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EVENTS

BAY VIEW GALLERY NIGHT | Friday, June 3, 2022 | 5pm to 9pm
New works on paper by Milwaukee’s Polar Ghost
With special performances of Moustache Bride, Rum Revere and Illiciteagle

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Follow Polar Ghost on Instagram
Check out Moustache Bride, Rum Revere and Illicit Eagle

SIGNING PARTY | Tuesday, June 7, 2022 | 4pm to 7pm
Laetitia Barbier signs Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive​

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Click to Buy
A stunning visual history of tarot! This 400-page book presents--for the first time--a close look at 500 years of figurative card decks created or used for fortune telling, divinations, and oracle purposes, and explores, one card at the time, their iconographic roots at the crossroads of the medieval imaginarium, Western esoteric wisdom, folklore, and also contemporary art and pop culture.
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Photo by Shannon Taggart
French born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, a curator and a professional tarot reader and teacher. She earned a Bachelor Degree in Art History from La Sorbonne University in Paris. Laetitia has worked with Morbid Anatomy in NYC since 2010 as Programming Director and Head Librarian.
Follow Laetitia on Instagram
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SPECIAL EVENT | Friday, May 6, 2022 | 6:30pm to 8pm
Chicago Boys - Working Class Readings about Chicago as Place and Character
With Martin Billheimer (Mother Chicago) & Theodore Van Alst (Sacred Smokes & Sacred City)

Martin and Ted are lifelong friends with the City of Chicago in their blood. The City informs and infuses their very different books.  They will read pieces from their respective books and discuss how cities become characters in fiction and non-fiction. Moderated by Feral House publisher, Christina Ward.

Join us for an evening of history writ large and small. Martin Billheimer tells stories about how the great Midwestern cities attempted to "cure" poverty and disease. While Theodore Van Alst, Jr. weaves riveting stories about growing up in Chicago as a "city Indian." The authors, friends and comrades, will discuss their work and how Chicago has influenced their writing.

Beer and wine available for purchase at the Lion's Tooth bar. Complimentary light hors d'ouerves and snacks available. 
Free and open to the public 
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Click to buy MOTHER CHICAGO
Mother Chicago is the story of three institutions – an obscure juvenile experiment called the Chicago Parental School, the great Municipal Sanitarium, and Dunning, the amalgam of poor house, asylum, and cemetery that occupied the far northern
boundaries of the City. This sector of quarantine and detention built on stolen lands acted as a limiter on the production of dreams and an orphan zone for people cast adrift by societal decree.

The book tells the story of the corporeal specters used against the working class: redlining, property speculation, and racism. Like the game of snakes and ladders, the City lays her traps for the unlucky on a numbered grid – easy to navigate yet
impossible to escape.
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Martin Billheimer was born in 1970 in Chicago’s working class Uptown neighborhood, then a hotbed of radical activism. His family moved to Bradford, England, a city in the industrial north, where he spent his childhood, before returning to Chicago in the early ‘80s. There, he founded the semi-notorious noise-punk band the Devil Bell Hippies in 1983 and participated in anti-fascist organizing in the music scene. After dropping out of high school, he continued his education by finding work as a dishwasher, house painter, construction worker and furniture mover. He continues to perform and record music in various projects around Chicago and has acted in pantomimes, puppet theater and agit-prop. He writes on culture, art and politics at Counterpunch online and at the Chiseler.
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click to buy Sacred City
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Click to buy Sacred Smokes
Growing up in a gang in the city can be dark. Growing up Native American in a gang in Chicago is a whole different story. Sacred Smokes takes a trip through that unexplored part of Indian Country, an intense journey that is full of surprises, shining a light on the interior lives of people whose intellectual and emotional concerns are often overlooked. This dark, compelling, occasionally inappropriate, and often hilarious linked story collection introduces a character who defies all stereotypes about urban life and Indians. He will be in readers' heads for a long time to come.

