Beat Generation, Art & Literary Community News

The African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library in association with Justin Desmangles presents Does the Secret Mind Whisper? A Celebration of Bob Kaufman. Saturday, December 13, 2008, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium A pre-eminent figure in international poetry and seminal figure in the Beat Generation, Bob Kaufman' legacy continues with this celebration in poetry and music. This program features a special solo musical performance by Roscoe Mitchell, founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago; from Los Angeles, extraordinary jazz poet and co-founder of World Stage, Kamau Daahood; legendary Beat poet and major contributor to the historical biography of jazz, David Meltzer; and novelist, author and recent Poet Laureate of San Francisco, devorah major. All programs at the Library are free. Supported by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Main Library 100 Larkin St. at Grove St. Civic Center San Francisco 415-557-4277 sfpl.org.

San Francisco Public Library Presents The Annual Book Arts & Special Collections Holiday Lecture Shig! The Life and Times of Shigeyoshi Murao, the Quintessential Bookman December 4, 2008 "Imagine being arrested for selling poetry!" So were the astonished words of Shigeyoshi Murao, the legendary manager for over two decades of City Lights Books. But in the summer of 1957, Shigeyoshi (or "Shig" as he was affectionately known by everyone in the neighborhood) was in fact arrested on charges of obscenity, after selling two San Francisco police officers a copy of Allen Ginsberg's Howl and other Poems. Murao was also a confidant for nearly every major San Francisco literary figure that haunted the book scene; the man responsible for creating the very ambience, the "soul" of City Lights Bookstore. The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center of the San Francisco Public Library is pleased to present its annual holiday lecture, Shig! The Life and Times of Shigeyoshi Murao, the Quintessential Bookman, a talk and slideshow by literary historian Patricia Wakida on the research conducted for her upcoming biography on Shig Murao and the bohemian life he lived in North Beach's literary heyday. Sponsored by the Book Arts & Special Collections Center with support from the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Shig! will be presented from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, 20087, in the Latino/Hispanic Community Room B on the Lower Level of the Main Library, 100 Larkin St. at Grove. The program is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 415.557.4277.

MICHAEL McCLURE in CHICAGO POETRY READING at 7:00 p.m. OCTOBER 11, 2008 The Beat Generation Symposium October 10-11, 2008 Columbia College, Chicago All events are in the Film Row Theater 1104 South Wabash Avenue (8th Floor)

The Holloway Series in Poetry at UC Berkeley Presents: MICHAEL McCLURE with Elizabeth Marie Young Tuesday, October 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room of Wheeler Hall Holloway Series in Poetry website MICHAEL McCLURE is a Bay Area countercultural icon whose numerous works include Dark Brown, Ghost Tantras (which he famously read to the lions at the San Francisco Zoo), the play The Beard, albums with Ray Manzarek, one-time pianist with the Doors, and with Terry Riley, a repubication of The Booobus and the Bunnyduck, a 1957 children's book made with the artist Jess, and, most recently, a collection of poems called Rain Mirror. ELIZABETH MARIE YOUNG This summer, Elizabeth Marie Young's full-length book, Aim Straight at the Fountain and Press Vaporize, won the Motherwell Prize from Fence Books (it will come out in 2009), and Omahrahu Prss published a chapbook of her Sonnets. She is finishing her PhD in Comparative Literature in Berkeley, and will join the Classical Studies Department at Wellesley College in January. Download the flyer for this event.

"REBEL ROAR: THE SOUND OF MICHAEL McCLURE" Friday, SEPTEMBER 26 Berkeley Video & Film Festival '08 LANDMARK SHATTUCK CINEMA 2230 SHATTUCK AVENUE — DOWNTOWN BERKELEY Box Office: 510.464.5980 Festival Information: 510.843.3699 www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org Screenings Start at 7:30pm Friday The global premiere of "REBEL ROAR: The Sound of Michael McClure," a short art documentary of the poet and playwright, is produced by Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff. "Rebel Roar" advances the cause of Beat and Hip and is an antidote to the rulers. After the screening, McClure and Hemmer will answer questions. Following the documentary is Tao Ruspoli's feature "FIX" in its Bay Area premiere, a scorching and gritty L.A. adventure directed by the grandson of Michelangelo Antonioni. Q & A with Tao Ruspoli after the film. The evening begins at 7:30 with several short experimental films by a variety of award-winning filmmakers.

Please join MICHAEL McCLURE & JOHN BRANDI Tuesday, September 9 7:30 pm MOE'S BOOKS 2476 Telegraph Avenue Berkeley CA 94704 510-849-2087 www.moesbooks.com JOHN BRANDI is a poet, writer, artist, and author of thirty-eight books of poetry and nonfiction. He will read from his new book, FACING HIGH WATER. From the Himalayas, Angkor Wat, the barrios of Old Havana, the highlands of Chiapas, and the streets of New York, Brandi's poems lead us toward rapport with the natural world and our own inner landscapes. "These poems shine with a Taoist sensibility and the wisdom and simplicity of self. John Brandi, as a traveler throughout Asia and the Americas, gives us the artist's heightened sensitivity and clarity of detail; and poems of rare precision, charm and truth." — Joanne Kyger, author of About Now MICHAEL McCLURE is the poet, playright, songwriter, and novelist who first gained fame as one of the five poets who read at the infamous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955. This summer he performed and spoke at the Prague International Writers' Festival and the Casa della poesia in Salerno, Italy. He'll be reading from his soon-to-be-published MYSTERIOSOS (from New Directions), and other new poems.

BIG MIX: Michael McClure, Ray Manzarek, George Brooks, Rob Wasserman, & Jay Lane Wednesday, May 7, 2008 2 shows - 8pm & 10pm YOSHI'S San Francisco 1330 Fillmore Street San Francisco, CA 94115 415.655.5600 sf.yoshis.com/sf/jazzclub Click here for tickets.

Original Beat icon Michael McClure, who penned Janis Joplin's immortal "Mercedes Benz," and Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who created one of rock's most memorable instrumental lines (think "Light My Fire"), join forces with saxophonist George Brooks (Summit, Bombay Jazz, Etta James), bassist Rob Wasserman (Lou Reed, Aaron Neville, Rickey Lee Jones), and drummer Jay Lane (Charlie Hunter, Bob Weir) for a evening of sophisticated anti-politics, elegant improvisation, American haiku, and jazz-drenched dharma boogie. (This past summer BIG MIX took the stage in Golden Gate Park for the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, thrilling the crowd of 80,000 with their performance of "The God I Worship Is a Lion," which was first performed at the Human Be-In in 1967.) Download the flyer for this event.

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