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Fifth Acker Award
presented by ►Clayton Patterson
Theater 80 | 80 St. Marks | New York, NY 10003
January 21, 2018
TAGGED: ►Staff +++ Preview +++ Lifetime Recipients
Recipients +++ Chapbook +++ Box +++Slide show
Video report +++ Comments +++ Outlook

STAFF: Creator/Producer: ►Clayton Patterson | EMCEE: Kembra Pfahler | Box: Steve Ellis | Bio-booklet design: The Villager | Pre-show entertainment: Keith Patchel & his Venus Ensemble Featured performers include Clara Francesca, Alexis Kandra (Videography), Cantata Fan, Sayaka Aiba, Kelsey S. Brewer and Jo Eubanks & special guest poet Bob Holman | Archival Producer: Lewanne Jones & archival researcher & documentary producer | Usher & Tech: Jay "Blond Boy" Wilson | Sponsor: The Villager & Overthrow Boxing | ACKER Cover: Steve Ellis KP

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SLIDE SHOW | Shots by ►Clayton Patterson | 2:33min

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VIDEO REPORT | 47:56min

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ACKERS ARE IMPORTANT . . .
Preview by ►Clayton Patterson

Turns out the ACKERS are more important then just a celebration of the creative contributors to our community. The recipients, in terms of community, keep showing up in other places. Not surprising considering the caliber of recipients. And this email once again proves how important the Villager is to our community. Is not fake news and is now one of the few places where critical community news can be found.

I am on a list of people working to try and help ►Kasoundra Kasoundra. She is one of this years ACKER recipients. Below you can read z Villager piece dealing with how NYC treats their important elderly cultural icons.

In October I got an email, from a past ACKER recipient, telling me he saw Kasoundra's work for sale at a flea market. Hmm seemed strange. I was able to contact one of the people responsible for her apartment and storage locker. He assured mew all her posses were safe. Turns out they never paid for her storage locker and she lost all her archive, art work, photographs, and other memories that she saved over her lifetime.

Turns out none of the social workers or those responsible for Kasoundra's affairs and money followed Judge Kennedy, the NYC judge overseeng her court case, orders. I thought get people to write a letter to Judge Kennedy... Hmm following the email I got today it seems like the whole lot is corrupt and sick in the head.

I need to write this down in order to absorb it. Just talked to Michael Connelly, Kasoundra's present guardian at Integral. Here are some nepotismic facts:

Judah Samet of United Guardianship Services was Kasoundra's first guardian. Judge Kennedy replaced him and transferred the guardianship to Integral. Judah Samet's mother is the long-time Finance Manager of Integral. The director and new guardian at Integral was Alan Shapiro. Alan Shapiro's wife, Bernice, was the head nurse at Integral. She would naturally have been responsible for producing the updated medical history that suddenly called Kasoundra a schizophrenic manic depressive. This caused Lott House to reject Kasoundra when she got to the head of the waiting list even though they had accepted her based on her prior medical history. Shapiro and his wife no longer work at Integral. It was discovered that a considerable amount of Integral's money was missing, and Shapiro admitted to "borrowing" the money. He has promised to pay it back and is not being prosecuted. Jack Feldman is the business manager of Integral. He is the one who was responsible for Kasoundra's storage unit. His wife is the sister of Alan Shapiro's wife, Bernice, the former head nurse. There may be other nepotismic connections between the two agencies not yet unearthed. Keep you posted. But can anyone tell me why Judge Kennedy would dismiss one guardian for financial malfeasance and give the guardianship to an agency where the dismissed guardian's mother was the financial manager?

Meanwhile Connelly says we will have no problem taking Kasoundra out of the Astor Court facility for the Acker Awards ceremony on Sunday. Hooray!

Michaeleen Maher | mikkimaher@verizon.net

hortened bio - Here's a little KASOUNDRA KASOUNDRA for ya.

Legendary artist Kasoundra Kasoundra is known for her stunning works of collage, pen and ink and beautiful objets d’art. Collectors of her work include Joseph Cornell, Brice Marden, Debbie Harry, Debbie Freeman and Henry Zemel. Her art is a must-see. She worked for Joseph Cornell and Edward Gorey. Friends with Harry Smith and Stanley the Turtle, Kasoundra is an icon of true bohemia. It's no wonder Germaine Greer dedicated her book The Female Eunuch to Kasoundra. - excerpt from Goodie Magazine www.goodie.org

The Australian theorist Germaine Greer dedicated her book, The Female Eunuch, to five friends including Kasoundra when it was published in 1970.

