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April 18, 2022 by Gary Price

Library of Congress: Rare Book and Special Collections Division Digitizes 40 Years of Poetry Project Sound Recordings

April 18, 2022 by Gary Price

From a LC Blog Post:

On December 31, 2022, the Library of Congress’ Rare Book and Special Collections Division launched the St. Mark’s Poetry Project Audio Archive, which consists of 420 recordings from the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s in the Bowery. Founded in 1966 in New York City’s East Village, the Poetry Project has served as a place where poetry can be studied, performed, and experienced. After its founding, the Poetry Project quickly instituted programming that included weekly readings, workshops, lectures, memorials, and the Project’s annual New Year’s Day marathon readings. Many of these series and programs continue to this day, making the Poetry Project the oldest independent literary center in the United States.

Paul Blackburn, one of the founders, started the practice of recording the events and, as a result, the Library of Congress has a continuous 55-year audio and video record of the Poetry Project’s activities, as well as one of the largest post-World War II collections of recorded poetry in existence. In total, there are approximately 4,000 hours of recordings on a variety of media devices. The earliest recordings were captured on reel-to-reel magnetic tapes, followed by audiocassettes, DAT tapes, and VHS tapes.

The results are splendid. Library users may now listen to a Wednesday night reading in the early 2000s by Bernadette Mayer and John Ashbery, drawing from their books Another Smashed Pinecone and Your Name Here. Or a reading of “Heathens” by Amiri Baraka in 1994 on the eve of his 60th birthday, during which he asks, “Why do people think their poetry isn’t as powerful as businessmen?”. Or a 2002 reading by Ammiel Alcalay and Cecilia Vicuña to hear Alcalay reading from his book-length poem “From the Warring Factions” and Vicuña weaving between English and Spanish and singing the song her mother sang while sewing.

Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post (about 740 words)

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Lecture, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users

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About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

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