SCCM: Saturday Sing-Along
2021-11-06 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Southern California Children’s Museum, 459 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA, 91011, United States
SATURDAYS AT 10:30AM AND 3:00PM
Kiddos of all ages get to explore various musical instruments while singing their favorite songs! From shakers to drums, we are ready to make some noise!

Boston Court Pasadena: The Lyris Quartet
2021-11-06 20:00 | CA
THE LYRIS QUARTET
NOV 6, 8PM

The wonderful Lyris Quartet brings their charming European classical style back to Boston Court. This time with a program designed to elevate historically overlooked string quartets during the time of Mozart.
The evening will include one of the rare female composers of the time, Fannie Hensel Mendelssohn; selections from a series of short string quartets by the musical prodigy Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), one of the first prominent classical composers of African descent; and Mozart’s Dissonance String Quartet.
This concert is being presented for FREE as part of Boston Court’s commitment to make these awful 18 months just a little bit better.

Vroman's: Saraciea Fennell Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora
2021-11-08 18:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
Edited by The Bronx Is Reading founder Saraciea J. Fennell and featuring an all-star cast of Latinx contributors, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is a ground-breaking anthology that will spark dialogue and inspire hope.
In Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, bestselling and award-winning authors as well as up-and-coming voices interrogate the different myths and stereotypes about the Latinx diaspora. These fifteen original pieces delve into everything from ghost stories and superheroes, to memories in the kitchen and travels around the world, to addiction and grief, to identity and anti-Blackness, to finding love and speaking your truth. Full of both sorrow and joy, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is an essential celebration of this rich and diverse community. (Flatiron Books)

SCCM: Story and Craft
2021-11-09 10:30 | Southern California Children’s Museum, 459 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA, 91011, United States
Join Southern California Children’s Museum for a read-aloud, and then bring the story to life through arts and crafts! From a Trailblazer who made their mark in history or an influential illustrator who brings stories to life, you will not want to miss out on this one!

Vroman's: Wil Haygood discusses Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World
2021-11-09 18:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
This unprecedented history of Black cinema examines 100 years of Black movies–from Gone with the Wind to Blaxploitation films to Black Panther–using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America. From the acclaimed author of The Butler and Showdown.
Beginning in 1915 with D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation–which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood’s first blockbuster–Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, on-screen and behind the scenes.
He makes clear the effects of changing social realities and events on the business of making movies and on what was represented on the screen: from Jim Crow and segregation to white flight and interracial relationships, from the assassination of Malcolm X, to the O. J. Simpson trial, to the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers the films themselves–including Imitation of Life, Gone with the Wind, Porgy and Bess, the Blaxploitation films of the seventies, Do The Right Thing, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Panther. And he brings to new light the careers and significance of a wide range of historic and contemporary figures: Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Berry Gordy, Alex Haley, Spike Lee, Billy Dee Willliams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava DuVernay, and Jordan Peele, among many others.
An important, timely book, Colorization gives us both an unprecedented history of Black cinema and a groundbreaking perspective on racism in modern America. (Knopf Publishing Group)

Pasadena Playhouse: Head Over Heels
2021-11-09 20:00 - 20:30 | Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Head Over Heels |
November 9 — December 12
The music of The Go-Go’s fuels this non-stop, dance-filled joyride though magic, merriment and mischief. From the first notes of “We Got the Beat” to the final rapturous curtain call, you’ll be whisked away through a world of whimsy and wit. This jubilant celebration follows a royal family in search of a purpose, lovers in search of each other and a whole kingdom in search of a beat.
It’s a party! And you’re invited.
“Shrewd, funny, sexy, and with a glorious beat, Head Over Heels will have you flipping for joy.”
-VILLAGE VOICE

Pasadena Presbyterian: Music at Noon
2021-11-10 12:00, 2021-11-17 12:00, 2021-11-24 12:00, 2021-12-01 12:00, 2021-12-08 12:00, 2021-12-15 12:00, 2021-12-22 12:00, 2021-12-29 12:00 | Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena , CA, 91101, United States
Friends of Music is delighted to announce that Music at Noon, their weekly half-hour concert is going online! To see who is playing, visit ppcmusic.org.

