Cynthia Bryant (Pleasanton’s 4th Poet Laureate), Kirk Ridgeway (Pleasanton’s 3rd), and Jim Ott (Pleasanton’s 2nd) gather with Al Young at the 2007 Pleasanton Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival.
For a useful rundown and photos of California’s Poets Laureate and U.S. Poets Laureate (compiled by Cynthia Bryant of Poet’s Lane), click on the picture. Or click here.
California Poet Laureate Al Young has created a profound and enduring body of work that represents our time. Young’s numerous publications in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and for the stage and screen explore the American, human condition through the lens of the individual voice. Ray González writes that Young “paints a picture of who we are as a nation and how our complexity takes us beyond national borders as members of a global literary community.” Another Mississippi original, Young resides in Berkeley. Captured at Morrison Library on the UC Berkeley campus 3 November 2005 as part of of the Lunch Poems reading series, Al Young is introduced by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass.
Watch the video (Courtesy of UC Berkeley Educational Technology Services).
The 15 December posting of poet Kate Evans’ Being and Writing Blogspot features “Clearing the Way for Ecstasy,” selected from Al Young’s Something About the Blues: An Unlikely Collection of Poetry. Evans teaches creativewriting and literature at San JosĂ© State University. Her exciting new book of poems is Like All We Love.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2228647,00.html
ENGLAND’S ARTS FACE BLOODIEST CULL IN HALF A CENTURY
AS FUNDS ARE CUT FOR 200 GROUPS
· Arts Council decision will shut many groups in April
· Majority to get budget rise of at least inflation level
Mark Brown, arts correspondent
Monday December 17, 2007
The Guardian
Nearly 200 arts organisations in England have been told that their funding will end from next April in the biggest and most bloody cull since the Arts Council was set up more than 50 years ago.Pre-Christmas letters from Arts Council England have been dropping on the mats of groups across the arts, telling them they cannot expect to continue receiving public money.
Many organisations will, however, have had good news. Of the 990 bodies which get funding, three-quarters have been told to expect inflation or above rises.
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Suppose you woke up at some deep, dark hour to find yourself floating above your bed, your eyes open just enough to understand that your whole bedroom has somehow broken from the pull and lull of gravity. After feeling around and looking to make sure you weren’t dreaming, you might wonder if during sleep you’d been beamed to some stress-free, hate-free planet. Or, noting your rising sense of elation, you might conclude that you’re in love.
