The True Stories Lounge: Awesome Essayists at the Make-Out Room

So I’m broke and don’t have cable (cause you know, I can just watch it online if I really wanted to, I mean…what? [insert mischievous smirk here] ). So I’ve been reading a lot more lately. Well, not just because I don’t have cable, but because I’m actually a freelance journalist, mostly magazine writing, and have had this growing urge to read everything and anything possible– whatever will help me expand my mind and refine my own personal writing style. So I have been really into reading essayists, some witty, others political, and some even spiritual.

On Friday, September 9, the Mission District’s Make-Out Room will be hosting The True Stories Lounge, featuring numerous essayists, journalists, and other such amazing writers that will each read some of their works. While the host, Evelyn Nieves, is a veteran journalist formerly reporting for the Washington Post and the San Francisco Bureau Chief of the New York Times, you can only image how good the featured writers are.

Readings include a wide-range of subjects including Burning Man adventures, the British resistance and role in World War I, the dangerous U.S.-Mexico border, and even San Francisco as a beautiful, inspirational source to one novelist’s writing career.

Among those featured include: Joyce Maynard (featured in New York Times Magazine), Adam Hochschild (co-founder of Mother Jones), Gary Kamiya (co-founder and former executive editor and a national and international affairs columnist for Salon.com), Alicia Erian (author of two fiction books, “The Brutal Language of Love” and “Towelhead.”), Tyche Hendricks (Bay Area journalist, currently an editor at KQED and a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s J-school) and Steven T. Jones (city editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Burning Man expert).

The Make-Out Room, located between Valencia Street and Mission Street in the Mission District, hosts a variety of events including Latin Night, Soul Night, 80s Night, Comedy nights, and even, as we see here, Literary nights. The venue is a local favorite for its broke-ass-friendly nature and delicious drinks.