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It takes four to make a Dream Poetry Team
By Sue Gilmore
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 08/10/2008 12:02:11 AM PDT
A powerhouse quartet of poets steps into the spotlight at La Pena
Cultural Center in Berkeley tonight for a series of readings they're
calling "Arte Poetica ' The Dream Poetry Team." The participants
include Jack Hirschman, the activist and writer Gavin Newsom appointed
to the post of San Francisco poet laureate in 2006. Hirschman, 74, has
an amazing 60 volumes of poetry to his credit, including his latest,
"All That's Left," a collection of poems about social justice that
came out in April. He earned early renown when a letter he wrote at
age 19 seeking Ernest Hemingway's advice netted this somewhat surly
but admiring reply: "I can't help you, kid. You write better than I
did when I was 19. But the hell of it is, you write like me. That is
no sin. But you won't get anywhere with it." When Hemingway killed
himself in 1961, the Associated Press, where Hirschman had worked as a
copy boy, reprinted it as the "Letter to a Young Writer," and it got
worldwide distribution.
Joining Hirschman on stage will be the celebrated Chicano poet
Francisco X. Alarcon, author of bilingual poetry books for children
and 10 adult volumes, including "Sonnets to Madness and Other
Misfortunes" and "From the Other Side of Night." Painter, poet and
activist Jose Montoya, poet laureate of Sacramento, will also be
reading. In addition to authoring the famous "El Louie" poem about the
Korean vet whose life was destroyed by drugs, Montoya is the founder
of the Royal Chicano Air Force art collective responsible for so many
political murals in public places. The fourth Dream Teamer is
Oakland-based poet and media producer Nina Serrano, former director of
the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program, co-founder of the
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and a longtime program
producer for KPFA-FM in Berkeley.
Admission to hear the Dream Team is $5; the program begins at 7
p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Contact 510-849-2568 or
www.lapena.org.
ALL HAIL SAROYAN: Author, playwright and Fresno favorite son William
Saroyan (1908-1981) is the focus of a daylong Salute to Saroyan in
this, his centennial year, at the Mechanics' Institute in San
Francisco on Aug. 19. Things kick off at 12:30 p.m. with a panel
discussion on the late Pulitzer Prize-winner's life and work with
Heyday Books publisher Malcolm Margolin, noted San Francisco novelist
Herbert Gold, California writer Aris Janigian (a fellow Fresno native)
and William E. Justice, editor of the just-published "He Flies Through
the Air with the Greatest of Ease: A William Saroyan Reader" (Heyday
Books, $24.95).
At 2:30 p.m., writer-director Paul Kalinian presents his award-winning
1991 documentary "William Saroyan: The Man, the Writer," followed by a
discussion with the audience. Dramatic readings of some of the
author's finest short stories by local actors begin at 4 p.m. The
closing event is a 5:30 p.m. showing of a 1976 TV movie of a Broadway
revival of "The Time of Your Life," starring Kevin Kline and Patti
LuPone. That 1939 play, featuring a motley assortment of characters
interacting in a San Francisco saloon, won Saroyan both the Pulitzer
and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
Admission for the entire day is free to members, $10 for the general
public. Food will be available at the Cafe, where the cuisine goes
Armenian for the day. The Institute is at 57 Post St., S.F. Contact
415-393-0100 or www. milibrary.org.
ROCKIN' THE LIBRARY: Original soul, reggae, R&B and hip-hop mix with
the vociferously spoken word Aug. 20 as the Oakland Public Library
plays host to a Teen Slam Jam. Young poets and musicians sponsored by
the national Youth Speaks program and BUMP Records hold sway from 5 to
7:30 p.m. in the Main Library West Auditorium, 125 14th St. Contact
510-238-7233 or www.oaklandlibrary.org.
Bookends appears every other Sunday. Sue Gilmore is the Times book
editor. Reach her at sgilmore@bayareanews group.com.
It takes four to make a Dream Poetry Team
By Sue Gilmore
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 08/10/2008 12:02:11 AM PDT
A powerhouse quartet of poets steps into the spotlight at La Pena
Cultural Center in Berkeley tonight for a series of readings they're
calling "Arte Poetica ' The Dream Poetry Team." The participants
include Jack Hirschman, the activist and writer Gavin Newsom appointed
to the post of San Francisco poet laureate in 2006. Hirschman, 74, has
an amazing 60 volumes of poetry to his credit, including his latest,
"All That's Left," a collection of poems about social justice that
came out in April. He earned early renown when a letter he wrote at
age 19 seeking Ernest Hemingway's advice netted this somewhat surly
but admiring reply: "I can't help you, kid. You write better than I
did when I was 19. But the hell of it is, you write like me. That is
no sin. But you won't get anywhere with it." When Hemingway killed
himself in 1961, the Associated Press, where Hirschman had worked as a
copy boy, reprinted it as the "Letter to a Young Writer," and it got
worldwide distribution.
Joining Hirschman on stage will be the celebrated Chicano poet
Francisco X. Alarcon, author of bilingual poetry books for children
and 10 adult volumes, including "Sonnets to Madness and Other
Misfortunes" and "From the Other Side of Night." Painter, poet and
activist Jose Montoya, poet laureate of Sacramento, will also be
reading. In addition to authoring the famous "El Louie" poem about the
Korean vet whose life was destroyed by drugs, Montoya is the founder
of the Royal Chicano Air Force art collective responsible for so many
political murals in public places. The fourth Dream Teamer is
Oakland-based poet and media producer Nina Serrano, former director of
the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program, co-founder of the
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and a longtime program
producer for KPFA-FM in Berkeley.
Admission to hear the Dream Team is $5; the program begins at 7
p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Contact 510-849-2568 or
www.lapena.org.
ALL HAIL SAROYAN: Author, playwright and Fresno favorite son William
Saroyan (1908-1981) is the focus of a daylong Salute to Saroyan in
this, his centennial year, at the Mechanics' Institute in San
Francisco on Aug. 19. Things kick off at 12:30 p.m. with a panel
discussion on the late Pulitzer Prize-winner's life and work with
Heyday Books publisher Malcolm Margolin, noted San Francisco novelist
Herbert Gold, California writer Aris Janigian (a fellow Fresno native)
and William E. Justice, editor of the just-published "He Flies Through
the Air with the Greatest of Ease: A William Saroyan Reader" (Heyday
Books, $24.95).
At 2:30 p.m., writer-director Paul Kalinian presents his award-winning
1991 documentary "William Saroyan: The Man, the Writer," followed by a
discussion with the audience. Dramatic readings of some of the
author's finest short stories by local actors begin at 4 p.m. The
closing event is a 5:30 p.m. showing of a 1976 TV movie of a Broadway
revival of "The Time of Your Life," starring Kevin Kline and Patti
LuPone. That 1939 play, featuring a motley assortment of characters
interacting in a San Francisco saloon, won Saroyan both the Pulitzer
and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
Admission for the entire day is free to members, $10 for the general
public. Food will be available at the Cafe, where the cuisine goes
Armenian for the day. The Institute is at 57 Post St., S.F. Contact
415-393-0100 or www. milibrary.org.
ROCKIN' THE LIBRARY: Original soul, reggae, R&B and hip-hop mix with
the vociferously spoken word Aug. 20 as the Oakland Public Library
plays host to a Teen Slam Jam. Young poets and musicians sponsored by
the national Youth Speaks program and BUMP Records hold sway from 5 to
7:30 p.m. in the Main Library West Auditorium, 125 14th St. Contact
510-238-7233 or www.oaklandlibrary.org.
Bookends appears every other Sunday. Sue Gilmore is the Times book
editor. Reach her at sgilmore@bayareanews group.com.