Happening Tuesday: Iron & Wine @ The Wiltern and more

BOOKS

Maxine Hong Kingston The author, whose books weave myths, dreams, history and personal experiences together, will read from and discuss her work, including “I Love a Broad Margin to My Life,” her unique new memoir told in verse. Andrew Lam, editor and co-founder of New America Media, will moderate. (Kingston will also appear at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Wednesday at 7 p.m.) Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Free (reservations recommended). (213) 228-7025. https://www.aloudla.org.

How Much Public Debt Can We Endure? In dire financial times, U.S. citizens have sometimes struggled with the need to pay for the high cost of public policies, including Social Security, infrastructure, education and wars. Charles Rappleye, author of “Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution,” visits Zócalo Public Square to explore what the system created during the Revolution means for today’s taxing, spending and pursuit of ambitious public policies. Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Park La Brea. 7:30 p.m. Free. (323) 525-3388. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org.

Jennifer L. Knox and Sarah Manguso Knox, author of the poetry collections “The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway,” “A Gringo Like Me” and “Drunk by Noon,” and Manguso, author of the memoir “The Two Kinds of Decay,” will read and discuss their work. Hammer Museum. 10899 Wilshire Blvd. L.A. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 443-7000. https://www.hammer.ucla.edu/.

POP MUSIC

Iron & Wine The title of Sam Beam’s latest, “Kiss Each Other Clean,” sounds as if it’d fit nicely in his sepia-toned early folk catalog. But instead, it shows the diversity of his skills as an arranger, finding room for all stripes of rock and some eclectic world influences alongside his increasingly elastic croon. With the excellent young singer-songwriter Laura Marling and the Low Anthem. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. $25. (213) 388-1400.

>> Read the Times review of “Kiss Each Other Clean”