Litquake 2024

Co-presented with KQED Live! and KQED's Forum

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From ancient East Asia to the Ottoman Empire, from Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind. In his latest work, not-so-typical neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores music’s curative powers through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, interweaved with scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. Moderated by KQED Forum’s Alexis Madrigal and featuring a special live musical guest. Doors at 6:30PM. $25 (book bundle avail.)

Co-presented by KQED Fest

Every year since 2020 the U.S. has seen an exponential rise in the number of book bans—often instigated by a small, vocal group of individuals who wield outsized power to censor books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics (especially trans identities). Join us at KQED Fest, a free, all-day block party and open house at KQED HQ, to learn about the current state of book banning with San Francisco’s City Librarian Michael Lambert, Becka Robbins from Books Not Bans (sponsored by Fabulosa Books), and Authors Against Book Bans members Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Maia Kobabe, award-winning author of Genderqueer, the most banned book in the U.S. in recent years. Moderated by KQED’s Morning News anchor Brian Watt. Book sales benefit the Books Not Bans program that sends LGBTQ+ books to places with active bans of LGBTQ+-affirming content. FREE
Book sales for this event coordinated by Fabulosa Books.