Bowery Poetry Club
Encyclopedia
The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City
poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman
in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan
's East Village
, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists. "Events at Bowery Poetry Club feel less like staid literary readings than big, friendly parties replete with alcohol, conversation and some of the last edginess on the Bowery not yet channeled into hotels." - The Villager Bowery Poets: Bob Holman, Moonshine, Shappy, Beau Sia and Gary Glazner performed in March 2008, at SXSW in Austin. Time Out New York says, "The name of this colorful joint on the Bowery reveals its poetry-slam roots, but it’s also the truest current iteration of the East Village’s legendary arts scene." Go City Kids says, "Billed as a playground for language, the Bowery Poetry Club extends a welcoming hand to youngsters who love words with the Bowery Kids series of kid-friendly shows and readings." Bowery Kids shows every Sunday at noon. New York Times article on the American Sign Language poetry series hosted by Jason Norman held at the Bowery Poetry Club
tabletop manufacturer that ran on DC current. Plywood
scraps were used to heat the building via a pot-belly stove.
Currently, a group of arts-oriented investors owns the building. Other tenants include Washington Square Films on the 2nd floor, and the Manhatta on the ground floor next door to the Club.
In the 2002 New York Times article written about the club, Bob Holman talked about the then-risky choice to open the club in "storied skid row" that was is the Bowery:
Regular shows include:
Additional programming is also provided by the non-profit Bowery Arts and Science, publishers of the Bowery Books series.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman
Bob Holman
Bob Holman is a poet and poetry activist in the United States.- Career :After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, Bob Holman founded, with Sara Miles and Susie Timmons, the NYC Poetry Calendar, a free monthly publication with all the readings and poets "on the same page"...
in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists. "Events at Bowery Poetry Club feel less like staid literary readings than big, friendly parties replete with alcohol, conversation and some of the last edginess on the Bowery not yet channeled into hotels." - The Villager Bowery Poets: Bob Holman, Moonshine, Shappy, Beau Sia and Gary Glazner performed in March 2008, at SXSW in Austin. Time Out New York says, "The name of this colorful joint on the Bowery reveals its poetry-slam roots, but it’s also the truest current iteration of the East Village’s legendary arts scene." Go City Kids says, "Billed as a playground for language, the Bowery Poetry Club extends a welcoming hand to youngsters who love words with the Bowery Kids series of kid-friendly shows and readings." Bowery Kids shows every Sunday at noon. New York Times article on the American Sign Language poetry series hosted by Jason Norman held at the Bowery Poetry Club
Building history
The original purpose of the building, built in the 1850s, was for a lumber yard. Its last incarnation before becoming the BPC was as a formicaFormica
Formica is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, or field ants. Formica is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae...
tabletop manufacturer that ran on DC current. Plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
scraps were used to heat the building via a pot-belly stove.
Currently, a group of arts-oriented investors owns the building. Other tenants include Washington Square Films on the 2nd floor, and the Manhatta on the ground floor next door to the Club.
In the 2002 New York Times article written about the club, Bob Holman talked about the then-risky choice to open the club in "storied skid row" that was is the Bowery:
Facts and features of the Club
- 2500 sq. ft. space
- 12' x 20' stage + green room
- Run by an all-artist staff
- and Cafe in the front
- Full bar
- Community drop-space available for artist information distribution
Programming
- Bingo Gazingo, King of the Street Poets (Mondays)
- The Taylor MeadTaylor MeadTaylor Mead is an American writer, actor, and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films including Tarzan and Jane Regained.....
Show (Mondays) - Monday Night Bingo hosted by Murray HillMurray Hill, ManhattanMurray Hill is a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood in New York City, USA. Around 1987 many real estate promoters of the neighborhood and newer residents described the boundaries as within East 34th Street, East 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and the East River; in 1999, Frank P...
(Mondays) - Diane O'Debra's' Talent Show Open Mic (Mondays)
- NYC-Urbana Slam, Three-time National Poetry SlamNational Poetry SlamThe National Poetry Slam is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and France participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and takes place in a different US city....
Championship venue (Tuesdays) - Theater of Fools (monthly on Wednesdays)
- Skits and Tits (monthly on Wednesdays)
- Bad-Ass Burlesque (monthly on Saturdays)
- Praise Days: Bob Kaufman, June Jordan, Gregory CorsoGregory CorsoGregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Audre LordeAudre LordeAudre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:...
, Ted JoansTed JoansTheodore "Ted" Joans was an American trumpeter, jazz poet and painter.Joans was born in Cairo, Illinois, but not on a riverboat as had been claimed. He earned a degree in fine arts from Indiana University. He later associated with writers of the Beat Generation in Greenwich Village and San Francisco...
