Make plans for poetry month

Alumnus Joseph Stroud’s recently released collection of poetry shares the title of a National Poetry Month Reading at the San Francisco Main Library’s Koret Auditorium Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 3 p.m. Of This World will feature Stroud and his fellow Copper Canyon Press poets Chris Abani, Ellen Bass, Dan Gerber and William O’ Daly. The reading is free and open to the public.

 

Creative Writing Professor Toni Mirosevich tells me she is looking for a fishy costume of some kind for the 13th Annual Library Laureates Dinner: Celebrating the Theory of Evolution. Mirosevich, K.M. Soehnlein, Susan Griffin and Peter Orner–all alumni and/or faculty–made the list of laureate honorees for the special event Friday, April 17, 2009 at San Francisco’s Main Library (all proceeds of the ticketed event benefit the library). The celebration of the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species will begin with a reception in the Main Library’s atrium. Writers and guests will “make use of their opposable thumbs by enjoying an exquisite meal catered by [SF State alumna] Paula LeDuc.” The dress code: Evolution. (Dress as your favorite animal, current species or one natural selection has deemed it unfit to exist, put on your best pirate garb to commemorate those who named the Galapagos, stick on a prehensile tail, put a finch feather or two in your hat…)

 

 

SF State has been helping poets evolve for many years.  California Poets in the Schools, the largest writers-in-schools program in the nation, began at SF State in 1964 as the Pegasus Project which arranged poetry readings in Bay Area classrooms. Now a statewide organization reaching 29 counties, California Poets in the Schools estimates it has introduced more than a half million K-12 students to the creative writing process.

 

SF State is also home to The American Poetry Archives,  the largest, most comprehensive and heterogeneous collections of poetry on tape that’s accessible to the public in the United States. Housing more than 2,000 audio and videotapes of writers performing their own works dating back to the Beat era, the collection features original recordings of William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Marianne Moore and the earliest recorded documentation of the Beats and the San Francisco Renaissance. Professor Ruth Witt-Diamant established the center in 1954 with encouragement from her friend, poet Dylan Thomas.

“A hell of a family of artists”

Following my previous post, on alumnus Matt Chessé, received this wonderful e-mail from his Uncle Bruce, also an alumnus:

 

“Matt is the pride and joy of the family and has gained the recognition that his late Grandfather Ralph, father Dion, mother Lynn and me, his Uncle Bruce (still alive and kicking), all have dreamed about. Both Dion and I got our bachelor and master degrees at State. Started there in 1953 when the campus was on Hermann Street. All three of us were an important part of the “Theater Scene” in San Francisco up through the early ’70s and my father taught puppetry in the Art Department at State. We appeared in and opened the main theaters at the 19th and Holloway Campus.

 

Matt’s mother, Lynn Arden, and his father and grandfather were original cast members with Bill Ball in the inaugural season of ACT. I am the oldest living member of the San Francisco Boy’s Opera Chorus. If you goggle THX 1138 you will find that we (the dynamic trio) are listed in the cast and were all in the trial scene together. The family also had a small theater called “The Cellar Stage” in the ’50s and ’60s. Dion worked with Jules Irving and Herbert Blau (SF State Faculty members) at the Actors Studio with Joe Miksak (Speech Professor at State). Dion acted and directed while we appeared in the plays. We were with the SF Playhouse for two decades. Lynn also was managing director there as well.

 

Finally, his grandfather was a WPA artist and puppeteer in San Francisco in the ’30s and did the mural “The Playground” inside Coit Tower. He was a colleague of Lucian Labaudt, who did the Beach Chalet murals. He was the State Director of the Federal Theater’s Marionette Theater Project for all of California as well as having four puppet theaters in North Beach in the ’30s. His original theater was where the Transamerica Building is now. When he died at 91 he left over 900 works of art most of which have not been seen in their entirety in the Bay Area. Check out our Web site for more details. 

 

My first cousin and Matt’s second cousin is Peter Albin, founder of “Big Brother and the Holding Company,” and he and his late brother Rodney were instrumental in bringing Rock Concerts to the Haight at 1090 Page Street starting the rise of the “Love Generation.” Peter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame early on and still tours with Big Brother. They both went to SF State as well. It’s a hell of a family of artists.”

 

–Bruce K. Chessé

 

Anyone else out there with some ineteresting SF State connections to share?

E-mail me: abee@sfsu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest from Tinseltown: “Watchmen” and 007 connections

Was just exchanging e-mails with Christopher Read, who works as an IT consultant and Braille creator here at SF State. Read told me he grew up with Zack Snyder, the director of the much anticipated film, “Watchmen,” out this Friday.

 

Read interviewed Snyder for The Rumpus.net, an online magazine “focused on culture … but not ‘”People-Magazine culture.” Thank you to Read for sharing his compelling Q and A!

 

Chances are someone with an SF State degree worked behind the scenes of “Watchmen.” A new SF State/Hollywood connection pops up nearly everyday. Our most recent discovery: film editor/producer/director Matt Chesse is an alumnus. The Oscar winner’s credits include the latest James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace,” and if you’ve seen that movie, you know–from that first heart-pounding scene to the end–the entire thing is masterful. And if you haven’t seen it, you should.

 

Listen to Chesse discuss his work on the film here.

 

This is Bee, Adrianne Bee, signing off. Anything SF State-related shaking or stirring out there?

E-mail me: abee@sfsu.edu

 

Start your ovens…

I fell asleep last night watching an Iron Chef challenge pitting alumnus Mourad Lahlou against Cat Cora. (This is not to say the competition wasn’t exciting but that it was very late and I was tired.) Lahlou, the chef and owner of Aziza, a wonderful Morrocan restuarant in San Francisco’s Richmond District, was clearly in command as long as my heavy eyelids allowed me to watch him.

He carefully scored and stuffed his redfish, so calm, so focused as his competitor sprinted back and forth across the screen, frantically chopping watermelons one moment, hacking off her redfish’s fins and baking them another, and then, I think, deep-frying globs of ketchup which didn’t seem like something anyone should ever do. 

As my eyes finally closed, I was sure Lahlou had it in the bag and this morning Chowhound confirms he did. Congratulations, Mourad! If you missed the show last night, it looks like it will air again this Thursday although I have given the ending away. Sorry.

If you do watch, listen for the San Francisco State mention when they introduce Lahlou and explain where he began cooking for friends. Better yet, go to Aziza and see for yourself how good he is.

What else is cooking in SF State-related news? Faith No More is rumored to be reuniting this summer for a concert tour in Europe. The connection to us? Their keyboard player Roddy Bottum is a graduate.