Sacred City is an incomparable follow-up to Van Alst's award-winning debut collection, Sacred Smokes. Our young narrator now heads deeper into the heart of the city and himself, accompanied by ancestors and spirits who help him and the reader see that Chicago was, is, and always will be Indian Country. Part love song and part lament, Sacred City explores what options are available to an intelligent, smart-assed young man who was born poor and grew up in a gang. Van Alst's skillful storytelling takes us on a journey where Chicago will never seem the same.
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Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. is a professor and the chair of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University. Hi's mosaic novel about sort of growing up in Chicago, Sacred Smokes, winner of the 2019 Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing, is now in its second printing. His follow up, Sacred City, was published November 2021, also by the University of New Mexico Press, who released his 2015 edited volume The Faster Redder Road: The Best UnAmerican Stories of Stephen Graham Jones. His writing and photography have been published in Southwest Review, The Rumpus, Red Earth Review, The Journal of Working-Class Studies, Apex Magazine, Electric Literature, Indian Country Today, and The Massachusetts Review, among others. 

MUSIC | Tuesday, April 19, 2022 | 5pm to 8pm
Teething Veils and special guests

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TEETHING VEILS [Washington DC] | Chamber folk by chamber folk. Featuring members of Silo Halo and The Antiques. Old friends returning to MKE for the first time since 2012!
https://teethingveils.bandcamp.com/

MILDEW | Milwaukee's finest experimental noise duo
https://mildew1.bandcamp.com/

SITUATIONS | Singer/songwriter Ashley Altadonna of Milwaukee's Vacancy Chain
https://situationsmke.bandcamp.com/

**PROOF OF VACCINATION REQUIRED FOR ENTRY. WE'LL ALL BE WEARING MASKS AND WOULD LIKE IT IF YOU WOULD TOO.**

RECORD STORE DAY| Saturday, April 23, 2022 | 11am to 7pm
Fundraiser for Lilliput Records

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On this Record Store Day we will donate 10% of all our sales to effort to turn Milwaukee's Exclusive Company (which will be closing soon) into a new shop called Lilliput Records. Read more about the project and make a direct donation to their gofundme campaign.

Saturday, April 30, 2022 | 11am to 7pm
Independent Bookstore Day

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A nationwide celebration of Bookstores! Shop at Lion's Tooth and enter our raffle to win a specially-curated selection of  cool swag, exclusive gifts and signed books. Promoted by the American Booksellers Association.
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Also don't forget to pick up your free copy of the Midwest Indie Bookstore Roadmap. Organized by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and with awesome art by Kevin Cannon, this is an old-school roadmap that allows you to explore nearly 200 bookstores throughout the region.

BOOK RELEASE PARTY | Thursday, December 9 2021, 6PM
Brady St. Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches
​By Tea Krulos 

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Come celebrate Tea Krulos' new memoir "Brady St. Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches" out from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. Bring proof of vaccination to have drinks.
​ABOUT THE BOOK: Amongst sacred institutions lost to time, the drug store lunch counter remains one of the most lamented and revered pieces of true americana. The community and chaos generated within the walls of these one-stop mom & pops is legendary. Tea Krulos recounts tales from the last days of one of Milwaukee’s finest.
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 Tea Krulos  is a freelance journalist and author from Milwaukee, WI. Some of his favorite subjects to explore include subcultures, weird news, and strange personalities. He writes about local art and entertainment, lifestyle, and food/drink for publications like Milwaukee Magazine, Shepherd Express, and Milwaukee Record.  His books, American Madness, Heroes in the Night, Monster Hunters and Apocalypse Any Day Now explored the driving beliefs and lives of the people who choose to reject accepted reality and substitute their own. 
​Tea writes a weekly column called “Tea’s Weird Week” on teakrulos.com.

OUTREACH | Saturday, December 11, 2021
Support Highland Community School

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On December 11 a percentage of our proceeds will be donated to the Highland Community School, a parent-directed, Montessori Charter school.

ARTIST VISIT | Saturday, December 18 2021, 4-7PM
Rachal Duggan, aka RADILLUSTRATES

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Join us on Saturday December 18 for a special art pop-up. Rachal Duggan, aka RADILLUSTRATES, will be here drawing butt portraits during our vaxxed happy hour.

ART OPENING | Friday, November 19 2021, 5-8PM
Clark Rendall's Spomenik Series

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Join us at the store on Friday, November 19 from 5 to 8PM CST, for an art party celebrating Milwaukee’s own Clark Rendall and his new series of prints inspired by Yugoslav “spomeniks”. We'll be serving drinks but please be prepared to show proof of vaccination - card or photo in your phone. Come have some fun while staying safe and protecting our community. More info about Clark's work here.