Vroman's: Special Storytime featuring Yuyi Morales presenting Bright Star
2021-11-13 11:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
Child, you are awake!
You are alive!
You are a bright star,
Inside our hearts.
Told with a combination of powerful, spare language and sumptuous and complex imagery that is typical of Yuyi Morales’s work, this is the story of a fawn making her way through a border landscape teaming with flora and fauna native to the region. A gentle but empowering voice encourages her to face her fears when she comes across an obstacle in the form of an insurmountable barrier.
Yuyi Morales’ first book since her New York Times bestseller Dreamers is a book for very young children looking for their place in a world full of uncertainty. It is a book with resonance for all children, especially those whose safety is threatened due to the immigration crisis in the US. (Neal Porter Books)

Vroman's: Dorie Greenspan discusses Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple
2021-11-17 18:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
Say “Dorie Greenspan” and think baking. The renowned author of thirteen cookbooks and winner of five James Beard and two IACP awards offers a collection that celebrates the sweet, the savory, and the simple. Every recipe is signature Dorie: easy–beginners can ace every technique in this book–and accessible, made with everyday ingredients. Are there surprises? Of course! You’ll find ingenious twists like Berry Biscuits. Footlong cheese sticks made with cream puff dough. Apple pie with browned butter spiced like warm mulled cider. A s’mores ice cream cake with velvety chocolate sauce, salty peanuts, and toasted marshmallows. It’s a book of simple yet sophisticated baking. The chapters are classic: Breakfast Stuff – Cakes – Cookies – Pies, Tarts, Cobblers and Crisps – Two Perfect Little Pastries – Salty Side Up. The recipes are unexpected. And there are “Sweethearts” throughout, mini collections of Dorie’s all-time favorites. Don’t miss the meringue Little Marvels or the Double-Decker Caramel Cake. Like all of Dorie’s recipes, they lend themselves to being remade, refashioned, and riffed on. (Mariner Books)

Vroman's: Jung Yun discusses O Beautiful
2021-11-18 18:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
Elinor Hanson, a forty-something former model, is struggling to reinvent herself as a freelance writer when she receives an unexpected assignment. Her mentor from grad school offers her a chance to write for a prestigious magazine about the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota. Elinor grew up near the Bakken, raised by an overbearing father and a distant Korean mother who met and married when he was stationed overseas. After decades away from home, Elinor returns to a landscape she hardly recognizes, overrun by tens of thousands of newcomers.
Surrounded by roughnecks seeking their fortunes in oil and long-time residents worried about their changing community, Elinor experiences a profound sense of alienation and grief. She rages at the unrelenting male gaze, the locals who still see her as a foreigner, and the memories of her family’s estrangement after her mother decided to escape her unhappy marriage, leaving Elinor and her sister behind. The longer she pursues this potentially career-altering assignment, the more her past intertwines with the story she’s trying to tell, revealing disturbing new realities that will forever change her and the way she looks at the world.
With spare and graceful prose, Jung Yun’s O Beautiful presents an immersive portrait of a community rife with tensions and competing interests, and one woman’s attempts to reconcile her anger with her love of a beautiful, but troubled land. (St. Martins Press)

SCCM: Wild California Explorers
2021-11-19 15:00 | Southern California Children’s Museum, 459 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA, 91011, United States
Did you know that the Washingtonia filifera is the only species of palm trees indigenous to California? Learn more about our amazing state through games, scavenger hunts and craft projects!

Vroman's: Special Storytime featuring Michael Slack presenting Dinosaurs on Kitty Island
2021-11-20 11:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
A playdate between intrepid kitties and cautious dinosaurs doesn’t go quite as planned in this hilarious story of friendship and compromise!
Life on Dinosaur Island is so boring. Who wants to watch stuff sink in tar pits all day? So the dinosaurs are escaping to Kitty Island to play with their new kitty friends, even though the level-headed narrator warns them that it will end in cat-astrophe. After all, the kitties are fearless and feisty! And these dinos? Well, cuddles are more their speed. Now these tiny kitties and hulking dinos need to find some common ground before their playdate and friendship go extinct. (Dial Books)

Third @ First: Joy of Chamber Music
2021-11-20 16:00 - 18:00 | First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
The Third at First concert series continues at First United Methodist Church with a program of chamber music performed by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the series’ coordinator, pianist Junko Ueno Garrett. “The Joy of Chamber Music” features Johnny Lee and Jordan Koransky, violinists; Jarrett Threadgill, viola; David Garrett, cellist and Junko Ueno Garrett, pianist. The group will perform Josef Haydn’s Trio in G and the Piano Quintet of César Franck. Admission is free.

