This is the audience of a reading Bob Perleman gave at Canessa Park Gallery in I think 1986. There must have been a co-reader but I am not sure who it was. 1986 was when I stopped running the series and talked Spencer Selby into running it. Jim Hartz, Ben Friedlander and I started it in 1984 to replace the one at the bakery at Cole and Carl that took over from the Grand Piano or at least that is my memory of the lineage. I think an actual physical mailing list was passed from hand to hand. There was a certain symmetry there as I was the last reader at the bakery series along with Stephen Rodefer. Here is an attempt at some of the names:

Back row: Bob Perleman with hands up, Krishna Evans, David Melnick, Ron Silliman also with hands up, Carla Harryman, Ben Friendlander. Middle row: Sandra Meyer (or at least I think that was her name. I do remember that she last ran the series at the bakery) and her partner, a few people I can't remember, Dan Davidson, a woman I can't remember, Thoreau Lovell, Pat Reed. Next row: a man I don't recognize, Jerry Estrin, Leslie Scalapino. Front row: Two women I can almost remember, Beverly Dahlen, Melissa Riley and Alan Bernheimer.












These are pictures I took last Sunday at my reading with Brenda Iijima and Tyrone Williams. Colleen Lookingbill has currently taken over the Canessa Park series from Avery Burns. My digital camera technique makes it more difficult to make out the people in this later shot, but here is a try at some of the recognizable faces: In the back: Jordon Jones, Suzanne Dyckman, Andrew Joron, Standard Schaefer, a man I don't recognize, (ah, I am told he is Zack Finch, a poet and scholar visiting from Buffalo), Rob Halpern, Tanya Hollis. In the middle: a woman I can't make out, Sarah Larsen, David Brazil, Erika Staiti, a man I don't know but a lot of people were talking to, (and this turns out to be Francois Luong, see the comments, who I now feel I know), Jerrold Shiroma, Eleni Stecopoulos and Tyrone Williams. Next row: Nick Robinson, Kit Robinson, Erica Lewis, Rusty Morrison, Brenda Iijima. Front row: Jeanne Heuving and Taylor Brady.

Two differences that come to mind are that the ages of the people in the 1986 shot, but for David Melnick and Bev Dahlen, who are a bit older, seem to me to be in a slightly narrower range. Also, and this seems like a bigger difference, I don't see any people of color in the older picture.

It would be great if anyone with names to add or correct could comment or contact me.