She worked with Harry Smith, who she adored and refers to as The Cosmos for his exceptional ability to understand everything and anything. She worked with Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias as an illustrator. She befriended Alice and Ray Brock of Alice’s Restaurant (she was later in the movie), and through Alice she met Liza Stelle, the daughter of jazzman Eddie Condon. For years she was a regular fixture at Eddie’s apartment on Washington Square, which was always full of musicians and Village characters. There she met Hank O’Neal, an ex-CIA agent who had traded his old life for a new one of making jazz recordings, writing books, and taking pictures. One day, Kasoundra found an old wooden telephone booth on a sidewalk. She dragged it to Hank’s recording studio on Christopher Street, and said, “You cannot get rid of this.” Hank kept it, and he photographed people sitting in it for a long time to come.

Kasoundra Kasoundra

The following is a guest post by Romy Ashby
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2014/12/kasoundra-kasoundra.html

The trials of collage artist Kasoundra Kasoundra

BY PENNY ARCADE, DANA DAVISON and MIKKI MAHER | A suffocating and corrupt bureaucracy has grown up around social services for the elderly. Guardians, social workers, financial managers and other caregivers too often show a cavalier disregard for the welfare of their charges. And don’t imagine for a moment that it is only lonely, friendless, read more here ►Kasoundra

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Acker Awards to Honor One-of-a Kind Artists
By JAN HERMAN
in: Arts Journal, on January 18, 2018

I don’t know what the late Kathy Acker would think of an award given in her name to non-conforming artists. I assume an experimental punk novelist and poet would like the idea of supporting artists who don’t conform. Although awards are besides the point especially for non-conformists, they do generate publicity. And unless I’m wrong, even non-conformists might not mind getting some of that. The Lower East Side artist-activist ►Clayton Patterson, who is a moving force behind the awards, knows this perhaps better than anyone. For years, stretching back to the 1980s, he has worked to gain recognition for little-known artists whose individuality sets them apart.

“I’m interested in exceptional, I’m not interested in the standard or regular, I’m interested in the one-of,” he said in a recent interview with Nicole Disser of Bedford + Bowery. It was headlined ‘Helen Keller Was an Asshole,’ and Other Things You’ll Learn at the Acker Awards. By way of explanation, he points out that Keller was an “undisciplined wild child who nobody could contain, and that’s what makes her heroic.” Acker, who died in 1997, fits the same heroic mold for him. She was a “radical outsider, the up-against-it, fuck-you kind of person.” Her books — among them, Blood and Guts in High School; I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imagining; Algeria: A Series of Invocations Because Nothing Else Works; Kathy Goes to Haiti; Hannibal Lecter, My Father; Great Expectations; and Pussy, King of the Pirates — were controversial and uncompromising.

Another artist in the mold and a 2017 Acker Award recipient, the composer-musician Keith Patchel will perform with his band The Venus Ensemble at the 2018 ceremonies at Theater80 on Sunday night (Jan. 21, 6 p.m.). The band has “a surrealist, multimedia Velvet Underground spin,” he says. (His chamber opera about the US secret bombing campaign of Laos during the Vietnam War, “The Plain of Jars,” played last year at NYU.) Here is a précis he wrote about his musical development.

By Keith Patchel: My story starts as a kid from the suburbs of Buffalo who loved music and playing guitar. I attended SUNY Buffalo, where I was performing/studying classical guitar and fusion. I had the great privilege of studying electronic music with Lejaren Hiller, and met many extraordinary musicians while I was attending concerts, classes, workshops offered by The Creative Associates, who included such luminaries as Lucas Foss, Morton Feldman, and John Cage.  I moved to NYC to pursue a career in music, as I was deeply inspired by Punk Rock and all the New Music I had absorbed at college. I received an MA from Queens College / Mannes School of Music (studied composition with George Perle), and at night was performing rock music with Richard Lloyd from Television at CBGB and at other venues.

When I returned to NYC in July 1985 after touring Scandinavia and recording “Field of Fire” with Richard Lloyd, never in my life would I have imagined that my roommate who had recently graduated from Columbia University would become the President of the United States. His name was Barack Obama.  Throughout the late 80’s and 90’s I recorded and performed with numerous rock bands of mine — The Spell, Count Zero, Solar, and Solarkane in New York, England, and Colombia. In 2007 I began scoring films, which included “Finishing Heaven,” a documentary about Ruby Lynn Reyner (HBO) that was nominated for a Emmy Award in 2010. I also scored “Crumble,” for which I received Best Composer awards from The Manhattan Film Festival and The New York International Independent Film Festival.  From 2011 to 2013 I attended Juilliard, studying composition and orchestration. In 2015 I co-created The Marsband at the Hayden Planetarium for which I wrote “The Pluto Symphony.” 

