The Poetry Project Announces 50th Anniversary Gala Honoring Anne Waldman 4/27

The Poetry Project will host its first-ever gala in celebration of its 50th anniversary on Thursday, April 27, 2017. The gala will honor Anne Waldman for her radical and inspiring contributions to international contemporary poetry and activism, and for her past leadership of The Poetry Project. The evening will include performances by composer and performance artist Laurie Anderson, writer and vocalist LaTasha Diggs, and choreographer Yoshiko Chuma.

For 50 years, The Poetry Project has been devoted to poetry as a way of life, supporting poets, inclusivity, curiosity, and community. The arts and other expressions of liberty are under attack. The Poetry Project's 50th Anniversary Gala will be a celebration of the arts as urgent resistance and brilliance.

Anne Waldman has published more than 40 books of poetry, including the monumental feminist epic, The Iovis Trilogy (Coffee House Press, 2011). She is a poet and teacher, and with Allen Ginsberg co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. She was the Artistic Director of The Poetry Project from 1968 to 1978. Over the course of her career, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist. www.annewaldman.org. Photo: Anne Waldman

Gala Host Committee: RoseMary Carroll (Chair), Elinor Nauen (Co-Chair), Lee Ann Brown and Tony Torn, Yoshiko Chuma, William Corbett, Will Creeley, Ted Dodson, Stephen Facey, E. Tracy Grinnell, Molly Gross, Bob Holman, Vincent Katz, Nathan Kernan and Thomas Whiteridge, Annabel Lee, Rachel Levitsky, Gillian McCain, Anna Moschovakis, Eileen Myles, Tracie Morris, James Sherry, Patricia Spears Jones, Pat Steir, and Edwin Torres.

The event will be held at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th Street, at Second Avenue, in Manhattan. Gala tickets are $150. After-party only tickets: $25. Tickets can be purchased online at www.poetryproject.org. All proceeds support the artistic programs of The Poetry Project.

Gala Sponsors: Carroll, Guido & Groffman, LLC, Committee on Poetry, Ingram, Justin Jamail, McNally Jackson Books, Elinor Nauen & Johnny Stanton, and Nine Cakes.

About The Poetry Project

Founded in 1966 by the late poet and translator Paul Blackburn, The Poetry Project has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetry for five decades. It has grown from a grassroots organization to an internationally regarded treasure with its archives housed at the Library of Congress.

Located at the historic St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, The Poetry Project hosts three distinct reading/performance series, plus talks and special events, providing a platform for internationally renowned poets and multidisciplinary artists, as well as open mic events. Through its "Emerge-Surface-Be" program, it offers nine-month mentorships, including stipends, to promising emerging poets. It also publishes a newsletter and occasional volumes of poetry, and maintains an extensive tape and document archive. For more information about The Poetry Project, visitwww.poetryproject.org.