George Wallace (poet)
Encyclopedia
George Wallace is an American poet and poetry organizer.
Working from a base of operations in downtown New York City's poetry scene, from his family roots in Brooklyn and Long Island, and from his experiences living and working in Northern California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and the United Kingdom, Wallace has created a grassroots network of venues for poetry.
His own poetry, in particular his performance-oriented work, is imagination-based in its creation, emerging from a process of wordplay
, surrealist deconstruction
and bricolage
into a final form that is typically characterized by accessible narrative and forceful rhythmic impetus. It is built on a foundation of a musical talent that emerged at the age of four, when he began reading and performing music, and shaped by his extensive readings in the literature of European Surrealism, the Whitman
/Sandburg
vortex, and the Beats. His work also bears the mark of 1960s concerns, particularly the social witness and aesthetic consciousness of that time.
His organizational efforts on behalf of poetry are based on professional training and disposition to community service developed through graduate studies with Guy Stuart and others at UNC-Chapel Hill in the mid '70s.
theaters, his father a 'Kiddie Troupe' dancer; and his maternal uncle a world-traveling figure in the Fifth Avenue fashion world. In the 1960s he was part of the Long Island music scene which produced such artists as The Young Rascals, Billy Joel
and the Shangri-Las.
He attended Syracuse University 1967–71, met Allen Ginsberg
and studied with W. D. Snodgrass, and then began a twenty year career exploring the US, Europe and Asia. Occasional work, pursuit of community service, and cross-cultural curiosity resulted in extended stays in Boston (1972–73), India and the Middle East (1973), the San Francisco Bay area (1974–75), Korea (US Peace Corps
, 1975–77), North Carolina (1977–1980), Sacramento (1981–83), East Anglia, UK (1983–85), before returning to his native New York.
Beginning in 1988 he began a decade-long career as a community journalist and building poetry communities from a base of operations in Huntington, Long Island
— creating Walt's Corner, a column in the Long Islander Newspaper (founded by Walt Whitman
), Long Island Quarterly Magazine, live performance venues, and local radio and television shows. His associations with East End Long Island poetry scene, in particular Westhampton Writers luminaries Budd Schulberg
, Peter Swet and Dakin Williams, were supplemented by regular interactions with poets of national and international stature (including Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
and Diane Wakoski), who served as Poets In Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
During this time, Wallace's own poetry began to be collected in chapbook
form, with publications through Cross Cultural Communications, Writers Ink Press and others, producing work that featured a growing orientation to inventive and playful monologues.
By the late 1990s Wallace was recognized as a pre-eminent figure in regional poetry, and he was named the first poet laureate for Suffolk County
, Long Island, in 2003.
Poetrybay, which he launched in 2000, established him as a respected national publisher of poetry. The online literary magazine was selected for international archiving and distribution through the Stanford University LOCKSS program.
Meanwhile, from 1999 on, Wallace began to devote more time to poetry and poetry-related activities. In 2000 and 2001, while he was writing exhibitions for a local historical society about Jack Kerouac
's residence in Northport Long Island, his associations with the Beat and post-Beat constellation grew dramatically—interacting with such figures as David Amram
, Carolyn Cassady, John Cassady, Charles Plymell, Nanos Valariotis, Janine Pommy Vega, Neeli Cherkovski, Jack Foley, Charles Potts, Larry Sawyer, Bob Holman
, Steve Dalachinsky, Angelo Verga and Steve Cannon. A four-city marathon reading of Big Sur in 2001 (SF, Northport, Lowell and Orlando, Florida) brought a national spotlight to his work, solidified by his appearances at events and venues like Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, Insomniacathon, Orlando's Kerouac House, Bradstock, Lyric Recovery and Howlfest.
During this period, he began to appear regularly at venues in lower Manhattan, in particular at Bowery Poetry Club, Cornelia Street Café and Gathering of the Tribes Gallery. Frequent appearances followed in Lowell, Woodstock and the Hudson Valley of New York, and Wallace established strong connections to writing communities from Florida to Southern California, and from Cleveland to Oklahoma.
And participation in a low residency MFA program with Pacific University
in Oregon brought him the mentorship and support of Marvin Bell, David St John, and a position as a university lecturer at Pace University
in lower Manhattan
.
