Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck January 4, 2011

Join co-hosts Lex Leifheit and Irina Zadov at Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck-a monthly event that is part potluck, part inspiration and part writers circle. Discover local writers and featured foodies, pick up your pencil (or smartphone) to participate in quickwrite, or just sit back and enjoy!

January's theme is "Blurred Identity." House opens at 6:30pm and space is limited. This month's event will also include a quick-write competition of on-the-spot writing inspired by the theme. Future Feast of Words events will take place on the first Tuesday of each month.

January's literary guest is Faith Adiele. A popular speaker and contributor to O and Essence magazines, Faith has appeared on NPR, in a television ad for TIAA-CREF, and on the Tavis Smiley show. Some of the places she has visited for writing fellowships, to teach writing, and/or to take cooking classes include Bali, Banff, Brazil, Chautauqua, Ghana, India, Italy, Iowa City, Nigeria, San Francisco, South Africa, Switzerland, and the Azores. She is author of a travel memoir, Meeting Faith: The Thai Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun, which won the 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir, and co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology. She currently serves as the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland and is finishing a cultural memoir about her Nigerian/Nordic/American heritage.

Culinary guest Peter Jackson is the executive chef of Canvas Underground, a supperclub that aims to bring people together for great food and cool art in ever-changing venues. The collective is a part of the Ghetto Gourmet dining party network, which is continuing the Bay Area's guerilla cooking tradition. Past Canvas Underground dinner parties have included a "Depression Dinner" and a four course meal in a foreclosed West Oakland Victorian.

Official Website: http://feastofwords.eventbrite.com