Bill Martin

Bill Martin, Paul with Bill, Brad Morewood

I met Bill Martin, known as Oz, at Beaux Arts in 2004 when I first went to the St. Petersburg venue. He told me he had sold his house and bought a mobil home, in which he planned to move to California.

Bill was a history teacher. He discovered Beaux Arts after sailing down the coast from Road Island. He was directed to Beaux Arts as a place to see avant garde films in the 80's. Tom, who was aggressive and pushy, but he was inspired by the mix of music and poetry. Before long, Bill was write and reading his poetry. By the time I met him he was a regular and performer working on spoken word set to with music, accompanied by Paul.

I ran into Bill once in San Francisco, at Tap Plastics when I was putting together some frames for my husband's 2005 Open Studio photos.

Bill Martin reading at Beaux Arts in St. Pete 2005, shortly before leaving for California.

Message from Malcolm, May 17, 2007

"Brad Morewood has notified me that Poet Bill Martin passed away last week in San Fransisco after a massive heart attack. There will be a Memorial Open Mike for Bill at Jake's Java Joint on May 27 at 3 pm, Sunday. Jake's is on Kennedy one or two blocks East of Dale Mabry, on the South side.

"Bill was a very unique individual who lived the raging literary life that everybody else can only dream about. I am glad that he was immersed in the hot literary life in San Fransisco at the time of his passing."

- Malcolm Johnson