The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College. Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... This article is in need of attention. ...

Background

Black Mountain College, which operated from 1933 to 1956, was one of the leading experimental schools of art in the United States. The college attracted leading figures from across the arts as teachers. These included Josef Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius and Charles Olson. Guest lecturers included Albert Einstein, Clement Greenberg, and William Carlos Williams. This article is in need of attention. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Josef Albers (born March 19, 1888 in Bottrop, Westphalia (Germany) - died March 26, 1976 in New Haven, Connecticut), was a German artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of... John Cage John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. ... Merce Cunningham is a choreography born April 16 1919, Centralia Washington, United States. ... Willem de Koonings Woman V (1952-53) Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904-March 19, 1997) an abstract expressionist painter was born in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. ... Elaine Marie de Kooning (12 March 1918 - 1 February 1989), was an abstract expressionist and semi-realistic painter. ... In the U.S. postage stamp commemorating Buckminster Fuller and his contributions to architecture and science, some of his inventions are visible. ... Bauhaus in Dessau by Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus. ... Charles Olson (27 December 1910 - 10 January 1970) was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet who was a crucial link between earlier figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and such later avant garde groups as the Beats and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. He... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Clement Greenberg (January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic who was closely associated with the institutionalization of abstract art in the United States. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with Modernism and Imagism. ...

Projective Verse

In 1950, Olson published his seminal essay, Projective Verse. In this, he called for a poetry of "open field" composition to replace traditional closed poetic forms with an improvised form that should reflect exactly the content of the poem. This form was to be based on the line, and each line was to be a unit of breath and of utterance. The content was to consist of "one perception immediately and directly (leading) to a further perception". This essay was to become a kind of de facto manifesto for the Black Mountain poets. One of the effects of narrowing the unit of structure in the poem down to what could fit within an utterance was that the Black Mountain poets developed a distinctive style of poetic diction (e.g. "yr" for "your"). 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Main Black Mountain Poets

In addition to Olson, the poets most closely associated with Black Mountain include Larry Eigner, Robert Duncan, Ed Dorn, Paul Blackburn, Hilda Morley, John Wieners, Joel Oppenheimer, Denise Levertov, Jonathan Williams and Robert Creeley. Creeley worked as a teacher and editor of the Black Mountain Review for two years, moving to San Francisco in 1957. There, he acted as a link between the Black Mountain poets and the Beats, many of whom he had published in the review. Robert Duncan (January 7, 1919 – February 3, 1988), was an American poet associated with the Black Mountain poets and the beat generation. ... Edward Dorn (1929-1999) was a United States poet who was associated with the Black Mountain poets. ... Paul Blackburn (November 24, 1926 – September 13, 1971) was born in St. ... Hilda Morley (1916 – 1998-03-23) was an American poet. ... John Wieners (born 6 January 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts and died 1 March 2002 in Boston) was a United States lyric poet. ... Joel Oppenheimer (1930-1988) was an American poet associated with both the Black Mountain poets and the New York school. ... Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923 - December 20, 1997) was a British born American poet. ... The name Jonathan Williams can refer to a number of people: Jonathan Williams, the engineer Jonathan Williams, the architect Jonathan Williams, the Formula 1 driver Jonathan Williams, the poet and publisher This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Robert Creeley (May 21, 1926 - March 30, 2005) was an American poet, author of more than sixty books, and usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that schools. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is...

Legacy of the Black Mountain Poets

Apart from their strong interconnections with the Beats, the Black Mountain poets influenced the course of later American poetry via their importance for the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets. They were also important for the development of innovative British poetry since the 1960s, as evidenced by such poets as Tom Raworth and J. H. Prynne. The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets were probably the most significant avant garde grouping in United States poetry in the last quarter of the 20th century. ... Tom Raworth (Thomas Moore Raworth) (born 1938) is a London-born poet and visual artist who has published over 40 books of poetry and prose since 1966. ... J. H. Prynne (born 1936) is a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival. ...

External links

• blackmountaincollege.org
• 1984 audio interview with Robert Creeley by Don Swaim of CBS Radio