His work was recognized by the Beat Museum in San Francisco, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, and Incwriters in the UK, and is now archived in the Special Collections archives of Hofstra University. His poetry was the subject of critical commentary by Hugh Fox, Jack Foley, Lenny Dellarocca, Robert Peake, Kirpal Gordon, John Amen, Doug Holder, Nancy Henry and others. He was profiled in Greenwich Village Gazette, Cafe Review, Newsday and The New York Times. A dozen or more chapbooks of his poems, increasingly performance oriented, were published during this period, among them books that were released by Green Panda, Butcher Shop, and Three Rooms Press.
During this period, Wallace's reach as an organizer of events and activities in poetry expanded dramatically. With Oklahoma poet laureate Carol Hamilton, Wallace conceived the Woody Guthrie
Poets, which beginning in 2004 organized an annual poetry reading at the July Woodyfest in Okemah Oklahoma. He began participating in communal poetry events in Cleveland and in Northampton, Massachusetts, through Bree Bodner of Green Panda Press. Through association with Alexsey Dayen in New York City, he edited a novel manuscript by No!Artist Boris Lurie. Through association with Herbert Kuhner in Vienna, he edited the poetry of Alter Brody. Downtown New York City poetry organizers including Jackie Sheeler and Kat Georges began to promote his work.
His international profile began to emerge during this time as well. His writing came to the attention of La Finestra Editrice, in Trento. Italy, which translated and published two collections of his poetry. He appeared for workshops and readings in Rome, Paris, Belfast and in Greece. An appearance in the Lake District
of England for Words By Water resulted in an extended relationship with UK poetry, principally through association with Cumbrian poet and organizer Geraldine Green. In the UK, chapbooks have been published with Troubadour Books and Flarestack, a CD with Tony Lamb; and he began regular tours of England — in particular Liverpool, Manchester, Cornwall and particularly such Cumbrian towns as Keswick, Kendal, Penrith and Carlisle.
Wallace was also featured in Leisurama
, a documentary film about the 1960s vacation housing development in Montauk, New York. The film was first broadcast on New York's public television station WNET
in 2005 and later went into national public television broadcast distribution in 2008.
Working from a base of operations in downtown New York City's poetry scene, from his family roots in Brooklyn and Long Island, and from his experiences living and working in Northern California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and the United Kingdom, Wallace has created a grassroots network of venues for poetry.
His own poetry, in particular his performance-oriented work, is imagination-based in its creation, emerging from a process of wordplay
Wordplay
Wordplay is a musician/actor, of mixed British and Black African descent. Gaining worldwide exposure as an actor in 1998 through the Austrian Obscuro Gothic science fiction film "Dandy dust" directed by Hans Schierl...
, surrealist deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
and bricolage
Bricolage
Bricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts, to refer to the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process...
into a final form that is typically characterized by accessible narrative and forceful rhythmic impetus. It is built on a foundation of a musical talent that emerged at the age of four, when he began reading and performing music, and shaped by his extensive readings in the literature of European Surrealism, the Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
/Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
vortex, and the Beats. His work also bears the mark of 1960s concerns, particularly the social witness and aesthetic consciousness of that time.
His organizational efforts on behalf of poetry are based on professional training and disposition to community service developed through graduate studies with Guy Stuart and others at UNC-Chapel Hill in the mid '70s.
Early years, 1970–2000
Wallace was born into a New York family with associations to both popular entertainment and high culture - his grandfather was a muralist for vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
theaters, his father a 'Kiddie Troupe' dancer; and his maternal uncle a world-traveling figure in the Fifth Avenue fashion world. In the 1960s he was part of the Long Island music scene which produced such artists as The Young Rascals, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
and the Shangri-Las.
He attended Syracuse University 1967–71, met Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and studied with W. D. Snodgrass, and then began a twenty year career exploring the US, Europe and Asia. Occasional work, pursuit of community service, and cross-cultural curiosity resulted in extended stays in Boston (1972–73), India and the Middle East (1973), the San Francisco Bay area (1974–75), Korea (US Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
, 1975–77), North Carolina (1977–1980), Sacramento (1981–83), East Anglia, UK (1983–85), before returning to his native New York.
