Cid (Sidney) Corman (June 29, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was an American poet , translator and editor, most notably of Origin , who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century.
124-740: Corman was born in Boston 's Roxbury neighborhood and grew up nearby in the Dorchester neighborhood. His parents were both from Ukraine . From an early age he was an avid reader and showed an aptitude for drawing and calligraphy. He attended Boston Latin School and in 1941 he entered Tufts University , where he achieved Phi Beta Kappa honours and wrote his first poems. He was excused from service in World War II for medical reasons and graduated in 1945. Corman studied for his Master's degree at
248-490: A cannon barrage for two hours, but their shot could not reach the colonists' cannons at such a height. The British gave up, boarded their ships, and sailed away. This has become known as " Evacuation Day ", which Boston still celebrates each year on March 17. After this, Washington was so impressed that he made Rufus Putnam his chief engineer. After the Revolution, Boston's long seafaring tradition helped make it one of
372-672: A cardiac condition since January 2004. Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States . The city serves as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States . It has an area of 48.4 sq mi (125 km ) and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census , making it
496-666: A different style emerged that was influenced more by hip hop with much less emphasis on comedy in the manner of Def Poets in the United States. Well-known writers from this evolution include Lemn Sissay and the late Dike Omeje from the Manchester scene and Roger Robinson and El Crisis from the London circuit . On the experimental front, there has been fresh emphasis on collaborative choreographed stage work focused on poetry. ShadoWork , for instance, disrupts and enriches
620-529: A global leader in higher education and research and the largest biotechnology hub in the world. The city is also a national leader in scientific research, law, medicine, engineering, and business. With nearly 5,000 startup companies, the city is considered a global pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship , and more recently in artificial intelligence . Boston's economy also includes finance , professional and business services, information technology , and government activities. Boston households provide
744-583: A grassroots level, with performances in pubs and theatres , as well as at literary festivals and arts festivals such as Glastonbury and The Edinburgh Festival Fringe . Slams as well as open mics for more traditional writers remain popular. Media works influenced by radio performance poet Hedwig Gorski have gained ground; there has been some crossover into TV and radio. Many contemporary British performance poets have been influenced by punk poets like John Cooper Clarke and reggae poets like Linton Kwesi Johnson as well as by comedy and hip hop. In 2003
868-450: A harmonium, the original practitioner of this third and most popular type of performance poetry is Hedwig Gorski , who coined the term performance poetry to describe her work with music. She is sometimes called a neo-beat, but considers herself an American " futurist ". Unlike the Beats , Ginsberg and Kerouac, her poems were written for performance with music that was specifically composed for
992-621: A kind of apprenticeship, and none of these poems were ever published in book form. In 1951, Corman began Origin in response to the failure of a magazine that Creeley had planned. The magazine typically featured one writer per issue and ran, with breaks, until the mid-1980s. Poets featured included Robert Creeley , Robert Duncan , Larry Eigner , Denise Levertov , William Bronk , Theodore Enslin , Charles Olson , Louis Zukofsky , Clive Faust (Australian Poet) , Gary Snyder , Lorine Niedecker , Wallace Stevens , William Carlos Williams , Paul Blackburn and Frank Samperi . The magazine also led to
1116-624: A lively port , and the then-town primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. Boston was a primary stop on a Caribbean trade route and imported large amounts of molasses, which led to the creation of Boston baked beans . Boston's economy stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia had surpassed Boston in wealth. During this period, Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly. The weather continuing boisterous
1240-467: A million residents, and the most densely populated state capital. Some 1.2 million persons may be within Boston's boundaries during work hours, and as many as 2 million during special events. This fluctuation of people is caused by hundreds of thousands of suburban residents who travel to the city for work, education, health care, and special events. Performance poetry Performance poetry
1364-447: A number of small books, but his Italian experiences were to provide the materials for his first major work, Sun Rock Man (1962). He also experimented with oral poetry, recording improvised poems on tape. These tapes were later to influence the talk-poems of David Antin , one of the key developments in the emergence of performance poetry . At this time he produced the first English translations of Paul Celan , even though he didn't have
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#17327732948361488-475: A pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon , killing three people and injuring roughly 264. The subsequent search for the bombers led to a lock-down of Boston and surrounding municipalities. The region showed solidarity during this time as symbolized by the slogan Boston Strong . In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the U.S. applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics . The bid
1612-422: A port, manufacturing hub, and center for education and culture. The city also expanded significantly beyond the original peninsula by filling in land and annexing neighboring towns. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public park ( Boston Common , 1634), the first public school ( Boston Latin School , 1635), and the first subway system ( Tremont Street subway , 1897). Boston has emerged as
1736-507: A project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with strong public opposition, and thousands of families were displaced. The BRA continued implementing eminent domain projects, including the clearance of the vibrant Scollay Square area for construction of the modernist style Government Center . In 1965, the Columbia Point Health Center opened in the Dorchester neighborhood,
1860-532: A show of performance poets that ran on Broadway for almost a year and won a Tony Award . Hispanic performing artists, such as Pedro Pietri , Miguel Algarín , Giannina Braschi , and Guillermo Gómez-Peña , are known for their humorous and politically charged attacks against American imperialism. Later contemporary Latino poets such as Willie Perdomo , Edwin Torres (poet) and Caridad de la Luz would follow in this tradition. Closely tied to Chicano poets
1984-419: A single book in 2015 to complete the work. Several collections of wide-ranging essays have been published. His translations (or co-translations) include Bashō 's Back Roads to Far Towns , Things by Francis Ponge , poems by Paul Celan and collections of haiku . Cid Corman did not speak, read, or write Japanese , even though his co-translation with Susumu Kamaike of Bashō's Oku No Hosomichi (see above)
2108-534: A term that would distinguish her text-based vocal performances from performance art , especially the work of performance artists, such as Laurie Anderson , who worked with music at that time. Performance poets relied more on the rhetorical and philosophical expression in their poetics than performance artists, who arose from the visual art genres of painting and sculpture. The Austin Chronicle newspaper, printing Gorski's bi-weekly "Litera" column, first published
2232-604: A thriving scene during the 1980s with a coterie of unique characters such as raúlrsalinas , Konstantyn K. Kuzminsky , Joy Cole, Hedwig Gorski , Roxy Gordon , Ricardo Sánchez and Harryette Mullen , who was nominated for the National Book Award. The Austin Poets Audio Anthology Project, a public arts project, recorded them for radio broadcasts. There were many others, though, and Hedwig Gorski once wrote in "Litera" that some were "eerie",
2356-605: A transitional figure, younger than the aforementioned, and one not especially rooted in the Beats like Gorski who has strong connections to Ginsberg , Corso , Gary Snyder , and others. By the 1990s the general poetry public was less interested in the Beat Poets of the 1950s and 1960s. They were looking for something fresher, newer, hipper, more in touch with the times in which they were living. Performance poets established clubs, cafes, and media as venues that later became stages for
2480-401: A violent tornado , the city itself has experienced many tornado warnings . Damaging storms are more common to areas north, west, and northwest of the city. See or edit raw graph data . In 2020, Boston was estimated to have 691,531 residents living in 266,724 households —a 12% population increase over 2010. The city is the third-most densely populated large U.S. city of over half
2604-758: A word used by one newspaper reviewer to describe Gorski's vocals on the East of Eden Band track "There's Always Something That Can Make You Happy". Other performing writers in the robust literary scene of the Austin area during that time when performance poetry turned into a school of poetry included Pat Littledog , Eleanor Crockett, Jim Ryan, Chuck Taylor , Greg Gauntner, Albert Huffstickler , W. Joe Hoppe, Andy Clausen, poet and playwright Isabella Russell-Ides ( Getting Dangerously Close To Myself , Slough Press) and David Jewell (poet) ; most recorded on Hedwig Gorski 's audio anthology project. Jewell deserves special mention as
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#17327732948362728-420: Is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. It covers a variety of styles and genres. The phenomenon of performance poetry , a kind of poetry specifically made for and offered during a performance before an audience goes back to Dada , the term itself only emerged later. On June 23, 1916, Hugo Ball performed one of the first sound poems, Gadji beri bimba at
2852-505: Is 2 °F (−17 °C) on December 30, 1917, while the record warm daily minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on both August 2, 1975 and July 21, 2019. Boston averages 43.6 in (1,110 mm) of precipitation a year, with 49.2 in (125 cm) of snowfall per season. Most snowfall occurs from mid-November through early April, and snow is rare in May and October. There is also high year-to-year variability in snowfall; for instance,
2976-508: Is July, with a mean temperature of 74.1 °F (23.4 °C). The coldest month is January, with a mean temperature of 29.9 °F (−1.2 °C). Periods exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) in summer and below freezing in winter are not uncommon but tend to be fairly short, with about 13 and 25 days per year seeing each, respectively. Sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) readings usually occur every 3 to 5 years. The most recent sub- 0 °F (−18 °C) reading occurred on February 4, 2023, when
3100-402: Is also being used as a means to promote literacy in public school systems. Global Writes Inc. has been incorporating technology, such as videoconferencing and podcasts, into literacy programs as a means for students to share their poetry. Performance poetry also provides avenues for students to perform their poems onstage. Performance poetry is not solely a postmodern phenomenon. It began with
3224-547: Is an intellectual, technological, and political center. However, it has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial , which was acquired by Charlotte -based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the New York City –based Macy's . The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times
3348-456: Is considered to be one of the most accurate in tone in the English language. Corman also felt himself able to translate from classical Chinese without so much as a minimal understanding of the language. One of Corman's last appearances in the United States was at the 2003 centennial symposium and celebration in southern Wisconsin that honored his friend and fellow poet, Lorine Niedecker . At
3472-588: Is in Roxbury . Due north of the center we find the South End. This is not to be confused with South Boston which lies directly east from the South End. North of South Boston is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End Unknown, A local colloquialism Boston has an area of 89.63 sq mi (232.1 km ). Of this area, 48.4 sq mi (125.4 km ), or 54%, of it
3596-410: Is land and 41.2 sq mi (106.7 km ), or 46%, of it is water. The city's elevation, as measured at Logan International Airport , is 19 ft (5.8 m) above sea level . The highest point in Boston is Bellevue Hill at 330 ft (100 m) above sea level, and the lowest point is at sea level. The city is adjacent to Boston Harbor , an arm of Massachusetts Bay , and by extension,
3720-771: Is now one of the most widespread forms of popular poetry. Chief among the proponents of these new forms of popular poetry were Bob Holman in New York, Marc Smith in Chicago and Alan Kaufman in San Francisco . In the 1990s, the Favorite Poem project of then U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky gave new visibility to ordinary Americans reading and performing their favorite poems. Contemporary performance poets are now experimenting with poetry performances adapted to CD, to video, and to Web audiences. The Beat Poets were
