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THE SOCAL MUSELETTERS, or THE MUSE RIDES AGAIN
Greetings poets and poetry lovers, I write to you from beautiful Southern California where the weather has been incredible, both physically and poetically. The temperature was a balmy 77 today and the poetry is getting even hotter. Now you know why I moved here oh so many years ago. It’s great to have the Museletter back in town.
Down here in the South of Cali where the words grow hot, hot and hotter, there are many new readings and some closing down of old. But poetry is a lifestyle for the poets of So Cal and some of them do it most righteously, religiously, and reportedly some even get published and come back for more. Now that the weather report is complete, here’s our latest in poetry news.
RIP WILLIAM McLAIN, JANUARY 3, 2003
Some sad information has just come my way. William McLain, a poetic icon if there ever was one in SoCal, just passed away on Friday morning, January 3, 2003. He called himself the dirty old man and he was loved by all who met him. He will surely be missed. We are putting up a tribute page for him at Poetix.net.
POETIX.NET
The first bit of news is that there is a new online poetry publication to serve Southern California. For the complete story on SoCal poetry just tune into Poetix.net. It has everything from a complete venue guide and calendar to interviews with poets, a publishing guide and a regular poetry feature. Poetix was formed by combining the resources of Next... (Murray Thomas), Tebot Bach (Mifanwy Kaiser) and Larry Jaffe (me). The calendar is updated three times a month to deliver the latest info.
POETIC BREW IN SAN DIEGO
Like many other poetic communities, the SoCal scene is made up of several groups: we have the literary side, the slam side, the pop po side, we even go so far as to divide west side and east side -- and that is just Los Angeles. My poetic territory actually extends all the way down to San Diego, which has been rife with controversy since Quincy Troupe resigned not only as California's first Poet Laureate, but also from his position as Professor of Literature at UC San Diego.
If you want to go to an incredible reading in San Diego, check out the Claire De Lune Coffee Lounge on any given Tuesday evening for Poetic Brew, hosted by Marc Kockinos. They pack more than 100 (and sometimes closer to 200) poetry lovers into this most beloved café.
ORANGE COUNTY READINGS
Then my poetry land extends up through Orange County, where hosts like Pat and Marcia Cohee have been working Laguna Beach for what seems like forever. (Ed. note: For more about the Laguna Poets readings, read our recent feature article by Victor Infante, a remembrance of Marta Mitrovich, who founded the series.) The poets featured at this incredible reading get their own chapbooks published and made available at the reading by the Cohees' in-house Inevitable Press. This is a very special treat for poet and audience alike.
While we are in OC, we cannot forget our two most loved idiots peddling poetry at the Ugly Mug Café in Orange every Wednesday. These guys, Ben Trigg and Steve Ramirez, have teamed up to create one of OC’s most formidable readings -- and they also run the Big Damn Poetry Slam, now at the Ugly Mug every second Sunday.
Down the road a piece Mark Bruce runs his monthly “poetic clambake” (that’s what he calls it, folks, don’t ask me...) at Borders in the Block at Orange. Each of these readings brings poets from OC as well as from SD and LA (San Diego and Los Angeles).
BEYOND BAROQUE TO DA POETRY LOUNGE
You can go to a poetry reading just about every night in LA. Poetry and poets are plentiful and prolific and you can find every style and makeup to suit your fancy. No talk about poetry in la la land would be complete without mentioning that long-standing icon of literary strength, Beyond Baroque. Beyond Baroque continues to lead the way with readings and workshops throughout the entire month. They probably house the largest living library of Southern California poets and were the scene of the Big Picture last April.
There's also a new icon in SoCal that has launched a poetic revolution culminating with the Def Poetry Jam on HBO, none other than Da Poetry Lounge. Close to 300 people mob the Greenway Court Theatre every Tuesday night. This is totally the place for LA’s poets to be seen. It’s full of celebrities and talent scouts. Gimel, Shihan & Poetri host the show. And our friend Poetri not coincidentally has been on Broadway with Def Poetry Jam, wording it up.
MOVING ON UP THE COAST
Moving up north on my literary escapade, we come to Ventura County and two most excellent readings presided over by two wonderful literary talents of Phil Taggert and Jackson Wheeler, the poetic kingpins of Ventura. They host monthly venues of some repute.
But it is in beautiful San Luis Obispo that one strikes pure poetic gold. One of my favorite readings in the world has been in the same location and hosted by the same gentleman for some 15-plus years. I don’t know of any reading that has lasted so long in one place (Linnaea's Café), hosted by one person. The person I speak of, Kevin Patrick Sullivan, is not only a fine poet and an incredible host (just read there and you will see what I mean), but I am most fortunate to include him as a dear friend. Frankly, he is just one of those good guys you run into all too infrequently in life. He also runs the annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival up there and was just appointed Poet Laureate for 2003.
SPOTLIGHT ON ALICE THE POET
Each time the my Museletter slot comes up I will shine the spotlight on an individual who helps keep the SoCal poetry scene going. Sometimes it will be a poet, but often it may be a poetry host, one of those behind the scenes do-gooders who relentlessly gets the poetry out there. This month I want you to hear about Alice Nicholas aka Alice the Poet. She is a Black Music Award nominee (Best Spoken Word Artist, Female), Cyber Street recording and performance artist, co-host of Spreading Love-N-Spoken Words at Magic Johnson's Starbucks, Director of Artistry for The Urban Folk Collective, freelance writer and educator. Alice The Poet has earned degrees in NW 101 (“Nubian Woman 101”), English literature and African-American studies. One of the Leimert Park Poets featured on “Spreading Love-N-Spoken Words,” Volume 1 compilation, Alice the Poet was born out of the cultural arts Mecca called Leimert Park Village. She has been featured at many venues and events, including the Jazz Bakery, The Long Beach Drum Festival, The Pan-African Film Festival, The African Marketplace, and The World Beyond Festival. She leads Youth Empowerment Through Poetry workshops at various Southern California locations and hosts Epiphany's Insight, a monthly poetry and performance workshop that has recently celebrated its third, successful year. She has authored Rebel Music; Ditty of the Determined, Dreadlocked Daughter of a Drummer and a Dreamer in the Diaspora and Sacred Songs and Other Inspired Writings. She is one of 14 national writers to be published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (for her case study on California minority businesses). She is currently working on her first full-length novel.
This is just a smattering of the SoCal poetic experience; you have to come here to feel it yourself. But I wanted to give you an idea of the range of my Museletter territory (it’s probably one of the biggest). Additionally, I try to give some coverage to our neighbors to the east in Nevada and Arizona since they do not have their own correspondent, and I even get some word out about Oklahoma for the same reason. Poetry is blossoming in America and it is not just one voice or one location. It is all over and Museletter has been not only reporting the story but has helped create it over the past couple of years.
That’s it for now; signing off from LA this is Larry Jaffe your SoCal Museletter poetspondent. Happy Trails!
