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149.
YAM FESTIVAL.
Flyer advertising the all-night concert held at the Hardware Poet’s Playhouse, NYC, on May 11, 1963, part of the month-long Yam Festival (May spelled backwards). Single sheet, duplicated in aniline purple on recto only. 27.9x21.6cm.
The festival was conceived by George Brecht and Robert Watts, who invited Charlotte Moorman to organise a concert of new and experimental music as part of a continuous performance on May 11-12 (‘YamDay’) featuring about 140 works by 37 artists.
The flyer lists the concert performers (as well as Moorman, they included Joseph Byrd, Max Neuhaus, and dancer Yvonne Rainer), and the compositions she chose (works by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Joseph Byrd, Christian Wolff, Edgard Varèse, and Luciano Berio). The climax of the Yam festival was a daylong event organised by Allan Kaprow at George Segal’s farm on May 19, which included pieces by La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Wolf Vostell, Charles Ginnever, and Kaprow himself.
Near Fine.
