Tuesday, June 11
This coming Saturday, June 15th, Beyond Baroque will host a book launch for a collection of writing by Ed Smith, whose work appeared in such magazines as Jim Kruose’s Santa Monica REVIEW and Jack Skelly’s BARNEY, in addition to being featured in my 1985 anthology, POETRY LOVES POETRY. Smith’s archive is located at New York University, and I remember reading some of the pages from his journals when I was doing research at its special collections. I had always admired Smith’s poetry. I knew exactly where Tim’s Bunnies was located on my book shelves, though other volumes by more famous poets were packed away in a storage shed.
The ensemble of writers, poets and literary commentators who will be gathering at Beyond Baroque to celebrate Smith’s life and book is remarkable. All of us who care about the preservation of L.A.’s literary history should make an effort to pay tribute not only to Ed Smith, but to his editor David Trinidad, whose meticulous research has assembled a volume that will interest anyone who is curious about the ambiguous domains of popular culture, art, and poetry.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ed-smith-poems-journals-a-tribute-and-book-launch-tickets-61257964220?fbclid=IwAR1ybdIJVKWhqMrxBANaLuSXNzE3SFOThmjPgGbLt5YhlO1zWz16E8c2Jl4
Turtle Point Press’s publicity statement:
LA’s Punk Poet Ed Smith blazed onto the Los Angeles poetry scene in the early ’80s from the hardcore punk scene. The charismatic, nerdy young man hit home with his funny/scary, off-the-cuff-sounding poems. Punk Rock Is Cool for the End of the World: Poems and Notebooks of Ed Smith brings together Smith’s published books, unpublished poems, excerpts from his extensive notebooks, photos, and ephemera. Come celebrate the irreverent, tweetable, ludicrous, painful, wondrous work of this “punk Dorothy Parker” with Jim Krusoe, Michael Silverblatt, David Trinidad, Amy Gerstler, Bill Mohr, Sheree Rose, Bruce Hainley, Jack Skelley, Benjamin Weissman, and Jane DeLynn.
Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
Saturday, June 15
5 p.m.
About Bill Mohr