May 16, 2012|By Reed Johnson and Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

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File Photo

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Carlos Fuentes, Mexican Man of Letters, Dies at 83 | Anthony DePalma | May 15, 2012

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Muere Carlos Fuentes

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A PERSONAL AlYoung.org ASIDE

Whatever Carlos Fuentes wrote I gobbled up with ever-growing admiration and respect. Multilingual, the son of a diplomat, Fuentes had to decide whether he would write in English or Spanish. He chose Spanish. I loved those TV moments when Fuentes responded to his prejudiced Yankee political assailants in crisp, accentless, idiomatic American. He was a tireless fighter and spokesman for social justice, who respected and stuck up for the underdog, and who never sold out to anyone for anything.

In the late 1960s, when I was just beginning to publish, one bilingual venue friendly to writers in Spanish or English was El Corno Emplumado (The Plumed Horn), which billed itself as “A Magazine from Mexico City.” Co-edited by American-born Margaret Randall and Sergio Mondragón, her Mexican husband, El Corno with its global and culturally diverse perspective, was as exciting to read as it was unpredictable. I took pride in having my stuff come out alongside the work of such writers as Ernesto Cardenal, Philip Lamantia, Pablo Neruda, Diane Wakoski, Octavio Paz, Carol Bergé, Cid Corman, Raquel Jodorowsky, Robert Creeley, Carlos Pellicer, Denise Levertov, Dan Georgakas interviewing James Baldwin, and Carlos Fuentes. The list still staggers.

So when novelist-essayist-screenwriter Cecil Brown relocated from California to Paris in the late Sixties, one of the writers in his expatriate circle was Carlos Fuentes. When my name came up for discussion one night, Fuentes told Cecil: “Oh, yes, I know Al Young, he’s a good young writer.” It shocked and thrilled me to hear this from Cecil. Only in the pages of El Corno did Carlos Fuentes and I ever meet. Still, I loved him for acting as if he really did know me and my work. The stories we tell ourselves and one another! The great Carlos Fuentes was truly a master.

–Al Young

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© Ricardo Gutierrez | El País (Madrid)

Muere a los 83 años el escritor Carlos Fuentes

15 de mayo de 2012

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LATE-BREAKING UPDATE | May 16, 2012

Mississippi’s Kristen Dupard Wins 2012 Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest

National Endowment for the Arts

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Excerpted from “Poetry Out Loud gets high schoolers excited about verse,” by Alison Lobron

Go to the copyrighted original at Boston Globe Magazine, Sunday, May 13, 2012

David S Marshall

Stephanie Igharosa: Massachusetts 2012 finalist for Poetry Out Loud, a National Poetry Recitation Competition

FRAGMENT

… In the final round, all six students deliver strong performances, but one in particular has an added oomph: Stephanie Igharosa, of Randolph High School, recites Al Young’s “The Blues Don’t Change,” and as she finishes, she sweeps one arm downward in a gesture of triumph. “Thank you!” she cries into the microphone, as if she knows she’s nailed it.

And she has. Stephanie, a cross-country runner, Model UN enthusiast, and native of Nigeria, is the new Massachusetts Poetry Out Loud champion. As a freshman, she is also a first-time participant in the contest. Like her fellow Randolph resident Wilmene Hercule in 2009, or Michaela Murray last year, she faces none of the pressure of a repeat performance. As the 14-year-old stands onstage, with a crown of leaves on her head, she smiles and blinks back tears.

… In Washington, Stephanie will recite the same three poems that she did in the state finals: “Richard Cory,” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, “The Man With the Hoe,” by Edwin Markham, and “The Blues Don’t Change,” by Al Young. Her favorite is the Markham poem. “It was the one I really had to try to understand,” she says. “It was the most challenging to memorize.”

“I love challenges,” she adds.

