Thank You for Celebrating the Beats at the Top of the Mark!
Last night, Beat Generation poet ruth weiss gave a stirring performance, accompanied by musicians Doug O’Connor (acoustic bass), Rent Romus (saxophone), and Hal Davis (percussion). This was the closing engagement of Celebrating the Beats at Top of the Mark, our weekly poetry and jazz series through March and April, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone—poets, musicians, the Top of the Mark, and of course, all who attended—for making this series a tremendous success!
Here’s a look back at what happened:
The Beat Museum partners with Top of the Mark at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins to Present Poetry & Jazz Series This Spring
In celebration of the birth of the Beat Generation in San Francisco, the Beat Museum has partnered with the InterContinental Mark Hopkins to bring legendary poets to riff alongside local jazz musicians for a weekly series at the Top of the Mark.
Tuesday evenings March 3, 2015 – April 28, 2015
6:30pm – 8:30pm
See more photos at the Top of the Mark Flickr page »
A Look Back:
Alejandro Murguía
San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, The Voice of the Mission performs with jazz accompaniment. Alejandro Murguía is the author of This War Called Love (winner of the American Book Award) and The Medicine of Memory: A Mexica Clan in California (University of Texas Press). Currently he is a professor in Latina/Latino Studies at San […]
Charles Curtis Blackwell & Vincent Kobelt
Jazz poet, painter & playwright Charles Curtis Blackwell and poet Vincent Kobelt perform with The All-Star Revue from their new CD release, Catch the First Thing Smokin’ and other works. Charles Curtis Blackwell, jazz poet, painter and playwright, whose art work has been featured in the New York Times and on PBS television; born in […]
Poetry Through the Generations
San Francisco Poetry Through the Generations with San Francisco poets A.D.Winans, Neeli Cherkovski, William Taylor, Jr., and Cassandra Dallett. A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco poet and writer. He is the author of over 60 books and chapbooks of poetry and prose. His work has been translated into nine languages. He edited and published […]
The Word Party
Poetry & Jazz featuring poets and musicians from The Word Party series and the Nova Jazz Band, including Jennifer Barone (poet and host), Daniel Heffez (saxophone), and Ingrid Keir, Cara Vida, and Natasha Dennerstein. Jennifer Barone is an author of three books of poetry, her most recent titled Saporoso – poems of Italian Food & […]
COPUS Spoken Word/World-Beat Ensemble
COPUS, spoken word/world-beat ensemble featuring San Francisco poet Royal Kent, and composer Wendy Loomis. Royal Kent‘s love of poetry goes back to his formative high school years. Originally inspired by the legendary Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, he has performed with dancers, theatrical troupes, poets, and many bands including the Vancouver-based Band of Angels and […]
Michelle Tea presents RADAR
Michelle Tea presents RADAR: An Evening of Edgy Literary Performance from San Francisco’s Underground. Michelle Tea is the author of five memoirs, most recently How to Grow Up, published by Penguin/Plume. She has written three novels, including a Young Adult fantasy trilogy currently being released by McSweeney’s, and her poetry chapbooks have been collected into […]
wordWind Chorus
The wordWind chorus performs with q.r. hand jr. (poetry, voice), Lewis Jordan (saxophone, poetry, voice), and Brian Auerbach (poetry, voice). q. r. hand, jr. voice and poetry, moved to the SF Bay Area from NYC about forty years ago. Originally published in the 1968 classic, Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro American Writing, edited by […]
From San Francisco to Europe & Back
Former San Francisco Poet Laureate, painter & translator, Jack Hirschman performs with Swedish-born San Francisco poet, Agneta Falk and special guest, George Long on saxophone. Jack Hirschman is a poet and painter and has translated over two dozen books from German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Albanian, and Greek. He is an assistant editor at the […]
ruth weiss and Company
Herb Caen called her “The Beat Generation Goddess”—ruth weiss performs with Doug O’Connor (acoustic bass), Rent Romus (saxophone), and Hal Davis (percussion). ruth weiss STATE MEANT for me poetry is teacher, healer & disciplinarian. poetry is the messenger of language, the tuner that vibrates the communication chord. this is my chosen path & assignment ruth […]
COPUS
Part of Celebrating the Beats at Top of the Mark Royal Kent’s love of poetry goes back to his formative high school years. Originally inspired by the legendary Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, he has performed with dancers, theatrical troupes, poets, and many bands including the Vancouver-based Band of Angels and Czech Republic-based Pseudo Pseudo. […]
wordWind Chorus
Part of Celebrating the Beats at Top of the Mark q. r. hand, jr. (voice and poetry), moved to the SF Bay Area from NYC about forty years ago. Originally published in the 1968 classic, Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro American Writing, edited by Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Larry Neal, which has recently […]