A LITERARY SALON FOR THE BRAVE & THE RIGHTEOUS IN A TROUBLED WORLD

Fiction. Manifestos. Sermons.
Tirades. Love Letters.
Puppets. Commentary. Poetry. Rhetoric.
Pronouncements. 
Babble. Spiel. Stories. Speeches.

AND THEN WE DANCE….

Beginning on Thursday, September 4th, 2025, 7.30pm - 9.30pm at Clio’s Books, 353 Grand Ave in Oakland, and continuing the first Thursday of every month, Rhapsody will present some of the most luminous writers, poets, commentators, and storytellers in the Bay area and go in search of Utopia! Sex, society, love, technology, politics, art, wealth, and God are just a few of the delicious Utopia’s we have on our radar.

Each featured writer will read a piece specially written for the evening followed by a conversation with Rhapsody creator Michael French, and each conversation followed by an audience discussion to do with as they wish. 

A wild and jubilant dance party will crown each evening as our bursting hearts will need somewhere to go! Neo soul, The Beatles, House, Hendrix, Mahler, Bowie, Hip Hop, Punk, Be Bop. No sound will be turned away!

SALONS

  • There’s no such thing as society.

    CARVELL WALLACE is a writer and podcaster whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and others. His memoir, Another Word For Love was a 2024 Kirkus Finalist in Nonfiction. He’s been nominated for Peabody Award in Journalism, a National Magazine Award, and he was a 2023 winner of the Mosaic Prize in Journalism. His 2018 book The Sixth Man spent 13 weeks as a New York Times bestseller and made Barack Obama’s year end list. He lives in Oakland, California. 

  • Do you still believe in genius?

  • Reality is not an option.

RHAPSODY CONDUCTOR

MICHAEL FRENCH is originally from London, England. He is a writer, director, and creator of brilliant things. In an ideal world he would live in Morocco, have another place in Barcelona, spend three months of the year in Ghana, and have a cabin in the woods of Bath, England, where he’d write every chance he could. He would also meditate every day, practice Tai Chi three times a week, eat Indian food every Sunday evening, visit the moon every six months, and be fit enough to run a marathon if he suddenly feels so inspired. Mr. French is currently compiling his first collection of short stories entitled, 'BABBLE.'