City Lights Book Party — You’re Invited!
Tuesday, June 8 at 6 pm Pacific (9 pm Eastern). Put that in your calendar. That’s when my sister/coauthor Margaret Talbot and I will launch our new book, By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution, at a Zoom party hosted by legendary City Light Bookstore. Now there are many bleak aspects to the Covid pandemic — but having an online book party, with book lovers from all around the globe, is a joy these days. (Keep you eyes on this page or the City Lights events calendar for Zoom info.)
And somehow I think the spirit of City Lights co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who recently exited this mortal coil, will also be in attendance. Many of the revolutionary heroes featured in our book made treks over the years to Ferlinghetti’s literary mecca in San Francisco. They were flawed heroes, they made tragic mistakes, but their triumphs and even defeats still compel America (and the world) to a higher place.
Margaret and I were fortunate to have frank discussions with many of the crusaders featured in our book: Bobby Seale and Kathleen Cleaver of the Black Panther Party; Dennis Banks and Madonna Thunder Hawk of the American Indian Movement; Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers; Heather Booth and other members of Jane, the underground abortion collective in the days before Roe v. Wade; Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda of the Vietnam antiwar movement.
As Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland, has written about our book: “By the Light of Burning Dreams crackles with the radical energy of the 1960s and ’70s. It’s a shot in the arm of bold idealism, an indispensable companion for today’s revolutionaries that reminds us what can happen if we dare to believe in—and fight for—a better world.”
I hope to see all of you at our book party. It promises to be another special “gathering of the tribes.” All of us who never stopped believing in “Power to the People.”
PS And a special thank you to Peter Maravelis, the tireless, visionary events director for City Lights.
The late, great Ferlinghetti