, Dylan ThomasDylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, Elizabeth MurrayElizabeth MurrayElizabeth Murray may refer to:*Lady Elizabeth Murray, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Mansfield*Elizabeth Murray , American artist*Elizabeth Murray, wife of Edward Robbins and great-great grandmother to Franklin D. Roosevelt... - Emily DickinsonEmily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
Marathon - Bilingual Readings: The World of Poetry
- Eric BogosianEric BogosianEric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
, Karen FinleyKaren FinleyKaren Finley is an American performance artist, whose theatrical pieces and recordings have often been labelled "obscene" due to their graphic depictions of sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement...
, Danny HochDanny HochDanny Hoch is an American writer, director and performance artist. He has acted in larger roles in independent and art house movies and had a few small roles in mainstream Hollywood films, with increasing exposure as in 2007's We Own the Night...
, Sekou Sundiata, Sapphire - Poets’ Soapbox (speak your mind in poetry)
- Bowery Kids! Up close and interactive entertainment for kids.
- Emanuel XavierEmanuel XavierIn 2005, Suspect Thoughts Press published Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, a collection Emanuel Xavier edited. The anthology featured the work of thirteen openly queer spoken word artists and new work by the editor himself including: "Legendary", "Outside" and "A Simple Poem." The...
& The House of Xavier's annual Glam Slam - Amina & Amiri BarakaAmiri BarakaAmiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...
and Blue Ark - James Blood Ulmer
- Anne WaldmanAnne WaldmanAnne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
& Jim Carroll - Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement
- Shaba Sher, Persian poetry & music
- Beatboxers Summit
- Janet Hamill and Moving Star
- The Peoples Poetry Gathering
- Ed SandersEd SandersEd Sanders is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher and has been a longtime member of the band The Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.-Biography:...
, John GiornoJohn GiornoJohn Giorno is an American poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events, including Dial-A-Poem. He became prominent as the subject of Andy Warhol's film Sleep...
, Carl Hancock Rux, Toni Blackman, Tuli KupferbergTuli KupferbergNaphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:... - Rick Shapiro, the Lenny Bruce of Poetry
- Yusef Komunyakaa, Breyten Breytenbach, Jackson Mac LowJackson Mac LowJackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practioneer of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle...
- The Segue Series
- Page Meets Stage
- An annual reading in celebration of "The November 3rd Club" online literary journal of political writing, hosted by Victor D. Infante
Additional programming is also provided by the non-profit Bowery Arts and Science, publishers of the Bowery Books series.
Trivia
- BPC's first show was on February 3, 2002: a Praise Day for Gregory CorsoGregory CorsoGregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
. There were no bathrooms, no chairs, no stage lights, and most importantly, no bar. - Celebrities who have passed through the BPC's doors include: Matt DillonMatt DillonMatthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
, Fiona AppleFiona AppleFiona Apple McAfee Maggart is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success...
, Saul WilliamsSaul WilliamsSaul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
, Sarah JonesSarah JonesSarah Jones is a Tony- and Obie Award-winning American playwright, actress, and poet.Called "a master of the genre" by The New York Times, Jones has written and performed four multi-character solo shows, including Bridge & Tunnel, which was produced Off-Broadway in 2004 by Oscar-winner Meryl...
, Chuck CloseChuck CloseCharles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
, John AshberyJohn AshberyJohn Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
, Claire DanesClaire DanesClaire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
, Patricia ClarksonPatricia ClarksonPatricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
, Patti SmithPatti SmithPatricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Ani DiFrancoAni DiFrancoAni DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, Michael McClureMichael McClureMichael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums...
, Ted JoansTed JoansTheodore "Ted" Joans was an American trumpeter, jazz poet and painter.Joans was born in Cairo, Illinois, but not on a riverboat as had been claimed. He earned a degree in fine arts from Indiana University. He later associated with writers of the Beat Generation in Greenwich Village and San Francisco...
, Robert PlantRobert PlantRobert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
, MobyMobyRichard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Susan SarandonSusan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her... - Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
's Season 7, episode 7 was partially filmed at the BPC.
External links
- Bowery Poetry Club website
- Bowery Arts and Science website
- Poems Recorded Live at the Bowery Poetry Club (podcast series)
- Archives of Segue Series
- Litkicks article on Brooklyn Poetry Day at the Bowery Poetry Club
- All About Jazz on a Jazz event at the Bowery Poetry Club
- Various videos of burlesque performers at the Bowery Poetry Club, including Jo Boobs, World Famous Bob and BadAss Burlesque
- David Amram on playing jazz with poetry at the Bowery Poetry Club and in the 1950s with Jack Kerouac