Imagining a Bauhaus Poetics

The BAUHAUS School taught art, design & architecture in Germany between the wars. Many of its teachers, such as Walter Gropius & Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Anni & Josef Albers, who feld to America as the school was closed by the National Socialists, prominently influenced American modernism. The Albers, who taught at Black Mountain College, no doubt influenced the work of many of the countercultural poets who taught & studied there, such as Charles Olson, Robert Duncan and Ed Dorn.

But there is no legible Bauhaus poetics. Tonight the Next Objectivists attend to this problem by imagining a poetry commensurable with Bauhaus aesthetic practices. Of particular importance to us is the Bauhaus theory of the artwork as engaged with both the avant-garde aesthetic principles of autonomy & anti-modern practices associated with folk art. What is the poetic equivalent to one of Anni Albers' textiles?
We will read a selection of poems chosen by Guest Next Objectivist poet & musician Dan Godston and discuss poetry in relation to aspects of Bauhaus design & performance. The texts can be found on line at Drop Boks. Go to www.dropboks.com; enter nextobjectivists@gmail.com as the e-mail user name. outsidereal is our password.

All Next Objectivist events are free & open to the public. Everyone is invited to attend! Leave your expertise at the door.