Vroman's: Andrew Lawler discusses Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City
2021-11-22 18:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast.
Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Scroll down to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
EVENT LINK: TBA
In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discovered an ancient grave that, he claimed, belonged to an Old Testament queen. News of his find ricocheted around the world, evoking awe and envy alike, and inspiring others to explore Jerusalem’s storied past.
In the century and a half since the Frenchman broke ground, Jerusalem has drawn a global cast of fortune seekers and missionaries, archaeologists and zealots, all of them eager to extract the biblical past from beneath the city’s streets and shrines. Their efforts have had profound effects, not only on our understanding of Jerusalem’s history, but on its hotly disputed present. The quest to retrieve ancient Jewish heritage has sparked bloody riots and thwarted international peace agreements. It has served as a cudgel, a way to stake a claim to the most contested city on the planet. Today, the earth below Jerusalem remains a battleground in the struggle to control the city above.
Under Jerusalem takes readers into the tombs, tunnels, and trenches of the Holy City. It brings to life the indelible characters who have investigated this subterranean landscape. With clarity and verve, acclaimed journalist Andrew Lawler reveals how their pursuit has not only defined the conflict over modern Jerusalem, but could provide a map for two peoples and three faiths to peacefully coexist. (Doubleday Books)

Boston Court: New Play Reading Festival - How I Learned to Swim
2021-12-11 11:00 - 12:30 | Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91206, United States
Join Boston Court for free [virtual] readings of exciting NEW works-in-progress that are in keeping with their mission to bring you risky, adventurous plays that you won’t find anywhere else in Southern California.
HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM BY SOMEBODY JONES
Directed by Amy K. Harmon
Jamie wants to learn to swim, which wouldn’t be so scary, except for the fact that she just turned 30. In an attempt to find closure after her brother’s disappearance, she decides to finally face her fear. This coming-of-adulthood story explores Black people’s relationship to water while finally answering the question: Are there really sharks in the deep end of the pool?

Boston Court Pasadena: New Play Reading Festival - Monument: Or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
2021-12-11 14:00 - 15:30 | Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91206, United States
Join Boston Court for free [virtual] readings of exciting NEW works-in-progress that are in keeping with their mission to bring you risky, adventurous plays that you won’t find anywhere else in Southern California.
MONUMENT: OR FOUR SISTERS (A SLOTH PLAY) BY SAM CHANSE
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky
SAT, DEC 11, 2PM PT
Four sisters, four sloths. Amy studies coral reefs, Constance writes for children’s television, Mac mysteriously left a job she loves, and Lina is M.I.A. Three sisters embark on intertwined journeys — through a remote coral reef, through a writers room, through community exile, through the absence of a fourth sister they hope to somehow save — and four cartoon sloths valiantly struggle to save the world from disaster. How do we keep going when something impossibly precious seems lost forever?

Boston Court: Garage Sale and Holiday Food & Toy Drive
2021-12-18 09:00 - 14:00 | Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91206, United States
Boston Court is cleaning out the closets AND collecting donations for a holiday food drive. Join us!
GARAGE SALE
Boston Court will be selling:

office supplies
kitchenware
clothing
books and more!

FOOD DRIVE
Bring a non-perishable food item with you to donate to their holiday food drive for the
Friends in Deed Food Pantry. They are particularly looking for the following items:

Canned Tuna & Chicken
V8
Hearty Soups & Stews
Rice
Flour
Sugar
Pasta & Sauce
Cereal
Peanut Butter
Fruit Juice

Boston Court: Women of Will
2022-02-26 16:00 - 17:30 | Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91206, United States
WOMEN OF WILL: SHAKESPEARE’S HEROINES WITH AMANDA & MIRANDA
Shakespeare scholar Miranda Johnson-Haddad joins cabaret legend Amanda McBroom for a spirited discussion on the Shakespearean heroines given voice in Amanda’s upcoming concert, Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues, as well as the portrayal of women in Shakespeare’s plays.

Boston Court & Pasadena Playhouse: Hold These Truths
2022-02-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91206, United States
You are invited to a special event to honor, support, and uplift our amazing community of AAPI Theatre Artists.
Created in response to the sharp rise in hate directed toward the AAPI community over the past few years, Boston Court Pasadena, East West Players, and the Pasadena Playhouse have joined forces to share a virtual presentation of Jeanne Sakata’s wonderful play Hold These Truths.
This play tells the extraordinary true story of Gordon Hirabayashi, who, through the humble courage of his convictions, stood against racist actions he knew to be wrong. This livestreamed* event features six of the wonderful actors who have given tour-de-force solo performances as Gordon in Hold These Truths productions across the country. The event will be hosted by Tamlyn Tomita and live-streamed on Monday, February 28th at 6PM PT.
All proceeds raised through the event will go to the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists and the incredible work they do to promote AAPI artists and to contribute to our national theatre ecology.

