Denise Sullivan

Author, Arts & Cultural Reporter and Worker

March 22, 2025 • 5:09 pm 0

Karen Finley: All the rage

Karen Finley is no stranger to the culture wars: A 1990 Supreme Court case – National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley – ruled that she and her fellow performance artists, the NEA Four, could have their grant money withheld from the federally funded arts program, though the artists’ freedom of expression could not be overturned or legislated.

Once again, the arts in the United States are under attack: The far right has infected all three branches of government and its ostensible separation of powers that relies on a system of checks and balances to function. The current dysfunction, the dangerous clowning around, the trolling on life and death issues and false accusations of “wasteful spending” while wastefully spending are not just a sideshow, they are the main event. As the world burns and the economy is in trouble, the mad obsession to dismantle the resources and guardrails related to not only all life but the arts, diversity, equity and inclusion impacts us all, no matter if you enjoy conceptual art or whether you care to take a stand on federally-funded projects and institutional grants.

“It’s a horrible time,” Finley told me when we spoke about her new book, Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco,” a meditative/healing rant on pandemics past and present.

“I’m very concerned and the concern is that the arts are related to so many different aspects of funding. It connects to books and libraries, healthcare and education.” Indeed, our library systems are under attack. The healthcare system is itself in perilous health and universities and the public education system are in process of becoming shadows of themselves — institutions of white lies and systemic oppression instead of enlightenment. These are but some of the ways attacks on arts and culture show up in our day to day, while the song, and the cost of eggs, remains the same.

“Not like I would ever be at the Kennedy Center,” said Finley, “But it was great to have, it was a symbol.”

When the the existing board of the Kennedy Center, historically a non-partisan institution, was sent into disarray by executive order and the selection committee dispersed, among the big ideas of the new self-appointed chairman was to honor baseballer Babe Ruth (sports achievements are not in the purview of the center’s awards), Elvis, and the musical, Cats. No way around it: The Spectacle is gonna spectacle.

Full profile of Finley in this Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Book news, , , , , ,

March 4, 2025 • 8:28 pm 0

Local Writers Make Good

It takes an extraordinary effort to write a book and see it through to completion. That might seem like an obvious and plain thing to say, but it’s true: Though many folks like to think they can do it or try to, fewer actually do. Perhaps that is why publication day and month is most always a big deal for writers: Congratulations cards, flowers and gifts are in order! Short of those things, I’ve got a couple of articles I wrote about two very different writers with two very different books celebrating mutual publication dates to share with you.

“Sexy Life, Hello!” is the first book for Michelle Kircherer. Her debut novella is also the premiere release of her independent publishing venture, Banana Pitch Press. Kicherer is an ambitious performer, writing coach and instructor and has a big vision for her multimedia venture, without any of the yuckiness associated with the big three publishing houses. She will be reading from her book and discussing it at Green Apple on the Park in San Francisco on March 6 and at Clio’s in Oakland on March 8. You can read more about Michelle in my profile of her for the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The Mansion” (Gnashing Teeth Publishing) is the tenth collection of poems by Dee Allen. A performance poet, Dee has been writing and performing his work in San Francisco, Oakland and beyond for over 20 years. I had the good fortune to first hear him read in 2012, or maybe it was 2013 — at any rate, that was several books ago for Dee. I try never to miss his publications and readings, but they are coming so fast and furious, I accidentally skipped 2024’s collection “Discovery.” It’s time to catch up and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing during a live-streamed conversation from Bird and Beckett Books and Records on Sunday March 9 at 10 a.m. A sneak preview of what’s likely to come up is in this profile for Bay City News, published today.

Congratulations to Michelle and Dee on their respective new publications. Though writing is its own reward, sometimes it helps to know there are those of us reading and appreciating the work, respecting what goes into the process and identifying with it. Thanks to this pair of authors for making our Bay Area literary community particularly unique, for making my job reporting on them easy, and for helping to keep the spirit of independent publishing alive in these unreal times.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Book news, Books, California, San Francisco News, , , , , , , , , ,

October 10, 2024 • 8:31 am 0

Litquake at 25

updated from a previous post on Litquake at 20

This week San Francisco’s literary festival, Litquake, celebrates 25 years of supporting writers, publishers, bookstores and the literary arts here in the Bay Area.

