Local Economy newsletter: Romance, horror, and a rabbit rescue

Hello!

We're trying to get a bit better about sending out community updates, and here we have a grab bag for you up top and then our normal event listing down below. (There's so much good stuff. Tommy Orange is coming back! And all but the Soup Swap have some slots open.)

We have a podcast. Did we tell you that? We just released episode four, featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Miriam Pawel and storied journalist Frances Dinkelspiel. They talk about Pawel's new book about the history of the University of California.

Meanwhile, Sarah has been hard at work on the space itself. There are new design tweaks (including some sweet new lights). We are clearing out some of our retail inventory to make space for new items, good snacks, and holiday-ish things. Almost everything is marked down 25%, and members get 30% off. Come help us refresh the shop! Some of these things are last-chance and won’t be restocked (but never fear, the popcorn and Swedish fish have a permanent home here).

Our coffee situation is also changing! Stay tuned for more updates on that soon.

Memberships are staying the same. They're the backbone of this whole thing! (And surprisingly cheap, we think.)

You know, we run into people all the time who keep meaning to come by Local Economy, but they've got busy schedules, etc, etc. It's always such a delight to us when they finally come and are like, "Oh, I've been missing out." Just saying. We're here for you, whenever you arrive.

See you soon,

Sarah & Alexis

Upcoming Events

• Sat, Oct 17, 6pm: The steamy romance of a universal basic income
  Alexandra Romanoff's Big Fan is a romance novel in which a political strategist falls for her teenage pop star crush — and spends the book trying to get him to endorse a universal basic income campaign. Called “Highbrow/Brilliant” by New York Magazine, it's also, quietly, one of the best pop-culture arguments for guaranteed income in recent memory. Romanoff is joined by author, advocate, and Local Economy member Natalie Foster, who wrote The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America's Next Economy. Hosted by buzzy publisher 831 Stories, their conversation will deliver romance and policy both.
• Sun, Oct 18, 10am: Because I Have To #1: Amar Lal & Paolo Bicchieri
  BECAUSE I HAVE TO is a new discussion series featuring Bay Area artists, writers, musicians, chefs, and creators who work across multiple mediums — against the grain of their professional lives, alongside them, or within them. Hosted by Jeff Wright, the conversations dig into the real whys that drive us to make things. First up: Amar Lal, an Oakland mastering engineer, musician, and artist whose latest book, Practicing Joy, collects his graphic scores; and Paolo Bicchieri, a writer and poet who heads up the Kitchen Table reading series. Sliding scale $0–$20, no one turned away; free coffee.
• Sun, Oct 18, 2pm: Get Out the Vote! Postcard Writing Session
  Come help get out the vote. Join neighbors for an afternoon of writing postcards to voters who don't always vote or may have skipped recent primaries. As we all know, the stakes are high and every vote matters. We will supply addresses, postcards, the script, pens, stamps, and snacks. You supply neat penmanship and fun banter. Suggested donation of $5 to cover materials. (This one is sold out, but there's a waitlist.)
• Tues, Oct 20, 6pm: Conversations with Ursula K. LeGuin on writing
  Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the greatest writers of the last century and one of the animating ancestors for Local Economy. We've been obsessed with her books and essays and talks these last couple of years, and we are not alone: a series of her books is being reissued. David Naimon, writer and host of the Milkweed Press podcast Between the Covers, was close with Le Guin, and shortly before she died the two put together a book of conversations about writing. We'll talk with him about craft, what she was like, and the continuing resonance of her work in these times.
• Wed, Oct 21, 6pm: Poet Melinda Clemmons book launch with Kim Addonizio and Tracey Knapp
  Oakland writer Melinda Clemmons celebrates the publication of Closer, her first book of poems, from Pine Row Press — “a luminous catalog of wonder,” in the words of poet Kelly Grace Thomas, “attuned to the quiet ways revelation enters our lives.” She'll be joined by Kim Addonizio, author of nine poetry collections including the National Book Award finalist Tell Me and, most recently, Exit Opera; and by Tracey Knapp, whose second collection, Swerve, came out from Pine Row this spring. (Only 5 spots left as of this writing!)
