thursday/6
“Quiet Lightning: Neighborhood Heroes Edition.” Beat-style reading, in conjunction with Allen Ginsberg exhibit. Readers include Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley (“A Thousand Acres”), Susan Steinberg (“Hydroplane”), Michael David Lukas (“The Oracle of Stamboul”), Kevin Killian (“Impossible Princess”). At the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., S.F. 6:30 p.m. Free with admission. www.thecjm.org.