literary places Archives

Here’s the Scoop on Live Poetry Readings

12/15/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

HOW TO FIND AND EXPERIENCE LIVE POETRY EVENTS NEAR YOU LIKE A TRUE MEMBER OF THE LITERATI

So you want to listen to a live poetry reading? Enamored with the printed word, you’ve recently been badgered by the thought that verse might be even better if you hear the words reverberated straight out of the horse’s mouth (and poets do tend to be quite horse-faced).

You dream of sitting rapturously as Frank O’Hara reads “Having a Coke with You” or Gertrude Stein mesmerizes the room with “OBJECTS” from Tender Buttons. Motivated, you realize that you have no idea what a poetry reading is like, let alone how to find one. Do they take place in secret rooms hidden behind bookcase doors? Do cedar incense and absinthe vapors wraith across the stage and infuse the poet with cosmic wisdom? Do the events conclude with a naked dance at sunrise? Who knows?

I do! You’ve come to the right place to figure out how to get to the right places to get some good stanzas in your earholes.

THE BEST SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESTINATIONS FOR CHEAP BOOKS, VIBRANT POETRY, AND LITERARY INSPIRATION

Southern California — land of murky mauve smog twilight, wildlife neighbors prowling and howling at their loss, the time-altering flows of heavy traffic and tight parking, sea foam cleaned beaches, palpitating concert halls, brick and amber-sheen-wood buildings clashing with glass monoliths, walls transfigured by colorful calligraphy, creativity pickled for preservation amid suburban dearths, bustle and lethargy sitting kitty-corner, and art floating particulate amid the brume of all of this — is chock-full of bookish things to do, if you know where to go. In a region this sprawling, you’re not likely to simply stumble upon these places, so whether you’re just visiting, or reside on this U.S. west coast wedge, use this list of SoCal literary landmarks as a map to the literature that thrives beside the Pacific.

Here’s the Scoop on Live Poetry Readings

HOW TO FIND AND EXPERIENCE LIVE POETRY EVENTS NEAR YOU LIKE A TRUE MEMBER OF THE LITERATI

Visit These 10 SoCal Literary Landmarks

THE BEST SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESTINATIONS FOR CHEAP BOOKS, VIBRANT POETRY, AND LITERARY INSPIRATION