by David A. Kirschenbaum
In 2000, Boog published a chapbook by Eddie Berrigan called Life. In it, Eddie employed an exercise he learned from Joe Brainard and wrote a short journalesque poem about each year of his life.
In this, Boog’s 30th anniversary year, I’ve decided to use this exercise to tell of the press’ life.
1991
How do you date when something begins?
I date Boog to our first publications,
two compbook style, micromini chapbooks,
though they didn’t arrive full-born until that August 5.
1992
Katie Yates,
faithful artist-poet correspondent,
first Boog reading,
17 contributors to zaftig: an anthology of sex poetry and prose,
at Boulevard Books,
Central Avenue in Albany, N.Y.
same block where first chaps were printed less than a year ago.
First zine, ManAlive!,
with first Ginsberg poem,
first holograph poem,
published out of only Boog house,
a quarter-brickstone in Albany.
1993
Master’s done,
back to folks’ on Long Island,
p.o. box shifts from Albany to Oceanside to Calverton
working at brother’s auto glass shop,
booging between price quotes,
put out Lee Ann Brown’s second chap ever,
forever earning the introduction from her everywhere to everyone,
”this is my publi-sha,”
entering doctorate program
still making zines and chaps.
1994
First instantzine at NYU’s Beat Generation conference in May,
holograph Ginsberg poem on the cover.
Inspired by my Naropa summer address,
1844 Pine Street,
to create a five-week only zine
during school’s 20th anniversary summer
and Ginsberg tribute conference.
Funded by my job in the school’s computer lab,
where I ran free pagemaker workshops for anyone who wanted to learn it,
I gave away a new issue each Saturday
until the Kerouac school’s Summer Writing Program ended.
First trip to Louisville,
for insomniacathon poetry, music marathon,
headlined by Jim Carroll,
who Ron got me holograph poem from for the cover,
but after hearing Jim read
I wanted a different poem,
and Ron was worried how he’d react,
but Carroll said ok and wrote it out for me right there while on the stage.
With new girlfriend
start a new zine,
an instant one we dub JiffyBoog,
driving my 1980 Pontiac Phoenix around Manhattan
to pick up work,
from Wanda Phipps’ apartment,
next to what my dad and his friends called 7th Street Park in the forties,
from Edwin Torres,
taped to an office door on Lafayette Street,
among the work for the issue debuting at the Poetry Project’s 1995 New Year’s Day marathon,
extending the year of instant by a day.
1995
End January,
another JiffyBoog
for second Boog reading ever,
first NYC reading ever,
Heaven Cafe in Gramercy Park,
six of us
and Hettie Jones,
who new girlfriend and i
asked following Hettie’s reading upstairs at Cody’s in Berkeley,
which we attended because recent USAir accidents
afforded us a trip to the Bay Area.
1996
MA! transitions
from half-letter, or digest-size, photocopied general-interest zine
with poetry and fiction section in the middle,
to letter-size, newsprinted litzine,
renamed after that section—Booglit
(which excitedly spellchecks as booklet),
cutting price from $1.50 per issue zine
to a thousand-plus, free distribution, ad-supported litzine,
that unfortunately has no ads,
necessitating a temporary shift back to a digest-size, photocopied zine.
First Boog reading series ever,
monthly, at Cafe Luna ice cream parlor
a half-mile from my new Park Slope digs,
with new chaps from Bill Luoma and Dan Wilcox, among others, in conjunction.
1997
Shift Booglit back to letter-size,
with high-end photocopied guts
by Williamsburg copy shop funded mostly by its Board of Ed contract,
allowing it to cut zinesters decent deals,
covers printed elsewhere on glossy stock
with red spot color,
themed issues,
women we need
followed by first Boog baseball issue, ever,
followed by first Boog baseball poetry reading, ever,
in our second slope series,
at Cafe Fuerte,
a few blocks down from Luna,
which would open one Monday a month just for our event,
where 1969 Mets’ third baseman
Ed Charles, The Glider,
who I’d met and booked earlier that month at L.I.U.’s Jackie Robinson Conference,
celebrating 50 years since his hero Jackie integrated baseball,
for good this time,
said to me beforehand,
“I’m just going to read one,”
and he read early,
from memory,
and killed,
then sat down and listened to some of the others on the bill,
the baseball poet of baseball poets, Elinor Nauen, and Anselm Berrigan,
before Ed pulled me aside and whispered,
“Can I read one more?”
