The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds the archive for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in New York City. This archive, acquired in 2007, spans nearly 50 years from the organization’s founding and includes the administrative files, publications, flyers, readings and workshop recordings, correspondence, and other materials produced by this oldest independent literary center in the U.S. In 2018 the Division acquired a complementary archive of poet and painter George Schneeman. Schneeman holds a special place in the history of the Poetry Project, having devoted nearly 40 years of his artistic life to the organization.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1934, Schneeman completed undergraduate studies in English and Philosophy at St. Mary’s College in Winona, followed by graduate studies in English literature at the University of Minnesota. He then enlisted in the army where his language skills landed him a post in Verona, Italy. Although he had been writing poetry for most of his life, it was in Italy that he took up painting while still serving on active duty. Largely self-taught, Schneeman was influenced by Italian Renaissance art, and later in life by Pop-Art and Minimalism. In 1959, he married Kathryn “Katie” Pratt and soon after began raising a family. Upon being discharged from the army, the Schneemans moved from Verona to rural Tuscany, where they’d spend the next seven years living in a simple farmhouse lacking electricity and running water. George continued painting, mostly landscapes, while teaching English, Italian, and art to student groups.
In 1966, the Schneemans made the decision to move from Tuscany to New York City, settling into the Lower East Side with their three boys. George had fortuitously befriended two traveling American poets while he was still living in Italy, Ron Padgett and Peter Schjeldahl, and had already collaborated with Schjeldahl on a project. Upon arriving in New York, Padget and Schjeldahl introduced Schneeman to the Poetry Project and he quickly became involved, integrating into the second-generation of New York School poetry and finding a comfortable and appreciative home for his creative output. He worked with writers who figured prominently in the history of the Poetry Project, such as Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan, Anne Waldman, Dick Gallup, Alice Notley, Bill Berkson, Larry Fagin, and Lewis Warsh among others, and he mixed their words with his art. Some of these collaborations can be found in the book Painter among Poets: The Collaborative Art of George Schneeman (2004).