authors Devi s. laskar & fred d'aguiar, readers Bridgett bess & angel rodriguez, april 26, 2019

Author Devi S. Lasker, author Fred D'Aguiar, reader Bridggett Bess, and reader Angel Rodriguez

We might have been tempted to characterize this month’s featured work as “ripped from the headlines,” but that wouldn’t do justice to the complicated, searing stories by Devi S. Lasker, and Fred D’Aguiar.  Laskar's The Atlas of Reds and Blues mines the author’s personal experience. D'Aguiar's Children of Paradise re-imagines the Jonestown horror. Don’t miss these readings performed by Bridggett Bass and Angel Rodriguez.

Friday, April 26, 2019
Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street, Sacramento
Doors open at 7PM, readings begin at 7:30
A $10 donation is suggested.​

About our writers 
Devi S. Laskar draws on her personal experience to create a “searing, powerful and beautiful” tale of what it means to be a woman of color in America in The Atlas of Reds and Blues, her first novel. A native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Devi holds an MFA from Columbia University.  In addition to The Atlas of Reds and Blues, she has published two poetry chapbooks and her work has appeared in Tin House and Rattle, among other publications. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and is an alumna of The OpEd Project and VONA. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area 

Fred D’Aguiar was inspired by the events at Jonestown in his sixth novel, Children of Paradise. A poet, novelist and playwright whose work has been translated into a dozen languages, D’Aguiar’s first novel, The Longest Memory, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was made into a film by Channel 4 (UK). A number of his essays have appeared in Harper’s, Wasafiri, Callaloo, Best American Essays, and elsewhere. His play A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Death was staged at the Royal Court Theatre. His BBC-commissioned radio plays Days and Nights in Bedlam and Mr. Reasonable were broadcast in 2005 and 2015 respectively. His sixth poetry collection, Continental Shelf (2009) was a UK Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for the UK’s T.S. Eliot Prize 2009. His most recent poetrycollection, Translations From Memory (Carcanet, UK) appeared in 2018. Born in London and brought up in Guyana, he teaches in the Department of English at UCLA .

About our readers 
Angel Rodriguez previously appeared at Stories on Stage Sacramento reading an excerpt from Tommy Orange’s There There, and we’re thrilled to have him back to read a selection from Fred D’Aguiar’s novel Children of Paradise. Angel is an actor and director from the Sacramento region. He holds a BA in Theatre from Sacramento State, is currently performing the lead rold in the CSUS production of In The Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda He has been in many other CSUS’s productions, including James and the Giant Peach as James, Darskide as The Boy and Gypsy as Tulsa. He has also been in many Latinx projects through Teatro Espejo and Latino Center of Arts and Culture including the roles of Rene in Lydia and Juan in La Pastorela de Sacramento.

Bridggett Bess is a welcome new performer to Stories on Stage Sacramento. She’ll be reading an excerpt from The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi Laskar. A singer, actor, and dancer, Bridggett’s career has taken her all over the world. Locally, you may have seen her in lead roles in Adoration of Dora at Kolt Run Creations and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Magic Circle in Roseville. She’s had supporting roles on the TV shows Rescue Me and Trauma, and has appeared in many independent films, including the starring role of Dacia in the PCS Film Festival film Three Words for Dacia, which won Best Film, Producers Choice, and Audience Favorite. Bridggett earned a BFA in Professional Theater Acting from North Carolina A&T State University. Among the many fun facts about Bridggett is that she’s also an award-winning belly dancer!