“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” — Mark Twain

__________________________

© Susan Slapin

“The song a robin sings/Through years of endless springs …” — “Stella By Starlight” (Victor Young & Ned Washington, composers ~ © Sony/ATV Music)

© Susan Slapin

Of this shot with a resplendent Northern Cascades defining all else, Susan Slapin of Orcas Island, WA writes: “I love photography, in case you haven’t noticed. This morning — lots o’ birds here! Seagulls walking on North Beach, on Crescent Beach — herons and Canadian geese.”

____________________________________

left out in the rain     stone buddha       clad in robe of green

— Gary Gach

The Buddhist Channel

palms joined

_/|\_

____________________________________

The 2010 PEN-Faulkner Awards
May 6-7, Washington, DC
The Folger Shakespeare Library

click to zoom

Photos by Claire Duggan

From left to right: emcee Gwen Ifill, finalist Lorrie Moore, finalist Lorraine López, finalist Colson Whitehead, judge Kyoko Mori, winner Sherman Alexie, judge Rilla Askew, finalist Barbara Kingsolver, and judge Al Young.  |  Photo courtesy of Claire Duggan

Read the story behind the shot at PEN/Faulkner Foundation.org
View the Folger Shakespeare Library’s photostream at Flickr
Previous announcement of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Awards for Fiction at AlYoung.org

each title clickable

© Claire Duggan

Sherman Alexie: Winner of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award for War Dances.

© Claire Duggan

Before the awards ceremony begins at Washington, DC’s Folger Shakespeare Library, PEN-Faulkner judge Al Young signs citations he has composed for honored writers Colson Whitehead and Sherman Alexie.
||| Audio clip of Al Young’s citation for War Dances, winner Sherman Alexie‘s “rollicking, bittersweet gem of a book.”

© Claire Duggan

Popular DC dance therapist Kris O’Shea pins the corsage to Al’s lapel while her out-of-frame spouse — novelist Alan Cheuse of NPR book review fame — looks on.

© Claire Duggan

Diane Alexie and authors Sherman Alexie and Lorrie Moore captured in timeless black & white at the 2010 PEN-Faulkner Awards reception.

© Claire Duggan

Renowned broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill and PEN-Faulkner judge and author Rilla Askew meet and greet.

© Claire Duggan

Novelist and judge Kyoko Mori and newly elected PEN-Faulkner president Lisa Page swap pleasantries with two excited guests.

© Claire Duggan

PEN-Faulkner Award judges Kyoko Mori and Al Young who, up until Awards weekend, had only known each other through writings, books, emails and telephone conferences.

© Claire Duggan

The Folger Shakespeare Library dining room.

Colson Whitehead and Sherman Alexie

© Claire Duggan

Novelist-biographer-memoirist Beverly Lowry and daughter Melissa with Al Young at the 2010 PEN-Faulkner Awards.

____________________________________

_______________________________________

Read SF Examiner.com columnist Jannie Dresser’s  announcement of this vivid event

_______________________________________

POETRY and PERFORMANCE

Muchas Voces Una Visión
Many Voices One Vision

Sunday March 28, 2010

$10 suggested donation – 7-10 pm
No one turned away for lack of funds

La Peña Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705 ~ MapQuest
USA
510.849.2568

Muchas Voces Una Visión
Many Voices One Vision

Collective poetry reading by more than 35 Bay Area poets as a benefit for the relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in Haiti and Concepción, Chile; with San Francisco poet laureate Diane di Prima as special guest poet.

Come and celebrate César Chávez Day on Sunday March 28, 2010 at La Peña in Berkeley

<< la pena.org >>

Special Guest Poet

Photo © Bill Wilson

Diane di Prima
San Francisco poet laureate

Devorah Major
Jack Hirschman
Former San Francisco poets laureate

Mary Rudge
Alameda poet laureate

Geri Digiorno
Former poet laureate of Sonoma County

Al Young
California poet laureate emeritus

Adrián Arias • Alejandro Murguía • Boadiba • Carlos Barón • Daniel del Solar • Decoy • Dorinda Moreno • Evelie Delfino • Fernando Torres • Francisco X. Alarcón • Francisco Letelier • Genny Lim • Graciela Ramírez • Jack & Adelle Foley • Jennifer Andrea Porras • Jennifer Fox Bennett • Jewelle Gómez • JoAnn Anglin • Joyce Jenkins • La Tigresa •
Lorna Dee Cervantes • Lucha Corpi • Mamacoatl • Marc Piñate • Nicole Limón • Nina Serrano • Nellie Wong • Odilia Galván Rodríguez • Paul Lobo Portugues • Roberto Vargas • Rosa Escamilla • Samuel Iñiguez • Sharon Doubiago •
Lisa Bernstein

