George Wallace (poet)

INTRODUCTION

George Wallace (b. March 22 1949, Hempstead NY) 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.

THE 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 Vaudeville 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 The Young Rascals, Billy Joel and the Shangri-las.

He attended Syracuse University 1967-71, met Allen Ginsberg and studied with WD 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, LI -- 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 (inc. 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 LI, 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 and 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 LI, 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 Fla) 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 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 Ma, 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 NYC 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.

PUBLICATIONS & CDs

Poppin Johnny (Three Rooms Press NYC NY 09) threeroomspress.blogspot.com

Who's Handling Your Aubergines (Green Panda Cleveland Oh 08) greenpandapress.blogspot.com

Sunnyside Up The Dream Cloud Egg (Good Japan NYC NY 08) www.myspace.com/goodjapanpress

Summer of Love Summer of Love (Shivastan Woodstock NY 08) www.shivastan.org

Wrestling Godzilla (Green Panda Cleveland Oh 07) greenpandapress.blogspot.com

Sky Is, with The Moontones (Cornwall UK 07) cdbaby.com

When I Was Dead (Flarestack Birmingham UK 06) www.flarestackpoets.co.uk

After The Fall (Butcher Shop Press NYC NY 05) blogs.myspace.com/butchershoppress

Burn My Heart In Wet Sand (Troubador Leicester UK 04) www.troubador.co.uk

Without Benefit of Men (Chlemskyia Zhurnal NYC NY 04)

Fifty Love Poems (La Finestra Trento IT 04) www.la-finestra.com

Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press Columbus Oh 03) www.puddinghouse.com

Swimming Through Water (La Finestra Editrice Trento IT 03) www.la-finestra.com

For Immediate Release, (e-book, Sniffy Linings Seattle Wa 02) www.sniffylinings.com

Sesquicentennial Suite (Sons of the Golden West Sacramento Ca 01)

The Poems of Augie Prime (Writers Ink Selden NY 99) writersunlimited.org/LIPS.htm

Butterflies and Other Tattoos (Bootleg Press Hempstead NY 93)

Tales of a Yuppie Dropout (Writers Ink Selden NY 93) writersunlimited.org/LIPS.htm

The Milking Jug (Cross Cultural Communications Merrick NY 88)

Tie Back the Roses (Explicitly Graphic Bury St Edmunds UK 86)

BIOGRAPHICAL Poets Encyclopedia -- http://www.poetsencyclopedia.com/georgewallace.shtml Hofstra Archives -- https://www.hofstra.edu/PDF/lib_sc_George_Wallace_Collection_fa.pdf

COMMENTARY New York Times, Mission of this Poet -- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/nyregion/mission-of-this-poet-encouraging-others.html?scp=8&sq=Ralph%20DiGennaro&st=cse New York Times, Poetry Theater -- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/nyregion/this-theater-company-finds-drama-in-poetry.html Newsday, Suffolk Names First Poet Laureate -- http://xml.newsday.com/topic/ny-gwallace0401,0,1288535.story About.com, Poetry Comes To Guthrie Festival -- http://poetry.about.com/b/2005/06/15/poetry-coming-to-woody-guthrie-fest.htm Greenwich Village Gazette, Wallace Tours -- http://www.nycny.com/entertainment_copy/book_reviews/wallace_tour.htm Our Man In Vienna, on Alter Brody -- http://viennanet.info/projects/3/

REVIEWS Boston Area Small Press, Sky Is -- http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-of-sky-is-by-george-wallace.html Big Bridge, Swimming Through Water -- http://www.bigbridge.org/KIRPAL.HTM Unlikely Stories -- http://www.unlikelystories.org/wallace1007.shtml Helium -- http://www.helium.com/items/1301088-george-wallace-poem-incident-in-a-rose-garden-oil-pride-[...]-innocence Pedestal, Sky is -- http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=2225 Robert Peake, on Poppin' Johnny -- http://networkedblogs.com/p14967042 Lenny Dellarocca, in Greenwich Village Gazette -- http://www.nycny.com/avante/schiff/george_wallace_poetry_review.html