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Public Access Poetry

This is the first set of recordings. The second set can be found here.

Even if you were watching the innovation called cable TV in 1977 and 1978, what are the chances that you saw a show titled Public Access Poetry? Produced by Poetry Project stalwarts Greg Masters, Gary Lenhart, David Herz, Didi Susan Dubelyew, Daniel Krakauer, Bob Rosenthal and Rochelle Kraut, PAP programs featured half-hour readings by a wide range of poets and performers who could roughly be categorized as “downtown,” more often than not linked in one way or another with the Poetry Project. The cable TV series lasted two seasons (one live, the other recorded for later airing) and was produced with little-to-no broadcasting experience by the PAP personnel.

Forty-six fragile open-reel videotapes of these shows were preserved and, in 2009, were donated to the Poetry Project by the PAP team. A grant and subsequent anonymous support supported the preservation and digitization of 31 of the original tapes.

In April 2011, The Poetry Project, in collaboration with Anthology Film Archives, presented a two-program screening series at Anthology – one featured highlights from various episodes of Public Access Poetry and another showed three full episodes.

The Poetry Project, dedicated to making the Public Access Poetry archive available to the public, as envisioned by its producers more than 30 years ago, is happy to be collaborating with PennSound to accomplish this.

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.

April 20, 1977

Simon Schuchat, Jim Brodey, and Karen Edwards

May 19, 1977

Susie Timmons and Steve Levine

June 9, 1977

Bob Rosenthal and Paul Violi

June 16, 1977

Eileen Myles and Alice Notley

July 7, 1977

Michael Scholnick and John Godfrey

July 14, 1977

David Herz and Gary Lenhart

July 21, 1977

Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and John Yau

August 4, 1977

Ted Berrigan and Harris Schiff

August 18, 1977

Brad Gooch and Tim Dlugos

August 25, 1977

Barbara Barg and Rose Lesniak

September 1, 1977

Sara Miles and Bob Holman

September 22, 1977

Tom Carey and Poez

October 6, 1977

Steve Levine and Ted Greenwald

October 13, 1977

Greg Masters and Robert Meyers

October 17, 1977

Jude Webber, Didi Dubelyew, Rochelle Kraut and Susie Timmons

October 20, 1977

James Sherry and Yuki Hartman

November 24, 1977

Michael Brownstein and Jim Brodey

December 1, 1977

Rene Ricard and Camille O'Grady

December 8, 1977

Tom Savage, Tony Towle, Steve Carey, and Simon Pettet

December 22, 1977

Nancy Ancrum and David Gitin

January 5, 1978

Joel Oppenheimer

January 12, 1978

Consumptive Poets League: Maggie Dubris, Elinor Nauen, Rachel Walling, Daniel Krakauer, Lenny Goldenstein, San Stokes

January 26, 1978

Peter Orlovsky with Steven Hall and Arthur Russell, Jackson Mac Low, and Sharon Matlin

February 16, 1978

Ron Padgett

February 28, 1978

Maureen Owen and Robin Messing

March 7, 1978

Bill Kushner and Michael Slater

March 22, 1978

Vincent Katz and Paul Schneeman

March 28, 1978

Joanne Kyger

  1. Introduction (1:37): MP3
  2. Lord Ganesha (4:43): MP3
  3. Padma Sambhava visits a Dakini (1:14): MP3
  4. Place Called Tuesday (2:09): MP3
  5. Tuesday, October 28 (0:31): MP3
  6. October 28, Take It Easier (0:30): MP3
  7. October 29, Wednesday (3:00): MP3
  8. October 31 (0:25): MP3
  9. November 12 (0:42): MP3
  10. Thursday, 13 November (0:26): MP3
  11. Monday, November 17 (0:40): MP3
  12. Well, rise this time, and leave the body (2:00): MP3
  13. My vision is a large golden room (0:19): MP3
  14. Back in Time (0:08): MP3
  15. Too Much (1:28): MP3
  16. Memory Stick (1:14): MP3
  17. In the middle of the day, you searched to find it (1:13): MP3
  18. How Horrible I Am (0:38): MP3
  19. Notes from the Revolution (1:28): MP3
  20. News Bulletin from Keith Lampe (0:37): MP3
  21. I don't want to repeat the same mistakes over again (0:56): MP3
complete reading (26:53): MP3

April 26, 1978

Bernadette Mayer and Lewis Warsh

July 13, 1978

Regina Beck and Miguel Algarin

Date Unknown

Harris Schiff and Eileen Myles

This is the first set of recordings. The second set can be found here.

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the authors. © 2011 The Respective Authors. Used with the permission of The Poetry Project and the Respective Authors. Distributed by PennSound.