Running October 10-26, Litquake is the big event of the year for the Bay Area’s literary community. The mostly free readings and panels during Litquake and Litcrawl have become starting places for some of our writers and remain a testing and resting ground for those with more experience in need of a little recharge. These days, I mostly write about books, but when the festival rolls around, it’s a chance to remind myself, I too am a writer of books.

The festival’s co-founders, Jack Boulware and Jane Ganahl are my kind of people: Journalists and authors by trade, they dared to dream beyond the newsroom and share their love of the writing life with their immediate community. As their cohort of writers grew to include novelists, memoirists, biographers, sexperts, technologists and performance poets, the festival grew and grew, blossoming into its current incarnation as year round foundation and a 10+ day fest, culminating with an evening LItcrawl. Boulware and Ganahl have since stepped down as directors and as of this year, the organization welcomes its new director, Norah Piehl. Litquake is also powered by a small staff and tons of volunteers.

Though the years, I’ve been lucky to participate in the annual festival as a reader. Litquake has always been a place to try out new ideas and styles and as a writer I’ve test run biography, memoir and poetry, to get a feel for how the work sits with an audience of listeners. Litquake month has also served as a time of the year to create new work, to reset and reclaim one’s writing life, and affirm, that we are still readers and writers, no matter where the day or our lives may take us.

In more recent years, I’ve volunteer-organized and curated readings at Litquake in support of independent bookstores, particularly during San Francisco’s gentrification crisis. In 2014 we celebrated 55 years of Marcus Books. In 2015 and 2016, we honored the Mission District booksellers Modern Times Bookstore Collective, Alley Cat, Dog Eared and Adobe Books with standing-room-only events at the Make Out Room as fundraisers for Litquake and the grassroots United Booksellers (UBSF has since disbanded, but not before publishing a series of chapbooks, The City Is Already Speaking in collaboration with poet laureate Kim Shuck and featuring contributions by Tongo Eisen-Martin, Alejandro Murguía and other Bay Area poets). This year, the festival honors bookstores citywide at its opening night fundraiser, the Bookseller’s Ball. We are lucky to have so many bookstores here in San Francisco (my go-to is Bird & Beckett Books and Records). Despite digitization, the pandemic, extreme rent and operating costs (like insurance), San Francisco’s independent bookstores are strong and thriving.

It was at Bird and Beckett in 2019, that we hosted a full house for a comeback discussion with author David Talbot on Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke, which he survived in 2017 and lived to write about. Talbot, a longtime supporter of independent booksellers and up and coming authors, has since survived a second stroke. You may offer financial support to him and his family by linking here.

As a literary community, I like to think we are mindful of supporting authors in need, as well as our elder writers and readers. For the last five years, I’ve been associated with Litquake as a teaching artist with The Elder Project, a community writing program offered to older adults. Facilitating these groups, meeting writers and hearing their stories has been an unexpected source of inspiration. The program continues to grow and each season we welcome new writers at all levels of their practice. It’s a great joy and privilege to carry on the work, conceived by poet, Jessie Scrimager Galloway, with our participants and my fellow teaching artists.

I had hoped to return to this year’s festival to read from my new book, Len Chandler: Shadow Dream Chaser of Rainbows, along with some as yet unpublished work. Due to a conflict, I will not be reading as scheduled, though I hope to find an alternative venue to test drive the new writings. Stay tuned to this space for updates and until then, I will see you at the festival. As always, thanks for reading and for your support of this webpage.

Filed under: Book news, California, San Francisco News, , , , ,

September 3, 2024 • 8:32 am 0

“We’re Not Going Back”

Now that it’s September and the clouds here in San Francisco have cleared, I have some news to share: A new publication – the slim volume pictured above is on a new press – and it was made not only in memory of a movement hero, but in support of voting rights for all.

The story of Len Chandler is one of a path taken by chance. Among the  countless singers, students and teachers from coast to coast who sat in, stood up and rode freedom’s highway for the voting rights of their fellow Americans in the Jim Crow South, Chandler had an extraordinary knack for topical songwriting and an unwavering dedication to racial justice. From his home in Akron, to the heart of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Chandler was introduced in short order to humorist Hugh Romney  aka Wavy Gravy, poets Bob Kaufman and Langston Hughes, and folksingers Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan. Swiftly recruited by Pete Seeger to join the singing organizers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was sent to Arkansas to register voters.

