The city of West Hollywood, through WeHo Arts, will co-sponsor the first Lambda LitFest, a week-long celebration honoring and expanding the rich and diverse tradition of LGBTQ writers and readers in West Hollywood and throughout the greater Los Angeles areas.

All events are free to attend.

“Gay Theatre, Its History, and Its Future” will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, in the West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, located at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Coordinated by Victor Bumbalo and featuring Michael Kearns, Robert Patrick, Tom Jacobson, Mary Casey, Odalys Nanin and Donald Jolly, this event is an opportunity to gain perspective on the roots of LGBTQ theater and its impact on LGBTQ culture with some of the people who helped create it, and to hear thoughts about its direction from those working in the field today.

“Sister Spit: The Next Generation” will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in the city of West Hollywood’s City Council Chambers, located at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. “Sister Spit”

began in 1994 as a group of “the most notorious, talented and just frickin’ interesting women and dykes,” that toured all over the United States. “Sister Spit: The Next Generation” continues in the tradition of the original group by taking an intersectional and often humorous lens to the issues of feminism, race, size, class, identity, technology, gender and sexuality.

“Literary Drag Race — All Stars Pop Up” will take place at 12 p.m. on Sunday, March 12 at The Abbey, located at 692 N. Robertson Blvd., in the Cabana Bar. Loosely modeled around “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the event will feature Victor Yates in RuPaul “boy drag” and performers in various styles of drag, with three pit crew members. The performers will read new work that they have written or pages from banned books.

“No Cure for Madness – Queer Male Poets on Death, God, and Desire,” will take place at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 12, at Book Soup, located at 8818 Sunset Blvd. This event will present a poetry reading by three queer men of color – Kazim Ali, Blas Falconer and Miguel Murphy, whose work transgresses mainstream and heteronormative norms of both body and spirt.

Additional events will take place throughout the Los Angeles area and online during the week-long festival, which also features a full day event on Saturday, March 11. For information and a full schedule of events, visit weho.org/wehoreads or lambdalitfest.org/events.

For more information, contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at (323)848-6377, or mche@weho.org.