3844-477: Is the Native American poet John Trudell who recorded and crossed over with his poetry and music cassettes . Trudell arose from the persecution on his reservation by FBI agents, who allegedly killed his wife and children. Protest is significant with the minority practitioners of performance poetry, such as def poets and slammers. This adds to the vitality of American performance poetry and connects to
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3968-442: Is worth noting that Gorski, who coined the term "Performance Poetry" to describe her poems written only for performance, recordings, and broadcast usually with her musical band East of Eden Band, is the only woman, besides Patti Smith, in this group of late twentieth-century innovators reviving oral poetry . Similar to the ancient bards, touring became a widespread means for performance poets and slammers to distribute their work since
4092-453: The Arbella ) and John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather ) had emigrated to New England . The name of the English town ultimately derives from its patron saint, St. Botolph , in whose church John Cotton served as the rector until his emigration with Johnson. In early sources, Lincolnshire's Boston was known as "St. Botolph's town", later contracted to "Boston". Before this renaming,
4216-815: The American Revolution occurred in or near Boston. The then-town's mob presence, along with the colonists' growing lack of faith in either Britain or its Parliament , fostered a revolutionary spirit there. When the British parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, a Boston mob ravaged the homes of Andrew Oliver , the official tasked with enforcing the Act, and Thomas Hutchinson , then the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The British sent two regiments to Boston in 1768 in an attempt to quell
4340-653: The American Revolution , Boston was home to several events that proved central to the revolution and subsequent Revolutionary War , including the Boston Massacre (1770), the Boston Tea Party (1773), Paul Revere's Midnight Ride (1775), the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), and the Siege of Boston (1775–1776). Following American independence from Great Britain , the city continued to play an important role as
4464-539: The Beat generation held performance events that married poetry and jazz . In the late 1960s, other poets outside San Francisco and New York City were experimenting with performance pieces. Notable among these was David Franks, at the time a faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art . Franks' work was not poetry recited to a musical counterpoint but literary pieces in which the performance
4588-585: The Boston Garden opening in 1928. Logan International Airport opened on September 8, 1923. Boston went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated
4712-625: The Boston Public Library , Trinity Church, single-family homes and wooden/brick multi-family row houses. The South End Historic District is the largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood in the US. The geography of downtown and South Boston was particularly affected by the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (which ran from 1991 to 2007, and was known unofficially as the " Big Dig "). That project removed
4836-687: The Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich , dressed in a cardboard costume so that he had to be carried onto the stage. The actual birthplace of performance poetry is therefore Zürich. Since then the spectrum ranges from Kurt Schwitters’ own recitation of his wellknown Ursonate to the recitations of "otto's pug " by German poet Ernst Jandl and a typ of performance that is mixed from impromptu speech, body language and theatricality such as Natias Neutert’s Diogenes Synopsis’’. The term performance poetry originates from an early press release describing
4960-558: The Jerome Rothenberg model and poems like those of David Antin that are composed during performance. Both these types would generally be considered to constitute performance poetry. Another type based on the Beat method of reading their print poems is poetry with music. The bands with performance poets make spoken vocals an exercise in not singing, but the texts are not categorized as songs. While Ginsberg sang his Blake songs with
5084-559: The Massachusetts Bay Colony and was signed by its first governor John Winthrop . Puritan ethics and their focus on education also influenced the early history of the city. America's first public school, Boston Latin School , was founded in Boston in 1635. Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century. Boston's oceanfront location made it
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5208-537: The North End , and the Seaport . Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections. The city government's Office of Neighborhood Services has officially designated 23 neighborhoods: More than two-thirds of inner Boston's modern land area did not exist when the city was founded. Instead, it was created via the gradual filling in of the surrounding tidal areas over
5332-471: The Prague -based poetics collective Object:Paradise was established by writers Tyko Say and Jeff Milton with the mission to make " poetry readings more inclusive, inter-disciplinary and less restricted to art cafes and turtlenecks". The collective has since aimed to make poetry readings more similar to language happenings which involve a variety of interdisciplinary acts and performances occurring at
5456-652: The South End , the West End , the Financial District , and Chinatown . After the Great Boston fire of 1872 , workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (240 ha) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. The city annexed
5580-440: The United States were giving poetry readings, largely to small academic gatherings on university campuses. Poetry readings were given national prominence when Robert Frost recited "The Gift Outright" from memory at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy [1] .After that event, spoken word recordings of Frost and other major figures enjoyed increased popularity. By the 1970s, three main forms of poetry performance had emerged. First
5704-566: The University of Michigan , where he won the Hopwood poetry award, but dropped out two credits short of completion. After a brief stint at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , he spent some time travelling around the United States , returning to Boston in 1948. Corman's first book, Subluna, was privately printed in 1944. He ran poetry events in public libraries and, with the help of his high-school friend Nat Hentoff , he started
