Arts Features

September 5th marked the 102 anniversary of the birth of the American avant-garde composer, artist, and writer, John Cage. The man, who said, “I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry,” received much acclaim for his poetic works, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an appointment as the Charles Elliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University for the 1988’-89’ academic year.  His lectures have been published by Harvard University Press under the title I-IV. One afternoon in March, 1992, at the same time the artist had a visual exhibition up at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he performed a reading at The Poetry Center of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  From that appearance, originally recorded by WFMT for broadcast on WFMT, we will hear John Cage reading his 1991 work titled “Overpopulation and Art.”