Poetry Project

Prior to the formal establishment of the Poetry Project, St Mark's Church was already a venue for cultural events. In January 1966, the 'Poetry Committee', a group of organising poets composed of Paul Blackburn, Carol Bergé, Carol Rubinstein, Allen Planz, Jerome Rothenberg, Paul Plummer, and Diane Wakowski, was established there.{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Daniel |title=All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780520936430 |location=Los Angeles |pages=1429 |language=English}} Their idea was to use the church as a new venue for reading series which had previously occurred at [https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/downtownpopunderground/place/les-deux-megots/ Les Deux Mégots].{{Cite web |date=2021-02-05 |title=“Secret Banned Rites”: Poets at Café Le Metro - Village Preservation |url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2021/02/05/secret-banned-rites-poets-at-cafe-le-metro/,%20https://www.villagepreservation.org/2021/02/05/secret-banned-rites-poets-at-cafe-le-metro/ |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=www.villagepreservation.org |language=en-US}}

In May 1966, the Reverend Michael Allen, the priest of St Mark's, decided to accept a federal grant of almost $200,000 from the Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Development. The Poetry Project was established using this money, along with corresponding film and theatre programs, though these did not last beyond 1966.Daniel Kane, All Poets Welcome (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), p.145 The grant was administered jointly by Michael Allen and Harry Silverstein at the New School, and was technically to be used for 'creative arts for alienated youth' and the socialisation of juvenile delinquents. Joel Oppenheimer was appointed as the first director of the Poetry Project, a role he held until 1968, when Anne Waldman took over.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-waldman | title=Anne Waldman }}

The Poetry Project hosted (and continues to host) workshops and readings. Notable events include Bernadette Mayer's workshops between 1971 and 1974, during which she and her students co-created the [https://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html 'Experiments'], a seminal work in the canon of Language writing,Ann Vickery, Leaving Lines of Gender: A Feminist Genealogy of Language Writing (Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 2000) pp.150-166. and an incident where the poet Kenneth Koch was shot at during a poetry reading by fellow poet and anarchist Allen Van Newkirk.Daniel Kane, All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), pp.171-172. The Poetry Project was a key community hub for the so-called 'second generation' of the New York School of poets.{{Cite web |title= The New York School: Second and Third Generations|url=https://fromasecretlocation.com/the-new-york-school-second-and-third-generations/}}

The Poetry Project's first publication was The Genre of Silence, published in 1966 by Joel Oppenheimer.This dating is from the memory of Ron Padgett, but seems likely to be accurate. See Daniel Kane, All Poets Welcome, pp.149-150. The publication was required by the terms of the federal grant which funded the Project in its early years. At the time, Oppenheimer noted that the money would be better spent supporting The World, which was already extant.

The World was a little magazine published from the winter of 1966 onward, and was heavily attached to the Poetry Project.Edith Jarolim, 'The World', Project Papers 1.6 (1987), https://www.poetryproject.org/media/pages/file-library/750093041-1665081633/project-papers-jarolim.pdf Writing from The World was published in The World Anthology of 1969,{{Cite web |last=dibeadmin |date=2016-09-08 |title=The World |url=https://fromasecretlocation.com/world/ |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=From a Secret Location |language=en-US}} and Out of This World: An Anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project 1966-1991.Anne Waldman, ed., Out of This World: An Anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project 1966-1991 (New York: Crown Publishing, 1991)

Unnatural Acts was a magazine produced from Bernadette Mayer's workshops between 1971 and 1974. Unnatural Acts contained poems with no attribution and was a kind of 'group project' by the workshop participants and Mayer.{{Cite web |title=Jacket # 7 - Libbie Rifkin - Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer and the Gender of an Avant-Garde Institution |url=http://jacketmagazine.com/07/rifkin07.html |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=jacketmagazine.com}}

The Poetry Project Newsletter is currently the main publishing output of the project. It has been published since 1972, and publishes poems, criticism, reviews, interviews and essays.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/newsletter | title=Publications > the Poetry Project Newsletter }}

The Recluse was an annual literary magazine that ran from 2014 to 2022 and was published by the Poetry Project.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/the-recluse | title=Publications > the Recluse }}

House Party is an online digital publication by the Poetry Project. Footnotes publishes material, current and archival, from workshops held at the Project.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/footnotes | title=Publications > Footnotes }} Neighbird is another digital publication of poetry from the Project.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/poetry-canon | title=Publications > Poetry Canon }}

From 1977 until 1978, the New York City public-access television show Public Access Poetry (PAP){{Cite news|last1=Olin|first1=Ben|last2=Lenhart|first2=Gary|date=September 29, 2017|title='Readers of the future' would be interested: Gary Lenhart on 'Public Access Poetry'|work=Jacket2|url=http://jacket2.org/interviews/readers-future-would-be-interested|access-date=January 23, 2021}} showed readings at the project featuring poets such as Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Eileen Myles, John Yau, Brad Gooch, Alice Notley, Jim Brodey, and more.{{Cite web|url = http://f-u-t-u-r-e.org/r/27_Jean-Francois-Caro-and-Camille-Pageard_Welcome-to-PAP_EN.md|title = Jean-François Caro & Camille Pageard, "Welcome to PAP, Public Access Poetry"|website = f-u-t-u-r-e.org|access-date = 2016-04-20}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.metafilter.com/107729/Public-Access-Poetry|title=Public Access Poetry|website=www.metafilter.com|access-date=2016-04-20}}

On the show, performers and poets gave half-hour readings.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} In 2011, after launching a successful Kickstarter campaign, The Poetry Project was able to restore, preserve and digitize all of the remaining film.{{Cite web|url = https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/466090766/public-access-poetry|title = Public Access Poetry|website = Kickstarter|language = en-US|access-date = 2016-04-20}} In April 2011 with the Anthology Film Archives they presented screenings of highlights of the PAP films.

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.poetryproject.org}}
• [http://jacketmagazine.com/07/rifkin07.html Libbie Rifkin, 'My Little World Goes on St Mark's Place']
• Miles Champion, Insane Podium: A Short History of the Poetry Project 1966-2012

Category:American poetry

Category:Poetry organizations

Category:1966 establishments in New York City

Category:Organizations based in New York (state)

Category:Arts organizations established in 1966

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