• Thurs, Oct 22, 6pm: The Philosophy of Huey Newton: Delio Vásquez in Conversation with East Bay Yesterday
  Huey P. Newton was called many things in his time: revolutionary, genius, criminal, even the most surveilled human being in world history. Yet little of the truth about him is known today, thanks to persistent distortions of his legacy. In Huey P. Newton: I Am We, a much-needed intellectual history, Delio Vásquez establishes the Black Panther co-founder as a true philosopher who theorized how the most oppressed could spearhead revolutionary change. Vásquez, a political theory scholar at NYU, will be in conversation with Liam O'Donoghue, host of the East Bay Yesterday podcast. Books via East Bay Booksellers.
• Sun, Oct 25, 11am: Tax Release: Art Installation and Public Shredding Event
  Ten days after the IRS extended filing deadline, Professor Galen Crantz will lay out her tax returns from 1963 to 2018 in a one-day installation at Local Economy, so that she can see, and share, an accumulation of bureaucratic effort that is personal to her and relatable for all of us. The public is invited any time between 11am and 4pm to view the sheer scale of the returns, and to bring their own tax documents (older than seven years!) to shred manually onsite or drop in secure bins. At day's end, 56 years of Galen's documents will be similarly released.
• Tues, Oct 27, 6pm: Fatimah Asghar and Hieu Minh Nguyen on Daughter of the Mountains
  Fatimah Asghar's new poetry collection Daughter of the Mountains — praised by BOMB, Autostraddle, and Poets & Writers, among others — begins with a question: exiled from ancestral homelands, how can one find a place for oneself in the world? In meditative poems, it grapples with fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, illustrating how place, lineage, and environment inform the practice of spirituality and vice versa. With wisps of humor, startling imagery, and disruptive formal invention, it is intimate and explosive at once. Asghar will be in conversation with Hieu Minh Nguyen.
• Wed, Oct 28, 7:30pm: Bedtime Club
  A gathering for non-gestational parents of all kinds — men, women, enbies, trans, cis, queer, straight, adoptive — to slow down together and sit with the stuff that doesn't always get airtime. We didn't carry the kids, but we're carrying other things. This is a small, intentional space; come ready to go a little deep. Led by member Shea Waldron.
• Thurs, Oct 29, 6pm: Tomas Moniz & Laleh Khadivi talk about their new books
  Two beloved Bay Area writers in conversation. Oakland's own Tomas Moniz has a lovely new novel out, The King of Aloe Vera, about the Mission, intergenerational friendship, and last chapters; his All Friends Are Necessary won the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award, and he edited the Rad Dad anthologies. Laleh Khadivi's new book is Female Life on Planet Earth, a novel about mothers and daughters and the secrets they keep (and expose). Khadivi chairs the creative writing MFA at USF and won a Whiting Writers' Award for The Age of Orphans.
• Sun, Nov 1, 10:30am: Hands-on Matcha Workshop by ochamode
  An authentic Japanese tea ceremony in a welcoming, hands-on workshop. Harue Imaizumi, a certified instructor (jun-kyoju) of the Omotesenke school who has studied tea in both Japan and the United States, teaches the basic principles and etiquette of the tea ceremony along with practical tips for making good matcha at home — ratio, water temperature, whisking. You'll whisk your own bowl and enjoy it with traditional Japanese sweets. Tea comes from ochamode, founded by Mayuka Inaba of Shizuoka. Tickets $60, or $85 with a Japanese-made matcha bowl to take home; members get $10 off.
• Tues, Nov 3, 6pm: Tommy Orange and Shane Hawk talk indigenous horror stories
  The team behind the bestselling Indigenous fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night has returned with Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II, twenty-one brand-new, gruesome tales from both established talent (Tommy Orange! Stephen Graham Jones!) and newly unearthed writers. This isn't just “dark fiction,” it's full-tilt horror — “not an occasional shiver,” as co-editor Shane Hawk puts it, “but sustained dread, sustained appetite, sustained consequence.” The stories draw on a range of Native and First Nations histories and traditions. Tommy Orange will be in conversation with Hawk.
• Thurs, Nov 5, 6pm: Women Building & Leading Organizations