1998
The first of what would eventually become known as the Boston Poetry Marathon,
held that summer,
Michael and Isabel Franco
putting up seemingly the entire festival lineup
in their under renovation home,
make first JiffyBoog in years
documenting the fest,
forget to put Michael’s poem in it.
•
Fundraiser for Booglit Ginsberg issue
held in August at Segue Space,
this gem of a spot,
with beautiful hardwood floors,
that you could rent on East 8th Street between B and C
from the good folks at Segue
for a mere 50 bucks a night,
followed by the issue’s release party
at Arlene Grocery,
back when you knew who the cool kids were
because they never called it Arlene’s,
but Arlene,
like the old bodega sign the venue inherited.
1999
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!
commissions issue of Booglit
to serve as festival program,
first Creeley poetry
runs alongside Mike Basinski interview of him
•
Maria Damon commissions Booglite
for Poetry as Cultural Critique symposium,
faxing and receiving back proofs from contributors
while getting Chemical Week pages ready for the printer.
I used to confuse a few Buffalo poets I mainly knew through the internet.
Receive one of their corrections,
her beyond graciously simply marking the top of her page
“Change Lisa Jarnot to Juliana Spahr,”
before moving on to the next correction.
2000
The only series at the time that I go to each and every month,
since it began in 1999,
is Rachel Levitsky’s Belladonna* women poets events at Bluestocking Women’s Bookstore.
About six months in,
I told my old Naropa pal that this series needs a publishing element,
and tell her she needs to start a press and I’d like to help her.
The first offerings are two Kari Edwards’ postcards from Boog Literature/Belladonna* Books,
followed by digest-size pamphlets, or chaplets,
that i use my Stanley Bostitch long-arm stapler and bone folder to finish on the Bluestockings floor at each monthly event,
direct from getting that issue of chemical week out to the printer,
reimagining seven-year-old Brenda Coultas Boogside homage to the classic Black Sparrow pamphlets
to put out two new pamphlets a month for 10 months straight before stepping aside
•
Asked to do an event at the C-Note
as part of an underground poetry and music festival
decide to amp up the idea of instant
and instead of doing an instantzine
decide to create an instant anthology,
our homage to The Portable Beat Reader,
The Portable Boog Reader.
I decided to make it an exclusively NYC anthology,
went through my various lists of poets
and sent out an email to some 100+ poets that read,
“You have already been accepted in The Portable Boog Reader,”
with the only two guidelines we ever employed through its 21-year existence–
you have to live in the region, in this case New York City,
and, once you’re asked to be in The Portable Boog Reader,
you’re in The Portable Boog Reader.
Each poet asked will have one full Boog City page.
in 29 days I gathered work from 74 different NYC poets,
relying on a bunch of those poets to help make the book happen,
none more so than my Chemical Week colleague,
one Mr. Eddie Berrigan.
To cut costs,
hand deliver all contributor copies by arranging to meet poets at either the release party
or upcoming readings at Double Happiness, the Zinc, and the Poetry Project.
2001
Day before dubya takes office
Hold Boog Unauguration Day event
Then bus to DC with the wilders to protest his victory.
Host first boog poproj event,
2001: A Boog Odyssey,
Second celebration of The Portable Boog Reader,
including St. Mark’s debuts of
Neal Climenhaga, Allison Cobb, Jen Coleman, Ethan Fugate, Noelle Kocot, and the Syrenz, an all-girl New York City breakdancing crew
Van with 3/4 of Bionic Finger
to first non-NY Boog reading,
celebrating The Portable Boog Reader: Philadelphia,
Boog turns 10,
After event I thank Ed Sanders for coming down from Woodstock to read,
“No david, thank you for everything you do,” he replied
Bid 2001 good riddance
With Boog Year’s Eve event,
Kristin Prevallet and Alan Gilbert come with Anne Waldman,
And a little ways into the event Alan pulls me aside,
“Anne was wondering if she could read something,”
And she does,
Before bartender gives us all some champagne on the house,
And White Collar Crime rings out the year.
