Podcast
Bay Area Book Festival Podcast
Hosted by Bay Area Book Festival · EN
Between audio books? Curious about the writers themselves? Listen to full-length sessions from the Bay Area Book Festival, where readers and writers meet each year in Berkeley, CA, to engage with their favorite authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners, chefs, and activists, to discuss writing, race, love, mystery, and more.
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On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland
1w ago01:02:25Tap to summarizeAs both a means of empowerment and a magnet for policing, Black dance music has transformed not only Oakland's nightlife, but also its streets, parks, and neighborhoods. From the mobilization of funk music and boogaloo dance during Black Power to the policing of the Hyphy movement in the 2000s, Black dance music is not merely a soundtrack to or record of urban resistance, argues geographer, DJ, and housing justice advocate Alex Werth in On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland. Rather, its very sound waves have animated looping clashes over development, dispossession, and Black freedom. Through studies of downtown nightclubs, Lake Merritt, and the Eastmont Mall—geographies rarely considered, yet critical to Oakland's culture and politics—Werth reveals how the liberatory sonic politics of funk, hip-hop, and hyphy rap have been met with a repetitive "war on nuisance." Joining him is Yakpasua Zazaboi, filmmaker, who is featured in the book .The Oaklandside's arts and community reporter Azucena Rasilla will moderate this discussion about studies of the geographies that are rarely considered, yet critical to Oakland's culture and politics, and how struggles over Black sound have shaped Oakland's culture, politics, and geography. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Landscape as Dreamscape: Environmental Stories
1w ago00:56:51Tap to summarizeFrom sequoias to salt lakes, deserts to deep connections, the natural world serves as inspiration for the writers of this panel, who place nature's breathtaking landscapes not as a backdrop to, but at the center of their stories. In his 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist graphic memoir, Eventually a Sequoia: Stories of Art, Adventure & the Wisdom of Giants, Jeremy Collins documents the people living in the endangered corners of the world whose small seeds produce enormous results. Switching the lens to the uncanny, shimmering ecosystems of salt lakes, whose rapid decline is a harbinger of rising sea levels, life-threatening dust storms, and environmental collapse, Caroline Tracey parallels their environmental journey to her personal story of finding queer love and building a home amidst ecological crises in her book Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History, which blends travel writing, memoir, and reportage in an inspiring call to fight for all that is fragile in our lives. Moderated by Rue Mapp, Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, the nation's foremost non-profit organization inspiring Black leadership and connections in nature, this panel will provide a glimpse into the wondrous and nurturing beauty of our natural world worth protecting. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Hair Hugs (Read-Aloud)
1w ago00:30:03Tap to summarizeFrom coils and long locs to waves and braids, caring for hair can bring families together! Although going to the salon can feel overwhelming with so many options to choose from, the little girl in Salon Saturday by Janelle Harper learns to see her own kind of beautiful during her first trip to the salon with the guidance of her Grandma, Momma, and Sissy. Tasha from Wash Day Love by Tanisia Moore used to dread washing her hair at home every week because it meant stinging eyes, aching back, and water everywhere, but the weekly ritual soon becomes a special bonding time for singing, dancing, and sharing stories with her sister, Mama, and Granny! This read-aloud, emceed by Cinnamongirls Laila and Zoë, is a joyful and vibrant celebration of Black hair, intergenerational love, and ever-evolving journeys of self-expression. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →"Yeah I'm a Writer. Now What?" A panel discussion for emergent authors and literary program alums looking for advice on what's next
1w ago00:53:15Tap to summarizeIf you are a new writer looking for tips on how to live a writer's life in service to your community, this is the panel for you. Join three working poets and organizers doing exciting things in the fields of music, publishing, activism, arts education, and beyond for a discussion on ways new authors can apply their craft in impactful ways once they've chosen the writer's life. Walk away inspired and with a clearer sense of direction as authors Giovanna Lomanto (Game Over Books), Aleah Bradshaw (aka Nyfe of musical duo "Closegood," Youth Speaks), and Daniel Summerhill (Divine, Divine, Divine and Mausoleum of Flowers) share advice from each of their unique paths through the literary world beginning as alums of youth and college writing programs. This panel discussion is open to all, especially alums of the Bay's rich tapestry of youth literary arts organizations and emerging artists looking for advice on what's next. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Tales for Littles (Read-Aloud)
