Research Catalog

Title

Poetry readings at Le Metro.

Publication

[New York : s.n., 1965].

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Blackburn, Paul.
• Elmslie, Kenward.
• Frazer, Kathleen.
• Gallup, Dick, 1941-
• Rothenberg, Jerome, 1931-

Description

[1] p.; 28 cm.

Subjects

• Broadsides
• Experimental poetry, American

Genre/Form

Broadsides.

Note

• Typed mimeograph broadside with hand-made typographic correction mimeographed.
• Advertises series of poetry readings on five consecutive Wednesday nights at 9 pm, May 5-26, [1965]. The series was organized by Paul Blackburn, who, after Le Metro closed in 1965, helped move the readings to St. Mark's Church in 1966, where the series became known as the Poetry Project.
• Poets scheduled to read include Kenward Elmslie on May 5; Dick Gallup on May 12; Jerome Rothenberg on May 19; and Kathleen Frazer on May 26.
• Le Metro cafe, in Manhattan's East Village (149 Second Ave., between 9th and 10th Streets), was one of the most important venues for poetry performance in downtown New York, superseding the cafe Les Deux Magots. From 1963 to 1965, it was one of the most important venues for poetry performance in the world, bringing together poets of the New York School, the Beats, and the Black Mountain Poets. It also was also the occasional meeting place of many others in the New York arts community. Audience members included Laurence Ferlinghetti, Lou Reed, Brion Gysin, Andy Warhol, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Bob Dylan. Le Metro became the site of confrontations between its audience of artists and writers and the police in 1963-1964, when the latter attempted to use cabaret laws as a means to shut down poetry readings. After a lengthy legal struggle, charges against the cafe were dismissed.
• This flyer dates from the final year of Le Metro's existence, and the 25-cent price for a cup of coffee (expensive for a cafe, in 1965), printed on the broadside, hints at the reason for the cafe's demise: the habitues' resentment toward Le Metro's proprietor, Moe Margules, who was a Republican. Heated political debates between him and writers and artists led to a violent confrontation in 1965; the cafe closed soon afterwards.
• Ishmael Reed, in the East Village Other (Jan. 28, 2012), reports that the owner of Le Metro "hired some plainclothes thugs to monitor blacks who attended poetry readings there. He’d previously threatened musician Archie Shepp and his 'Goldwater for President' sign in the window was meant to be a red flag for blacks. One night, one of them attacked Tom Dent, the leader of our magazine Umbra (one of the most important literary magazines to be published, though it gets ignored because the media, when covering the Lower East Side of the 1960s, bond with those who resembled their journalists and their tokens.) It was at Umbra workshops where the revolution in Black Arts began. I went to Tom Dent’s aid and was punched. Penny and I left the Le Metro Café and halfway home I turned and went back. Poet Walter Lowenfels was reading. I told Walter that if he continued reading I would never speak to him again. The café emptied out and that was the end of the readings there. William Burroughs, who was scheduled to read the following week, cancelled. After a weekend of searching for other places, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, where readings might be held, Paul Blackburn and I asked the then rector, Michael J. C. Allen, whether we could hold readings at St. Mark’s Church."

Access (note)

• Restricted access;

Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture P64 1965

OCLC

794228463

Title

Poetry readings at Le Metro.

Imprint

[New York : s.n., 1965].

Access

Restricted access; request permission from holding division.

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Request access to this item in the Berg Collection

Added Author

Blackburn, Paul.

Elmslie, Kenward.

Frazer, Kathleen.

Gallup, Dick, 1941-

Rothenberg, Jerome, 1931-

Research Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture P64 1965