Revered Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir Protest Monsanto’s Roundup with Demonstration & Song

Reverend Billy And The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir protesting Monsanto's Roundup as only they can - with dynamic dramatic activism.

China Miéville and the Politics of Surrealism - The New Yorker

“I remember very vividly where I was when I saw my very first big Surrealist exhibition. It was a Max Ernst exhibition, and I saw ‘Europe After the Rain.’ It was sort of a Tarzan-and-the-giant-spider moment. I absolutely see it as a hinge. There’s a pre-that-picture me and a post-that-picture me. And I’m very glad to be the post-that-picture me.”––China Miéville

Review: Karen Finley Has Presidential Politics on Her Mind

Karen Finley's latest show: “Unicorn Gratitude Mystery".

Assassination Talk, the banality of evil, and the Paranoid State of American Politics

"Totalitarianism is produced, in part, by making human beings superfluous, ignoring their voices, and silencing them in fascistic discourses of certainty, absolutes, and unaccountability that allow no space for critical thinking, informed judgment, and critical agency." ––Henry A. Giroux. His new book 'America at War with Itself,' which goes into the machinations which have eroded democracy in the United States in favor of hate and corporate power, is out now!

Imperial San Francisco, Urban Power, Earthly Ruin

San Francisco as a case study for how American cities were developed––and it's not pretty. Our staff pick this week is 'Imperial San Francisco' by Gary Brechin. #FridayReads

8/12: Chinaka Hodge Presents 'Dated Emcees' at Bluestockings

NYC - do not miss this one tonight.

Vu Tran: The Uncertain Memories of a Four-Year-Old Refugee

"Every major character in [my novel 'Dragonfish']—villainous and heroic, immigrant and otherwise—lives in a world where they don’t quite belong and yearns for another world to which they no longer or have never had access. It’s more than an immigrant or refugee mentality, that state of being between two worlds and not truly belonging to either. It’s about imagining a fantasy world that could have been real, struggling for and against it: the life you once had, the life you might have had, all so vastly different from the life you ended up living. And for me at least, it’s also about being a writer." ––Vu Tran, author of City Lights staff favorite, 'Dragonfish'

In the Only Surviving Recording of Her Voice, Virginia Woolf Explains Why Writing Isn’t a “Craft” (1937)

A New Exhibit Highlights the Long, Vital History of Bystander Recordings - The New Yorker

"[Diamond] Reynolds’s video screened in real time on July 6th, just three months after Facebook introduced live-stream capabilities. It was reposted widely with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, and by the next morning [Philando] Castile’s shooting—which occurred just a day after that of Alton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, also at the hands of the police—was the lead news story across much of the world."

Live! From City Lights by City Lights Books on iTunes

Recently, authors like Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and PEACHES have come and read/discussed their books at City Lights. Subscribe to the City Lights Podcast, Live! From City Lights, on iTunes and get exclusive recordings of all of our great events!

Dareen Tatour, Palestinian poet imprisoned by Israel for social media posts, shares her story

"Hope is the foundation of life. There is a saying that I used to repeat before my arrest, and I still say it: “We dream in order to continue living.” Here I compare dreams with hope, because without hope we are going to die even as we are alive, and only our bodies will remain."––Dareen Tatour

8/12 - Chinaka Hodge Presents 'Dated Emcees' at Bluestockings in NYC

NYC, don't miss Chinaka Hodge performing poems from Dated Emcees tomorrow night!!