HOODLINE (SAN FRANCISCO) -- From the early 1960s through late 1980s, Rice studied at University of San Francisco, San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, experienced the Summer of Love take hold in the Upper Haight, lived in the Castro as it became a center for the gay rights movement, made a home in Berkeley when the streets were filled with protests on the Vietnam War, and wrote at least three books while residing in the City By The Bay.
“What I loved about San Francisco State was the passion. It was a commuter college and most of the kids were working, and it was very hard to go to school. They weren’t being handed an education, they were working for it just as we were working and I respected that passion very much. I loved it.
“I thought I had some of the best teachers I’ve ever had at San Francisco State. People that were passionate ... and showed me a whole new way of looking at literature.
“I guess what I loved about it was the freedom and the egalitarian quality and the proletarian quality of it all — that we were all working people together.
The school didn’t have, perhaps ... the more highly recognized professors that Berkeley had, but we had all that passion; we had all that warmth. We had people just hungry, hungry to learn and to write, to create and to make something of their lives. I found that incredibly exhilarating.”
Photo by Michael Lionstar