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Bob Holman Audio/Video Poetry Collection

Call Number

MSS.128

Date

1977-2004, inclusive

Creator

Holman, Bob, 1948-

Extent

85 Linear Feet
in 71 record cartons, a half manuscript box, a tall manuscript box, 3 flat boxes, a card box, and a CD box

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

The Bob Holman Audio/ Video Poetry Collection is a multimedia collection documenting spoken word performances and productions between the years 1977 and 2002. Key items include spoken word projects produced by Bob Holman.

Biographical Note

Bob Holman's varied career has been devoted to promoting poetry in American culture. Born in 1948 in Harlan, Kentucky and raised in rural Ohio, Holman attended Columbia College and graduated in 1970 with a degree in English. In 1974 Holman began his ongoing tenure as the director of the Poets Theatre in New York City and began studying with Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley at the St. Marks Poetry Project. He founded the New York City Poetry Calendar in 1977 and acted as its editor until 1980. With his completion of the St. Marks curriculum in 1978 Holman joined the Project's staff, acting as a coordinator, host, and workshop leader from 1978 through 1984. In later years Holman held similar positions at several non-profit poetry groups and institutions such as the Public Theatre and the Whitney Museum, where he acted as curator for a reading series.

During the 1970s and 1980s Holman was active as a producer/director of and/or performer in a variety of poetry festivals, tours, and other performances in New York City's Lower East Side poetry scene. From 1988 through 1989 Holman organized and hosted the "Poets in the Bars: A Celebration of the Oral Tradition" reading series sponsored by Creative Time with Pedro Pietry. He also helped to reopen the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1989 and worked as one of its co-directors until 1996. During his tenure Holman founded a touring company of poets, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Live! Touring Company, in 1993 and hosted numerous Poetry Slams, a form of spoken word competition he helped to popularize. He was also active in the production and direction of plays, such as those of the "Poet's Theater Festivals" held by St. Mark's and La Mama Theatre between 1988 and 1990. His productions during the Festivals included stagings of Tristan Tzara's Gas Heart, Antonin Artaud's Jet of Blood, Vladimir Mayakovsky's Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, and Alfred Jarry's Ubu.

Holman's first poetry video, sweat'n'sex'politics, was introduced at The Public Theatre in 1985. The next year he began a two year tenure in the Poetry/Video Learning Project, a part of the New York City Public School system's anti-dropout efforts, designed and produced by Rise and Shine Productions. The program targeted truant high school students and offered them the opportunity to write poems and participate in the production of poetry videos with the assistance of poets. From 1987 until 1995 Holman produced and acted as the host for Poetry Spots, a six season broadcast of video poems on WNYC-TV which received three Emmy awards. During the 1990s Holman also produced a number of poetry television programs for PBS and MTV, including several documentaries regarding poetry in the United States. Among them are PBS' 1990 Poet in the Third Dimension, the 1991 Words In Your Face directed by Mark Pellington, the 1994 Slammin', and MTV's Smokin' Word. One of the largest of such projects was the United States of Poetry, a critically acclaimed five part television series co-created by Bob Holman and directed by Marc Pellington during 1996 for PBS. The program featured over sixty poets, rappers, cowboy poets, American Sign Language poets, and Slammers. The series received the 1997 International Public Television award, the San Fransisco Film Festival award, and the University of Virginia Film Festival award. In subsequent years the project completed a companion anthology, a home video release from KQED, and a soundtrack CD. Holman also [produced]a digital anthology entitled World of Poetry (worldofpoetry.org) and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, describes itself as a continuation of the United States of Poetry project.

In 1995 Bob Holman, Sekou Sundiata, and Bill Adler founded Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records as the world's first major label for poetry CDs, with Holman acting as its Vice-President of Artistic Development until 1999. The label released numerous audio tracks, including works by Sekou Sundiata, Maggie Estep, Wammo, Michele Serros and Beau Sia. Some of its major releases included Allen Ginsberg's The Ballad of the Skeletons, Hal Willner's compilation album Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and a definitive four CD William Burroughs box set, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Between 1993 and 1996 Holman was a Professor of Writing at The New School for Social Research, and from 1998 until 2002 a Visiting Professor of Writing and Integrated Arts at Bard College. Holman then shifted to Columbia University's School of the Arts where, as a Visiting Professor of Writing, he taught the graduate course "Exploding Text: Poetry Performance".

Sources

"About the World of Poetry." The World of Poetry. New York and Los Angeles: Washington Square Arts Inc., 1998 (http://worldofpoetry.org/aboutwop.htm) Accessed April 7, 2009

"About the World of Poetry: About Producer Bob Holman." The World of Poetry. New York and Los Angeles: Washington Square Arts Inc., 1998 (http://worldofpoetry.org/awop_bob.htm) Accessed April 7, 2009

Holman, Bob. "Bob Holman Bio 2009." http://www.bobholman.com/bio2001.htm

Holman, Bob. Bob Holman's Resume (March 31, 2009)

"Poetry-Video as Tool Keeps Truants in Sschool." The New York Times, January 11, 1987, Section 1 page 40

Richardson, Lynda. "Public Lives: A Poet (and Proprietor) Is a Beacon in the Bowery." The New York Times, November 12, 2002, B2

Chronology

1974- ongoing Director, Poets Theater, NYC
1977-80 Founding Editor, NYC Poetry Calendar
1977-80 Poet, CETA Artist Project
1978-84 Coordinator/Host/Workshop Leader, Poetry Project at St. Marks Church
1985 Host, "Lines" Radio Series, Detroit Institute for the Arts
1986-88 Poet, Poetry/Video Learning Project, NYC Board of Ed Anti-Dropout Program
1987 Organizer, "US Poets Invade Nicaragua" Tour (Ginsberg, Cardenal, et al)
1987-95 Producer/Host of "Poetry Spots," WNYC-TV
1988-89 Organizer and Co-Host, "Poets in the Bars: A Celebration of the Oral Tradition"
1988-96 Co-Director, Poetry Slam Host, Nuyorican Poets Cafe
1990-01 Organizer and Host, "Public Poetry," Joseph Papp Public Theatre
1990- Producer/performer, "Smokin Word," "Words in Your Face," other poetry videos for PBS and MTV
1992-96 Creator/Producer, "The United States of Poetry," 5-part series, PBS
1993 Curator, The Melting Point of Ice poetry series, The Whitney Museum
1993-96 Executive/Co-artistic Director, Nuyorican Poets Cafe Live! Touring Company
1993-96 Professor of Writing, The New School for Social Research
1993-99 Organizer/Host, rAP mEETS pOETRY at Fez, S.O.Bs, Knitting Factory
1995-96 Curator/Host Off the Beaten Path poetry series, Whitney Museum
1995-96 On-line Host for Spoken Word site, iGuide Internet Server
1995-99 Founder/Vice-President, Artist Development, Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records
1995- ongoing: Guide, poetry.About.com
1995-: Director, Bowery Arts & Science, Ltd (formerly Washington Square Arts)
1996-: Artistic Director, Real Live Poetry Touring Company
1997-: Chief Curator, the Peoples Poetry Gathering
1998-99: Spoken Word Director, Cductive Interactive
1998-99: Poetry commentator, Anthem, NPR
1998-02 Visiting Professor of Writing and Integrated Arts, Bard College
2001-: Proprietor, Bowery Poetry Club
2002-: Publisher, Bowery Books
2003-: Visiting Professor of Writing, Columbia University School of the Arts
2004-05: Poet-in Residence, WNYC, New York Public radio
2005-: Artistic Director, Study Abroad on the Bowery

Works

Books Written/Edited

Bicenntential Suicide, published New York: Frontward Books, 1976

The Rainbow Raises its Shoulder/When a Flower Grows published New York: Chinatown Planning Council, 1979

Tear to Open published New York: Power Mad Press, 1979

8 Chinese Poems published Teaticket, MA: Peeka Boo Press, 1981

SWEAT&SEX&Politics!, Teaticket, MA: Peeka Boo Press, 1986

PANIC*DJ: Performance Text, 1st edition published Imperial Beach, CA: VRI Theatre Library, 1987, 2nd edition published New York: University Arts Resources, 1990

Cupid's Cashbox, published New York: Jordan Davies, 1990

ALOUD! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, co-editor with Nicole Blackman and Miguel Algarin, published New York: Henry Holt, 1994

Bob Holman's The Collect Call of the Wild, published New York: Henry Holt, 1995

The United States of Poetry, companion to the PBS series co-editor with Joshua Blum and Mark Pellington, published New York: Abrams, 1996

Beach Simplifies Horizon, New York: The Grenfell Press, 1998

A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, collaberation with Chuck Close, published New York: Art of This Century/Pace Editions, 2003

Anthologies

Fresh Paint, edited by Michael Slater and Yuki Hartman, published New York: Ailanthus Press, 1977

Poets Theatre, edited by Michael Slater and Yuki Hartman, published New York: Ailanthus Press, 1980

Up Late: American Poetry Since 1970, edited by Andrei Codrescu, published New York: 4 Walls 8 Windows, 1988, 1991

Out of This World, edited by Anne Waldman, New York: Crown, 1990

American Poets Say Good-Bye to the 20th Century, edited by Andrei Codrescu, published New York: 4 Walls 8 Windows, 1996

Thus Spake the Corpse: Exquisite Corpse Reader, edited by Andrei Codrescu, published Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow, 1999

Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance, edited by Gary Glazner, published San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2000

Short Fuse: Global Anthology, edited by Todd Swift, Philip Norton, Hal Niedzviecki, and James Kay, published New York: Rattapallax Press, 2002

Bum Rush the Page, edited by Tony Medina and Louis Rivera, published New York: MTV/Penguin, 2002

Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police, edited by Sheeler, with Foreword by Holman, published Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull, 2003

Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry, edited by Emanuel Xavier with Foreword by Holman, published San Francisco, CA: Suspect Thoughts, 2005

Life Interrupted, by Spalding Gray, published New York: Crown, 2005

Poetry and Pedagogy, edited by Joan Retallack and Juliana Spahr, published New York: Palgrave, 2006

Video Projects

Poetry Spots, WNYC-TV, New York, 1988

Panic*DJ! Bob Holman Live at the Club LaMama, full-length feature, 5/4 Video, 1990

Smokin' Word, MTV spoken word pilot, producer/performer, 1990

Words in Your Face, producer/performer, season premiere for "Alive from Off Center," aired nationally on PBS, 1991

Spoken Word Unplugged, performer/consultant, MTV, 1993

Word Up!, performer, three spots for "Much Music," Canadian MTV, 1994

The United States of Poetry, 5-part PBS series, creator/producer, 1996

Slam, Poetry slam host, Sundance award-winning film, major release, directed by Marc Levin, 1998

The World of Poetry, media project, creator/producer, in production

Whatever I Was Thinking Of, Lower East Side Short Film Festival selection, directed by Alex Meilleur, 2003

Russel Simmons' Def Poetry Jam, performer, HBO, 2004

We Are the Dinosaur, performer, Shoot the Poem ProVideo Festival, directed by Charles Dennis 2005

Audio Recordings Include

An Oral History of the Poetry Project, recorded in 1979, unreleased

"Rap It Up" on Sugar, Alcohol, and Meat, Dial-A-Poet, Giornos Poetry Systems Records, 1980

"Bob Holman, the Plain White Rapper," Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 2/7/89

"Poets in the Bars," All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 4/29/89

"Dark Star Crew at BAM," All Things Considered, National Public Radio, Sept. 2, 1990

"1990," on Knitting Factory IV, A & M Records, NYC, 1990

Nuyorican Symphony: A Spoken Word Compilation, Producer/Performer, Knitting Factory Records, 1994

Grand Slam: Best of the San Francisco National Slam, Producer, NuYo Records, 1994

Word Up, Performer, Virgin EMI Records, 1995

Wild Words, Performer, Cups Records, 1995

Poetry in Motion II, Performer, Voyager CD-ROM, 1996

Flippin the Script: Rap Meets Poetry, Performer/Host, Mouth Almighty/Mercury, 1996

Poemfone: New Word Order, Performer, Tomato Records, 1996

"Mouth Almighty: The Poets Label," Fresh Air, National Public Radio, 1997

In with the Out Crowd, solo CD, produced by Hal Willner, Mouth Almighty Records, 1998

