Poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist Michael McClure will perform a public reading and screen a film about his life and work called “Abstract Alchemist of the Flesh” at the Doe Bay Café in October.

McClure will read at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 17 , and screen the film at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 18, and 18. Admission is free.

McClure initially gained fame as one of the five poets who read at the infamous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955, where Allen Ginsberg first read “Howl”.

McClure has composed 16 books of poetry and received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Obie Award for Best Play, an NEA grant, the Alfred Jarry Award, and a Rockefeller grant for playwriting. His play “The Beard” provoked numerous censorship battles. In Los Angeles, the cast was arrested after each performance for fourteen nights in a row. Later, The Beard received two Obies in New York, and it has played a role in U.S. censorship and free speech battles since 1966, when it won its first lawsuit.

McClure has worked extensively with the Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and they have collaborated on several CDs. “Third Mind”, a film of Michael and Ray’s conversations and performances, premiered on the Sundance Channel. McClure’s songs include “Mercedes Benz,” popularized by Janis Joplin. His journalism has been featured in “Rolling Stone,” “Vanity Fair,” “the L.A. Times” and “San Francisco Chronicle.”

McClure’s next two books are “Of Indigo and Saffron” from UC Press, and “Mysteriosos and other poems” from New Directions. McClure performed on December 8, 2009 with The Charles Lloyd Quartet in Los Angeles at Disney Hall.

The event is hosted by SPLAB, a Seattle-based intergenerational writing, performance, resource and outreach center. For more information, visit www.splab.org.