Los Angeles and Poetry Lose Lewis MacAdams, 1944–2020

California poet and journalist Lewis MacAdams has died at the age of 75, reports the LA Times's Lewis Sahagun. MacAdams, former director of San Francisco State University's Poetry Center (from 1975 to 1978) and friend to many second-generation New York School poets, was the author of Birth Of The Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant Garde (2001). He was also the "co-founder of one of the most influential conservation organizations in California," writes Sahagun. More:

MacAdams, who died of complications related to Parkinson’s disease early Tuesday at a healthcare facility in Los Angeles, was a visionary figure who led the hardened army known as Friends of the Los Angeles River and mentored generations of activists in fights to reduce the damage along the 51-mile flood control channel hemmed by freeways, power lines and railroad yards.

As the group’s first president, MacAdams was influential in making river restoration an issue for policymakers and transformed the nonprofit from a handful of nature lovers to an organization with a list of 40,000 supporters, annual river cleanup efforts and educational programs.

He also did much of the work to win approval of a $1.6-billion federal project to restore habitat, widen the channel, create wetlands and provide access points and bike trails along an 11-mile section of unpaved riverbed north of downtown.

In recognition of his contributions, a 7-foot-high concrete monument featuring artistic renderings of MacAdams in his trademark porkpie hat and flora and fauna such as cottonwood trees and red-legged frogs was installed in 2016 in a park along the river’s edge. The park was renamed Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park.

In an interview later that year, MacAdams, who was recovering from a stroke, gripped the handles of his walker to steady himself and gazed out at a weedy stretch of concrete banks, listening intently.

“The L.A. River speaks to me,” MacAdams said “And she’s been a vigorous muse for more than 30 years.”

Read more about MacAdams's contributions to Los Angeles, and to literature, at the LA Times.