New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, Illinois, 1935-39
University of Chicago, 1939-43: A.A., 1941; graduate-level studies in philosophy, poetics, and English, 1941-43
Brooklyn College, 1955-58: B.A. cum laude, Classical Greek, 1958
31 plus books (see bibliography)
32 performance scores and broadsides published, 1968-96
Three records, including one CD; and five audiotapes published, 1975-93
Contributor to two double-CD anthologies of verbal &/or musical works, 1991-93
Contributor to CD-ROM anthology of verbal, musical, &/or visual works, 1995
Works published in 92 anthologies, exhibition catalogues, and other collections, 1959-2000
Works published in one or more issues of over 60 different periodicals before 1975
Works published in one or more issues of over 90 different periodicals, 1975-2000
Portfolio of serigraphs of 1961 poem/performance score-drawings published, Verona, 1985
Six verbal drawings/performance scores and musical scores published as large prints on cloth, Verona, 1989
Six radio works produced and broadcast in Germany and one in the United States, 1981-87Visual artworks and scores exhibited in U.S., U.K., Canada, Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, Australia, etc., 1963-2000
Personal readings and performances, alone or with other performers, most often with Anne Tardos, throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, 1960-2000
Live and broadcast performances of his works by other individuals or groups in North and South America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, 1962-2000
Grant from American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1971
Grant from P.E.N. American Center, 1974
Member, P.E.N. American Center, 1974 to present
Madeline Sadin Award (for poetry), New York Quarterly, 1974
Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) Fellowship in Multimedia, 1973-74
Member, panel selecting CAPS Fellows in Poetry for 1975-76
CAPS Fellowship in Poetry, 1976-77
Judge, Literature, 1978-79 Grants-in-Aid to Individual Artists Program, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, 1979
Fellowship in Creative Writing, National Endowment for the Arts, 1979
Grant from P.E.N. American Center, 1982
Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry, 1985
Co-winner, San Francisco State University Poetry Center Award for Book Published in 1984, 1985
Member, Artists’ Certification Committee, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, 1985-88; Appeals Panel, 1990-92
Fulbright Grant for lectures, readings, workshops, and performances throughout New Zealand, 1986
Composer’s Grant from Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, New Zealand, 1986
Fellowship in Poetry, Artists’ Fellowship Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, 1988
Member, Poets Advisory Committee, Poets House, New York City, 1988 to present
Member, Poetry Society of America, 1988 to present
Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1988
Member, Poetry Fellowship Panel, New York Foundation for the Arts, 1991
Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1991
Co-Awardee, The America Awards for Literature: 1994—Poetry Award, for 42 Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters (Barrytown NY: Station Hill, 1994) [other co-awardee: Robert Creeley for Echoes]
One of 3 Judges for The America Awards for Literature 1995—Award for Belles Lettres & Collections, 1994-95
Unsolicited Grant awarded by The Fund for Poetry, 1998
Winner, Dorothea Tanning Prize, The American Academy of Poets, 1999
New York University, American Language Institute, Instructor, English Composition, 1966-73
Mannes College of Music, New York City, Instructor in English, 1966
Many short-term residencies, some connected with readings and performances, 1966-2000
State University of New York, Albany, NEA-sponsored Writer-in-Residence, 1984
University of Auckland, keynote speaker and reader-performer at the conference of the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association, 1986
State University of New York, Binghamton, Visiting Professor of Creative Writing, 1989
Temple University, Philadelphia, Visiting Writer in the Creative Writing Program, 1989
University of California, San Diego, Regents’ Lecturer, 1990
State University of New York, Buffalo, Lecturer, Seminar Participant, and Reader of his own poetry, 1990, 1997
Schule für Dichtung in Wien, Vienna, Creative Writing Teacher and Lecturer, 1992, 1993
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Teacher in MFA Program, Reader, and Performer, 1994
Brown University, Providence, R.I., Teacher of Creative Writing, Reader, and Performer, 1994
Fondation Royaumont, Asnières (Oise), France, participant in translation seminar with French and American poets and other linguists translating some of his recent poems into French, 1996
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Reader, Seminar Participant, and Panel Member, 1997
Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, Teacher of Creative Writing, Reader, Performer, and Panelist, 1975, 1991, 1994, 1999
Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, Distinguished Visiting Writer for Fall 2000 in MFA Creative Writing Program and Reader of his own poems in Creative Writing Reading Series, 2000
Poetry Editor, Resistance magazine, 1950-54
Poet and composer reading and performing his own works, alone or with other performers throughout North and South America and Europe, from 1960 on
