Passing Stranger - The East Village Poetry Walk is an audio tour of poetry related sites in New York City's East Village. It is produced by Pejk Malinovski, with support from The Poetry Foundation. The interactive documentary experience was created in collaboration with Zeega. The audio file (download here) and map outlining the route (download here) allow the user to take the tour using their own mp3 player. The tour is about 2 miles and 95 minutes long.
The main focus is on poetry and poets from the 1950s to the present. The tour does not provide a linear or concise history, but rather, like a walk, an anecdotal, digressive tapestry of the poetry that lived and continues to live in the neighborhood.
Passing Stranger includes commentary from key figures from the East Village poetry scene, including Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman and Richard Hell, as well as historical audio from poets like Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Koch and Frank O'Hara. Poet and critic Daniel Kane provides background and context to set the scene.
The Walking Tour ranges from the Bowery in the west to Avenue C in the East, Bleecker Street in the south and 12th street in the north. Stops include St. Mark's On-the-Bowery, W.H. Auden's old apartment building, Tompkins Square Park, Allen Ginsberg's old building, the Bowery poetry club. Each stop contains a montage of poetry, interviews and archival recordings relating to that particular place.
Credits:
Pejk Malinovski — idea, production
Curtis Fox — executive producer, editor
Emily Botein — editorial consultant
Anne Halsey — executive producer for The Poetry Foundation
Catherine Halley — online editor for The Poetry Foundation
Jim Jarmusch — narrator of walking tour
Kaari Pitkin — directions in walking tour
James Burns — website design + development
Kara Oehler — website design
Jesse Shapins — website design
Seline Baumgartner — graphic design, drawing
Contact:
info@eastvillagepoetrywalk.org
Thanks to:
Daniel Kane, author of
All Poets Welcome — the Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960's
Anselm Berrigan
Lytle Shaw
Ron Padgett
Karen Koch
Bob Holman
Steve Cannon
Eileen Myles
Bob Rosenthal
Maureen Granville-Smith
Stacey Abramson
David Isay
Larry Fagin
Julie Subrin
Julia Botero
Marina Zurkow
Music:
Music by John Zorn from the Album:
The Gift
Used with permission from John Zorn
Music by John Zorn from the Album:
Filmworks X: In The Mirror Of Maya Deren
Used with permission from John Zorn
Music by John Zorn from the Album:
Film Works 2: Music For An Untitled Film by Walter Hill
Used with permission from John Zorn
Music by John Zorn from the Album:
Invitation To A Suicide
Used with permission from John Zorn and Loren Marsh
http://www.invitationtoasuicide.com
Music by John Zorn from the Album:
Filmworks 1986-1990. She Must Be Seeing Things
Used with permission from John Zorn and Sheila Mcgloglhin
List of poems used, in order of appearance:
Excerpt Kenneth Koch's poem
To my Audience
Used with permission from Kenneth Koch's literary estate
http://www.kennethkoch.org
Excerpt from Frank O'Hara,
Ode to Joy (To hell with it)
Used with permission from Maureen O'hara
Audio from the Dial a Poem project:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/dial.html
Ted Berrrigan's sonnet
"Dear Margie, Hello" from
The Sonnets (1966)
Used with permission from the literary estate
Ron Padgett's
Poema del City from
Toujours l'amour (1976)
Used with permission from the poet
http://www.ronpadgett.com/
Walt Whitman,
To a Stranger, from
Leaves of Grass
Taylor Mead,
Motorcycles
Used with permission from the poet
Bernadette Mayor,
Sonnet (You jerk, you didn't call me up)
Audio from the Dial a Poem project:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/dial.html
Excerpt from Diane Di Prima,
Revolutionary Letters
Audio from the Dial a Poem project:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/dial.html
Excerpt from Galway Kinnell,
The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ
Used with permission from the poet
Miquel Piñero,
A Lower East Side Poem
Interview with Miquel Algarin and excerpts from Piñero's poem courtesy of Stacey Abramson and David Isay
http://soundportraits.org
Excerpts from Jack Kerouac,
American Haiku
Bill Berkson / Frank O'Hara,
Song Heard Around St. Bridget's
Used with permission from Bill Berkson
John Ashbery,
Just Walking Around, from
A Wave (1985)
Used with permission from the poet. Recording used with permission from The Poetry Archive.
www.poetryarchive.org
Excerpts from Joe Brainard,
I Remember
Audio from the Dial a Poem project:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/dial.html
Alice Notley, 10 Best Comic Books, from
Grave of Light (2006)
Used with permission from the poet
Excerpt from WH Auden,
September 1, 1939 from
Another Time (1940)
Scott Simon's reading used with permission from Scott Simon
Excerpt from Anne Waldman,
Fast Speaking Woman
Used with permission from the poet
Audio from the Dial a Poem project:
http://www.ubu.com/sound/giorno_waldman.html
Excerpt from Lewis Warsh,
Eye Contact, from
The Origin of the World (2001)
Used with permission from the poet
Dick Gallup / Ted Berrigan,
80th Congress, originally published in
The World (1967)
Used with permission from the literary estate of Ted Berrigan
Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln,
My Childhood-Home I See Again, originally mailed to Lincoln's friend and fellow politician, Andrew Johnston, on April 18, 1846
Leroi Jones,
Bang, bang, outishly
Excerpt from
In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry
Hettie Jones,
Ode to My Kitchen Sink, from
All Told (2003)
Used with permission from the poet
Excerpt from Brenda Coultas,
A Handmade Museum, Coffee House Press (2003)
Used with permission from the poet
ee cumming's poem "i was sitting in mcsorley's. outside it was New York and beauti-".
Copyright (c) 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, Copyright (c) 1976 by George James Firmage, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=15245
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