Thursday, May 9, 7-9pm
Max 50 participants
Free

Member price accessed with discount code at checkout. Are you a member and don’t know your code? Email [email protected]! Not a member but interested in these perks? Join here!

This quarter, the reading series invites writers Jessica Gallion, Chenel King, Tamala Whittley, and Sarah Wheeler to respond to the idea of Critical Intuition, as presented in the work of Audre Lorde.

The WCCW Reading Series is a quarterly literary reading series organized by Bridgette Bianca and Nina Rota. The readings are thematically linked with WCCW programming.

This event is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome. We will provide drinks and light snacks.

Jessica Gallion aka YELLAWOMAN Is a writer, poet, mother, friend, from Natchitoches, Louisiana, raised in Los Angeles, California where pen and poetry became her best friend. She is the author of Can’t No Woman Woman Like Me, published by World Stage Press in Leimert Park. She is also the creator and facilitator for Creatin’ After Hours (a guided writing night cap) at The World Stage. She has performed for Compton College, various high schools in Los Angeles County through The Living Writers Series, Cafe Con Libros, The Pasadena Lit Festival, un::fade::able, The Table Lit Readings, La Palabra, and many other venues around Los Angeles. Jessica is the 2016 champion of the Spoken Word Voices Heard Poetry Slam and a graduate of the Community Literature Initiative. Her work takes you on a journey through self discovery and affirmations, colorism, singlemotherhood, and trials and overcoming with a cayenne cultural thread of “sho ya right.” A second book is in the works. Find her at @_yellawoman on Instagram.

Chenel King was born and raised in Walnut, CA. King comes from a long line of storytellers and is obsessed with asking: “Why?” King has a B.A. in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (2011) and is a candidate for her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Otis College of Art and Design (2018).

Tamala Whittley is a writer and educator born and raised in Los Angeles. She is currently shopping her first novel , The Ghosts of Central Avenue, and is already hard at work on her next. When she isn’t writing, you can find her reading, or trying  to draw and paint. *has no social media presence I believe.*

Sarah Wheeler is a poet, playwright, and performer from North Carolina who currently resides in Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre (with a minor in English Lit.) from Wake Forest University. Sarah moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to attend the Art of Acting Conservatory where she wrote and debuted her first one-woman show, /Once Again to Z/, which later ran in the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Currently, Sarah is writing her first book and is enrolled in the Community Literature Initiative (CLI) publishing program based out of USC. As a poet, Sarah has featured at both /The Backyard LA/ and /Beatnik Café/, and has read her work at various open mics including /Da Poetry Lounge, The Worldstage, PS Poets’ events,/and/Rattle Reading Series/. Sarah is also a creator of erasure poetry, which can be found on her Instagram *@littlegoldenblackoutpoems.*

Accessibility information for this event: WCCW has a 36” wide ramp at our front entrance and a stairway with 8 steps and a rail. There are 2 gender neutral restrooms. One restroom is wheelchair accessible, with a handrail. We provide scent free soaps and encourage guests to attend our events scent free. If you require ASL interpretation, CART, interpretation for a language other than English, supervised childcare, or have any other access needs or questions, please contact [email protected] at least two weeks in advance. It is our practice to do everything we can to create a safe and accessible space.

Childcare for this event: We do our best to provide low-cost, on-site childcare for our events when requested at least a week in advance. If you are interested in childcare for this event, please fill out this form.

*All members get 20% off paid programming. A limited number of free spots are also available for Warrior & Goddess level members. Email [email protected] to inquire about free tickets.

Our program costs go directly towards compensation of the instructors and staffers who work the event. We want to make programming as accessible as possible to anyone who is interested, however, so we offer volunteer opportunities in exchange for membership, as well as free community tickets to each program (number varies depending on capacity of the class). Email [email protected] for more info or to find out more about these opportunities for a specific event.