Poet Laureate, WNYC Radio, 2004-5

Awards Include

Emmys for Local Programming and Editing, "Poetry Spots," 1988

Chicago Poetry Video Festival, Featured Artist, 1992, 1995

Input (International Public Television) 1992

Emmy for Local Programming, "Poetry Spots II," 1992

Bessie Award, Performance Excellence, 1992

Legend Award, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 1993

Before Columbus American Book Award, 1994

San Francisco Film Festival, 1995

XXth Biennales Internationales de Poesie, Liege, 1996

Input (International Public Television Award), 1996

Sundance Film Festival, 1996

National Poetry Slam Championship, Mouth Almighty Team coach, 1997-98

Curbstone Press, Honored Poet Award, 2000

New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow, 1993, 2001

First International Poetry Film Festival, “Bob Holman Special,” Berlin, 2002

National Arts Award, Anderson Ranch, 2002

New York Public Library Minerva Award, 2003

Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, 2003

Zebra Poetry Film Festival, US selection, 2004

Greenwich Village Historical Society, Preservation Award for Bowery Poetry Club, 2004

NYU “Community Citizen of the Year,” 2005

The Betty Kray Award, Poets House, 2006

Theatre Direction Includes

Stop At Nothing by D. Zhonzinsky, The Kitchen.

She Is in Tangiers: Life and Work of Jane Bowles by Millicent Dillon, St. Marks.

EAT ROCKS by Pedro Pietri, New Dramatists NYC.

Paid on Both Sides by W.H. Auden, sets David Hockney, Eye and Ear Theater.

The White Snake by Ed Friedman, sets Robert Kushner, Eye & Ear Theater.

4 Plays by Edwin Denby, sets Elizabeth Murray, costumes Judith Shea, Eye & Ear.

Clear the Range, from Ted Berrigan's novel, St. Clement's.

Mayakovsky, A Tragedy by Vladimir Mayakovsky, St. Marks.

The Gas Heart by Tristan Tzara and Jet of Blood by Antonin Artaud, St. Marks Church/ Ward-Nasse Gallery (NYC)

The Cause of Gravity/The Whore of the Alpines/Bicentennial Suicide by Bob Rosenthal & Bob Holman, St. Marks Church, Woods Hole Theater et al.

Boards and Panels

St. Marks Poetry Project, 1980-84

Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Inc., 1989-1996

New York Foundation for the Arts Literature Panel, 1992

A Gathering of the Tribes, 1994-2000

New York State Council on the Arts Literary Panel, 1996-1999

Poets House, Board of Directors,1997-2001

Atlantic Center for the Arts, National Council, since 1998

Cave Canem, since 1999

Yaddo, 2001- ongoing

National Book Award, Poetry Panel, 2002

National Poetry Series Panel, 2004

Federation of East Village Artists, Board of Directors, 2005

Taken from: Bob Holman C.V.(http://bobholman.com/curriculum/; March 31, 2009)

Arrangement

The video portion of the Bob Holman Audio/Video Poetry Collection is organized into 17 series by subject. The series are intended to reflect as much as possible Mr. Holman's original ordering of the materials.The exception to this rule is Series IV, Mouth Almighty/ Mercury Records, where the tapes were rearranged into groupings according to project. The vinyl sound recordings in Series XII, and Series IV, Subseries C: 2018 Accretion reflect the original order maintained by Holman.

Scope and Contents

The video portion of the Bob Holman Audio/ Video Poetry Collection consists of eight hundred eight videotapes and two film reels documenting a vast array of Bob Holman's spoken word performances and productions between 1977 and 2002. Key video poetry projects represented in the collection include: WNYC-TV Poetry Spots (1985-1992); United States of Poetry (1996 PBS Production); Words In Your Face (1993 PBS Production); a variety of videos from Mouth Almighty/ Mercury Records (1996-1999); historical spoken word videos (1982-2001); a variety of National Poetry Slams (1991-1994); various camera originals from Metro Home News; documentary footage/ homemade productions; and many rare video records of global poetry performances.

Series I: Spoken Word Tapes of/Produced by Bob Holman, consists of one hundred forty-three videotapes of various formats. The tapes contain video recordings documenting many of Bob Holman's projects between 1977 and 1994. Among them are several from the Lower East Side poetry scene in the 70s and 80s, including recordings of shows like the 1977 Laundromat and documentation of the Poet's Theater Festivals at St. Mark's and La Mama between 1988 and 1990. Performances by numerous poets are also documented, including Allen Ginsberg, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Eileen Myles, Bob Holman, Bob Rosenthal, Ed Sanders, and Ntozake Shange. Other videotapes in the series represent Holman's work for television, such as documentaries like PBS' 1991 Words in Your Face and programs like the MTV pilot for Smokin' Word. Such tapes frequently include raw footage and outakes. There are also tapes which document appearances by Holman and other poets on television shows like Charlie Rose and Good Morning America.

