Category Archives: Uncategorized

Contest: Poets Eleven

[Props to Creative Writers Opportunities List for the heads up on this.]

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the San Francisco Public Library and Former San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman are pleased to announce Poets Eleven, a citywide poetry contest that will include poetry readings at branch libraries throughout San Francisco. Submissions will be made by residents of each of the City’s 11 districts.

Local poets are encouraged to submit up to three poems for review. Mr. Hirschman is particularly interested in submissions which reflect San Francisco’s diversity of language and culture. He encourages poets who write in languages other than English to submit works. Presenting poets will be selected by the former Poet Laureate and all poets whose work is chosen will receive fifty dollars for their readings.

Poets can submit work by email to bspoonerbookevents@friendssfpl.org or by regular mail to:

Poets Eleven
Book Bay Fort Mason
Fort Mason Center, Bldg. C
San Francisco, Ca 94123

Submissions must include a return address, email or phone number and district for a response, but poets may also bring their work to any branch library and then arrange to return to that same branch for a response.

The deadline for all submissions has been extended to June 1, 2008.

Click here to download entry form (pdf).

X-Post: The LA Times covers Eric Priestly’s fight to remain in the neighborhood he’s written about for decades.

Rhyme and reason in Watts
By Erin Aubry Kaplan

Instead of despairing, Eric is furious. He is still waging a court battle, though he has no lawyer and is learning legal procedures on the fly. His many arguments for staying are not purely legal. He says he’s not a tenant (he never paid rent, after all) and therefore should not be subject to eviction. He says the city never informed him that it owned the warehouse. He says he’s kept up the property (he’s a bricklayer and handyman when he’s not a writer). For the last eight years, he’s been a neighborhood watch captain with the LAPD’s Southeast Division, surely the most thankless volunteer gig in town. He’s the unofficial flame-keeper of the Watts Writers Workshop, the one member who stuck around Watts while other alumni — Quincy Troupe, Stanley Crouch — made their fortunes elsewhere.

More here.

Bass in your face / Not an eight track

Some audio that’s been keepin’ me busy lately:

Douglas Kearney on Fishouse Poems
– Great talk on process, form, and reading poems out loud.
Highlights for me include “Live/Evil” and “The City Vs. John Henry.”
I suggest you head over to his website and download his free chapbook.

KUHF-Arte Publico Press Author of the Month: Javier O. Huerta
– Great interview, wonderful insights, and excerpts from Some Clarifications y otros poemas. The interviewer moves this podcast through with sharp questions and personal commentary that measures up well to Javier’s expert talk and fine poems.

Patricia Smith interviewed by Belinda Subraman
– It is always a treat to hear Patricia’s poems, but I wish Ms Subraman had done some more research on Patricia before hand. I was wincing when she tried to stuff Patricia’s broad poetics into the box of slam poetry. Patricia blurring that line and reminding the listener that consideration for audience should be something on the mind of all (slam, performance, experimental, narrative, formalist, confessional, political, visual, flarfist, humorous, serious, insert your label/title here) poets was the jam.

Latino Poetry Review’s inaugural audio segment
– Francisco has a great talk with María Meléndez about LPR, Javier and Corky’s Craft, and why some poems don’t make it into the manuscript. I’m looking forward to the next segment.

Acentos Live!
– or the Bonchiche News Network meets NPR meets Radio WADO.
Rich keeps Acentos moving forward with a roundtable discussion on the current direction of the series with Emiliano Bourgois-Chacon, Jose Olivarez, Bonafide Rojas, Urayoan Noel, LiYun Alvarado and Acentos host John Rodriguez. (Bios can be found here.)
Me, I’ll take a little step back and say this session sounds a lot like kicking it late night by the window of the Blue Ox Bar with Matt, Juancho, and Tata, as I ask Guy for advice on how to thwart the white male gate keeper/defender of the ivory tower who only wants classical poetry that doesn’t take a political stance. In that case, it turned out to be the actual owner of the venue who was Caucasian, did have the keys to the door, really did love rhyming olde English couplets, and continually begged me to tone down the ethnic poetry. Ah, memories.

X-Post: The New York Times on Subway Poetry


NYC 2008
Originally uploaded by
URBAN PHOTOS

M.T.A. Derails Poetry
By ROBIN POGREBIN

Those poems on the subways are going the way of the No. 9 line — that is, coming to an end after 15 years. Poems may still be posted now and then, but mostly the quotations seen on subways and buses will pertain to a number of different subjects, including history, philosophy, literature and science.

More here.