The Poetics of Noise: Poetry and Punk, 1965 – 1980

Image
2013.12.11_PoetryPunk poster

When

6 to 7:30 p.m., Dec. 11, 2013

Presenter: John Melillo

Poetry and punk rock? In this talk, English Professor will take us on a tour of the Downtown New York art world in 1960s and 1970s. The phenomenon of punk grew out of an artistic “scene” of intense and often unsettling experiments with words, images, and sounds. But we will only revel in the linguistic chaos and performative excess that defined this time and place. We will also look at the concrete networks-in little magazines, poetry readings, and nightclubs-that supported these experiments. From little known counter-culture heroes like Ed Sanders to international pop stars like Patti Smith; from poetic experimenters like Clark Coolidge to performers like Richard Hell; from the self-consciously disturbing writers like Kathy Acker to the new-data of No Wave bands like DNA, we will hear, see, and feel the birth of a new way of engaging with and critiquing the world-a new noise.