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- <text id=93TT1402>
- <title>
- Apr. 12, 1993: Poetic License
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Apr. 12, 1993 The Info Highway
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 24
- SOCIETY
- Poetic License
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>San Francisco tries regulating poetry readings in coffeehouses
- </p>
- <p> All they wanted was a little poetic justice, a bit of free
- verse. Many poets and coffeehouse owners in San Francisco were
- outraged over the recent enforcement of an old city code calling
- for permits in venues where poetry is read. In the case of the
- Blue Monkey cafe, the permit would have cost $638. Local poets
- demonstrated and got the ear of Mayor Frank Jordan, who asked
- the police commission to suspend enforcement of the 20-year-old
- licensing code (it was amended in 1991 to specifically cover
- poetry).
- </p>
- <p> Later, Angela Alioto, president of the city board of
- supervisors, announced plans to change the law so that
- coffeehouses featuring nonprofessional poets wouldn't need an
- entertainment permit. And she invited local poets Alan Kaufman
- and Neeli Cherkovski to hold a reading at city hall. Cherkovski
- already has a poem he can use. "Taxing poetry," it reads, "is
- like making clouds pay for passing by."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-