On Saturday, December 1st from 4 to 6 PM, please join Arcana: Books on the Arts to celebrate the publication of Bill Berkson’s, Since When: A Memoir in Pieces, with a presentation by friends, family, and colleagues honoring his life and work.

Bill Berkson was a poet, art critic, and joyful participant in the best of postwar and bohemian American culture. He collaborated with many artists and writers, including Alex Katz, Philip Guston, and Frank O’Hara. He was the author of several collections of poetry and criticism, and appeared in ARTnews, Art in America, and many more. Formerly a professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute, he was born in New York in 1939, and died in June 2016. Since When: A Memoir in Pieces gathers the ephemera of a life well lived, a collage of bold-face names such as John Cage, Allen Ginsburg, and Marilyn Monroe, parties, exhibitions, and literary history from a man who could write “of [Truman Capote’s Black and White] ball, which I attended as my mother’s escort, I have little recollection” and reminisce about imagining himself as a character from Tolstoy while tripping on acid at Woodstock. Gentle, witty, and eternally generous, this is Bill, and a particular moment in American history, at its best.

This celebration launches with a very special tribute to Bill Berkson featuring readings from his works by Moses Berkson, Constance Lewallen, DeeDee Gordon, Karen Moss, Joan Simon, Mitch Temple, Dorit Cypis, Aram Saroyan, Michael Smoler, and Lisa John.