2002
Make Hoa and Dale flipbook,
poets as Warholian Superstars,
with full-cover images of each of them on their chaps side,
in conjunction with their trip to New York City from Austin
for Dale to read Sunday night at the Zinc Bar on Houston
and Hoa Wednesday at the church.
Dale works with me to get the chap perfected,
teaches me that the right way to lay out a poetry page is to treat poems like a block based on their longest line,
forever changing how I view poems on the page.
Host Welcome to New York City Hoa and Dale ziti dinner in my West 24th Street studio for all comers,
luckily the Wilders arrived hella early,
and helped me relocate the clutter to the closets,
and Kimberly took over cooking duties for the 20 or so of us,
before we head to Zinc,
where I discover that the flipbook confounded the good folks at Wholesale Copies
and had to be entirely redone
in time for the project on Wednesday.
Boog City the paper is born,
kicking off with seven biweekly issues in 12 weeks,
On back-to-back Fridays at Williamsburg’s Sideshow Gallery
Put out first chap by Jenny Smith
Then fly out the next morning on an 8 in the morning non-stop to California
And a few days later host first Boog event ever in San Francisco
at Caffe Sapore in North Beach,
Then back to sideshow for first chap by John colletti
Classic Albums Live series debuts,
With 13 area musical acts
Performing Nirvana’s Nevermind
At the Knitting Factory
On what would have been Kurt’s 35th birthday
Commissioned to create Whitman Notable pamphlet series
In conjunction with The Walt Whitman Art Center’s workshop and reading series,
beginning with one from Lorenzo Thomas
First CBGB’s show,
second in classic albums live series,
Ramones Rocket to Russia,
Schwervon performs “Surfin’ Bird,”
which later finds its way to be the bonus track on their debut
Quick Frozen Small Yellow Cracker
2003
Relaunch Boog City with 1977/1978 issue,
And My Aim is Boog event
At CB’s 313 Gallery,
With performances of Elvis Costello’s first two releases,
My Aim is True and This Year’s Model,
The Baby Skins doing Alison,
just Crystal and Angela
and Angela’s xylophone,
still my favorite classic albums live performance
Celebrate Boog’s 12th anniversary
With start of d.a. levy lives: celebrating renegade presses series
at Chelsea’s ACA Galleries,
hosting a different small press, their authors, and a musical act each month
Perform Madonna, Madonna and Like a Virgin live at The Bowery Poetry Club,
Kansas State Flower plays “Burning Up,”
which they later added to their debut album,
https://majormattmasonusa.bandcamp.com/track/burning-up
Celebrate the publication of the Brendas issue
(boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc11.pdf)
with readings from a whole lot of Brendas
at Bowery Poetry Club
2004
Insert special fold-n-clip issue of The Tangent into Boog City (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc12.pdf),
celebrate it with a live performance of Nirvana’s In Utero at The C-Note
Start boog reader pamphlet series,
latest in tradition of old black sparrow pamphlet series,
modifying the design from book cellar pamphlets i did
for aaron kiely’s series at the store of the same name
Jon Berger books his only Boog show ever,
Carole King’s Tapestry at Sidewalk,
Commissioned to perform at CBGB’s as part of the Howl Festival,
for its rerelease,
The Velvet Underground, Live at Max’s Kansas City,
Phil Hartman, creator of the fest and chieftain of Two Boots Pizza,
gifts us three pies and a case of an Arizona energy drink before the show
Tom Gogola gets press pass for Republican National Convention representing Boog City,
comes back to the apartment with an Arnold sign from the convention floor
after the Governator’s speech. (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc19.pdf)
2005
Kick off year with fundraiser for Sean Cole’s December Project,
Boog’s first single-author perfect-bound book,
with a live performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall at The Bowery Poetry Club.
The Trouble Dolls,
who always take it to another level for these shows,
constructing and then destroying a wall
Dan Fishback tells us that our August cover story on him
(https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc27.pdf)
got him Friday, Saturday, and Sunday bookings for different shows the same weekend at P.S. 122
Perform The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street
and Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville
during a transit strike,
alternating tracks with the stones’ song first
and the phair answer in reply.
Every act makes the show,
bringing the entire backline with them.
2006
First Classic Albums Live show
where we screen a movie
Followed by performing its soundtrack live,
Pretty in Pink for its 20th anniversary
Perform The Pretenders, Learning to Crawl,
I think this may have been the first time i saw julie delano’s lucite bass and it was everything to me,
still is.
