Clara Breed Civil Liberties Lecture ft. Gary Phillips

Acclaimed best-selling writer Gary Phillips delivers the 4th Annual Clara Breed Civil Liberties Lecture, named after heroic former San Diego Public Library director Clara E. Breed.

Gary Phillips has written novels, short stories, comic books, and worked in TV. His latest novel "Ash Dark as Night" was chosen by Parade magazine as one of its best mysteries of 2024. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, his landmark hard-boiled noir novel "Violent Spring" broke ground on depictions of Los Angeles as it existed in the halls of power and on the street in 1992.

Son of a mechanic and a librarian with roots in the Texas Hill Country and the Mississippi Delta, Gary Phillips must keep writing to forestall his appointment at the crossroads. He has written more than 25 novels, short stories, comic books, and was a staff writer on FX’s SNOWFALL, about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central Los Angeles. Culprits currently streaming on Hulu is based on the linked anthology "Culprits: The Heist Was Just the Beginning" he co-edited. Publishers Weekly named his recent novel "Ash Dark as Night" as one of the best mysteries of 2024.

The Clara Breed Civil Liberties Lecture honors Miss Breed's triple legacy of service, decency, and advocacy on behalf of Japanese Americans wrongly imprisoned in concentration camps by the federal government during World War II. Learn more about this on our website: mysdpl.org/civilliberties