Walkin' with Joaquin

It's live! The complete record of the California Writers Memorial Grove is now live on the FOJMP website.  This is the architectural drawing I found in the Woodminster Theater archive in the Bancroft Library. What do you think of the author list?  Who have you read/would like to read?  What works by these authors do you think speak to issues of today?  For whom would you nominate a tree today?

I am deeply honored to be the kick-off speaker for the revivification of the San Francisco Browning Society! I'm excited to strengthen a literary friendship that began in 1871. The Browning Monument in Joaquin Miller Park has been a mystery to us all... now coming fully to light. Please RSVP to the contact below... I look forward to seeing all the hats and ties!  (And to think it all began with a crumbling disaster! )

 Yes, that was me hugging that tree.  This month, I had the serendipitous fortune to join an intuitive painting class in the redwoods, something I've never done before.  On summer weekends, Redwood Glen teems with brides and grooms posing for professional photographs, hikers with dogs, and groups of children in art camp--but it still feelsprivate, spacious, and soaring. I arrived to find a picnic table groaning with art supplies, and spotted a gathering away between the trees.   Seven people sat on the ground around a carpet, some on plump cushions. After a moving introduction by our facilitator, Bahar Amanzadeh, we were no longer strangers. Bahar, who moved the the US from Iran half a lifetime ago, shared some ceremonial Persian artifacts, and told her story. Then she read a long poem by Rumi--first in Farsi, then in improvised English.  “If the thirsty seek water, the water is also seeking the thirsty.” — Rumi Bahar runs intuitive painting classes and wor...

The first musical this summer was Jekyll and Hyde and I did some guerrilla literary ed in the Park. I'm working on a poster for the Ranger Station that displays a map of the California Writers Memorial Grove, just downhill from the amphitheater, and photos of all the writers for whom these trees were planted. This seemed like a good opportunity to label one of the trees! So if you are walking the stairs and you see these unsightly papers taped to a redwood, pay attention! (I recommend zooming in... I had to brave some protective ivy to put them there.) There's a story there! The text page reads:

Before we can even say hello, Saumitra (Sáw-mit-truh) Kelkar disappears behind a tree to examine a half-eaten mushroom I didn't even notice was there. This becomes the theme of our Sanborn Road walk, a deeply tracked conversation with constant interruptions when something would catch his eye and he'd climb up to take a closer look. Purple Needle Grass! Amanita Velosa! Mariposa Lily!  Saumitra's Instagram, oakland.bio is blowing up, and I'm a huge fan. This now-freelance biology teacher posts about native plants right that grow in sidewalk cracks and on empty lots—I couldn't wait to see what he knew about Joaquin Miller Park. Since he's someone who can find nature anywhere, Saumitra doesn't need to "go to the woods" like the rest of us—we're both amazed he's never really hiked here. Our 2 hour walk is a mutual info dump as we weave together what he knows —the secret life of all of the plants—and what I know—the people behind the scenes, the...

FOJMP welcomed 120 kids from Head Royce to the Park for Earth Day where they could learn about plants, pull some weeds, and hear my song! I performed it 5 times, turning skeptical faces into big smiles each time. I'd ask for a volunteer to play the guitar and select my tall brother Felix Baum from the audience. I'd confess that he was a plant (ha ha) and teach the German word for tree. Then I'd secretly teach a few Joaquin Miller facts as I dressed up "Mr. Tree." When he had the hat and bearskin vest on I'd ask if anyone had ever seen a picture of Miller and if he looked right. One person, each time, would know that he had a beard and voilá! I would produce the paper poetry beard!  After each performance to a group of 30, the kids would come and try on the beard and hat, or play the guitar, or sing their own songs to me! One kid even introduced himself as the real Joaquin. (Eyeballs are part of the disguise...) After each performance to a group of 30, the kids...

The CWC tabled at the Earth Day work day this year, with a simple writing prompt for all participants:  Write an Earthday Haiku! Because haiku as we know it has a direct lineage to Joaquin Miller Park! Learn why here . Crafting a haiku is something you can do while your hands are otherwise occupied. All you need your fingers for is to keep track of syllables. One hand plus two fingers.  In the back of my mind as I invited passersby to write a haiku, or to read poems written on this land by Joaquin Miller, I cranked them out. Once you start forming 5-syllable phrases, it's very hard to stop! (And yes, oops, I did bring a patch of it home!) Every so often, someone would come back to the table and write down a haiku they'd created. I'd tape them along the table's edge. This one was hilarious! It felt so special hearing each person read their poem out loud to me, heartfelt, among...

Our Friends of Joaquin Miller Park annual meeting and "In the Hights" Literary Arts Festival last October was an epic revival of great traditions. There's a video coming, but until then, taste these delicious highlights. We shared a pot of crowdsourced “bandit stew” (everyone brought an ingredient) prepared by chef John Farais of Indigenous Edibles . The audience--which included all of the readers--was treated to a cascade of historic literature read by local lights! The first reading was by a Rachel Royce,  president of the  Metropolitan Horseman's Association . From atop her horse, Harry Potter, she read a rollicking excerpt of the poem "Joaquin Murietta" -- the poem that shaped Joaquin Miller's destiny. Miller's horse, by the way, was named  Chief. The purpose of the program was to entertain and educate the public about the first and second wave of  California Writers who lived at or visited The Hights, Joaquin Miller's art colony that later ...

