Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poet and Hero

After seeing and writing here (10/3/10) about "Howl," the film, I was so glad to read in today's San Francisco Chronicle about the Litquake Festival's honoring of Lawrence Ferlinghetti Saturday evening with an evening of tributes and the Barbary Coast Award. Ferlinghetti was the one who was put on trial for selling Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," considered obscene by some; he stood up for freedom of speech and art, and he won the case; for that alone, he would be a hero. But his influence is far wider and deeper than that. His City Lights bookstore (which he co-founded in 1953) is an icon, a beacon of light, a center for book lovers and for freedom of expression. The bookstore has supported Beat writers and every other kind of writer; it has also welcomed readers, even readers who cannot afford to buy books, but are allowed to read the books in the aisles. Ferlinghetti is also a poet of great gifts and great renown. His most famous poem, and collection of poems, "Coney Island of the Mind" (1958), "did more than any other book to turn young people the world over to poetry as an instrument to thinking and feeling...This was the beginning of a metamorphosis of consciousness," according to poet Michael McClure's tribute. The event on Saturday also included tributes by fellow writers Ishmael Reed, Michelle Tea, devorah major, and Jack Hirschman, among others, and performances by singers Patti Smith and Tom Waits. Another reason we San Franciscans treasure Ferlinghetti is his staying in and bringing international honor to San Francisco as a city that loves, honors, and protects literature and free expression.