“I liked having the whole world in my poems”: A Kenneth Koch Centennial Celebration

Join us for a weekend-long celebration of the life and work of Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), presented in partnership with The Kenneth Koch Literary Estate. Events have been, and are, taking place around the country throughout the year! A poet, playwright, and fiction writer, Koch also taught writing at The New School and was Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, in addition to teaching poetry to children in the New York City Public Schools, which was recounted in Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry and “Rose, where did you get that red?”: Teaching Great Poetry to Children. His lessons in writing and reading poetry made a lasting impact on generations of young writers. Koch is the author of more than a dozen collections of poems, as well as stories, plays, librettos, and screenplays. He was a frequent collaborator with filmmakers, visual artists, and other contemporaries such as Larry Rivers, Joe Brainard, and Rudy Burckhardt, and someone for whom life seemed synonymous with writing and creative practice, and who, according to Ron Padgett, “was highly energized by the mystery and pleasure of being alive.”

In addition to the events listed below, there will be takeaway writing prompts based on Koch’s lessons and a commemorative broadside, as well as refreshments and great company!

To kick off the festivities we’ve invited poets and artists to give short readings of favorite Kenneth Koch poems, and, if they’re so moved, to offer thoughts and reminiscences. Among those taking part are Stacy Blint, Jordan Dunn, Lisa Fishman, Lewis Freedman, Karl Gartung, Mike Hauser, Anne Kingsbury, John Koethe, Richard Meier, and Evan Craig Reardon.

https://woodlandpattern.org/events/special-event-a-kenneth-koch-centennial-celebration

Sun. Oct. 12 | 2–4 PM: Making a Story Out of Stories, a collaborative workshop with Lisa Fishman

Sliding Scale fee of $20–$150 (Please give what you can; all donations will go directly to the instructor) *IN PERSON* at Woodland Pattern

Some of Kenneth Koch’s very short fiction provides a model (or models) for combining unexpected elements in the making of a story. Dream, observation, overhearing, remembering, forgetting . . . how to play with such components to make a story that surprises even you, the author? In part, by collaborating with others, in this workshop led by poet and fiction writer Lisa Fishman.

Lisa Fishman is the author of eight books of poetry, a short-story collection, and several chapbooks. Her newest poetry book, One Big Time, was just released on Wave Books. World Naked Bike Ride was published in Canada by Gaspereau Press in 2022 and was a finalist for the Canadian ReLit Award in short fiction. Other Wave poetry titles are Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition (2020), and 24 Pages and other poems (2015). Her earlier books, on Ahsahta Press, include The Happiness Experiment and F L O W E R C A R T. She lives on a farm in Orfordville, Wisconsin, and teaches at Columbia College Chicago. She is a dual US/Canadian citizen with earlier roots in both the Detroit area and Montreal.

We’ll close out the festivities with a screening of Rudy Burckhardt films made in collaboration with Kenneth Koch, as well as a staged reading of Kenneth Koch’s short play, Bertha. The films being screened include:

The Automotive Story (1954, 15 minutes, B&W)
Directed by Rudy Burckhardt
Narrated by Jane Freilicher
Text by Kenneth Koch
Music by Debussy, Poulenc, and Scriabin; played by Frank O’Hara

The Apple (1967, 2 minutes, color)
Poem by Kenneth Koch
Music by Tony Ackerman and Brad Burg; sung by Kim Brody

On Aesthetics (1999, 9 min., color)
Poem by Kenneth Koch

In Bed (1986, 16 mm, 22 minutes, color)
Poem by Kenneth Koch
Music by Chopin; played by Gena Raps

GROUP READING: A Kenneth Koch Centennial Celebration