Series II: WNYC-TV "Poetry Spots" consists of one hundred thirty videotapes of various formats. These tapes document the six seasons of "Poetry Spots," a thrice Emmy-award winning program produced by Bob Holman, and include raw footage, out-takes and finished episodes along with intersticials and half hour featured programs for the PBS archives in the form of submissions and B-rolls. Multi-generational material, such as the camera originals, edit masters, submasters, and dubs, is present for some titles. The poets featured in the program include Yehuda Amichai, John Ash, John Ashbery, Helen Adam, Paul Beatty, Amiri Baraka, Ron Padgett, June Jordan, Suzan-Lori Parks, Grace Paley, David Henderson, Eileen Myles, Pedro Pietro, Paul Beatty, Sandra Esteves, and Tracie Morris.

Series III: "United States of Poetry," documents a five part television series of the same name regarding 70 poets, which was co-produced and co-created by Bob Holman and directed by Marc Pellington during 1996 for PBS. The series consists of forty videotapes of various formats and a variety of video generations including "rough" versions, master material, dubs, and the finished series, which has already been commercially released. For many of these five episodes there are multiple "masters" and dubs. There are also "United States of Poetry" samplers from Mouth Almighty/ Mercury records. The recordings include material regarding such individuals as Czeslaw Milosz, Derek Walcott, Joseph Brodsky, Jimmy Carter, Lou Reed, Thylias Moss, Rita Dove, Michael Franti, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Larry Eiger, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Carla Harryman, CD Wright, Quincy Troupe, Amir Baraka, Leonard Cohen, and Johnny Depp reading Jack Kerouac.

Series IV: Mouth Almighty/ Mercury Records contains thirty-seven 3/4 inch Umatic and VHS tapes. The recordings include documentary footage and electronic press kits reflecting the history of the poetry audio label between 1996 and 1999. Also included in the series are tapes holding [programs produced by the company,] such as works by poets like Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Sekou Sundiata, and Maggie Estep.

Series V: Grassroots Poetry Videos consists of one hundred seventy-three 3/4 inch Umatic and VHS videotapes dated between 1988 and 2001. The tapes, many of which are rare or one-of-a-kind, record both documentary footage and home made productions. Most of these were filmed in a studio but live on-site recordings are present as well. Among the performances documented by the tapes are plays by Kenneth Koch, a group reading of Jack Kerouac's Mexico City Blues at The Kitchen, and poems by Lee Anne Brown, Reg. E. Gaines, Fanny Howe, and Anne Waldman along with performances by Bob Kaufman, Lord Buckley, Elizabet Streb, Dana Gioia, Ellyn Maybe, and Marc Smith at the Green Mill in Chicago.

Series VI: Spoken Word History consists of ninety-seven videotapes from between 1982 and 2001, most of which are dubs and commercial releases, documenting the recent history of spoken word and comedic performance. Included among the tapes in this series are Ron Mann's Poetry In Motion, Bill Moyers' Power of the Word and Language of Life, Voices and Visions, At the Forks of Troublesome: Kentucky Poets, Best of Ernie Kovacs, MTV Unplugged, MTV Fightin' Words, Wendell Berry's Hymnody of Earth, Aime Cesaire, Poetry on ESPN X-Games, and the 1998 Taos Poetry Circus.

Series VII: Spoken Word Video Filmed by Bob Holman consists of forty-three small format videotapes, including Video 8mm and MiniDV, dating from the years 1991-2002. The contents of the tapes reflect a range of subjects including conferences, performance series, and documentary programs featuring a variety of poets. Also present within the series is an 8mm audition tape, which includes Ani DeFranco, for the United States of Poetry program. Other performers include Reesom Haile the poet laureate of Eritrea, poet laureate Azmir Megheeli of Yemen, Wanda Coleman, Cathy Bowman, Sekou Sundiata, Kimiko Hahn, Reg. E. Gaines, Edwin Torres, Hal Sirowitz, Elaine Equi, Patricia Smith, Nia Kuumba (an African American poetry ensemble), Todd Colby, Jessica Hagedorn, and Bob Holman himself.

