The Banned Book Club: Readings from Banned Books | SF Main Library

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Tuesday, September 23, 2014 is the kick off of the Banned Book Club at the SF Main Library featuring Kathryn Ma, Tom Temprano, Virgie Tovar, Brontez Purnell, Achy Obejas and Chris Carlsson reading from banned books.

Readings include:

Virgie Tovar reading Venus in Furs

Virgie Tovar is a hot fat Latina femme writer and activist. She is the editor of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012). She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. After teaching “Female Sexuality” at the University of California at Berkeley, she went onto host “The Virgie Show” (CBS Radio) in SF.

She is certified as a sex educator and was voted Best Sex Writer by the Bay Area Guardian in 2008 for her first book, Destination DD: Adventures of a Breast Fetishist with 40DDs. Virgie and her work have been featured by MTV, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bust Magazine, Jezebel, 7×7 Magazine, XOJane, Golden Gate Express and SF Weekly as well as on Women’s Entertainment Television and The Ricki Lake Show. She lives in San Francisco and offers workshops, lectures and coaching worldwide. Virgie has toured North America with Sister Spit: The Next Generation.

Tom Temprano reading The City and The Pillar

Tom Temprano is a San Francisco based DJ, promoter, entrepreneur an community activist. Since 2010, he has produced the popular daytime parities Hard French and Daytime Realness under the moniker DJ Carnita and has proudly used nightlife to raise over $75,000 for community causes. With two business partners he opened Virgil’s Sea Room, a neighborhood bar on the Mission/Bernal border in mid-2013. When not working hard to create community in bars and clubs, Tom devotes himself to supporting community through political organizing. He has been an active board member of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club for four years, serving as the president and co-president for the past two. He has spent countless hours marching in the streets, knocking on doors, conducting sleep-ins in the park and putting pressure on elected officials to keep San Francisco affordable, diverse and queer. In between bar shifts, DJ sets and rabble-rousing activities Tom loves to curl up with his cat Irma, dog Salchico and boyfriend Jarr and dig into a juicy banned book.

Kathryn Ma reading The Bluest Eye

Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely-praised novel The Year She Left Us (Harper Books, May 2014). Her story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award (Univ. of Iowa Press), and was named an SF Chronicle “Notable” Book and an LA Times “Discoveries” Book. Her mother, a librarian, was a big influence on her reading life.

Brontez Purnell reading Ulysses

Brontez Purnell produced his first zine, “Schlepp Fanzine,” from his childhood home in Alabama. Since then, he moved to Tennessee and then to California to bring his original voice to music, dance, and the written word. In Oakland, he produced his next zine, Fag School, filled with filth, awe, and wonder. Because of his magnetic presence and lurid but honest portrayals of punk rock-infused queer life, Purnell has become somewhat of a star on the literary-reading circuit. His writing has appeared in Maximum Rock’N’Roll, the online edition of Jigsaw, and Mary: Literary. He also can be seen bringing his combination of truth-telling and heart to his punk rock band, The Younger Lovers.

Achy Obejas reading Animal Farm

Achy Obejas is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Ruins, Days of Awe and three other books of fiction. Her poetry chapbook, This is What Happened in Our Other Life was both a critical favorite and a best-seller. Her translation, into Spanish, of Junot Díaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Óscar Wao was a finalist for Spain’s Esther Benítez Translation Prize from the national translator’s association. She is member of the Editorial Board and a columnist for In These Times, and on the editorial advisory board of the Great Books Foundation. Born in Havana, she is currently the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, where she lives with her wife, Megan Bayles and their son, Ilan.

Chris Carlsson reading Nickel and Dimed

Chris Carlsson, is a writer, San Francisco historian, “professor,” bicyclist, tour guide, blogger, photographer, book and magazine designer. He’s lived in San Francisco since 1978 and has been self-employed in various capacities since the early 1980s. He has written two books (After the Deluge, Nowtopia) edited six books, (Reclaiming San Francisco, The Political Edge, Bad Attitude, Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration, Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco, 1968-78 and Shift Happens! Critical Mass at 20), and co-authored the expanded second edition of Vanished Waters: The History of San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

He helped co-found Critical Mass in September, 1992, and has ridden with Critical Mass rides in a dozen cities on three continents since then. His book Nowtopia, along with his role in Critical Mass, has propelled him into extended world travels since 2002, and he has had three of his books translated and published in Italy and one in Brazil. His frequent public appearances are well-represented online at Youtube and in various radio and audio archives. He has directed Shaping San Francisco since its inception in the mid-1990s, and continues to be co-director of the archive of San Francisco history at FoundSF.org. He also conducts award-winning bicycle history tours a dozen times a year, and hosts an ongoing Public Talks series in San Francisco.

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