Thursday, April 2 6:30 pm
Sumner School, 17th & M St., NW

Nelson George: City Kid from Nelson George on Vimeo.
Really, you should not miss this. Good book, good writer.

Update: If you missed Nelson’s event, check out his NY Times essay and a related blog post with Vimeo slideshow. Signed books available in the store.

About 13 and half years ago, Vertigo Books hosted Barack Obama at our old location near Dupont Circle for his memoir. We were the DC stop on a modest book tour. It was August of 1995, and you know, DC in August is not a stand-out month for events. You can find street parking near Dupont Circle the town is so empty. We tried to push the event date to September, but no go.

It was, shall we say, an intimate gathering. I’d read the book and liked it, thought it a strong debut and told folks so. We discussed community organizing (I’d moved to DC to work for ACORN) and books to fill the time while a small group of regulars filtered in. As we spoke, Barack Obama listened with his now famous detachment, listening and appraising. He read fairly well–for a debut author–there were a few questions, books were signed and he was out the door. No escort as I recall.

In the DC area, we sometimes take the great diversity of voices in our daily lives for granted. Our store has always hoped to engage all American voices, but like many we thought the real change would come with our children’s generation. That’s why Monday’s book event is a special pleasure: it is an opportunity for young children and their parents to participate in the Day of Service, albeit in a small way.

In February we’ll continue the conversation with journalists and authors Ta-Nehisi Coates and Gwen Ifill.

Postscript-Vertigo has also hosted the Inaugural Poet, professor and critic Elizabeth Alexander (as well as her mother, historian Adele Logan Alexander). Elizabeth has been active for years with Cave Canem and they will be hosting an event Monday night for other Cave Canem poets.

or PTA Moms (& Dads) Night Out–Complete with Vodka Raffle
Thursday, December 4 7 pm

UPDATE: Thanks to all who attended last night. It was a pleasure to host Sandra and the East Coast Burning Moms. Congrats to our raffle winners: Kate, Christine and Rebecca. Here’s the school Q & A site Sandra mentioned. If you missed the event, signed copies are available at the store.

Join us this Thursday to hear Sandra Tsing Loh discuss parenting, public schools, democracy and what have you. Like us, she thinks a little sense of humor can make almost anything both bearable and doable. Listen, laugh, buy a book and win a chance at a fine bottle of vodka.

While you may know her as a voice on NPR or as a writer, Sandra is also a leader in the Los Angeles public school reform movement and argues persuasively for public education.  Besides writing the Scandalously Informal Guide to the LAUSD,she and other yentas now answer public school questions at martini-fueled events in LA.

or PTA Moms (& Dads) Night Out
Thursday, December 4 7 pm

Our book buyer now believes that all authors should have liquor sponsors. That’s because Sandra Tsing Loh does and we’ll be raffling off fine sipping vodka from Modern Spirits during her visit on Thursday, December 4. Sandra is swinging by to discuss parenting and public school life and we hope you’ll join us.

that we very much wish had not been necessary. Read Washington Post writer Bob Thompson on life at Vertigo Books and other stores and listen to Kojo Nnamdi (a serious book guy) discuss Paperback Dreams (the City Paper liked it).

Join us Wednesday, November 12 as Prof. Audrey Kerr discusses her book, The Paper Bag Principle. This should be of interest to Washingtonians and readers of sociology, American studies, history and African American studies/history. Thursday brings us a visit from director and producer Alex Beckstead. He’ll screen and discuss Paperback Dreams, a documentary about two important West Coast bookstores.

And it seems we have a Facebook group, the Vertigo Books Appreciation Society. This was started by our Jen, a greatly missed long-time employee. She’s pining for a bookstore in the wilds of CT.

Thursday, October 30 6:30 pm
Sumner School, 1201 17th Street, NW (17th & M Streets)

In 1944, 21-year-old Army Pvt. Herman Perry was working on the Ledo Road, a massive military project in inhospitable terrain. Perry, a black soldier, shot and killed his white commanding officer, then disappeared into the jungle, where he joined a tribe of headhunters and eluded capture for months. In Now the Hell Will Start, Koerner’s superb reporting creates a memorable book that is part thriller, part history—even the Post’s Jonathan Yardley liked it! More images.

Thursday, November 13 7 pm

Paperback Dreams Trailer from abeckstead on Vimeo.
Join us and producer/director Alex Beckstead as we screen and discuss his latest film. It’s an ode to two extraordinary bookstores that were key to the Free Speech Movement, but–more importantly–to their communities. In a world of 24/7 news, Blackberries interrupting dinner and tech-free vacations, Beckstead shows us the great worth of building community a bit more slowly, the old fashioned way–face to face while talking about books.

Thursday, October 16 7 pm

Tim Reid & Tom Dreesen will visit our store soon. 1968 brought our country the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, Vietnam, student demonstrations, the Democratic convention in Chicago, the drug revolution, the sex revolution…so of course, a comedy team involving a black guy and white guy made perfect sense. Check them out in a WKRP clip and a classic routine. As always, books to be signed must be purchased at Vertigo.