Chapbooks III

In London, England (1970) I published Chrylust and a poetry broadside that came out of my experience teaching in Liberia.

Four years later on Upper West Side of Manhattan, I began publishing a poetry chapbook series under the imprint BardPress. The poets I published were part of a group then known as the Scribblers. I had founded the group by offering a weekly reading held in the apartment I shared with Vinnie Gunn on West 85th Street. Clint McCown’s Labyrinthiad and my poem, Icarus, were the first chapbooks BardPress published. Works by Barbara A. Holland, Matt Laufer and Patricia Kelly followed.

In 1974, I was also working for Bantam Books, selling new and back list titles to bookstores and distributors by phone. At Bantam I also worked with Ted Solotaroff on the editorial board (for the last two years) of his literary magazine, The American Review. I also worked as a play reader for Joseph Papp at the Public Theater; and initiated a series of poetry readings, the Hell’s Kitchen Poetry Festival, at St. Clement’s Church on West 46th Street.

On W. 10 St. and Greenwich Ave, cater-cornered from the Jefferson Market Library, was Paul Johnston's bohemian garret. PJ was born in 1899, moved to the Village in the 1920’s, and became a fine press printer and book designer. PJ operated a letter press printing fine poetry chapbooks, including the Poetry Quartos for Random House and helped me understand design and publishing in the age of photocopiers.

On Greenwich and W. 12th Street, around the corner from Abingdon Square Park, was Barbara Fisher’s loft, home to Ten Penny Players, Inc. Barbara used a letter press to print miniature books. She exhibited at Manhattan art galleries and the annual Alternative Press New York Book Fair. Ten Penny Players and BardPress began working together in 1978. The New York State Waterways Project was the first imprint from both of us.

By bringing our publishing program to public schools, Barbara and I gained a livelihood, while dedicating ourselves to poetry. The chapbook series, In Search of a Song, began when Barbara taught a weekly writing workshop at Public Schools 114 and 276 in Canarsie (1981). The series continued at the children’s poetry workshop she conducted weekly at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library.

When we brought the project to NYC alternative high schools, I joined the many teachers who were preparing their students to write and read. We were in the classrooms, developing a new audience for poetry. We collaborated with teachers to prepare lessons, introduce students to the work of other contemporary poets, and inspire the students to express their own ideas.

The volumes from our ‘In Search of a Song’ presented a new urban student literature depicting the latter part of the Twentieth Century seen through the eyes of public school students. We were invited into their new world.

Contact with the teachers and teaching artists influenced the students’ work. Teachers helped the students to realize that their thoughts were worth expressing and their talents need not be hidden. The best teachers created a classroom atmosphere where all students felt safe to read their work to others.

Joshua Wolinsky wrote to his teacher:
Thank you Ms. Economos
for showing me the talent
I never took seriously.
Without you, these poems
in this book would never be here.

Students wrote about their esteem and affection for the teachers. Among the many teachers and artists who worked with Waterways were Donna Campbell, Molly Barker, Louis Reyes Rivera, Magie Dominick, Michele Beck, Nena Shaheed, Benny Daniels, Magdalena Gomez, Randy Wright, Lucia Ruedenberg-Wright, Ellen Lytle, Frank Stearns, Alison Zadrow, Sal Canale, Ronald G. King, Jane Califf, Frank Grabinski, Janet Griffith, Paul Douglas, Miriam Lock, Tom Mitchelson Jack Giordano, Madeline Brownstone, Paul Takis, Lisa Jesse Peterson, D. Nurkse, Linda Notovitz, Mel Cohen, Zoe Anglesey, David Glick, Gus Rodriguez, Alison Koffler, Ron King, Matthew Hejna-Luque, Margo Mack, J. A. Brathwaite, Builder Levy, Joan Martinez, Max Mendes, Judith Rosenbaum, Moli Ntuli, Maura Gouck, Thomas Perry, Rodolfo Rodriguez, César Roquez, Ofelia Rodriguez Goldstein, Tyona Washington, Jonathan Sharpe, Roslyn Kaye, James Patton, Thelma Ruffin Thomas, Olga Economos, Jonathan Shapiro, Barnaby Spring, Donald Lev, Enid Dame, Wendy Thorpe, Gail Tuch, Barbara Youngman, Toby Greenzang, Myrtle Liburd, Leila Riley, Ben Jacobs, Paul Auerbach and many others.

I look back over these books twenty years after they were published. Some of the best writing still stands out. The publications are worth repeat readings.