Cuson, Tom; Greene, Ann; Hass, Robert; Howard, Noni; Jarian, Peter; McClure, Michael; Sirotkin, Jeanne

Broadside-Poster: Malvina Saturday Poetry Series (September 6, 13, 20, 27, 1975)

San Francisco, CA: Caffe Malvina, 1975. First Printing. Single Sheet. A broadside-poster (measuring appx. 11 x 14”) advertising a poetry reading at the cult-famous Malvina Coffee House — which, during the mid-to-late 1970s, was mobilized as a venue by the authors of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. The layout and format for MCH flyers was standardized: center aligment reigned, and the venue title was always found floating like a thundercloud in black, bold letters above the names of an evening’s participants. Most MCH posters advertised events a month in advance: though there are exceptions to this rule, such as TMB Item #7797, in which the typical format is jettisoned in favor of advertising a “BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION” for the post-war American surrealist poet, Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948). This poster, however, complies with the routinized model — and in so doing, speaks to the promotional assiduity (or, “revolutionary discipline,” to lift a phrase from the White Panther Party) that enabled the Renaissance to popularize itself. A Pro Tip for Our Brothers-&-Sisters in Literary Studies: be on the lookout for “visual culture,” — including posters like these, and really anything that occupies “public space” — if attempting to make sense of any given “art scene.” While scholarship like this is championed, typically in the Art History departments of Higher Ed, recent work in Beat Studies, such as that of Jim Pennington (publisher of Aloes Books, London; vaunted Elder Burroughsian; & treasured friend of the store) — shows the potency attributable to visual-cultural vantages. Should you mobilize them, — as We at TMB have in our own scholarship, — you’re likely to find them surprisingly fruitive in Beat Studies contexts, like we did. Before drawing this curation to a close, let's have a brief word on the most hated-&-favored poet here featured: Michael McClure (1932-2020), the great Beat poet most intensely affiliated with the First San Francisco Renaissance, & his aggravating creation of “Beast Language.” Beast language functions through a system of guttural utterances which approximate vowel & consonant sounds, — and this ‘alphabet’ is memorably deployed in McClure’s section of Richard O. Moore’s multi-part documentary, “USA Poetry” from 1966. No life in Beat Scholarship is complete without watching “the Prince of San Francisco” perform works from 1964’s Ghost Tantras before an audience of disappointingly caged lions at the San Francisco Zoo. In this writer's view, McClure's is to be roasted (good-naturedly) on account of this, forever. However, a predominance of Beat scholars — (and high-engagement readers of Beat Lit, worldwide) — will readily back the followings statement. We shouldn’t let this somewhat lamentable episode in the life of his oeuvre cloud our conception of his verse & mind. If you leave the upside-down world of the Tantras behind, you’ll find a very different McClure: one who understands poetry masterfully, — & at the level of both vocation, and method. Contrast, for example, the early work (of the 1950s-&-60s) with poems from his emergent period: that of in the 1970s, which remains his best decade. It’s not that he wasn’t as good as the other Beats: he just blossomed later than them. Take a line such as the one which begins the poem, “Winter Solstice” from 1972 [TMB Item #4907]: “Saturnalian tule fog in the San Joaquin." Sound it out — in your head, and with your voice — and ask whether McClure is operating with ‘the tone leading of the vowels’ in mind (e.g., whether or not he considers that to be one plank in a framework, or mode of composition). He quite obviously is thinking along these lines, and probably has Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) to thank for this. As, Allen's lectures at Naropa Institute in the mid-70s suggest that a series of discussions he had with Michael helped the poet vault past the errancies which mar the early work. At any rate, while the production value of the broadside-poster, itself isn’t as glitzy or hi-fi as some of the other productions from the SSFR, the Malvina posters are relics from its DIY underbelly — which was as key to the vitalization of the Renaissance project as any of its more polished offerings. Broadside-Poster on Single Sheet: from the first-&-only printing of this scarce bit of MCH/Renaissance ephemera. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949), the acclaimed American poet who was at the center of the Baby Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance during the 1970s. The TRC archive was acquired, assembled & curated by Third Mind Books as a single item (see our item No. 1010), & its vast number of individual pieces are now being offered incrementally throughout this new year of 2025. The TRC archive collectively represents the entire legacy of the BBG/SSFR, & its critical collaborations-mentorships by the key figures of the original Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance. See also Starting From San Francisco (item No. 3071), published by TMB, to obtain a thorough understanding of this important literary phenomenon from TRC himself. In strong near fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, light bumping to fine-edges & corners of verso & recto sides; faint, though extant smudging to select locales in low-impact clusters; otherwise, clean. Near Fine. [Item #7795]

Price: $25.00