Please join PPOW, Primary Information, and The Poetry Project in celebrating the publication of Martin Wong’s Footprints, Poems, and Leaves and Das Puke Book!

Featuring readings by Wo Chan, Lydia Cortés, Christopher “Daze” Ellis, Antonia Kuo, Eugene Lim, Emily Zhou, and others TBA!

Self-published in 1968, Footprints, Poems, and Leaves collects dozens of poems written by Martin Wong between 1966 and 1968. Hand-written in a signature calligraphic style that he was just beginning to develop, the poems ebb and flow visually across the page, much like the fluctuating characters, scenes, and moods that inhabit them. This was Wong’s first book of poetry and it contains a double cover showcasing intricate drawings of skeletal angels and other tableaux, as well as a folded, looseleaf broadsheet containing two poems and a drawing of a boney leaf. Das Puke Book is a small chapbook self-published by Martin Wong in 1977. Written in the early 1970s, the publication contains thirteen chapters of handwritten micro-fictions filled with cringeworthy stories unfolding in San Francisco and beyond.

A related exhibition of works on paper by Martin Wong and Toronto-based artist Paul P. will open at PPOW on Friday, March 15, 6-8pm at 390 Broadway, Floor 2