Public Access Poetry
Even if you were watching the innovation called cable TV in 1977 and 1978, what are the chances that you saw a show titled Public Access Poetry? Produced by Poetry Project stalwarts Greg Masters, Gary Lenhart, David Herz, Didi Susan Dubelyew, Daniel Krakauer, Bob Rosenthal and Rochelle Kraut, PAP programs featured half-hour readings by a wide range of poets and performers who could roughly be categorized as “downtown,” more often than not linked in one way or another with the Poetry Project. The cable TV series lasted two seasons (one live, the other recorded for later airing) and was produced with little-to-no broadcasting experience by the PAP personnel.
Forty-six fragile open-reel videotapes of these shows were preserved and, in 2009, were donated to the Poetry Project by the PAP team. A grant and subsequent anonymous support supported the preservation and digitization of the first 31 of the original tapes. A successful Kickstarter campaign in Fall of 2011 allowed us to complete the transfer of the remaining tapes.
In April 2011, The Poetry Project, in collaboration with Anthology Film Archive, presented a two-program screening series at Anthology – one featured highlights from various episodes of Public Access Poetry and another showed three full episodes.
The Poetry Project, dedicated to making the Public Access Poetry archive available to the public, as envisioned by its producers more than 30 years ago, is happy to have collaborated with PennSound to make this possible. Poet Erica Hunt said it best, we must “reverse the decay of the the poetry record. Every one knows that watching a poet read is the 4th dimension of the text. As close to living witness as we can get pre-digitially.” Enjoy your journey into the 4th dimension.
Video hosting courtesy PennSound.
April 20, 1977
Simon Schuchat, Jim Brodey, and Karen Edwards
May 19, 1977
Susie Timmons and Steve Levine
June 9, 1977
Bob Rosenthal and Paul Violi
June 16, 1977
July 7, 1977
Michael Scholnick and John Godfrey
July 14, 1977
David Herz and Gary Lenhart
July 21, 1977
Jeff Wright and John Yau
August 4, 1977
Ted Berrigan and Harris Schiff
August 18, 1977
Brad Gooch and Tim Dlugos
August 25, 1977
Barbara Barg and Rose Lesniak
September 1, 1977
Sara Miles and Bob Holman
September 22, 1977
Tom Carey and Poez
October 6, 1977
Steve Levine and Ted Greenwald
October 13, 1977
Greg Masters and Robert Meyers
October 17, 1977
Jude Webber, Didi Susan Dubelyew, Rochelle Kraut and Susie Timmons
October 20, 1977
James Sherry and Yuki Hartman
November 24, 1977
Michael Brownstein and Jim Brodey
December 1, 1977
Rene Ricard and Camille O’Grady
December 12, 1977
and
December 8, 1977
Tom Savage and Tony Towle / Simon Pettet* and Steve Carey
*Simon Pettet asked that we make available only an excerpt from his reading.
December 22, 1977
Nancy Ancrum and David Gitin
January 5, 1978
Joel Oppenheimer
January 12, 1978
Consumptive Poets League: Maggie Dubris. Elinor Nauen, Rachel Walling, Daniel Krakauer, Lenny Goldenstein, San Stokes
January 26, 1978
Peter Orlovsky with Steven Hall and Arthur Russell, Jackson Mac Low, and Sharon Matlin
February 16, 1978
February 28, 1978
Maureen Owen and Robin Messing
March 7, 1978
Bill Kushner and Michael Slater
March 22, 1978
Vincent Katz and Paul Schneeman
March 28, 1978
April 26, 1978
Bernadette Mayer and Lewis Warsh
July 13, 1978
Regina Beck and Miguel Algarin
Date Unknown
Harris Schiff and PennSound.
Public Access Poetry
Second Set of Recordings
May 26, 1977
Steve and Gloria Tropp
June 23, 1977
Lenny Neufeld, Kill Krosen, and Peter Gordon
July 28, 1977
Neil Hackman and Janet Hamill
August 11, 1977
Steve Hamilton and Michael Lally
September 15, 1977
Ed Friedman and Robert Kushner
September 29, 1977
Lenny Goldstein and Eileen Myles
December 29, 1977
Charles Bernstein
Hannah Weiner
January 29, 1978
Brian Breger and Chuck Wachtel
February 9, 1978
Tom Johnson
February 14, 1978
Lenny Goldstein, Tom Savage, Tony Towle, Bob Rosenthal, Greg Masters, David Herz, Gary Lenhart, and Rochelle Kraut
March 21, 1978
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and Bob Rosenthal
May 8, 1978
Bob Heman and Mike Sappol
July 27, 1978
Rochelle Kraut, Barbara Barg, Jim Brodey, Bob Holman, Daniel Krakauer, Steve Levine, Greg Masters, Alice Notley, Simon Pettet, Michael Scholnick, Jeff Wright, and Gary Lenhart
Date Unknown
David Herz and Rebecca Klinger
These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only.
All rights to this recorded material belong to the authors. © 2011 The Respective Authors.
Used with the permission of The Poetry Project and the Respective Authors. Distributed by PennSound.
Funding to preserve “Public Access Poetry” was made possible through a Consulting Fund re-grant from the New York State Literary Presenters Technical Assistance Program (LitTAP). LitTAP is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a State agency, and administered through Just Buffalo Literary Center. Additional funding was made possible through the generosity of two anonymous donors, as well as a Kickstarter camaign. All videos transferred by The Standby Program at MercerMedia with consulting support from Anthology Film Archives.
