NNYSS Newsletter: June 2025
Dear friends,
We will miss Alice Notley so very much. We send our love to everyone who knew and loved her, especially to Anselm and Eddie. Alice was a magical, committed, inspirational poet. She was totally original; a great, great writer and thinker; a generous, hilarious, cherished person, a hero of poetry.
The New York City Poetry Festival is taking place next month, on July 12th and 13th, with Anne Waldman and Eileen Myles among the headliners. At the launch for the Festival, on July 11th, Alystyre Julian's Outrider: Anne Waldman will be shown at Flushing Town Hall. Waldman's Archivist Scissors came out in April with Staircase Books; it features a rare cover image by Joe Brainard, 'Spanish Dancer', from 1976, and includes poems inspired by Barbara Guest, Alex Katz, James Schuyler, Etel Adnan,
Yvonne Jacquette, Martha Diamond, John Godfrey, and Fanny Howe.
Patricia Spears Jones, who is currently New York's State Poet, has been honoured with an honorary doctorate by Hartwick College, for her decades of service to American poetry, education, and activism. Patricia is also part of the 27th Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge, organised by Poets House, alongside Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Rita Dove, Patricia Spears Jones, Adrian Matejka, and Brenda Shaughnessy.
The Flow Chart Foundation's annual gathering was this year dedicated to Kenneth Koch's Centennial, and featured guest speakers including Andrew Epstein, Anthony Atlas, David Lehman, Dorothea Lasky, Emily Setina, Jordan Davis, Mitch Sisskind, and Susannah Hollister. It also featured '1,000 Avant Garde Plays', a series of performances of Koch plays alongside the works of contemporary playwrights including Erin Courtney, Jess Barbagallo, Karinne Keithley Syers, Lisa Clair, Lucas Baisch, Nazareth Hassan, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, Ry Cook, Diane Exavier, and Zach Savich.
Andrew Epstein wrote a great blog about a rare photo of four of the first-gen New York School all together. As Andrew points out in his piece, the photo is included in a new book called Grace Hartigan: The Gift of Attention, edited by Jared Ledesma and with contributions by Terence Diggory, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Frances Lazare. The volume accompanies an exhibition of Hartigan's work at North Carolina Museum of Art, NC in 2025, before traveling to various venues through 2026. It's also, Epstein notes, in an essay by Stephanie Anderson about Daisy Aldan, women and mid-century small press publishing.
Tyhe Cooper spoke with Ron Padgett about Padgett's new book, Dick: A Memoir of Dick Gallup (Cuneiform Press, 2025) for the Brooklyn Rail. You can watch a recording of their conversation here.
Martin Stannard has some new poems out, over at M58: https://www.m58.co.uk/.
Tony Towle's Late Sketches & Studies, his fourteenth collection, has been published in the UK this month, by Kulvert Books. It is a study on time, New York life and the influence of the city's culture, politics, architecture and art world on the individual. There are two release events happening, alongside other poets reading, details of which are here (Bristol) and here (Newcastle).
In celebration of the exhibition (through July 26, 2025) “After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960–2025,” Granary Books hosted a round table discussion focusing on how visual and avant-garde works are produced and distributed, how they appear in teaching or scholarly practices, and what the physical manifestation and presentation of these works can tell us about their creation, political and cultural positioning, and the constellations of poets involved. The event features Charlotte Priddle (Special Collections, New York University), Amelia Grounds (The Bancroft Library at University of Berkeley), Antonio Sergio Bessa (emeritus, The Bronx Museum of the Arts), Alison Fraser (The Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo), and Lisa Pearson (Siglio Press), and was moderated by M.C. Kinniburgh and Conley Lowrance, of Granary Books.
Make Me a Place in Time and Seasons: Works by Rosemary Mayer, 1971–1983 is showing at Hollybush Gardens in London, 10 May-21 June. The exhibition brings together works on paper related to fabric sculptures, ephemeral installations, and unrealised projects from the 1970s and early 1980s. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 11am - 6pm or by appointment.
Conversations with New York School Poets, which opens with an interview with Alice Notley, was published at the end of May.
All my best for the month of June, and as ever if you have NYS-related news, publications, or events that you'd like to share do let me know. If you have thoughts or ideas for the Network, do email co-directors Rosa Campbell and Nick Sturm at newyorkschoolstudies@gmail.com.
Rona