Join us for an afternoon of conversation about the Poet of the Sierras, Joaquin Miller. This event will be hosted by Dale Risden and Patrick LoChiatto at their home near Joaquin MIller Park. Bring something sweet or savory to nibble or sip! We'll have a special musical guest this year... Amazingly, Espen Langbråten from Norway will be in town! When: May 31, 2026, 2pm-6pm Where: Dale and Patrick's, 3424 Crane Way, Oakland Rsvp here!

Please join the Ina Coolbrith Circle on Saturday, March 21, at 2:00 p.m. for our monthly meeting.  This month's topic is  INA COOLBRITH AND JOAQUIN MILLER by Kristen Caven California Writers Club in Residence  at Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, CA Meeting hosted by Denise Barney Kristen  is currently working on a new book about Joaquin Miller, who was one of Ina Coolbrith’s most successful mentees. So much has been written about his surface level eccentricities and foibles that his depth of thought, uplifting themes and passion for artists—shared with his lifelong friend and parenting partner Ina Coolbrith—have gotten lost in the reflection. She’ll be reading the first chapter, Building the City Beautiful,  about his love for Ina, at our March meeting. Caven is a multi-genre literary artist whose poems, cartoons, plays, lyrics, essays, short stories, articles and choreography have been published in  Oakland Unseen, The Oakland Tribune, The Monthly,   Rud...

Imagine my delight when I got the most wonderful email the other week, out of the blue. The subject line was,  "Fellow Miller Enthusiast." Hi Kristen, I stumbled over your page completely by chance, and so glad I did. There are not many people any more who cherish and even know who Joaquin Miller was. This is probably a bit strange, but my name is Espen and I am a Norwegian singer-songwriter who have a project called Miller Sessions. We put music to some of Millers poems and I am travelling across Europe and playing them.  I have no other intentions than saying hi to a fellow Miller enthusiast. There are of course a lot of wierd and funny stories connected to why a Norwegian would take on such a project, but I will leave it here for the moment :-) If you are interested in hearing the music you find us on your favourite streaming platform as Miller Sessions. Any how, thanks for remembering him and spreading his stories. All the best Espen Langbråten Well of course, I immediate...

New green grasses were covering every open hill, and the wind blew colder up there than I had expected it to when I left the house on a January Wednesday. But at a picnic table in the lee of the parking lot, I was treated to a cup of coffee brewed by an intrepid biker and fellow history nerd.  Morgan Fletcher , who I met last year on a history walk, rides his bike like Joaquin Miller used to ride ranges. When he's resting and recovering, he searches old newspaper clippings and blogs about them on Fastest Slow Guy You Know . We've become good friends lately by dumping loads information into each other's email boxes, piecing together the stories of this spot on the hill. He unzips a bag that is shaped like, and suspended in, the triangle of space in his bike frame, and pulls out a small stove and a tiny coffee-making apparatus. He grinds the beans as he boils the water, and presses their fragrant spirit right into the Anchor Hocking cups I've brought in a tiny basket.  He...

I’m walkin’ with Joaquin this month in Italy, where he spent many months in the mid-1870s after establishing himself in London. As I ride trains from place to place, I’m reading his Complete Poetical Works , which he put together in The Hights in 1897, and pulling out tidbits and advice for writers. Miller not only collected his poems (the ones he would stand by, he wrote; the rest were reactions to his times, ruined by critics), he talks about them—about where he wrote them and what they meant to him. They’re beautiful. With the rhythm of the rails, I sound out the meter in my head, my fingers correcting the paragraph breaks where the archived text has clumped things wrong. Miller's writing is incredibly lyrical, and whatever reputation he had for gaining fame before he fully developed his craft, he certainly mastered it with the help of his masters, whom he sought in libraries and museums in his European travels. Robert Browning invited him to Venice, where Miller wrote some ...

  Oakland’s own Victorian poet was a walking, talking symbol of the Golden West. We remember him for his frontier ethics and bad boy antics, but don’t fully understand his uplifting magnetism. Kristen Caven, the California Writers Club Writer in Residence at Joaquin Miller Park, will paint us a new picture of Joaquin Miller as America’s late romantic by introducing us to the many fascinating women who loved him. From the legendary Paquita, his Indian bride, to the “White Witch of Oakland,” his daughter Juanita, we’ll meet poets, actresses, heiresses, and the nation’s wealthiest female tycoon. Come hear my new Miller lecture! What: Talk, Q&A, champagne and nibbles When: Sunday, September 14th, 4-6pm Where: Pardee Home and Museum Carriage House,  672 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607  ( directions ) How Much: $25, proceeds go to the museum