L.A. Book Launch: To Ask For Love by Harry Northup (Cahuenga Press)

A book celebration for Harry Northup's latest collection "To Ask For Love." Readings by Cahuenga Press Poets.

Beyond Baroque presents a reading and celebration of Harry E. Northup's To Ask For Love (Cahuenga Press). Harry E. Northup is a poet and actor (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Over The Edge, The Silence of the Lambs) and is the Producer and Host of Harry's Poetry Hour, Creative Chaos MPTF. Also reading from their work: Cahuenga Press poets James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams and Jeanette Clough.

"Rich with the paradoxical gifts of great loss, To Ask For Love reminds us what it means to love, how we go on in the face of loss, and how love companions us even after death. In their beauty wrung from pain and loss, these poems are gifts, each one an act of courage, love, and grace."

--Alison Townsend, author of Persephone in America

Doors Open: 1:30 PM I Readings: 2:00 PM

About the authors:

Harry E. Northup has had thirteen books of poetry published, the latest being: To Ask for Love (Cahuenga Press, 2026).  He received his B.A. in English from C.S.U.N., where he studied Verse with Ann Stanford.  Northup made a living as an actor for thirty-four years, acting in thirty-seven films, including "Mean Streets,” "Taxi Driver," "The Silence of the Lambs"; he starred in the acclaimed cult film, "Over the Edge." Harry has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1976.  Harry produces and hosts a weekly, one-hour poetry show, Harry's Poetry Hour, Creative Chaos MPTF, on Zoom.  It is also streamed live on the on-campus Channel 1390/9996, to the resident’s TV screens.

James Cushing, born 1953 in Palo Alto CA, holds a doctorate in English from UC Irvine. In the early 1980s, he hosted a live poetry radio program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles which gave early exposure to Dennis Cooper, David Trinidad, Amy Gerstler, Wanda Coleman, Leland Hickman, Scott Wannberg, and many others. From 1989 through 2020, when he retired, he taught literature and creative writing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and served as the community’s Poet Laureate for 2008 – 2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared in many journals, and his 30-year association with Cahuenga Press has resulted in seven full-length collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Tangled Hologram. His daughter is the New York-based poet Iris Cushing.

Phoebe MacAdams was born and raised in New York City, but has mostly lived in California. She moved to LA in 1986. With the poets James Cushing, the late Holly Prado and Harry Northup, she is a founding member of Cahuenga Press, which now includes the poet Jeanette Clough. She taught English at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights until her retirement in 2011. She has published seven books of poetry, the last five with Cahuenga Press, including in 2016, her new and selected volume, The Large Economy of the Beautiful.  In 2017, Beyond Baroque published Every Bird Helps: A Cancer Journal. She lives in Pasadena with her husband, Ron Ozuna.

Fire Roulette is Jeanette Clough’s fourth poetry collection. An earlier book, Flourish, was a finalist in the Otis College of Art and Design and Eastern Washington University book competitions. Other publications include Island from Red Hen and two artist books, Stone and Rx. Her poetry received awards from the Los Angeles Poetry Festival Fin de Millennium, Ruskin Art Club, and Rainer Maria Rilke International Poetry competitions, and a Commendation in the Aesthetica Creative Works competition (UK). She was also Artist in Residence in Joshua Tree National Park. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, Clough holds an M.A from the University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities. She worked as an art librarian at the Getty Research Institute, and divides her time between Ventura County and L.A.

About Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.

If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.