Following Miriam Patchen's recent death in early March, this evening
tribute focuses on the legacy of Kenneth Patchen's work and Miriam's
crucial role in ensuring its survival. It offers a rare opportunity to
learn more about Patchen - who along with Kenneth Rexroth, was one of the
great inspirers of what would later become known as the 'beat generation' -
by listening to a group of well known members of the arts and academia
engaging with Patchen's writings and discussing how he has infuenced and
inspired their own work, in the setting of Tate Modern. It will also allow
those people who attended the earlier Patchen event at the Tate (May 1998)
to reacquaint themselves with the poet.
Patchen has been admired by generations of writers, poets, artists and
musicians including e e cummings, William Carlos Williams, T S Eliot and
W H Auden, as well as Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who included Patchen in his
City Lights Pocket Poets Series), Adrian Mitchell, David Bedford, John Cage
and Tony Cragg. Henry Miller wrote of him: "Kenneth Patchen is now and
will remain one of the outstanding figures in American letters. He
represents all that a poet should represent...No one can read him without
being affected - and influenced in his own life and work." (cover of
Poemscapes, New Directions, 1957) Although Patchen's work is still not
widely known in this country, this evening tribute at Tate Modern hopes to
demonstrate the truth of Miller's claim.
To this end we have gathered together: David Bedford (composer and
musician), Jim Burns (writer, editor and poet), Michael Horovitz (jazz
poet, visual artist and editor of New Departures), Bernard Kops (writer,
playwright and poet), Adrian Mitchell (playwright, poet and writer of
children's stories), Maria Anita Stefanelli (Associate Professor of Modern
American Drama at the University of Rome) and Marcus Williamson (Patchen
enthusiast and editor of the Kenneth Patchen Home Page -
http://www.connectotel.com/patchen/).
Organiser: Barbara Read with the support of Maria Anita Stefanelli.
Venue: Tate Modern, Bankside, Sumner Street, London SE1 9JX
Tickets are free but numbers are limited to 240.
Tickets available from Monday, 5 June from Tate Box Office on: 020 7887 8888
For more information please e-mail Barbara Read on: barbara.read@talk21.com or Mariella Stefanelli on: m.stefanelli@uniroma3.it
Mariella Stefanelli and Barbara Read have already organised previous events
around Patchen's work in London and Rome. The London events took place in
May 1998 and took the form of an evening discussion - Word, Image and
Rhythms: a celebration of Kenneth Patchen - at the Tate Gallery, and an
exhibition of Patchen's painted poems at the Poetry Library, Southbank
Centre - and were featured on Radio 3's Night Waves. The Rome events took
place last summer, with Mariella Stefanelli organising a similar exhibition
of Patchen's silk screens and poem paintings, and a conference about
Patchen's work at the Centre for American Studies. Miriam Patchen attended
both the London and Rome events.