Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, she has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural-political activist.
Life []
Born in Millville, New Jersey, Waldman lived in New Jersey very briefly; she was raised on MacDougal Street in New York City's Greenwich Village.
She earned a B.A. from Bennington College in 1966.
During the 1960s, Waldman became part of the East Coast poetry scene, in part through her engagement with the poets and artists loosely termed the Second Generation of the New York School. During this time, Waldman also made many connections with earlier generations of poets, including figures such as Allen Ginsberg, who once called Waldman his "spiritual wife."
From 1966 to 1968, she served as Assistant Director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's, and, from 1968 to 1978, as the Director.
In the early 1960s, Waldman became a student of Buddhism. In the 1970s, along with Allen Ginsberg, she began to study with Tibetan Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In 1974, with Trungpa, Ginsberg, and others, Waldman founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado (now Naropa University), where she was a distinguished professor of poetics and the director of Naropa's famous summer writing program.
In 1976, Waldman and Ginsberg were featured in Bob Dylan's film, Renaldo and Clara. They worked on the film while traveling through New England and Canada with the Rolling Thunder Revue, a concert tour that made impromptu stops, entertaining enthusiastic crowds with poetry and music. Waldman, Ginsberg, and Dylan were joined on these caravans by musicians such as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Eric Anderson, and Joe Cocker. Waldman reveled in the experience, and she often thought of recreating the poetry caravan.[1]
Waldman married Reed Bye in 1980, and their son, Edwin Ambrose Bye, was born on October 21, 1980. The birth of her son proved to be an "inspiring turning point" for Waldman, and she became passionately interested in and deeply committed to the survival of the planet. Her child, she said, became her teacher.[2] He inspired her poem, "Number Song" in which she writes, "I sing of my son." Waldman and Ambrose Bye (musician) perform frequently, and have created Fast Speaking Music and have produced multiple albums together.
Waldman has been a fervent activist for social change. In the 1970s, she was involved with the Rocky Flats Truth Force, an organization opposed to the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility ten miles to the south of Boulder, Colorado. With Daniel Ellsberg and Allen Ginsberg, she was arrested for protesting outside of the site. She has been a vocal proponent for feminist, environmental, and human rights causes, an active participant in Poets Against the War, and she has helped organize protests in New York and Washington, D.C.
Waldman has published more than 40 books of poetry. Her work has been widely anthologized, featuring work in Breaking the Cool (University of Mississippi Press, 2004), All Poets Welcome(University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003), Women of the Beat Generation (Conari Press, Berkeley, CA, 1996), Postmodern American Poetry (Norton, New York, 1994) and Up Late (Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1988) among others. Her poems have been translated into French, Italian, German, Turkish, Spanish, and Chinese.
Waldman is also the editor of several volumes relating to modern, postmodern, and contemporary poetry. Over the course of her career, Waldman has also been a tireless collaborator, producing works with artists Elizabeth Murray, Richard Tuttle, George Schneeman, Donna Dennis, Pat Steir; musicians Don Cherry and Steve Lacy; dancer Douglas Dunn; filmmaker and husband Ed Bowes; and her son, musician/composer Ambrose Bye.
Waldman has been a fellow at the Emily Harvey Foundation (Winter 2007) and the Bellagio Center in Italy (Spring 2006). She has also held residencies at the Christian Woman’s University of Tokyo (Fall 2004); the Schule für Dichtung in Vienna (where she has also served as Curriculum Director in 1989); the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey (1984).
She has served as an advisor to the Prazska Skola Projekt in Prague, the Study Abroad on the Bowery (since 2004), and has been a faculty member in the New England College Low Residency MFA Program (since 2003). With writer and scholar Ammiel Alcalay, she founded the Poetry is News Coalition in 2002.
