Poetry & Notebooks
Kurt Boone’s manuscripts and notebooks show writing in progress. An unpublished Harlem Rising manuscript and notebooks containing poems, book ideas, interview questions, and everyday notes offer a view of how his work took shape.
- Title
- Harlem Rising (unpublished manuscript)
- Description
- Harlem Rising is an unpublished 1998 manuscript by Kurt Boone, accompanied by an introduction by Renee Ashmeade. It includes seven typed pages of Boone’s writing and one handwritten page.
Kurt Boone Writing Notebook, 2015
This small notebook brings Boone’s writing and bicycle messenger work into the same space. Its pages contain the unpublished poem “Freedom Is the Air,” alongside sketches for courier patches, Monster Track sponsorship notes, and travel notes.
Explore the notebook below.
Monster Track XVII Flyer, 2016
Monster Track XVII flyer, 2016, created by Kurt Boone, who also coordinated sponsorship as part of the race’s organizing team.
Racers and Organizers of Monster Track
Kurt Boone with Monster Track racers and organizers JC Ramirez, Alfred Bobe, and Chris Thormann in New York City.
From Page to Object
Boone’s notebooks capture more than writing in progress. Alongside drafts and observations are sketches that trace ideas as they move from the page into material form. Designs developed in the notebook reappear as embroidered patches reflecting Boone’s life and work as a New York City bicycle messenger.
All Weather NYC / Messenger 841 Pro Patch
Embroidered patch based on a design sketched in Kurt Boone’s 2015 writing notebook.
International Courier Industries / Messenger 841 Pro Patch
Circular embroidered patch based on a design sketched in Kurt Boone’s 2015 writing notebook.
Messenger 841 Pro Series patch
Embroidered Messenger 841 Pro Series patch based on a design sketched in Kurt Boone’s 2015 writing notebook
From Notebook To Poem
Boone’s notebooks also preserve poetry in process. Drafts written by hand on their pages can be read alongside finished versions of the poems, tracing the movement of a work from notebook to completed text.
Across manuscript, notebook, poem, and object, Boone’s archive reveals a practice shaped through movement between writing and making. What begins on the page does not always remain there.