Add-Verse is a two-part project by Allan Graham and Gloria Graham, which was made in conjunction with twenty-five poets between September 2003 and October 2005. The visual and audio material was collected by traveling to each of the poet’s locations beginning in Cambridge, England.

Add-Verse is an installation with a two-hour continuous video loop (by Allan Graham) and 25 archival-digital prints of the poets (by Gloria Graham). Each of the black-and-white images has a 24×24 inch format. There are eight limited boxed suites with a DVD. Separately there are individual prints in editions of eight.

The video consists of three to five-minute segments. Each segment is a poet reading selections from his or her own writing. The video’s focus is set in a fixed position and directed only to the hands and the manuscript with emphasis on voice and poem content. Without the interruption of the individual’s identification, it is a seamless flow transitioning one poet to another – no beginning – no end – appearing as a continuous poem by 25 poets with diverse language convictions and presentations.

As visual artists, with poets as close friends, we experienced each of them as intellectuals and truth sayers. Their life is one of dedication with few rewards other than the stimulus of mining the depths of thought and thus language. Having this in mind poets fifty years of age and over were chosen – many positioning a historic presence in western culture.

Poets:
Jimmy Santiago
Baca Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
Maxine Chernoff
Wanda Coleman
Clark Coolidge
Robert Creeley
Diane de Prima
Vincent Ferrini
Gene Frumkin
Barbara Guest
Lyn Hejinian
Jane Hirschfield
Anselm Hollo
Paul Hoover
Joanne Kyger
Nathaniel Mackey
Michael McClure
Harryette Mullen
V.B. Price
Carl Rakosi
Tom Raworth Arthur Sze
Anne Waldman John Yau

Additional Material & Links:

Come Together Sandy; https://cometogethersandy.com/allan-and-gloria-graham/

View the PDF Press Release

Add-Verse, installation view, Marfa, Texas.