![The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons @ Mark Taper Auditorium - Central Library | Los Angeles | California | United States](https://i0.wp.com/thescvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/event-main-892-Taraghi-3810.jpg?fit=437%2C300&ssl=1)
In her new collection of selected stories, Taraghi—one of Iran’s best-known and most critically acclaimed authors—draws on her childhood experiences in Tehran, adult exile in Paris, and subsequent returns to post-revolution Tehran . Her stories are, as Azar Nafisi writes, “filled with passion, curiosity, empathy, as well as mischief—definitely mischief.” Listen in as Taraghi shares from The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons, made fully accessible to the English-speaking audience for the first time.
Goli Taraghi is an Iranian-born, U.S. educated author who returned to Tehran to study and work in international relations and later, to teach philosophy. Her work is inspired by growing up in the privileged, old-money neighborhood of Shemiran in Tehran and later, as an exile in Paris and various visits to post-revolution Tehran. Taraghi has been honored as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France and has won the Bita Prize for Literature and Freedom given by Stanford University in 2009. She is included in Reza Aslan’s anthology of modern literature from the Middle East, Tablet & Pen; in the anthology Words without Borders: The World through the Eyes of Writers; and in the PEN anthology of contemporary Iranian Literature edited by Nahid Mozaffari, Strange Times, My Dear. She is a bestselling author in Iran, where her books are often censored.
Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is author, most recently, of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and named by Blackwell as one of the hundred most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism), as well as the editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. Aslan is Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and Associate Professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside.
![Free Admission to SoCal Museums on Jan. 25th](https://i0.wp.com/thescvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/lacma-city-lights-at-night.jpg?fit=400%2C300&ssl=1)
A number of museums throughout Southern California are offering free admission on Saturday, January 25, 2014. This does not include parking nor specially ticketed exhibits or events.
This can save quite a bit of money, so take the opportunity to visit a museum (or two!) that you might not otherwise have visited.
Here’s the full list of participating museums.
Annenberg Space for Photography
Armory Center for the Arts
Autry National Center of the American West
California African American Museum
California Science Center
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Getty Center
Getty Villa
Hammer Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial (Hollywood and San Pedro)
Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Latin American Art
Orange County Museum of Art
Paley Center for Media
Pasadena Museum of California Art
Santa Monica Museum of Art
USC Pacific Asia Museum
![Abbot Kinney First Fridays @ Abbot Kinney | Los Angeles | California | United States](https://i0.wp.com/thescvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/abbot-kinney-first-fridays.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
Local merchants on or near Abbot Kinney, the thoroughfare that runs diagonally through Venice, come together every month to feature the best artists, gifts, products and music in the area. Local charities benefit as art junkies, couples and families descend on the always funky beach community. And, of course, beverages are available.
![Abbot Kinney First Fridays @ Abbot Kinney | Los Angeles | California | United States](https://i0.wp.com/thescvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/abbot-kinney-first-fridays.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
Local merchants on or near Abbot Kinney, the thoroughfare that runs diagonally through Venice, come together every month to feature the best artists, gifts, products and music in the area. Local charities benefit as art junkies, couples and families descend on the always funky beach community. And, of course, beverages are available.
![Abbot Kinney First Fridays @ Abbot Kinney | Los Angeles | California | United States](https://i0.wp.com/thescvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/abbot-kinney-first-fridays.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
Local merchants on or near Abbot Kinney, the thoroughfare that runs diagonally through Venice, come together every month to feature the best artists, gifts, products and music in the area. Local charities benefit as art junkies, couples and families descend on the always funky beach community. And, of course, beverages are available.