5828-578: The Yaddo artists' retreat in Saratoga Springs . It was about this time that Corman changed his name from Sydney Corman to the simpler "Cid." As Corman indicated in conversation, this name change—similar to Walt Whitman 's assumption of Walt over Walter—signaled his beginnings as a poet for the common man. During this period, Corman was writing prolifically and published in excess of 500 poems in about 100 magazines by 1954. He considered this to be
5952-412: The 1970s, the city's economy had begun to recover after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital , Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead
6076-403: The 1980s performance poet Hedwig Gorski , whose audio recordings achieved success on spoken word radio programs around the world. Her band, East of Eden Band, produced music and poetry collaborations, allowing cassettes of her live radio broadcast recordings to stay in rotation with popular underground music recordings on some radio stations. Gorski, an art school graduate, tried to come up with
6200-471: The 1980s, described Corman's correspondence this way: "In the days before email his words came by return post, aerogrammes densely typed to take advantage of every inch of space, or postcards printed in his fine hand. They were encouraging, gossipy, and always challenging; he expected everyone to match his commitment to poetry as a way of life. But they also digressed into other shared enthusiasms: in my case his love of baseball and sumo wrestling, and often into
6324-481: The 1990s. The Poetry Slam is a competitive live performance format founded by poet Marc Smith in Chicago, which has become a hotbed for performance poetry. Performance poetry has also been boosted considerably by the appearance of Def Jam —the hip-hop recording company helmed by Russell Simmons —on the scene. def jam has created a television show that showcases performance poets that runs on HBO , as well as
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#17327732948366448-457: The 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants with their residence yielding lasting cultural change. Italians became the largest inhabitants of the North End , Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown , and Russian Jews lived in the West End . Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community, and
6572-643: The 20th century: Horticultural Hall , the Tennis and Racquet Club , Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Fenway Studios , Jordan Hall , and the Boston Opera House . The Longfellow Bridge , built in 1906, was mentioned by Robert McCloskey in Make Way for Ducklings , describing its "salt and pepper shakers" feature. Fenway Park , home of the Boston Red Sox , opened in 1912, with
6696-701: The Albert Hall in 1965 at the International Poetry Incarnation . Horovitz, Brown and Mitchell would join Ginsberg and Beat colleagues Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso and other European poets at that landmark London occasion. These developments were also connected to the emergence of the Liverpool Poets , which referred mainly to the poets Roger McGough , Adrian Henri and Brian Patten who fired up audiences across
6820-476: The Arts is now accepting varied presentations for publication verification for poetry fellowship applicants, including audio recordings that have no printed versions of the poems. Performance poetry with music peaked during the 1980s just as performance art peaked in the 1970s. During that time, San Francisco and New York were the centers for this type of activity; however, Austin, Texas (The Third Coast ) also had
6944-598: The Atlantic Ocean. Boston is surrounded by the Greater Boston metropolitan region. It is bordered to the east by the town of Winthrop and the Boston Harbor Islands , to the northeast by the cities of Revere , Chelsea and Everett , to the north by the cities of Somerville and Cambridge , to the northwest by Watertown , to the west by the city of Newton and town of Brookline , to
7068-410: The Beats did not use the term "Performance Poetry" to categorize their work with music and audio recordings, the Beats provided an immediate model for the work of Hedwig Gorski . She is a Nova Scotia College of Art and Design art school graduate in 1976. The art school was infamous for starting the careers of numerous 1970s performance artists, such as Vito Acconci , known for photographing his bites. It
7192-512: The Irish have played a major role in Boston politics since the early 20th century; prominent figures include the Kennedys , Tip O'Neill , and John F. Fitzgerald . Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its area through land reclamation by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of
7316-579: The John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent illuminated beacon , the color of which forecasts the weather. Downtown and its immediate surroundings (including the Financial District, Government Center, and South Boston ) consist largely of low-rise masonry buildings – often federal style and Greek revival – interspersed with modern high-rises. Back Bay includes many prominent landmarks, such as
7440-563: The Native people, as many had died of European diseases brought by early settlers and traders. Archaeological excavations unearthed one of the oldest fishweirs in New England on Boylston Street , which Native people constructed as early as 7,000 years before European arrival in the Western Hemisphere. The first European to live in what would become Boston was a Cambridge -educated Anglican cleric named William Blaxton . He
7564-735: The Renew Boston Whole Building Incentive which reduces the cost of living in buildings that are deemed energy efficient. Under the Köppen climate classification , Boston has either a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa ) under the 0 °C (32.0 °F) isotherm or a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa ) under the −3 °C (26.6 °F) isotherm. Summers are warm to hot and humid, while winters are cold and stormy, with occasional periods of heavy snow. Spring and fall are usually cool and mild, with varying conditions dependent on wind direction and
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#17327732948367688-413: The U. S., the rise to prominence of the language poets with their distrust of speech as a basis for poetry has, broadly speaking, meant that performance poetry went out of fashion with the avant-garde . However, the increasing popularity of open mics, which allow "unknown" poets to take the stage and share their own work in 3- to 5-minute increments and of poetry slams has meant that performance poetry