© 2012 Boston Globe and Alison Lobron

For more about click here

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Related posts

Ashly Brun performs Al Young’s “The Blues Don’t Change” at the Massachusetts Poetry Out Loud state finals (March 28, 2012)

Sophomore (Lily Hargis at Richmond, VA’s Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies) wins Poetry Out Loud contest (February 20, 2012)

Saul Williams reads Al Young’s “The Blues Don’t Change” at PoemsEveryDay (February 24, 2010)

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]]> http://alyoung.org/2012/05/15/poetry-out-loud-gets-high-schoolers-excited-about-verse-boston-globe-magazine/feed/ 0 http://alyoung.org/2012/05/12/first-anniversary-sf-peace-and-hope-reading-sacred-grounds-cafe-june-6-730pm/ http://alyoung.org/2012/05/12/first-anniversary-sf-peace-and-hope-reading-sacred-grounds-cafe-june-6-730pm/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 02:07:05 +0000 Al http://alyoung.org/?p=31473 __________________________________________________________

Welcome to San Francisco Peace and Hope, a literary journal devoted to poetry and visual art.

First Anniversary Poetry Reading for
San Francisco Peace & Hope

Open mic followed by featured readers

“Sign-up for the open mic begins at 7pm. The open mic begins as soon as that is over and a few announcements are made. So we are usually underway by 7:10 or 7:15. The feature usually goes on about an hour later.”
– Poet-host DAN BRADY

Sacred Grounds Café
7:00pm
2095 Hayes Street at Cole
SF 94117-1127
415.387.3859
map

Painter Elizabeth Hack, founding director and editor of
SAN FRANCISCO PEACE AND HOPE

_____________________________________________

featured readers

Café Cam

Al Young

Niya C. Sisk

|

Dan Brady | Marvin Hiemstra | Tanya Joyce
Kit Kennedy | Ken Saffran

San Francisco Peace and Hope is proud to announce a poetry reading celebrating the first anniversary of its magazine debut in San Francisco on June 6, 2012, featuring readings by AL YOUNG, , poet-host DAN BRADY, MARVIN HIEMSTRA, TANYA JOYCE, KIT KENNEDY, and KEN SAFFRAN. Founding editor ELIZABETH HACK and creative director NIYA C. SISK will comment on the evolution of SF Peace and Hope, and where the exciting online journal now stands.

Informed by the idealism of the 1960s, San Francisco Peace and Hope is a continuing labor of love produced by the poets and visual artists of the Bay Area. For the new edition — which launches Ftriday, May 18, 2012 — advisor Al Young, California’s former poet laureate, has updated his One Two-Step Foreword. Writer and web designer Niya C. Sisk of Ritual Labs and Niya’s Place, has freshened the journal’s cool look.

Contact: Elizabeth Hack, Founder/Editor
Email: sfpeaceandhope@gmail.com
Website: sfpeaceandhope.com

Sacred Grounds Café | 415.387.3859

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Photo: Kindness of Strangers

In the flickering December light of 2010, following a late Rockridge luncheon devoted to SF Peace and Hope’s launch, Elizabeth Hack, Niya C. Sisk, and Al Young smile for their savvy waitress.

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]]> http://alyoung.org/2012/05/12/first-anniversary-sf-peace-and-hope-reading-sacred-grounds-cafe-june-6-730pm/feed/ 0 http://alyoung.org/2012/05/11/extremely-silly-photos-of-extremely-serious-writers-flavorwire-com/ http://alyoung.org/2012/05/11/extremely-silly-photos-of-extremely-serious-writers-flavorwire-com/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 22:00:15 +0000 Al http://alyoung.org/?p=31405

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© Prentiss Taylor

Prentiss Taylor’s 1935 photo of Zora Neale Hurston performing the crow dance. | Courtesy of Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

• View Susan Sontag, Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway and the rest of Emily Temple’s silly photo finds — 15 in all — at Flavorwire’s winsome Books section

