After Words: A Roundtable on Visual Poetry

Granary Books will host a roundtable discussion at the Grolier Club as part of the exhibition After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960–2025. The conversation will feature curators, scholars, and publishers who work in visual poetry, including Lisa Pearson (Siglio Press), Charlotte Priddle (Special Collections, New York University), Amelia Grounds (The Bancroft Library at University of Berkeley), Antonio Sergio Bessa (emeritus, The Bronx Museum of the Arts), and Alison Fraser (The Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo).

Moderated by M.C. Kinniburgh and Conley Lowrance, of Granary Books, the conversation will focus on how visual and avant-garde works are produced and distributed, how they might appear in our teaching or scholarly practices, and what the physical manifestation and presentation of these works can tell us about their creation, political and cultural positioning, and the constellations of poets involved.

This is an in-person lecture.

About the Exhibition

Poetry underwent a profound re-conception post-World War II, as poets experimented not only with techniques such as projective verse, but also with the verbal and visual qualities of poetic language. Known variously as visual, concrete, and sound poetry, these practices reached new heights of innovation in the 1960s and beyond sustained by the mimeograph revolution and the proliferation of small independent presses. After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, Post-1960, curated by Steve Clay and Grolier Club member M.C. Kinniburgh, explores the decentering and re-imagining of language from the perspective of visual poetics, and the varieties of ways these ideas took published form. The exhibition presents a wide range of international works with approximately 150 publications, including Assembling, Kontexts, Poor.Old.Tired.Horse., blewointment, Rhinozeros, The Marrahwanna Quarterly, Granary Books, Something Else Press, Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Ou, and Stereo Headphones. Poets presented include Cecilia Vicuña, bpNichol, Johanna Drucker, Tom Phillips, Emily McVarish, d.a. levy, Mirtha Dermisache, and Philip Gallo among many others. An accompanying catalog will be published by Granary Books.

Registration

If you are a Grolier Club member, please register yourself and your guests via the Club website. Do not register via Eventbrite.

Support

We appreciate your interest in the Grolier Club’s programming on the art and history of the book. For over 130 years we have offered our exhibitions and lectures to the public, free of charge. If you have enjoyed these offerings, and would like to support that tradition, and help ensure that it continues, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Grolier Club.

Accessibility

An ADA-compliant lift from street level to the lobby is available to anyone with mobility issues. All desk staff should be ready and able to assist you in operating the lift, with or without advance notice.

A “T-Coil” assisted listening system is available to anyone attending a lecture in the Exhibition Hall. Visitors with hearing aids should turn their devices to the “T” setting in order to access the system; visitors without hearing aids may request a “loop receiver” with earphones.

Host or Publisher The Grolier Club