7812-487: The UK in the 70s and then the likes of John Hegley emerged in the 80s, influenced as much by stand-up comedy as a love for wordplay, creating the template for what became recognised as contemporary British performance poetry - a format still exemplified by the work of acts such as Murray Lachlan Young , Francesca Beard and Gerard McKeown. Apples and Snakes , a collective promoting performance poetry in pubs and at festivals,
7936-615: The act as an attempt to force them to accept the taxes established by the Townshend Acts . The act prompted the Boston Tea Party , where a group of angered Bostonians threw an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company into Boston Harbor . The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the revolution, as the British government responded furiously with the Coercive Acts , demanding compensation for
8060-535: The adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present-day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston ) (1870), Brighton (including present-day Allston ) (1874), West Roxbury (including present-day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale ) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912). Other proposals were unsuccessful for the annexation of Brookline , Cambridge, and Chelsea . Many architecturally significant buildings were built during these early years of
8184-508: The angry colonists. This did not sit well with the colonists, however. In 1770, during the Boston Massacre , British troops shot into a crowd that had started to violently harass them. The colonists compelled the British to withdraw their troops. The event was widely publicized and fueled a revolutionary movement in America. In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act . Many of the colonists saw
8308-426: The area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing , which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s. Boston has also experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s when the city's rent control regime was struck down by statewide ballot proposition . Boston
8432-608: The capital city, Prague , and surrounding areas. In 2002 the first expat-based performance poetry group Alchemy was established and regularly held open-mic poetry events until 2018. In 2003, the first year of the national slam poetry championship was organized as part of the Olomouc literary festival Poetry without Borders, initiated by poets and writers Jaromír Konečný [ cs ] and Martin Reiner [ cs ] and literary theorist Miroslav Balaštík . In 2018
8556-605: The centuries. This was accomplished using earth from the leveling or lowering of Boston's three original hills (the "Trimountain", after which Tremont Street is named), as well as with gravel brought by train from Needham to fill the Back Bay . Christian Science Center , Copley Square , Newbury Street , and New England's two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center . Near
8680-460: The city government. A climate action plan from 2019 anticipates 2 ft (1 m) to more than 7 ft (2 m) of sea-level rise in Boston by the end of the 21st century. Many older buildings in certain areas of Boston are supported by wooden piles driven into the area's fill; these piles remain sound if submerged in water, but are subject to dry rot if exposed to air for long periods. Groundwater levels have been dropping in many areas of
8804-464: The city often receives sea breezes , especially in the late spring, when water temperatures are still quite cold and temperatures at the coast can be more than 20 °F (11 °C) colder than a few miles inland, sometimes dropping by that amount near midday. Thunderstorms typically occur from May to September; occasionally, they can become severe, with large hail , damaging winds, and heavy downpours. Although downtown Boston has never been struck by
8928-443: The city's economy, and the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. The small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads furthered the region's industry and commerce. During this period, Boston flourished culturally as well. It
9052-414: The city, due in part to an increase in the amount of rainwater discharged directly into sewers rather than absorbed by the ground. The Boston Groundwater Trust coordinates monitoring groundwater levels throughout the city via a network of public and private monitoring wells. The city developed a climate action plan covering carbon reduction in buildings, transportation, and energy use. The first such plan
9176-474: The commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, led the British army in the siege. On June 17, the British captured Charlestown (now part of Boston) during the Battle of Bunker Hill . The British army outnumbered the militia stationed there, but it was a pyrrhic victory for the British because their army suffered irreplaceable casualties. It was also a testament to the skill and training of
9300-547: The conventional regimes of author , text and audience by combining (simple) theatrical movement with the full range of voice and stage in ways designed to draw deeper attention to the text. This represents a 'counter-cultural' mode of performance poetry which shuns bald entertainment value. Other initiatives such as Lyrikal Fearta by Jonzi D have shaped street-based art for the stage, extending spoken word to short prose productions and fusing performance poetry with dance. British performance poetry continues to thrive at
9424-565: The country's first poetry radio program. In 1952, Corman wrote: "I initiated my weekly broadcasts, known as This Is Poetry , from WMEX (1510 kc.) in Boston. The program has been usually a fifteen-minute reading of modern verse on Saturday evenings at seven thirty; however, I have taken some liberties and have read from Moby Dick and from stories by Dylan Thomas, Robert Creeley, and Joyce." This program featured readings by Robert Creeley , Stephen Spender , Theodore Roethke and many other Boston-based and visiting poets. He also spent some time at
9548-664: The destroyed tea from the Bostonians. This angered the colonists further and led to the American Revolutionary War . The war began in the area surrounding Boston with the Battles of Lexington and Concord . Boston itself was besieged for almost a year during the siege of Boston , which began on April 19, 1775. The New England militia impeded the movement of the British Army . Sir William Howe , then
9672-411: The difficulties of making a living in expensive Japan." He was a prolific poet until his final illness, publishing more than 100 books and pamphlets. In 1990, he published the first two volumes of poems entitled, OF , running to some 1500 poems. These are mostly new works, not a selection of previously published poems. Volume 3, with a further 750 poems appeared in 1998. Volumes 4 and 5 were published as
