What is it about Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) that transports so many readers into “life changing” exhortations? Is it the direct yet compassionate radical message of what we as a species have failed to realize in our reckless trajectory toward oblivion? Is it whistle blowing of the highest order? Does it offer solutions along with critical analysis? Whatever the formula for success, her success—despite attempts to ban the book—is not arguable. Were her book to attain a modicum of comparable acceptance in these dystopic times then her mission will have been accomplished. She is not above emulation of the masters, a practice she learned as a composer, not an author. But it is something that suits well whatever creative endeavor we practice. Her response to all queries remains, “read the book.”

Raised in Los Angeles, educated at UC Berkeley in music, Kabakov won a Graduate Prize Fellowship at Harvard in composition for doctoral studies under Leon Kirchner and Leonard Bernstein. While in Cambridge,his poetical tendencies were catalyzed by encounters with master poets Octavio Paz and Robert Lowell. His post doctoral career included Chair of composition at Boston Conservatory followed by Director of Institutional Development at Yamaha International Corporation and Advanced Curriculum Director for Yamaha Music Foundation. While with Yamaha, Kabakov supported the efforts of music and media technology inventors and educators and the institutions they represent. Not until year 2000 and a move to Seattle did Kabakov take his writing public as a member of Poets West which presented him as featured reader at numerous venues in the region. “Available Light” is Kabakov’s book of collected poems published in 2015 by Goldfish Press glowingly reviewed by Harvard Colloquy, “The poems are eloquent and well-crafted, the language ranging from fastidious and poetic to loose-limbed vernacular...JK now resides in The Dalles with his wife Antonia, is compiling his second poetry book, teaches music at Columbia Gorge Community College and founded the world music ensemble, Europatopia. Kabakov’s interest in economics and philosophy were incubated in collaborations with emeritus professor Thomas Naylor of Duke University with whom JK co-authored the first pre-millennium academic articles on technofascism.