My Calendar

Events in May 2022

  • - Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Inlandia Institute and Riverside Public Library
    Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Inlandia Institute and Riverside Public Library

    Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Inlandia Institute and Riverside Public Library


    May 5, 2022

    Thursday, May 5, 2022 (6:00-8:00 PM)

    First Thursdays Arts Walk at Riverside Public Library (Arcade & Community Room)

    Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Inlandia Institute and Riverside Public Library

    “…tour groups going to the pyramids at nearby Teotihuacán”- Rose Hill by Carlos E. Cortés

    On Thursday, May 5, start your Arts Walk on the right foot with Carlos E. Cortés at Riverside Public Library! With plenty of free parking in back (enter from University Avenue), RPL is the perfect place to kick off your evening – and celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the same time. The event will kick off with a performance by Ballet Folklorico Cultural dancers from the Inland Empire, followed by a performance by Carlos Cortés of his acclaimed monologue— now available in book form— “A Conversation with Alana”. Also on hand will be independent booksellers in the open arcade area at street level, poetry writing on analog typewriters with Typewriter Muse Bob Marshall, and other book-related vendors, plus an open mic.

    “A Conversation with Alana” is a one-hour, one-person autobiographical play written by Cortés: “[At the request of my daughter Alana, I began writing family sketches -- mini- bios, recollections, anecdotes, memorable incidents –- in the form of letters to her”. In his play, Cortés presents his story of growing up as a young man of mixed ancestry in racially segregated, religiously divided, class conscious early post-World War II Kansas City, Missouri. The son of a Mexican Catholic immigrant father and an American-born Jewish mother, whose parents came from Austria and Ukraine, Cortés had to learn to navigate Kansas City's rigid racial, ethnic, and religious fault lines, while simultaneously dealing with the internal conflicts of his own divided family. Dr. Carlos E. Cortés is the Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor of History and currently co-director of the School of Medicine Health Equity, Social Justice, and Anti-Racism initiative at the University of California, Riverside. He has served as Scholar-in- Residence with Univision Communications and was the Creative/Cultural Advisor for Nickelodeon's “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” Cortés is the author of the memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage Before Its Time and the award-winning poetry collection, Fourth Quarter: Reflections of a Cranky Old Man.

  • - Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight
    Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight

    Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight


    May 21, 2022

    Saturday, May 21, 2022

    Friends of the Riverside Public Library Annual Meeting Featuring Susan Straight

    Free and open to the public • Saturday May 21, 2022 • 1 PM doors open

    2 PM reading & conversation

    Riverside Public Library
    3900 Mission Inn Ave • Riverside, CA 92501

    “to us it felt truly magical.” — Susan Straight on growing up with the Riverside Public Library

    On May 21, join the Friends of the Riverside Public Library for an afternoon of camaraderie and conversation with acclaimed Riverside author, Susan Straight, who will be reading from her new novel, Mecca. In addition, participate in a silent auction, enjoy refreshments, and learn more about the Friends of the Library. Susan Straight is the author of eight novels, including the national bestseller Highwire Moon, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as the memoir In the Country of Women, named a best book of 2019 by NPR. She is the recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the O. Henry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere. She was born and continues to live with her family in Riverside, California, where she is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

    The Friends donate time and resources to help fund materials and programs by operating the BOOKSTORE located on the first floor of the new main library in downtown Riverside. They encourage reading and a love of books by supporting programs like Inlandia at Arts Walk and work in tandem with the library board of trustees Riverside Public Library Foundation to promote excellence in the library system. Their annual meeting is an opportunity to engage with a distinguished local author.

    In Mecca, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it―and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in Mecca slam against barrier after barrier, they find that when push comes to shove, it’s always better to push back.