25 Facts About Steve Dalachinsky

Steven Donald Dalachinsky was an American downtown New York City poet, active in the music, art, and free jazz scenes.

Steve Dalachinsky wrote poetry for most of his life and read frequently at Michael Dorf's club the Knitting Factory, the Poetry Project and the Vision Festival, an Avant-jazz festival held annually on the Lower East Side of New York City.

Steve Dalachinsky collaborated with many musicians, writing liner notes for artists: William Parker, Susie Ibarra, Matthew Shipp, Joe McPhee, Nicola Hein, Dave Liebman, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Joelle Leandre, Kommissar Hjuler, Thurston Moore, Sabir Mateen, Jim O'Rourke, and Mat Maneri.

Steve Dalachinsky's spoken word albums include Incomplete Directions and a collaboration with Shipp on the album Phenomena of Interference.

Steve Dalachinsky's works appeared in several journals and anthologies as well.

Steve Dalachinsky lived in Manhattan with his wife, painter and poet Yuko Otomo.

Steve Dalachinsky was born in 1946, Brooklyn, New York, "right after the last big war and has managed to survive lots of little wars", which is how he is frequently described.

Steve Dalachinsky grew up in the Midwood section of the borough that was mostly an Italian and Jewish neighborhood with parents that were working class.

Steve Dalachinsky said he was "always writing" at an early age and was "involved in art".

Steve Dalachinsky was once kicked out of a Hebrew school because he was "wearing a cross", and hung out with the Italian kids in the neighborhood which "framed his perception of being Jewish", according to him.

Steve Dalachinsky started taking art lessons at the Pratt Institute where for 18 months he first attempted his hand at painting, eventually turning to writing poetry full-time.

Steve Dalachinsky was given copies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind and Allen Ginsberg's Howl, which he says changed his style of writing.

Steve Dalachinsky was influenced by the writings of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Ezra Pound, Delmore Schwartz, Federico Garcia Lorca, and William Blake, especially the work Auguries of Innocence by Blake.

Steve Dalachinsky related that writing process was as if "spontaneity mixed with a conscious pushing" and a "descriptive transformation".

Steve Dalachinsky's works have been portrayed as leaning towards "transforming the image rather than merely describing it".

In 2006, Steve Dalachinsky published a book of poems devoted entirely to Gayle, with the poems appearing chronologically in the order of the venues where Gayle performed at.

Sometimes when Gayle's performance came with a sermon or lecture, commenting on topics like abortion or racial separatism, Steve Dalachinsky would react with his poems reflecting the mood:.

Steve Dalachinsky released a collection of poems, titled A Superintendent's Eyes,.

Steve Dalachinsky read throughout the New York City area including at the: Poetry Project, Vision Festival, ISSUE Project Room and the Knitting Factory.

Steve Dalachinsky read in Bordeaux, Sete and in Paris at Les Instants Chavires and the L'Olympic Cafe.

Steve Dalachinsky read at the Centre international de poesie in Marseille, Maison de la Poesie de Nantes at Pannonica, participated in the Sons d'Hiver Festival and the Val-de Marne International Poetry Festival.

Steve Dalachinsky penned liner notes for recordings of several musicians: Roscoe Mitchell, Charles Gayle, Anthony Braxton, James Blood Ulmer, Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Assif Tsahar, Derek Bailey and Rashied Ali.

Steve Dalachinsky's spoken word albums include Incomplete Directions, Phenomena of Interference with Matthew Shipp and I thought it was the end of the world then the end of the world happened again with Federico Ughi.

In 2019, Steve Dalachinsky released his third and last collaboration with The Snobs, Pretty in the Morning, on french label Bisou Records.

Steve Dalachinsky died of a stroke on September 16,2019, at a hospital in Long Island, New York, at the age of 72, thirteen days before his 73rd birthday.