Ferlinghetti Day 2025 at The 1 in 12 Library, Bradford

Ferlinghetti Day is organised in California by Chris Buck and Richard O Moore, with cooperation from City Lights and Lorenzo Ferlinghetti, and starts with a reading of Ferlinghetti’s poem “The Changing Light” outside his old home at 706 Wisconsin Street, Potrero Hill, at sunrise, followed by a Literary Walkabout, reading his poems at places he is associated with. So why Bradford, you say? Organiser David Mullin (who read at the last More Song event of 2024, organised by Tom Branfoot) admits there is no specific Ferlinghetti-Bradford link, but The 1 in 12 Library is the largest anarchist library in the UK, and one of the largest in the world, and Ferlinghetti described himself as an anarchist. And that’s good enough for us. David says: “We hope to have a lively event and a true celebration of poetry, art and the anarchic imagination.”

A special, letterpress printed celebration poster which will be available on the night and the club bar will be open.

Born on 24 March 1919 in New York, Lawrence Ferlinghetti studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before moving to San Francisco in 1951, where he was a central part of the West Coast poetry community and long-time supporter of Beat poets such as Ginsberg, Corso and Di Prima. He served as San Francisco’s Poet Laureate between 1998-2000, recognition for his long engagement with, and involvement in, American poetry. In his lifetime he published over 20 collections of poetry, as well as several novels and plays. In 2003 he won a lifetime achievement award from the Author’s Guild, was awarded the Frost Medal by the Poetry Society of America, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of City Lights. He was also a painter and has work in a number of American galleries. A retrospective of his painting was held at Reggio Calabria, Rome in 2010.