© Brett Hall                      © Al Young

Late Summer Night Dreams

Photos: Al Young | Squaw Valley, Berkeley, Palo Alto, California

© Brett Hall

Al Young and Amy Tan at the annual Community of Writers at Squaw Valley mid-week picnic.

Photos courtesy Peet’s Midtown Café, Palo Alto, CA

above | Al Young and poet-translator Darlene Reddaway of Stanford’s Slavic Studies meet to go over Russian versions of Al’s poems that Moscow poet Vadim Mesyats is translating for a three-city conference. Invited by the Moscow Academy of Sciences to tour Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Moscow in mid-September with Russian and other American poets (Michael Palmer among them), Al has opted to video-confer from California. below | Darlene patiently teaches Al the WebEx moves.

Click to enlarge

Official invitation/travel visa issued to Al Young after the Moscow Academy of Sciences invited him to attend a September 2010 poetry and literature conference in the Russian Federation.

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“The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.”
— César Chávez (1927-1993)

left | Screen actor Ian Holm as Greenwich Village poet-bohemian Joe Gould in Stanley Tucci’s Joe Gould’s Secret (2000); right | Joe Gould himself

“In winter I’m a Buddhist;
In summer I’m a nudist.”
— Little Joe Gould (1891-1957)

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© Al Young

Aloe California [hybrid], 2010

© Al Young

Sweet Basil and beyond

© Al Young

Gini’s flower

© Al Young

Summerless young tomatoes

© Al Young

Ed and Helen’s “orchid time”

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© Maria Syndicus

Michael Young and Dad | Palo Alto, July 2010

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Lake Merritt by Al Young

above | Poet Joseph Lease photographed by Al Young
below | Al Young and Joseph Lease — who both teach in California College of the Arts’ MFA Writing Program, San Francisco — meet over coffee at Farley’s East near Lake Merritt, Oakland, August 2010 photographed by Solomon Pope

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© Al Young

Legendary Sons of Champlin guitarist Terry Haggerty and vocalist Danielle Thys perform “Ten Cents a Dance” with the Randy Craig Trio + One at Caffè Trieste, Berkeley, CA

© Robin Haight

Facebook pals Danielle Thys and Al meet face to face in real-time for the first time at Caffè Trieste.

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© Safi wa Nairobi

Writers Marvin X, Tennessee Reed, Conyus, and Al Young | Koret Auditorium, San Francisco, July 2010

Al Young

Following an onstage conversation with producer Justin Desmangles at the San Francisco Library’s Koret Auditorium, the tireless Ishmael Reed signs copies of Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media; just published in Montréal, Québec by Baraka Books.

© Tennessee Reed

(L-R) Painters Dewey Crumpler and Arthur Monroe; writers Ishmael Reed, Conyus, Marvin X, Al Young

Al Young

Poet Conyus and broadcast journalist, producer and visual artist Safi wa Nairobi

Al Young

Safi wa Nairobi and master painter Arthur Monroe at El Zócalo, Bernal Heights, San Francisco

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Al Young

Photo courtesy La Note Restaurant

For their annual get-together, Al poses again with two luminous former students he taught at UC Santa Cruz and San José State University respectively: Persis Karim (left) and Kate Evans (right), the both of them now prolific writers and treasured professors at San José State.

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Clickable

Photo: Terry Ehret

Al Young delivers Kenneth Rexroth’s “Time Spirals” and his own “For Kenneth and Miriam Patchen” at Diesel Books, Oakland, to celebrate publication of The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press) | July 2010

Photo: Sharon Coleman

Writers Ellen Weiss and Jackie Huss Hallerberg suspend their bookstore conversation with Al to huddle for a shot.

© Al Young

Host Richard Silberg of Poetry Flash and editor-writing teacher Sharon Coleman stare into Al’s friendly lens while poet Jackie Huss Hallerberg politely steps aside.