Other Emily Temple posts at Flavorwire

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“Jon Faddis is a complete and consummate musician – conductor, composer, and educator. Marked by both intense integrity and humor, Faddis earned accolades from his close friend and mentor John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, who declared of Faddis, “He’s the best ever, including me!” As a trumpeter, Faddis possesses a virtually unparalleled range and full command of his instrument, making the practically impossible seem effortless.”
– Ed Keane

JON FADDIS

The Majesty of the Trumpet
Stanford Jazz Orchestra
Director: Fredrick Berry

Dinkelspiel Auditorium

Wednesday, May 16 at 8pm

Co-sponsored by the Stanford University Department of Music and ASSU

TICKETS | General $10 | Seniors $9 | Students $5 | Stanford Students with SUID free

STANFORD TICKET OFFICE: tickets.stanford.edu

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Jon Faddis Interview (Jazz Ascona 2011)

Born in Oakland, CA, on July 24, 1953, Jon Faddis began playing trumpet at age eight, inspired by an appearance of Louis Armstrong on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Three years later, his trumpet teacher Bill Catalano, an alumnus of the Stan Kenton band, turned the jazz- struck youngster on to Dizzy Gillespie. By his mid-teens, Jon had not only met Dizzy, he’d even sat in with his hero’s combo at the famed Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.

Upon graduating high school in 1971, Jon joined Lionel Hampton’s band as a featured soloist and moved to New York. That same year, responding to an invitation from Mel Lewis to drop by the Village Vanguard whenever he got to New York, Jon sat in with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band on one of their regular Monday night sessions. That sit-in turned into four years of Monday nights playing with the band, as well as a tour of the Soviet Union with the highly acclaimed unit. Jon also toured with Charles Mingus and recorded on the Pablo label with Dizzy and Oscar Peterson.

Other highlights included filling in (at age of 18) for an ailing Roy Eldridge in an all-star concert led by Charles Mingus at New York’s Philharmonic Hall; a Carnegie Hall gig with Sarah Vaughan; two years in attendance at the Dick Gibson~s Annual Colorado Jazz Party where he was featured in a historic duet with Eubie Blake; performances with Gil Evans’ and Count Basie’s big bands; appearances at Radio City Music Hall and festivals here and abroad; and sitting in with Dizzy whenever possible.

In light of these accomplishments — his recognition in the jazz polls, myriad accolades from the critical press, burgeoning numbers of international fans, heady praise from the likes of Diz, Mingus and Mel Lewis, and the pressure of public life — is it any wonder that a (then) 20-year old Jon Faddis opted for the sequestered life of the studio musician?

However, those studio years ultimately proved significant in his artistic development. Exposure to a diverse spectrum of music helped shape him into the broad-based interpreter and (creator in) African-American idioms that he is today. Jon’s distinctive trumpet voice would be heard on albums by performers as disparate as Duke Ellington, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Kool and the Gang, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel and Stanley Clarke, to name a few. His horn was heard on the theme of “The Cosby Show,” on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s films “The Gauntlet” and “Bird,” and on many commercials. Jon Faddis had become one of the most in-demand session musicians in New York.

– Jazz Studies, University of Pittsburgh

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]]> http://alyoung.org/2012/05/10/jon-faddis-the-majesty-of-the-trumpet-stanford-jazz-orchestra-may-16-2012/feed/ 0 http://alyoung.org/2012/05/08/in-memory-of-jimmy-lynn-1924-2011/ http://alyoung.org/2012/05/08/in-memory-of-jimmy-lynn-1924-2011/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 06:52:42 +0000 Al http://alyoung.org/?p=31292 __________________________________________________

Al Young

Jimmy at home in 2006

Al Young

Mountain View Cemetery, Piedmont, CA

Sandy Simon

Jimmy Lynn (James Curl Lynn), a friend of Al Young, is interred in a crypt beside his mother’s at Mountain View Cemetery in Piedmont, California. An only child, Jimmy took care of Rachel Fuller, his schoolteacher mother — at first on Long Island, then in Oakland — for her last 12 years.

