The legendary writer, activist, musician, political prisoner, manager, and friend to outlaws and margin-walkers everywhere, John Sinclair, returns to town to read from and sign copies of his brand new collection of essays, It's All Good: A John Sinclair Reader, this Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. at Book Beat in Oak Park. The event is free.
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.
