Bestselling Author Father Greg Boyle to Speak at South Pasadena Library on July 21

Father Greg Boyle, whose inspiring memoir “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” has spent over a year on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller charts will make an ‘Author Night’ appearance in the Community Room on Thursday, July 21 at 7 p.m. The program is presented by the South Pasadena Public Library and the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, with funding support from the Helix Foundation and Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

Singer/songwriter Severin Browne, a longtime favorite of many Southern Californian audiences, will open the evening. Severin grew up in a very musical family in a 75 year-old house on the Arroyo Seco.  His father, Clyde Jack Browne grew up in the same old house and was a jazz pianist who recorded with Jack Teagarden. His brother, Jackson’s career is well-known to many. The historic Browne home was built more than 75 years ago by his grandfather Clyde, who founded Abbey Press. By the age of 25, Severin had already recorded two albums for, of all labels, Motown Records. He kept a promise to himself to never record again for 20 years, but fortunately he changed his mind in 1995 releasing “From the Edge of the World” and again in 2001 with “This Twisted Road.” Severin continues to perform regularly to appreciative audiences all around the Golden State.

Fatther Greg Boyle is the Founder and Executive Director of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the country. Begun in 2001, the nonprofit is widely recognized as a national model. Homeboy Industries was first established in Boyle Heights to address the widespread unmet needs of gang-involved youth. Today, Homeboy Industries serves thousands each year with employment and legal services, mental health care, tattoo removal, and other free programs. It is also the home of the nonprofit enterprises Homeboy Bakery and Homegirl Café and Catering. “Tattoos on the Heart,” Father Boyle’s first book, was awarded the 2010 Southern California Booksellers Association Indie Booksellers Association Non-Fiction Book Award .It was also was named one of the “Best Books of 2010” by Publishers Weekly.

The free public event is for all ages. The Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street.  Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and no tickets or reservations are necessary. Refreshments will be served and autographed copies of “Tattoos on the Heart” will be available for purchase. Special thanks to the Holy Family Bookstore and Libros Schmibros for outreach help. Special thanks are also due to Studio Spectrum, Inc. who will be video recording the program for later showing on Channel 19 (Time Warner) and Channel 99 (AT&T U-Verse) in South Pasadena.

A special reception and book signing with Father Boyle will also be held on June 21 at 4:30 p.m. at Libros Schmibros Book Store at 2000 East 1^st Street in Boyle Heights.  The free event will provide refreshments will be available and “Tattoos on the Heart” will be available for purchase.

If your father no longer remembers you,

does he stop being your father?

“Forgetting Dad”, an award-winning feature documentary, will be screened in the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room on Thursday, June 30^th at 7 p.m.  The free program, presented by the Library and the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, will also feature filmmaker Rick Minnich who will introduce his film and conduct a Q & A with the audience.  Minnich is an American filmmaker living in Germany who will be visiting his sister in South Pasadena. She appears in the film and will be present at the event.

“Forgetting Dad” begins as a forgotten son’s very personal search for his father that winds into a criminal case, before it circles back to personal drama at the end. It starts with the biographies of father and son while showing the family’s home movies and quickly gathers momentum as it gains a thriller structure. The home movies show a happy, ordinary family before we learn that everything is not as it seems. The father in the movies is alive but he does not remember anything. Or does he?  Rick Minnich’s father has apparently lost his memory after a car accident. But doctors cannot find anything wrong with him and the members of the family are not convinced he has amnesia either. They think that his memory loss might be an act of will.

In their grippingly personal documentary Minnick and Co-Writer and Co-Director Matt Sweetwood, imbue their film with a strong sense of structure and an abundance of suspense. The notion of the possibility of escaping one’s own life runs throughout the film and helps make the theme both touching and thrilling.

“Forgetting Dad” has already been shown on television in many countries including Brazil, Canada, Sweden, and India and has won major awards at many international film festivals. The jury statement from the 2009 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival in China proclaimed “The director takes a step-by-step way to tell a story which is closely related to every one of us…The film is warm and thought-provoking.”

The Library Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street. No tickets or reservations are necessary. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and refreshments will be provided.