LOVE AND SQUALOR

About the Book

Two years ago I published a book about culture and literature called Why Poetry? Friends and colleagues seemed to enjoy it. The book was essentially a gathering of articles I had written for the Santa Monica Mirror. Recently, a couple of friends said, “Why don’t you do a sequel and collect some more articles?” “But please,” one friend cautioned, “none of your liberal whining.” So here is that sequel offering random thoughts, not whining about politics but rather musings about writing, culture, and the environment. If any of these essays create a spark or two, the book will have served its purpose.

About the Author

Paul Cummins is the Executive Director of New Visions Foundation. Since the Foundation’s inception in 1994, he has been the primary founder of New Roads School, a co-founder of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Los Angeles Academy of Arts & Enterprise Charter School, and the New Village Charter School. He is also the creator of the Center for Educational Opportunity, which places foster children in independent schools, and the founder of Families Helping Families, which redirects low income families into life-changing new directions. In addition, New Visions has instituted an after-school program at Camp David Gonzales (a probationary incarceration school) to redirect and relocate juvenile students. Prior to New Visions, Cummins was the primary founder and headmaster of Crossroads School and founder of P.S. Arts. He is the author of several books, most recently, Two Americas, Two Educations: Funding Quality Schools for All Students (Red Hen Press) and Why Poetry? (Xlibris). Paul and his wife, Mary Ann, live in Santa Monica and are the parents of four daughters, two grandsons and one granddaughter, Della, seen above in a photo with Cummins.