BOOK EVENT | October 13, 2021 7:30PM CST 5:30PM PST | 8:30PM EST
Encyclopaedia of Hell II
​The Conquest of Heaven

​By Martin Olson

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Join us for a celebration of Martin Olson’s new book Encyclopaedia of Hell II: The Conquest of Heaven, in partnership with Feral House. This will be an exclusive online event for everyone who buys the book from us, with special guests, signed bookplates, swag and more!
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Buy the book and attend the event | $24.95
YES PLEASE
Emcee/Host: Comedian Jimmy Tingle
Special guests: Olivia Olson (Queen Marceline from Adventure Time), legendary cartoonists and 
Encyclopaedia of Hell illustrators Tony Millionaire and Mahendra Singh plus surprise appearances by comedians you will know
The event is LIVE and interactive! Q&A opportunity for attendees
 
WHEN
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 7:30PM CST (5:30PM PST | 8:30PM EST)

WHAT YOU GET
  • Signed bookplate
  • A chance to win some amazing Encyclopaedia of Hell and Feral House swag, raffled live during the event
  • Grand Prize: one winner--chosen at random beforehand--will have a short song written about them performed live for the attendees
 
HOW TO ATTEND
Buy the book from Lion’s Tooth HERE
We will contact you by email with the details for the event
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About the book:
Evil Readers, as ye partake of Encyclopaedia of Hell, rejoice! The hateful sequel written by Satan has arrived!
After Hell's army conquers Insignificant Earth and devours the human race in a celebratory feast, Lord Satan reveals that he will now journey deep into the universe to find the throne of the despised Creator. There Satan will depose God and take his rightful place as Emperor of Existence. 
However, hellish complications quickly arise: exposed to the rays of the Celestial Sun, Satan's horns and claws become brittle and his undercarriage breaks out in a rash. And a hypnotic, ghostly nun named Debbie seduces the naïve King of Hate into taking a wrong turn. Now Lord Satan must face Oblivion when he enters Heaven's labyrinthine Library, from which there is no escape.
But when the Armies of Hell arrive to find Lord Satan and conquer Heaven, instead they find a disturbing secret at the core of Creation too shocking for even a demon to stomach.
Behold it all in Encyclopaedia of Hell II, a disgraceful tour de force of literary Blasphemy! Pickled with paradoxy, puzzles and paranoia, herein lie terrible cosmic secrets stolen from God's Library, including the mystery of why God created Satan, never mind mosquitoes, cellulite and murder hornets.
Coming someday to a film palace near you: Encyclopaedia of Hell--The Movie! The pernicious production rights have been most evilly obtained by the creative demons at Warner Brothers.
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About the author: 
Martin Olson's savage wit provides the firepower for a preposterous literary feat unaccomplished since Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce passed--channeling the real voice of Satan. As a satirist, Olson has inflicted numerous comedy series on the populace via HBO, CBS, Showtime, Comedy Central, Disney, and FX. He has most infamously appeared as the Lord of Evil (Hunson Abadeer, father of Marceline the Vampire Queen) on the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.
In partnership with Feral House
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ARTIST VISIT | August 11-15, 2021
Pacolli's week at Lion's Tooth

Art party and bar mural reveal: Saturday August 14, 2021 4PM CST

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On the week of August 11-15 Lion's Tooth received a special visit from Pacolli, the incredible artist who designed our logo. During her time here Pacolli painted a mural on our bar.
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San Francisco based artist Pacolli is originally from São Paulo, where she was a producer at MTV Brazil and curated and ran an art space called Bendgy. Self taught and with a strong DIY ethic, Pacolli works in a variety of media and styles, including painting, silk screening and collage. In addition to the original pieces, her amazing compositions can be found in prints, zines, and an array of one-of-a-kind gear and objects -- and now also at Lion's Tooth!
Follow Pacolli on Instagram
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Pacolli installing her art at Banksy's legendary print shop and gallery Pictures on Walls, in London.