Lisa B

Background

Courtesy photo

Roberto Vargas

At the end of 2009, poet Roberto Vargas sent an e-mail message inviting several Bay Area poets to contribute poems to a collective poetry project. Many poets responded by writing and sharing new poems. As a direct result of this process poets Nina Serrano and Francisco X. Alarcon read some of their new poems as part of “La Raza Chronicles” radio show at KPFA in Berkeley on Tuesday January 12, 2010. They decided to organize a collective poetry reading at La Peña and have San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane di Prima as a guest poet of honor.

Soon after Nina and Francisco learned about the devastation and human tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti that took place around the time they were taping the KPFA radio show, they decided to make this event a benefit for relief efforts in Haiti by Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières. Fernando Torres and other La Peña staff decided to volunteer their time for this poetry reading/benefit that will take place at La Peña on Sunday March 28. It was decided that this event was also to be dedicated as a community celebration of César Chávez Day. After the devastating 8.8 earthquake of February 27 in Chile, the organizers are dedicating this poetry reading also to all the victims of this latest catastrophe.

_______________________________________

[click to enlarge]_

Photo © Fred W. McDarrah

LeRoi Jones and Diane di Prima at the Cedar Tavern, Greenwich Village, April 5, 1960

_______________________________________

Photo © Brad Anderson

La Peña ~ 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA ~ 510.849.2568
Sunday, March 28 from 7 to 9:30 pm

_______________________________________

_______________________________

Courtesy photo

Rhymes with phone or moan and

means: I’ve grown so dense and lazy

I can’t even be bothered to bomb you

personally, so I dispatch a robot to rob you,

relieve you of everything you thought

rightful or yours. Rhymes with snores.

– Al Young

© 2010 by Al Young

_______________________________

__________________________________

Gabourey Sidibe as Precious

View trailer

Courtesy of Crown Publishers

Ishmael Reed

Renowned poet-novelist-essayist-playwright Ishmael Reed unpacks the motion picture Precious — recipient of two Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards — based on Push, a novel published in 2009 by the poet-novelist Sapphire (Ramona Lofton).

Courtesy photo

Barbara Bush

Not only did former First Lady Barbara Bush review Precious for Newsweek; she and her husband held two private screenings at their home. “Recently,” she wrote, “George and I hosted a special sneak preview of Precious in our hometown, Houston. The audience of 200 included young people and old, teachers and corporate executives, parents and grandparents, and folks of just about every ethnic and economic background. I planned to say a few words when the movie was over—but I was speechless. (My husband would tell you that is highly unusual.)” Written before Mrs. Bush’s Newsweek account appeared, Reed’s 25,000-word consciousness-expanding essay was posted online in early December at CounterPunch.

__________________________________

Read Ishmael Reed’s “The Selling of Precious“

__________________________________

Mo’Nique: Recipient of the 2010 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Precious’ mother

__________________________________

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, ORNETTE ~ Jazz on the Tube
Born March 9, 1930 at Fort Worth, Texas

Jazz scholar Phil Schaap’s radio celebration of Ornette’s 80th

________________________________________

© Chris Felver

Ornette Coleman

© 2006 by Lee Friedlander / New York Times

Ornette Coleman biography at PBS.org

Nate Chinen: Ornette Coleman, Starring as Himself (New York Times, 27 September 2009)

Ben Ratliff: Seeking the Mystical Inside the Music (New York Times, 22 September 2006)

© John Abbott/Photography

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ORNETTE

________________________________________

Courtesy of Justin Desmangles

Ornette muraled in at 15th & F Streets, Sacramento, CA

New Day Jazz at KDVS-FM ~ CELEBRATING ORNETTE COLEMAN ~ Part One
A special edition of Brian Ang’s Farewell Transmission, hosted this week by Justin Desmangles, celebrating Ornette Coleman, born March 9, 1930.

New Day Jazz at KDVS-FM ~ CELEBRATING ORNETTE COLEMAN ~ Part Two
A special edition of Brian Ang’s Farewell Transmission, hosted by Justin Desmangles, continuing the celebration of  Ornette Coleman.

________________________________________

Courtesy photo

Ornette Coleman Quartet ~ ROMA 1974 #1

________________________________________