NYU CELEBRATES ACQUISITION OF ARCHIVE OF SPANISH CIVIL WAR WITH PULITZER-POET LECTURE, EXHIBITION ON OCT. 12

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive (ALBA), the most comprehensive historical record of American involvement in the Spanish Civil War, was acquired recently by New York University. Housed at NYU’s Tamiment Library, on the 10th floor of Bobst Library (70 Washington Square South), the collection comprises the office files of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as well as the personal diaries, oral histories, autobiographical writings and memorabilia of the veterans.

The acquisition will be celebrated with two special events:

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Philip Levine Discusses “The Poetry Of The Spanish Civil War”

On Friday, October 12, at 6:15 pm, NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center will host the Fourth Annual ALBA/Bill Susman Lecture, highlighting the Archive’s arrival on campus with a special lecture and reading by the renowned American poet Philip Levine. In “The Poetry of the Spanish Civil War,” Levine will discuss his own fascination with the Spanish Civil War and with the poets who responded to the conflict. He will read from such Spanish poets as Rafael Alberti, Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia Lorca (killed early in the conflict), as well as from W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Edwin Rolfe (an American poet who participated in the war), John Cornford (who died in the war at age 21), Pablo Neruda, Michael Quinn, and Miguel Hernández, and from several of his own works.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, 53 Washington Square South. For further information the public may call (212) 998-3650.

Exhibit Showcasing Spanish Civil War on View at NYU’s Bobst Library

"To Fight in Spain: Selections from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives at New York University," an exhibit of material garnered from ALBA, opens at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 12, and will be on display on the B-level of NYU’s Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, through early January of 2002. The archive itself will be housed in Bobst’s tenth-floor Tamiment Library.

The exhibit highlights the participation of NYU students, New York City and America in the Spanish Civil War. Featured are:

· Photos, diaries and letters of NYU students who volunteered; · Newspapers and pamphlets from war-torn Spain; · Propaganda and support-raising materials from Spain and NYC, including a celebrity benefit with Duke Ellington at Madison Square Garden; · Material on the war after the volunteers came home (many served in World War II as well); · Banners, flags, buttons, and badges; · Photographs documenting every aspect of the volunteers’ lives: fighting, cooking in hospitals, putting out newsletters, arriving and departing from the U.S., relaxing with buddies.

Materials in the Archive document not only the wartime experiences of the volunteers but also the stories of their lives. The Archive is an important resource for scholars of both the Spanish Civil War, fought 65 years ago to defeat the fascist alliance of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini, and American radical politics in the period between the two World Wars.

For further information concerning the exhibition, the public may call the Tamiment Library at NYU, 212/998-2630.

09/28/01