#title Cleveland Poet Needs Bail Money
#author Fifth Estate Collective
#SORTauthors Fifth Estate Collective;
#date 1967
#source [[https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/28-april-15-30-1967/cleveland-poet-needs-bail-money]]
#lang en
#pubdate 2025-06-16
#notes Fifth Estate #28, April 15–30, 1967

Cleveland poet D.A. Levy is in jail. He was arrested March 27 for publishing obscene literature and contributing to the delinquency of minors, which means he was reading poetry to kids under 18. Bail has been set at $1,000. Levy can’t raise it. “Poets in Cleveland make 89 cents a day,” he says, “on good days.”

Levy is also out on bond from a previous arrest, November 15, for possessing and distributing obscene literature—his poems. Bail was then set at $2,500 which a teacher friend raised. At that time, the Cleveland police raided the bookstore of James Russell Lowell, arrested him for selling obscene literature, and confiscated the poetry books of D.A. Levy and Robert Duncan. Duncan recently received a federal art grant for $10,000.

But D.A. Levy is in jail. He has no money for bail or his defense. All he has is his poetry. “The poetry scene in Cleveland,” Levy says, “exists in the center of my brain.” He is appealing through friends to poets and artists in New York for support, both moral and financial.

Fifth Estate readers can send bail money to 923 Plum Street and we will forward it.