1w ago00:23:54Tap to summarizeBreakfast? NO! Sharing? NO! Clean diaper? NO! How do kids with big feelings tell adults what they want? The Baby Who Only Said No! by Sandra Salsbury is a hilarious picture book that will have parents and older siblings laughing along together as they try to get their own ferocious little one to say anything but NO! Eunice Moyle's My Box of Feelings, a bright and colorful collection of six original mini board books all about feelings, will come in handy for any young one learning to identify, describe, and regulate their emotions. Anger, happiness, calm… what about love? Kati Douglas' How We Love, a board book full of stellar photography and LGBTQA+ representation of real families and friends, shows love in action through sharing, hugging, showing kindness, demonstrating bravery, and stepping in to help their families and communities. Celebrate the joys and challenges of toddlerhood and independence at this funny and charming read-aloud, emceed by Cinnamongirls Élan and Grace! This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Maker, Mentor, Muse: The Spirit of the Work
1w ago00:50:25Tap to summarizeMaker, Mentor, Muse is an online teaching platform founded in 2022 by Dawn Angelicca Barcelona, Mary Volmer, and Maw Shein Win. Hailing from three distinct backgrounds, generations, and spiritual traditions we believe community is essential to building a satisfying and sustainable literary life and that true success requires balancing all three artistic roles: maker, mentor, muse. In this free one-hour workshop, we offer guided writing experiments for poetry and prose that invites participants to explore how their sacred traditions, rituals, and belief systems inform and inspire their writing processes. Join us! Maker, Mentor, Muse This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Fighting for Our Right to Read
1w ago00:59:45Tap to summarizeFeaturing critically-acclaimed authors who frequently experience censorship of their books, this rousing panel will highlight the escalation of book bans around the country and how we can fight back against them. While promoting The Day the Books Disappeared, National Leader of Authors Against Book Bans Joanna Ho was forced to leave a school after refusing to comply with the school's demands forbidding them from mentioning book bans or gay books, sparking discourse about the deeply unconstitutional movement to limit the freedom to read. Palestinian American author and publisher Hannah Moushabeck also faced censorship during a university event, which initially barred Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine, a Palestinian picture book. With support from the campus community, she read her book anyway and inspired a university-wide resolution that affirms the freedom of expression. Also continuing the fight at the legislative level is Dashka Slater, whose book The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives is one of the most banned books in the United States. In 2025, Slater joined the Big 5 Publishers and other authors to sue the State of Idaho over a bill that censored which books youth could read. The scope of today's bans is much wider than before, but the authors of this panel moderated by activist and organizer Alejandra Domenzain are proof that fighting for our most basic freedom to think, to read, and to arrive at our own opinions is necessary for effective change. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Maps for Worlds Still Becoming: Experiments in Genre, Language, and Form
1w ago01:03:40Tap to summarizeHow do we write futures that don't yet exist? How do we map territories we're still dreaming and discovering? In this hands-on, generative workshop, participants will create new work across three experimental approaches—speculative memoir, multilingual poetry, and hybrid forms. Designed as a space for exploration rather than mastery, the workshop invites writers to take creative risks, work across boundaries, and imagine new literary possibilities together. Through guided exercises and creative constraints, writers will produce fresh pieces that break conventional forms and chart unknown terrain. Led by three writers whose practices are rooted in experimentation, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary thinking, the session offers prompts, models, and frameworks for writing into the unknown. Opening Conversation (20 minutes) A brief panel discussion exploring how experimentation in form, language, and genre can open pathways to futures that traditional narratives cannot reach. Faculty will share generative techniques from their own work before participants choose a breakout workshop. Three Breakout Mini-Workshops (40 minutes each) Speculative Memoir: Writing Your Alternative Futures Led by Aimee Phan Participants will write new memoir pieces that blend memory with speculation—generating parallel narratives, alternative outcomes, or projected futures from lived experience. Through prompts that ask "what if?" alongside "what happened?", writers will explore how speculation can deepen truth rather than abandon it. Leave with a draft that reimagines a pivotal moment from your life through multiple possible timelines. Tongues of the Future: Multilingual & Diasporic PoetryLed by Zeina Hashem Beck Writers will create poems that incorporate multiple languages, experiment with code-switching, or use linguistic hybridity as a generative constraint. Drawing on models from contemporary translingual poets and adapted traditional forms, participants will write pieces that reflect how we actually speak, think, and imagine across cultures. Generate new work that envisions futures where such mixing is not marginal but central. Hybrid Forms for a Digital AgeLed by Eric Olson Participants will produce experimental pieces using constraints, collage, and unconventional structures that respond to our fragmented, multimedia contemporary moment. Through timed writing exercises and formal experiments influenced by visual art and digital culture, writers will generate work that resists traditional narrative expectations and invents new shapes for new realities. What You'll Take Away All participants will leave with new drafts, fresh techniques, and concrete generative methods to continue experimenting in their own practice. This session is especially well-suited for writers drawn to risk-taking, cross-genre work, and expansive notions of voice, form, and belonging. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →From the Frontlines of the Culture War: Advocates for Youth Share Their Stories
2w ago00:59:00Tap to summarizeGiven California's reputation as a haven of liberal thinking and the pinnacle of tolerance, many people would be surprised to hear about the stories of educators, librarians, and storytime performers who have been harassed and threatened for teaching honestly about race, gender, immigration, religion, and sexuality. District Teacher Librarian for the Oakland Unified School District Debbie Gibbons will moderate this timely conversation featuring the people at the frontlines of today's escalating culture wars. Veteran California public school teacher Sue Granzella's Pushed to the Edge: Teachers' Stories From the Culture Wars is a collection of first-person accounts of resilience in the face of growing bigotry stoked by the far right. She was inspired to write her book when she heard about the Proud Boys storming a local library to disrupt a Drag Story Hour, which was hosted by Kyle Casey Chu, drag queen and author of The Queen Bees of Tybee County Queen. They will be joined by high school librarian and media specialist Betsy Sergeant as well as former English teacher and program director for the Davis Phoenix Coalition Anoosh Jorjorian to offer a sobering view of what's at stake in our schools, libraries, and for young people today. Their firsthand experiences offer unique perspectives about the impact of California's culture wars on its youth and provide a hopeful testament to those who refuse to back down. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
Transcribe →Catastrophic Catalysis: Women Taking Risks for Humanity
2w ago00:58:02Tap to summarizeWhen trauma and unpredictable life changes demand difficult sacrifices, the inspiring authors and characters of this panel choose to take any risk necessary to preserve the tenderness and creativity of humanity, and the humanities. Inspired by journalists Christiane Amanpour and Sylvia Poggioli, Midnight, at the War is Devi Laskar's novel about a foreign correspondent who leaves New York for the war-torn Middle East after learning she is pregnant, an assignment that forces her to grapple with the physical and emotional tolls of her pregnant body and a turbulent region. A renowned dancer faces a career-ending neurologic disorder and a strained marriage in The Edge of Yesterday by Rita Woods, and she is offered an escape from the sorrow of her "real life" when she stumbles through a vortex that transports her from 2025 back into 1925 Detroit, where she meets a handsome, charming doctor. In her book Sacrament, Susan Straight highlights the quiet heroism and extraordinary bravery of a group of ICU nurses living in a makeshift RV camp close to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, facing personal and professional challenges as they care for strangers. When big changes blow up our lives, it takes courage to create from the empty space left behind, and life coach Naomi Vladeck's Braving Creativity provides women with creative tools needed to flourish in work and in life, inspiring creatives to ignite their courage to face the unknown path ahead. Moderated by Seema Vennam, this inspiring panel uplifts women's stories about using change as a catalyst for taking the necessary risks to be their creative and human selves. This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. Support our work and help to keep the Bay Area Book Festival 96% free! https://givebutter.com/writingthefuture Check out our upcoming events www.baybookfest.org Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baybookfest/
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