Writing[]
Although her work is sometimes connected to the Beat Generation, Waldman has never been, strictly speaking, a "Beat" poet. Her work, like the work of her contemporaries in the 1970s New York milieu of which she was a vital part — writers like Alice Notley and Bernadette Mayer, to name only 2 — is more diverse in its influences and ambitions. Waldman is particularly interested in the performance of her poetry: she considers performance a "ritualized event in time,"[3] and she expresses the energy of her poetry through exuberant breathing, chanting, singing, and movement. Waldman credits her poem, Fast Speaking Woman, as the seminal work that galvanized her idea of poetry as performance. Ginsberg, Kenneth Koch, Lawrence Ferlinghetti - all encouraged her to continue to perform her poetry.[4]
Recognition[]
She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Contemporary Artists Foundation, among others.
A 55-minute film titled “Anne Waldman: Makeup on Empty Space,” a film by poet Jim Cohn, documents the opening of the Anne Waldman Collection at the University of Michigan.[5]
Awards and Grants[]
- Fellow, The Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice, winter 2007.
- Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency, 2002.
- Civitella Ranieri Center Fellow, 2001.
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant Recipient, 2001.
- Vermont Studio School Residency, 2001.
- The Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award, 1996.
- National Endowment for the Arts Grant, 1979-80.
- The National Literary Anthology Award, 1970.
- The Poets Foundation Award, 1969.
- The Dylan Thomas Memorial Award, 1967.
- Two-time winner of the International Poetry Championship Bout in Taos, New Mexico
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- On the Wing. Boke Press, 1968.
- Hijacking (with Lewis Warsh). Boke Press, 1968.
- O My Life! (illustrated by George Schneeman). New York: Angel Hair Books, 1969.
- Baby Breakdown. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970.
- Up Through the Years (with Joe Brainar). New York: Angel Hair Books, 1970.
- Giant Night: Poems. New York: Corinth Books, 1970.
- Holy City. New York: privately published, 1971.
- Icy Rose. New York: Angel Hair / Cranium Press, 1971.
- Memorial Day (with Ted Berrigan). New York: Poetry Project, 1971.
- No Hassles: An unhinged book in parts. New York: Kulchur Foundation, 1971.
- Spin Off. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky Books, 1972.
- West Indies Poems (with Joe Brainard). New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1972.
- Self Portrait (with Joe Brainard). New York: Siamese Banana Press, 1972.
- Light and Shadow. [New York?]: privately published, 1973.
- Life Notes: Selected poems. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973.
- The Contemplative Live. Detroit, MI: Alternative Press, [1974?]
- Fast Speaking Woman. Detroit, MI: Red Hanrahan Press, 1974;
- revised & expanded as Fast Speaking Woman, and other chants. San Francisco: City Lights, 1975.
- Sun the Blond Out. Berkeley, CA: Arif Press, 1975.
- Hotel Room: Poems. Boulder, CO: Songbird Editions, 1976.
- Journals and Dreams: Poems. New York: Stonehill, 1976.
- Shaman = Shamane. Waban, MA: Munich Editions from Shell, 1977.
- Polar Ode (with Eileen Myles). New York: Dead Duke Books, 1979.
- Four Travels (with Reed Bye). New York: Sayonara, 1979.
- Countries: Poems. West Branch, IA: Toothpaste Press, 1980.
- Cabin. Calais, VT: Z Press, 1981.
- Sphinxeries (with Denyse King). Boulder, CO: Smithereens Press, 1981.
- First Baby Poems. Cherry Valley, NY: Rocky Ledge, 1982;
- revised & expanded, New York: Hyacinth Girls, 1983;
- (illustrated by George Schneeman). Buffalo, NY: BlazeVox, 2008.
- Truebairitz. New York: Fifth Planet Press, 1983.
- Makeup on Empty Space: Poems. West Branch, IA: Toothpaste Press, 1984.
- Invention (illustrated by Susan Hall). New York: Kulchur Foundation, 1985.
- Skin Meat Bones: Poems. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1985.
- The Romance Thing: Travel sketches. Flint, MI: Bamberger Books, 1987.
