PennSound sends birthday greetings to the one and only
Anne Waldman, who turns 80 today. It is staggering to think of the myriad ways in which Waldman has shaped contemporary poetics for seven decades and counting, starting with her prolific output, which, while always evolving, still feels immediately and unmistakably recognizable. As an editor for
Angel Hair and
United Artists all the way up to her present guidance of Fast Speaking Music, she has made space for voices that would otherwise get lost in the shuffle and broadened our worldview. Finally, her fostering presence as an early Artistic Director of the St. Mark's Poetry Project and her co-founding of Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics has created vital communities that span generations.
PennSound's Anne Waldman author page provides a thorough survey of the poet's long and fruitful career, provides a thorough survey, with recordings from 1969 ("Three Minutes of My Life" from the LP anthology
Tape Poems) all the way up to a 2017 reading at
the Dia Art Foundation. There are numerous full readings for Belladonna*, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Naropa Institute, the Sue Scott Gallery, the CUNY Graduate Center, Zinc Bar, the St. Mark's Poetry Project, and our own Kelly Writers House, along with a number of complete album releases and myriad individual tracks, talks, radio interviews, films, and more. There's no better way to celebrate this legendary poet on her birthday than to share some of her work. Click
here to start browsing and listening!