Al Young and Jimmy Lynn at the popular Berkeley Bowl in the summer of 2005.

__________________________________________________

THE HOUSE ON DANA STREET

(from Med Café Stories)

He, the new young man never knew
what to make of Jimmy Lynn’s house
on Dana Street in Berkeley,
writers coming and going, mostly blacks,
talking revolution never tired of
talking about what it was all about
being black
what the whites did to the blacks.
We got those college degrees, yeah!
Some writing movie scripts, some
writing poetry, some doing it all,
Al Young sitting late night on a stool
at the kitchen counter, paying respect
to his older friend,     Al was relaxed,
while Jimmy was in motion,
Al listening to Jimmy telling it like it is.
Listening closely to Jimmy’s paranoia
which as it turned out,
we said one by one, “it wasn’t paranoia,
it was hieroglyphics on the wall.”
World politics vindicated Jimmy.

At Jimmy’s house, some writing novels,
some writing plays, Big Herb
Handsome, devilish, and trailing a
King’s robe behind him.
“Won’t you come in and have a cup of tea
I’ll tell you about my play,
The Day of the Nigger.
Let me explain the storyline, it’s the
day all the white people are killed
except, of course, some women.”
He grinned.
Jimmy, an intellectual who supported his art life
working on the docks,
gave free room and board to one young man,
“until you get a place,” he said.
The new border, light-skinned, ethereal, smiled
dreamily;  was he listening?  to urgent discussions in
this Parisian Left Bank on Dana?
While they talked revolution, the young man’s soul
whispered dreamily,     “Lena Horne   Lena Horne”
He was inside his own song and sweetly melancholic
as if he knew then he would later die young.

When I met him, he was floating, flute in hand
into the Med Café, speaking in rhyme, keeping time.
Some thought it odd but all thought him beautiful, with
sea green eyes and gold skin.
I couldn’t understand his words but sat with him
xxupstairs
where the blacks sat at the Med if not at Robbie’s.
The new boarder dreamily wafted in and out
of the Dana Street flat, like a mirage,
like a collage on the wall,
to be viewed or ignored by writers, musicians, artists,
smoking pot, making movies, talking about Camus as if
the subject was inexhaustible.
Jimmy let him stay there, saying wistfully,
“I just wish the young man would pick up his socks
and underwear from the floor.”
“But he’s so beautiful,” I said.
The young man overhearing, smiled sadly,
“Yes, of course, I am beautiful.
My mother is LENA HORNE!”

– JESSE BEAGLE
from Poetry In Jazz: Selected Writings 1987-2011
(Beatitude Press | Berkeley, CA)

© 2011 Jesse Beagle

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]]> http://alyoung.org/2012/05/08/in-memory-of-jimmy-lynn-1924-2011/feed/ 1 http://alyoung.org/2012/05/05/a-may-to-warm-the-borderlands/ http://alyoung.org/2012/05/05/a-may-to-warm-the-borderlands/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 07:48:07 +0000 Al http://alyoung.org/?p=31252 _____________________________________________________

Download audio MP3

Joseph Robinson

Al Young’s monthly poem at KQED’s ‘The California Report’

ADVISORY | The texts of poems posted at KQED’s link may not always reflect purposeful line breaks

A MAY TO WARM THE BORDERLANDS

When May warms up our borderlands, Oregon oozes
Shakespeare. Arizona, México, Nevada — they smile,
re-chill, then heat back up all funny. The miles you jog
in El Cajón won’t feel the same in Truckee, El Centro,
Nevada City, Douglas City, Culver City, Lodi, or Taft.

High on May, California travelers, all stone, petrified,
just come down from races up hills and races up
mountains — 880, 680, 580, 280, 101, I-5, all One –
dig into California’s DNA and clink! Hey! May!
Broken out in code and sequences, present-day May

speaks up, shouts out, says: “Look deep, reach far
into my vacillating light. Feel my Gold Rush heat
and whorl. Forget about a merry month, sipped wine.
May knows far more than one hot mind can store.
Consider May in brisk Bodega Bay, or borderline L.A.”

