Robert Duncan and George Oppen: February 22, 1973

The Poetry Center presents Robert Duncan and George Oppen, reading from their poetry, in the very first video recording (following near-20 years of audio recordings) made for the Center's then newly established American Poetry Archives. The poets appear before a large audience at the San Francisco Museum of Art, its Van Ness Avenue, Civic Center location, for the first of a number of events billed as "Evenings at the San Francisco Art Museum," noted in the event program as "re-establishing our historical & cultural ties" between the museum and The Poetry Center. Following the poets' readings was a screening of the outtake footage from two of the USA:Poetry film series, on Charles Olson and on Frank O'Hara, as made available by Richard O. Moore, General Manager for San Francisco public television station KQED. 

Duncan reads from his "Dante Études" (later published as Dante, Institute of Further Studies, 1974), from Bending the Bow (New Directions, 1968), and from "Poems from the Margins of Thom Gunn's Moly." Oppen follows, reading from Seascape: Needle's Eye (Sumac Press, 1972), and the beginning section of one "new, unpublished" poem, dedicated "in memory of Mickey Scwherner," from what would be the Myth of the Blaze section of The Collected Poems of George Oppen (New Directions, 1976).

Note: original video image quality is generally poor throughout; recommended viewing as a smaller-scale screen.