by Claudia La Rocco + Suzanne Stein, with Lenny Gonzalez The colophon for the original Open Space, published by White Rabbit Press. The 1965 volume is a cherished gift from OS contributor and then-colleague Jay Mollica. It’s 9:44 p.m. on the last Monday in October. I just finished editing the last first draft for Open Space’s last season. Lots more editing to do, but — no more opening the new submission, wondering what you’re getting versus what you commissioned. No more sending it back to the writer, thanking/querying/cajoling/explaining … that’s all over now. For the longest time I haven’t ..read more

Oakland, August 2020 Leslie Scalapino is a summer poet. Her work’s humid, skin and air become indistinguishable. She catches glints of light and dogs and sex, unfurls montages of violence distant and palpable, interpolates and peels away the composite mercy of structure. Cloud and camera, her figures vent an obstructive dexterity that enhances their paratextual qualities as climates and vivid animals. My windows are shut. A whirring fan goes on chugging walks, squirrels and birds peep and skitter while endless afternoons slither into irresponsibility their slabs of kindness. The rapport of t ..read more

When SFMOMA established its archives in 2006, the museum was lucky enough to have its early records, dating back to its founding in 1935, still intact and ready to be accessed by the research public. Among those records were ones documenting the activities of the Women’s Board, formed in 1934 as an auxiliary to the almost exclusively male Board of Trustees and tasked with fundraising, event, and publicity responsibilities. “When it was set up it was meant to be primarily social, with the idea of a Lady Bountiful, you know, to receive at receptions and previews and so on,” SFMOMA’s first direct ..read more

They lived happily ever after And then the sun came up And then the sun go down The couple is riding off into the sunset The End They threw a pie at the shark, the end “We’ll have to do this again sometime” “See ya later, turkey!” “I have a train to catch” My hero! Good night and God bless We’re closed! Take and catch an airplane Keep in touch, never come back! I imagine the dummy It’s how the turkey played the game With no strings attached Exit stage left And the two-timer was never heard from again How the turkey danced tutu in the ballet I will kick you off the curb I will kick you off the ..read more

Un-Disclosure We were teaching on the reservation when, overnight, the campus closed. We were working remotely, seeing students in person only when shopping at Fred Meyer. The tribe took care of us, valuing science over the bottom-line. There were challenges for students — finding Wi-Fi in Starbucks parking lots, dealing with children, caregiving. There were losses in the community and personally, too. We flew to California to be with family, with grandma, especially, who was recovering from Covid. Coming from a sewing lineage, in which grandma and mom worked in sweatshops (and we studied app ..read more

We arrive at Tecopa Hot Springs after dark. It’s too late to use the pools. Due to an incident (significance expressed on the attendant’s face) the unisex bath is out of service. The sign on the door reads CLOSED IN PERPETUITY. Alison notices that someone sort of like a beaver rigged an unsanctioned hot tub in the feeder spring by our campsite. She has a soak. The next morning we see that it’s filled with pieces of garbage like candy bar wrappers and beaten up fragments of waxed board. Disturbed, she fishes them out. I figure what the hell and get into the makeshift pool and wish it were hotte ..read more

Eds note: The prose in this post was written by Creative Growth Poet-in-Residence Lorraine Lupo Heather Edgar, Untitled, 18″x24″ acrylic on paper I like to proselytize to any non-poet who will listen. My speeches go something like this: You don’t have to understand every poem that you read, and you certainly don’t have to like it. Read all over the place, pay attention to your own reactions. A poem is not a puzzle that needs figuring out (which is, unfortunately, how poetry is often taught in school). This isn’t to say that poems can’t be intentional, or want to tell you something. Murray Si ..read more

5 Stages mural by Saiyare Refaei and Tiffanny Hammonds, 2017. Photo: Crews Creative. The mural was produced through Spaceworks’ Artscapes program. Last October, as part of Tacoma Arts Month, I drove around the city with my sister, artist Teruko Nimura. We delivered handmade mental-health care packages to residential food pantries, driving through areas with little access to public transportation, past neighborhoods with brand-new condos, through food deserts and down streets lined with designer boutiques, in and out of pockets of need across the city. Running between the sweeping views of Po ..read more

Chip Lord, 1974, in front of Ant Farm’s Studio at Pier 40 with a Cadillac Ranch reject. Photo: Doug Michels There are many points of entry to thinking about a lifetime of making work. We could use linear narrative to retrospectively cast a story, but I’ve not experienced time or memory to be well suited for that frame. We could talk about influences and scaffold a sort of art historical hold for the work one has done, decorated with artists and popular culture and the predominant sentiments of the sixties. We could talk about the present, about San Francisco, which has become synonymous with ..read more

                                                                      2. Rare rain outside The Bay and its windows and skylights and tent flaps.  3.  so tired                                                                         ..read more