Although Jackson Mac Low had academic training in Western musical composition, his artist self-image, at least initially, was that of a poet. He submitted poems relentlessly to mainstream U.S. poetry publications before and during the McCarthy Red Scare era, apparently without realizing that he was being blacklisted for his radical political views. This program for La Monte Young’s series at Yoko Ono’s loft celebrates Mac Low as a composer of performance works that, if not strictly musical in nature, are intended to be performed in a “concert” setting. While many of the other composers featured in this concert series became well-known members of the 1960s avant-garde, Mac Low’s contributions have been less frequently recognized, falling through the cracks that separate monodisciplinary narratives in art history, literary studies, and performance studies.
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| Title | Program for Poetry, Music, and Theatre Works: Jackson Mac Low, the fifth concert in the series organized by La Monte Young at Yoko Ono’s studio, 112 Chambers Street, New York, NY |
| Date | 8–9 April 1961 |
| Type | programs and flyers |
| Location | Getty Research Institute, Jean Brown Papers, 890164, box 32, folder 6 |
Cite
Program for
Poetry, Music, and Theatre Works: Jackson Mac
Low, the fifth concert in the series organized by La
Monte Young at Yoko Ono’s studio, 112 Chambers Street,
New York, NY, 8–9 April 1961. Getty Research
Institute, Jean Brown Papers, 890164, box 32, folder
6. In
The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music,
Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950–1975, ed. Michael Gallope, Natilee Harren, and John
Hicks. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2025.
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