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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
Frankie Ziths/AP Photo
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, seen here in 1988, was a poet,
publisher and bookseller.
San Francisco Beat poet,
publisher dies at 101
By JANIE HAR and
HILLEL ITALIE
Associated Press
Mark Graves/The Oregonian
SAN FRANCISCO —
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the
poet, publisher, bookseller
and activist who helped
launch the Beat movement
in the 1950s and embodied
its curious and rebellious
spirit well into the 21st cen-
tury, has died at age 101.
Ferlinghetti, a San Fran-
cisco institution, died Mon-
day at his home, his son,
Lorenzo Ferlinghetti, said.
A month shy of his 102nd
birthday, Ferlinghetti died
in his own room, holding
the hands of his son and
his son’s girlfriend, as he
took his last breath. The
cause of death was lung
disease. Ferlinghetti had
received the fi rst dose of
the COVID-19 vaccine last
week, his son said.
Few poets of the past 60
years were so well known,
or so infl uential. His books
sold more than 1 million
copies worldwide, a fan-
tasy for virtually any of his
peers, and he ran one of
the world’s most famous
and distinctive bookstores,
City Lights. Although he
never considered himself
one of the Beats, he was a
patron and soul mate and,
for many, a lasting sym-
bol — preaching a nobler
and more ecstatic Ameri-
can dream.
“Am I the conscious-
ness of a generation or
just some old fool sound-
ing off and trying to escape
the dominant materialist
avaricious consciousness
of America?” he asked in
“Little Boy,” a stream of
consciousness novel pub-
lished around the time of
his 100th birthday.
He
made
history.
A bust of York, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is seen on Mount Tabor in Portland on Sunday.
Bust of Black Lewis and Clark
Expedition hero goes up in Portland
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Last year, protesters
against racial injustice top-
pled numerous statues around
the country. Now, one of the
fi rst works of art to emerge in
their place depicts an unsung
hero of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition.
A huge bust of York, a
Black man who was enslaved
by William Clark and who
was the fi rst African-Ameri-
can to cross the continent and
reach the Pacifi c Ocean, is sit-
ting atop a pedestal amid a
lushly forested park in Port-
land. It was placed there in the
dead of night last weekend by
persons unknown.
People have fl ocked to
the bust, which seems to be
at least 4 feet tall, in Mount
Tabor Park. The artist’s depic-
tion of York shows him seem-
ingly deep in thought or even
sad, his eyes cast downward.
York hadn’t been painted con-
temporaneously so how his
face really looked is unknown.
Offi cials in the city, which
has been an epicenter of
Black Lives Matter protests
since the killing of George
Floyd, love what the head of
the parks department called
“guerrilla art.”
“This past summer, there’s
been concern about some of
the public art that many states
have displayed, and so folks
really see this installation as
a bit of a reckoning,” said
Adena Long, director of Port-
land Parks and Recreation.
“The story of York is really
compelling and very sad.”
Passersby stare up at the
bust or touch the tall stone
pedestal. The anonymous art-
ist affi xed a plaque describing
how York was an integral part
of the 1804 to 1806 expedi-
tion to fi nd an all-water route
to the Pacifi c, but then was
denied his freedom by Clark
after it was over.
Since the killing of Floyd
in Minneapolis last May,
hundreds of symbols of rac-
PEOPLE HAVE FLOCKED TO THE
BUST, WHICH SEEMS TO BE AT LEAST
4 FEET TALL, IN MOUNT TABOR
PARK. THE ARTIST’S DEPICTION
OF YORK SHOWS HIM SEEMINGLY
DEEP IN THOUGHT OR EVEN SAD,
HIS EYES CAST DOWNWARD.
YORK HADN’T BEEN PAINTED
CONTEMPORANEOUSLY SO HOW HIS
FACE REALLY LOOKED IS UNKNOWN.
ism and other dark chapters
of U.S. history have been
removed. Among them were
at least 167 Confederate sym-
bols, according to the South-
ern Poverty Law Center.
Pedestals that used to sup-
port statues that were torn
down by Black Lives Matter
protesters or removed by offi -
cials now are empty. One, in
Virginia, held a monument to
Jefferson Davis; others held
memorials to Confederate
soldiers in Florida, North Car-
olina, and Alabama; another
bore a statue of Robert E. Lee,
in Alabama.
Simply renaming places
has been easier. At least 14
schools — mostly in the
south — were renamed last
year. For example, Rob-
ert E. Lee High School, in
Springfi eld, Virginia, became
John R. Lewis High School,
named for the late civil rights
leader and congressman from
Georgia.
“John R. Lewis, by his
lifetime of service, strength,
conviction and dedication to
improving the lives of others,
is memorialized as an endur-
ing symbol through his name-
sake high school,” the school
district says.
Deciding what to replace
downed statues with, com-
missioning the artists and hav-
ing the work done takes time.
Whoever made the gigan-
tic head of York circumvented
all that by producing the bust
— offi cials believe it might
have been done with a 3D
printer — getting it into the
park without being detected
and then placing it on top of
the pedestal, which itself is
around 10 feet high.
It’s likely the artist had
collaborators to install it. On
Friday night, as is custom-
ary, park rangers shut gates
on the roads and locked them
at 10 p.m. closing time. On
Saturday morning, a mainte-
nance worker saw the York
bust, perched on a pedestal
where a statue of a conser-
vative fi gure who opposed
women’s right to vote had
stood until someone knocked
it over last year.
“None of those gates had
been damaged. None of those
locks had been damaged. And
so we do feel that this was
brought in on foot,” said Tim
Collier, community relations
manager for the city parks
department.
They had to transport the
bust, which seems to be com-
posed of plastic or composite
of synthetic material, at least
1,000 feet uphill from the
nearest road access.
The mysterious appear-
ance of the bust has prompted
many to look up York’s story.
In the epic expedition,
York had gone on scouting
missions, had hunted buffalo
and deer to feed the group and
helped tend to the sick.
Historian
Stephen
Ambrose, in his book
“Undaunted Courage” about
the expedition, described
York as “strong, agile, a nat-
ural athlete.” Native Ameri-
cans were fascinated by the
fi rst Black person they had
ever seen.
“They did not look upon
him as a slave or as a mere
man, but as an extraordi-
nary person more interesting
and elevated than any of his
companions,” the National
Park Service says in a brief
biography.
After the expedition was
over, everyone but York
was rewarded with money
and land. York, whose wife
was also a slave and lived
in another town, demanded
freedom as a reward for his
services on the expedition,
Ambrose wrote. But Clark
refused and even gave him “a
Severe trouncing” for being
insolent.
Clark later claimed to a
friend that he’d freed York.
Historians haven’t been able
to verify that.
Collier said that in the leg-
ends of the expedition, York’s
role has been overlooked, and
that the bust “is really further-
ing that conversation here in
our very, very white city.”
Long hopes the artist
comes forward to possibly
have a conversation about
making York a permanent art
installation.
Through the City Lights
publishing arm, books by
Jack Kerouac, William S.
Burroughs and many others
came out and the release of
Allen Ginsberg’s landmark
poem “Howl” led to a 1957
obscenity case that broke
new ground for freedom of
expression.
He also defi ed history.
The internet, superstore
chains and high rents shut-
down numerous booksell-
ers in the Bay Area and
beyond, but City Lights
remained a thriving polit-
ical and cultural outlet,
where one section was
devoted to books enabling
“revolutionary
compe-
tence,” where employees
could get the day off to
attend an anti-war protest.
“Generally, people seem
to get more conserva-
tive as they age, but in my
case, I seem to have got-
ten more radical,” Ferling-
hetti told Interview maga-
zine in 2013. “Poetry must
be capable of answering
the challenge of apocalyp-
tic times, even if this means
sounding apocalyptic.”
The store even endured
during the coronavirus out-
break, when it was forced
to close and required
$300,000 to stay in busi-
ness. A GoFundMe cam-
paign
quickly
raised
$400,000.
Ferlinghetti, tall and
bearded, with sharp blue
eyes, could be soft-spo-
ken, even introverted and
reticent in unfamiliar sit-
uations. But he was the
most public of poets and
his work wasn’t intended
for solitary contempla-
tion. It was meant to be
recited or chanted out loud,
whether in coffee houses,
bookstores or at campus
gatherings.
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