Beginning in 1988 he began a decade-long career as a community journalist and building poetry communities from a base of operations in Huntington, Long Island
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
— creating Walt's Corner, a column in the Long Islander Newspaper (founded by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
), Long Island Quarterly Magazine, live performance venues, and local radio and television shows. His associations with East End Long Island poetry scene, in particular Westhampton Writers luminaries Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the...
, Peter Swet and Dakin Williams, were supplemented by regular interactions with poets of national and international stature (including Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko is a Soviet and Russian poet. He is also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, actor, editor, and a director of several films.-Early life:...
and Diane Wakoski), who served as Poets In Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
During this time, Wallace's own poetry began to be collected in chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
form, with publications through Cross Cultural Communications, Writers Ink Press and others, producing work that featured a growing orientation to inventive and playful monologues.
By the late 1990s Wallace was recognized as a pre-eminent figure in regional poetry, and he was named the first poet laureate for Suffolk County
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
, Long Island, in 2003.
2000–2005
Wallace's engagement in the extended world of Beat and post-Beat writing emerged during this period, simultaneously with his recognition of the opportunity of the Internet for creation of platforms for poetry, and for pan-regional networking of poetry communities.Poetrybay, which he launched in 2000, established him as a respected national publisher of poetry. The online literary magazine was selected for international archiving and distribution through the Stanford University LOCKSS program.
Meanwhile, from 1999 on, Wallace began to devote more time to poetry and poetry-related activities. In 2000 and 2001, while he was writing exhibitions for a local historical society about Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
's residence in Northport Long Island, his associations with the Beat and post-Beat constellation grew dramatically—interacting with such figures as David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, Carolyn Cassady, John Cassady, Charles Plymell, Nanos Valariotis, Janine Pommy Vega, Neeli Cherkovski, Jack Foley, Charles Potts, Larry Sawyer, Bob Holman
Bob Holman
Bob Holman is a poet and poetry activist in the United States.- Career :After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, Bob Holman founded, with Sara Miles and Susie Timmons, the NYC Poetry Calendar, a free monthly publication with all the readings and poets "on the same page"...
, Steve Dalachinsky, Angelo Verga and Steve Cannon. A four-city marathon reading of Big Sur in 2001 (SF, Northport, Lowell and Orlando, Florida) brought a national spotlight to his work, solidified by his appearances at events and venues like Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, Insomniacathon, Orlando's Kerouac House, Bradstock, Lyric Recovery and Howlfest.
During this period, he began to appear regularly at venues in lower Manhattan, in particular at Bowery Poetry Club, Cornelia Street Café and Gathering of the Tribes Gallery. Frequent appearances followed in Lowell, Woodstock and the Hudson Valley of New York, and Wallace established strong connections to writing communities from Florida to Southern California, and from Cleveland to Oklahoma.
2005–present
Since 2005 Wallace has solidified his role as a performance poet, poetry organizer and promoter of imagination based poetry at workshops and lecture venues worldwide.And participation in a low residency MFA program with Pacific University
Pacific University
Pacific University is a private university located in Oregon, United States. The first campus began more than 160 years ago and is located about 38 km west of Portland in Forest Grove...
in Oregon brought him the mentorship and support of Marvin Bell, David St John, and a position as a university lecturer at Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
in lower Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
His work was recognized by the Beat Museum in San Francisco, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, and Incwriters in the UK, and is now archived in the Special Collections archives of Hofstra University. His poetry was the subject of critical commentary by Hugh Fox, Jack Foley, Lenny Dellarocca, Robert Peake, Kirpal Gordon, John Amen, Doug Holder, Nancy Henry and others. He was profiled in Greenwich Village Gazette, Cafe Review, Newsday and The New York Times. A dozen or more chapbooks of his poems, increasingly performance oriented, were published during this period, among them books that were released by Green Panda, Butcher Shop, and Three Rooms Press.
