3rd Saturday Poetry features a reading by Nina Serrano and Scott Bird, plus open mic, Clarion Performing Arts Center, 2 Waverly Place, Chinatown neighborhood, San Francisco, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm PDT (www.theclarionsf.org)
Sacramento Poetry Alliance presents Indigo Moor, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento, sharing his fifth collection, Reconstructing Eden: A Southern Bastard's Lyric Journey, a memoir-in-verse exploring inheritance and healing through a "jazz triptych" form, with poet and pianist Valdez Hill, whose artistic practice weaves sound and language into a single expressive voice, open mic to follow, Musiclandria, 808 O Street, Sacramento, 6:00 pm (sacramentopoetryalliance.com)
"Words, blue flowers streaming…" presents poetry and music to celebrate spring in the garden, poetry written by Jaime Robles for the event will be sung and spoken, with voice and bird whistle, with Gael Alcock, cello and voice, Nancy Beckman, shakuhachi, double ocarina, and voice, and Tom Bickley, recorders and voice; a selection of short instrumental works for recorder and cello by Thomas Morley and Gael Alcock, and solos for shakuhachi, recorder, and cello will begin the afternoon, conversation and refreshments to follow, at The Tiger Garage Garden, a private studio, South Berkeley, near Ashby BART, location provided when you reserve a seat by emailing Tom Bickley, free, limited seating, reserve early, 3:00 pm (Reservation required, please email Tom Bickley, tbickley@gmail.com)
Join the first meeting of Book Society's new Tough and Tannic Book Club, to discuss Walter Mosley's Gray Down: An Easy Rawlins Mystery, and other detectives and plots, with refreshments, Book Society, 2945 College Avenue, Berkeley, $30, members $15, 6:30-8:00 pm (www.booksociety.social/event-details/the-tough-tannic-book-club-gray-dawn)
Pegasus Books presents "Lyrics & Dirges," a monthly reading series curated by East Bay poets MK Chavez and Sharon Coleman featuring a mix of prominent and emerging voices from the Bay Area literary community, Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:00 pm (pegasusbookstore.com/event/2026-05-27/lyrics-dirges-monthly-poetry-series)
Green Apple Books presents Paige Lewis celebrating their debut novel, Canon, a profoundly heartfelt and humorous epic following two unlikely heroes on quests for divine favor, in conversation with fiction writer Karen Russell, in-store and on YouTube Live, Green Apple Books on 9th Avenue, 1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, free, RSVP required, 7:00 pm (RSVP: greenapplebooks.com/event/2026-05-27/9th-ave-paige-lewis-karen-russell).
KALW's Sights & Sounds welcomes the contributing poets and writers behind the new collection, When We Exhale: An Anthology of Black Women Rooted in Ancestral Medicine, from Black Freighter Press, for a night of poetry, fellowship, and connection: "When We Exhale: Black Women Writers on Rest, Grief and Intimacy," a reading celebrating the release; featuring the new anthology's lead editor Alie Jones, Saltwater Moonshine; Ayodele Nzinga, the Inaugural Oakland Poet Laureate; Nia Pearl, recipient of a Nomadic Press/San Francisco Foundation Literary Award; Dr. Adrienne Danyelle Oliver, collective madness, a chapbook; Lyn Patterson, poet and visual artist; Kelechi Ubozoh; and Jeneé Darden, When a Purple Rose Blooms, essays and poetry, host of The Sights + Sounds Show with Jeneé Darden on KALW 91.7 FM, in-person event at KALW, 220 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm (RSVP: www.KALW.org/events, or at Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/when-we-exhale-black-women-writers-on-rest-grief-intimacy-tickets-1988528445109?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true)
Green Apple Books presents an Audiobook Walk hosted by Libro.fm, a community walk through Golden Gate Park followed by snacks, coffee, and merch at the bookstore, meet at Green Apple Books on 9th Avenue, 1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, free, RSVP required, Noon (greenapplebooks.com/event/2026-05-30/9th-ave-audiobook-walk-librofm)