Audio generally recorded at very low level with occasional feedback and microphone noise. Hum on Part 1 from 00:12:51 through end of recording, as on original tape.
Title
Weisburd #16
Alternative Title
Gregory-Walsh-Larsen-Kurnick
Created Date
Unknown
Description
This recording is from the personal collection of the poet Mel Weisburd, who during the 1950s was the editor of the influential journal of California poetry, Coastlines. Accounts of California poetry of the time now increasingly identify the group of poets associated with the journal (a circle dubbed the “Coastliners” by Weisburd) as an important alternative to the more visible Beat communities of San Francisco and Venice. Weisburd avidly sought to document the poetry activity of Los Angeles in the 50s, which recorded a number of legendary happenings and readings. This recording features poetry readings by Vahan Gregory, a poet and playwright whose work ranged over topics as diverse as the Armenian genocide and the beatnik scene in mid-century Los Angeles
Zack Walsh a poet tied to the beatnik scenes of both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a member of Wallace Berman’s influential Semina circle
Carl Larsen, a maverick poet, novelist, and playwright who served prominently as an editor (including stints at BRAND X, 7 Poets Press, and others) was the first poet, later followed by the likes of Charles Bukowski, to have a special section of Wormwood Review devoted to him
and finally Stanley Kurnick, a Los Angeles poet and teacher who ran the Los Angeles writers' workshops and poets' workshops at the First Unitarian Church. First Unitarian hosted numerous poetry readings, political workshops, and community events, and was a crucial Los Angeles site for activist political circles and the leftist poetry scene in the 1950s.
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