Co-publisher, An Anthology, edited by La Monte Young, 1961-63
First literary editor of Fluxus, 1961-1963
Poet-composer of performance works realized in several European Fluxus festivals, 1962-63
Poetry editor, Win magazine, New York, c. 1967-72
Participating artist, Art and Technology Program, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969
Participant (composer, poet, performer) NY Festivals of the Avant-Garde, dir. Charlotte Moorman, 1964-80
Lecturer, composer, poet, and performance artist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, 1975
Poet-composer and performer of radio works, Hörspiel program, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1986
Radio work produced by Sound Foundation, New York City, broadcast by National Public Radio stations, 1984
Performer in Anne Tardos’s video work Ami Minden, MoMA, New York, 1985
Keynote Speaker, reader, and performance artist, Australia-New Zealand American Studies Association Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 1986
Participant (composer, performer, writer, panelist), John Cage Festival-Symposium, Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Conn., 1988
Participant (writer, composer, performer), “Performing Language” (conference and festival), SUNY, Binghamton, 1988
Participant (panelist, writer, performer), Fine Arts Festival, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1989
Participant (panel moderator, writer, performer), John Cage Symposium, Strathmore Hall Arts Center, Rockville, Md., 1989
Participant (composer, writer, performer), Milanopoesia (Milan), 1989
Participant (composer, writer, performer), Steirischer Herbst (Graz),1989
Participant (composer, writer, performer), Zwischentöne (Cologne), 1989
Participant (composer, writer, performer), 3rd Heidelberger Festival für experimentelle Literatur und Musik (Heidelberg), 1989
Two-day workshop on text-sound compositions w. Anne Tardos: Verein für experimentelle Musik, Munich, 1989
Composer, writer, and performer in concert w. Anne Tardos: Stichting Logos, Ghent, 1989
Composer-performer in “Spoken Music,” S.E.M. Ensemble program also including John Cage, Dick Higgins, and Anne Tardos, and works by Emmett Williams, 1990
Poet-reader, Avec magazine reading, Galerie Lelong, NYC, 1990
Performer in The City Wears a Slouch Hat (John Cage & Kenneth Patchen) with Essential Music, RAPP Arts Center, NYC, 1990
Poet-reader, Small Press Distribution, Berkeley; National Poetry Week Festival, San Francisco, 1990
Poet-reader, The Poetry Project, St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery Church, NYC, 1990
Composer and performer, S.E.M. Ensemble concerts, NYC, 1991
Poet-reader, Ear Inn, Granary Books, and elsewhere in NYC, 1991
Poet-reader and composer-performer, Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, 1991
Composer of choral work premiered by the choir of the First Unitarian Society, Madison, WI, 1991
Poet-reader teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, composer-performer with Anne Tardos, and panelist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, 1991
Composer of instrumental work premiered by austraLYSIS, Sydney, Australia, 1991
Speaker (presenting a paper including a poem of his) at the conference: “The disappearing pheasant: Italian poetry today,” Casa Italiana, NYU, 1991
Panelist, “Symposium on Buddhism and Poetry,” Poets House, New York, 1991
Poet-Reader, Ear Inn, New York, two readings, 1992
Composer, poet, and performer in a concert with the S.E.M. Ensemble, with Anne Tardos, “Fluxus” artists, and an orchestra, 1992
Composer, poet, and performer in joint concert with Anne Tardos, including instrumentalists, Experimental Intermedia, NYC, 1992
Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, Bard College, Annandale, NY, 1992
Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, FluxusVirus festival, Cologne, 1992
Poet, composer, and performer with Anne Tardos, Poésies Sonores, Sound Poetry Festival, Geneva, 1992
Participant (reader of works by John Cage), Musicircus, Symphony Space, New York, 1992
Composer, poet, and performer in joint concert with Anne Tardos, Experimental Intermedia, New York, 1993
Composer, poet, and performer in joint concerts with Anne Tardos, Vienna and Budapest, Szeged, and Szentendre, Hungary, 1993
Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos in a reading of their poetry and a performance of their first collaborative painting/score in memory of John Cage, Biblio’ s, New York, 1993
Performer in S.E.M. Ensemble concert including works by Kotik, Feldman, and Vivaldi, 1993
Composer, essayist, and performer with Anne Tardos during “Days of Silence,” (conference and performance festival dedicated to John Cage and his works), Warsaw, 1993
Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos during John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1993
Writer-performer with four-hour showing of the Beach* Movie version of his Tree* Movie during Cage’s Rolywholyover, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1993
Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos, Fluxus Vivus, Arts Club, Chicago, 1993
Composer, poet, and performer with Anne Tardos, “Word(s)ound--text-based sound art and poetry,” Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, 1993
Poet-reader, Ear Inn, New York, 1993
Performer in Anne Tardos’s multimedia work for the orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in her work for speakers and instrumentalists Among Men, New York, 1994
