Skip to main content

levy, d.a., 1942-1968

 Person

Parallel Names

  • Levy, D. A.
  • Levy, DA

Nationality

American

Found in 12 Collections and/or Records:

For Levy's Defense, 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-07268-7411
Scope and Contents

The cover depicts silkscreened portrait of levy and includes a handwritten inscription, "25 [cents] for levy's defense." The tipped-in silkscreen print on the page was probably made by levy. The text admonishes the people of Cleveland for the treatment of levy. According to a letter from Alan Horvath, this is the first version of the book that was subsequently published with a different cover/title page. Further, he indicated that pages were missing from the Sackner copy. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967

Forever Worship the Second Coming, 1968

 Item — Box 350: [Barcode: 31858072490869]
Identifier: CC-23190-23628
Scope and Contents

The cover was designed by Tom Kyyss. r.j.s. stands for Robert J. Sigmond, a poet who at age 19 years was incarcerated by the Cleveland authorities for six months because of using marijuana. d.a.levy's poem in this book, "Indictment of the City of Cleveland for Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors" describes that episode. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1968

Kibbutz In The Sky, Book II, 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-60428-56591
Scope and Contents

This prose poem deals with levy resigned to turning himself in to serve his sentence for the obscenity charge. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967

Letter exchange with Will Inman, re: self-loathing and drugs: [of course im egocentric...], 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-60902-10003761
Scope and Contents

This letter is about levy's self-pitying, depressive state of mind regarding the events surrounding him such as the Vietnam war and the assult on drugs. levy also castigates Inman for his anti-drug stand. According to the envelope, this letter was mailed March 8, 1967. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967

Letter to Bill Wyatt, re: defense fund & father's illness: [can u please write a letter to gene maeroff...], 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-60904-56227
Scope and Contents

levy asks Bill Wyatt to write a letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer indicating that levy is a poet not a smut peddler. Jonathan Dworkin mentioned in the letter was levy's defense attorney.The verso of the letter is a photocopied exhibition announcement for a Cleveland artist, Phillip Pekarcik. The verso of the envelope is collaged with the label, "GREETINGS FROM SWAMP ERIE." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967

Letter to Bill Wyatt, re: MQ (vol. 2, no. 4): [we just started on the next MQ (vol 2 #4)] and Light On, The Old Test, 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-60915-56224
Scope and Contents

The mailing envelope (dated May 12, 1967) to BILL WYATT + chris Torrance has a label on its left upper corner that reads "SMUT DOES NOT MELT IN YOUR HANDS." The recto of the letter to BIll Wyatt closes with "the best Way to fry yr enemies is to pray for their enlightenment." The verso of this letter deals with comments on the Assyrian Kings. levy ends his diatribe as follows. "SHAZAM" - this is turning into one of ed sander's' mongolian cluster fucks! forget the light / im turning on with the "Old ASS"/yrs KHU-ED-OHO GUARDIAN of the royal cisttern/d.a. levy bh -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967

Letter to David Harris (dwh), re: Steve Slavik: [im pretty sure slavik is ok...], 1968

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-60704-55616
Scope and Contents

levy comments in this letter about the politics of Steve Slavik. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1968

[police brutality in Cleveland], 1967

 Item — Box 617: [Barcode: 31858072461027]
Identifier: CC-60916-10003772
Scope and Contents This polemic deals with the reprecussions of the arrests of d.a. levy and James Lowell on obscenity charges (among others). According to Brandon Thomas DiSabatino on internet: As the regional headlines mark the 50th anniversary of the Hough Riots, I recall a line in a poem by d.a. levy, observing the madness that erupted from July 18th to July 23rd on the east side of Cleveland: they are looting stores trying to get televisions so they can watch the riots/on the 11 pm news It is an image my mind has conjured during riots and subsequent lootings over the past few years "” in Ferguson, in Baltimore "” where the strange, seemingly unmovable biases and struggles of class warfare appear inseparable from the American landscape. levy was born and raised in Cleveland, and he incorporated the Hough Riots in his poetry as he incorporated every aspect of Cleveland during the mid-to-late 60s. His self-described artistic mission was to give the city its own singular breed of poetry,...
Dates: 1967

The Brotherhood Of Bhang, 1966

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-45381-47571
Scope and Contents

levy wrote that this work was to be published in the next issue of MQ (Marrahwanna Quarterly). -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1966

Why I Got Busted & Other Nonsense, Part 1, 1967

 Item — Box 618: [Barcode: 31858072461035]
Identifier: CC-49028-70066
Scope and Contents

This is a polemic against the Cleveland establishment. In this piece, levy mentions that he decided to commit suicide at age 17 years but changed his mind at the last minute and began reading everything and writing poems. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates: 1967