Wednesday, May 2, 2012

LOVE ALCHEMY ~
( May Day after )




Lenore Kandel


Lenore Kandel's Collected Poems of Lenore Kandel is now out from North Atlantic Books, who have already shown their magnificent gift at releasing large, exquisite collections by Kenneth Irby, Gerrit Lansing, now Kandel, and in the works other poets in the San Francisco sphere.


Born in New York City in 1932, she passed away in San Francisco in 2009. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Timothy Leary and others, Kandel was a participant at the Human Be-In in the Golden Gate Park polo fields on January 14, 1967. The only woman to speak from the stage, Kandel defiantly read from The Love Book, her then notoriously banned short book of what she would call "holy erotica". It was her 35th birthday that day, and Michael McClure remembers, "The entire crowd of 20,000 or 30,000 people sang 'Happy Birthday' to her."


On May 10th in San Francisco, old friends, new friends, strangers and a family tribe will be singing to her again. If you're closeby, comeby ~








photo : isaac hernandez