Poet-reader, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery Church, New York, 1994
Participant (discussing Tardos’s Among Men) in panel on performance at Poetry Project, St. Marks Church, NY, 1994
Composer-performer, with Anne Tardos and Kenneth King, and panelist in Poets House “Poetry and Dance” program, Judson Memorial Church, New York, 1994
Teacher in MFA Program, poet-reader, and composer-performer, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1994
Teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, and composer-performer with Anne Tardos in a program of their works, and panelist, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, 1994
Poet-reader and composer-performer with Anne Tardos in a program of their works connected with John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, 1994
Writer-performer with four-hour showing of the “Beach version” of his Tree* Movie, in Rolywholyover, Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, 1994
Poet-composer and performer of simultaneities with Anne Tardos, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 1994
Collaborative composer-performer with Anne Tardos: two performances (one a performance of their Cellular Dialogue) in “SEOUL-NYMAX” performance festival, Anthology Film Archives, New York, 1994
Narrator with S.E.M. Ensemble in 12-hour concert, “400 Years of Music in Prague,” Winter Garden, World Financial Center, 1994
Teacher of creative writing, poet-reader, and composer-performer, Brown University, 1994
Collaborative composer-performer in with Anne Tardos in their Cellular Dialogue, Biblio’s, New York, 1994
Collaborative composer-poet-performer with Anne Tardos in Cellular Dialogue with Embedded Performance Works by Tardos and Mac Low, The Kitchen, New York, 1995
Collaborative poet-composer-performer with the composer-performer Pauline Oliveros in A Forties Opera, combining his improvisatorily regulated reading of recent poems from his series 154 Forties with Oliveros’s instrumental and vocal improvisation, Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School, New York, 1995
Poet-composer-performer with Anne Tardos and reader of his own recent poems from the series 154 Forties in “The End of Language: a Symphosophia on Experimental, Visual, and Concrete Poetry since 1960” at Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1995
Collborative poet-performer with the composer-performer Pauline Oliveros in A Forties Opera, combining his improvisatorily regulated reading of recent poems from his series 154 Forties with Oliveros’s instrumental and vocal improvisation, Rhinebeck Performing Arts, Rhinebeck, NY, 1995
Participant (panel member presenting a paper) in “Here Comes Everybody: The Music, Poetry, and Art of John Cage” at Mills College, Oakland, Calif., 1995
Poet-reader at Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz; and at Copperfield’s Book Store, Sebastopol, CA; and poet-reader in duo with Steve Benson at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, 1996.
Performer in Anne Tardos’s Among Men, a Hörspiel for speakers of five languages and five instrumentalists, produced at and broadcast by Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, 1996
Poet, composer, and performer in program with Anne Tardos of their recent musical and performance works (with flutist Andrew Bolotowsky,) and including Tardos’s Edit Mode, a work for video, spontaneously choosing and showing fragments of Among Men, and other videos, and for poet spontaneously choosing words, phrases from his/her poems and from Mac Low’s new works Laboratory Fantastication, for speakers and instrumentalist(s), and Fieldpiece 1, for speakers, Roulette, New York, 1996
Composer, poet, and performer in Laboratory Fantastication,with Tardos and himself, speakers, and violinist Theresa Solomon in an S.E.M. Ensemble program, directed by Petr Kotik, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, 1996
Poet and participant in seminar translating several poems from his 154 Forties into French, with many French, and a few American, poets and other translators, L’Abbaye de Royaumont (Fondation Royaumont), Asnières (Oise), 1996
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Bernard Heidsieck reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s video Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems, L’Abbaye de Royaumont, Asnières, 1996
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Bernard Heidsieck reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems while a short permanent edit by Tardos of her videotape was projected, La Maison des Ecrivains, Paris, 1996
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Juliette Valéry reading the French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode, spontaneously choosing and reading fragments from Forties poems.at the studio of Alexandre Delay, Bouliac, near Bordeaux, 1996
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties (with Juliette Valéry reading their French translations made at Royaumont) and performing in Tardos’s Edit Mode at Centre International de Poésie Marseille (Centre de Vieille Charité), Marseilles, 1996
Performer in Anne Tardos’s multimedia work Among Men, WDR Acoustica International, 1996
Poet reading recent poems, mostly from 154 Forties, sharing program with Paul Metcalf at St. Marks Poetry Project, New York, 1996.