- Blue Mosque. New York: United Artists Books, 1988.
- Tell Me about it: Poems for painters (illustrated by George Schneeman). Stout, OH: Bloody Twin Press, 1988.
- Helping the Dreamer: New and selected poems, 1966-1988. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1989.
- Not a Male Pseudonym. New York: Tender Buttons, 1990.
- Lokapala. Boulder, CO: Rocky Ledge Cottage Editions, 1991.
- Fait Accompli (illustrated by Jane Dalrymple-Hollo). Boulder, CO: Last Generation, 1992.
- Iovis: All is full of Jove. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1993.
- Kin (illustrated by Susan Rothenberg). New York: Granary Books, 1997.
- Iovis: All is full of Jove: Book II. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1997.
- Polemics (by Anselm Hollo, Anne Waldman, & Jack Collom). Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1998.
- Au Lit, Holy; or, Transgressions of the Mahgreb (by Anne Waldman, Eleni Sikélianòs, & Laird Hunt). Erie, CO: Smokeproof Press, 1998.
- Young Manhattan (with Bill Berkson; illustrated by George Schneeman). Boulder, CO: Smokeproof Press / Erudite Fangs Editions, 1999.
- Marriage: A sentence. New York: New York: Penguin, 2000.
- Things Seen / Unseen. Brooklyn, NY: Belladonna Books, 2002.
- War Crime. Salt Lake City, UT: Elik Press, 2002.
- Dark Arcana: Afterimage or glow. Chester, NY: Heaven Bone Press, 2003.
- Zombie Dawn (with Tom Clark). Austin, TX: Skanky Possum, 2003.
- In the Room of Never Grieve:New and selected poems, 1985-2003. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2003.
- Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble. New York: Penguin, 2004.
- Red Noir, and other pieces for performance. Brooklyn, NY: Farfalla Press / McMillan and Parrish, 2008.
- Manatee / Humanity. New York: Penguin, 2009.
- The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the mechanism of concealment. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2011.
- Matriot Acts. Tucson, AZ: Chax Press, 2010.
- Gossamurmur. New York: Penguin, 2013.
Non-fiction[]
- To a Young Poet (with Reed Bye). Boston: White Raven Press, 1979.
- Fast Speaking Woman: Chants and essays. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1996.
- Vow to Poetry: Essays, interviews, and manifestos. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2001.
- Sonya Lee, Radical Presence: An interview with Anne Waldman. Salt Lake City, UT: Elik Press, 2002.
Collected editions[]
- Kill or Cure. New York: Penguin, 1994.
- Outrider: Poems, essays, interviews. Albuquerque, NM: La Alameda Press, 2006.
Edited[]
- Talking Poetics from Naropa Institute: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (edited with Marilyn Webb). Boulder, CO: Shambhala.
- Volume I: 1978; Volume II: 1979.
- The World Anthology: Poems from the St. Mark's Poetry Project. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969.
- Another World: A second anthology from the St. Mark's Poetry Project. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.
- Out of This World: An anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, 1966-1991. New York: Crown, 1991.
- Disembodied Poetics: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School (edited with Andrew Schelling). Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.
- The Beat Book: Poems and fiction of the Beat Generation. Boston: Shambhala, 1996.
- Angel Hair Sleeps with a Boy in My Head: The Angel Hair anthology (edited with Lewis Warsh). New York: Granary Books, 2001.
- Civil Disobediences: Poetics and politics in action (edited with Lisa Birman). Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2004.
- Beats at Naropa: An anthology. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2009.
- Cross Worlds: Transcultural poetics: An anthology (edited with Laura E. Wright). Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2014.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]
Audio / video[]
Film and Video[]
- Colors In the Mechanism of Concealment, with Ed Bowes, 2004.
- The Menage (for Carl Rakosi), with Ed Bowes, 2003.
- Live at Naropa, Phoebus Productions, 1990.
- Battle of the Bards, (Lannan Foundation), Metropolitan Pictures, Los Angeles, 1990.
