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Tag: poetry

The Wit and Verse of the American Byron: Fitz-Greene Halleck

Fitz-Greene Halleck, a 19th-century American poet, is best known for his witty and satirical verse. His connection to Greenwich Village is an intriguing aspect of his life, highlighting the cultural vibrancy of the area during his time. However, while he was once known widely as the American Byron in his lifetime, today he is a […]

    Spring Inspires Poetry in Greenwich Village

    “For two weeks or more the trees hesitated;the little leaves waited,carefully indicating their characteristics.” — Excerpt from the poem “A Cold Spring” by Elizabeth Bishop, who lived at 16 Charles Street. The spring equinox has arrived, and New York City is tentatively embracing a warmer season: our parks and streetscapes are starting to bloom with […]

    Exploring Virtual Village Voices, Part 6: Larry Kramer, Helen Levitt, and Edna St. Vincent Millay

    In 2021 and 2022, Village Preservation developed an innovative outdoor public art exhibition that was displayed throughout Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. VILLAGE VOICES featured photographs, artifacts, and soundscape recordings to celebrate and honor the artistic, social, political, and cultural movements that have grown in our neighborhoods, and the people who gave them […]

    Emma Lazarus and the Poem on Lady Liberty’s Pedestal

    One of the most beloved features of the Statue of Liberty is the poem inscribed on a bronze plaque inside its pedestal. “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” which appear in the middle of the work, have come to define what the statue has represented for generations. Those words […]

      José García Villa: Poet and “Pope of Greenwich Village”

      The cultural and artistic ecosystem of Greenwich Village has provided us with no shortage of literary giants to admire, study, and honor. Prominent among them, yet hardly ever mentioned in the canon of 20th century American poets, is José García Villa, an acclaimed Filipino poet lovingly referred to as the “Pope of Greenwich Village.”  Villa […]

      Celebrating National Great Poetry Reading Day

      Great Poetry Reading Day is celebrated each year on April 28. Poetry is one of humankind’s oldest art forms. In ancient times, prior to written alphabets and other forms of literary prose, poetry was used to convey historical facts, culture, and traditions from generation to generation. When written language was invented, poetry was one the […]

        Diane Burns: Native American Poet, East Village Prophet

        Native American poet Diane Burns was a luminous, integral fixture of the Downtown arts scene beginning in the 1970s until her death in 2006. Her poetic body of work contains achingly earnest descriptions of her personal experiences as a Native American woman to droll, prophetic indictments of early gentrification in the East Village. Born in […]

        Eras of American Literature: Allen Ginsberg & Robert Lowell

        At the core of the Beat Generation was beloved East Villager Allen Ginsberg. He challenged the barriers that restricted what writers could print and created a handful of pieces that revolutionized American literature as we know it today. Recently, we discovered an old photograph via the Allen Ginsberg Project that inspired us to take a […]

          Sharing the Literary Legacy of a Powerful Poet: Amiri Baraka

          Amiri Baraka (October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), born Everett Leroy “LeRoi” Jones in Newark, was one of Greenwich Village’s most outspoken poets of the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and ’70s. His political advocacy was both illuminating and confrontational, as he attempted to use his writing to document his experience of blackness […]

          Who’s That Rapping At My Chamber Door? Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” Takes Flight in Greenwich Village

          Almost 200 years after it was first published, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven still terrifies and delights. The poem, about a forlorn lover tormented by a mysterious bird as he slowly descends into madness, permeated both critical circles and the popular consciousness, proving that the macabre could and should share a space with literary fiction […]

          Kahlil Gibran: An Immigrant Artist on 10th Street

          Both the reach and the origins of those who have called the Greenwich Village Historic District home have always been international in scope; Kahlil Gibran is a prime example of that broad reach. Born on January 6, 1883, in Lebanon, which at the time was part of Ottoman Syria, educated in Beirut, Boston, and Paris, […]

          East Village Building Blocks Tour: the LGBTQ East Village

          While the neighboring West Village may have the more well-known sites, the East Village contains a rich assortment of places connected to LGBTQ history, including the homes of noted artists, writers, musicians, and activists. It also holds a vast array of performance venues and gathering spaces that attracted and helped launch the careers of many […]

            Welcome to March! Celebrate Irish Heritage and Women’s History with Village Preservation Programs

            Good news, all Off the Grid-ers: we’ve made it to March! In addition to marking the near-end of winter, March is the month for two important celebrations – Irish Heritage Month and Women’s History Month. So central to the history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, these subjects are near and dear to […]

            No One Had Ever Heard a Howl Like That Before

            The Beat poets, inextricably linked with the Village and East Village, materialized in the post-WWII American of white picket fences to celebrate all things messy, countercultural, drug-addled, disenfranchised, and unstoppably vital. East Villager Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” was an anthem of this movement, with its power, breathlessness, and breadth of content. And on October 7, 1955, Ginsberg […]

            Frank O’Hara’s East Village

            This post is adapted and updated from an earlier Off the Grid post written by Karen Loew in 2014. On June 10, 2014, GVSHP and Two Boots Foundation had the great pleasure of marking, with a commemorative plaque, the home of poet Frank O’Hara at 441 East 9th Street (just west of Avenue A). In […]

              Happy Birthday, Elinor Wylie!

              On this day in 1885, poet and novelist Elinor Wylie was born.  Wylie’s writings were popular in the 1920’s and 30’s, and lived in Greenwich Village from 1921 until her death.

              Remembering Edna St. Vincent Millay

              Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on February 22, 1892 in Rockland, Maine.  But the Village was always in her blood; her middle name, St. Vincent, came from the Greenwich Village hospital where her uncle’s life had been saved just before her birth, and she often referred to herself as ‘Vincent.’  Millay moved to Greenwich […]

              Millay and the Magnolia Tree

              It’s that blooming, buoyant, too-brief time of year again, when flowers abound – particularly, this week, the fragrant pink flowers of the saucer magnolia. It was among the branches of just such a tree that a young poet posed for portraits that would become famous. Quintessentially “poetic,” the images of Edna St. Vincent Millay are […]

              My Favorite Things: Poets Edition

              This is the latest installment of Off the Grid’s series, “My Favorite Things,” in which we showcase some of our very favorite spots around the neighborhood, highlighting the incredible architecture, history, people, and businesses of the Village, East Village, and NoHo; read more HERE. The Village and East Village have spawned so many remarkable and […]

              Words & Art in the East Village: 2011 Village Awardee

              Bob Holman works with words—spoken and written—and for over many years has shared that work with the community around him.  This evening, GVSHP will recognize his continuing efforts with one of our 2011 Village Awards. In his many years of engagement with the community, Holman has headed up the St. Mark’s Poetry Project, helped in […]