Poet and performer with Anne Tardos in their new collaborative work Provence, comprising a videotape Tardos edited from video tapes she shot in France during summer 1996 and a performance work on Provence for two speakers at The Kitchen, New York, 1996
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties and performing a duo with Joan Retallack, at Ear Inn, New York, March 1997
Poet, composer, and performer reading poems from 154 Forties and performing a duo with Anne Tardos, Poets Theater, New York, May 1997
Poet, composer, and performer at a celebration of his 75th birthday, reading a recent poem and performing a duo with Anne Tardos (combining his Gatha for her and a recent performance poem of hers); others performed a work of his for speaker and instrumentalist and presented their own performance art, poetry, and music; the magazine Crayon presented their first issue, a 313-page Festschrift and CD, New York University, September 1997
Poet, lecturer, and seminar participant, reading from 154 Forties and other work and discussing his own work in seminars and lectures as part of a celebration of his 75th birthday, State University of New York at Buffalo, October 1997
Composer, poet, and performer in concert, with the East Buffalo Media Association in honor of his 75th birthday, of selected works for speakers and instrumentalists, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, October 1997
Poet, participant in seminars, and panel member, reading from 154 Forties and more recent work, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November P1997
Poet-Composer of The Pronouns (dance-instruction poems), performed by Clarinda Mac Low, Danspace, St. Mark’s Church, New York, December 1997
Poet reading and discussing his recent poetry, Brooklyn College, March 1998
Poet reading recent poems, Segue at HERE, New York, March 1998
Poet reading recent poems, benefit reading for Object and Torque magazines, March 1998
Poet reading recent poems, Double Happiness, New York, October 1998
Poet reading recent poems in connection with exhibit of show of paintings and other visual works involving language, including works by Mac Low and by Anne Tardos, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, November 1998
Poet presenting retrospective reading and performance of his poems, 1955–1998, and with Anne Tardos, of a 1980 work for speaker-vocalists and/or instrumentalists, DIA Center for the Arts, New York, December 1998
Co-composer-poet and performer in For Dick Higgins, a memorial work for speaker-vocalists and percussion composed and performed collaboratively by Anne Tardos and himself, and performer in works by Higgins and others as member of S.E.M. Ensemble Orchestra, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, December 1998; and Dick Higgins Memorial, Judson Memorial Church, New York, December 1998; and during New Year’s Day Benefit Marathon Reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, January 1999
Poet reading his own poems, Double Happiness. new York, January 1999
Reader of works by William Burroughs in group reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, February 1999
Poet reading his own poems, Dactyl Gallery, New York, February 1999
Poet-performer, of collaborative work with Anne Tardos, Peoples Poetry Gathering, Cooper Union, New York, April 1999
Poet-performer, of collaborative work with Anne Tardos, Memorial Banquet for Armand Schwerner, Teachers and Writers, New York, April 1999
Reader of poems by Philip Whalen, in group reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, May 1999
Poet reading his work and presenting paper, Conference on Poetry and Pedagogy, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, June 1999
Poet-reader and teacher of performance writing, Naropa Institute, Boulder, CO, July 1999
Participant in panel discussion on John Cage and his work, with Alison Knowles and Merce Cunningham, New School for Social Research, New York, October, 1999
Performer, with Anne Tardos of collaborative work by them, Memorial program for Dick Higgins, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 1999
Composer-poet in concert of his and Anne Tardos’s works for speaker, singer, and/or instrumentalists, Roulette, New York, November 1999
