Voices of the City: Robin Coste Lewis’ Fierce and Arresting Poetry has its Roots in Compton
The white fence is new but the tree she planted as a child still stands in front of the wood house, now stucco, pale yellow and cracked, forgotten Christmas lights hanging from its eaves. She laughs.
Time sucks her back, the way it does, and she talks about backyard camping, cockfights and how men dressed up in suits after dinner and strolled through Compton until way after dark, imagining what they might have become if they were another color. Not black.
After the closing of the 2010 reunion floricanto at USC, Mary Ann Pacheco, Alurista, and I had dinner at LA’s iconic The Pantry. The pair had organized the original 1973 Festival de Flor y Canto and edited the anthology. Mary Ann surprised the heck out of me with a revelation from back then.
Los Angeles poet Kelly Grace Thomas announced today that her manuscript BOAT/BURNED has been accepted by YesYes Books.
LOS ANGELES — On my way to Drunken Masters earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles, I imagined the reading series would be a sort of scaled-down American Idol: several writers present their work to a group of sauced professionals in the same genre who provide instant feedback and critique. The relevance and quality of feedback depends, however, as much on each master’s wisdom as their capacity to hold liquor. And, unlike the talent show, Drunken Masters isn’t a tournament, so there’s no voting or elimination. The distinction creates an event that feels like an inclusive and informal (very informal) writing workshop, minus the school desks and bad lighting.
Los Angeles Literature 