BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//sebbo.net//ical-generator//EN NAME:Berkeley Public Library X-WR-CALNAME:Berkeley Public Library BEGIN:VEVENT UID:7326e2d0-1b4a-4dbe-84a4-87d94e15605d SEQUENCE:0 DTSTAMP:20260728T005416Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260630T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260630T193000 SUMMARY:The Intimacy Trials by Aja Couchois Duncan @Central LOCATION:Central Library\nCentral Library X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Central Library;X-APPLE-RA DIUS=10;X-TITLE=Central Library:geo:37.8681967,-122.2684903 GEO:37.8681967;-122.2684903 DESCRIPTION:The Intimacy Trials is new collection of post-apocalyptic Nati ve poetry by Aja Couchois Duncan. She will be joined by Ãmate PÃ©rez and Theresa Harlan for readings and discussion..\nhttps://berkeleypublicli brary.libnet.info/event/16565194 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Join us for an author event with Aja Couch ois Duncan\, Theresa Harlan\, and Á\;mate Pé\;rez\, featuring readings from all three artists\, including Couchois Duncan's newest colle ction of poetry\, The Intimacy Trials. \;There will be a chan ce for discussion and Q&\;A at the end.

When: \;Tuesday June 30th\, 6 - 7:30pm.

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Where: \;Central Library\, Mystery Room on the 2nd floor. 2090 Kittredge St.
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About The Intimacy Trials: "A post-apocalyptic Native poetry collectio n that creates possibility for repair and reconciliation by holding the si multaneity of a violent past and a hopeful future. Aja Couchois Duncan's t hird book of poetry\, The Intimacy Trials\, explores cycles of vi olence\, loss\, and love that arc across history. Composed of intersecting narratives\, this collection follows a post-apocalyptic collective of sur vivors living in a state of gratitude\, shame\, and awe amid desecrated ec osystems. The present tense of The Intimacy Trials carries the magnitude o f a historic past tense filled with land theft\, genocide\, settler coloni alism\, and the vicissitudes of romantic love. Couchois Duncan's lyrical\, concomitant stories produce a space that holds in balance the complexitie s of life-joy\, despair\, intimacy\, and irreconcilable grief. In language that is prophetic\, lush\, and unequivocal\, The Intimacy Trials is a lov ing accountability letter to our past\, present\, and future selves\, hold ing both our yearning for connection and the remembrance of what has drive n us apart"-- Provided by publisher
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Aja Couchois Duncan is a social justice coach and capacity builder of Ojibwe\, French a nd Scottish descent living on the ancestral and stolen lands of the Coast Miwok / Tamal-ko people. \;Her debut collection\, \;Restless Conti nent \;(Litmus Press\, 2016) was selected by Entropy Magazine as one o f the best poetry collections of 2016 and awarded the California Book Awar d for Poetry in 2017. In 2020\, \;Sweet Land&mdash\;a collaborative op era project which brought together \;composers Raven Chacon and Du Yun \, librettists Aja Couchois Duncan and Douglas Kearney\, and \;co-dire ctors Cannupa Hanska Luger and \;Yuval Sharon&mdash\;was produced in t he Los Angeles State Historic Park to critical acclaim and named the \ ;Best Opera of 2020 by the Music Critics Association of North America. Her most recent book\, \;The Intimacy Trials \;came out in Spring of 2026 by the University of Chicago Press as part of its Phoenix Poets serie s. When not writing or working\, Aja can be found running the west Marin h ills\, training with horses\, or weaving small pine needle baskets. She ho lds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and a v ariety of other degrees and credentials to certify her as worthy. Great Sp irit knew it all along. \;
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$Theresa Harlan\, standing on a beach\, smiling \, wearing a shirt with the word$
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Born in San Francisco Theresa Harlan is blessed with two families who shape and infor m her self knowledge and awareness as an Indigenous woman. By birth she is Jemez Pueblo and an enrolled member of Kewa Pueblo of New Mexico. Theresa is the daughter of her adopted parents Elizabeth Campigli Harlan (T&aacut e\;mal-ko/Coast Miwok) and John Harlan (Euro-American). Theresa was raised and nourished on the stories and lives of her Tá\;mal-ko/Coast Miwo k family and ancestors. As an advocate for Indigenous ancestral lands and the director of the Alliance for Felix Cove\, she works to rematriate her mother&rsquo\;s Felix family home at Point Reyes National Seashore. Theres a and her family are featured in the \;Emergence Magazine \;podcas t\, &ldquo\;Coming Home to the Cove: A Story of Family\, Memory and Stolen Land&rdquo\;. Published essays include\, &ldquo\;A View of Our Home\, Tom ales Bay\, Calif.: Portrait of a Coast Miwok Family\, 1930-1945&rdquo\; in \;Our People\, Our Land\, Our Images: Indigenous Photographers\, Heyd ay Books\, 2006. \;
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Photo credit: Haley Rains
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Á\;mate Pé\;rez is a Nahua indigenous person from K uskatlan (El Salvador)\, a mother\, justice warrior\, \;two-spirit act ivist\, a martial artist and healer. Á\;mate and her family fled&nbs p\;the Salvadoran civil war in the early 1980&rsquo\;s. She grew up as und ocumented \;child in Los Angeles and benefited from the 1986 immigrati on reform law. \;She has a B.A. from UCSD and a master&rsquo\;s in jou rnalism from UCB. She \;lives in Inverness\, CA on Coast Miwok and Tam al-ko Indian territory. \;Á\;mate has been published by the SF C hronicle\, the Progressive and \;Yes! Magazines and a number of other daily newspapers and social justice movement \;building blogs. One of her personal essays\, Dust Angels\, was published \;in \;The Wande ring Song\, the first \;anthology of Central American writers living i n the United States.
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She is currently working on her first book\, Germinated Seed\, \;A Memoir of Survival\, Reclamation\, and the L ong Walk Home.
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Please call us at 510.981.6100 with an y questions.
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