Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - December 2, 2002
J.K. Dineen, Of The Examiner Staff
But also surviving was a family of writers on San Francisco's poetry fringe who treasured Abbott as a mentor and informal cultural curator.
"He was one of the most generous people I've ever met," said Alberto Juerta, a poet and professor of classical languages at the University of San Francisco, "one of the only writers I've met who did not mind empowering other writers."
About 70 writers and friends gathered at the main public library Sunday afternoon to mark the 10th anniversary of Abbott's death and to commemorate World AIDS Day.
Sunday's World AIDS Day events included services at Golden Gate Park's National AIDS Memorial Grove, where the names of AIDS victims have been engraved on a flagstone floor.
More than 19,000 San Francisco residents have died from AIDS since 1980, according to Department of Public Health estimates.
Abbott was one of them. He was born in 1943 in Lincoln, Neb., and went to trial as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s he became a staple of S.F.'s poetry scene, organizing dozens of readings and editing the magazine Poetry Flash. His books included "Wrecked Hearts" and "Lives of the Poets."
While AIDS killed plenty of better known city residents in the early '90s -- from doctors to political activists to stockbrokers -- it also took its toll on the outer reaches of The City's experimental arts scene, taking the lives of people like musician Jerome Chaa, filmmaker Curt McDowell and writer Louis Sullivan. All were friends of Abbott.
"I think Steve and all those people dying acted as an inspiration, a stepping-off point for a lot of artists," said writer Michael Flanagan.
For poet Larry "Bob" Roberts, Sunday was a chance to read from Abbott's work and pay tribute to an older writer who nurtured Roberts' literary aspirations. Roberts, who moved here from Minnesota after meeting Abbott at a gay writing conference, said Abbott encouraged young writers to "drag our heroes out of the trash bin of our neglected bohemian forebears."
"It's a way of keeping the spirit alive," said Roberts, a writer and aide to Supervisor Matt Gonzalez. "We're carrying that on for Steve, for people who didn't know him personally."
One of the most touching moments of the memorial reading came when Abbott's daughter Alysia, now a 32-year-old writer, talked about finishing New York University a semester early so she could move back to the family's apartment in the Haight and take care of her dying father.
On the Web site she created in her father's memory, she writes that her father left behind "no property, no stocks, no working computer, no car -- not even a full set of dishes."
But he did leave a rich legacy.
"There's stuff I haven't read yet," said Alysia Abbott, who now lives in Brooklyn. "It's like I'm always on the tip of more discovery."
E-mail: jdineen@examiner.com
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