PART 1: Charles North, Bob Hershon, Amy Lawless, Ed Friedman, George Green, Donna Brook, David Shapiro, Eileen Myles, Andrew McCarron, and Stacy Szymaszek (reading for Ron Padgett).

PART 2: Michael Quattrone, Allison Power, David Lehman, Mark Statman, Reagan Upshaw, Karen Koch, Bill Zavatsky, and Tony Towle.

Video by Diane Tyler. Video hosting by PennSound. With the permission of Charles North, Tony Towle and the readers.

Thursday

ca. 75 minutes, video. Edited by Ethan Mitchell and Stacy Szymaszek.

(Note: this event takes place at Anthology Film Archive, 32 2^nd Ave.)

This enticing sampler features moments, glimpses, and words from the wild and woolly PUBLIC ACCESS POETRY a cable TV series produced and directed by Poetry Project stalwarts Gary Lenhart, Greg Masters, David Herz and Daniel Krakauer with others, that ran in the late 70s, before anyone downtown had cable. Guaranteed to surprise and certain to bring a smile, BEST OF PUBLIC ACCESS POETRY includes appearances and readings from the likes of Ted Berrigan, Jim Brodey, Steve Carey, Tim Dlugos, Brad Gooch, Ted Greenwald, Bob Holman, Joanne Kyger, Jackson Mac Low, Bernadette Mayer, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Joel Oppenheimer, Peter Orlovsky, Maureen Owen, Ron Padgett, Simon Pettet, Rene Ricard, Tom Savage, Susie Timmons, Tony Towle, Lewis Warsh, and others.

General Admission $9.

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. All videos transferred by The Standby Program at MercerMedia with consulting support from Anthology Film Archives.

Friday

This reading celebrates the publication of 5th issue of VANITAS, a journal of poetry, criticism, and essays.  Coming out periodically, it is a venue where international voices test the place of the arts in the world.  Some themes from preceding issues include Anarchisms, Popular Song, and Translation.  VANITAS 5 takes on film, to see what meanings attach to the word, what it is to have a screen between things, a boundary, lining, partition.  We find a poem made of movie titles, poems to movies, a poem in the mind of a filmmaker, a twinning of image to one’s word, cinemabilia. The reading will feature contributors Elaine Equi, Nada Gordon, Ron Horning, Jerome Sala, Tom Savage, David Shapiro, Tony Towle, and John Yau.

Wednesday

If there is a New York School of Poetry, Tony Towle has been involved in it for over 45 years, having taken workshops with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara at the New School in 1963. In 1970, he received the Frank O’Hara Award, in conjunction with the publication of his first major collection, North. The History of the Invitation: New & Selected Poems 1963-2000 was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2001. Memoir 1960-1963 (Faux Press, 2001) is a chronicle of Towle’s early years as a poet in New York. His 12th book of poems, Winter Journey, was published by Hanging Loose in 2008. Guests will each read a few of their favorite Towle poems, followed by a short reading by Towle. With Charles North, Paul Violi, Ron Padgett, Kimberly Lyons, Bob Hershon, Ed Friedman, Andrew McCarron, Anne Waldman and Jo Ann Wasserman.

Reception to follow.