Tonight at 8 PM on KPFK: BILL MOHR. Tonight’s show is the first of a two-part special, one perhaps for the archives as much as it is urgent today, right now. Often there’s a chance to look back, both in wonder and celebration but also toward critical evaluation. In reading Bill Mohr’s terrific and essential Hold-Outs: The Los Angeles Poetry Renaissance 1948-1992 (University of Iowa Press), I found affirmation of familiar themes but, even better, found myself taking notes – delighted at all I had not known, understood, connected in this complex and weirdly inspiring story, from the post-war political poets to Venice West to the founding of Beyond Baroque. KPFK listener-subscribers know Bill Mohr as poet, publisher, supporter of KPFK and the community of writing, as editor of the seminal Momentum press, as well as of two essential anthologies of LA poetry, not to mention through his own creative work. As editor, Mohr’s two landmark anthologies are The Streets Inside and Poetry Loves Poetry. His own writing is published widely and in a collection, Hidden Proofs. Bill Mohr --- poet, publisher, and now cultural historian --- is one of my favorite Los Angeles cultural workers ever, a wise and generous writer who has played such an important role as a participant, and now a chronicler of the Southern California arts scene! Thanks for listening.
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