Made the next Classic Album You Make the Call
surveying all acts who’ve played two or more shows in the series
to see what album we should perform live next,
The Clash’s London Calling wins out
Start new series, Garden Party,
Boog City collaborating with Matt Roth and Olive Juice Music,
me booking two poets,
Matt two musical acts,
all to perform monthly throughout the summer in the Suffolk Street Community Garden,
Boog turns 15 with bowery poetry club event
featuring the wonderful usual suspects
Rachel (Aydt, that is) Sean, Lee Ann, Ian, Matt, and Nan
Put out latest baseball issue
(https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc37.pdf) putting together a 25-man roster of poets
assigning each poet to write on one player ever,
at any level from major leagues to schoolyard
who had played that position,
Celebrate the issue with an event during game 2 of the Cardinals vs. Tigers world series
with an all-star lineup of poets
and music by I feel tractor, a.k.a Eddie Berrigan
Brad Will Presente! (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc38.pdf)
2007
Perform all three Nirvana studio albums,
Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero
back-to-back-to-back at Cake Shop
on what would have been Kurt’s 40th birthday
taking my nightly dose of lithium as my favorite band,
schwervon,
performed the song.
Jeffrey Lewis played one of his songs
accompanied by turning page after page of his artwork to illustrate it
During what would be the final event in Major Matt and mine’s Garden Party series,
interview my parents from 6B Garden about growing up in the lower east side in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s,
I’d sent Casey Holford and Preston Spurlock a bunch of my poems,
including The Gilmore girls Project,
because for this season Matt had wanted their to be a collaborative element to the series,
so we decided the poets would take lyrics from one of the musician’s song
and turn them into a poem,
and the musicians would each take poems from one of the poets and turn them into songs.
Read the entire Gilmore girls Project for second and, so-far, last time,
followed by Casey and Preston Spurlock
using my Gilmore girls tinged poems as the lyrics for their songs,
them eventually forming a group they’d call Gilmore boys,
turning even more of my poems into songs.
Organize first Welcome to Boog City Arts Festival (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc43.pdf),
four days at four different venues,
ACA Galleries, Sidewalk, Cake Shop, and the Bowery Poetry Club,
with Boog’s two series,
d.a. levy lives and Classic Albums Live
alongside more poetry and music performances and a panel
Screen Less than Zero for the 20th anniversary of its release,
and then perform its soundtrack live
Bring a copy of The Portable Boog Reader
to gift to a fellow copy editor,
looking at it on my desk until she comes in
I think what if it were like the paper we’re doing,
free with mass distribution.
Decide to do The Portable Boog Reader 2 (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc47.pdf),
nail down the editorial team to select the 72 NYC poets to be in the issue—
Laura Elrick, Brenda Iijima, Mark Lamoureux,
Christina Strong, Rodrigo Toscano, and me—
us holding a draft to decide who our first 12 picks are,
and picking six more each in case folks decline the invitation
Distribute 2,250 copies of a 24-page issue of Boog City,
the equivalent in size of a 96-page, 5.375” x 8” anthology,
ready to debut at the Poetry Project’s 34th annual New Year’s Day Marathon
2008
The Portable Boog Reader 2 debuts at the Poetry Project’s and Bowery Poetry Club’s
annual New Year’s Day marathons,
next day distribute over 2,000 copies of the reader throughout the East Village, parts of Lower Manhattan,
and Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn
hold our second You Make the Call night in the Classic Albums Live series,
with acts who previously played multiple classic album shows
voting on what would become the next two albums played.
The winners?
David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars and Radiohead, OK Computer.
Welcome to Boog City Arts festival becomes an annual event,
with WBC 2 (https://boogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc51.pdf) that September,
host our first ever event at Unnameable Books,
at their original Bergen Street location,
to conclude the four days of festivities,
Featuring panel Race and Poetry: Integrating the Experimental
Video: https://youtu.be/RT2cMDPkCsw
Audio: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Race-and-Poetry.php
Casey Holford and I throw an
Election Night Extravaganza at Sidewalk,
with REM’s Green performed live
and a host of political poets,
the big screen on mute as Obama wins his first term