blacktitle.jpg (12329 bytes)  On "Street Musicians"  Andrew
Epstein  By all accounts, the close-knit community of New York
poets and artists was devastated by the news of Frank O'Hara's
sudden death in the summer of 1966, as if the invisible webs
that had fused together a far-flung series of fascinating people
who thrived on a sense of community and shared principles had
suddenly dissolved. In an obituary essay, Peter Schjeldahl
observed, without undue hyperbole, that "the New York art world
was collectively thunderstruck. In 15 years as poet, playwright,
critic, curator, and universal energy source in the lives of the
few hundred most creative people in America, Frank O'Hara had
rendered that world wholly unprepated to tolerate his passing"
(SchjeldaW, "Frank O'Hara," 139). The dance critic and poet
Edwin Denby noted that "Frank was the center and joined them all
together. After his death there was no center for that group"
(Waldman, "Paraphrase," 32).  In the years that followed, many
significant and divers