A Life's Work in Boxes: Poet Perspectives on Archival Collecting and Research

Poet and scholar Rebecca Kosick, once a student of The Alternative Press co-founder Ken Mikolowski in the U-M Residential College, recently completed a book about The Alternative Press and will discuss her experience working with the archive from a research perspective. Then, Detroit poet Mïïgun will join to moderate a conversation between Kosick and Mikolowski, illuminating their varied perspectives on the work of The Alternative Press and its subsequent life as archival material. 

In 1969 poet and artist couple Ken and Ann Mikolowski began a humble operation called The Alternative Press that would later pull household names like Allen Ginsburg into its orbit. For thirty years they collected poetry and art from their friends and wider circle, and distributed these creations in manila envelopes through the mail. The archive of their life's-work-worth of material is now held at the University of Michigan Library's Special Collections Research Center.

Sponsored by the U-M Library and Residential College.