Remembering Fred Dewey

        By Majid Naficy

Today when I received the upcoming-events email from Beyond Baroque Literary Center, I found out that Fred Dewey had passed away. They will have a remembrance for him on Saturday October 23 at 4 pm at Beyond Baroque, Venice. I visited his page in Wikipedia and read that he had died on June 2 2021. According to his obituary in Los Angeles Times it was due to prostate cancer.

Fred was the executive-director of Beyond Baroque from 1996 to 2010. I lived in Venice Beach from 1984 to 1991 and started going to its Wednesday poetry workshop in 1987. Beyond Baroque Books published my first collection of poetry in English, called “Muddy Shoes” in 1999. Fred Dewey wrote a forword to my book: “...The poetry of "Muddy Shoes" is born of great suffering yet affirms deep dignity and respect for that wider experience of the world, brought here through danger and carved out of solitude and reflection....“ When the City of Venice wanted to remodel Boardwalk and engrave some fragments of poetry in public space, Fred as the executive-director of Beyond Baroque had a role to select these fragments including a stanza from my poem “Ah, Los Angeles” on the intersection of Boardwalk and Brooks. He included me in many poetry readings in Beyond Baroque and other places. Once he came to pick me up with his clunker for a poetry reading at Occidental College. We were late and when we got to the college he took my hand and we ran for ten minutes to get to the auditorium. This poetry reading was part of a movement to revive Los Angeles River, and that’s how a stanza of my poem “The Secret of the River” was etched on an artwork on a bench in Riverfront, Studio City. On March 20, 1998, in celebration of Persian New Year, I hosted a poetry reading at Beyond Baroque with the support of Fred Dewey in which five Los Angeles-based Iranian poets read their poems both in Persian and English.  When in February 2001 Louise Steinman wrote a feature story in LA Weekly about my life and poetry, Fred came to my house with a bottle of vodka to celebrate our achievements and he seemed to enjoy rice, chicken and brussels sprouts that I had made for dinner. That night he told me that he saw himself as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the owner of City Lights bookshop and me as  Allen Ginsberg, the poet. I told him that I was fortunate to see Ginsberg six months before his death in LACMA in which he sang William Blake’s “The Tyger” with his friend.

When the Cultural Department of the City of Santa Monica ran a contest for residency in Annenberg Beach House, a letter of recommendation from Fred Dewey dated September 30, 2009 played a role in the outcome: “I believe Majid Naficy is applying to you for a residency. I think he would be a fantastic asset to your program. I have published Majid in the imprint I began, Beyond Baroque Books,  in our magazine, and believe him to be one of the more astonishing writers here in Los Angeles. He certainly deserves further recognition, and I believe he is at a perfect moment in his life to make use of this award. His work is timely, and combines a worldly experience with lyricism, drawing on his Persian heritage and infusing the work with a cultural spirit and poetics that Americans sorely need. I know of no writer like Majid, and sincerely hope that you will award this most deserving poet this tremendous opportunity. He is a great and beautiful writer.“

In 2010 Fred came to one of my events at Annenberg Beach House in which my son, Azad,  performed his raps and  I read my poems. That was the last time I saw him in person, but he kept sending me his inspiring feedback after reading my poems in Iroon.com  and other sites. He was sometimes difficult but always good-hearted and generous. I miss him.

        October 8, 2021