Featured Events in Palo Alto in May, 2025 (June Updated)

Join us for an electrifying evening of diverse dance performances at the Googirl Dance Showcase! Experience a captivating blend of artistic expression as talented dancers take the stage, featuring stunning Chinese dance, graceful ballet, expressive contemporary routines, fiery Latin rhythms, and high-energy street dance. This dynamic showcase celebrates the beauty and power of movement across cultures and genres, promising an unforgettable performance for all to enjoy. Please arrive at least 20 minutes before the performance to allow time for parking. Information Source: Googirl Dance Team | eventbrite

YA@Books Inc. in Palo Alto is delighted to welcome local debut author Aimee Phan in conversation with Misa Sugiura to celebrate Phan’s novel THE LOST QUEEN – first in an enchanting duology inspired by Vietnamese lore, weaving magic, sisterhood, and self-discovery. About The Lost Queen:A heroine like no other, ancient magic unleashed, a fated epic battle-- Jolie Lam, a high school sophomore in San Jose, is known for two things: her bizarre freakout at last year’s swim meet and her fortuneteller grandfather with visions of dragons and earthquakes. Friendless and ostracized, Jolie's life takes a dramatic turn for the better when she saves the school's it-girl, Huong Pham, during a haunting vision of her own. Taken under Huong's wing, Jolie's world transforms, in more ways than one. As Jolie and Huong's bond deepens, they unlock long lost powers: telepathic abilities, fluency in Vietnamese, and eerie premonitions. This leads them to a shocking revelation: they have ties to legendary queens and goddesses of ancient Vietnam. While a thrilling discovery, it also sets them on a perilous journey. The girls must navigate dreams and portals to piece together their past lives and reclaim their immortal elements before their ancient enemies strike again. But all is not what it seems, and Jolie must determine friend from foe, truth from lie, and ultimately right from wrong in this battle for all she loves and the fate of the world. About Aimee:Aimee Phan was born and raised in Orange County, California. She received her BA in English from UCLA and her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of two books for adults, We Should Never Meet: Stories and the novel The Reeducation of Cherry Truong. She has received fellowships and residencies from the NEA, MacDowell Colony, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, Djerassi and Hedgebrook. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time, USA Today and CNN.com among other publications. Aimee teaches as an associate professor in writing and literature at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and resides in Berkeley, California with her family. About Misa: Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. She was born and raised in Chicagoland but eventually found her way to her true home in Northern California, where she lives and writes under a giant oak tree with her husband, two sons, and a cat named Mouse. Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind is her first middle-grade novel and was inspired by the gods and monsters of her parents’ home country, Japan. Information Source: Books Inc. | eventbrite

Books Inc. Palo Alto welcomes graphic novelist Guy Delisle to the shop for a celebration of his new book Muybridge! Guy will be in conversation with Scott Bukatman, a cultural theorist and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. How do you capture a changing world in the blink of an eye? Sacramento, California, 1870. Pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge becomes entangled in railroad robber baron Leland Stanford’s delusions of grandeur. Tasked with proving Stanford’s belief that a horse’s hooves do not touch the ground while galloping at full speed, Muybridge gets to work with his camera. In doing so, he inadvertently creates one of the single most important technological advancements of our age—the invention of time-lapse photography and the mechanical ability to capture motion. Critically-acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Hostage) returns with another engrossing foray into nonfiction: a biography about Eadweard Muydbridge, the man who made pictures move. Despite career breakthrough after career breakthrough, Muybridge would only be hampered by betrayal, intrigue, and tragedy. Delisle’s keen eye for details that often go unnoticed in search of a broader emotional truth brings this historical figure and those around him to life through an uncompromising lens. Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall, Muybridge turns a spotlight on what lives in the shadow of an individual’s ambition for greatness, and proves that Eadweard Muybridge deserves to be far more than just another historical footnote. “ must be counted as one of the greatest cartoonists of our age.”—The Guardian “Delisle's graphic novels take readers on journeys both startlingly unfamiliar and some perhaps all too relatable.”—CBC Books “Minimal line personable observational style.”—The Paris Review “Delisle, a former animator, has a knack for visual shorthand (his self-­portrait is a few jauntily canted lines with dots for eyes) and for drawing environments.”—The New York Times Born in Québec City, Canada, in 1966, Guy Delisle now lives in the south of France with his wife and two children. Delisle spent ten years working in animation, which allowed him to learn about movement and drawing. He is best known for his travelogues about life in faraway countries, Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen. Scott Bukatmanis a cultural theorist and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. Bukatman's research examines how popular media and genres mediate between new technologies and human perceptual and bodily experience. Information Source: Books Inc. | eventbrite