“You have to take the lead from somewhere and there were only a few performers around who wrote songs, and of them, my favorite was Len Chandler,” said Dylan. Compiled from rare interviews with Chandler by the author, Denise Sullivan’s concise tribute, Shadow Dream Chaser of Rainbows, pays homage to an unsung folk hero and provides instruction and inspiration for artists and activists pushing for change in perilous times.

This project has been long in the making: It started nearly 20 years ago when I embarked on the research for Keep on Pushing. It was resurrected when I was invited by the Bob Dylan Center to contribute an essay to a proposed catalog, and it was completed with the creation of a small press, Lyon Editions. Your purchase of Len Chandler: Shadow Dream Chaser of Rainbows will not only support its makers, it will contribute toward supporting voting rights and poll watching organizers, specifically in Georgia.

Rest assured Chandler is missed this election season, but let’s vote in his memory and in the memory of Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who lost their lives in the name of civil rights. A vote for Kamala Harris will see to it that the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is passed, ending voter suppression in all its forms, once and for all.

Thank you to our friends at Bird and Beckett Books and Records for the proper launch on August 28 as we commemorated 61 years since the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and one year to the day of the passing of Chandler. Full book talk and discussion here. Purchase books here. Thank you.

Filed under: anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-war, Arts and Culture, Black Power,, Bob Dylan, Book news, Books, Civil Rights, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Folk, Georgia, Harry Belafonte, income disparity, Keep On Pushing, racism, , , ,

July 21, 2024 • 10:59 am 0

Some of us are prisoners, the rest of us are guards

Back when I wrote for the music press part time and worked at a small record label where it was also my job to answer the phone, I received a call from San Quentin. Immediately a recording played, stating the call was coming from a California correctional facility, though I was surprised to learn the call was for me. Though I did not know the person, he was seeking a member of the press to write about the sudden cessation of the prison’s writing program. He said it was imperative to get the word out so that some action could be taken to preserve the incarcerated population’s right to read. I listened to the plea, said I would do what little I could, and called a reporter, a friend of mine’s sister, who worked at the San Francisco Chronicle. I think the calls came a couple of more times, but there wasn’t much I could do. To my knowledge there was never a news story about conditions at the prison or its literacy programs. At the time, I didn’t realize there wasn’t any meaningful oversight of the state prison system and that “privileges” like food, exercise and activities were withheld at random, say, if a guard took a dislike to an incarcerated individual.

During the ’80s, the Reagan administration’s War on Drugs created the conditions that led to the over-incarceration we see today, particularly of Black and Latinx individuals. Scholars, like Michelle Alexander and Angela Davis among others, contend incarceration is a racist system of control that extends outside prison walls. There is plenty documented on the subject and I invite you to read more

Today there are over 2 million people living inside America’s prisons. According to the Sentencing Project, at the time I received the call from San Quentin, there were about 40,000 people in prison at the cost of approximately 6 billion dollars annually. Today the state spends over 60 billion on incarcerating its citizens. Two new books on the subject, mostly in the words of people who have done their time, suggest that prisons are a modern day form of slavery and that we abolish the prison nation.

I reviewed Reimagining The Revolution and Beneath The Mountain in this weekend’s San Francisco Chronicle Datebook.

 

When I received that phone call from San Quentin some years ago, I did not know that the prison population would increase by 500 percent over the next 40 years. Surely by now, most every American knows someone whose life or family has been impacted by the carceral system.

Writing and educational programs have been restored on and off in the California system, though mostly, they are off.

Over the years, I thought about that phone call, the lack of coverage of the prison system in the media, and lack of oversight behind prison walls. I became aware of the prison industrial complex — the relationship between businesses and institutions — as well as the basic human rights violations of incarcerated individuals, and corresponding mobilization efforts, inside and out, to raise awareness of the injustices and correct the abuses.