– Al Young

©2012

• Where to find ‘The California Report’

_____________________________________________________

” … The moon, the whole moon, and nothing but the moon.”
– Al Young
from 22 Moon Poems | Heaven: Collected Poems 1956-1990

_____________________________________________________

Full moon poems

© fullmoon.com

FullMoon.com

Everything you wish or need to know about full moons past, present and future.

Never miss another full moon.

© fullmoon.com

__________________________________________________________

Go to the original at Zócalo Public Square

When Killers Target Kids

The Science of Empathy Grapples with the Unthinkable

Photo: Abode of Chaos

by Simon Baron-Cohen

On July 22, 2011, 33-year-old Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people, most of them teenagers, on the island of Utøya in Norway. On March 19, 2012, 23-year-old Mohammed Merah shot and killed a teacher and three young children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.

Both killers targeted children, which makes the crimes especially shocking …

READ MORE

___________________________________________

Courtesy photo

KILLER DRONE

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

___________________________________________

178 pages
$9.00 USD
ISBN: 978-0-9815047-7-3

Cover design: Jessica & Doug Rees | Cover photo: Paul Goettlich

THE HOUSE ON DANA STREET

(from “Med Café Stories”)

He, the new young man never knew
what to make of Jimmy Lynn’s house
on Dana Street in Berkeley,
writers coming and going, mostly blacks,
talking revolution never tired of
talking about what it was all about
being black
what the whites did to the blacks.
We got those college degrees, yeah!
Some writing movie scripts, some
writing poetry, some doing it all,
Al Young sitting late night on a stool
at the kitchen counter, paying respect
to his older friend,     Al was relaxed,
while Jimmy was in motion,
Al listening to Jimmy telling it like it is.
Listening closely to Jimmy’s paranoia
which as it turned out,
we said one by one, “it wasn’t paranoia,
it was hieroglyphics on the wall.”
World politics vindicated Jimmy.

At Jimmy’s house, some writing novels,
some writing plays, Big Herb
Handsome, devilish, and trailing a
King’s robe behind him.
“Won’t you come in and have a cup of tea
I’ll tell you about my play.
The Day of the Nigger
let me explain the storyline, it’s the
day all the white people are killed
except, of course, some women.”
He grinned.
Jimmy, an intellectual who supported his art life
working on the docks,
gave free room and board to one young man,
“until you get a place,” he said.
The new border, light-skinned, ethereal, smiled
dreamily;  was he listening?  to urgent discussions in
this Parisian Left Bank on Dana?
While they talked revolution, the young man’s soul
whispered dreamily,     “Lena Horne   Lena Horne”
He was inside his own song and sweetly melancholic
as if he knew then he would later die young.

When I met him, he was floating, flute in hand
into the Med Café, speaking in rhyme, keeping time.
Some thought it odd but all thought him beautiful, with
sea green eyes and gold skin.
I couldn’t understand his words but sat with him
xxupstairs
where the blacks sat at the Med if not at Robbie’s.
The new boarder dreamily wafted in and out
of the Dana Street flat, like a mirage,
like a collage on the wall,
to be viewed or ignored by writers, musicians, artists,
smoking pot, making movies, talking about Camus as if
the subject was inexhaustible.
Jimmy let him stay there, saying wistfully,
“I just wish the young man would pick up his socks
and underwear from the floor.”
“But he’s so beautiful,” I said.
The young man overhearing, smiled sadly,
“Yes, of course, I am beautiful.
My mother is LENA HORNE!”

© 2011 Dorothy Jesse Beagle

Jesse Beagle, San Francisco, 1987 (National Poetry Week at Fort Mason)

1731 Tenth Street
Suite A
Berkeley, CA  94710
U.S.A.
510.528.8713
http://beatitudepress.net

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