University Club: Quarterly Business Mixer
2022-03-08 17:00 - 19:30 | University Club of Pasadena, 175 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Join the University Club of Pasadena for their Quarterly Business Mixer featuring complimentary drinks, appetizers, & live music.
This event is complimentary & open to non-members.

Pasadena Playhouse: Ann
2022-03-23 - 2022-04-24 | Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Ann |
March 23 — April 24
Written and performed by Emmy Award winner Holland Taylor, Ann is pure entertainment — an uplifting tribute to this courageous leader, dedicated mother, loving grandmother, and legendary personality. Texas Governor Ann Richards had a heart as big as the state from which she hailed, a wit to rival the greats, and an enduring passion for fair play. Neither partisan nor political, this richly imagined play reveals a complex, colorful, and captivating character whose capacity to inspire us all burns even brighter today. After successful runs on Broadway and across Texas, Washington D.C., and many cities across the country, Taylor finally brings this critically acclaimed, Tony-nominated performance to Los Angeles.
“Mama! Holland Taylor captures the governor’s sly humor, talent for intimacy, and knack for getting her way.”
-NEWSWEEK

Vroman's: Ned Beauman discusses Venomous Lumpsucker
2022-06-13 13:00 | CA
Ned Beauman, in conversation with Joshua Cohen, discusses Venomous Lumpsucker
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast. Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Visit www.vromansbookstore.com to purchase your copy of the book from Vroman’s.
CROWDCAST REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ned-beauman-in
Venomous Lumpsucker
The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected . . . But then, one day, it’s all gone. A mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Now we’re never getting them back.
Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Resaint is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Halyard is an exec from the extinction industry, complicit in the mining operation that destroyed the lumpsucker’s last-known habitat.
Across the dystopian landscapes of the 2030s–a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the ocean; the hinterlands of a totalitarian state–Resaint and Halyard hunt for a surviving lumpsucker. And the further they go, the deeper they’re drawn into the mystery of the attack on the biobanks. Who was really behind it? And why would anyone do such a thing?
Virtuosic and profound, witty and despairing, Venomous Lumpsucker is Ned Beauman at his very best.

Vroman's: YA Discussion with Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasglow, E. Lockhart, & Jessica Goodman
2022-06-30 18:00 - 19:00 | CA
This is a virtual event and will take place on Crowdcast. Register for FREE ahead of time to save your spot and get an email reminder! Visit vromansbookstore.com to purchase your copy of the book(s) from Vroman’s.
CROWDCAST REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/lawson-glasgow
YA Panel discussion featuring Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow, E. Lockhart, and Jessica Goodman, in support of their latest releases, The Agathas, Family of Liars, and The Counselors.
Family of Liars: A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts. A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow. A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy. A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes. Welcome back to the Sinclair family. They were always liars.
The Agathas: Last summer, Alice Ogilvie’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. She’s not talking, so where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove. Or it was, at least. But now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex-best friend. And it doesn’t look like Brooke will be coming back. . .
Enter Iris Adams, Alice’s tutor. Iris has her own reasons for wanting to disappear, though unlike Alice, she doesn’t have the money or the means. That could be changed by the hefty reward Brooke’s grandmother is offering to anyone who can share information about her granddaughter’s whereabouts. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Alice isn’t so sure, and with Iris on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.
In order to get the reward and prove Steve’s innocence, they need to figure out who killed Brooke Donovan. And luckily Alice has exactly what they need–the complete works of Agatha Christie. If there’s anyone that can teach the girls how to solve a mystery it’s the master herself. But the town of Castle Cove holds many secrets, and Alice and Iris have no idea how much danger they’re about to walk into.
The Counselors: Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe.
She’s always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region. Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie’s one of them.
Even with her townie background, Goldie has never felt more at home at camp and now she’s back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she’s been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.
But Goldie’s not the only person at camp who has been lying. When a teen turns up dead in the lake late one night, she knows that the death couldn’t have been an accident. She also knows that Ava was at the lake that same night.
What did Ava see and what does she know? Why hasn’t she said anything to Goldie about the death? Worse–what did Ava do?
But asking questions offers no answers, only broken bonds of lifelong friendship, with hidden danger and betrayals deeper than Goldie ever imagined.
