Jeffrey Cyphers Wright is a poet.[1]
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Wright is a poet, publisher, critic, collage artist and eco-activist involved in the community gardens of New York City.
Upon arriving in New York in 1976, Wright studied with Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley at St. Mark’s Church. He also studied with Allen Ginsberg at Brooklyn College and received an MFA in poetry. In the late 1970s he performed at PS122's avant-garde-arama. He started Hard Press in 1978 where he published three books, including the anthology 3-Zero, Turning Thirty, and 100 postcards by different artists and poets. A selection of the postcards were included in the book A Secret Location on the Lower East Side, and were displayed at New York Public Library. Wright read often at St. Mark's Poetry Project between 1979 and 1990 and served a three-year term on the Project Board of Directors. In 1996, Wright performed in two of the Museum of Modern Art's poetry series curated by Lita Hornick.
From 1986 until 2001 Wright published 80 issues of Cover Magazine, The Underground National, with the help of estimable artist and writer contributors including Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Steve Mumford, Sue Scott, Judd Tully, and John Yau. The magazine covered a broad range of arts and culture, profiling many important artists in advance of their heyday. For example, Wright and Cover editors followed Steve Buscemi, Chakaia Booker, Andrea Zittel, Dawoud Bey, Sarah McLaughlin,The Cranberries, and Stux artists Andres Serrano, Vic Muniz and the Starn Twins. The magazine's interviews with Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, and Rufino Tamayo, are among the last. Cover is archived at Fales Library, New York University. [1]
Wright is the author of 11 books of poetry. His poems also appear in six anthologies including Out of This World from Crown Press and Thus Spake the Corpse from Black Sparrow Press. Wright's poetry and art criticism has appeared in ARTnews, Art and Antiques, ArtNexus and The Brooklyn Rail. In 2008 The monthly Rail instituted his ongoing column of poetry reviews called Rapid Transit. Wright started Live Mag! in 2007 and hosts related poetry events at the Bowery Poetry Club, La Mama E.T.C., and other Village venues.
After 2007, Wright exhibited collages in group shows at Tribes Gallery, 532 Gallery (Thomas Jaeckel, Director) Turtle Point Press, and others. He contributed poems and collages to online venues, including Bicycle Review, Beet, Reading Dance, and Tool: A magazine. In 2010, his visual and performance work was the subject of the solo, participatory exhibit The Good Outlaw at AC Institute.[2] In an A-List preview of the show, The Villager described Wright as a "master collagist." A brief video documentary of the opening event encapsulates the performative and visual experience. [3] Wright showed collages in "Paper View," a 2-person exhibit with sculptor Ga Hae Park at Tribes Gallery in 2011.[2] Capital One Bank extended the run by hanging Wright's work in its East 3rd Street branch during the Occupy Wall Street protests.
"Wright is street smart." "Village Voice" "Wright is a terrific poet." [4]