The Poetry Project

The Poetry Project
Name	The Poetry Project
Founded	1966
Founder	Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders, Amiri Baraka, Paul Blackburn
Location	St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, East Village, Manhattan, New York City
Genre	Poetry, spoken word, experimental literature

The Poetry Project is a New York City literary organization established in 1966 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village, Manhattan. It emerged amid the postwar avant-garde scenes associated with figures from the Beat Generation to the New York School (poetry), offering a venue for readings, workshops, and archival activity. Over decades it intersected with communities around Beatnik culture, Black Arts Movement, Language poetry, and experimental music, hosting readings that connected poets, musicians, and activists across generations.

History

Founded during a period shaped by the cultural aftershocks of San Francisco Renaissance, the organization drew early support from poets tied to Beat Generation circles and Greenwich Village networks that included Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders, Amiri Baraka, and Paul Blackburn. Its formation paralleled events such as the rise of the Beat Hotel, the influence of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and the activism surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s it intersected with artists associated with John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and Clark Coolidge, while later decades saw interactions with practitioners linked to Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe, Bernadette Mayer, and Lyn Hejinian. The Project weathered venue debates in the East Village, Manhattan and navigated funding shifts amid changing cultural policy in New York City.

Activities and Programs

Programming has included weekly reading series, writer workshops, archival projects, and collaborative events with organizations such as Bowery Poetry Club, Poetry Society of America, Nuyorican Poets Café, and academic departments at New York University and Columbia University. The Project hosted benefit readings with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Anselm Hollo, and curated series featuring international poets connected to Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz traditions. It developed educational collaborations with cultural institutions including The New School, Museum of Modern Art, and Public Theater, and organized festivals that engaged artists from scenes around Fluxus, No Wave, and downtown music. Annual events often featured readings by recipients of awards like the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award for Poetry.

Key Figures and Membership

Prominent readers, directors, and workshop leaders across eras included Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Philip Glass, John Cage, William S. Burroughs, Robert Kelly (poet), Alice Notley, Paul Blackburn, Bernadette Mayer, Clark Coolidge, Charles Bernstein, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Clark, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Joanne Kyger, Ted Berrigan, Rosmarie Waldrop, Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Diane di Prima, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Sonia Sanchez, June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Duncan, Lorine Niedecker, Muriel Rukeyser, and Adrienne Rich. Membership and regular participants have included emerging poets affiliated with movements linked to Language poetry and New York School (poetry), as well as cross-disciplinary artists from downtown music and the avant-garde art world.

Publications and Recordings

The Project has supported small press publishing and audio documentation in collaboration with presses and labels such as City Lights Publishers, New Directions Publishing Corporation, Coffee House Press, Faber and Faber, Viking Press, New World Records, ESP-Disk, and independent chapbook series associated with editors from Poetry Journal (magazine) circles. Live recordings captured performances by figures connected to John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Philip Glass, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman; these were circulated on cassette and vinyl through networks including Publications International and micropress operations tied to the Small Press Distribution ecosystem. The Project also contributed to anthology projects that appeared alongside editors from The New Yorker poetry lists and academic compilations issued by University of California Press and Oxford University Press.

Venue and Facilities

Located within St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village, Manhattan, the space shares local geography with venues like the Village Vanguard, Café Wha?, and the Bowery Ballroom. Its site has been central to downtown cultural life alongside neighboring institutions such as The Kitchen, PS1 (Museum of Contemporary Art), Merce Cunningham Studio, and the storefront scenes that produced No Wave and SoHo gallery networks. The Project’s facilities historically accommodated intimate readings, workshops, archive storage, and cassette-pressing events, while maintenance and lease negotiations have often involved interaction with local preservation entities and community boards in Manhattan.

Cultural Impact and Reception

The organization's longevity positioned it as an incubator for cross-generational exchange among poets, musicians, and activists, influencing trajectories linked to the Beat Generation, Black Arts Movement, Language poetry, and the New York School (poetry). Coverage and critical response appeared in outlets and venues associated with reviewers and editors from The New York Times, Village Voice, The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and academic criticism produced at Columbia University and New York University. Its role in advancing performance poetry and hybrid forms resonated with festivals and institutions such as Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Lincoln Center, and international poetry gatherings in Edinburgh International Book Festival and Berlin International Literature Festival. The Project’s archive continues to inform scholarship on late 20th-century American poetics and downtown cultural history.

Category:Poetry organizations Category:Arts organizations based in New York City