9796-455: The early 1960s. His Live New Departures - a touring version of his poetry and arts journal New Departures (launched 1959) - gave space and opportunities to poets like Pete Brown and Adrian Mitchell who combined performed verse with the backing of jazz musicians like pianist Stan Tracey and saxophonist Bobby Wellins . However, the emergence of performed poetry as a popular art form can probably be linked to Allen Ginsberg's performance at
9920-466: The elevated Central Artery and incorporated new green spaces and open areas. Boston is located within the Boston Basin ecoregion , which is characterized by low and rolling hills with a number of ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. Forests are mainly transition hardwoods such as oak - hickory mixed with white pine . As a coastal city built largely on fill , sea-level rise is of major concern to
10044-402: The emerging slam poetry scene. Unlike Gorski, who with East of Eden Band, began broadcasting live performance poetry on radio and distributing the recordings of these broadcasts in place of publishing in print, Jewell and slam poets were more interested in small live audiences. Venues like Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City and mass media formats, like Gorski's and John Giorno 's, form
10168-535: The establishment of Origin Press, which published books by a similar range of poets as well as by Corman himself and which remains currently active. In 1954, Corman won a Fulbright Fellowship grant (with an endorsement from Marianne Moore ) and moved to France , where he studied for a time at the Sorbonne . He then moved to Italy to teach English in a small town called Matera . By this time, Corman had published
10292-541: The first Community Health Center in the United States. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center. The Columbia Point complex itself was redeveloped and revitalized from 1984 to 1990 into a mixed-income residential development called Harbor Point Apartments. By
10416-423: The first to popularize crossing over into recorded media to distribute their performed poetry. The best-known Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg , followed the lead of fellow Beat, Jack Kerouac , in reciting his work for audio recording. Ginsberg always used music with his readings and often accompanied himself on the harmonium . Ginsberg put William Blake 's poems to music and performed them with the harmonium. Even though
10540-461: The first wave of European immigrants . Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Great Famine ; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston . In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans , Lebanese , Syrians, French Canadians , and Russian and Polish Jews settling there. By the end of
10664-461: The fortifications and dozens of cannons on Dorchester Heights that Henry Knox had laboriously brought through the snow from Fort Ticonderoga . The astonished British awoke the next morning to see a large array of cannons bearing down on them. General Howe is believed to have said that the Americans had done more in one night than his army could have done in six months. The British Army attempted
10788-558: The highest average rate of philanthropy in the nation, and the city's businesses and institutions rank among the top in the nation for environmental sustainability and new investment. Isaac Johnson , in one of his last official acts as the leader of the Charlestown community before he died on September 30, 1630, named the then-new settlement across the river "Boston". The settlement's name came from Johnson's hometown of Boston, Lincolnshire , from which he, his wife (namesake of
10912-536: The militia, as their stubborn defense made it difficult for the British to capture Charlestown without suffering further irreplaceable casualties. Several weeks later, George Washington took over the militia after the Continental Congress established the Continental Army to unify the revolutionary effort. Both sides faced difficulties and supply shortages in the siege, and the fighting
11036-634: The nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as the Boston Architectural College , Boston College , Boston University , the Harvard Medical School , Tufts University School of Medicine , Northeastern University , Massachusetts College of Art and Design , Wentworth Institute of Technology , Berklee College of Music , the Boston Conservatory , and many others attract students to
11160-572: The nation's busiest ports for both domestic and international trade. Boston's harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (adopted during the Napoleonic Wars ) and the War of 1812 . Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the meantime. Manufacturing became an important component of
11284-453: The next day and night, giving the enemy time to improve their works, to bring up their cannon, and to put themselves in such a state of defence, that I could promise myself little success in attacking them under all the disadvantages I had to encounter. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe , in a letter to William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth , about the British army's decision to leave Boston, dated March 21, 1776. Many crucial events of
11408-419: The official name from the "Town of Boston" to the "City of Boston", and on March 19, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the city. At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.8 sq mi (12 km ). In the 1820s, Boston's population grew rapidly, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with
11532-401: The performance of oral poems in pre-literate societies. By definition, these poems were transmitted orally from performer to performer and were constructed using devices such as repetition, alliteration , rhyme and kennings to facilitate memorization and recall. The performer "composed" the poem from memory, using the version they had learned as a kind of mental template. This process allowed
11656-551: The performance of poetry was restricted to reading aloud from printed books within families or groups of friends. The early years of the 20th century saw a general questioning of artistic forms and conventions. Poets like Basil Bunting and Louis Zukofsky called for a renewed emphasis on poetry as sound. Bunting in particular argued that the poem on the page was like a musical score; not fully intelligible until manifested through sound. This attitude to poetry helped to encourage an environment in which poetry readings were fostered. This
