One of the lesser-known Beat poets, Afro-American Ted Joans was born on July 4, 1928 in Cairo, Illinois. As a member of the Beat Generation in the 1950s and 1960s, he experimented with Surrealism in his writing and played jazz. He travelled widely, living in Paris and Africa. When Charlie Parker died, he reputedly coined the phrase 'BIRD LIVES' and wrote it in chalk or charcoal on walls thereafter. He was living with the Surrealist artist Laura Corsiglia in Vancouver when he died on April 25, 2003.

[BCBW 2003] "Poetry"