Search for:
Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Branching Out New Orleans: Ron Padgett on Frank O’Hara and Kenneth Koch

Taking a Walk with Frank O\'Hara and Kenneth Koch: The Beauty and Uses of Literary Friendship

Nov 20, 2007 | 6:30 pm

In 1949 Harvard undergraduate John Ashbery wrote to Kenneth Koch about the poetry of a fellow student, Frank O’Hara: “I think we have a major competitor.” Shortly thereafter Ashbery sent Koch a manuscript of O’Hara’s poems, which Koch found not very interesting. But he took it with him when he went to France on a Fulbright and, when he read the manuscript again on a train ride through Austria, he was staggered by its dazzling energy. Thus began an inspiring, competitive literary friendship that helped both Koch and O’Hara become two of the greatest American poets of the 20th century.

A joint initiative with the Poetry Society of America, Branching Out: Poetry for the 21st Century is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Location Milton H. Latter Memorial Branch 5120 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA Sponsored By Poets House

Details

Date:
Nov 20, 2007
Time:
6:30 pm
Event Category: