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Modern Times is now investing 10% of the total sales on all events books to community organizations... Read more »
See a list of archived events... Read more »
Please note that Modern Times is taking a brief hiatus during the month of March. We will return to our regular full schedule of events in April!
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Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape
Jessica Valenti, Julia Serano, Lisa Jervis, Jaclyn Friedman & Susan Lopez
- Thursday, May 7
- 7:00 PM
Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape is a groundbreaking new look at rape, edited by writer and activist Jaclyn Friedman and Feministing.com founder Jessica Valenti. This anthology moves beyond "no means no" to connect the dots between the shaming and co-option of female sexuality in our culture(s) and the ways rape is allowed and encouraged to function. (Seal Press)
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thinkPhilosphy.org recreates Plato’s Symposium
- Monday, May 11 – June 1
- 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Join thinkPhilosophy.org’s Dr. Rita Alfonso for four sessions of reading and discussion around Plato's Symposium – a dialog comprised of the musings by Socrates and friends on the nature of love, Aristophanes' speech on the Origin of Love, and Eros as the child of poverty and plenty – culminating in a recreation of the Symposium itself at a 21st century philosophers’ dinner party! (Dinner location TBA)
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The Years of Talking Dangerously
Geoff Nunberg
- Tuesday, May 12
- 7:30 PM
Language has never mattered more. America recently elected a new president in part because of his ability to inspire with words. Since then, the country has begun to look back and reconsider some of the linguistic trickery of his predecessor’s administration. No one has more to offer to that conversation than “rock star linguist” and longstanding NPR contributor Geoff Nunberg, one of the country’s foremost professors of linguistics. (Public Affairs Books)
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Secret of White
Barbara Tomash
Little Book of Days
Nona Caspers
- Wednesday, May 13
- 7:30 PM
Chad Sweeney says of Secret of White, “at once both delicate and sturdy, accurate and loving, a meditation on the triumphs of representation as much as its ghosted removes from ‘a white that cannot be recited or painted.” Eileen Myles says of Nona Casper's Little Book of Days "…an avalanche of quiet risk taking, this book sings." (Spuyten Duyvil Press)
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Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art
Russell Howze
Author Event:
- Thursday, May 14
- 7:00 PM
Stencil Workshop:
- Saturday, May 16
- 3:00 PM
Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art packs over 500 color photographs in a 192 page, 8 inch by 8 inch pound of paper and ink. The book presents work by more than 350 artists from 28 countries. Featured artists include: Banksy, Jef Aerosol, Logan Hicks, Adam5100, Arofish, M-City, SWOON, Hao, John Fekner, Peat Wollaeger, Klutch, and others. (Manic D Press)
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Intro to Safe Cycling Class
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
- Sunday, May 17
- 1:00 - 5:00 PM
A four-hour introductory course for new cyclists and those who want to feel more comfortable riding on city streets. Learn how to choose a bike, ride in traffic, and cyclists' legal rights and responsibilities. Adults and anyone over 14 years of age are welcome, pre-registration is required. Bring your lunch or dinner. No bicycle is needed for this class. More info & RSVP: http://www.sfbike.org/edu
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The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribbean Latino Tales of Learning and Turning
Juan Flores
Followed by Panel Discussion with San Francisco State University faculty members Anatole Anton, Roberto Rivera, Nancy Mirabal and Teresa Carrillo
- Tuesday, May 19
- 7:00 PM
In The Diaspora Strikes Back, Juan Flores flips the immigration process on its head: what happens to the home country as a result of the constant streams of emigrants and remittances flowing in from abroad? While he focuses on Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans the model is broadly applicable. Indians in London, Japanese in Sao Paulo, and Turks in Berlin all transmit such “cultural remittances” back to their home countries, often with dramatic consequences. (Routledge)
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Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia
David Vine
- Wednesday, May 20
- 7:00 PM
Island of Shame exposes the lies, conspiracies, and empirical aspirations that have long concealed the history of expulsion experienced by the Chagossian people from their ancestral lands on the island of Diego Garcia during the creation of a US military base there. All proceeds from the sales of this book go to the Chagossian people. (Princeton University Press)
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Missing: Youth, Citizenship, and Empire after 9/11
Sunaina Maira
- Thursday, May 21
- 7:30 PM
In Missing, Sunaina Maira explores how young South Asian Muslim immigrants living in the United States experienced and understood national belonging in the years immediately following September 11, 2001. This thorough investigation unfolds through the narratives of working class South Asian Muslim students into the cultural dimensions of citizenship and relationships to the state in the everyday contexts of education, labor, leisure, dissent, betrayal, and loss. (Duke University Press)
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Queer Open Mic
- Friday, May 22
- 7:00 PM sign-up for performers
- 7:30 PM start time
The Queer Open Mic features poetry, creative writing, music and more. $3-5 optional
donation. All kinds of queers welcome. For more info, visit http://queeropenmic.com.
