Frank O'Hara’s Lunch Poems

Friday, June 15, 2012
12:00 p.m.

In the 1960s, when poet Frank O’Hara worked at MoMA, he often spent his lunch breaks roaming the streets of midtown Manhattan, finding inspiration in the bustling city and its people and writing poems about his encounters. For our special summer session of Modern Poets, two New York–based poets read their favorite Lunch Poems and then give you prompts and guidelines for hitting the streets and writing your own.

Wayne Koestenbaum has published 15 books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, including Humiliation, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background, Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films, Hotel Theory, and Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes. He also holds a post as Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center.

Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.