1950s Audio Programs
The Poetry Center's unparalleled 1950s collection documents at close hand the world-renowned "San Francisco Renaissance" movement, centered on new poetry, alongside the presence of more 'mainstream' figures. This collection features many of the earliest recordings of the voices and works of outstanding poets engaged in the San Francisco scene, along with other poets from across the country. Of special note are recordings from landmark Poetry Center-organized West Coast appearances by celebrated literary giants William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, and Langston Hughes. Founding director Ruth (more)
The Poetry Center presents Helen Adam reading from Ballads and other poems. This event also featured Jess, reading his...
Date: 04/07/1957
The Poetry Center presents W. H. Auden, delivering a lecture titled "On the Hero in Modern Poetry" before an...
Date: 1954-10-11
The Poetry Center presents George Barker reading from his poetry.
Date: 10/21/1959
The Poetry Center presents Ebbe Borregaard and George Stanley reading from their early poetry.
Date: 03/15/1958
The Poetry Center presents a performance of two plays by James Broughton, Mother, Reality & Happiness and The Last...
Date: 05/23/57
The Poetry Center presents Chao Tze-Chiang chanting in Cantonese, and providing English translations, from the work of...
Date: 07/09/1958
The Poetry Center presents Gregory Corso reading from his early poetry.
Date: 10/21/1956
The Poetry Center presents Robert Creeley reading from his early books of poetry.
Date: 05/20/1956
The Poetry Center presents Robert Creeley reading from his poetry.
Date: 07/16/1959
The Poetry Center presents Robert Duncan reading from his poetry and a play.
Date: 10/10/1956
The Poetry Center presents Robert Duncan reading his poetry from and discussing his book The Opening of the Field (1960).
Date: 05/18/1959
The Poery Center presents Landis Everson reading from his early poetry. Note: This event also featured poet Eve Triem.
Date: 11/04/1956
The Poetry Center presents Brother Antoninus reading from his poetry.
Date: 07/21/1955
The Poetry Center presents Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading from his book A Coney Island of the Mind. This event also...
Date: 12/12/1956
The Poetry Center presents Allen Ginsberg reading Kaddish and other works.
Date: 04/27/1959
The Poetry Center presents Madeline Gleason reading from her poetry.
Date: 11/14/1956
The Poetry Center presents Donald Davie and Thom Gunn reading from their poetry.
Date: 05/18/1958
The Poetry Center presents Robert Horan reading his poem The Riddle of the Sphinx.
Date: 07/14/1954
The Poetry Center presents Langston Hughes reading from his poetry and providing an extensive autobiographical account of...
Date: 12/05/1958
The Poetry Center presents Randall Jarrell reading from his poetry.
Date: 10/03/1956
The Poetry Center presents Jess reading from his poetry and translations. This event also featured poet Helen Adam.
Date: 04/07/1957
The Poetry Center presents live performances of James Keilty's two plays Ways of Spending Money and Genji and...
Date: 01/25/1959
Date: 12/07/1959
The Poetry Center presents Stanley Kunitz reading from his poetry.
Date: 07/17/1956
The Poetry Center presents Denise Levertov reading from a selection of her poetry.
Date: 02/10/1958
The Poetry Center presents Philip Levine reading from his early poetry. This event also featured poet Gary Snyder.
Date: 11/24/1958
The Poetry Center presents Robert Lowell reading from Life Studies and other poems.
Date: 03/27/1957
The Poetry Center presents Marianne Moore reading from her Collected Poems and other works.
Date: 10/10/1957
The Poetry Center presents Marianne Moore reading from her Collected Poems and The Fables of La Fontaine .
Date: 10/18/1957
The Poetry Center presents Charles Olson reading from The Maximus Poems and other works.
Date: 02/21/1957
The Poetry Center presents Kenneth Patchen reading from his poetry.
Date: 12/06/1957
The Poetry Center presents Bruce Boyd, Saul White, and Stuart Z. Perkoff reading from their poetry.
Date: 03/30/1958
Theodore Roethke reading from his poetry, for the Poetry Center's inaugural reading.
Date: 02/25/1954
The Poetry Center presents the March 1956 Berkeley re-creation of the famed October 1955 Six Gallery reading, introduced...
Date: 03/11/1956
The Poetry Center presents Kenneth Rexroth reading from his poetry and translations.
Date: 07/13/1955
The Poetry Center presents Kenneth Rexroth, reading from his poetry and playing recordings of French songs.
Date: 10/05/1959
The Poetry Center presents Muriel Rukeyser reading from her poetry.
Date: 07/28/1955
The Poetry Center presents Muriel Rukeyser reading from her poetry and translations of Octavio Paz.
Date: 07/16/1958
The Poetry Center presents James Schevill's play The Bloody Tenet performed by members of the Actors Workshop.
Date: 01/12/1958
The Poetry Center presents Gary Snyder reading from his poetry. This event also included poet Philip Levine.
Date: 11/24/1958
The Poetry Center presents Jack Spicer reading from his poetry.
Date: 04/11/1957
The Poetry Center presents poets from Jack Spicer's "Poetry as Magic" Workshop, including Helen Adam, Ebbe...
Date: 06/09/1957
The Poetry Center presents poets from Jack Spicer's "Poetry as Magic" Workshop, including Jack Gilbert,...
Date: 06/10/1957
The Poetry Center presents William Stafford reading from his poetry.
Date: 07/23/1959
The Poetry Center presents Eve Triem reading from A Parade of Doves , her translations from The Greek Anthology and...
Date: 11/04/1956
The Poetry Center presents Lew Welch reading from and discussing his poetry.
Date: 11/09/1959
The Poetry Center presents Philip Whalen reading from his poetry. This event also featured poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Date: 12/12/1956
The Poetry Center presents John Wieners reading from an unpublished manuscript and The Hotel Wentley Poems .
Date: 06/21/1959
The Poetry Center presents William Carlos Williams reading and talking about his poetry.
Date: 05/19/1955
The Poetry Center presents Yvor Winters reading from his poetry.
Date: 02/14/1958
The Poetry Center presents Louis Zukofsky reading from his poetry. Note: Zukofsky taught at San Francisco State College...
Date: 07/02/1958