Lewis MacAdams (October 12, 1944 – April 21, 2020) was an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
,
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...
, and
filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
.
[Poetry and Politics-An Autobiography](_blank)
by Lewis MacAdams
Early life and education
MacAdams was born in
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert to the southwest, Osage Pla ...
and grew up in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, where he graduated from
St. Mark's School of Texas in 1962.
He then graduated from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...
in 1966. He then earned a Master's degree from the
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1 ...
.
Career
MacAdams was the author of a dozen books and tapes of poetry, and his poems have appeared in many anthologies. In 2001, he published his ''Birth of The Cool'', a cultural history of the idea of cool. As a journalist, MacAdams was a contributing editor of ''
L.A. Weekly'' and wrote regularly on culture and ecology for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...
'', ''
Men’s Journal'', the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'', and ''Los Angeles'' magazine.
MacAdams was the director of the Poetry Center at
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
from 1975 to 1978.
As a political activist, MacAdams was a cofounder of
Friends of the Los Angeles River
Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in California in 1986, whose mission is to protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles River and its riparian habitat. The group ...
(FoLAR) established in 1985 (and served as chair on their board of directors). FoLAR was characterized by MacAdams as a "40 year art work" to bring the Los Angeles River back to life. In the years which followed, he became the river’s most important and influential advocate. Among FoLAR’s many projects are an annual river clean-up, the "Gran Limpieza," which brings 2500 people down to the river every spring to clean up; and an ongoing series of conferences and planning workshops dealing with every aspect of the river. Two of its current major goals are to create a Los Angeles River Conservancy to oversee restoration of the river, and a River Watch program to improve the River’s water quality and target polluters
In 1991, MacAdams received the
San Fernando Valley Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
’s annual Conservation Award.
MacAdams' work, ''The River: Books One, Two & Three'', takes the Los Angeles River as its metaphor, weaving the story and song of the poet, activist and journalist as these three roles form the confluence which is the man.
Death
On April 21, 2020, MacAdams died at the age of 75 from complications of
Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by his three sons and his daughter.
Selected publications
Books
*''City Money: Poems''. Burning Water (1966)
*''City Room''
*''The Poetry Room''. New York: Harper & Row; First Edition (January 1, 1970)
*''A Bolinas Report''
*''Tilth''
*''Dance'', pamphlet. Canton: The Institute of Further Studies; first edition (January 1, 1972)
*''News From Niman Farm'', Tombouctou Books, 1976; first edition (November 1976)
*''Live At The Church''. Kulchur Foundation (1977)
*''Blind Date'', pamphlet. Am Here Books/Immediate Editions; first edition (January 1, 1981)
*''The Angel'' (with Rita Degli Esposti & Gianantonio Pozzi)
*''Africa and The Marriage of Walt Whitman and Marilyn Monroe''. Little Caesar Press (1982)
*''The River, Books One & Two''. Palo Alto, CA: Blue Press, 1998
*''Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde''. New York: The Free Press, 2001
*''The Family Trees'', (illustrated by Kim Abeles). Palo Alto, CA: Blue Press, 2001
*''A Poem for the Dawn of the Terror Years''. Palo Alto, CA: Blue Press, 2003
*''The River: Books One, Two, and Three''. Palo Alto, CA: Blue Press, revised second edition, 2007
*''Lyrics''. Palo Alto, CA: Blue Press, 2009
*''Dear Oxygen''. New Orleans, LA: University of New Orleans Press, 2011
Audiotapes and CD's
*''To The Russian Women''
*''And Now The News''
*''Dear Oxygen'' Audio CD Collaboration with The Dark Bob (2007)
*"Good Grief" Audio CD Collaboration with The Dark Bob (2015)
Articles
* “Poetry and Politics.” Talking poetics from Naropa Institute : annals of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics V. 2. Ed. Anne Waldman and Marilyn Webb, Boulder, Colo. : Shambhala, 1979
* ''Remembering Jim Carroll''. Los Angeles Times. 16 September 2009.
*
Films
*Directed (with Richard Lerner), ''What Happened to Kerouac?'' (1986)
*Directed (with
Jo Bonney), ''Funhouse'' (1986)
Funhouse (1986) - IMDb
See also
*
List of poets from the United States
The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I–J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
* George Quasha (born 1942)
R
S
T
U� ...
References
External links
Interview of Lewis MacAdams part o
Environmental Activism in Los Angelesinterview series, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.
written for the L.A. Weekly on the occasion of the publication of
Philip Whalen
Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation.
Biography
Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dall ...
’s Overtime, March, 1999
Interview with Lewis MacAdamssubtitled: Birth of the Cool. Beat, Bebop and the American Avant-Garde. MacAdams is interviewed by Paul DeRienzo
a chapbook of poems by MacAdams featured at Big Bridge#9
Friends of the Los Angeles Rivermain website
Orhan Pamuk's L.A. stroll conjures up familiar sightsMacAdams article, which first appeared November 2009 in the
L.A. Times, discusses the Nobel prize-winning author
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lang ...
, and his bond with Los Angeles' old-fashioned urban scape.
KCET Departures interview with Lewis Macadamsartist and advocate of the L.A. River
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macadams, Lewis
American male poets
American literary critics
Writers from Los Angeles
Writers from Texas
People from San Angelo, Texas
Princeton University alumni
Los Angeles River
St. Mark's School (Texas) alumni
American male non-fiction writers
1944 births
2020 deaths
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in California
University at Buffalo alumni