My Calendar

Events in April 2024

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
March 31, 2024
April 1, 2024
April 2, 2024
April 3, 2024
April 4, 2024(1 event)

7:00 pm: Panel Discussion and Book Launch of Cafe Stories: Riverside’s Zacatecas by William Medina


April 4, 2024

First Thursdays Arts Walk: Panel Discussion and Book Launch of Cafe Stories: Riverside’s Zacatecas by William Medina

Thursday, April 4, 2024

7:00-8:00 PM

Riverside Main Library Community Room Riverside Public Library Community Room

3900 Mission Inn Avenue

Riverside, CA 92501

Free and open to the public.

With William Medina, Carlos Cortés, Judith Auth, and Suzanna Medina

7:00-8:00 PM, doors open at 6:30

Inlandia Institute presents the launch of Cafe Stories: Riverside’s Zacatecas by William Medina, Riverside historian and educator. The author will be joined by a distinguished panel to discuss his novel and the Medina family’s renowned Cafe. The panel consists of Judith Auth, Carlos Cortés, and Suzanna Medina.

William Medina’s novel, Cafe Stories: Riverside’s Zacatecas is based on stories inspired by events and characters who frequented his parent’s eatery in Riverside. He masterfully re-imagines and chronicles “… curious bits and pieces of real events that I have reassembled to weave fictional stories,” states Medina.

William and his siblings grew up helping their parents Oscar and Josefina Medina at the cafe. Over the years he and his siblings managed the eatery. The original cafe was located in a shopping center in Riverside’s multicultural Eastside. Located nearby was the iconic Nosotros Fine Arts Workshop directed by acclaimed artist Leer Larkin — who was integral to the Medina family.

Cafe Stories: Riverside’s Zacatecas will be available for sale and signing. The event is free and open to the public.

The library will also provide an array of books on local history available for check out. Don’t have a library card? You can get one on the spot!

Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Please join us.

April 5, 2024
April 6, 2024(1 event)

2:00 pm: Zoom launch for Guajira, the cuba girl by Zita Arocha


April 6, 2024

Saturday, April 6, 2024

2:00-3:00 PM PT, on ZOOM

Launch of Guajira – the Cuba girl by Zita Arocha

Winner of the 2021 Eliud Martínez Prize

Free and open to the public. Registration is required. TO REGISTER:

http://tinyurl.com/GuajiraLaunch

After you register, we will send you a Zoom meeting link prior to the event.

Inlandia Institute is proud to announce the publication of the inaugural Eliud Martínez Prize for literature, Zita Arocha, for Guajira – the Cuba girl, a memoir. This annual prize is awarded to a first book author in fiction or creative nonfiction who identifies as Hispanic, Latino/a/x, or Chicana/o/x.

April 7, 2024
April 8, 2024
April 9, 2024
April 10, 2024
April 11, 2024
April 12, 2024
April 13, 2024
April 14, 2024
April 15, 2024
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April 19, 2024
April 20, 2024
April 21, 2024
April 22, 2024
April 23, 2024
April 24, 2024(1 event)

7:00 pm: “Stories of Love from the Empires We Call Home” at the Culver


April 24, 2024

Conversations at the Culver

7:00 PM, doors open at 6:30

“Stories of Love from the Empires We Call Home” with Perris, California author Rachel Stark in conversation with Susan Straight and Alex Espinoza

Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts

3824 Main Street, Riverside, CA 92501

Free and open to the public.

Please join us at the Culver Center of the Arts on Wednesday, April 26, to celebrate the launch of Rachel Stark’s debut novel, Perris, California.  Rachel will be in conversation with authors Susan Straight and Alex Espinoza beginning at 7:00 PM; doors open at 6:30.

Perris, California is published by Penguin Press, New York. Copies will be available for sale and signing at the event.

April 25, 2024
April 26, 2024
April 27, 2024
April 28, 2024
April 29, 2024
April 30, 2024(1 event)

Submission Window CLOSES for 2024 Hillary Gravendyk Poetry Prizes

April 30, 2024

February 1-April 30, 2024

Call for Entries: 2024 Hillary Gravendyk Poetry Prizes

$20 reading fee

Submit at http://tinyurl.com/InlandiaSubmit

The Hillary Gravendyk Prize is an open poetry book competition for all writers regardless of the number of previously published poetry collections. The manuscript page limit is 48-100 pages, and Inlandia Institute Press invites all styles and forms of poetry. Only electronic submissions will be accepted via Inlandia’s “Submittable” portal. Multiple submissions are accepted, with a $20 reading fee required for each manuscript. The winners will be announced Fall 2024 for publication in 2025.

National and Regional awardees each win book publication and a cash prize of $1,000. Enter using Submittable: https://tinyurl.com/InlandiaSubmit

Poetry book manuscripts will be accepted via Submittable from February 1 through April 30, 2024. One National and one Regional prizewinner will each be awarded $1,000 and a standard book contract.

May 1, 2024
May 2, 2024(1 event)

7:00 pm: The Power of the Letter - Civilian Exclusion Order No. 83 and the Incarceration of Riversiders


May 2, 2024

First Thursdays Arts Walk – The Power of the Letter: Civilian Exclusion Order No. 83 and the Incarceration of Riversiders

7:00-8:00 PM; doors open at 6:30 PM

Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties

3855 Market Street

Riverside, CA 92501

Free and open to the public.

In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month, Inlandia Institute, the Museum of Riverside and the Harada House Foundation, the Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties, the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, and Riverside Public Library will present a program about the concentration camps and incarceration of Japanese American citizens – including prominent Riversiders like the Harada family – on Thursday, May 2, at the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties. Please join us!

The CSJCL will be reopening its Miné Okubo exhibit on April 26, so plan on taking a tour of Okubo’s artwork while you’re there! The Miné Okubo’s Eyes: A Life in Colors re-installation is a celebration of the artist’s remarkable body of work, which spans seven decades. The exhibition brings forth a dazzling array of paintings and drawings that have never been on public view. Okubo was a trailblazing artist who dedicated her life to creativity, beauty, and imagery that was “rooted in a concern for the humanities.”

In addition to being an artist, Miné Okubo famously wrote a graphic autobiography depicting her time as a prisoner at one of the camps, Citizen 13660. Mine Okubo was born in Riverside in 1912 and graduated from Riverside City College in 1933. She received a degree in Fine Arts from UC Berkeley, where she later taught. In 1974, the Riverside Community College District selected Okubo as its Alumnus of the Year, and 30 years later Riverside City College named a street on campus in her honor.

May 3, 2024
May 4, 2024