ENGL 4310 – Heart Beats Exhibit
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Description
Bio:
Anne Waldman was born in Greenwich Village, soon to be the heart of the East Coast Beat world, in 1945. She became part of the Beat scene in the 1960s and quickly befriended major figures of the movement such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. At the age of twenty-one, she published her first known poem, “Endorsing Ventures,” which appeared in Angel Hair 1 (1966), a little magazine Waldman founded and edited. She continues to write and publish work from her home in Boulder, Colorado.
Waldman expresses a tense combination of vulnerability and boldness in her poetry. One of the most impassioned Beat poets, she continues to write politically and socially charged poetry and prose. The declaratory language in “The Revolution” and “Gun Power” portrays Waldman’s visceral reactions to the rising social and political conflict in America during the late 1960s,as well as her rejection of rampant consumerism. Waldman’s poetry serves as a pulsating rallying cry to social activism and awareness while warning that violent conflict may translate into chaos. This contributes to Waldman’s perception of being “Beat” down by a blind and apathetic society. Her poetry resonates with readers today who face similar controversies, such as climate change and violence between social classes.
Art Didactic:
Flower Flag by Wally Hedrick (ca. 1954) was painted during the McCarthy era in the United States (1950-1954). Liberal political leaders and citizens were in danger of being blacklisted by anti-Communist witch hunters attempting to improve their social or political standing by accusing others of disloyalty to the United States. This period of fanatic political repression contributed to the rich political backdrop that shaped Waldman’s childhood. Both Waldman’s poetry and Flower Flag project an awareness of the danger and potential brutality posed by self-righteous political oppression generated by extremism.
Much like the explosion of raw feminist energy Waldman unleashes in her poetry from within the male-dominated Beat movement, Flower Flag challenges masculine concepts of discipline and order by replacing the regimented stars and stripes with small white flowers, symbols of femininity and peace. Flower Flag’s simple colors reflect the excitement exhibited by Waldman’s poetry through her use of simple poetic forms and plain language. Waldman grounds her poetry in primal emotions such as fear and anger which in turn trigger higher levels of reflection in her audience.
Within poetic and political discourse, Waldman’s writing occupies a space similar to that of Flower Flag–an uneasy balance between peace, productive protest, and meaningless violence.
Object Didactic:
These bullets embody Waldman’s politically loaded language.
Publication Date
11-21-2019
Keywords
Anne Waldman, poetry, exhibit, Flower Flag, politics
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Sagers, Andrea; Hamling, Jayden; and Smith, Maysen, "Anne Waldman" (2019). ENGL 4310 – Heart Beats Exhibit. 4.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_4310/4