NYC Arts: The Complete Guide to Art and Culture

Ten Penny Players has an online archive of over 700 poetry publications from its library of over 3000 original publications.  The archive is available free of charge to researchers, teachers, students, parents and the general public. 

In 1967 Barbara Fisher and the late Barbrah Messing established Ten Penny Players to produce theater for inner city children, but it has since changed its focus to small press poetry. Ten Penny Players' ongoing online archives, videos and publications may be freely accessed at www.tenpennyplayers.org. Ten Penny Players programs are presented without charge in libraries, schools, parks, online and other venues.

The Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players began in the summer of 1979, when a consortium of 25 small press poetry publishers in New York State began a series of weekly fairs on waterfront locations throughout the city, and occasionally, upstate.

The poetry book fairs evolved into Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, a small press literary magazine that has been published 11 times a year for over 30 years. A digital archive of these magazines is available at www.tenpennyplayers.org. 

In the mid 1980s Ten Penny Players  brought the small press poetry program to New York City public schools and began a 20-year partnership with alternative high schools and programs.  The arts in education program worked with teachers to develop classroom-based, small press poetry publications.  STREAMS, an annual anthology of representative writing, was published for 16 years.

IN SEARCH OF A SONG is the series of poetry chapbooks containing writing by children and young adults that the Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players began in 1981 at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library.  In the mid-1990s the IN SEARCH OF A SONG series was offered to New York City alternative high school students and since then over 1,000 students have been published in their own chapbooks.

Streams On Line (SOL) was developed for Ten Penny Players with LRW.net and support from the NYC Center for Arts Education in 1998.  SOL, an online poetry workshop, was used by teachers in alternative high schools and programs throughout the city.  It allowed individual students to work with teachers and peers to develop poetry portfolios online.

Ten Penny Players’ picture book curriculum evolved from IN SEARCH OF A SONG and work with artist, Molly Barker.  This learning experience was supported with funding from the NYS Council on the Arts Empire State Partnership program and entered the NYS Academy for Teaching and Learning in 2000.

Ten Penny Players is dedicated to using the arts to include all learners (with a special mission to those with disabilities) and integrate literacy, creative expression, small press publishing, performance, computer skills and critical thinking into a curriculum created for a network of schools, libraries, community-based organizations and distance learners.

Through workshops, publications and performances, Ten Penny Players encourages participants to actively engage in creative communities.

• Archive: The online archive currently contains over 500 titles that are freely available. Work is in progress to further expand and index the online archive.

Get involved with Ten Penny Players

• Donations through NYCharities.org
• Donations through Ten Penny Players's Web site: Those interested may contribute a donation to Ten Penny Players through Google Checkout.
• Subscriptions: Those interested may subscribe to Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream a small press magazine that comes out 11 times a year.