- Eyes in All Heads, Phoebus Productions, 1989.
- “Uh-Oh Plutonium!” (1982), first prize at the American Film Festival, Manhattan Video Project,
Out There Productions (NYC).
- Cooked Diamonds, Fried Shoes, with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Meredith Monk
- Poetry in Motion, directed by Ron Mann, Sphinx Productions (Toronto).
- Also performed in Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara (1978), with a recording of the poem Fast Speaking Woman included on the sound track.
Audio Recordings[]
- The Milk of Universal Kindness (music by Ambrose Bye) 2011
- Matching Half (music by Ambrose Bye) with Akilah Oliver, 2007
- The Eye of The Falcon (music by Ambrose Bye) 2006.
- In the Room of Never Grieve (music by Ambrose Bye)
- By the Side of the Road (with Ishtar Kramer), 2003.
- Battery: Live from Naropa, 2003.
- Alchemical Elegy: Selected Songs and Writings, Fast Speaking Music, 2001.
- Beat Poetry, ABM, London,1999.
- Jazz Poetry, ABM, London,1999.
- Women of The Beat Generation, Audio-Literature, 1996.
- Live in Amsterdam, Soyo Productions, 1992.
- Assorted Singles, Phoebus Productions,1990.
- Made Up in Texas, Paris Records (Dallas), 1986.
- Crack in the World, Sounds True (Boulder),1986.
- Anne Waldman. Kansas City, MO: University of Missouri, 1987.
- Uh-Oh Plutonium!, Hyacinth Girls Music (NYC), 1982.
- Fast Speaking Woman, "S" Press Tapes (Munich), n.d.
- John Giorno and Anne Waldman, Giorno Poetry Systems Records, 1977.
- Beauty and the Beast (With Allen Ginsberg), Naropa Institute, 1976.
- Other recordings include The Dial-a-Poem Poets, Disconnected and The Nova Convention, Big Ego, Giorno Poetry Systems, and The World Record.
See also[]
References[]
- Contemporary Authors : Biography - Waldman, Anne (Lesley) (1945-) Thomson Gale; ISBN B0007SFYJW
- Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)
Fonds[]
Her archive of historical, literary, art, tape, and extensive correspondence materials (including many prominent literary correspondents, such as: William S. Burroughs, Robert Creeley, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Ken Kesey) resides at the University of Michigan's Hatcher Graduate Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[7]
Notes[]
- ↑ http://www.poetspath.com/waldmanimages/file8.html
- ↑ http://www.poetspath.com/waldmanimages/file9.html
- ↑ http://www.poetspath.com/waldmanimages/file5.html
- ↑ http://www.poetspath.com/waldmanimages/file6.html
- ↑ See http://www.poetspath.com/homepage/dvd_anne_waldman_make_up_on_empty_space.html
- ↑ Search results = au:Anne Waldman, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 9, 2015.
- ↑ Anne Waldman Papers, 1945-2002, University of Michigan, Special Collections Library
External links[]
- Poems
- Anne Waldman profile & 2 poems at The Beat Page
- Anne Waldman b. 1945 at the Poetry Foundation
- Anne Waldman at PoemHunter (8 poems)
- Audio / video
- Anne Waldman at PennSound
- Anne Waldman at YouTube
- Video readings and performances at AnneWaldman.org
- Books
- Anne Waldman at Amazon.com
- Works by or about Anne Waldman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- About
- Anne Waldman profile at the Academy of American Poets
- Naropa profile
- Anne Waldman at the Museum of American Poetics
- "Post-beat poet Waldman draws rave reviews," Michigan University Record, 2002
- Anne Waldman Official website
- Anne Waldman interview at The Argotist Online
- Jacket issue 27 - largely devoted to essays about Waldman
- Kerouac Alley - Anne Waldman Directory
- Anne Waldman Gallery - Photographs
- RJ Eskow/Nightlight interview - Q&A with Anne Waldman on Buddhism and politics
- Etc.
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