Artist Profiles
Featured: Maggie Dubris, Elinor Nauen and Barbara Barg
Maggie Dubris
Co-Founder, Song Writer
Maggie Dubris is the author of Skels, In the Dust Zone, and Weep Not, My Wanton among other poems and stories. She was in many different bands throughout the 80's, though Homer Erotic is the last band she was a part of. At a young age, her and Elinor Nauen wrote three editions of a not-so-traditional poetry magazine called Koff. She was a part of the later generation of the New York School and still lives in New York today.
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Barbara Barg
Co-Founder, Song Writer
Barbara Barg is the author of The Origin of the Species and Obeying the Chemicals and wrote many songs, screenplays and poems. She was an esteemed teacher at the university level and led many seminars. Her work with Homer Erotic demonstrates her brilliance in combining sound with poetry and writing music that provokes thought and response from her audience. She recently passed, though her talent and hard work is ever present.
Elinor Nauen
Friend, Poet
Elinor Nauen is closely associated with Homer Erotic because of her work with Maggie Dubris and with the New York School. She played in a band with Dubris called Kill All Your Darlings, though she focused more on writing than music. She has written many books and collections of poems that challenge gender stereotypes, such as CARS and Other Poems and Women Writers on Baseball. Her work in Koff with Dubris is well connected to Homer and an excellent reflection of their similarities.
Noteworthy Works
Explore Literary Work by the Artists
The Origin of the Species
by Barbara Barg
"What do I belong to- Soul or Chromosome?" is a central and provoking line in the song "After Agriculture" off of Yield. Barg explores this and many similar politico-manifesto ideas in this collection of work. This book is an excellent supplement to  many of the words and ideas behind Homer Erotic songs.
WillieWorld
by Maggie Dubris
WIllieWorld is an epic prose-poem surrounding Dubris' experiences as a night-shift paramedic in NYC in the 80's and 90's. She discusses life, death and the fragility that is between them. She explores the randomness of life and lack of control we often have over what happens during our time on Earth. It's a very deep collection of work and is extremely relatable to the philosophical questions proposed in songs like "Ebola Militia" and "Sandyland".
"Teeth" from CARS and Other Poems
by Elinor Nauen
A poem by Nauen featured in this collection. This poem is witty, nostalgic and clever like much of her work in Koff.
Koff magazine
Koff challenged esteemed New York School male poets like Frank O'Hara and Ezra Pound and featured nude photos of other male artists. Koff was a brilliant and hilarious effort to make poetry magazines more exciting and demonstrates their exuberant, witty personalities.
Homer Erotic, Koff, and the New York School
With Maggie Dubris being a founder and songwriter for Homer Erotic, her work in Koff is highly relevant to the music the band produced. Though Barbara Barg also did a lot of song writing for the band but wasn't involved with Koff, she nevertheless came out of the Poetry Project scene and was extremely involved with all of the New York School poetry activity that correlates to Koff. Elinor Nauen referred to Maggie and herself as "Ted Berrigan's offspring", noting how much they admired him and how he advocated for their work. It's important to note that the women in Homer were surrounded by poetry and punk growing together. The Fugs were one of the first bands to directly link poetry to the rock-n-roll, pop music of the 60's and 70's, which they decided to do because they wanted an audience to listen to what they had to say. This was the start of the punk-poetry movement that ultimately resulted in most poets "having a band", including Barbara Barg and Maggie Dubris.