I am still learning about how we talk about the injustices of incarceration. Hearing stories from people who have lived the horror of America’s prisons seems to offer the most hope toward solutions. I recently viewed the documentary, The Strike, and learned more about the historic California State Prison hunger strike; I listen to Prison Radio, which broadcasts the voices of incarcerated, and look forward to the compact commentaries, often prophecies from Mumia Abu-Jamal. I read the San Francisco Bay View, one of the few publications that delivers firsthand coverage from incarcerated reporters; and I have spoken to San Franciscans who do what they can, using their time and talent to care for incarcerated loved ones and strangers.

Please take a moment today to consider the over 2 million Americans incarcerated. If interested, one action you can easily take is to support the Prison Literature Project: They send books to incarcerated individuals which is not as easy as it sounds — it’s a process and they are specialists. Thanks for reading today. Songs also contain information. Thanks for listening.

 

 

Filed under: Angela Davis, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-war, Arts and Culture, Black Power,, Bob Dylan, Book news, California, Malcolm X, Prison Justice, , , , ,

April 30, 2021 • 9:47 pm 0

Tongo Eisen-Martin: The revolution is live

Today April 30, marks the end of National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month. The bookend to my April 1 post on musician, poet, and literary artist Gil Scott-Heron is in tribute to Tongo Eisen-Martin, San Francisco’s newly appointed poet laureate, and a multidisciplinary artist in his own right. Eisen-Martin’s inaugural address and the reading he curated for the occasion was live-streamed on April 22 by the San Francisco Public Library in cooperation with local literary institutions, City Lights Books and Litquake. You can watch the entire 90 minute program here:

Please be patient as I am only just now realizing the how and why of Eisen-Martin’s standing as a natural torch-bearer for a modern style of poetry the likes of which Scott-Heron forged and the performing hip hop poets of the ’90s brought back into vogue: Both Eisen-Martin, like Scott-Heron, make substantive use of revolutionary rhetoric and their dead serious lived experience as Black men in America. While rooted in Black experience, the content expresses a profoundly deep love of and want for liberation of all oppressed peoples which leads with the dismantling of the structure of a capitalist society built on white supremacy, the one we historically and presently inhabit. That’s a lot for some folks, I know. There is also a spiritual core to the content that veers from the satirical to the surreal, all of it of a piece with its message.

Scott-Heron famously followed in the footsteps of his inspiration Langston Hughes, and Eisen-Martin has direct links to that lineage of jazz and blues poets: I’m not going to give away the hand, so if you’re interested you can dig around on your own and make the connections.

Though familiar as I am with Scott-Heron’s work, and in the several hours I’ve talked poetry and in the many more spent reading and listening to Eisen-Martin, Scott-Heron didn’t come up. Why? Well, Gil is the poet most often checked when people not-so-well-acquainted with poetry, Black poets, hip hop, Black music or Black Arts think of the first time they hear Eisen-Martin at work: I didn’t want to be that person, so I didn’t say so. Besides, that, I knew Eisen-Martin was more likely to name revolutionary, feminist, activist poet Audre Lorde, as someone he’d read widely and revered; that he’d studied with scholar Manning Marable, who’s written extensively on Malcolm X, and that he has appreciation for a spectrum of music, from Handy to Hendrix. But anyone who’s a regular at Eisen-Martin’s virtual readings will have noticed the image tacked to wall of his Zoom background: A picture of Scott-Heron, preaching to thousands.

For his inaugural event, friends, family, fans and San Francisco poet laureates emeritas Janice Mirikitani, devorah major and Kim Shuck were in attendance as Eisen-Martin passed the virtual mic to a cast of extraordinary poets, their work helping to give him his start and sustain him: They were, in no particular order here, his brother, Biko Eisen-Martin; early supporter, Marc Bamuthi Joseph; running mates during his New York years, Jive Poetic, Anthony Morales and Mahogany L. Browne, and the local network upon his Bay Area return: poet Joyce Lee, community organizer Uncle Damien and Alie Jones, co-founder of his newly established independent publishing house, Black Freighter Press. All contributed to making the poet and his inaugural event unprecedented in its power and presence. The humility of Eisen-Martin, and all of the poets, their collective ability to be attentive to each other’s work as they prepared to respond then perform their own considerable pieces without any interruption to their respective flows was part of the revelation. The intensely personal and political content was extraordinary, alive with excellence, contributing to the livestream’s immediacy, prescience and what will be its staying power: It was epic, in all respects. These poets of the Bay Area and beyond are the voices of the here and now, speaking to our precarious times, to neverending police violence and murder of Black people, and the everlasting oppression of indigenous people, women and the environment – matters that impact all people – delivered through Black (and Brown) lenses.