Richard Silberg reads his poem “Sunset” at Diesel Books, 11 July 2010

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Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute 2010

© Al Young

Sun rising over Lake Altus-Lugert at Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma

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Photo © Jill Enfield

OSAI [Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute] Creative Writing Class 2010

Front row, L-R ~ Alison Liu, Kathy Zhou, Katie Duncan, Brooke Bolding, Erin Miller

Second row ~

Mary Alexa Woodard (bending), Renae Perry, Hannah Erb, Kailee Bird West

Back row ~

Al Young, Arthur Dixon, Elizabeth Sholar, Olivia Leigh Branscum, Claire Winfrey, Ross Haley, Margaux Griffith

The 2010 OSAI writing workshop in action at Beverly Badger Memorial Library, where poems and prose-poems were composed on the spot. Student laptops were rigged to block internet access.

Workshop photos © Brooke Bolding

OSAI summer workshop student Elizabeth Sholar test-reads one poem out loud.

Photos: Connor Choates

Two versions of how to look preternaturally cool (or altogether vanish) in 100°F heat on a typical June afternoon at Oklahoma’s Quartz Mountain.

Front row, L-R ~ Alison Liu, Erin Miller, Kathy Zhou, Katie Duncan, Renae Perry

Second row ~ Kailee Bird West, Hannah Erb (leaning), Al Young, Olivia Branscum

Far back row ~ Ross Haley, Claire Winfrey, Mary Alexa Woodard, Elizabeth Sholar, Arthur Dixon

© Mary Woodard

Photo: PC Mack

During a much-needed workshop excursion by bus to nearby Mangum, Oklahoma, Al Young and Creative Writing liaison Margaux Griffith relax outside the Old Greer County Museum & Hall of Fame.

Courtesy Old Greer County Museum & Hall of Fame

Coming across a stash of American flags as the class explores Mangum’s long abandoned Franklin Hotel, Hannah Erb, Kailee Bird West and Margaux Griffith note Oklahoma’s devoted patriotism.

Kathy Zhou and Katie Duncan (below) are off to look at Mangum while Hannah Erb, Olivia Branscum, and the rest of us look around the ruined hotel.

Photos: Al Young

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(top) Trombone instructor Wesley Broadnax, PR assistant Joy Kotey, Al
(bottom) Acting instructor Vincent Dowling, Ballet instructor Giana Jigarhan, Al

Photo: O.O. Gabugah

Al Young in after-hours party mode

Al Young

Violin instructor Misha Galagnov, French horn instructor Charles Gavin, trombonist Wesley Broadnax, Orchestra instructor Chrisian Knapp, Choral liaison Christine Hrubik, Modern Dance liaison Kristie Schaffner, Creative Writing liaison Margaux Griffith — snapped at the close of a morning staff meeting at Sunset Café.

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Page under construction  

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“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

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© 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.”

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

— Gary Gach

The Buddhist Channel

palms joined

_/|\_

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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.

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page in progress

more photos to follow

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© AlYoung.Org

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Photo: Ray Black

L-R: Poets Camille Dungy, Robert Chrisman, Jayne Cortez, Al Young, Melba Joyce Boyd, Conyus, Arthur Sheridan, and (seated) Adam David Miller — following the 40th anniversary celebration reading for The Black Scholar Journal at the University of California, Berkeley ~ November 2009

© James Kenyon

On a 13-degree Fahrenheit night, poet-playwright Bill Harris and popular poet and arts activist Terry Blackhawk talk weather and shop while the audience gathers at Detroit’s restful, beautiful Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center in December, 2009.

© James Kenyon

Meanwhile, Al Young and a jetlagged Melba Boyd — just back from a teaching stay in Shanghai and visit to San Francisco — complete some unfinished business before the show (A Night of Poetry, Jazz and Blues in Detroit’s Historic Paradise Valley) begins.

© James Kenyon         

The gig begins with Melba Boyd — Detroit born and bred — reading and reciting a suite of exciting home-triggered poems layered with blues-tinged helpings of master bassist Marion Hayden‘s joy.

