Join us at Book Beat on Sunday, November 8 at 3:00pm to welcome John Sinclair for a reading and signing of his latest collection of essays, It’s All Good: A John Sinclair Reader. This event is free and open to the public. The Book Beat is located at 26010 Greenfield in Oak Park. For more information or to reserve a copy of the book, call Book Beat (248) 968-1190.
“He was the fearless Detroit protopunk who terrified America with his band the MC5 – and saw busts and jail as all part of a revolutionary’s lot. So what’s John Sinclair doing today? Writing jazz poetry in Amsterdam..” The Guardian, Interview
John Sinclair has been many things to many people- founder of the Detroit Artists Workshop and the White Panther Party, manager of the storied MC5, producer of the legendary Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals and of records from Deacon John to Sun Ra, political prisoner and implacable opponent of the marijuana laws since 1965, popular radio broadcaster at WWOZ and originator of the live coverage of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, pioneer of podcasting and proprietor of his own radio station at www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com for the past ten years.
But first and always John Sinclair is a poet and journalist with 50 years of the written and spoken word behind him. His work in adapting the blues and jazz idioms to verse forms with musical accompaniment is without parallel, and he’s produced more than 20 albums of his music and verse creations.
It’s All Good collects 25 of Sinclair’s poems and 25 prose writings into one handy compendium of selections from his books of poetry Fattening Frogs for Snakes- Delta Blues suite, always know: a book of monk, and Song of Praise- Homage to John Coltrane, plus excerpts from underground classic Guitar Army and features on Jack Kerouac, Dr. John, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Irma Thomas, and the Wild Indians of Mardi Gras.
It’s All Good is accompanied by a free album download of Sinclair corresponding to the poems in the book.