Displaced poetry readings landed at Babar
Paul Corman-Roberts, poet and founder of the Beast Crawl festival, asked the question of poet Richard Loranger, who, in his 20s, moved from Michigan to San Francisco in the 1980s and became involved in the reading scene.
“The Spaghetti Factory readings, which were sort of the last of the Beat readings in North Beach — when they shut down in the beginning of 1984, they left a kind of void,” Loranger recalled.
“It was in a tiny back room, and that had a lot to do with the intense energy of the series,” Loranger said.
The scene that developed at Cafe Babar gave birth to Zeitgeist-Press, started by two of the original organizers, David Lerner and Bruce Isaacson, to publish work by the Babar poets.
[...] with Babar in Exile, we’re honoring the artists from that time, but we’re also wanting to include a wider, diverse range, including younger writers who have that edge, who bring that punk energy.
Features for this show are Jon Longhi (“The Rise and Fall of Third Leg,” “Wake Up and Smell the Beer”), musician Dawn Oberg and “Honorary Babarian” Joel Landmine (“Yeah, Well”).
Bay Area poets Duncan McNaughton (“Tiny Windows”) and Norma Cole (“Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside”) read from their work as part of a series curated by Sunnylyn Thibodeaux (5:30 p.m. Friday, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center St., Berkeley, $7).
Israeli writer Etgar Keret (“The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God& Other Stories,” “Suddenly, a Knock on the Door,” “Seven Good Years: A Memoir”) will discuss his work with Ayelet Waldman A Really Good Day:
How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life 7 p.m. Sunday, the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael, $20-25. www.marinjcc.org.
Nomadic Press presents Shideh Etaat and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, both winners of the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award, as part of its Uptown Fridays series, with music by Phillip Michael Hermans 7 p.m. Friday, Nomadic Press: