San Fran has the highest housing costs in the nation. There is a need for 30,000 more housing units, but the voters refuse to allow new building. The San Fran school district is segregated—only 13% of its students are white. Free speech is not tolerated unless you promoted radical socialism and prefer the government to the people. This is a town that creates gridlock on the streets, promotes dangerous bike riders on city streets, opposes Non Subsidized bus transportation for tech company employees—prefers to use tax dollars for money losing government transportation systems. Now they have decided they need to make all of this tolerable. They are going to spend $5,000 to hire a “Poet Laueate”.
“Candidates have to meet a daunting set of standards; they must have published “one full length book (minimum 48 pages, not self-published or vanity press) and/or professional digital recording of performance with text (not self-produced) or 20 or more published poems in established publications, print or online, over the past five years.”
That line knocking vanity presses is just cruel.
The nominee must also be a city resident. What poet can still afford to live in San Francisco?
Seriously, is it the role of government to provide the people with periodic poems? Will they even be read? Who cares? Just another example of why government has too much money. San Fran knows computers but shows very little fiscal responsibility or common sense.
San Francisco Taking Applications for Next Poet Laureate
By Cy Musiker, KQED, 2/19/16
Do you have what it takes to be the next San Francisco Poet Laureate?
Mayor Ed Lee and the SF Poet Laureate Nominating Committee put out a call Thursday for nominations to the post.
Candidates have to meet a daunting set of standards; they must have published “one full length book (minimum 48 pages, not self-published or vanity press) and/or professional digital recording of performance with text (not self-produced) or 20 or more published poems in established publications, print or online, over the past five years.”
That line knocking vanity presses is just cruel.
The nominee must also be a city resident. What poet can still afford to live in San Francisco?
Beat survivor Lawrence Ferlinghetti inaugurated the post.
Alejandro Murguía is the current Poet Laureate, the first Latino to hold the position. He’s written four books of history, short stories, and poetry in Spanish and English. He gave a speech recalling that the first time he was paid for a reading, he got two beers, but one was thrown at him.
Here’s an excerpt from his poem “O California”:
Se fueron por el Camino Real
Ese largo y triste camino de eucaliptos
Cargados con frijol y maíz
Y llegaron en lowered-down Chevy ranflas
Con gafas fileros y tomando botellas de tequila
Que decían Made in Mexico
Hablando tres palabras de inglés
Apple pie y coffee
Y cantando—
Vámonos a California Vámonos a California
The new laureate will be judged worthy by a panel of their peers on the selection committee, including former laureates Jack Hirschman and Janice Mirikitami.
There is an honorarium. The public library, which runs the program, pays a $5,000-stipend.
If you think you have what it takes, here’s the link to the application. The deadline is April 17.
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