Transform The World! Poetry Must Be Made By All! April 20, 2013

In celebration of National Poetry Month The Museum of Modern Art will stage a poetry event entitled Transform The World! Poetry Must Be Made By All! on Saturday, April 20th. From 3-4 pm, the galleries will come alive with 25 poets, reading works of their own and of others. The poets — ranging from emerging to established, from conventional to experimental — will demonstrate and celebrate the broad range of American poetry today amidst the great works of postwar modern art in the Museum's collection.

Prominent American poetry organizations were invited to organize readings in the galleries. They include Belladonna, The Bowery Poetry Club, Exact Change, Fulton Ryder, Gauss PDF, The Poetry Foundation, Roof Books, St. Mark's Church Poetry Poetry Project, Troll Thread Collective and Ugly Duckling Presse. Additional special readings and events will feature Tao Lin, David Grubbs, Dan Colen and special guests.

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

This event is part of Artists Experiment, a new initiative in the Department of Education that brings together contemporary artists in dialogue with MoMA educators to conceptualize ideas for developing innovative and experimental public interactions.

Transform The World! Poetry Must Be Made By All! is part of Kenneth Goldsmith’s Poet Laureate program, where he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA’s collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on select Wednesdays. On selected Fridays this spring, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery.

Transform The World! Poetry Must Be Made By All!
Date: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Place: The Museum of Modern Art, 4th Floor, Painting and Sculpture II
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM