In Los Angeles, a Library Branch in Wanda Coleman's Honor

Wanda Coleman's friends, family, and colleagues in the Los Angeles poetry community have been advocating for a branch dedication since Coleman's death in 2013. Now, following a recent request from Coleman's widower, Austin Straus, the Ascot branch (where she frequently perused the shelves as a young reader) will be dedicated to her. More, via Jacket Copy:

The Los Angeles Public Library will dedicate its Ascot Branch library to poet Wanda Coleman later this month. Coleman, who died in 2013, was considered Los Angeles' "unofficial poet laureate"; friends, fans and family had advocated for a permanent remembrance.

Coleman's poetry, full of creative vigor, often dealt with racism and violence, poverty and love, family and Los Angeles. The Watts-born Coleman began taking writing workshops after the 1965 Watts riots, when she was already a wife and mother.

From 1975-76 she wrote on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," where she won an Emmy award. Her first collection of poetry, the chapbook "Art in the Court of the Blue Fag," was published in 1977 by West Coast independent publisher Black Sparrow Press.

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In all, Coleman published more than 20 books of poetry, essays and short fiction.

Outspoken and opinionated, Coleman was not shy about taking on anointed figures. Her sarcastic coverage of an Angela Davis rally in the 1970s for the Los Angeles Free Press got her barred from its pages. Two decades later, her derisive review of Maya Angelou's "A Song Flung Up to Heaven" in the L.A. Times made waves locally and nationally.

Continue at Jacket Copy.