us to explore this diverse panel of chefs who are pushing downtown’s flavor forward. Stay for a post-panel tasting reception in the library courtyard, complements of participanting restaurants.

In her new memoir, Harjo, an internationally known performer and writer of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation, explores her own journey to becoming an award-winning poet. From growing up in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, and learning to escape her abusive stepfather through her imagination, to attending an Indian arts boarding school, to becoming a teenage single mother, Harjo eventually finds her poetic voice.

Bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Precious, the unforgettable heroine of her novel Push. This generational story—which moves from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday—tells of a twenty-first century young man’s fight to find a way toward the future.

The struggles of an artist’s life are re-examined through a modern urban lens by these two critically acclaimed novelists. In Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, a fifty-year-old musician sinks away from public life until his niece begins to make a film about him, bringing many vulnerabilities to the surface. Fitch’s Paint it Black unravels the painful aftermath of the suicide of the son of a renowned pianist. Both novels, set in Los Angeles, vibrantly depict characters who are inspired and destroyed by music—and question the consequences of being an artist.

Lost City Radio novelist Daniel Alarcón and team joins us for a special live presentation of Radio Ambulante - the first ever Spanish-language radio show created to tell the stories of latinoamericanos de todas las Américas. Everyday stories find voice in this multi-national, bilingual production, a collaboration of NPR stations and independent journalists from over nine countries. In a city with a majority Spanish-speaking population, Radio Ambulante introduces Angelenos to the crónicas de nuestro mundo, and examines the role radio and digital media play in keeping storytelling alive.You'll also have the opportunity to meet Sonic Trace: KCRW's new storytelling project that begins in the heart of Los Angeles and crosses into Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Part radio, part video, Sonic Trace maps LA residents' answers to the questions: ¿Por qué te vas? ¿Por qué te quedas? ¿Por qué regresas? Come early on June 26th, and help us trace your story. We'll be there

In less than a decade, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agencies radically transformed Los Angeles as they did other American cities in a successful, but largely forgotten, effort to extricate the nation from the Great Depression. In addition to building the region's cultural infrastructure of schools, libraries, and museums, the Federal Writers Project left us a vivid freeze frame description of what Southern California was like just before World War II. Author David Kipen discusses the recently republished Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels and geographer Gray Brechin shows the public works that revolutionized the lives of millions 75 years ago.