Series VIII: Poetry Slams contains thirty-eight videotapes of various formats from 1991 to 1994. The tapes in this series document various Poetry Slam performances, including a complete video documentary, with interviews, shot by Bob Holman of the first National Poetry Slam during October 1991 in Chicago. Also present among the tapes are records reflecting the San Francisco National Poetry Slam during 1993, a Poetry Slam performance of October 1993, and the National Poetry Slam of August 1994.

Series IX: Metro Home News consists of eighteen twenty-minute Betacam vidoecassettes from the Metro Home News program. Very little is known about the provenance and content of these tapes, though they appear to contain raw footage. They seem to date from 1991 and among them can be found interviews with Bob Holman and Miguel Algarin, footage from Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, B Roll footage, stills of Miguel Pinero and the Lower East Side, and a show entitled "Heart of the City".

Series X: Rise and Shine Productions consists of sixteen VHS videotapes dating from 1985 to 1995. The tapes appear to contain a complete set of poetry videos from the Poetry/Video Learning Project, which was part of the New York City Public School system's anti-dropout program. The videotapes record performances of poems written, directed and shot, using professional equipment, by high school students.

Series XI: Miscellaneous Video consists of seventy-four videotapes in the form of VHS and 3/4 inch Umatic cassettes along with two reels of 16mm film. The Umatics in this series may be of unique content and possibly of superior quality. While some of the series' contents are commercially released tapes, most are believed to be dubs. Among their contents are recordings of works by poets Maggie Estep, Sekou Sundiata, Allen Ginsberg, and Bill Moyers. The two 16mm film reels are recordings of elementary education films regarding poetry and haikus.

Series XII: Vinyl Sound Recordings contains a substantial quantity of vinyl long play records. Their arangement reflects Bob Holman's original order. The vast majority of these are commercial releases but there is also a small number of test pressings. The series is arranged into five subseries:

Subseries A: Vinyl Recordings - LPs 12in. and Subseries B: Vinyl Recordings EPs 7in., are composed primarily of spoken word recordings, particularly rap and poetry. They also include some rock and roll and recorded dramas.

Subseries C: Vinyl Recordings - African American consists of recordings of spoken word and musical performances from African American artists, including readings of the poetry of Imamu Amiri Baraka and Linton Kwesi Johnson and performances by The Last Poets.

Subseries D: Vinyl Recordings - Various Poets contains spoken word performances from a variety of poets and, to a lesser extent, comedians such as Lord Buckley.

Subseries E: Vinyl Recordings - Allen Ginsberg is composed of a collection of spoken word and musical recordings previousky owned by Allen Ginsberg, which Holman purchased at a Sotheby's auction in October of 1999.

Access Restrictions

Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Use Restrictions

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); Bob Holman Audio/ Video Poetry Collection; MSS 128; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Original gift donated in 2009. Accretions donated in 2015 and 2018. The accession numbers associated with these accretions are 2015.128 and 2018.067.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact special.collections@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Appraisal

In March 2025, ten videos with duplicate content were deaccessioned.

Related Material

Sensitive Skin Magazine Archive (MSS.201)

Ron Kolm Papers (MSS.079)

David Trinidad Papers (MSS.106)

Richard Hell Papers (MSS.140)

Creative Time (MSS.179)

Collection processed by

Zachary Dabbs, 2009; collection processed by Brent Phillips, 2009. Media updates by Rhyannon Rodriguez, 2009.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-03-27 18:44:34 UTC.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

At the time of accessioning, materials from the 2018 Accretion were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes maintaining the original order of the records as maintained by Holman.

In March 2025, container instances for access copies were updated in the inventory.

Revisions to this Guide

March 2017: Updated by Jacqueline Rider to reflect incorporation of video preservation master and sub-master files.
May 2018: Accretion added by Kate Fisher as Series XVII: 2018 Accretion.
August 2019: Updated by Christine Gennetti to reflect digital access copies available for Series V
October 2022 - March 2025: Updated by Lyric Evans-Hunter, Olivija Liepa, and Lucy Allen to state that some audiovisual materials have been digitized and are accessible to patrons
March 2025: Edited by Emily Teller to update container instances for access copies

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012