Thursday, August 6, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
Days of Dissent brims with defiance in recounting the rebellious history that has reshaped the United States and the world. With poetic fervor, journalist Gabriel San Rom n delves into the strikes and forgotten martyrs of the labor movement to expose the fetid underbelly of exploitation. In a subverted "this day in history" format and rising from San Rom n's Subversive Historian commentaries on Pacifica Radio, a story is told for every day of the year with poignant vignettes about protests--no matter how big or small. Uprisings of enslaved Africans and abolitionists confronting the scourge of slavery, brave Black youth challenging Jim Crow segregation, Indigenous peoples resisting colonial America's encroachments, Mexican women organizing labor strikes in the Southwest, antiwar protesters marching for peace, and much more. Arriving at a time when history from below faces relentless attacks from above, these stories span centuries and recount the everyday bravery of people organizing for a world free of hate and exploitation. In these pages, history stands firmly where no markers remember massacres disguised as race riots, where the voiceless speak for themselves, and those at the margins of movements demand dignity within them. For every reader who is a worker, student, activist, or is just frustrated by the status quo, Days of Dissent offers one simple suggestion: Read, remember, rebel. Gabriel San Román is an award-winning journalist and author. He began his journey in alternative media as a morning radio show producer at KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles where he also voiced the "Subversive Historian" radio series. He served as a staff writer, columnist and podcast producer at the irreverent OC Weekly. His historical journalism won several awards before the newspaper shuttered in 2019. Since then, San Román has worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times where he investigated political corruption. In 2026, CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California honored him with a Ruben Salazar award. He lives in Orange County with his wife, daughter and their house cat. Jerry Quickley is a performance poet, scholar and journalist who has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University, where he developed his groundbreaking theatrical work “Through the Looking Glass.” He served as foreign correspondent for Pacifica Radio Networks in Iraq, which laid the foundation for the documentary Beats for Baghdad; his project ”Whistleblower” (commissioned by Philip Glass) debuted in Europe at the Amsterdam Dance Event in 2016; and he wrote and produced the film Vampire Wars (2016), a fictional account of the post-Civil War US.