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Poetry exhibition and event at University of Pennsylvania



                Reviews That Should Have Been Written:
                Poetry, the Press, and Public Space

On Saturday, May 6th, from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M., the University of Pennsyl-
vania English Department and the Penn Library will host a symposium on the
state of reviewing contemporary poetry. A panel of six distinguished poets
and critics will examine the issues, problems, and possibilities involved
in poetry reviews. The panel discussion will be followed by readings and a
reception. The event is free and open to the public.

Reviews are central to all literature. Having a title reviewed in the
major media generates interest and creates an audience for it. While prose
fiction and non-fiction continue to enjoy relatively healthy levels of
reviewing, contemporary poetry has all but disappeared from major maga-
zines and newspapers. Instead, poetry reviews have largely been consigned
to specialized publications and little magazines. If the ability to get
reviewed in the major media is an index of status, nothing illustrates
more glaringly the marginal position of poets in contemporary American
society than their absence from the review pages.

In nineteenth-century Britain, the critic Sydney Smith could ask rhetor-
ically, Who reads an American book??Smith?s pointed question might be
rephrased slightly today: Who reads American poetry??Participants in the
symposium will take up the challenge and reflect on the audience for
poetry and its relation to the media. If the poet and his audience are
socially and culturally marginal, who is prepared or equipped to review
poetry?

The poets and critics participating in the symposium span three genera-
tions of innovative American writers. They include the award-winning poet
and playwright, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), whose provocative work has
confronted the relationship between poetry and contemporary society;
Charles Bernstein, a distinguished and inventive poet, founder of the
Electric Poetry Center in Buffalo and very much concerned about the
dissemination of poetry; Jennifer Moxley, a young and exciting poet active
in alternative critical fora for poetry; and Eileen Myles, a member of the
St. Marks scene in New York who is both a novelist and a poet as well as a
voice for Gay and Lesbian issues. These poets will be joined by well-known
critics Steve Evans and Alan Golding. The panel will be moderated by Bob
Perelman, poet and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.

Following the panel, there will be readings by the poets. The afternoon
will conclude with a reception.

This symposium takes place in conjunction with an exhibition, "Poetry of
Our Times: The Collection of Thomas Lask," on view in the Lessing J.
Rosenwald Gallery on the 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library through
the end of May.

 Date:  May 6th

 Time:  1:00 to?5:00 P.M.

 Place:  Sixth floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, 34th & Walnut Streets,
 on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania

 For directions to the University of Pennsylvania Library, see
 http://www.library.upenn.edu/special/services.html

  *  *  *  *  *

 For further information, contact Michael Ryan at 215-898-7552 or by
 email: ryan@pobox.upenn.edu

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