L.A. Book Launch: The Life, Literature and Legacy of Luis J. Rodriguez

Join us for the book launch of The Life, Literature, and Legacy of Luis J. Rodríguez. The book launch release features readings and Q&A with Luis J. Rodríguez. Detailing his life's journey and literary legacy as the author of several poetry collections and the award-winning memoir Always Running. Rodriguez served as Los Angeles poet laureate (2014-2016), and founded Tía Chucha Centro Cultural, an arts organization based in Sylmar, California. The author will be joined by co-editors Josephine Metcalf and Ben V. Olguín. Book signings to follow in the Scott Wannberg Bookstore & Lounge.

The Life, Literature, and Legacy of Luis. J Rodríguez features new and unique critical essays and reflections by scholars and artists throughout Europe and the Americas on the work of ex-prisoner, author, and activist, Luis J. Rodríguez. Contributors explore Rodriguez's visceral accounts of urban working-class life that includes youth gang violence, incarceration, and drug abuse, grueling factory work and union organizing activities, as well as publications by Rodriguez offer a range of perspectives for fans of the renowned artist, intellectual, and activist. The book is indispensable for anyone interested in understanding the full complexities and impacts of Rodriguez's life and literature.

Doors Open: 1:30 PM I Readings: 2:00 PM

About the authors

Dr. Josephine Metcalf is a Reader in American Studies & Criminology at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom where she has research intersts in how and why people may read and write in contexts of confinement. Jo has edited anthologies of poetry and prose for people in Pr*son as well as Pr*son staff, and with Ben Olguín is the co-editor of The Life, Literature, and Legacy of Luis J. Rodríguez.

Ben Valdez Olguín is the Robert and Liisa Erickson Presidential Chair in English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Olguin's research and teaching include service-learning projects in community centers and schools in underserved communities, as well as in prisons, juvenile jails, and immigrant detention centers. As founder and director of the Global Latinidades Center, Olguín has received over $2.1 million in grants, which help support multiple educational and community-based initiatives.

Luis J. Rodriguez is an American poet, novelist, journalist, critic, and columnist. He was the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. Rodríguez is recognized as a major figure in contemporary Chicano literature, identifying himself as a native Xicanx writer. His best-known work, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and has been controversial on school reading lists for its depictions of gang life.

About Beyond Baroque

is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

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Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center