Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet and writer associated with the Beat Generation, born on April 2, 1945, in Millville.
Waldman was educated at Friends Seminary before going on to study at Bennington College. Since the 1960s she has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community. That long-standing involvement has run alongside a wide range of professional roles: she has worked as a performer, a collaborator, an editor, a professor, a scholar, and a cultural and political activist.
Her work has drawn recognition from several institutions. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Book Award, as well as the Shelley Memorial Award. These honors reflect the range of her activity as a poet and writer working in English.
Waldman's career is marked by her connection to the Outrider experimental poetry community and her association with the Beat Generation, two currents that have shaped how her writing is situated. Her roles as performer, editor, and collaborator sit alongside her work on the page, and her engagement as a cultural and political activist points to a practice that extends well beyond writing alone. Experimental poetry has been a consistent point of reference throughout her work as a poet and writer.
Quotes by Anne Waldman
When I attended the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965, I was very inspired. The collaboration of many poets from these alternative traditions - though there were not enough women - who were very much more influenced by, say, Asian forms or by Mantra or by thinking politically through their work in deeper ways really stuck with me.
I get worked up over an 'idea' or the ethos of an idea. I follow dreams, take notes on travels, and engage in research often - if I need names, details, facts that enhance the project.
I know when I go to a poetry reading, I feel purged, exulted. You let the poet guide you through some kind of journey.
We have a motto at Naropa: 'Keep the world safe for poetry.' It's humorous but has some real bite to it. If the world is safe for poetry, it can be safe for many other things.
Trump is the worst. I mean, he is like a shape shifter. You can't nail him down. It is like the last gasp, the last bastion of old white males, of white supremacy and hegemony.
I call what I do 'modal structures.' Sometimes they're songs, sometimes they're longer, sometimes they're this mantra - I've never called myself a spoken word poet.
The challenge lies in the fact that the planet has limited time. Be it climate change or nuclear fallout, there is very little time. You have to pick your cause.
The text for me is the musical score. I’m the instrument. My voice is the instrument. My voice is articulating the sounds which are coming through the imaginings and visitations in my head, and I’m making these sounds but I’ve selected them from an ocean of sound.