|
For Immediate Release: January 12, 2006
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications
(415) 554-6131
MAYOR NEWSOM NAMES JACK HIRSCHMAN AS NEW POET LAUREATE
San Francisco -
Mayor Gavin Newsom today introduced Jack Hirschman as the
City’s new Poet Laureate. Hirschman, an internationally acclaimed poet,
translator, essayist, scholar and humanistic activist, has published over
100 books of poetry and essays. A native New Yorker, Hirschman has lived in
San Francisco for over 30 years while also maintaining an international
presence.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Jack will bring a new energy and dynamic
to the Poet Laureateship,” said Mayor Newsom. “His empathy for social
issues, including homelessness and poverty, war and street violence,
reflect the major concerns of our time.”
Long-time City Lights publisher and writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San
Francisco’s first Poet Laureate, refers to Jack Hirschman as “a one-man
cultural ferment…an eloquent communicator whose warmth and intelligence
energizes audiences of all ages.” City Lights has published many of
Hirschman’s works, including Front Lines (2002), a collection of 50 years
of his poetry.
Hirschman’s works have been published in newspapers, magazines, broadsides,
small press, university press and more. Recently he has contributed poems
to the Street Sheet, a publication of the Coalition on Homeless, against
capital punishment and on the situation in New Orleans. Last year he won
the Antonio Vacaro Prize for Poetry in Paris for the French bi-lingual
translation by Gilles B. Vachon of 19 of his Arcanes (long poems).
As Poet Laureate, Jack Hirschman plans to expand on the community work
initiated by the three previous Poet Laureates, extending that outreach to
the international community. By giving voice to poetry in the form of a San
Francisco international poetry festival, he hopes to shatter cultural
myopia and restore the authentic international image that San Francisco
represents in the world.
Traditionally, the Poet Laureate serves a term of 18 months to two years.
City Librarian Luis Herrera chaired the selection committee of poets and
writers that solicited nominations for the position and forwarded their
recommendations to the Mayor. A date for the Poet Laureate Inaugural
Address will be announced soon.
|
