99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-59- Some Other Sign that People Do Not Totally Regret Life

Episode Date: July 26, 2012

Sean Cole is a poet and he knows what you think of that. He is also a radio producer. One night, drunk and stumbling around the Hudson River with his friend Malissa O’Donnell, he discovered a monument — two of … Continue reading →

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. So I think we were actually, were we on that side? And this is radio producer Sean Cole in New York City. This is a reenactment. We're just gonna lay this out the way it happened. I'm here with my friend Melissa at the Hudson River on the pierce where we were almost exactly a year ago

walking along, you know, casually, pretty drunk. We were. Drunk, talking about poetry. As you do when it's late and you're in a part of town, you've never been before. And it feels like anything could happen. It's spontaneously Melissa asked Sean to read her a poem. That one about things being dirty.

By the late great Franco era. Is it dirty? He'd read it to her before. Does it look dirty? He carried that ohera book around with him everywhere. That's what you think of in the city. Does it just seem dirty? That's what you think of in the city.

You don't refuse to breathe, do you? Someone comes to you. Sean's a huge oherara fan, which will become important in about two minutes. So anyway, they kept walking and walking. Until finally, they wind up in a little plaza. Now we're at like a plaza. A plaza framed by two decorative fences

with an opening between them, two fences. Right. They hung out there for maybe 20 minutes, not noticing anything. And then we kept walking to keep on going and I went, cheers words. Actually, I remember me being there's words.

Oh, I can be, it's funny. It's funny. Words, and one of the fences. I said like, wait. Not carved or inscribed into it. It says something. But wrought into the very metal of the fence. It says, but wrought into the very metal of the fence.

It says, Contributions here, city of the sea. They go down the length of the fence. City of war, reading and stores, word by word. City of tall facades of marble and iron, proud,

and passionate city, metal sum, mad, extra, extra-agent city. Walt Whitman. It was a passage from Whitman, another poet, Sean Loves, and a big influence on Frank O'Hara. Walt Whitman? They've run back to the beginning of the sentence.

It starts over here. In the fence, the fence, city of the world, for all races are here, all the lands of the Earth make contributions here, all the lands of the Earth make contributions here. City of the sea, city of warfs and stores, city of tall façades, of marble and iron proud and passionate city. Metal sun, mad, extravagant city. And there's more holy crap that It's Frank O'Hara!

It's Frank O'Hara! That's right, the second fence is forged into a line by Frank O'Hara. And it goes like this, one need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes. I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy or a record store, or some other sign

that people do not totally regret life. That people do not totally regret life. It's from O'Hare's poem Meditations in an Emergency. If you're a madman fan, you've probably heard of it. Sean bent down and scooped his brains up off the concrete. You have to understand. So I write poems and poetry is just never treated with this kind of reverence and architectural permanence. Do you know what I mean? It's like you don't... No, no, I totally know. I mean, you see the poetry and motion placards

on the subway, and that's nice. This is like the balusters of the fence. I look that word up. The spokes of the fence come down and bend around each letter, and they sort of hug each letter, and each letter is painted gold. Not joking. And then like, oh wait, it's these two poets with whom I have like an entire life

of obsession. I mean, like I wrote, I promise I won't go on too long about this. But like I wrote I promise I won't go on too long about this. But I wrote 50 pages of academic Goldigook about Whitman for part of my college thesis. And O'Hara is like my poetry boyfriend. Like I'm just like, one thing I thought he was my poet. You know what I mean? Like you have those artists that you carry around with you and you're like, you've heard of him, you know, good thing.

And so to see him, a, you know, rot in metal, you know, is one thing. And b, rot in metal next to the poet, he, O'Hara saw, as like his, I think he called him like my great predecessor, his big influence. It was the last thing I expected to encounter that night. And I'm glad we went back because it occurred to us sitting there this time. You know, I bet it's dated somewhere.

Really? Yeah, I bet there's a date on it. Yeah, in fact, it says the Plaza Caesar Pele that's P-E-L-L-I, Scott Burton, Sia Armajani, and M. Paul Friedberg. 1989. We definitely did not see that last time. We were like, who did these things and when? Who will we ever know? Always read the plaque. I looked them up.

Caesar Pelley is one of the most influential architects in the world. Scott Burton's an artist. He died of AIDS in 1989. Cia Armajani is alive. He's another artist, living in Minnesota. And Impal Friedberg? Impal Friedberg's office is down the street from my apartment in Manhattan. Hi.

I was looking for Impal Friedberg. Turns out he's really one of the four runners of urban landscape design. We sat down for 15 or 20 minutes, which quickly became almost an hour. In part because of this whole Homeric feud behind the building of this fence. You ready? Yes, Homericized way. Okay. So Caesar Pelley was the main architect for the entire plaza, and he tapped our guy

Friedberg as his consultant. And I was very pleased. And normally, after the design was built, you would find places for the art to be located. And then you would go out and select the artists that you wanted. Now, that is the traditional, historically, the traditional way to go. I hear a butt coming. But this time, someone else was calling the shots, a planning official, basically. Uh-huh.

Kind of. I can't remember his name. I'm sorry. Anyway, this official comes along and says, we want you guys to work with an artist. And the architects are like, sure, of course. But then the official goes, no, you don't quite understand. We want you to use an artist as a co-equal member of the design team. Whoa.

