Sign up below to get Mission Local’s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won’t find elsewhere.
Lit Crawl, the world’s largest literary pub crawl and Litquake’s annual Mission District finale, will take place on October 25th this year, bringing together thousands of writers and fans.
Now in its 21st year, Lit Crawl is “a perfect reflection of the Bay Area literary scene: prismatic, chaotic, totally free,” says poet T.S. Leonard. The magic of Lit Crawl is the platform it provides for individual voices while presenting a vibrant whole. It’s much like the many mosaics that enrich the Mission neighborhood and express its rich cultural history.
Can’t Miss These Gems
Trans Love Stories: The Meet-Cute featuring Grayson Thompson, Isaac Fellman, M. M. Olivas, Eden Nobile, June Martin, and Violet. Oakland-based writer and comic artist Martin says, “Leave with a new appreciation for the variety of perspectives and approaches trans authors take to even a subject as well-trodden as love.” Savor romance at 5:00 p.m. at Silver Sprocket (1018 Valencia).
Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.
Femmes & Thems Destroy Fairy Tales featuring Ploi Pirapokin, Kristina Ten, Lauren C. Johnson, and Syr Beker. “All four of us play with fairy tales in our writing so this event felt like a natural fit,” asserts Johnson, who describes her group “as writers who’ve proudly published with small and indie presses and journals.” Witness their cooperation in destruction and creation at 6:30 p.m. at Adobe Books & Arts Cooperative (3130 24th St).
Kindred: All the Ways Poetry Says Sisterhood featuring Sabina Khan-Ibarra, MK Chavez, Preeti Vangani, and Maw Shein Win. “When blood can’t hold [sisterhood], we build it with those joined to us by witness, work, and love,” says Khan-Ibarra. Other “sisters” chime in:
Each her and her and her a particle of dust birthing storms
each her a storm that cooks, creates, cradles but never settles
–Preeti Vangani
I think about our sisters.
We touch their feet.
– Maw Shein Win
More empowerment and bonding at 6:30 p.m. at Medicine for Nightmares (3036 24th St).
Palestinian Voices of the Diaspora featuring Deema K. Shehabi, Priscilla Wathington, Betty Shamieh, and Janine Mogannam. Shamieh curated this event because she “felt it was imperative for the Palestinian writers of the Bay Area to come together and exercise our rights to have a voice in a world that seems determined to silence us.” Practice deep listening at 8:00 p.m. at Grand Coffee Too (2544 Mission St.).
LeatherCrawl–More K!nks Than A… featuring Skulis Ador, Tijanna O. Eaton, Celestina Meow, Fiona, and Midori. “I am committed to maintaining as much pleasure in my life as I can possibly cram in,” says Eaton. Particularly in this political context, “I’m going to continue living in joy, abundance, sex, sensuality, and especially kink.” Mingle with “super BIPOC, super queer” community at 8:00 p.m. at Latin American Club (3286 22nd St).
Taking It All In
Thanks to co-directors Janine Kovac and Prasant Nukalapati, there are enough Lit Crawl events that even the most dedicated attendee will have trouble observing even a fraction of San Francisco’s most exhilarating literary evening of the year. Kovac says that for her personally, the festivities were a revelation. “I spent all this time writing and I didn’t know how to get it out there,” notes Kovac. “That’s how I found Litquake and Lit Crawl.”
And You!
There’s plenty of opportunities to participate! Want to Read at Lit Crawl? A Pre-Crawl Tailgate starts at 3:00 p.m. at Page Street (297 Page St.) and leads into Without A Net: 20 Super-short, Uncurated, Uncensored, Unrehearsed Pieces, Freshly Written in the Last Hour at 5:00 p.m. at The Drawing Room: ANNEX (599 Valencia St.). And if you’re still standing at the end of the night, the afterparty at 9:00 p.m. (also at The Drawing Room: ANNEX) will welcome you with open doors.
A full map and schedule are here.
We’re almost halfway to our goal
We’ve raised nearly half of our $300,000 goal to cover immigration for the next three years of Trump’s term.
Donate below to keep us at the immigration courthouse and on the streets, covering ICE’s actions in San Francisco.