Call Number:

MSS 0759

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

• .3 linear foot (40 items)
• 1 oversize box

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0759, St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery Poetry Project posters and fliers, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1971-1984 (inclusive)

Creator:

St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery (New York, N.Y.). Poetry Project

Form:

Posters and Fliers (printed matter)

Abstract:

The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery was founded in 1966 in New York City's East Village. Inspired by the "Berkeley Renaissance" of the 1940s, the Project served as a nexus for New York poets in the 1960s and 1970s. The collection comprises forty fliers and posters featuring reproductions of handmade artwork that promoted and publicized poetry readings and other activities of the landmark project during the 1970s through the mid-1980s.

The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery was founded in 1966 in New York City's East Village. Inspired by the "Berkeley Renaissance" of the 1940s, the Project served as a nexus for New York poets in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Project held frequent readings and workshops and provided a venue for artists such as George Schneeman and Rudy Burckhardt through the production and distribution of posters and fliers. As a community dedicated to the cultivation of the arts, the Project gave artists and authors the means of producing their own publications and helped to shape much of the American literature that followed. Those associated with the Project include Paul Blackburn, Joel Oppenheimer, Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, Bob Holman, Ron Padgett, Allen Ginsberg, Eileen Myles, Patti Smith, Jim Carroll, Kathy Aker, and many others.

Content derived from dealer description.

The collection of St. Mark's Church In-the-Bowery Poetry Project posters and fliers comprises forty fliers and posters featuring reproductions of handmade artwork that promoted and publicized poetry readings and other activities of the landmark project during the 1970s through the mid-1980s.

Intended for distribution, the fliers in the collection advertised single events such as readings or writing workshops, while the posters promoted events held monthly. Many of the fliers were sent as mail and bear the address of Robert Wilson's New York Phoenix Book Shop. Additionally, one item is addressed to poet John Ashbery. The materials in the collection were largely photocopied from hand-drawn, rubberstamped, and collage art, and most are printed in black-and-white, though a few posters are color-printed. Known artists included Rudy Burckhardt, Tom Burkhardt, Mimi Gross Grooms, Maureen Owen, and George Schneedman.

The work is arranged into two series, I. Fliers and II. Posters, and further arranged chronologically.