REGULAR ADMISSION
$10 General Admission, $6 Students/Seniors, Members free
Selected events will have a special admission price.

COMMUNITY EVENTS
Suggested Donation $5-10,
no one turned away for lack of funds.

L.A. Book Launch: These Spaceships Weren't Built For Us

Friday, May 1, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

Join us for a poetry reading celebrating These Spaceships Weren’t Built For Us, the new collection by Alan Chazaro. In this book, Chazaro reimagines space travel through the lens of his experience as the son of Mexican immigrants. Alan Chazaro is the author of several previous collections and a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley. He will be joined by David Quiroz, and Joseph Rios, former poet laureate of Fresno. This collection is the first release from a publishing partnership between Red Hen Press, Tía Chucha Press, and Letras Latinas. The program is co-sponsored by Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies.

L.A. Book Launch: Hovering by Carol V. Davis

Saturday, May 2, 3:00 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

In her haunting new poetry collection, Hovering, Carol V. Davis explores how disease steals what makes us human. These poems explore what it means when language and memory uncouple like merry-go-round animals that break free and gallop off. Drawing on texts and traditions, the poems confront the reality of the void and the length of the journey. The author will be reading new and selected work with poet Lory Bedikian, author of Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body.

Poet Film Stage: Outlaws & Angels

Saturday, May 2, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque

Poet Film Stage returns to Beyond Baroque for a one-night performance. This year’s theme, Outlaws & Angels, unfolds as a 75-minute program shaped by a live score, where music threads through poetry, vignettes, and film, connecting each moment into a cohesive, emotionally rich visual narrative. Featuring: Amy Raasch, Annie Wood, Aruni Wijesinghe, Brendan Constantine, Dig Wayne, Jeremy Ra, jimmy vega, Joseph Paulson, Kathleen Florence, Michelle Bitting, Nicelle Davis, Phil Abrams, Rich Ferguson, S.A. Griffin, Mylo Lam, Sandy Rogers, Sean Hill, and Susan Hayden.

L.A. Book Launch: Without The Consent of The People by Fred Dewey

Wednesday, May 6, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque

Join us for the Los Angeles launch of Without the Consent of the People, a posthumous collection by Fred Dewey (Beyond Baroque Executive Director, 1996 - 2010), published by IFSF Publishing. Written in the final years of his life and completed through the dedicated efforts of the Fred Dewey Legacy Project, this long-awaited book gathers Dewey’s reflections on art, politics, public life, and the possibilities of collective civic imagination.

Juicy Questions About Reality

Thursday, May 7, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

To culminate the exhibit of Judy Kleinberg’s visual poetry now on view in the Mike Kelley Gallery, Beyond Baroque invites you to a lively reading with Judy Kleinberg, poet Suzanne O’Connell, and essayist Liz Stephens. In language that explores beauty in the unlovely and poetry in the unpoetic, the three writers contemplate memory, identity, and place. Please join us for a memorable evening of words and images.

Book Launch: Swirl & Vortex by Larry Levis, David St. John, & David Ulin

Friday, May 8, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

Swirl & Vortex at last makes all of Larry Levis’s poetry available in one definitive volume. This collection includes the five books published in Levis’s lifetime, a brilliant reconfiguration of Levis’s posthumous books, and unpublished late poems, edited and with an afterword by David St. John. Join us for a reading, and a Q&A between editor David St. John and author, David L. Ulin.

L.A. Book Launch: Piecework by Amy Shimshon-Santo

Saturday, May 9, 1:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

Join us for a celebration of Amy Shimshon-Santo's newest collection, Piecework: Ethnographies of Place (Unsolicited Press). The afternoon will feature readings and perfomances by Amy Shimshon-Santo, Avila Santo and Reva Santo, followed by a moderated discussion with Betty Avila. iecework brings together intergenerational essays that reflect on how people create possibility and shape place through creative work. The book moves between personal narrative and collective history, offering a thoughtful look at how change happens on the ground. Moving across classrooms, neighborhoods, and personal histories, The book highlights what becomes possible when communities come together with intention.