I hope readers of this space will set aside time to listen to the 90 necessary and critical minutes archived here, so that you may see and hear what we are doing here in San Francisco under Eisen-Martin’s steady guidance. “It’s the best decision this country ever made,” said Mahogany L. Browne of Mayor London Breed’s appointment of Eisen-Martin. “You’re a soul survivor – you are the best of us,” said brother Biko Eisen-Martin. ”Tongo might be the greatest poet of our generation but he’s a very, very good man,” said Marc Bamuthi Joseph in an introduction that also served as a lead up to a piece in which he conjured the life, slow death and words of Gil Scott-Heron.

And so the month ends where we began it: The revolution is in good hands.

Filed under: anti-capitalist, anti-war, Arts and Culture, Black Power,, Book news, Poetry, video, , ,

August 19, 2020 • 9:14 am 0

How to support small presses, indie films and theaters during the pandemic

Notes, Contacts, Name CQ's here

Liam Curley, warehouse manager at the Small Press Distribution, Berkeley, CA. During the high season of the pandemic’s shelter-in-place orders, it was lonely in SPD’s warehouse where Curley worked by himself, receiving and shipping orders by hand at a fraction of his usual pace.(Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle)

During the early phase of the coronavirus shutdown, small publishers and the Northern California distributor that ships those books to market were doing all right, operating with scaled down staffs and shipping customer orders direct. But as the fall publishing season approaches, with no end to the virus in sight, the closures indefinite, and college course texts and bookstore futures shaky, the small press industry is navigating the same uncertain future as everyone else. If there is a silver lining to this catastrophe, small presses are generally more attuned to matters of race, gender and class than the big five publishing houses: There is a demand for books authored, edited and published by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). I wrote about the longstanding spirit and principle of intersectionality in small press publishing for the San Francisco Chronicle. I hope you’ll read the full story here.

SFE-SFLives

Documentary filmmaker Anne Flatte stands outside the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Her film,  “River City Drumbeat,” is about a year in the life of drum corps in Louisville, Kentucky.  (Photo by Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)

Some of the changes from digitization that impacted publishing even before the pandemic also reverberate through the art of producing, making and presenting independent film – a corner of the film business where woman traditionally find more opportunity than they do in Hollywood.  For the small art houses that regularly show movies by and about subjects that might not otherwise be seen on the big screen, the pandemic closures threaten to wipe out old time cinemas and movie-going entirely, though the best makers and curators are adapting.  Here in San Francisco, we can stream directly from our beloved Roxie, Balboa and Vogue Theaters, among others.  Filmmaker Anne Flatté is screening her latest work, River City Drumbeat, via virtual cinema. She and her co-director chose a youth drum corps as their compelling subject and made a visually captivating and emotionally powerful film about cultural legacy and survival. As a viewer, you can choose to watch indie films like River City Drumbeat in a way that supports local businesses instead of using your typical streaming services. Why would you? Well, the main multi-media/marketplace exploits its workers.  And the business models of the big streaming services also steal a disproportionate amount of revenue from the people who actually make the art. Those fat cats don’t need your money and artists need to be compensated for their work. Read more here.

Please support a small local press, filmmaker, theater or business today or this week: They need us – and we need them – if ever we’re going to get through this mess.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Book news, film, San Francisco News, , , , , ,

March 29, 2020 • 10:56 am 0

Poetic activism in the pandemic age: Tony Robles writes home

I first heard of the work Tony Robles was doing to stem the tide of gentrification in San Francisco when I returned here, following a decade of living in Los Angeles. A housing advocate, particularly devoted to keeping seniors in their homes, and a cultural worker whose art is poetry, whether in the fight to preserve bookstores or entire neighborhoods, from the Fillmore to the Mission, Robles was a strong presence in the various communities he represented, from North Beach to City Hall and South of Market. Combining community and culture in the spirit and tradition of his uncle Al, one of our city’s beloved poet activists, Robles is a fighter for the city he’s allowed to hate — because he loves it — even though he’s left us for rural North Carolina…

In 2017, I was happy to include Tony’s piece “Conversation With A Buffalo,” in Your Golden Sun Still Shines, the San Francisco story anthology I edited for Manic D Press (and which his open letter to another Tony, Bennett, helped deliver the book’s title, a reference to “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”). Now that Robles has left his heart here for real, having relocated to Hendersonville, he’s receiving some well-deserved recognition for his work as a poet. I hope you’ll read the full story of his life and work, particularly as it relates to the role of artists in the age of the pandemic in my biweekly column for the Examiner, SF Lives. And oh yes, a big thank you to Tony: Mabuhay! Read the column here.

