Poetry & Poetics at Buffalo - Electronic Poetry Center - University at ...

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Max Wickert founds the Outriders Poetry Program, which sponsors weekly poetry readings
at the Tralfamadore Cafe on Main Street.
March 17-Paul Blackburn reads at Norton.
April 29-Kenneth Koch reads at Norton.
Allen Ginsberg reads in Clark Gym. Seated in the front row, "The Motherfuckers" (a registered
trademark of a local commune) shout him down.
May-First publication of Fathar, edited by
Duncan McNaughton. This journal, published in
Buffalo and Bolinas from 1970 to 1975, is a beautiful
example ofwhat can happen when a fine-press
aesthetic has to negotiate the financial limitations
of the self-published poetry journal. Each of the six
issues is bound in heavy stock with a single-color
photoreproduction on the front cover. The papers
used are slightly heavier than average, and are
often selected in colors which contrast the covers.
Texts are mimeographed, and are displayed recto
side only.
The range of poets and prose writers
published here occupies a space largely mapped
out between Olson's and Duncan's work. The
occasional appearance of a New York School poet
adds a bit of geographic scope, however (see the
poems by O'Hara and Berrigan in no. 1), while
arrivals from abroad (e.g., Tom Raworth in issue
"Zayin" [which appeared in place of no. 4]) and the
emergence of younger writers, some of them with Buffalo backgrounds (see Michael
Davidson in no. 5), signal the early stirrings of something "new."
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"The art scene in Buffalo was booming in the '60s; there was this huge expansiveness from
social changes like the Civil Rights movement and in the arts an experimentalism that
made it seem like you couldn't even get to all the things that were going on at once. The
community and university and theaters were all enmeshed. You had the feeling that all
around you was the possibility of hearing or seeing something never heard before. Of
course, you probably saw some mediocre things but experimentation necessitates failure.
There was an audience for it back then, back before the retrenchment and vast cynicism
of the 1970s. For a short time there was a benevolent enthusiasm for the new and a
willingness to respond to new art forms."-ASB
June 11-14-COSMEP holds its annual conference in Buffalo. The event includes a panel
discussion (Saturday, June 13) on "Little Mags/Small Presses and the 'Cultural
Revolution.'" Panel members are Robert Creeley, Leslie Fiedler, Allen Ginsberg, Susan
Sherman, and John Wieners.