Poets Theater Performances: April 2010; Kindergarde published by Black Radish Books: June 2013
With Small Press Traffic Literary Arts Center (Small Press Traffic), writer Sarah Anne Cox and 13 other writers collaborated to create Kindergarde—a series of avant-garde poems, plays, and stories for children presented as three poets theater events, and (incorporating writings by more participants) an illustrated children’s book of avant-garde poems, plays, songs, and stories.
Sarah Anne Cox is the author of Arrival (Krupskaya, 2002), Parcel (O Books, 2006), and Truancy (Dusie, 2007). For nearly 10 years, she taught creative writing workshops in Northern California K-12 classrooms as an educator with California Poets in the Schools. Working closely with Small Press Traffic, Cox collaborated with Charles Bernstein, Robin Blaser, Jaime Cortez, Brent Cunningham, Susan Gevirtz, Juan Felipe Herrera, Bhanu Kapil, Douglas Kearney, Noelle Kocot, Camille Roy, Juliana Spahr, Edwin Torres, and Rosmarie Waldrop on experimental works for children. In 2009-10, the writers worked with theater director Chris Smith and costume and set designer Patrick Maloney to shape their works into poets’ theater performances that were presented at California College of the Arts, Bay Area Discovery Museum, and the Museum of Children’s Art . The collaborators also invited an array of experimental writers, local and national, to contribute to a Kindergarde anthology, that was published by Black Radish Books in 2013.
Founded in 1974, Small Press Traffic is open to and supportive of courageous “experimental” writing and outsider publishing traditions and is interested in seeing them occupy a less marginalized place in the culture at large. It presents a long-running series of readings, talks, poets theater performances, and other special events featuring adventurous writers.
This project culminated with poets theater performances in April 2010, and Kindergarde was published by Black Radish Books in June 2013.