September 15   

Imprisoned But Unbowed:
The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Join a panel of ex-cons discussing the myriad ways resistance continues and perseveres behind bars, and how such herstories are, or are not, recorded and celebrated. Featuring: Bo Brown, former social and political prisoner, and George Jackson Brigade member, a longtime prison abolitionist, from both sides of the walls; Sin Soracco found time between dancing, bookselling, and a stint inside, to pen the now legendary prison novel Low Bite, a tale of survival, dignity, friendship and insubordination. Co-sponsored by PM Press.

September 22   

Art & Politics: Rigo

Rigo 95, Rigo 23, Rigo Rigo Rigo! He’ll be here to give us a taste of his amazing work, from huge mosaics and building-size murals, street sign satires, and commemorative sculptures. Come and meet one of the giants of our local scene, who also happens to be an international star too, and yet is one of the most relaxed people you’ll ever meet.

September 29   

Education Crisis/Radical Responses

Caitlin Manning, Andrej Grubacic, TBA. From the crisis in the California universities to the steady destruction of public schools, we’re in the epicenter of a storm that spans the globe as neoliberalist politicians and the interests they serve seem determined to make education a precious commodity that is no longer a bedrock of democratic society. Come and discuss radical responses to this crisis, leading to the big October 7 Day of Action.

October 13    

OUTSPOKEN AUTHORS SPEAK OUT:
Kim Stanley Robinson, Terry Bisson, Gary Phillips

It's only a story; or is it?  Fantasy, Science Fiction and Noir conspire as three of PM Press's Outspoken Authors series discuss the problems, pitfalls and possibilities of writing fiction from a revolutionary perspective. Kim Stanley Robinson is the Hugo-winning author of Red Mars and Galileo’s Dream. Terry Bisson is an award winning short story writer and the biographer of Mumia Abu Jamal and Nat Turner. And LA’s own Gary Phillips “combines politics and storytelling as well as any writer of crime fiction" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine). Co-Presented by PM Press

October 20    

Hardboiled For Hard Times: Crime In The City

Owen Hill, Jim Nisbet, Summer Brenner, Benjamin Whitmer, and Michael Harris. Co-Presented by PM Press
"Crime fiction is almost like a product of capitalism. It's about social inequality" --Ian Rankin, best-selling crime novelist

Join some of the finest exponents of crime and noir as they discuss how fiction is not just a mirror to the seamier sides of life, but the proverbial hammer with which to shape it.
Owen Hill is the author of two novels and many books of poetry. Of his latest, The Incredible Double, David Ulin of the Los Angeles Times said, "...here we have the essence of noir, a life lived at the edges".  He lives in Berkeley, where he works as a bookseller and curates a reading series.
Jim Nisbet, long regarded as one of fiction's best kept secrets, is about to claim 2010 as his own, with the publication of two new novels, and the reissuing of ten of his previous classics!
Summer Brenner's novel of sex-trafficking, I-5 made numerous book of the year lists for 2009, and is an underground best-seller.
Benjamin Whitmer and Michael Harris are debuting novels as part of the noir Switchblade imprint. Prepare to be impressed, entertained, and awed.
Barry Eisler’s bestselling thrillers draw on his experience in a
covert position in the CIA and on his time as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan.  His latest, Inside Out (Ballantine, June 29) is about black sites, ghost detainees, and those missing CIA interrogation videos.  Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law. www.barryeisler.com

October 27    

Staged reading: “Money” a WPA comedy from 1937

"Money: A Comedy with Music" is a satiric portrayal of an economically troubled society in which an American banker tries to explain how money works. The new play written in 2010 in San Francisco moves from Brazil to New York, from scenes of wealth to scenes of bankruptcy, accompanied by cabaret songs, chicanery and financial chaos. Developed this year, but indebted to the Living Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project from the 1930s,  "Money" incorporates puppetry, film clips, news headlines, music, circus, and more as production elements explore ideas about capitalism, supply and demand, and the burning question of happiness. The cast of characters includes such crazy and noted celebrities as Stalin and Hitler, Huey Long and F.D.R., along with a seventeenth-century Elizabethan  and a W.C. Fields-like banker.

November 10    

Eco-Politics Strategic Roundtable

Eddie Yuen, Azibuike Akaba, Starhawk, TBA. An open discussion with veterans of numerous political and ecological campaigns, in a broad attempt to think strategically about how to go beyond the narrow agendas of so many organizations, and the myopia that afflicts all too many eco-activists. From permaculture activism to eco-justice campaigns in Oakland and San Francisco, to a wider look at the deep incompatibility of capitalism and ecological health, everything is on the table.

November 17    

Watersheds Lost and Found, San Francisco, Guadalajara, Yuba

One of the emerging zeitgeists of our era is the rediscovery of the water beneath our cities, and redefining the places we are in through awareness of our watersheds. Derek Hitchcock of the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), Joel Pomerantz, a San Francisco water historian, and Sarah Kelly and Arthur Richards, co-directors of Adapting to Scarcity, will share their knowledge and find the common streams uniting their work around indigenous communities reliant on waterways, and the possibilities of transformation present in the struggles around the contamination of and dams built on these.

Yuba River

Near Guadalajara