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Literature

Words have the power to shape realities and have helped transform communities. Read on for more stories of artists using literature to speak truth to power.

Two open books in a library.
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Sarah Rafael García poses next to her LibroMobile mobile library. | Courtesy of Sarah Rafael García
Sarah Rafael García, founder of the mobile library LibroMobile, is a familiar face of success in Santa Ana. Yet she attributes her accomplishments in writing, teaching, publishing and more to acknowledging her discomfort as an out-of-place Chicana.
Exterior of Venice West, a beat generation coffee house | Austin Anton from the Lawrence Lipton papers, USC Libraries
Lawrence Lipton's book “The Holy Barbarians” was a celebration and canonization of the “Venice West” scene. It also became the biggest hit of his career, around which he revolved on for much of his life.
Interior of a bookstore. | Flickr/rob walsh/Creative Commons (Public Domain Mark 1.0)
Without in-person events to launch their new books, authors are touring virtually.
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Sholeh Wolpé responds to Jean-Michel Basquiat's Gold Griot with "Yellow to Blue"
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"Until We Win" is an artists' response to the injustices faced by Black people who are brutalized by police. It is a song for solidarity and a poem to remember so that we never forget.
Ron Reeder and Joseph Janusz, "Godzilla Visiting El Monte." | Courtesy of South El Monte Arts Posse and Ron Reeder (
A new collection of essays builds an archive of radical, transnational and multiracial people in greater El Monte.
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Southland Sessions Presents: From high school operas and drive-thru art exhibitions to Chicano comedies and underground DJ sets—we are showcasing the…
Ruben Funkahuatl Guevara: President of Funk
Los Angeles native Chicano musician and activist Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara — known perhaps most famously for his work with Frank Zappa — says his artistry has been “as much a spiritual calling as it was political.”
"The Ballad of Huck and Miguel" cover | Daniel Gonzalez
A new book set along the waterway retells Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" with a contemporary twist, perhaps opening readers’ eyes to a different Los Angeles.
Exene Cervenka in concert | Gary Leonard
"Punk rock saved my life." Stacy Russo’s book, “We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women from the 1970s and 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene," examines the power of punk through the fans and performers who experienced it.
Patti Perret, photograph of Octavia E. Butler seated by her bookcase, 1986. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. © Patti Perret
Butler remains an essential literary presence even in her absence, her work not simply growing in esteem but taking on new coloring and resonance with each passing year.
Get Lit Poet, Gordon Ip
Get Lit poet Gordon Ip responds to former FBI Director James Comey's recent testimony before the Senate.
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