Buoyed by glorious weather that San Francisco and Bay Area usually enjoy in September and October, fall is the time for rich cultural life around here. Weekend days become too short to contain our collective enthusiasm for the arts. One such day this year will be September 27th, when all the muses joyfully compete for our engagement. I sorted it out and feel free to join me on the day’s adventure.
We start at 3 pm at the Herbst Theatre, at the Neon to New Orleans show by the San Francisco Pride Band. Having written about thermal cameras and AI that help ships avoid hurting the whales that wonder into San Francisco Bay, my friend, writer Katie Bourzac joined the band with their clarinet. I have peeked at the music they are playing, and I’m wondering how the ushers at the Herbst Theatre are planning to keep audience in our seats when we will all want to dance. Brute force, no doubt! Book your tickets now.
My plan is to use all the jazzy energy to dash off to the Richmond, where Globus Books is having a birthday party with more music and readings. Globus Books — an anchor of the post-Soviet and Transeurasian community — recently attained legacy business status in San Francisco. They began operations in 1971 with a wave of immigrants and exiles arriving to the US from the USSR, and have been hosting events and supporting diaspora authors ever since.
This event is likely to be at least partially in Russian, and I’m planning to read a bit of my work during the open mic portion.
And speaking of the post-Soviet and Transeurasian community, don’t miss stories that Yelena Furman and I published recently in our blog Punctured Lines:
- Creating a Vivid World: A Q&A with Lisa C. Hayden, the translator of Egana Djabbarova’s My Dreadful Body — a closer look at a wonderfully inventive novel by an author who offers us insights into traditional Azerbaijani community in Russia. If you’re interested in reading this book in great company, it’s not too late to join a group read currently happening on Bluesky — search for the tag #Djabbarova26
- “This Bone-Deep Memory of Movement”: A Conversation between Alina Adams and Irena Smith — these two authors met as immigrant children at a Jewish day school here in San Francisco. Today, as adults, they talk about their immigration stories and how similar experiences inspired them to tell their own unique stories in vastly different genres
- New Perspectives on a Familiar Past: An Interview with Maxim Matusevich by Svetlana Satchkova — Satchkova, whose own stellar English language debut THE UNDEAD we celebrated at Globus Books this spring, interviewed Maxim Matusevich, a historian specializing in the relationships between the Soviet Union and African countries, who this year published his book of short fiction, SIX TRAINS OF NO RETURN. Moving and expansive stories, they are anchored in recent history and are brimming with humor and the unexpected. So much to enjoy!
