Poet
Bernstein writes poetry, which has appeared in The Texas Observer, The Progressive, ZZYZYVA, and The New York Quarterly. Bernstein's poem, Getting Tough, appeared in The New York Quarterly best-of anthology, issue 26, edited by William M. Packard.
Bernstein worked with Packard to record most of Packard's plays, including Ty Cobb.
Bernstein also worked closely with the late poet and biographer Muriel Rukeyser. Bernstein founded the Muriel Rukeyser Center for the Arts in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, New York a place where Rukeyser said people had “the opportunity to experience the arts where they live and work.” In this context, Bernstein also aired the Muriel Rukeyser reading series, On the Air, which featured interviews with Rukeyser, Robert Bly, Grace Paley, Denise Levertov, Audre Lorde, Quincy Troupe, and Gregory Orr.
Bernstein also produced a series of portrait documentaries of poets including Packard and Rukeyser for the New Letters On the Air national radio show.
Bernstein's books with author Warren Lehrer, 'French Fries and Grrrhhhh: A Study of Social Patterns are a part of the special books collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Louvre in Paris. French Fries was featured and performed at the International Book Art Festival. Grrrhhhh was visualized as a production at the Dance Theater Workshop of New York City.
Bernstein's poetry chapbook, Particles of Light, accompanied a traveling exhibition of woodcuts depicting family life in everyday America. The poems were greeted positively by the New York Times.
Bernstein's essays and writing have appeared in publications such as The Nation, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Dallas Morning News, Vibe, Helicon Nine Reader, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The London Observer, Utne Reader, Mother Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, Kyoto Journal, Spin, The Progressive, and The Village Voice.
His essays and poetry have been anthologized in The Shape of the Century, Health and Society, Appeal to Reason, the Helicon Nine Reader, and Spud Songs.
He wrote a blues opera, Ann at 94, with singer/songwriter Biaja Solomon.
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Famous quotes containing the word poet:
“The great poet makes us feel our own wealth, and then we think less of his compositions. His best communication to our mind is to teach us to despise all he has done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as toil gives to sour bread. The breath with which the poet utters his verse must be that by which he lives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The poet is the supreme artist, for he is the master of colour and of form, and the real musician besides, and is lord over all life and all arts.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)