Bukowski’s spirit suffuses a tribute to Black Sparrow

Possibly it wasn’t Charles Bukowski’s kind of joint, this grand library of marble, wingback chairs and oil paintings, a place with arched ceilings and a marble vestibule that commands a cathedral-like hush. Or maybe it wasn’t, that is, until poet Wanda Coleman sashayed up to a podium at a reading to salute Black Sparrow Press, the maverick literary publisher that had been based in California for 36 years.

At UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Coleman, a native of Watts who has broad shoulders and large square glasses, rocked the drawing room with her signature warrior voice. You almost could see Bukowski, the late chronicler of Los Angeles’ mean streets and screenwriter for “Barfly,” tipping back in one of the cushioned chairs and hoisting a beer in tribute to Black Sparrow, the press that was founded in 1966 to publish his poems.

Black Sparrow, which recently changed ownership, eventually built a distinguished backlist of writers that included D.H. Lawrence, Paul Bowles and John Fante and took on Coleman, then relatively unknown, in 1977. (In 2001, she was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry.)

At the reading, Coleman, 56, whispered, black boots tapping, dreadlocks bobbing. She shrieked. She sang the blues. She waved her arms, and the silver rings on her fingers caught the sunlight that pierced the tall windows, which were draped with heavy blush-colored curtains tied by braided cords.

The vibrancy of her voice shook off the formal air, and the audience of about 100 hooted and hollered.

It was a graying, turtleneck-and-blazer kind of crowd, the type that didn’t leave early on a beautiful afternoon, even when the reading strayed past the two-hour mark, the type who listened attentively to the three other poets on the bill: Nancy Boutilier, David Bromige and Aram Saroyan.

The event was sponsored by the library and the UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies to honor Black Sparrow, which was founded by John Martin in Los Angeles and later moved to Santa Rosa. Last summer, Martin announced his retirement and solidified plans to make sure that his writers, past and present, would not be left hanging. He sold Black Sparrow’s rights to publish works by Bukowski, who died in San Pedro in 1994, Fante and Bowles to New York-based Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. And he lined up Boston-based publisher David R. Godine to take over Black Sparrow’s backlist (except for the works of Wyndham Lewis, which were picked up by Gingko Press). Godine also plans to honor the press’ contracts with such contemporary writers as Coleman.

Martin and his wife, Barbara Martin, who designed the covers for Black Sparrow books, were unable to attend the reading. The new publisher, Godine, who flew in from Boston to attend and meet with writers and booksellers, did not address the gathering.

But in an interview, Godine said he was determined to carry on the press in the spirit of Martin. In the new Black Sparrow catalog, Godine writes that Martin ferreted out writers with roots in the West, who turned “toward the frontier and its promise of wildness, and away from the East ... [the kind] in collectors’ libraries, in little magazines, and among that host of bards and truth tellers that emerged from the jazz cellars of the 1950s into the Day-Glo orange sunshine of the 1960s and ‘70s.”

After the reading, Coleman said the day seemed like both an ending and a beginning. “It’s exciting, and a new adventure, and I’m glad I’m young enough to go for the ride,” she said. “I don’t feel sad. I feel excited.”

Delores Burris, 69, drove from Pomona to hear Coleman and learn about the future of Black Sparrow. “I hold great hopes ... they’ll keep it vital and will reflect the kind of exciting voices that have always been heard. If that happens, I’ll be just as happy as a clam.”