When I was in Bogota Colombia, in 1996, “Adios Pablo” (a song I wrote about the death of Pablo Escobar), received an enormous amount of airplay. It created so much controversy that the label FM Discos/Warner Bros pulled the plug on the entire project. The video will be re-released in 2018. The year 2016 saw the composition and performance of my experimental chamber opera “The Plain of Jars.” All of this has lead to the creation of The Venus Ensemble.

Source: https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2018/01/acker-awards-to-honor-one-of-a-kind-artists.html

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

■ ADAM ALEXANDER was born in Manhattan, Bastille Day, 1945, and proudly, stubbornly, in true New York style, never learned to drive because doing so might lead to visiting, say, Queens. He was a math prodigy, first inspired by the microscope he received from his grandfather, science writer for a Yiddish newspaper. Adam was educated at City College of New York. He worked for Mayor Lindsey in the late 1960s, and for Peter Max sporadically. In 1982 he invented a Rubik’s Cube inspired puzzle called Alexander’s Star, released by the Ideal Toy Company. The $150,000 paycheck, coupled with a classic rent-controlled apartment, helped him turn his back on conventional employment to become host, following his marriage to Leslie Sternbergh in 1986, of the Leslie and Adam salon, an East Village institution for the artistically inclined. Adam was an early adopter of computer technology and in the 1990s turned his math talent to the creation of fractals, described as abstract objects of evolving symmetry, created through mathematical equations. Hard to comprehend, but beautiful to behold, Adam’s fractals were displayed at Fuse gallery online in 2011, and his animated creations at Howl! in 2016.

In August 2017 Adam Alexander was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. His death came December 20, 2017. I suspect he’d have preferred the 21st, the darkest day of the year.(Writers credit: Dian Hanson)

■ LESLIE STERNBERGH was born in York, Pennsylvania (home of the barbells) in 1960. Being too bright from birth, a pre-woke plushie (she wore her Easter bunny suit everywhere) and blessed with the thickest, longest, most magnificent red hair since Neanderthals first gifted us this much admired and maligned recessive gene, all made an early escape to New York inevitable. Arriving in 1981, on her 21st birthday, she enlivened the downtown comic scene with her memorable holiday parties, and incited the passions of fellow art students as a popular life model. Photographer Joel Meyerowitz was an ardent fan, and included an elegant portrait in his 1991 book Redheads.

Leslie made her real mark as a comic artist, though. Her witty, wise and profane work was featured in Vogue, Screw, Weirdo, Twisted Sisters, Wimmen’s Comix, Dori Stories, Wonder Woman, Cherry, The Comics Journal, Juxtapoz, JUGGS and multiple DC Comics compilations. She was particularly proud to crack the boy’s club at MAD, becoming the first female artist to receive a callback for multiple projects.
Leslie’s soul mate was Adam Alexander; the two married in 1986 and thereafter held court in their informal East Village salon, scene of brilliant conversation and unimaginable clutter. Brilliant, feisty, talented, and audaciously ginger, Leslie is a woman once met, never forgotten.(Writers credit: Dian Hanson)

■ PHILLY ABE: In an increasingly bland and beige world, artist, performer and icon Philly Abe is a much needed riot of color and energy.

She is a visionary artist of chaotic beauty and a beacon of originality. At one time living in the basement of ABC No Rio, Philly was a fixture at the Pyramid in the’80’s bringing her unique brand of performance art to the stage in the East Village. She was part of 7 Days of Creation at ABC No Rio in 1983 and New Leonard Beach Hotel Project (1989) of artist decorated rooms in Miami Beach, both exhibitions curated by Allied Productions. She’s the star of many films by director Todd Verow for whom Philly became a muse for over two decades. Notable Verow films starring Philly include Once and Future Queen, The Trouble of Perpetual Deja-Vu, and most recently This Side of Heaven (2016). She starred in Agent of Paradise by Mary Bellis and was involved in screenings at Naked Eye Cinema. Her film credits also include appearances in the films of Jack Waters, Carl George and Mike Kuchar.

In the 90’s Philly fronted the punk band Eager Meat which recorded the album America is a Theme Park. In 2004 she co-founded the noize/art collective Infinity SS (Saint Stanton) with Stanton St artist friends Carlucci "The Magician" Bencivenga, Steve Ellis, Bjames Curtright, Chris Morrow, Craig Klein, Kosuke Aoki and Mayuka Nobuta. They collaborated on art and their noize band performed at The Knitting Factory, Arlene’s Grocery and CBGB’s.

Philly / Kondor 8’s art work has been self described as - old style thrown against the wall of now - spray paint noize markers collage - with one foot in the stone age and the other in string theory. She graced the cover of Raw Vision issue #66 in 2009 where her work was described as "a hybrid practice that has consistently harnessed both punk irreverence and graffiti transgression to channel demons." -Jenifer P. Borum. She’s shown her work with Christina Varga in Woodstock, NY and Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chelsea.

Her art whether it is her acting, painting, music or just being her greatest creation, her own true self, will last forever. She is the East Village Joan of Arc, Queen of Time and Space.

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THIS YEAR RECIPIENTS:

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CHAPBOOK

►Clayton Patterson wrote on Jan 16, 2018: Attached is the new book which is now ready 2018 book of the 2018 ACKER recipients — wish to thank everyone involved… all the recipients
Sponsors The Villager Ms. Jennifer Goodstein & Overthrow Boxing Joey Goodwin for the unending support - Steve Ellis for the BOX & POSTER, Antony Zito for the CUPs, Elsa Rensaa for reassurance of the goodness in the world, Theater 80 Lorcan & Genie Otway, MC Kembra Pfahler, Earl Ferrer book design, Alice O'Malley for photos of Leslie and Adam Alexander, Laura Gagnon for guidance, Jay "Blond Boy" Wilson usher.
Please forgive any mistakes as they were not intentional... all are worthy and nobody was meant to be forgotten or overlooked. We are all equal and deserve equal respect. Wish we could keep these moving forward.
And we wish to thanks the Villager for these kind words… And no matter which way we survive there will always be a history and a record of this attempted destruction.
However the awards may evolve in the future, The Villager supports this mission: of recognizing the true, pioneering avant-garde artists in our midst, and of sustaining Downtown’s creative community and its defiant spirit in the face of all the forces that would seek to diminish it or co-opt it. thanks clayton

CHAPBOOK, all recepients with biographies booklet | 31 pages | 8.5 x 5.5 inches ►read me

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COMMENTS

ERIK LAPRADE wrote Jan 06, 2018 at 04:37 am: Clayton, Is Allen doing any presenting this time around?

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 6, 2018 at 05:47am | AK destroyed them.. surprised you have not heard of his going off the deep end.. long story.. I have no idea what is is problem.. but a problem he does have.. well you probably know you grew up with him.. anyway.. and besides he only did once in SF.. had told some people in NYC they were ridiuclaous.. a waste of his time.. it was once he realized I was going global-- and I was.. had a solid event in Toronto.. had Montreal coming along.. and Germany.. he made excuses about global.. he was global in his first and only year.. who is kidding who? Just destructive madness.. so old school LES..

If any interest we can talk in person.. or whatever.. not a good time to stir the pot.. but do as you will... you life your space.. thanks clayton

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 6, 2018, at 05:49am | BTW.. the people are starting to get the box idea.. this year will be great.. as they all are in their own way.. the bio-booklet is important.. a good research tool.. all this is so much work.. he had it easy.. one poster.. I am crazy was building a monster.. a monster that was ending up is solid collections.. thx cp

CLAYTOPN PATTERSOPN wrote on Jan 7, 2018 at 01:29am | This years NYC ACKER Awards, #5, will be, just like the last 4 years, as special as ever. There are the few, the negatives ones, the losers, who want to destroy us, but creativity is about life and they, the losers, are about death. We will survive and carry on. And this year the ceremony will be as glorious as it always is. And that is a promise from all of us in the ACKER community. And we are a creative community. thanks clayton

David Wojnarowicz from a photo by Peter Hujar- drawn onto a coffee cup found on the street - for the Acker Awards 2018. Don't miss the Acker event at Theater80 on Jan 21.drawing by Zito..
The BOOK OF THE DEAD is a list of approx.1100 friends of mine, lovers, loved ones, acquaintances, comrades. 40 are made and will be included in each of the 40 ACKER boxes presented at the Acker Awards. . . . book cover artwork by Tabboo! Eugene

