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.
Read more about this topic: Dennis Bernstein
Famous quotes containing the word poet:
“Men consort in camp and town
But the poet dwells alone.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)