© James Kenyon        

Populist poet and master of ceremonies M.L. Liebler greets renowned guitarist-poet Ron English who, with Marion Hayden, will collaborate with Al Young, now poised to kick off his set.

© James Kenyon

Nata Morozova, the videographer focusing here on saxophonist Faruq Z. Bey, journeyed to Detroit all the way from Siberia, where Bey — as a member of M.L. Liebler’s Magic Poetry Band — has often performed.

© James Kenyon

After Al Young opens with “The Art of Benny Carter,” his brief poetic tribute to the humanizing majesty of jazz, Ron and Marion slip eloquently into Carter’s classic ballad, “When Lights Are Low.”

© James Kenyon

Like all true artists who work with sound and song, Bill Harris listens as thoughtfully as he speaks or sets pen to paper — or fingers to keyboard.

© James Kenyon

Bill Harris reads from Birth of a Notion; Or, The Half Ain’t Never Been Told, forthcoming from Wayne State University Press.

© James Kenyon

Melba Boyd and Faruq Z. Bey in rapt response to the poetry Bill Harris is voicing.

© Vivian Torrence

December paints North Carolina

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SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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Go to the ·:[ Stephen Vincent ]:· original
[Pix & Texts, Poetry, Commentary, Politics, etc.]

© 2009 Stephen Vincent

Homeless Blankets

In and Around Dolores Park, San Francisco —
A Photo Essay

“A photo essay on homeless blankets in and around Dolores Park, San Francisco. A project I have been with a few years. Photos, my way of exploring human imprint when the language comes up way short. A poetry without words but a poetry, nevertheless.”
— Stephen Vincent

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All photographs © 2009 by Stephen Vincent and subject to copyright restrictions. Reproduced with the permission of Stephen Vincent.

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Stephen Vincent — walker, blogger, poet & artist — lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Walking Theory, a book of poems

available from

www.junctionpress.com

Other recent works by Stephen Vincent include the ebooks Sleeping With Sappho (faux press) and Triggers (Shearsman).

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Who are you that you prompt such ready poetry,
your hands at my back in a hug already famous?
Kiss the butter from my lips, October. Toast us.
– Al Young,
“Like Butter”
from Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons
(Poems 2001-2006)

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© Kent & Cindy Crockett

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Photo-collage © AlYoung.org

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The samba chorus line for Chino Espinoza y Los Dueños del Son (salsa, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban) jump-kicks Sunday into action on the Latin Stage at the Art & Soul Festival in Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 2009. | Photo: Al Young

A vacationing Luciano Federighi — eminent scholar of African American culture and longtime translator of Al Young’s books in Italy — enjoys a Blues Stage afternoon at Oakland’s Art & Soul with Al. Seated directly behind them: Valeria Federighi, Luciano and Rita’s songster-architect daughter, and her boyfriend Walter Patella.  | © Rita Federighi

Another POV  |  Photo: PC Mack

© Walter Patella

Valeria Federighi, Al Young, Rita Federighi, Luciano Federighi at the entrance to the Cathedral of Christ the Light by Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

The portion of Puget Sound that Al faced when he stepped out onto his deck at Cascade Harbor Inn on Orcas Island off the coast of Seattle. | Al Young

(L-R) Jody Gladding, Matthew Goodman, Ellen Lesser, Deb Lund,
Al Young, Barbara Lewis, Diane Lefer, Rik Nelson, Nance Van Winckel, Brian Lewis — and way in the background at piano onstage: Ron Myers
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AlYoung.org thanks the savvy, practiced waitress who herded the Orcas Island Writers Festival faculty and staff into position to capture this mellow after-dinner moment at the popular Ecotopian Restaurant & Theater.

© Susan Slapin

THE BIG READ

To demonstrate the call-and-response dynamic of African American cultural tradition, Al Young preaches James Weldon Johnson‘s sermon-poem, The Creation, urging the audience to respond aloud to the sounded text. This was a way of getting readers of Zora Neale Hurston‘s celebrated novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to experience one of countless ways in which the oral and the aural intertwine, which is where community begins.