Composer & Guest Performer in a work of his performed also by speaker- instrumentalists of the S.E.M. Ensemble Orchestra, in a concert also including works by Bach, Cage, Morton Feldman, and Richard Strauss, at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, December 1999
Reader at beginning of the 26th and last New Year’s Marathon Reading of Gertrude Stein’s the Making of Americans, December 1999
Performer with Anne Tardos of poem for two readers. New Year’s Day Benefit Reading, Poetry Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bouwerie, New York, January 2000
Introducer of the video, The Language of Music—Conversations with Grete Sultan, Westbeth, New York, April 2000
Reader of his own poetry and participant in “A New Language: Russian and Amrican Poetry Today,” conference of Russian and American poets, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, April 2000
Poet reading his own poems and performing collaboratively written group of performance poems with Anne Tardos, KGB (performance space), New York, May 2000
Reader of a poem of his in the award ceremony of The American Academy of Poets, honoring him for receiving the Dorothea Tanning Prize, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, May 2000
Poet reading his own poems, Bjørnson Festival, Molde, Norway, August 2000
Distinguished Visiting Writer for Fall 2000 in MFA Creative Writing Program and reader of his own poems in Creative Writing Reading Series, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, October 2000
Exhibitor, poetry environment room: large drawings/scores, transparencies, computer printout “Sound at P.S. 1,” NYC, 1979
Exhibitor (visual works, performance scores), “Fluxus S.P.Q.R.,” Galleria. F. Borghese, Rome, May-June 1990
Exhibitor (painter, poet, composer, performer), “Ubi Fluxus ibi motus” pavilion, Venice Biennale, May- Sept., 1990
Exhibitor (graphic artist, composer), “Fluxus!” Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, June-July 1990
Exhibitor, construction plaque, “Fluxus Closing In,” Salvatore Ala Gallery, NYC, 1990
Exhibitor, poem-paintings, Emily Harvey Gallery, NYC, December-January.1990-91 & Dec.-Jan. 1991-92
Exhibitor, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg, November - December 1991
Exhibitor, Galerie Krinzinger, Innsbruck, November - December 1991
Exhibitor, North Dakota Museum of Art. Grand Forks, January - February 1992
Exhibitor, Istituto Italiana di Cultura, Toronto, March 1992
Exhibitor-performer, in his and Tardos’s collaborative painting-score dedicated to the memory of John Cage, “FluxAttitudes,” The New Museum, New York, 1992-93
Exhibitor of drawings and other visual art works and a videotape (realizing a movie scenario of his), with which he performed four hours, and realizer of performance pieces with Anne Tardos, in John Cage’s “work for museum” Rolywholyover A Circus at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1994, and the Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York, 1995
Exhibitor (as above), The De Menil Collection, Houston, 1994-95
Exhibitor, Cork, Ireland, 1994
Exhibitor of visual works published by, and in the collection of, Francesco Conz, Verona, in group exhibits throughout Europe, Australia, etc., 1994-99.
Exhibitor in show of works involving language and visual art, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase, NY, 1999
Exhibitor of a collage in “Collages d’hier et d’aujourdhui,” Paris, Galerie Lucien Durand Le Gaillard, Paris, 1999–2000
Exhibitor Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, 2000
2009 - 2014: “Tree Movie” at MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona)
2010: “Tree Movie,” collection Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
2011: “Typewriter poems” in group show, Paris: Galerie 1900-2000
2012: Solo show, Paris: Galerie 1900-2000, exhibition of collages and constructions from the 1940s to 60s
2013: Group show, Madrid: Reina Sofia Museum in the exhibition +- 1961 Founding the Expanded Arts
2016-17: “Tree Movie” in the exhibition “Albert Oehlen: Woods Near Oehle” Cleveland Museum of Art
2016: “Gitanjali for Iris” Paris: Galerie Patrick Seguin in the exhibition “Carte Blanche to Karma”
2017: “First Milarepa Gatha” audio recording in the exhibition Carré d’Art de Nimes, Centre Pompidou
2017: Solo show “Jackson Mac Low: Lines Letters Words” at the Drawing Center, New York
Copyright © by Anne Tardos, Executor of the Estate of Jackson Mac Low. All rights reserved.