  A gathering for Bay Area women founders and organizational leaders building and running nonprofits, social enterprises, consultancies, creative businesses, and other purpose-driven organizations. The evening is intentionally informal and connection-focused: getting to know one another, sharing what we're building, what's exciting us, and the challenges we're navigating. Whether you're just getting started or have been at it for years, come curious. Hosted by Katrien Johnson Zoons, founder of ImpactXChange.
• Fri, Nov 6, 6pm: An epic family read, Kirk Lombard's The Shadow Stream
  Kirk Lombard is an author, angler, sustainable fishmonger, and tuba player who worked inside the juvenile rehabilitation system; his award-winning Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast was described as “poetry” for fish by NPR. Now he's back with a throwback to family-reads-of-yore. The Shadow Stream follows G, a boy wasting away in juvenile detention, who falls for a trash-heaped river full of mysteries and fish — just as a developer schedules it to be dammed. He and a host of hilariously vexed animals mount an uprising. An event for the whole family on a Friday evening.
• Sat, Nov 7, 1pm: Oakland Noticing Club: Myth
  Turn on your curiosity radar and join us for the latest meeting of the Oakland Noticing Club, an informal meet-up inspired by Rob Walker's “Savor of the Month” at The Art of Noticing. This month's theme is Myth: urban legends, neighborhood lore, everyday magic, imaginary things, things that remind you of fairytales and folklore, or that inspire you to make up your own. Bring your photos, poems, little videos, whatever, to share with the group.
• Sat, Nov 7, 5:30pm: Kitchen Stories 2: Sharing Home Recipes and Why They Matter to Us
  Cooking is personal, communal, and filled with histories. Bring a dish, a copy of the recipe, and the story behind it — whether it's rooted in deep family lore or is a brand-new kitchen success. We'll share food and talk about why these dishes matter to us. Everyone leaves with something new to make and a closer connection to the casual cooks around them. Hosted by member Danny Scuderi.
• Sun, Nov 8, 3pm: "How to Get Home in the Dark" Poetry Anthology Reading and Generative Workshop
  Emilie Lygren celebrates the release of her new anthology How to Get Home in the Dark: Poems on Mental Health and Healing, reading from it alongside contributors Alegria Barclay, a multiracial queer poet and educator; Zeina Hashem Beck, whose fourth collection is forthcoming from Penguin; Melissa Fowlks, an Oakland poet drawn to belonging and time outside; and Antwan Linton Penn, whose work weaves mental health, spirituality, and social commentary. A brief panel follows, then time for the audience to write in conversation with the anthology. Paper and pens on hand; bring your favorite journal if you'd like.
• Thurs, Nov 12, 6pm: Writing the Body in Memoir: How to Work with What Our Bodies Know
  Even when they aren't the center of the story, our bodies are an essential, inescapable part of any memoir — there is no life experience to write from unless there is a body moving through the world, collecting memories. Savala Nolan, author of Good Woman: A Reckoning and Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body, leads this workshop on what our bodies can tell us that our minds cannot, and how to write from a body you may not like, in a society that may not like it either. Includes examples and a skills-building exercise.
• Sun, Nov 15, 2pm: Soup Swap!!
  This is for people who love soup, who might have adventurous palates, who like being cozy and want to learn something new. If you sign up, you're on the hook for four quarts of your favorite or near-favorite soup, packaged in four containers and labeled with ingredients. Bring them to Local Economy, meet everyone else who did the same, and tell us why you brought that soup. Then we pull numbers like a fantasy sports draft and take turns grabbing. Everyone leaves with four different quarts. Member Christine Hyung-Oak Lee has been meaning to do this for years. (This one is sold out, but there's a waitlist.)
• Sun, Nov 15, 5pm: Dashka Slater presents The Wild Season: The Remarkable True Story of A Rabbit Rescue.
  The Wild Season: The Remarkable True Story of A Rabbit Rescue is an adventure story set in a San Francisco park — about nature, community, what it means to be a person in a broken world, and also why there are so many damn rabbits in Australia. It's for kids ages 8–12, but also for adults and anyone who likes parks and animals and building forts and needs to hear about neighbors coming together to solve a problem. Slater also wrote The 57 Bus, Accountable, and The Antlered Ship, a Local Economy favorite. She'll be interviewed by a ten-year-old superfan, Flora Madrigal.