Week 1 Assignment: East Village Poetry Walk

For this week’s assignment, I chose the East Village Poetry Walk, narrated by Jim Jarmusch.

I work on Avenue C and I’ve spent plenty of time in the East Village, but before I went on this walk I was almost entirely unaware of its rich history as a haven for 20th century poetry. I was struck by the amount of history that can be communicated within a range of about ten blocks — I wonder how many hours of soundwalks could exist for almost every part of this city.

I’ve gone on audio tours before, but never one quite so dedicated to delivering its subject (i.e. the poems). Bits of history were, naturally, interwoven into the walk but it seemed that fifty percent or more of it was simply dedicated to the reading of poems. Listening to these poems, in the places they were written, gave me pause and led me to contemplate my surroundings in a way I rarely do, especially in relatively architecturally unremarkable areas — St. Brigid’s Church and the Cooper Union have often drawn my eye, but I never would have thought to stop and look for the Auden plaque at La Palapa, or for a time capsule buried in the floors of Andromeda (formerly Flesh Center).

The walk also (unintentionally) made me think a lot about the rapid pace of change and gentrification in the city. A few short years after it was made, the church across the street from Ginsburg’s old apartment whose steps you’re encouraged to it on has been demolished and replaced with condominiums. It also touches on the fact that the poets of the Lower East Side dealt with these same sort of changes in the 70s — I guess the cycle of flight and return will continue to repeat itself.

I was also struck by the poets’ use of their own voices to mimic the sounds that surrounded them. I’ve attended readings or listened to recordings before, but hearing Amiri Baraka imitate the sounds of the streets of the Bowery as I was surrounded by them hit me more personally than it would in a more clinical environment.

Ultimately, I feel the sound walk accomplished its goal — though I enjoy poetry, I rarely seek it out, and this walk kept me spellbound throughout and eager to learn more about the New York School and their satellites.

Here’s a link to the files I recorded this week — Mary and Becca should have some in their posts as well. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oLNp6YyNKP_CgcKzSaKMMZIGDl-LDfvM/view?usp=sharing