raymond foye. >> my name is raymond foye and i'm one of the editors of "collected poems of bob kaufman" along with neeli cherkovski and tate swindell of the city lights books. i'd like to thank everyone at the american book award and before columbus foundation and in particular justin and ishmael for this particular recognition of bob kaufman's work. it's been a long time coming. kaufman's work has existed in the shadows and obscurity for many years and it's been very gratifying to see it take its place in society in the year 2020 and because he simply has so much to say and to offer us about these times. his poems about racism, about institutionalized violence, jail poems, poems against capital punishment, the poems about theholocaust of the native americans . but also certain things i didn't recognize for the first time reading him. he has a lot of poems about the effects of advertising, television, hollywood and the media on people's consciousness and power this was going to result in a gradual disengagement with reality and the reality problem. we can see taking place today. bob's