Storytime for the Apocalypse is a virtual storytime for grown-ups. Established in April 2020 this online event series is made for your minds and hearts. It’s a hopeful, frank, uplifting, and nurturing hour for interesting people to read beautiful published writing out loud to one another. Dr Tilly Hinton began this event at the onset of the pandemic, offering stories and community as ballast against life’s vicissitudes.
“Storytime was amazing! It’s as if each one outshines -without diminishing – the glow of the others ❤️”
Episode 18: Water
Tuesday October 11, 2022
- Aspen Leavitt read ‘Ode to the Los Angeles River’ by Mike Sonksen
- Jennifer Bernstein read from ‘Loss and Wonder at the World’s End’ by Laura A. Ogden
- Michelle Matthews read from ‘In Search of the Lost River’ by Henry Cherry
- Tina Orduno Calderon read ‘The River’ by Kathleen Jessie Raine
This special episode was part of ‘The People’s Archive’, a public humanities project of LA River X/El Río de Los Angeles X, Pomona College, and The Claremont Colleges Library. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Episode 17
There was going to be a December 6, 2021 Storytime episode but we’re taking a rest instead. You can read more about that over on Instagram. In its place, maybe you’ll spend the Storytime hour curled up reading your own favorite apocalypse story of worlds ending and truths being revealed. I certainly plan to! If you do, tag us on social media.
Episode 16: Elsewhere
Monday September 6, 2021
- Krysta Gonzales read from ‘Intimations’ by Zadie Smith
- Laura Vena read from ‘Night Sky With Exit Wounds’ by Ocean Vuong
- Lily Holleman read ‘Dream-Land’ by Edgar Allan Poe
- Martie McNabb read from ‘High Tide in Tucson’ by Barbara Kingsolver
Episode 15 in collaboration with The Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE)
Monday June 7, 2021
- Dr Andrew Watson read from ‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St. John Mandel
- Dr Heather Green read from ‘The Marrow Thieves’ by Cherie Dimaline
- Dr Sara Spike read from ‘The Closing Down of Summer’ by Alistair MacLeod
- Dr Jessica DeWitt read from ‘Son of a trickster’ by Eden Robinson Read out loud by Dr Jessica DeWitt
Episode 14: Divergence
Monday March 8, 2021
- Amelia Volwiler-Stanley read ‘A Ham from God’ by Anne Lamott
- Tasha Shayne read ‘Today, When I Could Do Nothing’ by Jane Hirshfield
- Kahlil Nelson read ‘State Fair’ by Garrison Keillor
- Carolyn Freyer-Jones read ‘The House of Belonging’ by David Whyte, ‘When Death Comes’ by Mary Oliver, and ‘Don’t Go Back To Sleep’ by Rumi
Episode 13: Instructionals
Monday November 30, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 262]
- Vassiliki Veros read ‘Ithaca’ by C.P. Cavafy
- Toni Robison-May read ‘Flying Lesson’ by Dolores Hayden
- Meredith Lancaster read from ‘The Cure at Troy’ by Seamus Heaney
- Jessica Perini read ‘We Were Made for These Times’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Episode 12: When, sometimes, you have to concede defeat
Monday October 26, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 227]
- Cancelled for October. In its place I recommend curling up with a book, listening to a podcast, making art, or requesting a handpicked recording of a previous Storytime just for your listening ears.
Episode 11: Invocation
Monday September 28, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 199]
- Dr Sarah Minslow read ‘The Dead of September 11’ by Toni Morrison
- Dr Tilly Hinton read ‘Praying’, ‘I Happened To Be Standing’ and ‘The Summer Day’ by Mary Oliver
- Josh Shayne read ‘Frog and Toad Tentatively Go Outside After Months in Self-Quarantine’ by Jennie Egerdie
- Rex Weiner read ‘I Am Waiting’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Episode 10: Transformation
Monday August 31, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 171]
- Engineer and Poet Ehssan Sakhaee read ‘The Alchemy of Love’ and ‘Chickpea to Cook’ by Rumi
- Education and Equity Specialist Nitasha Lewis read from ‘The Fire Next Time’ by James Baldwin
- Tour Guide and Los Angeles Enthusiast Tom Sanchez read from ‘The Day of the Locust’ by Nathanael West
- Creative supernova Toni Robison-May read from ‘Hope in the Dark’ by Rebecca Solnit
Episode 9: Worlds
Monday July 27, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 136]
- Librarian Scholar Vassiliki Veros read ‘The Nightmare of Persephone’ by Nikos Gatsos
- Actor and Animal Advocate Richard Sanderson read from ‘Kcymaerxthaere: The Story so Far …’ by Eames Demetrios
- Community Engagement Proselytizer Dr Wade Kelly read from ‘Desert Solitaire’ by Edward Abbey
- Film aficionado Chris Schwartz read from ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by Carl Sagan
Episode 8: Amplifying Black Voices Special Episode
Monday June 29, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 108]
This episode was stunningly guest-curated and co-hosted by Meredith Lancaster.
