Dispatches from the alley on local vendors, authors, plays and a dying strip mall
December 30, 2020 by Gary Singh
THIS OLD HAUNT: The Sept. 16, 2020 column about Cambrian Park Plaza hit home for many Alleys readers this year.
Photo by Gary Singh
Even though 2020 was one of the worst years on record, the Alley denizen did not give up. He celebrated local heroes, hit a personal milestone, mourned the dead, hit a few unexpected home runs and found gratitude.
As the pandemic settled in, local folks did the best they could to soldier through it all. In fact, I used that phrase a few times. Scott s Seafood, Tony & Alba s, Academic Coffee, Streetlight Records, New Ballet San Jose and the public library all showed up in this space. In the latter case, library employees 3D-printed masks for front-line workers. No one knew how long shelter-in-place would last.
launched
The Art of Distance, a newsletter highlighting unlocked archive pieces that resonate with the staff of
the magazine
, resources from our peer organizations,
and more. Read Emily Nemens’s introductory letter here, and find the latest unlocked archive selections below.
“ ‘O winter closing down on our separate shells,’ Diane di Prima writes in her poem ‘Rondeau for the Yule.’ As many of us have been ensconced in our separate shells for most of this year and as many East Coasters got a white shell of snow to cap that of the pandemic Di Prima’s closing line struck a loud chord in this reader. With the year winding down, I felt another peal at Eavan Boland’s ‘Inscriptions,’ a poem that begins in ‘holiday rooms’ but cannot ignore ‘the deaths in alleys and on doorsteps, / happening ninety miles away from my home.’ Beyond their prescience, these poems are notable in that both of these poets passed away in 2020. In this time of incalcula
An Incomplete List of the Writers, Editors, and Great
Literary Minds We Lost This Year
December 18, 2020
The year is at an end, and I think I speak for pretty much everyone when I say: good riddance. (While we don’t have any guarantee that 2021 will be an improvement, it seems like it would have to be.) Among the many unhappinesses of this year, we lost what seems like an unusually large number of members of the literary community, from poets to novelists to editors to critics to publishers to booksellers. To them, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. They will be missed.
A church in California that has reportedly held worship services indoors with hundreds of attendees not wearing face masks was held in contempt of court and fined.