Yes. That is, the artists are going to have just as much control as the architects. That's, so that was unheard of kind of. It was really unheard of kind of. It was really unheard of exactly. I'm architects in general, or we're unhappy. We're taking away an assignment, a piece of turf that architects have always had. Richard Khan is the guy's name.

Richard Khan. I'm Richard Khan. Former head of the Battery Park City Authority, which controlled this project. We argued him and then he said, you don't quite understand, that's the way it's going to be, whether you work on it or not. Oh, wow. So he was threatening your jobs, basically.

So the artists were chosen as usual through a competition. Now, we were not part of the judging either. This is a fate of complete for you guys. Absolutely. We were complete for you guys. Absolutely. We were handed these two guys. Sia Armijani and Scott Burton, the two other names on the plaque, so they're both artists. And Scott happened to be acquainted with Franco-Hara. I brought them along to the room.

We met them for the first time. And I said, I would like you to come up with a wonderful plan for the public space. So it's sorry, it's a very chilly hospital environment with the running i need to do suspiciously i mean you know i mean they just knew what the others were saying about and uh... and how badly um... and just you know each didn't want the other to be involved

and it was and again it was on principle so i just left them alone close door left just called me when you had something to show. So we met once. And they went on for a number of weeks. Met twice, met three times, and began to develop a certain trust in each other. They fell in love with each other. And we established rules. And the rules, I think, were essential. If any of us, there were four. If any of us, any one of us, did not want the design that was proposed. Of the other three, it had to be discarded.

It got time to do the fence and see his idea, not Scott's even, okay? It was primarily see his idea, because it also was part of his tradition. See is from Iran, where poetry is actually not mocked openly. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes. He selected a quote, not the rest of it. I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy. And read and took Sia's idea or a record store

and made it work physically. Or some other sign in the fence. That's my job in this. That people do not totally regret life. So I called Sia Armijani, and he didn't want to be interviewed for the radio. He did however want to go out for coffee sometime and talk about poetry. He said many people, many poets, of what was known as the New York School of Poetry, John Ashbury and them.

Called him after the fence was unveiled to thank him for such a wonderful tribute to their friend and colleague, Franco-Hara. O'Hara's sister, Maureen, called. There were tears, he said, to thank him. I mean, I just wanted to be in touch with him. This is Maureen O'Hara. Can I just say how electrocuting it is to talk with someone who shares the same genetic material as your personal messiah? Your brother is my favorite.

Oh, the Shawner, you wonderful. It's true. She says she loved the idea from when they first mailed her the design on paper. The drawings were sent to me in 1985. And when she finally saw it in the flesh? I was, I was just absolutely astonished and delighted. And it was, it was very emotional. Plus just aesthetically she said, the thing is brilliant. And the letters are formed, and they are set into the railing, and they shine, and they sparkle.

I mean, it really must have been quite a surprise. It still is today, to me. I feel the same way. And Frank would have loved it so much, just as he loved collaborating with his friends. You know, I mean, because really, in the spirit of it, it's so collaborative. So collaborative. And it's especially interesting in that poets do not get this kind of attention. I know. I was, that's why I was so shocked. I'm like, not only is it poetry, but it's Walt Women in Franco-Harrif. I know. I was that's why I was so shocked. I'm like not only is it

poetry, but it's Walt Women and Franco here. I feel like that's a deep cut and like I know. You know, normally poetry so either maligned or ignored. And it was so wonderful for Walt Whitman. I mean, yes, let's not forget. Oh, it's just it would just be such a thrill. But to me, I think poetry, I think there should be poetry should be in our garden, in our parks. This again is... Impulse Friedberg, right. And this actually taps into a major design principle of his. I think information should be layered in our environment. Information should be led cultural information. It should be layered in the environment. Not didactically. It should be an integral part when I say layered that if you are interested you extract it. A wall, it's a structural entity. How do you express that? It has force,

it has power, okay? That's a very important part of it. So the way you design the wall, but then again, the wall is also a billboard, okay? So how do you then express, what kind of information do you express on a billboard? It can be decorative, it can be color, right? It can be anything, right?

Like that. The idea that you're looking at a fence and yet you walk away with the thought as well. The fence is a barrier. So you almost have like a contradiction here. It breaks the barrier, okay? Poetry breaks the barrier. The idea that it doesn't stop you.

It begins something, you know? So, I'm making that up as I go. As I go. Yeah. So where do you end up with all this? It's funny. Melissa and I sort of had the same thought about it when we went back again for the second visit this time. About Whitman and O'Hara sort of looking down on the fence from some place. I hope they know. I don't even know if I believe in the afterlife, but it would be cool if they knew. You really would be, I think think about that all the time.

Really? Yeah, it would especially be cool for, for O'Hara. And it really makes me want to go back in time and say to Franco Hara, it's going to be okay. gohara. It's gonna be okay because one day a line from a poem that you wrote or in fact that you may have yet to write will be ensconced in bronze in a fence in New York City next to a line by Walt Whitman. So don't worry. If somebody came and said that to me, I think I'd, I think I'd, I'd, you know, feel a lot better than I usually do. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Sean Cole, Melissa O'Donnell and me Roman Mars.

Two gay poets too, I might add. Really? It's a project of KALW, 91.7, local public radio in San Francisco, and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. It's the punctuation against me. Yeah, it kills you. Perentices in a fence! Come on! You can find this show and like the show on Facebook.

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