Filed under: anti-capitalist, anti-war, Arts and Culture, Book news, Books, Poetry, San Francisco News, Tales of the Gentrification City, , , , ,

October 17, 2019 • 2:46 pm 0

From Here to Litquake

This week San Francisco’s literary festival, Litquake, is celebrating 20 years of supporting writers, publishers, bookstores and the literary arts here in the Bay Area. The festival’s co-founders, Jack Boulware and Jane Ganahl are my kind of people: Journalists by trade, they dared to dream beyond the newsroom and share their love of the writing life with their immediate community. As their cohort of writers grew to include novelists, memoirists, biographers, sexperts, technologists and performance poets, the festival grew and grew, blossoming into its current incarnation as a 10-day event with international offshoots of the culminating night’s promenade, LIt Crawl.

As a frequent participant in the festival, almost since its inception, I can’t thank Jack and Jane enough for sticking their necks out: This is the big week of the year for the Bay Area’s literary community. Litquake and Litcrawl have become starting places for some of our writers but they are also the testing and resting ground for experienced writers needing to recharge their batteries. As a mid to late career writer, I fall into that latter category. Litquake has always been a place for me to try out new ideas and styles of writing. As writers with day jobs and those who do community work know, it’s easy to get drained, out of sorts and out of touch with our practice.  Litquake is my time of the year to reset and reclaim my writing life, a time to remind myself (and sometimes others): I’m a writer.

During Litquake past, I’ve read previously published and never-to-be published work; I’ve read biography, memoir and poetry.  I’ve also organized and curated readings for causes. This year, I was in a position of supporting writers I worked with during several seasons of Litquake’s The Elder Project, a free community writing program offered to seniors. We worked on polishing their memoirs and talking about tools for developing protected writing time. Also at this festival, I wore my organizer/curator hat, but just for one night only: I hosted a conversation with the author David Talbot who is making his comeback with a new book following a stroke he survived in 2017. We held that event at one of the The City’s best bookstores, Bird & Beckett, which specializes in all kinds of books and regularly presents live jazz. Litquake is also a time when we celebrate the new publications and anniversaries of our friends and colleagues: Congratulations to Alvin Orloff who has a new memoir set in San Francisco and on the queer underground, and to Manic D Press, celebrating its 35th year of publishing great books. As an added bonus, I’ve been invited to read my own work at a gathering of people involved in the trade known as music writing, my oxymoronic paid profession since I was a teenager, though that has been changing  as I shift my focus to other subjects. And that’s one of the things I love about Litquake. Jack and Jane have allowed me the space and dignity to grow as a writer, never insisting I stay in my lane. They understand that writing is a fluid vocation. For a writer who doesn’t wish to be categorized or caged, variety has provided not only the spice, but the key to a still-evolving, and if I’m doing it right, revolutionary writing life.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Book news, Books, , , , ,

December 1, 2018 • 11:08 am 0

Two California Women in Conversation

Getting to meet inspiring, creative and intelligent people is probably my favorite part of the job as an independent journalist, editor and curator (aside from doing the writing, of course…). Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with two extraordinary women, Kim Shuck, a poet/educator/beadworker and Lynell George, a journalist/essayist/photographer. Somewhere along the way and between individual conversations with both of them, I had the idea to get the pair together to talk about the things we seem to talk about most: The changing cityscapes of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Being born Californian and staying here has given Lynell and Kim a deep understanding of the place. I hope you’ll explore their insights and their work, and I invite you to read the conversation, published this month in Boom California, by the University of California Press.

(photo of Kim Shuck by Doug Salin; photo of Lynell George by Al Quattrocchi)

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Book news, Books, California, gentrification, Poetry, racism, San Francisco News, Women's issues, , , , ,

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