On December 30, Bay Area Generations #4 will take place at The Terrace Room on Lake Merritt in Oakland. The Terrace Room has panormic views of Lake Merritt and is housed in an art deco building dating from teh 1920s. Before our performance, the restaurant will offer their full dinner menu plus they’ll feature happy hour snacks and drink specials for the entire event. We think it’s going to be delightful. Our featured performers will be:

Joel Landmine is well known to East Bay literary fans. His short poems are pungent but not necessarily pretty. His biography states he has begrudgingly survived several near-death experiences, is a disappointment to his family and loved ones, lives alone with his cat in Oakland, and rarely leaves the house.

Cassandra Dallett returns to Bay Area Generations with a new reading partner (Joel Landmine), having previously performed with Julia Vinograd at Bay Area Generations #3. Cassandra is published in many East Bay magazines, and is the author of several chapbooks.

Michael Warr has written several books of poetry including the much admired “The Armageddon of Funk”. He has won numerous awards from organizations such as PEN and The National Endowment of the Arts.

Hugh Behm-Steinberg is the husband of visual artist Mary Behm-Steinberg with whom he recently collaborated on the poetry collection “The Opposite of Work”. That book consisted of Hugh’s poems illustrated by Mary’s drawings and collage which constitute an animated “flip book” to accompany the text. Behm-Steinberg is a faculty member of the California College of Art and editor of CCA’s literary journal, “Eleven Eleven”. He also plays music with the band, “The Crank Ensemble”.

Sharon Coleman

Bay Area Generations co-curator Charles Kruger wrote three years ago (at examiner.com) that “Ms. Coleman’s fragile nerves turn like the petals of a sunflower to the poetry in everyday experience, and spew forth poems that illuminate.” This remains the clear truth about her work today. Sharon is a contributing editor of Poetry Flash and a much-beloved teacher of creative writing at Berkeley City College.

Rosa Lane is winner of The Briar Cliff Review 2013 Contest in the category of Poetry.  Rosa has also been a finalist in several recent national poetry competitions and national runner-up for the Cape Cod Cultural Center for the Arts 2013 Poetry Competition for her poem “Deer and Women.”

Paul Corman-Roberts read with Chansonette Buck last September at Bay Area Generations premiere show at The Emerald Tablet. We welcome his return with a second intergenerational partner. Paul is a leader of all things literary in the East Bay. He is one of the major organizers of the infamous Beast Crawl, an editor at Full Of Crow Press and the author of multiple chap books.

Alexandra Naughton  edits a literary zine, “Be About It”, apparently possesses multiple personalities, and otherwise defies description. She is also the author of a recently published chapbook, “I’ll Always Be Your Whore: Love Songs for Billy Corgan”.

Powell St. John (the sultan of psychedelia) is a bonafide legend in the music world. He began his career singing and playing harp and guitar with the Austin folk band, Waller Creek Boys, that featured another local singer named Janis Joplin (who later scored a hit with Powell’s song, “Bye Bye Baby”). He went on to write songs for The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and to be a founding member of the bands Conqueroo and “Mother Earth“. He is an inductee of the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Powell will be performing with guitarist Bob Fagan of both The Aliens and The Clash Brothers.