Al Young was the California Poet Laureate from 2005-2008, a high point in a towering career that began in the late 1960s with novels, poetry collections and more, through the 1970s on into the present… novels that include Who is Angelina? and Sitting Pretty, poetry collections including Dancing and The Sound of Dreams Remembered, books on music like Mingus Mingus and Kinds of Blue…

Although Al’s roots are in the rural south, born on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in 1939, and in Detroit, he’s been in California since 1961 when he first came out to the Bay Area, and he has long been an important figure in the West Coast literary world.  Throughout his career, he’s been indefatigable and invaluable, and his work has touched tens of thousands of readers.

Jeanne Powell is a published poet and essayist. Her books in print are  MY OWN SILENCE and WORD DANCING (new edition by Taurean Horn Press just published). For ten years she hosted “Celebration  of the Word,” an award-winning spoken word series in San Francisco. Her  “Living Treasures” project highlighted the writings of four poetic  elders; their books were published by Meridien PressWorksâ„¢ in 2005.  Jeanne teaches at OLLI-SFSU and UB-USF.