Gene Fedorko, b. 1943, Pittsburgh PA, has been fighting for your civil rights since 1962. A veteran of the 1963 Martin Luther King march ("I have a dream"), he has been a political, anti-war, civil rights, pro-feminist, queer and AIDS activist ever since. In the early '80s he was co-founder (with Jim Fouratt) of the AIDS-support group HEAL, a grass-roots community-based organization that served free veggie and macrobiotic meals to the stricken community here in New York, a member of ACT-UP, and a caregiver. He worked for 25 years in the inner-city HIV/AIDS clinic of the renowned physician Paul C. Bellman, MD, and was witness to the ravages in the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. He has kept a meticulous list THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, of his loved ones, friends, acquaintances, comrades, who have died of AIDS over the decades, with approximately 1100 names on it. He cherished the time he had with each one of those individuals who have died. He is an iconoclast, art collector, supporter the arts, a Black Lives Matter ally, very happily well-traveled and is delighted to have countless friends in the New York downtown community. His upcoming documentary "Conversations with Gay Elders," by David Weissman ("The Cockettes," "We Were Here,") is a narrative of his struggle for the dignity of his identity through the last six decades. He continues to be a caregiver and works in a medical office that focuses on HIV/AIDS
●  More info will be sent out as we get closer to January 21.. ►Watch the Theater 80 website.

Zito Cups 2018

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 7, 2018 at 01:29am | This years NYC ACKER Awards, #5, will be, just like the last 4 years, as special as ever. There are the few, the negatives ones, the losers, who want to destroy us, but creativity is about life and they, the losers, are about death. We will survive and carry on. And this year the ceremony will be as glorious as it always is. And that is a promise from all of us in the ACKER community. And we are a creative community. thanks clayton

●  David Wojnarowicz from a photo by Peter Hujar- drawn onto a coffee cup found on the street - for the Acker Awards 2018. Don't miss the Acker event at Theater80 on Jan 21.drawing by Zito..

David Wojnarowicz, ACKER Cup by Zito 2018
1/10 made in 4 sets, 40 individual Cups

●  The BOOK OF THE DEAD is a list of approx. 1100 friends of mine, lovers, loved ones, acquaintances, comrades. 40 are made and will be included in each of the 40 ACKER boxes presented at the Acker Awards. . . . book cover artwork by Tabboo! Eugene

Eugene book 2010;

●  Gene Fedorko, b. 1943, Pittsburgh PA, has been fighting for your civil rights since 1962. A veteran of the 1963 Martin Luther King march ("I have a dream"), he has been a political, anti-war, civil rights, pro-feminist, queer and AIDS activist ever since. In the early '80s he was co-founder (with Jim Fouratt) of the AIDS-support group HEAL, a grass-roots community-based organization that served free veggie and macrobiotic meals to the stricken community here in New York, a member of ACT-UP, and a caregiver. He worked for 25 years in the inner-city HIV/AIDS clinic of the renowned physician Paul C. Bellman, MD, and was witness to the ravages in the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. He has kept a meticulous list THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, of his loved ones, friends, acquaintances, comrades, who have died of AIDS over the decades, with approximately 1100 names on it. He cherished the time he had with each one of those individuals who have died. He is an iconoclast, art collector, supporter the arts, a Black Lives Matter ally, very happily well-traveled and is delighted to have countless friends in the New York downtown community. His upcoming documentary "Conversations with Gay Elders," by David Weissman ("The Cockettes," "We Were Here,") is a narrative of his struggle for the dignity of his identity through the last six decades. He continues to be a caregiver and works in a medical office that focuses on HIV/AIDS
●  More info will be sent out as we get closer to January 21.. Watch the Theater 80 website.

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 7, 2018 at 11:45am | ACKER Award music provided by Keith Patchel of The Venus Ensemble...

●  My story starts as a kid from the suburbs of Buffalo who loved music and playing guitar. I attended SUNY Buffalo where I was performing/studying classical guitar and fusion. I had the great privilege of studying electronic music with Lejaren Hiller, and met many extraordinary musicians while I was attending concerts, classes, workshops offered by The Creative Associates, who included such luminaries as Lucas Foss, Morton Feldman and John Cage.

I moved to NYC to pursue a career in music, as I was deeply inspired by Punk Rock and all the New Music I had absorbed at college. I received an MA from Queens College/ Mannes School of Music (studied composition with George Perle) and at night was performing rock music with Richard Lloyd from Television at CBGB and other venues.

When I returned to NYC in July 1985 after touring Scandinavia and recording Field of Fire with Richard Lloyd, never in my life would I have imagined that my roommate who had recently graduated from Columbia University would become the President of the United States. His name was Barack Obama

Throughout the late 80's and 90's I recorded and performed with numerous rock bands of mine; The Spell, Count Zero, Solar, and Solarkane in New York , England and Colombia. In 2007 I began scoring films, which included Finishing Heaven, a documentary about Ruby Lynn Reyner (HBO) which was nominated for a Emmy Award in 2010. I also scored Crumble, for which I received Best Composer awards from The Manhattan Film Festival and The New York International Independent Film Festival

I attended Juilliard from 2011-2013 studying composition and orchestration. In 2015 I co-created The Marsband at the Hayden Planetarium for which I wrote The Pluto Symphony. 

When I was in Bogota Colombia in 1996, Adios Pablo ( a song I wrote about the death of Pablo Escobar) received an enormous amount of airplay, and created so much controversy that the label FM Discos/W

2016 saw the composition and performance of my critically acclaimed experimental chamber opera The Plain of Jars (about the US secret bombing campaign of Laos during the Vietnam War).

All of this has lead to the creation of tonight's performance of The Venus Ensemble, which I would describe as an experimental musical/theatrical ensemble with a surrealist, multimedia Velvet Underground spin. Much thanks to ►Clayton Patterson for this opportunity to for the Venus Ensemble to play at the ACKER Awards. Keith 2017 ACKER recipient.

Rolando Vega created his own poster design... nice... picture and Rolando in one of his creations.

Keith Patchel Plain of Jars chamber opera.. 
and the creativity just keeps pouring out of the magic crucible we were all nurtured from.. and the beat goes n and on and on... MAKE DOWNTOWN OURS AGAIN!!!!!! - thanks clayton

●  More info will be sent out as we get closer to January 21..
►Watch the Theater 80 website.

Keith Patchel Photo: ►Clayton Patterson	Plein Of Jars Poster 2017 Design: Clayton Patterson

  
Rolando Vega | Rolando Vega Poster

ERIK LAPRADE wrote on Jan 8, 2018 at 04:18am | Clayton, I happen to know Allen was very pleased to present these awards to people he thought deserved them. That was his idea and intention, originally. Whether he lost interest and energy in doing them was and is his business. I see your involvement in them was adjunct to his concerns with these awards. From what I can tell, you continue presenting them (and attempting to expand them) as if you were the originator of them. If Allen wanted to end them, you should have honored his decision, or at least been straight about what you were up too by continuing them. Maybe that was in-part one of Allen’s sore points about what you were up to? You stepped in to promote them because that is what you do; promote things. Again, these ACKER awards were not your intellectual property to promote. So, it was correct for Allen to go to the estate execute and complain about the situation. l. E. The fact you do not even know who elected Jeff Wright, nor that Jeff was not a "poet you would have picked to get one," as you told me, tells me these awards are out of even your control. I don’t see Allen’s complaint as "tearing them apart," but more likely his attempt to save what dignity as a literary award they did have. Better to end them than have them lose their status.

Again, you should have been straight up about your involvement/intentions rather than take them over as you seem to have done. Perhaps it is just as well this is their last round-up.

Also, getting into Allen’s personal life, past and present is not related to the Acker’s, neither is my relationship with Allen. I notice you have a nice spread of color photos on the Outlaw Bible of Art. You can dispraise the book all you want but it serves your ends too. Whether you admit it or not. Good luck, Erik

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 8, 2018 at 02:06pm | I will try and send something soon.. thx cp

●  Clayton, actually you have this all wrong.. it was a collaboration right from the beginning.. It happened over a phone conversation. We used to have great phone conversations. He did come up with the name, but that was it. And I agreed on the name for several reasons.

It is wrong to say the content of the award was his.. infact, if one argued that point, I am closed, over a much longer period of time, to having this point of view. I have always taken the - let's say great - but disadvantaged - over the kn own and advantaged. He usually compromises.. like Claus Oldenburg is only one such example - Patty Smith being another. I have books, art shows, documentaries, and so on. I moved to the LES and left SoHo - I was making it at Angel Orensanz Foundation.

It was a collaboration right from the start.. he dropped out. Not me. He told people this. I never did drop out. He did once. As is also his habit., To start and move on. I go the long term. Tattoo Society.. Tattoo Convention.. Wildstyle and Tattpoo Messe.. art shows.. - fighting for people like LA2 and his art.

Expand them yes.. he did in his first show.. Austria Germany NYC. He lived at my place. Never ever said a word about them. I did them in NYC. He came once. I introduced him. He knew about Toronto and wanted to go. They could not pay.

Yes I promote things because if you do not they do not happen. That was one criticism he had of you. You do not step up. He promotes. Any artists in the game promotes. Those who are not do not. And the awards are mine as much as his, and he dropped out.

As to the estate and going there..tearing apart - what are you basing your opinion on? You have no idea how that happened and what happened. None.

I said it was not me who picked Jeff Wright. Recipientshave the right to pick other recipients. No idea why you did not pick someone. Jeff was picked. Jeff had Cover magazine and does collage and writers. - He is listed under publisher. Not poet.

Read the booklet.. they were never a literary award. Not in SF and not in NYC. Look at who got the awards. They are gaining in status. No question about that.

Artists/creators are different from most people. Most peoples lives are spread into categories..usually based on a job and the job dictates so much of the person's life. An artist life and personality is all rolled into one. Art is Life and Life is Art. The book is a disappointment to me. And to many others.. there is too much a feeling. and this is the same argument I have with the collaboration. He goes for what gives him status. There are too many people in his book who are not Outlaws.. to some it is a joke. I mean Eric,...please Claus Oldenburg.. was rich and famous artists right from the start. Never even close to what I see as Outlaw.

Fine you want to belittle your award, try and make it smaller, fine. I am in to what I do for real. It is my life. I am not a do this then that and then move on. Not with the archive, the documentaries, the books, none of it. And it makes me sad. I really do believe that the Tyler article would have been good for you.... same with the Hayes.. but as others told me you never were going to do the article you  just could not tell me. Fine. But making and destroying is not my way.

And the ACKERs may continue to have a life in other countries.. not for me to stop or say. Both Alan and I gave the go ahead to Toronto.. we both did.. and there was never a restriction as to literature only.. not from me or AK. There is more to this than you can even imagine. Like fake news. Opinions are not facts.

It is not for me to argue if Jeff is a poet.

I realize you grew up with him and you defend him. Admirable. But destroying the awards is not defending yourself. I think it is time you started to step out of the dark shadow you try and protect yourself with and become who you imagine yourself to be. Or not. Is your choice.

Publisher Jeffrey Cyphers Wright & writer, Tod Lippy & magazine design, Foxy Kidd & avant-garde Goodie magazine

Jeffrey Cyphers Wright is a publisher, critic, eco-activist, artist, and is best known as a poet. He is the author of 15 books of verse, including most recently Blue Lyre from Dos Madres Press and Radio Poems from The Operating System. He has an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College where he studied with Allen Ginsberg and also taught. New poetry is included in New American Writing, 2017. For many years, Wright ran Cover Magazine, The Underground National. He has also been a community garden advocate, defending them from political and real estate interests and helping them to develop governmental proceduress and increase membership. Currently, Wright stages events showcasing artists and writers at KGB Lit Bar and La MaMa ETC in NYC, in conjunction with his art and poetry journal, Live Mag!

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 8, 2018 at 04:59pm | Eric two things I am not.. a quitter or a follower. I think that is enough said for the ACKERS and how they started. That said my biggest disappointment is AK. Really. He represented so much, and all this outlaw stuff and so on is half baked.

You have no idea how this started.. Some of it I have no idea where it is coming from. Starting from when he stayed at my place the fire. One night he came running out of his room screaming there is a fire. We all have to get out. He was in a total panic. He is with Julia,. They run outside, leaving Elsa upstairs. She comes down with all the commotion. I go to the fire. It is in the backyard. Obviously started by someone with an accelerant. Very strange.

Anyway.. He called the fire department, they came, saw it was nothing, used a fire extinguisher and put it out and left. After the fire we should all have been happy. He went into a rage. I am sitting at the computer. He comes up to me and starts screaming at me. You are a blow hard. and whatever.. Who knows where this is coming from. This was long before working on killing the ACKER awards. He is screaming and I am listening thinking what the fuck is this about? It is the LES, we have all been yelled at by out of control people and once he said all his shit he went back to his bedroom.

Turns out, in writing to my editor at the Villager, saying I am a coke freak, drunk all the time and so on - to my editor.. Where is this coming from? Who knows? But in one of his comments in his rants I am a blowhard . As it turns out - as he is telling Lincoln he is calling me out to fight him????. What? It is my home. He is staying at my place. I am 69 with an arthritic back and neck, Elsa is 72. I had no reason to fight him. What was this even about? We had not had words with each other. Where was this coming from? And then - even if we did have words with each other.. and we did not.. at least nothing as off as far as I was concerned.

Then think - have you. ever seen two old guys fighting>? Please is very pathetic. Who wants to watch two old people fuck? Stupid And this never even crossed my mind as he never said to fight and why was he mad at me? Because he ran out and I went to the fire? Or was it based on what Julia write in the Sensitive Skin article?

As to his life choices.. after he did all this destruction he was ding to the ACKER Awards - a few things came out of the woodwork. First numerous people want to save the ACKER award - there are many supporters - Matias the literary executor knew I had been doing the awards for for 4 years. The biggest surprise is I got contacted by women from AA who told me horror abuse stories.. and then Julia, his old girlfriend, came to NYC. She came to me. I never even though about the women issue. I knew nothing about this problem.

Julia tells me when they were staying here he was really putting me down.. shit photographer.,. fucked up artist and on and on. This started to help make sense of calling me out to fight. I had been stupid enough to think we were friends.

Do what you want. It is all your choice. Helping to destroy the awards is helping to destroy your own history. Not sure why you want to do that, but then I had no idea AK was so against me, did not even get it at the time of the fire. But he certainly blew a load when he went to Lincoln. Explain this to me. thanks clayton

CLAYTON PATTERSON wrote on Jan 11, 2018 at 11:22am | THE BOX. Steve Ellis a 2018 ACKER Award Art recipient created this years award box. Soon the box will be filled with the award recipients contributions.

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ACKER BOX 2018

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OUTLOOK
Subject: Why?
►Clayton Patterson by mail on Jan 24, 2018
to ►Matias Viegener and others

Matias. Well ACKER 5 is over. The event was a total success. Full House Theater 80. Many are wondering why it is over?

I am not sure you connecting with AK [= Alan Kaufman] was the right answer. What stopping this event brought out a couple of women who alerted me to what an abuser of women, friends, and things he turns against, AK is.

I am attaching a short list of a group of women willing to come forward. Just a light skim across the top. Turns out his pattern is: out of control screaming, threats, lies, self-pity verb abuse, mental abuse, going to whatever authorities he thinks will damage the person he goes against. Usually girlfriends. This abuse goes back over 30 years. Turns out his out of control freaking out and going ballistic against me doing the ACKERS is the same old pattern.

Stopping the ACKERS was to protect Kathy's name? Sounds like a dilemma. Penny keeps telling me that I sound like a crazy person throwing Matias in with AK. I am damaging my name and reputation. Well, as an activist, my name and rep has been damaged in many times and in places.

What I do know, is now, I have a large group of people who are a part the process. I feel a responsibility towards them and the Award I created and you and AK destroyed. Yes I agreed to stop NYC. You can change that.

As to the idea that you are somehow separate from AK. 1 person - AK - started the ending process and you MV ended it. Follow the timeline.

I did, with your knowledge, the award for 4 years. AK freaks because I am successfully going global, although his first, self-aggrandizing ACKER performance, was global. Present time - AK writes all kinds of outrageous nonsense to my editor at the Villager, interesting, the editor goes along with his rage, writes something in the Villager, contacts MV. MV plays his power card, and Villager, one of my supporters, says I have to make an agreement to end the awards. I am struck because it is the last minute. The event has been setup. I agree to stop.

AK - to Villager - to MV - to immediately stop. Simple. Fast. Efficient. From an unbiased point of view.. MV is stuck with, a partner, with AK the woman abuser. All in order to protect Kathy and her reputation. Now I have to tell people what happened and why it stopped. I need this information from you. AK's stupidity we know. We need answers.

This event is more than just "hey guys and girls - how are we doing?" It is a very serious undertaking, has had 5 ceremonies, involves, including supporters and recipients, hundreds of people, with a couple of archives which holds the history of this destruction. We are not just a bunch of kids and let's stop playing. I have much support in the background. I need to have answers.

I must have answers as to why you stopped the ACKERS. I must have answers. Real answers. Saying we were damaging Kathy's good name does not fly. I can show we have brought much attention to her name even with the possibility of going global. This award is not centered on literature. It is about community. Yes, she writes about community, and is political. The kind of community and politics the ACKERS supports. She is a symbol of independence, strength of character, self determination, a strong woman, an up against the grain kind of individual the ACKERS represents. Need answers.

thanks clayton

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