[BHS etree] EVENT: Calling BHS Poets--Open Mic Poetry - Sat. April 26, 2pm

[bhs at idiom.com]

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY to the etree, contact Stephen Alfandary Rosenbaum
[mailto:steprose at berkeley.edu] 

Berkeley High students have a chance to share a favorite poem or two
out loud, in the tradition of coffeehouse readings that took root in
the Bay Area in the 1950s. 

ANNUAL OPEN MIC READING
At Berkeley Arts Magnet/Whittier's Allen Ginsberg Poetry Garden
1645 Milvia  Street (between Lincoln and Virginia Streets) in Berkeley
Saturday, April 26
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Background:
A little more than 50 years ago, Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg penned
portions of his controversial, but celebrated, poem "Howl!" while
living in a rose-covered cottage at 1624 Milvia Street--opposite what
is now the Berkeley Arts Magnet/Whittier School and site of a poetry
garden dedicated to Ginsberg two years after his death in 1997. The
garden is the venue for an annual Open Mic poetry reading, held the
last Saturday of national Poetry Month.  This year's event, on April
26 (2-4 pm), marks the bicentennial of the birth of American Poet,
Abolitionist and Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier, the school's
namesake.

In 2000, the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission acknowledged
the Garden and  neighborhood's connection with the Beats--including
Jack Kerouac, whose "On the Road" is now 50 years old--as part of its
Historical Plaque Project (more at:
http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=2382)

Come one, come all, rain or shine! The readings (authored by you or
someone else) are done continuously from 2 pm on--with the spotlight
on youths.