No one has done more for the Bay Area literary scene than Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his venerable publishing house and bookstore, City Lights. Litquake is pleased to bestow its annual Barbary Coast award for 2010 to the poet and artist Ferlinghetti, and to North Beach’s famed purveyors of both books and revolution.

Please join us for an evening of tributes, poetry, music, and laughter as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Booksellers receive Litquake’s Barbary Coast Award. Poet, author, and rock-n-roll high priestess Patti Smith takes the stage with guitarist Lenny Kaye to pay tribute along with Winona Ryder; Michael McClure; New Yorker cartoonist Eric Drooker; Ishmael Reed; former San Francisco Poet Laureates Jack Hirschman and devorah major; Beth Lisick; Michelle Tea; and the Marcus Shelby Quartet. Also Robert Mailer Anderson, Justin Chin, Daphne Gottlieb, Juan Felipe Herrera, , Chinaka Hodge, Michael Horowitz, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, James Kass, Elaine Katzenberger, Robert Scheer, Tiny a.k.a. Lisa Gray-Garcia, and Paul Yamazaki.

Plus a very special guest indeed.