11-Hour Poetry Reading Took Place on New Year's Day at St. Mark's Church-In-The Bowery

EAST VILLAGE, NY — On New Year's Day, more than 150 artists, poets and performers read poetry in all its many forms for an 11-hour marathon session at St. Marks Church-In-The-Bowery at 131 E. 10th St.

The New Year's Day poetry marathon is a tradition put on by the Poetry Project; it was started in 1974 by the Poetry Project's co-founder, Anne Waldman.

The goal of Sunday's event, according to the Poetry Project, was to reveal "not just that a better life could exist, but that it already does, sexy and wise, rancorous and sweet, big hearted and mad as hell."

According to NPR, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Spalding Gray, Amiri Baraka, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith and Philip Glass have all performed at the event in the past.

Image via Google Maps