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Now that the reading
tonight is sponsored

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by the Academy of
American Poets,

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were most grateful to
them because they've

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made possible, a week-long
visit for this author

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to tour throughout
Arizona giving readings,

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not only here, but also in
Flagstaff, Tempe, and Prescott.

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So our distant thank
you to the Academy.

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Al young was born in
Mississippi, grew up

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in the south and in Detroit.

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In 1966, he was awarded a
Wallace Stegner fellowship

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at Stanford after finishing
his education at the University

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of Michigan and UC Berkeley.

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With Ishmael Reed, he co-founded
the influential Yardbird

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Reader.

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He recently edited the anthology
African-American Literature

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for HarperCollins.

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Young is the author of
five books of poetry,

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beginning with Dancing in
1969, followed by the song,

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Turning Back Into Itself,
Geography of the Near Past,

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The Blues Don't Change:
New and Selected

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Poems that came out
in 1982, and Heaven:

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Collected Poems that
came out in 1992.

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Two chat books of poetry
recently published

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by Creative Arts
Books in Berkeley--

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Straight No Chaser
and Conjugal Visits.

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In addition, he's published
five novels and four books

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of musical memoirs including,
Drowning in the Sea of Love

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from Echo press
and Mingus/Mingus,

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a collaborative memoir
of the Jazz great,

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written with Janet Coleman.

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As if that hadn't kept him
busy in all these years,

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he's also worked as a
screen writer on such films

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as A Piece of the Action
and Bustin' Loose.

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His work has been translated
into a dozen languages,

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including German, Norwegian,
Swedish, Serbo-Croatian,

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Italian, Japanese,
Chinese, and Spanish.

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Al Young, to borrow
a line of his,

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operates under the
influence of music.

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While there are many
influences on his writing,

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including
African-American culture,

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a childhood spent listening
to long, slow storytelling,

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American Indian song, Hindu
philosophy, his extensive world

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travels, the poetry of Li Po,
Mayakovsky, Larika, Elliott,

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Rex Roth, LeRoi Jones, to
name a few forebearers,

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he claims there is no influence
as powerful in his work

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as that of music.

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Music for Young is the joy
of existence, even the blues,

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for he has the wisdom
to know that happiness

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is the secret teachings of
sorrow turned inside out.

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Music has given him an
astonishing range of voices

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from which to speak, and a
range of subjects and characters

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through which to see
and light up the world.

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He once asked in the poem,
Moon Watching at Lake Chapala,

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"Who will live to write the role
of moonlight in the evolution

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of consciousness. " He later
answered that question himself.

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In a beautiful series of
22 poems about the moon

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that unabashedly sang of his
being in love with everything.

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Last week, CK Williams told us
that since Baudelaire, poetry

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has had to struggle
with finding beauty

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in the midst of this
century's horror.

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It is fitting that this week
Al Young is here to remind us

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that in spite of
the terrible waste

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and injustices of American
culture, in the end,

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there are only beautiful
things to say, never

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mind how dirty the floor was.

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Please welcome Al Young.

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[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

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