Red Hen Press Publisher Mark Cull, Red Hen Press Executive Director Kate Gale, Red Hen Press Deputy Director Tobi Harper Petrie at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Gold Table Host Author Kazim Ali and Silver Table Host Author Jade Shyback at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Marcy Matsumoto and Gold Table Host Author David Mas Masumoto at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Gold Table Host Author Brenda Cárdenas at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Anthony Macias and Silver Table Host Author Lily Hoang at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Silver Table Host Author Madeleine Nakamura, Kira Homsher, Silver Table Host Author Kathryn Ross at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Silver Table Host Author Douglas Manuel and Kirsten Boles at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Silver Table Host Author Pete Hsu and Helen Hsu at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Silver Table Host Author Carlos Allende at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Ann Beman, Lynda Zuber, Gale Kohl, Pasadena Vice-Mayor Felicia Williams, Shelley Thompson, Arlene Withers at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Monica Fernandez and Rebeccah Sanhueza at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Jill Hansen, Caroline Abdulhamid, John Hicks, Richard LeBeau, Jana Cherington at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Gerda Govine Ituarte (l) and Thelma Reyna (r) at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Mary Ellen Stuart, Linda Horioka, Amanda Kelps, Lisa Smith, Debra Garfinkle at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Tonya Ross and Silver Table Host Author Kathryn Ross at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Stephanie Petker and Alix Hendrix at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Désirée Zamorano and Bonnie S. Kaplan at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Walker King, Nancy Boutin, Sandra Shore, Kim Dower at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Carleton Eastlake, Loraine Despres, Laurel DiGangi at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Luke Goebel and Amanda Kelps at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Livy Ucozoglu, Debbie Battaglia, Elaine Fujiu at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Gina Knox, Shelley Thompson, Arlene Withers at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
Julie Halton and Louis Bradshaw at Red Hen Press' Champagne Brunch at Noor [Photo: Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]
This past Sunday, October 8, local literary nonprofit Red Hen Press hosted 162 authors, supporters, and community members at their 29th Annual Champagne Benefit Luncheon, which returned in person at the NOOR Events Terrace Courtyard in the Paseo.
The fundraiser supported the press’s publishing initiatives, Writing in the Schools (WITS) program, and community outreach, and celebrated twenty-nine years in the publishing industry.
Headlining the event were readings and presentations from acclaimed author Kazim Ali, former Milwaukee poet laureate Brenda Cárdenas, and New York Times bestselling author and organic peach farmer, whose organic farming techniques have been employed by farmers across the nation, David Mas Masumoto. The event also featured readings from students from the WITS program and speeches from Deputy Director Tobi Harper Petrie, and Press co-founder and Managing Editor, Kate Gale.
The event kicked off at 11:00 a.m. on a beautiful, sunny October morning with mingling, books, broadsides, and champagne. A slideshow featuring information about the Press, its imprints, and its achievements in the last twenty-nine years, as well as information on the event’s program, featured authors, and forthcoming books to be published by Red Hen Press in 2024, also aired on screens around the venue.
The program proceeded at 12:30 p.m. with guests taking their seats at their tables, spread out in the NOOR terrace courtyard and around the Paseo fountain. As salad and lunch were served, the guests were welcomed with speeches by Managing Editor and cofounder of Red Hen Press Kate Gale and Deputy Director Tobi Harper Petrie before welcoming the three featured presenters to the stage. Following the presenters’ passionate readings, two students from Red Hen Press’s Writing in the Schools program took to the stage. Kenley Moore and Louis Bradshaw shared their own work, reading from the WITS 2022-2023 Student Anthology.
With the help of Simone Ross from the Gala Team, the event then launched into a live auction, where attendees in person could bid on exclusive items such as a literary agent consultation, dinner with the Red Hen Press founders and local poet Douglas Manuel, and a five-night writer’s retreat package. Following the high-energy auction was a paddle-raise fundraiser, which encouraged guests to pledge their support to Red Hen Press and its publishing and literary community initiatives.
$222,000 was raised at the event with the generous help of one anonymous matching donor.
Red Hen Press, the largest nonprofit publisher in Southern California, was founded in 1994 by Kate Gale and Mark E. Cull with the intention of keeping creative literature alive. Red Hen Press is committed to publishing works of literary excellence, supporting diversity, and promoting literacy in our local schools and beyond to foster the next generation of literary creatives.
For more information on Red Hen Press visit www.redhen.org.
