Gallery 51 to Host "The Broadside: Marriage of Literature and Art" Lecture

NORTH ADAMS, MA –- MCLA Gallery 51 will host “The Broadside: Marriage of
Literature and Art,” on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. The event is free and
open to the public.

“The Broadside” will feature painter, graphic designer and calligrapher,
Julio Granda, along with poet and letterpress printer, Barry Steinlieb,
who will describe in detail the complex process of printing poetry and
visual imagery onto single sheets of handmade or mould-made paper to
produce lasting original creations.

Utilizing a diverse display of finely-printed, limited edition examples of
projects completed during the past 20 years, Granda and Sternlieb will
describe their experiences through poetry and discussion.

Broadsides – a form of street literature – began in the 16th century and
continued until the mid-19th century as a type of printing of large
printed sheets of paper, designed to be plastered onto walls. In the
centuries before there were newspapers and 24-hour news channels, the
general public had to rely on street literature to find out what was going
on. The most popular form of this for nearly 300 years was “broadsides.”
Sometimes pinned up on walls in houses and ale-houses, these single sheets
carried public notices, news, speeches and songs that could be read (or
sung) aloud.

By the mid 19th century, the advent of newspapers and inexpensive novels
resulted in the demise of the street literature broadside. Through the
ages, broadsides also have been a popular means of publishing single poems
for poets.~ In the last century, poetry broadsides matured into attractive
forms of art, often pairing a poem with a drawing or other design and
executed by printers of high creative merit.

Granda received his MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He
has been on the faculty and served as the chair of the Berkshire Community
College Fine Arts Department. His artwork has been shown all over the
Berkshires and throughout the country, and is included in many private
collections.

Sternlieb has been published in numerous magazines and literary journals,
including The New England Review and Yankee, as well as in various
anthologies such as Strong Measures: Contemporary Poetry in Traditional
Forms (Harper & Row) and Wild Song: Poems of the Natural World (Univ. of
Georgia Press). He also is the editor and publisher of Mad River Press,
specializing in handmade letterpress limited edition poetry chapbooks and
prints since 1986.

Reservations are recommended. If you would like to RSVP for this
presentation, please call 413-663-5253. MCLA Gallery 51 is at 51 Main St.,
North Adams. The Gallery is open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more
information, 413-664-8718, or go to www.mcla.edu/Gallery51 .