Women of the World: Poetry & Music Performances

Saturday, May 9, 7:00 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

UCLA’s Comparative Literature Graduate Student Association, in partnership with Beyond Baroque, is pleased to present Women of the World, an evening of commemoration for the struggles of women around the world. The program presents a commemoration for female poets and reflections on the struggles of women around the world involving talks about the history of International Women’s Day and various poetry readings in multiple languages with translations; featuring Hannah Jakobsen, Ivanna Berrios, JuliAnne Rach, Sylvie Gallagher, and Consuelo Salamia Góngora. The event will culminate in musical performances of songs of resistance by women artists Andrea Y Los Gallos and Guerra Paz.

Goat, Goddess, Moon: Poetry with Catherine Strisik & Karen Kevorkian

Thursday, May 14, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque and Live on YouTube

Beyond Baroque hosts a reading with poet Catherine Strisik celebrating her new collection Goat, Goddess, Moon (Holy Cow! Press, 2025), alongside Los Angeles poet Karen Kevorkian.

Poetry & Wine Tasting: A Fundraiser for Beyond Baroque

Saturday, May 16, 6:00 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque

Join us in the Poets’ Garden at Beyond Baroque for our spring fundraiser! Enjoy an evening of wine tastings paired with poetry, with all proceeds supporting Beyond Baroque’s programming and its mission to expand opportunities for a diverse literary community. As Los Angeles’ oldest literary organization, Beyond Baroque needs your support to continue providing a home for learning and creative expression through workshops, weekly readings, and performances at our historic space in Venice. Stay tuned for more info!

L.A. Book Launch: Convergence: Poetry on the Environmental Impacts of War

Friday, May 22, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque

Convergence: Poetry on the Environmental Impacts of War, offers a vital perspective that has rarely been considered: war’s destruction of the more-than-human environment. Arranged more or less chronologically, 90 poems and their contextual notes by 61 contemporary poets bring into vivid focus the eco-injustice of military damages in 37 nations on 6 continents and on the moon. The evening will feature readings by co-editor Teresa Mei Chuc, as well as contributors Sean Mclain Brown, Hazel Clayton, Lisbeth Coiman, Lucille Lang Day, Alicia-Viguer Espert, and Shahé Mankerian.

L.A. Book Launch: Canícula/Dog Days by William Archila

Saturday, May 23, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque & Live on YouTube

William Archila’s Canícula/Dog Days is a bilingual selection of his first two books of poetry that chart the emergence of a newcomer in the chorus of Latine Poetry. Canícula, which means “dog days” in English, takes the reader on a poignant journey from the unrest in El Salvador in the 1980s to the urban landscape of the US immigrant. The author will be joined by Omar Bárcena, Mariano Zaro, and Carolina Rivera Escamilla in The Wanda Coleman Theater for readings in English and Spanish.

L.A. Book Launch: To Ask for Love by Harry Northup

Saturday, May 30, 2:00 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque & Live on YouTube

Beyond Baroque presents a reading and celebration of Harry E. Northup's To Ask For Love (Cahuenga Press). Harry E. Northup is a poet and actor (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Over The Edge, The Silence of the Lambs) and is the Producer and Host of Harry's Poetry Hour, Creative Chaos MPTF. Also reading from their work: Cahuenga Press poets James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams and Jeanette Clough.

Tom & Robert's Back Porch Blues

Friday, June 5, 7:30 PM PT
In Person at Beyond Baroque

Back by popular demand! Join us in the Wanda Coleman Theater once more for Back Porch Blues, a live acoustic concert featuring lead vocalist Tom Nolan of The Tom Nolan Band and lead guitarist Robert Resnick of the band 1969. Expect classic blues songs, ranging from 1905 to the present. Tom Laichas and Jeffrey Graham will support with some blue-sy poesy. Wine and cheese reception prior. Get your tickets before they're sold out!