Celebrating Al Young - Pt. 3

Al Young (photo: B. Hall)

August 29, 2023. It’s my final installment, fund-drive style, celebrating the great Al Young. Today, in the third in a specially curated series remembering the onetime poet laureate of California, I ask you to also celebrate Al, and to celebrate KPFK. The writer, poet, singer, teacher, musicologist and self-described bluesman passed away in 2021 but friends assembled this summer in Berkeley to remember him. Today’s edited highlights begin with a reading by current California poet laureate Lee Herrick followed by poets Lisa Alvarez and Persis Karim, and concluding with yet another performance offered that afternoon by the legendary jazz duo Tuck & Patti, friends and fans of Al. Play loud! For more on Al Young, check out his landmark collection, Something About the Blues, and see this excellent appreciation at the online newspaper Berkeleyside. Thanks for listening to Bibliocracy Radio on the radio, as a live-stream online, or here, at the website archives.

Please support KPFK with a donation today. Tell them Al sent you!

Listen to full episode :