Upcoming event will focus on previously lost work from Black Mountain College students

From Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center:

PRESENTATION + BOOK LAUNCH: Poems of Gerard Legro
Thursday, March 3, 7:00 p.m.
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, 56 Broadway, downtown Asheville
Free Admission

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in downtown Asheville presents a free presentation and book launch on Thursday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m with Dr. Alessandro Porco, the editor and force behind a new book called Poems by Gerard Legro.

It’s been over sixty-five years since Black Mountain College students Jerrold Levy and Richard Negro composed, circulated, and performed Poems by Gerard Legro on the campus of Black Mountain College. Long forgotten in an archival box, the previously unpublished collaboration is now in print for the first time. Dr. Alessandro Porco will discuss the history of Poems by Gerard Legro and read a short selection from the book.

Alessandro Porco is a poet, critic, and scholar from Toronto, Canada. He earned his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research focuses on twentieth-century poetry and poetics. Porco lives in Wilmington, where he is an Assistant Professor of English at UNCW.

Jerrold Levy (b. 1930 – d. 2002) was born and raised in New York City. He is the grandson of poet Mina Loy and son of art dealer Julien Levy. He attended Black Mountain College from 1947 to 1950, studying under Ilya Bolotowsky, Merce Cunningham, and Charles Olson. In 1959, Levy received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

Richard Negro (b. 1929 – unknown) grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, a suburb located twenty-five miles outside New York City. He attended Black Mountain College from 1947 to 1950 and was a star pupil of physicist Natasha Goldoswki and poet M.C. Richards. He later studied physics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain Painter.

Support for this project has been generously provided by the following: The Beattie Foundation; George B. Bennett; The Birchrock Foundation; Jerald Dillon Fessenden; The North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; and UNC Asheville Howerton Distinguished Professor in the Humanities.
The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.