OK.
Next up, we have Michael Warr.
And I'm going to start by reading Michael's bio with two
quotes about their work.
"His poetry is frank and full-body.
Michael has a sharp eye and a sanity that
refuses to make compromises."
Gwendolyn Brooks.
"I don't think you need to tell me
that these poems are the real thing, brilliant in language
and imagination.
Never a nerveless line.
They move in both senses of their own music
and of the heart, but I'm telling you anyway."
Adrienne Rich.
San Francisco poet Michael Warr is the 2020 Berkeley Lifetime
Achievement Awardee and poetry editor
of the anthology of Poetry and Protest
from Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin published
by W.W. Norton.
His books of poetry include The Armageddon
of Funk, which the Black Caucus of the American Library
Association described as a poetic soundtrack
to Black life, Power Lines: a Decade of Poetry
from Chicago's Guild Complex as a co-editor with Julie Parson
Nesbitt and Luis Rodriguez, and We Are All the Black Boy, all
published by Tia Chucha Press.
He co-edited the bilingual chapbook Catching Memory
with poet and translator Chun Yu.
Catching Memory features poems and short stories
in English and Chinese that evolved out of Warr and Yu's
"Two Languages / One Community" workshop series.
In 2017, he was named a San Francisco Library Laureate.
Other honors include a Creative Work Fund
award for his multimedia project Tracing Poetic
Memory in Bayview Hunters Point, PEN Oakland Josephine Miles
Award for Excellence in Literature,
Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award,
Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poets Award,
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship,
Ragsdale Foundation US Africa Fellowship, the Beat Museum
Poet of the Month, and other honors.
His poetry in collaboration with musicians,
visual and performing artists has been dramatized on stage,
depicted on canvas, and set to original music.
Michael is also the former deputy director
of the Museum of the African Diaspora
and has extensive experience in community based arts.
He is a board member of the Friends of the San Francisco
Public Library.
Thank you, Michael, for being here with us today.