Poetry Magazine and Museum of Modern Art to Cohost “Futurism and the New Manifesto”

CHICAGO — Poetry magazine and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are proud to present “Futurism and the New Manifesto,” a reading of contemporary and historic manifestos to commemorate Italian Futurism’s centennial. On February 20, 1909, F.T. Marinetti’s “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” was published on the front page of Le Figaro in Paris; 100 years later in New York City, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and A.E. Stallings will read their own manifestos, published in the February 2009 issue of Poetry magazine, plus the historic manifestos of Marinetti, Mina Loy, and others, in the public space of MoMA’s Garden Lobby. Excerpts from Luca Buvoli’s video Velocity Zero (2007) will also be on view.

What: “Futurism and the New Manifesto”: Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and A.E. Stallings read their own and classic manifestos.

When: Friday, February 20, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby, Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, New York

This program is free with museum admission, and is a featured event of

FUTURISM AT 100
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, FEBRUARY 11–APRIL 7

The first Futurist Manifesto, written by the poet and writer F.T. Marinetti, proclaimed a burning desire—fueled by industry, war, and the machine—to race into the future. In commemoration of the publication of “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” this exhibition examines the ways in which Futurist artists infused word and text with meaning and power.

For more information, visit poetryfoundation.org.

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About MoMA’s MODERN POETS Series
Revitalizing Frank O’Hara’s legacy and MoMA’s historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets, performers, and others to bring the literary tradition to the Museum’s collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.

About Poetry Magazine
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—works by virtually every major contemporary poet.

Poetry has always been independent, unaffiliated with any institution or university—or with any single poetic or critical movement or aesthetic school. It continues to print the major English-speaking poets, while presenting emerging talents in all their variety. In recent years, more than a third of the authors published in the magazine have been young writers appearing for the first time. On average, the magazine receives over 90,000 submissions per year, from around the world.


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