{{Short description|Poetry program in New York}} [[File:Ashbery_in_Sanctuary_at_Poetry_Project.jpg|thumb|[[John Ashbery]] in Sanctuary at Poetry Project]] '''The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church''' was founded in 1966 at [[St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery]] in the [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]] of Manhattan.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-04-13 |title=Chloë Sevigny and Cory Kennedy Honor the Downtown Poets (Published 2022) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/style/chloe-sevigny-and-cory-kennedy-honor-the-downtown-poets.html |access-date=2025-11-05 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nyslittree.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/DB.EntityDetail/EntityPK/2186.cfm|title=Literary Organization Detail: Poetry Project at Saint Mark's Church|website=New York State Literary Tree|access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref> It has been a prominent venue for new and experimental poetry for more than five decades.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-01-05 |title=Where Downtown Poets Go to Church to Greet the New Year (Published 2024) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/style/poetry-project-marathon.html |access-date=2025-11-05 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |date=2024-07-08 |title=In Poetry’s Church |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/poetry-project-new-york/ |access-date=2026-04-24 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref>

Among the Poetry Project’s initiatives are regular events featuring poets, writers, musicians, dramatists, dancers and performance artists; writing workshops; its annual New Year’s Day Marathon;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vadukul |first=Alex |date=2024-01-05 |title=Where Downtown Poets Go to Church to Greet the New Year |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/style/poetry-project-marathon.html |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hamilton |first=Diana |date=2023-01-06 |title=Visiting a place where poetry is vibrantly alive |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/01/06/poetry-project-marathon/ |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Passy |first=Charles |date=2020-01-01 |title=Poets Offer a Soulful, Spirited Start to the New Year |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/poets-offer-a-soulful-spirited-start-to-the-new-year-11577922260 |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}}</ref> and several publications, including the quarterly ''Poetry Project Newsletter''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=N |last2=P |last3=R |date=2021-12-31 |title=Hundreds of poets will ring in the new year for the Poetry Project |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/12/31/1069434882/hundreds-of-poets-will-ring-in-the-new-year-for-the-poetry-project |access-date=2025-11-05 |work=NPR |language=en}}</ref> The organization has hosted memorial readings for, among others, [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[W.H. Auden]], [[Frank O'Hara]], [[Paul Blackburn (poet)|Paul Blackburn]], [[Ted Berrigan]], [[Bernadette Mayer]], and [[Cookie Mueller]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |date=2024-07-08 |title=In Poetry’s Church |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/poetry-project-new-york/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Diggory |first=Terence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mgsgw2xe-F0C&dq=Ed+Friedman+white+snake&pg=PT193 |title=Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-1905-2 |language=en}}</ref>

== History == In the early to mid 1960s, a flourishing poetry scene developed in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, anchored by poets including Paul Blackburn, Carol Bergé and Jerome Rothenberg, and centered on readings at cafés including Les Deux Mégots and Le Metro.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Daniel |title=All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2003 |location=Los Angeles |pages=27-56}}</ref> When Le Metro closed in 1965, Blackburn, Bergé, Rothenberg, Diane Wakoski and others established a “Poetry Committee” to find a permanent home for their developing artistic community.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Daniel |title=All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2003 |pages=129}}</ref> The Poetry Committee turned to St. Mark’s church to host their poetry events.

In May 1966, the Reverend Michael Allen, the rector of St Mark's, accepted a federal grant of almost $200,000 from the Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Development. The Poetry Project was established using this money, building on the poetry events that Blackburn and the Poetry Committee had organized at the church in early 1966.

The grant was administered jointly by Michael Allen and Harry Silverstein at the [[The New School|New School]], and was technically to be used for 'creative arts for alienated youth' and the socialisation of juvenile delinquents. [[Joel Oppenheimer]] was appointed as the first director of the Poetry Project, a role he held until 1968, when [[Anne Waldman]] took over.

Waldman organized the first New Year’s Day Marathon in 1974, with readers including [[Patti Smith]] and [[Ed Sanders]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |date=2024-07-08 |title=In Poetry’s Church |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/poetry-project-new-york/ |access-date=2026-04-24 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> The Marathon, an annual tradition, sees more than a hundred performers and a thousand attendees celebrate the New Year through readings and avant-garde performances.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vadukul |first=Alex |date=2024-01-05 |title=Where Downtown Poets Go to Church to Greet the New Year |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/style/poetry-project-marathon.html |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[File:Ginsberg_in_Sanctuary_at_Poetry_Project.jpg|thumb|[[Allen Ginsberg]] in Sanctuary at Poetry Project]] Directors and staff at the Poetry Project have included [[Bernadette Mayer]], [[Bob Holman]], [[Ron Padgett]], [[Eileen Myles]], [[Patricia Spears Jones]], [[Jessica Hagedorn]], [[Ed Friedman]], [[Gillian McCain]], [[Anselm Berrigan]], [[Stacy Szymaszek]], [[Simone White (writer)|Simone White]], Laura Henriksen, [[Kyle Dacuyan]], [[Kay Gabriel]], and the current Director, Nicole Wallace.

The Poetry Project was a key community hub for the so-called 'second generation' of the [[New York School (art)|New York School]] of poets.

The Poetry Project's archive was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2007, and the library is still in the process of cataloguing and digitizing the wealth of material.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |date=2024-07-08 |title=In Poetry’s Church |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/poetry-project-new-york/ |access-date=2026-04-24 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> The archive contains around 40,000 hours of audio and visual recordings, as well as ephemera including posters, correspondence, financial information, and other material.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vadukul |first=Alex |date=2024-01-05 |title=Where Downtown Poets Go to Church to Greet the New Year |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/style/poetry-project-marathon.html |access-date=2026-04-24 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== Publications == {{anchor|The Poetry Project Newsletter|Poetry Project Newsletter}} ''The Poetry Project Newsletter'' is currently the main publishing output of the Poetry Project. It has been published since 1972, and publishes poems, reviews, interviews, essays, art criticism and remembrances.<ref name=":2">This dating is from the memory of Ron Padgett, but seems likely to be accurate. See Daniel Kane, ''All Poets Welcome'', pp.149-150.</ref> Significant writers published in the ''Poetry Project Newsletter'' include Eileen Myles, Bernadette Mayer, Joe Brainard, Ernesto Cardenal, Ted Berrigan, Dennis Cooper, Juliana Huxtable, Alice Notley, and Hannah Black.<ref name=":2" />

The Poetry Project's first publication was ''The Genre of Silence'', published in 1966 by Joel Oppenheimer.<ref>Edith Jarolim, 'The World', ''Project Papers'' 1.6 (1987), https://www.poetryproject.org/media/pages/file-library/750093041-1665081633/project-papers-jarolim.pdf</ref> The publication was required by the terms of the federal grant which funded the Project in its early years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=dibeadmin |date=2016-09-08 |title=The World |url=https://fromasecretlocation.com/world/ |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=From a Secret Location |language=en-US}}</ref> At the time, Oppenheimer noted that the money would be better spent supporting ''The World'', which was already extant.<ref>Anne Waldman, ed., ''Out of This World: An Anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project 1966-1991'' (New York: Crown Publishing, 1991)</ref>

''The World'' was the Poetry Project’s literary magazine published from 1966 until 2002. Writing from ''The World'' was published in ''The World Anthology'' of 1969, and ''Out of This World: An Anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project 1966-1991''. Readings from the Poetry Project appeared on ''The World Record'', recorded in 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jacket # 7 - Libbie Rifkin - Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer and the Gender of an Avant-Garde Institution |url=http://jacketmagazine.com/07/rifkin07.html |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=jacketmagazine.com}}</ref>

''Unnatural Acts'' was a magazine produced from Bernadette Mayer's workshops taught at the Poetry Project between 1971 and 1974. ''Unnatural Acts'' contained poems with no attribution and was a kind of 'group project' by the workshop participants and Mayer.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/footnotes | title=Publications > Footnotes }}</ref>