© Susan Slapin

As seductive a flautist as he is a pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist, Martin Lund beguiles a foot-tapping Al and the Saturday night Orcas Island Writers Festival audience. After meeting for the first time and 15 minutes of rehearsal, the two artists delivered a stirring 90-minute show of poetry, jazz and song.

© Susan Slapin

Floating on the charged sea-clouds of Martin Lund’s piano, Al, adrift in song, reminds the hushed crowd and himself that the moment alone exists, and that there can be no such place as “away.” To Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein’s “All the Things You Are” he and Martin storm heaven.

© Craig Strang

“How lucky can I be to have this beautiful man as my friend!” poet-anthologist Persis Karim writes in her Facebook album, Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn. Her husband Craig captured this shot in the post-equinox light of a September morning in their Berkeley backyard. Al was Persis’ teacher in Community Studies in the 1980s at UC Santa Cruz. Both writers have become passionate tomato gardeners.
[Persis Karim at FORA.tv]

© Al Young

Bananas, tomatoes: unbeatable beauty

© Susan Slapin

“A note from Madroña Land … ” (Orcas Island, WA |  October 2009)

© Sally Walker

Al Young with poet and kora player Kurt Lamkin in performance at Ashley Hall (Charleston, SC), where they were featured October 5 in the 100-year-old girl preparatory school’s Guest Writers Program.

Poet and world traveler Kurt Lamkin, playing the 21-string West African kora, holds a student and faculty audience rapt as he recites and sings his poetry in Recital Hall at Charleston’s stately Ashley Hall.   |   Al Young

©  Barbara Allega

Al Young with Nick Bozanic, poet and Dean of Faculty, on a rainy Monday morning at Ashley Hall, South Carolina’s only all-girl college preparatory school, now celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Al Young

Backed by the compelling shrine of an office bulletin board, poet Nick Bozanic, Ashley Hall’s Dean of Faculty, reflects on his wife and sons and his student days and teaching life in Europe and Hawai’i.

PC Mack         

Captive in flight, Al makes the most of a storm-plagued journey from Charleston to Jackson, Mississippi.

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© Al Young

The Fairview Inn, where Al Young will stay and join fellow novelists Clyde Edgerton and Alice Elliott Dark for two days of panels, talks and readings for Mississippi high school students bussed statewide to the Millsaps College campus for the ongoing Eudora Welty Centennial Celebration.

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Al Young

Alexandra Franklin, a Jackson Prep junior — 2009 winner of the national gold key and American Voices Award as well as the Scholastic Art and Writing Award — reads her short short story, “The Rites of Spring” to kindred high schoolers and other visitors to Millsaps College.

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Al Young

Al Young

Millsaps honors graduate Katie Hamm, who currently manages the Visitors Center for Eudora Welty House.

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Al Young took this flashless shot of Eudora Welty reading “Why I Live at the P.O.,” her celebrated short story, during a screening of the rarely viewed 1975 PBS documentary at the Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall at Millsaps College, Jackson, MS

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Al Young

Mike Craver and Clyde Edgerton in their brilliant two-man performance of The Bible Salesman, Edgerton’s latest novel whose naive title character hires himself out to an itinerant car thief.

(L-R) Novelist Clyde Edgerton, Welty biographer Suzanne Marrs, Al Young, filmmaker and Welty Foundation head Jeanne Luckett, and novelist Alice Elliott Dark (Jackson, MS, October 2009)   © C.B. Carroll

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© Kara Wright

Michael Young with Johnny Echols at Spaceland, L.A., November 2009. “There was a Love reunion show with original guitarist Johnny Echols,” Michael writes, “and the later incarnation of the band that Arthur Lee toured with before he passed. They were smokin’!” Photographer Kara Wright adds: “What a memorable night.”

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