Stories on Stage Davis September 2022 Event

On Saturday, September 10, Stories on Stage Davis will present two stories in the outdoor courtyard of the Pence Art Gallery in downtown Davis. Doors open at 7 pm, and the event starts at 7:30. 

Imani Mitchell will read an excerpt from the novel What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. Thandi’s life is going through big changes: losing her mother, finding love. This excerpt intertwines the lost with the found, grief with hope, as Thandi often finds herself reminded of her mother—and as she realizes she may soon be a mother herself.  

Zinzi Clemmons

Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her debut novel, What We Lose (Viking 2017), was named Debut Novel of the Year by Vogue. It received praise from The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and others. What We Lose was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize. It was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award. Clemmons is a 2017 National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree.

She wrote the foreword to a new edition of Jean Toomer’s Cane, published by Penguin Classics in 2019. A collection of essays titled Freedom is forthcoming from Viking. She is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of California, Davis.

Imani Mitchell

Imani Mitchell will read an excerpt from Clemmons’ novel What We Lose. She is a writer, director, actor, and filmmaker based in Sacramento, CA. She has acted in various NorCal theaters, including Celebration Arts, Capital Stage, and B Street Theatre. Most recently, she directed a production of PIPELINE at Celebration Arts. She’ll be directing LOVE & BASEBALL at B Street Theatre in September. Outside of the theater, Imani dedicates herself to the art of filmmaking. In 2019, she founded her film company IAM Studios and wrote her first film, WHIRLPOOL.

Vikram Chandra

Angel Rodríguez  will read an excerpt from Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games. This excerpt opens with Ganesh Gaitonde burying his stolen treasure: He has taken gold—lots of it—and there are people who would pay him large sums of money for it. Slinking through the streets of Goregaon, a suburb of Mumbai, he’s off to a potential buyer. Danger lurks in the depths of the city—danger that just might include him. 

Chandra’s latest book is Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty. He has also written the novels Sacred Games and Red Earth and Pouring Rain, and the short story collection Love and Longing in Bombay. He was an executive producer on the Netflix adaptation of Sacred Games, an international hit that was included in The New York Times’ list of the 30 best international shows of the decade.”Best Of” lists across the world have included all of his books.

His honors include a Guggenheim fellowship, the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia), the Crossword Prize, the David Higham Prize for Fiction, and the Salon Book Award. You can read his work in twenty languages. Chandra is cofounder and CEO of Granthika Co., a software startup which is using groundbreaking technology to reinvent writing and reading for the digital age. He teaches creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Ángel Rodríguez

Ángel Rodríguez will read an excerpt from Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games. Rodríguez is an actor, director, and a bunch of other things in the Sacramento area. He holds a bachelor’s in Theater from Sacramento State. He has had the honor of filling the shoes of many fantastic roles and would love to keep doing that forever. Rodríguez dreams of continuing to be a part of the arts for the rest of his life—whether it is onstage, backstage, as a director, or as an educator. Keep up with Ángel’s projects on IG: @a_rod719

Stories on Stage Davis

Stories on Stage Davis is a sponsored project of  YoloArts, a nonprofit arts organization. The event is free to attend, but Stories on Stage appreciates donations at the door. For more information, including previous podcast episodes and live events, go to the Stories on Stage Davis website: storiesonstagedavis.com.