Mahnaz Badihian, William Taylor Jr., and I had a great time at the Beat Museum in San Francisco.
Instead of fearing the "terrors" of Iran, we celebrated her arts and music with
Manouchehr Ganbari on Tar and the lovely verses of Mahnaz.
OH NO!!
William Taylor Jr. was actually beat up for the reading. He was mugged while walking to his hotel late at night in New Orleans. :'(
He says a woman stopped him asking for help, while her accomplice took everything from his pockets. The getaway car pulled up fast and they jumped in. Billy pulled on the door handle to open the door and demand his ID back, but they sped off, wrenching his shoulder and knocking him to the ground where he bashed his face on the curb.
With no ID and having failed several Experian-grade test questions, the airline finally permitted him to board when he showed them a copy of his book, with his photo on the back and his name on the front. That's proof of ID these days? Okay well it worked! We're all glad he got home in one piece.
I can't say anything about this, but the audience loved it.
unpublished poem: