Teaching the Terrified Tongue (Part VIII)

The 1977 New York Book Fair was held in Bryant Park in the tent left by the flower show. It rained and the tent was muddy. Across Forty Second Street, Brooklyn poet and activist Louis Reyes Rivera was hosting the readings in the CUNY Auditorium, which Jackie Eubanks was able to rent at a good price.

My mother's cousin, Ida Teitelbaum, a fine artist, accompanied me to the fair. She sat at the table exhibiting BardPress chapbooks. I roamed the tent, putting up posters for the Hell’s Kitchen Poetry Festival at St. Clement’s.

I met Barbara at the planning meeting for the 1978 New York Book Fair, when she helped Louis Reyes Rivera to raise funds for the event he was organizing. The Fair was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School behind Lincoln Center. Barbara brought and demonstrated her letter press.