Samizdat bookstore hosts local storytelling night with dinner and live tales

Samizdat Bookstore and Teahouse is turning its Monday supper crowd into a stage for local voices, pairing dinner with a live storytelling night that puts Los Alamos residents at the center of the evening. The Spill is set for Monday, June 22 at 6 p.m. at 174 Central Park Square, with Bean Night, the bookstore’s Monday Supper Club, beginning at 5 p.m.

The event is built around a curated lineup of local residents sharing true stories drawn from their own lives. That format gives the evening a different feel from an open mic: the stories will be selected to create a shared arc of reflection, humor and connection, with organizers bringing together voices from different backgrounds and life experiences.

In a town often shaped by science, government work and busy schedules, a night built on oral storytelling offers something more personal. It creates a public space for neighbors to hear one another outside school meetings, office corridors and the routines that usually define daily life in Los Alamos. For a community that can feel divided by age, profession or neighborhood, a room full of lived stories can become a rare place for common ground.

The supper club element adds to that sense of accessibility. Samizdat launched its Monday Supper Club in October 2025, when it began serving red beans and rice with cornbread for $7 per person and inviting people to drop in between 5 and 8 p.m. That model made Bean Night feel less like a formal dinner reservation and more like a standing invitation, which fits the bookstore’s role as a casual gathering place before the storytelling begins.

Los Alamos County describes Samizdat as a community gathering space offering books for children and adults, unique stationery, board games and boba tea drinks. The county and tourism listings also note that the shop hosts special events including author readings, craft nights and supper clubs. Samizdat has been operating in Los Alamos since at least November 2021, when it began as part of the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce and Los Alamos MainStreet’s Retail Accelerator Program before later opening in the shared space at 174 Central Park Square.

Jillian Rubio, the executive director of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center, is helping present the event, adding another familiar local name to a program that is rooted in community rather than spectacle. The Spill fits neatly into Samizdat’s larger pattern of using books, food and live events to give Los Alamos County a place to gather and listen.