Monthly Archive for February, 2006

School Daze zine event with author Michel Valdes

Feb ’06
25
12:00 am

Michel Valdes author of School DazeThurs, Feb. 23rd at 7:30pmfree
 
School Daze details the accounts of one year Michel
worked as a teacher\’s assistant at an elementary
school in Los Angeles, CA. The zine debuted at
Portland Zine Symposium in 2005. Michel is 25 years
old and recently hired as a Special Education Teacher
at his old middle school. The zine is more text heavy
but has some drawings Michel did of his encounters.

Signing for Nano Stories with artist Michael Miller

Feb ’06
23
12:00 am

Signing for Nano Stories with artist Michael MillerFriday, February 17th5:00-7:00 PMFREE
 
Sara Ranchouse publishes and distributes books and printed multiples by artists. NANO – Stories in a Blink by Michael Miller is the third in the \”SQUARE COMICS\” series.
 
Miller Miller makes collages, drawings, watercolors and digital prints that borrow from the conventions of editorial cartoons. For NANO Stories, Miller has configured his work into a sequential, narrative format. NANO presents two back-to-back visual stories–FACE TO FACE, a spinning rat race of nano-second confrontations and FLATMAN, a flat man\’s adventures in and about everyday foibles.
 
Michael Miller will be on hand to sign copies of NANO Stories. A mini-exhibition of Michael\’s work will accompany the signing.
 
More info about the artist www.michaelmillerart.com

Reading for Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired Fiction

Feb ’06
17
12:00 am

Reading for Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired FictionThursday, Feburary 9th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
We live in political times where it is impossible not to be involved, inspired, appalled, or motivated by the current administration. It seems like everyone has something to say about politics these days ? and fiction writers are no exception. This came to the forefront of Stephen Elliott?s mind following the 2001 elections and the attacks of September 11th, when he and his fellow novelists began to question their focus and the relevance of their work in such times. Unconsciously, current events had seeped into their writing?and thus Politically Inspired was born.
 
Featured Readers at this event:
 
Stephen Elliott is the author of four novels, including Happy Baby, and the political memoir Looking Forward to It: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The American Political Process. He recently journeyed to the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and contributed several articles to Salon.com. Stephen Elliott is available for interview and comment on this new release.
 
Audrey Niffenegger is a writer and visual artist who lives in Chicago, where almost everyone she knows has been quietly despondent ever since the last election and where the only words that bring any cheer are ?Barack Obama.?
 
Jeff Parker?s stories recently appeared in Hobart, Ploughshares, Tin House, and Life & Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End. For the past seven years he has co-directed Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia, and he co-edited Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States. The Drinking Game, a short story collection in the form of instructions, will be published by Jovian Books in 2006.
 
Stefan Kiesbye is the author of the novel Next Door Lived A Girl. In West Berlin in the 1980s, he worked as an actor, coffeehouse reader, drag queen, and nude model. As a radio show host, he covered the ?91 Contributors 327 Gulf War. Stefan currently lives in Ann Arbor with his wife Sanaz and is working on a new novel. You can visit him at www.skiesbye.com.
 
More info is at: www.stephenelliott.com
 

Sweet and Crumbly a vegan dessert potluck

Feb ’06
9
12:00 am

Lickin? the Beaters presentsSweet and Crumbly a vegan dessert potluckSunday, February 5th, 3:00 PMFREE
 
Lickin\’ the Beaters presents Sweet and Crumbly – a vegan desert potluck focusing on cookies and candy. Siue Moffat is preparing for her 2nd vegan desserts cookbook, Lickin\’ the Beaters 2 – Candy and Chocolate, and is coming to Quimby\’s to share her new concoctions. Caramels, suckers, sour creem candy, fudge, centered chocolates etc. Everything a vegan dreams of eating in a cruelty free form. Participants are asked to bring their own homemade candy or cookies, sans eggs and dairy, to share. Siue will also be happy to answer questions on self-publishing and candy making. If you don\’t know the difference between saddle stitch and perfect bound or fudge and pralines now is your chance to find out!
 
Siue Moffat made vegan cooking zines before moving into full fledged publishing with Lickin\’ the Beaters: Low Fat Vegan Desserts. Illustarted by eight fantastic artists, Siue jumped in and produced Lickin? the Beaters entirely herself from layout and design, photos and index. She often finds herself spending hours over a pot of boiling syrup trying to replicate all the sweets she use to eat before turning vegan in 1997. Lickin\’ the Beaters 2, is currently in high gear recipe testing mode, and will feature chococolate confections, baked goods and candy. Currently Siue is a super 8 filmmaking, radical bookslinging, film archiving candy queen who spends her time between Portland Oregon and Toronto Canada.

Surviving Justice Event with Dave Eggers and James Newsome

Feb ’06
5
12:00 am

Dave Eggers and James Newsomeread and discussSurviving JusticeMonday, January 23rd, 12:00 PMFREE
 
McSweeney?s is proud to release the first in a new series of oral histories books, Surviving Justice: America\’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, edited by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen. After spending years behind bars, hundreds of men and women with incontrovertible proof of their innocence — including 120 from death row — have been released from America\’s prisons. They were wrongfully convicted because of problems that plague many criminal proceedings — inept defense lawyers, overzealous prosecutors, deceitful and coercive interrogation tactics, bad science, snitches, and eyewitness misidentification. The lives of these victims of the U.S. criminal justice system were effectively wrecked. Finally free, usually after more than a decade of incarceration, they re-enter society with nothing but the scars from a harrowing descent into prison only to struggle to survive on the outside.
 
The thirteen men and women portrayed here, and the hundreds of others who have been exonerated, are the tip of the iceberg. There are countless others — thousands by all estimates — who are in prison today for crimes they did not commit. These are the stories of some of the wrongfully convicted, who have managed, often by sheer luck, to prove their innocence. Their stories are spellbinding, heartbreaking, unimaginable, and ultimately inspiring. After reading these deeply personal accounts, you will never look at the criminal justice system the same way.
 
Featured Readers at this event:
Dave Eggers is the editor of McSweeney?s and the author of three books, including How We Are Hungry and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As a journalist, his work has appeared in the The New Yorker, the New York Times, Esquire, the UK Guardian, and other publications.
 
James Newsome?exoneree–was living on the South Side of Chicago when a white grocer was shot to death in a convenience store. Officers from the notoriously corrupt Area 2 police station made Newsome their prime suspect. Eyewitnesses misidentified him in a police lineup, and an all-white jury sentenced him to life. He served fifteen years before being exonerated by fingerprints lifted from the crime scene and matched to an already incarcerated career criminal. After his release, Newsome won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the City of Chicago. He now owns a shoe store there??Heelz.?