Starting in the early 1950s, the New York School of poets challenged the stuffy orthodoxy of mid-century American poetry by adopting the experimental tactics of European avant-garde movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism. This course offers a critical exploration of this influential group's varied body of work, with special attention to its extensive connections to the visual arts. Throughout the course, we will think about the New York School's activities in the context of Cold War American culture, emergent forms of queer sociality, and the rapidly changing urban environment of postwar Manhattan. Writers and artists covered may include Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Guest, James Schuyler, Joe Brainard, Alice Notley, Ted Berrigan, and Eileen Myles.