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The Burger Queen Social
- Saturday, May 23
- 5:30 PM
From the minds that brought about Gay Shame and Ships in the Night comes the Burger Queen Social—a fun and exciting opportunity to meet other radical queer, trans, and genderqueer folks to hook up with for political witchery and discussion. With free vegan eats and a wildly engaging DJ!
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Spanish Book Group / Círculo de Lectores de Literatura en Español
- Tuesday, May 26
- 7:00 PM
Join us for our Spanish language book group on the fourth Tuesday of each month. A mix of native speakers and advanced level hablantes, the group has been meeting in the Mission District on a monthly basis for nine years. In May the group will discuss José Saramogo's El Viaje del Elefante and is available at a 10% discount for all book group participants.
A mediados del siglo XVI el rey Juan III ofrece a su primo, el archiduque Maximiliano de Austria, un elefante asiático. Esta novela cuenta el viaje épico de ese elefante llamado Salomón que tuvo que recorrer Europa por caprichos reales y absurdas estrategias. Escrita diez años después de la concesión del Premio Nobel, El viaje del elefante nos muestra a un Saramago en todo su esplendor literario.
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Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters
Lincoln Cushing and Tim Drescher
An author event and benefit for Modern Times Bookstore! Come enter to win an author-donated raffle prize and enjoy wine and refreshments during the event!
- Wednesday, May 27
- 7:00 PM
American labor posters are widely scattered, difficult to locate, and rarely archived. Cushing and Drescher have pulled together some 250 color images of posters issued by government programs and campaigns, devised by unions as recruiting tools or strike announcements, and generated by grassroots organizations focused on a particular issue or group of workers – they reveal much about the diverse experiences of working people in the United States. (Cornell University Press)
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Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents
Minal Hajratwala
- Thursday, May 28
- 7:30 PM
Beginning with her great-grandfather Motiram's original flight from British-occupied India to Fiji, where he rose from tailor to department store mogul, Hajratwala follows her ancestors across the twentieth century to explain how they came to be spread across five continents and nine countries. Hajratwala brings to light for the very first time the story of the Indian diaspora and its shaping by the historical forces of British colonialism, apartheid, Gandhi's Salt March, and American immigration policy. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
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The Heart's Traffic
Ching-In Chen
- Friday, May 29
- 7:30 PM
In celebration of the recent release of Ching-In Chen's The Heart's Traffic – a novel in poems chronicling the life of an immigrant girl haunted by the death of her best friend who grows into her sexuality and searches for a way to deal with her complicated histories – the author will be joined by special guests Elmaz Abinader, Alicia Kester, Kenji Liu and Zuleikha Mahmood. (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press)
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Gay Shame Weekly Meetings
- Saturdays
- 5:30 PM
Gay Shame seeks nothing less than a new queer activism that foregrounds race, class, gender and sexuality, to counter gay consumerism and the increasingly hypocritical left. Come to a general meeting: all are welcome.
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