Lewis MacAdams
Poet, Journalist, and Co-Founder, Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR)
"Whether it's ugly or beautiful
poisoned and imprisoned
or flooding fresh and free
the Los Angeles River
will always flow
and lovers will always walk
along its banks holding hands."
Biography
MacAdams was born in San Angelo, Texas, but grew up in Dallas, where he graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1962. He then graduated from Princeton University in 1966. He is the author of a dozen books and tapes of poetry, and his poems have appeared in many anthologies. In 2001, he published his Birth of The Cool, the cultural history of an idea. As a journalist, MacAdams has been a contributing editor of the L.A. Weekly and has written regularly on culture and ecology for Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles magazine.
As a political activist, MacAdams is a co-founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), established in 1985 (and has served as chair of their board of directors). FoLAR has been characterized by MacAdams as a "40-year artwork" to bring the Los Angeles River back to life. Among FoLAR’s many projects are an annual river clean-up, the Gran Limpieza, which brings 2,500 people down to the river every spring; and an ongoing series of conferences and planning workshops. Two of its current major goals are to create a Los Angeles River Conservancy to oversee restoration, and a River Watch program to improve water quality and target polluters. In 1991, MacAdams received the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society’s annual Conservation Award.