11780-427: The performer to add their own flavor to the poem in question, although fidelity to the traditional versions of the poems was generally favored. Although popular works, including popular poems or collections of poems, were already being distributed for private reading and study in manuscript form, there can be little doubt that the introduction of cheap printing technologies accelerated this trend considerably. The result
11904-555: The poems. Her spoken vocals have come as close to singing as possible without really singing. That is the key to Gorski's performance poetry: the marriage of poetry to music written specifically to fit poems written for vocal performance. The other type of performance poetry Gorski practiced is without music and tied to conceptual art , but that was at appearances in smaller venues that could not accommodate her band. Unlike Antin and Cormin, Gorski never improvised text but wrote poetry only for performance while eschewing printed poetry. In
12028-679: The poet's approval. In 1958, Corman got a teaching job in Kyoto through the auspices of Will Petersen or, according to one account, poet Gary Snyder . Here he continued to write and to run Origin and in 1959 he published Snyder's first book, Riprap . He remained in Japan until 1960, when he returned to the States for two years. Back in Japan he married Konishi Shizumi, a Japanese TV news editor. Corman began to translate Japanese poetry, particularly work by Bashō and Kusano Shimpei . The Cormans spent
12152-461: The position of the jet stream . Prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore minimize the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. However, in winter, areas near the immediate coast often see more rain than snow, as warm air is sometimes drawn off the Atlantic. The city lies at the border between USDA plant hardiness zones 6b (away from the coastline) and 7a (close to the coastline). The hottest month
12276-543: The same time. The collective outlined twenty mantras in their manifesto to make performance poetry more of a singular happening. In the United Kingdom, many avant-garde poets are deeply committed to live exposition of work, moving on from Cobbing and his peers. Well-known names include cris cheek and Aaron Williamson . The work of UK poet Michael Horovitz helped to spread this tradition in Britain during
12400-595: The settlement on the peninsula had been known as "Shawmut" by William Blaxton and "Tremontaine" by the Puritan settlers he had invited. Prior to European colonization , the region surrounding present-day Boston was inhabited by the Massachusett people who had small, seasonal communities. When a group of settlers led by John Winthrop arrived in 1630, the Shawmut Peninsula was nearly empty of
12524-567: The social protest of Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg . In France , fr:Lucien Suel , Akenaton , and many other represents the way of performance poetry. Setsuko Chiba [ ja ] is a Japanese poet and artist who takes the theatrical way of performance poetry since her debut in East Village in New York. In the Czech Republic performance poetry has also become popular among both Czech speakers and expats living in
12648-606: The southwest by the town of Dedham and small portions of Needham and Canton , and to the southeast by the town of Milton , and the city of Quincy . The Charles River separates Boston's Allston-Brighton , Fenway-Kenmore and Back Bay neighborhoods from Watertown and Cambridge, and most of Boston from its own Charlestown neighborhood. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston's southern neighborhoods and Quincy and Milton . The Mystic River separates Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett, and Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor separate East Boston from Downtown ,
12772-509: The temperature dipped down to −10 °F (−23 °C); this was the lowest temperature reading in the city since 1957. In addition, several decades may pass between 100 °F (38 °C) readings; the last such reading occurred on July 24, 2022. The city's average window for freezing temperatures is November 9 through April 5. Official temperature records have ranged from −18 °F (−28 °C) on February 9, 1934, up to 104 °F (40 °C) on July 4, 1911. The record cold daily maximum
12896-428: The term "performance poetry" to describe the work of Gorski with composer D'Jalma Garnier III as early as 1982. She began using the term, however, to describe a 1978 "neo-verse drama" and "conceptual spoken poetry for five voices" titled Booby, Mama! that employs the cut-up method made popular by William Burroughs and conceptual art methods. The National Endowment for the Arts categorized performance art within
13020-472: The third-largest city in the Northeast after New York City and Philadelphia . The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has a population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest in New England and the eleventh-largest in the country . Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers. The city was named after Boston, Lincolnshire , England. During
13144-614: The time, Corman spoke warmly about his connection to the Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin poet (playing the only known audio tape of Niedecker reading from her works). Niedecker had died in 1970, shortly after Corman had visited her. As he told friends and admirers during the 2003 gathering, Corman had not returned to the Black Hawk Island haunts of Niedecker since that first (and only) visit with Niedecker. He died in Kyoto , Japan on March 12, 2004 after being hospitalized for
13268-417: The two lines of influence leading to Def Poetry on HBO . Performing poets-writers and especially performance poets excelled in the ability to put the event of oral literature into the primary social/communicative function for literature. The plurality of the literary performance is under the control of the poet/writer, and the performer never minimizes the participation of the audience members. Performance
13392-677: The visual arts judging panels; it originally placed performance poetry within the category of theater before correcting it to literature in the 21st century. Since many performance poets did not have publications, the former classification made performance poets categorically ineligible for the NEA fellowship funding or recognition. Their audio cassettes were not acceptable sample material for literature grant consideration. A stated objection to this presentation method protested their performance poems translated into text on paper could not compete with poetry written for print publication. The National Endowment for
13516-467: The winter of 2011–12 saw only 9.3 in (23.6 cm) of accumulating snow, but the previous winter, the corresponding figure was 81.0 in (2.06 m). The city's coastal location on the North Atlantic makes the city very prone to nor'easters , which can produce large amounts of snow and rain. Fog is fairly common, particularly in spring and early summer. Due to its coastal location,