''The Recluse'' was an annual literary magazine that ran from 2014 to 2022 and was published by the Poetry Project.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryproject.org/publications/poetry-canon | title=Publications > Poetry Canon }}</ref>

== Notable poets and artists represented == {{Div col|colwidth=20em}} *[[Hanif Abdurraqib]] *[[Mosab Abu Toha]] *[[Penny Arcade]] *[[John Ashbery]] *[[hannah baer]] *[[Amiri Baraka]] *[[Bill Berkson]] *[[Mei-mei Berssenbrugge]] *[[Hannah Black]] *[[Joe Brainard]] *[[Gwendolyn Brooks]] *[[Ernesto Cardenal]] *[[Fay Chiang]] *[[Don Mee Choi]] *[[Dennis Cooper]] *[[Samuel R. Delany]] *[[Kyle Dacuyan]] *[[Tim Dlugos]] *[[Kay Gabriel]] *[[Cecilia Gentili]] *[[Allen Ginsberg]] *[[John Giorno]] *[[Peter Gizzi]] *[[Robert Glück]] *[[Kim Gordon]] *[[Lyn Hejinian]] *[[Victor Hernández Cruz]] *[[Fanny Howe]] *[[Susan Howe]] *[[Juliana Huxtable]] *[[Gary Indiana]] *[[John Keene (writer)|John Keene]] *[[Myung Mi Kim]] *[[Gerard Malanga]] *[[Jaime Manrique]] *[[Bernadette Mayer]] *[[Thurston Moore]] *[[Meredith Monk]] *[[Tracie Morris]] *[[Fred Moten]] *[[Cookie Mueller]] *[[Eileen Myles]] *[[Alice Notley]] *[[Maureen Owen]] *[[Pedro Pietri]] *[[Rene Ricard]] *[[Patricia Spears Jones]] *[[Julio Torres]] *[[Quincy Troupe]] *[[Carolee Schneeman]] *[[Sarah Schulman]] *[[Chloë Sevigny]] *[[Cedar Sigo]] *[[Leslie Marmon Silko]] *[[Patti Smith]] *[[Pamela Sneed]] *[[Lorenzo Thomas]] *[[Chi Chi Valenti]] *[[Anne Waldman]] *[[David Velasco]] *[[Cecilia Vicuña]] *[[Simone White (writer)|Simone White]] *[[Raúl Zurita]]{{div col end}}

== Building == Since its founding in 1966, the Poetry Project has rented office and performance space from St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery at 131 E. 10th St.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Daniel |title=All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s |publisher=University of California Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780520936430 |location=Los Angeles |pages=1429 |language=English}}</ref> [[File:Poetry_Project_after_1978_fire.jpg|thumb|Poetry Project after 1978 fire]] In 1651, [[Peter Stuyvesant|Petrus Stuyvesant]], Director General of New Netherland, built a family [[chapel]] on the present day site of St. Mark’s Church. The current church was completed and consecrated in 1799. Stuyvesant’s burial vault lies in the church’s east yard.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-05 |title=“Secret Banned Rites”: Poets at Café Le Metro - Village Preservation |url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2021/02/05/secret-banned-rites-poets-at-cafe-le-metro/,%20https://www.villagepreservation.org/2021/02/05/secret-banned-rites-poets-at-cafe-le-metro/ |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=www.villagepreservation.org |language=en-US}} </ref>

In 1978, a [[fire]] destroyed the church’s [[roof]] and badly damaged the building.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frere-Jones |first=Sasha |date=2024-07-08 |title=In Poetry’s Church |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/poetry-project-new-york/ |access-date=2026-04-24 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref>

The Poetry Project uses both the church’s Parish Hall as well as its larger Sanctuary for events.

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{official website|http://www.poetryproject.org}} * [http://jacketmagazine.com/07/rifkin07.html Libbie Rifkin, 'My Little World Goes on St Mark's Place'] * Miles Champion, ''Insane Podium: A Short History of the Poetry Project 1966-2012''

[[Category:Poetry organizations based in the United States]] [[Category:1966 establishments in New York City]] [[Category:Organizations based in New York (state)]] [[Category:Arts organizations established in 1966]]