BABY BEAT GENERATION & THE SECOND SAN FRANCISCO RENAISSANCE

Publisher: La Main Courante // France 2005
Editor and Translator: Mathias de Breyne
272 pages. $20
                          “To You the statues, To Us the Girls”  Alan Dugan

                              REVIEWED BY ANDREW LANDER

This bi-lingual anthology, under the direction of Raine Crowe (aka: Tom Dawson) claims to represent a new era of writing in the mid- 70’s San Francisco’s North Beach. Crowe goes even further in falsely claiming the “Baby Beats” presented in this anthology represents the “2nd San Francisco North Beach Renaissance” of poets, writers and artists.

This historical error could have been avoided if Crowe had stated that the Baby Beats in the anthology were a small group of North Beach poets who hung out together while resurrecting Beatitude Magazine, and were in fact latecomers. North Beach was a stronghold of writers, publishers, and artists before and after the Beats. Up until the mid eighties, it remained a haven for West Coast Bohemians.

In the forward, Editor and translator Mathias de Breyne provides some excellent quotes from the poems, and the prologue by Crowe is for the most part accurate.

The book touts a section of “Beat” poets. Most of the writers represent the Beat cadre: however, Nanos Valoritis and Jack Hirschman are not per se, Beat poets. Valoritis is a surrealist poet, who taught at San Francisco State, while Hirschman, dropped out of the academic community, and appeared in North Beach in the mid-seventies. Gregory Corso, buried next to Shelley in Italy, is mysteriously missing. It must be the price of gasoline. Beat poet Michael McClure stands out as the timeless Beat in this section. His poem “Everyone” is a must read for today’s Bohemians in wait.

Baby Beat, a title bestowed by the late Richard Brautigan, probably in his true two-minded Brautigan twist becomes the call of the book, although Brautigan himself is given “Others” status.

Ironically, poets of an earlier era or another venue are included as Baby Beats, in this case, Kaye McDonough, Jan Blue and David Moe.

Indeed, Ms. McDonough’s poems reflect a feminism much larger than Crowe’s assertion. The power of her Zelda poem antiphons the feminism working far from sometimes misogynist Beat voices.
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Jan Blue, whose picture appears on the front cover, circa l976, writes from Chowchilla Prison a strong, lyrical lament about North Beach, the folks and a greater truth.

“The pools of transcendental thought, the magic of folklore plucked, sang…we were vastly unpatriotic and absolutely irreverent as to all religion, including Buddhism. It was our persuasion as absolutely as our non-consumerism. I loved us fervently, madly; in love with non-joiners, the conclave of a generations strangers.

Luke Breit’s poems are clear and of their time, in particular the Vietnam War, and the long road after. Other poems in the “Baby Beat” section, while clever and competent, often implode and self-flagellate as they pump the surreal and the back door of Beatdom. To be fair, some of these poets would later emerge at doors of their own.

Baby Beat Generation tail ends the anthology with “Peripheral Poets”, a grossly arrogant signature that includes Anne Valley Fox, Tom Cuscon and Barbara Szerlip, given that these poems are often much better poems than those offered as 2nd Renaissance.

The anthology also prints photos of “Others” book covers to fatten the calf.

Unlike the all-inclusive anthology, 185 edited and published by Alix Geluardi whose kitchen and home in San Francisco’s Marina district were a poet’s Mecca, “Baby Beat” excludes, often arbitrarily

In a separate interview, Mr. Crowe states that “Baby Beats” were more political than the Beats, but there is no evidence to suggest this is true. Photos included therein, suggest poets such as Jerry Kamstra and Jack Micheline as the political
Vanguard.

Lastly Mr. Crowe claims that the Baby Beats were more inventive and experimental than the Beats, thus one must wonder why the anthology clings to such an insignificant namesake to keep it afloat? One suspects the publisher is caught in a strange trap of someone’s wannabe.

In this case, Poetry needs a universal drum, not a one hand-pounding crow.

Andrew Lander was born and resides in the U.K. He is currently traveling throughout the U.S. until his return to the U.K. at the end of June. His reviews have appeared in many literary venues, both print and on web sites, including The Small Press Review (SPR) and Home Planet News.