September is here. Time to put away the bikini and bring out the tweed jacket with the elbow patches. Regenerate your brain cells with a plethora of lectures, readings, dialogues and literary events around the city. He are some September talks that pique our interest.
September 2: Oakland Beast Crawl
If you can’t wait until October’s high magnitude Litquake and the wildly popular Lit Crawl, the East Bay has its own literary bar hop. Uptown Oakland’s Beast Crawl, now in its 6th year, is a mammoth literary festival featuring 150 writers performing at 40 local galleries, bars, restaurants, cafés and storefronts. It’s a three-legged beast—each leg lasts one hour—and offers as many as a dozen readings to chose from. The readings come from literary journals and zines, small presses and writing groups. Some of this year’s many and varied events include spoken word, poetry slams, open-mic, elderotica, word performances and curious consortiums like Tourettes Without Regrets, which has been called "the Fight Club of underground art.”
Broadway between 13th and 26th Sts, Oakland (beastcrawl.weebly.com). Sept 2 5pm–9pm.
September 10: Bill Nye the Science Guy
Bill Nye the Science Guy, author, inventor, comedian, mechanical engineer and CEO of the Planetary Society, is best known for his Emmy-winning kids' show in which he did wacky experiments and explained the world in down to earth ways. His new book, Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap Into Radical Curiosity and Solve Any Problem, encourages folks to stand up for their beliefs and find solutions to what seem like unsolvable problems. Nye’s inner nerd is not only totally out, its now ubiquitous. PBS is soon releasing a new documentary about him and he has a new Netflix talk show, Bill Nye Saves The World, that explores science and how it intersects with politics, pop culture and society. The pricier tickets to this event include a copy of the book and a bowtie.
Castro Theater, 429 Castro St (booksmith.com/event/billnye). Sept 10 at 1pm.
UC Theater, 2036 University Ave, Berkeley (berkeleyarts.org). Sept 10 at 7pm.
September 11: Salmon Rushdie
The conversation topic is Rushdie’s new novel, The Golden House. The book is described as a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention. Salmon, the British Indian author of Midnight’s Children (which won the Booker Prize) and The Satanic Verses (which earned him a Fatwa from the Ayatollah Khomeini) has set his new story in modern day New York.
Nourse Theater, 275 Hayes Street (cityarts.net/events) Sept 11 at 7:30pm.
September 15: Dan Savage
Called "America's most in-your-face sex columnist and gay rights activist,” Dan Savage is an author, journalist and TV commentator, known for his syndicated sex column Savage Love. His weekly podcast, Savage Lovecast is a call-in advice show that is not afraid to tackle taboo topics. Savage will present the podcast live at the Palace of Fine Arts this month.
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon St (ticketfly.com). Sept 15 at 7pm.
September 18: Katy Tur
NBC correspondent Katy Tur discusses her new book, Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History. Tur spent 500 days covering Donald Trump’s bizarre campaign for president. Her front seat was in the line of fire as candidate Trump called her “little Katy,” "disgraceful," "third-rate" and "not nice." She was threatened by his supporters and, at one point, Trump riled up his crowd so much that Secret Service agents had to walk her to her car. Unbelievable is Tur’s darkly comic, bizarre and scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House.
The Commonwealth Club of California, 555 Post St (commonwealthclub.org). Sept 18 at 12pm.
September 26: Francis Ford Coppola
On September 26, the Academy-Award–winning director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now will talk with Dave Eggers (who founded 826 Valencia). Coppola’s forthcoming book, Live Cinema and Its Techniques is about the future digital technology in filmmaking. Envisioning ”a visionary new form of moviemaking” his book illustrates how live movies will alter the way films are conceived, directed and screened. The event is sold out but there’s always StubHub.
Nourse Theater, 275 Hayes St (cityarts.net/events). Sept 26 at 7:30pm.
September 27: Nathan Englander
The Jewish Community Center launches their new series, “Eat, Drink & Be Literary” with author Nathan Englander. The evening begins with dinner, wine and dessert, followed by a reading and discussion (questions encouraged) with Englander. Englander is the author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and The Ministry of Special Cases. His latest novel “Dinner at the Center of the Earth,” is a political thriller about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that focuses on the relationship between a secret prisoner and his guard.
JCCSF, 3200 California St (jccsf.org/arts-ideas/nathan-englander). Sept 27 at 6pm.