Former Alameda Poet Laureate Gene Kahane's Public Art Poetry Reflects the Times

At San Francisco Chronicle, Tony Bravo writes about Gene Kahane's efforts to bring socially-conscious poetry to the residents of Alameda in a pandemic. Bravo foregrounds: "When Kahane first heard reports in March that the Bay Area would be sheltering in place because of the coronavirus pandemic, the former poet laureate of Alameda felt called into action." Picking up from there: 

The following day, he found some cardboard and affixed it to the trees where he has been posting his poetry ever since.

Every day since March, poetry has been posted on the trees on Souza Court, almost all by Kahane — except for a few days in August when he visited his son in Oregon and asked “guest poets” to fill in for him. He’s now posted more than 200 poems.

The idea had been with Kahane for a while. Years ago he read a book about the “Burma Shave” jingles, which were advertisements for the shaving cream that appeared on staggered billboards planted on the side of highways. Each successive billboard displayed part of the jingle.

Kahane has long been drawn to acts of guerrilla poetry — posting poems on fences, trash cans and in parks. During his three-year tenure as Alameda poet laureate (shared with Cathy Dana) from 2017 to October, he regularly posted new work in three of the city’s coffee shops and in the two public library branches. This is his longest and most consistent poetry exercise, and it’s becoming one of his most rewarding.

Continue reading at San Francisco Chronicle.