- Political genius and future law student Jaria Martin read from ‘The Children of Virtue and Vengeance’ by Tomi Adeyemi
- Journalist Deonna Anderson read from ‘Homing Instinct’ by Dani McClain
- Spiritual activist Lauren Kai read from ‘The Prisoner’s Wife’ By Asha Bandele
- Performing artist Mallewi read ‘For My People’ by Margaret Walker
Episode 7: Time
Monday May 25, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 73]
- Writer and Hiker Casey Schreiner read ‘Fuck The Bread. The Bread is Over’ by Sabrina Orah Mark
- Editor and Author Janna Silverstein read from ‘Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs’ by Adam-Troy Castro
- Environmental Sociologist James Hein read ‘My God, It’s Full of Stars’ by Tracy K. Smith
- Storymaker and Producer Emma Jones read from ‘The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating’ by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Episode 6: Outdoors
Monday May 18, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 66]
- Artist-hypnotist Marcos Lutyens read from ‘Mount Analogue’ by René Daumal
- Performing artist Rohini Chandra read from ‘The Dog Stars’ by Peter Heller
- Floral Designer Katia Zaharin Barrett read from ‘Memoirs’ by Pablo Neruda
- Poet Kate Reavey read ‘San Juan River’ by Esther Belin, ‘Concerning Violence’ and ‘From The Tent on the Volcano’ by Ursula K Le Guin, and ‘Pearly Everlasting’ by Gary Snyder
Episode 5: Sensory
Monday May 11, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 59]
- Eternal Student Alicia Zaklan read from ‘Three soldiers’ by John Dos Passos
- Multi-hyphenate Ariel Banayan read from ‘Augustus’ by John Williams
- Superorganism Kiri Bear read from ‘Sandtalk: how indigenous thinking can save the world’ by Tyson Yunkaporta
- Historian Tom Griffiths read from ‘Gun Island’ by Amitav Ghosh
Episode 4: Purpose
Monday May 4, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 52]
- Art historian Meredith Lancaster read from ‘Positive Obsession’ by Octavia E. Butler
- Bricoleur Tim Ottman read from ‘Cloud-Hidden, whereabouts unknown’ by Alan Watts
- Silversmith Brooke Macbeth read ‘The Five Boons of Life’ by Mark Twain
- Writer/Director Bonnie Foster read ‘Wild Dreams of A New Beginning’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Episode 3: Life
Monday April 27, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 45]
- Collector Kevin Segall read ‘Chopin, Ballade in F Major’ by Nicholas Galanaitis
- Filmmaker Genevieve Anderson read from ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy
- Mike Sonksen, Lila Higgins, Kat Superfisky, and Michael Atkins read ‘New Moon Fading’, ‘To Artesia’, ‘The Founding of Friends of the Los Angeles River’, and ‘River Boy: The Mask’ in memory of Lewis MacAdams
- Magician and author Sëan Tretheway read ‘Immortality’ by Clare Harner
Episode 2: Attentiveness
Monday April 20, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 38]
- Scholar Char Miller read ‘In This Short Life’, ‘I Dwell in Possibility’, and ‘”Hope” is the thing with feathers’ by Emily Dickinson
- The Off-Grid Guy Michael Mobbs read ‘An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow’ by Les Murray
- Screenwriter Joe Petricca read the final speech from the script of ‘The Great Dictator’ by Charlie Chaplin
- Yoga Therapist Melissa Adylia Calasanz read from ‘Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Episode 1: Wonder
Monday April 13, 2020 [Los Angeles Lockdown, Day 31]
- Filmmaker Par Parekh read ‘The Elephant & the Butterfly’ by E.E. Cummings
- Editor and permaculturist Jessica Perini read ‘Tonight I Can Write’, ‘Leaning Into The Afternoons’, and ‘Poet’s Obligation’ by Pablo Neruda
- Palaeontologist and Cicerone Trevor S. Valle read ‘Being an Experiment Upon Strictly Scientific Lines’ by Neil Gaiman
- Curator Tilly Hinton read ‘Walking in a Pandemic’ by Char Miller
Count me in!
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