13640-617: The years 1980 to 1982 in Boston, where they unsuccessfully tried to establish a number of small businesses. They returned to Kyoto, where they remained, running CC's Coffee Shop in Kyoto, "offering poetry and western-style patisserie". Corman has been associated with the Beats , Black Mountain poets and Objectivists , mainly through his championing as an editor, publisher and critic. However, he remained independent of all groups and fashions throughout his career. Michael Carlson, who contributed to Origins and corresponded with Corman starting in
13764-479: Was a change in the poet's role in society. From having been an entertainer, the poet became primarily a provider of written texts for private readings. The public performance of poetry became generally restricted, at least in a European context, to the staging of plays in verse and occasionally, for example in the cases of the Elizabethan madrigalists or Robert Burns , as texts for singing. Apart from this,
13888-596: Was a necessary and integral part of the work itself. In Britain , sound poets like Bob Cobbing and Edwin Morgan were exploring the possibilities of live performance. Cobbing's groups Bird Yak and Konkrete Canticle involved collaborative performance with other poets and musicians and were partly responsible for drawing a number of the poets of the British Poetry Revival into the performance arena. Meanwhile, many more mainstream poets in both Britain and
14012-736: Was admired for its rarefied literary life and generous artistic patronage . Members of old Boston families—eventually dubbed the Boston Brahmins —came to be regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites. They are often associated with the American upper class , Harvard University , and the Episcopal Church . Boston was a prominent port of the Atlantic slave trade in the New England Colonies , but
14136-549: Was commissioned in 2007, with updates released in 2011, 2014, and 2019. This plan includes the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, which requires the city's larger buildings to disclose their yearly energy and water use statistics and to partake in an energy assessment every five years. A separate initiative, Resilient Boston Harbor, lays out neighborhood-specific recommendations for coastal resilience . In 2013, Mayor Thomas Menino introduced
14260-433: Was limited to small-scale raids and skirmishes. The narrow Boston Neck, which at that time was only about a hundred feet wide, impeded Washington's ability to invade Boston, and a long stalemate ensued. A young officer, Rufus Putnam , came up with a plan to make portable fortifications out of wood that could be erected on the frozen ground under cover of darkness. Putnam supervised this effort, which successfully installed both
14384-476: Was reinforced by Charles Olson 's call for a poetic line based primarily on spoken human breath. Clive Sansom devoted much of his life to gathering and contributing poetry and drama particularly suited to performance by children. During the 1950s, the American poet Cid Corman began to experiment with what he called oral poetry. This involved spontaneously composing poems into a tape recorder. Allen Ginsberg
14508-614: Was reversed in 2013 when it was resold to Boston businessman John W. Henry . In 2016, it was announced General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Seaport District in Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood. The city also saw the completion of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the Big Dig , in 2007 after many delays and cost overruns. On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated
14632-535: Was soon overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island . Boston eventually became a center of the American abolitionist movement . The city reacted largely negatively to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , contributing to President Franklin Pierce 's attempt to make an example of Boston after Anthony Burns 's attempt to escape to freedom. In 1822, the citizens of Boston voted to change
14756-534: Was started by Mandy Williams, PR Murry and Jane Addison in London in 1982 inspired by the work of New Variety/CAST. They worked with 'ranting poets' such as Attila the Stockbroker and Seething Wells and other poets and musicians with a political message such as Billy Bragg . Apples and Snakes continues today, 31 years later, as a national organisation. In the 90s, however, in big cities like Manchester and London,
14880-487: Was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics . Nevertheless, Boston is one of eleven U.S. cities which will host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup , with games taking place at Gillette Stadium . The geographical center of Boston
15004-504: Was the person most directly responsible for the foundation of Boston by Puritan colonists in 1630. This occurred after Blaxton invited one of their leaders, Isaac Johnson , to cross Back Bay from the failing colony of Charlestown and share the peninsula. The Puritans made the crossing in September 1630. Puritan influence on Boston began even before the settlement was founded with the 1629 Cambridge Agreement . This document created
15128-478: Was the poetry reading, at which poems that had been written for the page were read to an audience, usually by the author. Poetry readings have become widespread and poetry festivals and reading series are now part of the cultural landscape of most Western societies. However, most people would not consider the poetry readings of this type as part of the performance poetry phenomena. This leaves two types of poetry performance: poems written specifically for performance on
15252-419: Was the primary distribution method for poetics since tribal times and ancient Greece . As Gorski often states, broadcast and technology surpass books in reaching mass audiences for poetry, and just as writing poetry for print made poetry a completely different artform since the invention of the book , audio "mediums influence the way poets write just as they do painters and sculptors". Today, performance poetry
15376-453: Was to take up this practice in the 1960s. David Antin , who heard some of Corman's tapes, took the process one step further. He composed his talk-poems by improvising in front of an audience. These performances were recorded and the tapes were later transcribed to be published in book form. Around the same time, Jerome Rothenberg was drawing on his ethnopoetic researches to create poems for ritual performances as happenings . The writers of
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