2026 Lost & Found Fellows Showcase: New Poetics and Archival Research Projects

Thu, Feb 19, 2026

6:00 PM–8:00 PM

The Skylight Room (9100), CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC. Free and open to all. Registration required.

Join Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative Graduate Center doctoral student fellows Ju Ly Ban, Cortnie Belser, Jeff Voss, Natasha Tiniacos, Lucien Baskin, Sam O’Hana, Liz Janoff, Michael Villanova, and Kehinde Alonge who will present their archival research projects on poets, writers, artists, and musicians whose contributions to New American Poetry remain understudied, including their political, pedagogical, and activist commitments, deepening and complicating common understandings of past historical and cultural moments.

Following the methodical model of “follow the person,” these 2025 Lost & Found Fellows will present their archival journeys and adventures researching such figures and subjects as: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s time from 1980 to 1982 when she lived in New York, working, teaching, preparing exhibitions, and writing Dictee; Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa’s unpublished poetry and “Tongues of Fire” manuscript; Stuart Hall ’s educational writings and & Black feminist educators in London; Richard Pryor’s unknown early writings including poetry, screenplays, and audio transcripts from 1971-1972 when he lived in Berkeley; the letters of Mary Ellen Solt exploring literary and political dialogues around Concrete Poetry in the 1960s; the influence of Charles Olson’s day job in the federal government’s Office of Wartime Information on his poetics; liner note poetics, oral histories, and political manifestoes from figures of Free Jazz tradition and the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s; the unpublished poetry of David Wojnarowicz; and the teaching materials of Gwendolyn Bennett, Claudia Jones, and Mae Mallory who transformed “community othermothering” into radical pedagogy.

Free and open to all. The event will be introduced by Lost & Found Faculty Mentors and Editors Zohra Saed and Megan Paslawski.

Learn more about the fellows and their archival projects and work here and below.

People

Liz Janoff

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Kehinde Alonge

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Cortnie Belser

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Michael Villanova

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Ju Ly Ban

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Lucien Baskin

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

ERI/PS2 Public Research Fellow

Jeff Voss

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Sam O’Hana

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Natasha Tiniacos

Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow

Faculty Mentors and Editors

People

Zohra Saed

Lost & Found Faculty Editor

Megan Paslawski

Lost & Found Faculty Editor

This event is organized and hosted by Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative from the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative Archival Research Grants were made possible by generous support from the Early Research Initiative at the CUNY Graduate Center, and co-sponsored by The Office of the Provost, and with generous support from Engaging the Senses Foundation.