POETRY READING | Wednesday August 11, 2021 5PM CST 
Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems ​
​By Margaret Rozga

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Join us for an evening with poet Margaret Rozga to celebrate her book Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems. In person at Lion's Tooth and broadcast on Instagram Live @lionstoothmke

About the book:

In Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems, her fifth volume of poems, Margaret Rozga brings together some of her best-loved poems about Milwaukee’s fair housing marches and her concern for issues of peace and social justice with new poems that identify with Alice in Wonderland and imagine new Alice adventures. New poems also grapple with issues of recent political turmoil and pandemic-induced uncertainty. They seek and sometimes find the words, the moments of calm, needed to hold oneself together.
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About the author: 
As 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, MARGARET ROZGA edited the anthologies Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems and On the Front Lines // behind the lines. She is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at Waukesha and was recently chosen the first scholar / artist in residence at the UWM at Waukesha Field Station.
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK

BOOK EVENT | Thursday August 5, 2021 5PM CST 
Punks in Peoria: Making a Scene in the American Heartland ​
​By Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett

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Lion's Tooth presents a celebration of Punks in Peoria: Making a Scene in the American Heartland, by Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett. In person at Lion's Tooth and broadcast on Instagram Live @lionstoothmke
The authors were present virtually for a discussion, reading and Q&A.

About the book: 
Synonymous with American mediocrity, Peoria was fertile ground for the boredom- and anger-fueled fury of punk rock. Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett explore the do-it-yourself scene built by Peoria punks, performers, and scenesters in the 1980s and 1990s. From fanzines to indie record shops to renting the VFW hall for an all-ages show, Peoria's punk culture reflected the movement elsewhere, but the region's conservatism and industrial decline offered a richer-than-usual target environment for rebellion. A raucous look at a small-city underground, Punks in Peoria takes readers off the beaten track to reveal the punk rock life as lived in Anytown, U.S.A.
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About the authors: 
JONATHAN WRIGHT is a writer, editor, musician, and longtime veteran of the Peoria music scene. He is editor in chief at Peoria Magazines.

DAWSON BARRETT is an associate professor of history at Del Mar College. His books include The Defiant: Protest Movements in Post-Liberal America.
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK

February 2020 Pop-up Extravaganza
Sugar Maple • February 15, 2020 

​​Kids subscription book clubs and activities
​The Nile Club (teen band) and Ravi/Lola

​January 2020 Pop-up Extravaganza
Sugar Maple • January 18, 2020 

Our first kids' book club!
​Featured artist Luke Chappelle signs Arcana de Flora
​Justin Kern reads from The Milwaukee Anthology (watch clips in our YouTube channel).
​The Golden Grenades (teen band)
​Blue Unit

Brew City Crafters' Second Annual Holiday Art & Craft Fair

American Serb Hall
5101 W Oklahoma Ave
Saturday, December 14, 2019 • 10AM-4PM
Free admission
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RRRAGS | Riverwest Random Recycled Art and Gift Show

Falcon Bowl
801 E Clarke St
Saturday & Sunday, December 7-8, 2019 • 12-6PM
Free admission
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Punk Rock Rummage Sale

Small Business Saturday
Club Garibaldi
2501 S Superior St
Saturday, November 30, 2019 • 12-4PM
Free admission
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Hovercraft

The Pritzlaff Building
325 N Plankinton Ave
Sunday, December 1, 2019 • 12-6PM
Admission $5, kids free
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Cactus Patch Holiday Pop-up

Cactus Club
2496 S Wentworth Ave
Sunday, November 24, 2019 • 2-6PM
Free admission
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Launch Party and pop-up

With shows by Scrimshaw and Negative/Positive
Sugar Maple
441 E Lincoln Ave
Saturday, November 23, 2019 • 12-6PM
Free admission, kids welcome with parents or guardiansThank you Troy Freund and other friends for the beautiful pics!

​Beet Street Fall Harvest Festival

Block party by Cactus Club
2496 S Wentworth Ave
October 12, 2019 • 12-6PM
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2421 S Kinnickinnic Ave,  Milwaukee WI 53207
Open Mon-Sat 11-7 Sun 11-5
​(414) 455.3498 | Contact Us lionstoothmke@gmail.com
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