During this period, Wallace's reach as an organizer of events and activities in poetry expanded dramatically. With Oklahoma poet laureate Carol Hamilton, Wallace conceived the Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
Poets, which beginning in 2004 organized an annual poetry reading at the July Woodyfest in Okemah Oklahoma. He began participating in communal poetry events in Cleveland and in Northampton, Massachusetts, through Bree Bodner of Green Panda Press. Through association with Alexsey Dayen in New York City, he edited a novel manuscript by No!Artist Boris Lurie. Through association with Herbert Kuhner in Vienna, he edited the poetry of Alter Brody. Downtown New York City poetry organizers including Jackie Sheeler and Kat Georges began to promote his work.
His international profile began to emerge during this time as well. His writing came to the attention of La Finestra Editrice, in Trento. Italy, which translated and published two collections of his poetry. He appeared for workshops and readings in Rome, Paris, Belfast and in Greece. An appearance in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
of England for Words By Water resulted in an extended relationship with UK poetry, principally through association with Cumbrian poet and organizer Geraldine Green. In the UK, chapbooks have been published with Troubadour Books and Flarestack, a CD with Tony Lamb; and he began regular tours of England — in particular Liverpool, Manchester, Cornwall and particularly such Cumbrian towns as Keswick, Kendal, Penrith and Carlisle.
Wallace was also featured in Leisurama
Leisurama
Leisurama is a development of vacation homes in Montauk, New York, that was constructed between 1963 and 1965 following the developer's success with a model home at the 1959 American Exhibition in Moscow...
, a documentary film about the 1960s vacation housing development in Montauk, New York. The film was first broadcast on New York's public television station WNET
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
in 2005 and later went into national public television broadcast distribution in 2008.
Publications and CDs
- Poppin Johnny (Three Rooms Press NYC NY 2009) threeroomspress.blogspot.com
- Who's Handling Your Aubergines (Green Panda; Cleveland, Ohio 2008) greenpandapress.blogspot.com
- Sunnyside Up The Dream Cloud Egg (Good Japan NYC NY 2008) www.myspace.com/goodjapanpress
- Summer of Love Summer of Love (Shivastan; Woodstock NY 2008) www.shivastan.org
- Wrestling Godzilla (Green Panda; Cleveland, Ohio 2007) greenpandapress.blogspot.com
- Sky Is, with The Moontones (Cornwall, UK 2007) cdbaby.com
- When I Was Dead (Flarestack; Birmingham, UK 2006) www.flarestackpoets.co.uk
- After The Fall (Butcher Shop Press; NYC NY 2005) blogs.myspace.com/butchershoppress
- Burn My Heart In Wet Sand (Troubador; Leicester, UK 2004) www.troubador.co.uk
- Without Benefit of Men (Chlemskyia Zhurnal; NYC NY 2004)
- Fifty Love Poems (La Finestra; Trento, Italy 2004) www.la-finestra.com
- Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press; Columbus, Ohio 2003) www.puddinghouse.com
- Swimming Through Water (La Finestra Editrice; Trento, Italy 2003) www.la-finestra.com
- For Immediate Release, (e-book, Sniffy Linings; Seattle, Washington 2002) www.sniffylinings.com
- Sesquicentennial Suite (Sons of the Golden West; Sacramento, Ca 2001)
- The Poems of Augie Prime (Writers Ink; Selden NY 1999) writersunlimited.org/LIPS.htm
- Butterflies and Other Tattoos (Bootleg Press; Hempstead NY 1993)
- Tales of a Yuppie Dropout (Writers Ink; Selden NY 1993) writersunlimited.org/LIPS.htm
- The Milking Jug (Cross Cultural Communications; Merrick NY 1988)
- Tie Back the Roses (Explicitly Graphic; Bury St Edmunds UK 1986)
Biographical
Commentary
- New York Times, "Mission of this Poet"
- New York Times, "Poetry Theater"
- Newsday, "Suffolk Names First Poet Laureate"
- About.com, "Poetry Comes To Guthrie Festival"
- Greenwich Village Gazette, "Wallace Tours"
- "Our Man In Vienna" on "Alter Brody"
Reviews
- Boston Area Small Press, Sky Is
- Big Bridge, Swimming Through Water
- Unlikely Stories
- Pedestal, Sky Is
- Robert Peake, on Poppin' Johnny
- Lenny Dellarocca in Greenwich Village Gazette