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Max Schwartz Obituary

Max Schwartz Max Schwartz, 71, passed away peacefully on Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 at Elant of Newburgh. He died of Alzheimer's disease. Max Schwartz who divided himself between Woodstock and San Francisco has been de scribed as one of the mad poets of San Francisco … I think you could say that Max probably contributed to the environment that eventually led to poetry slams and even hip-hop” (Bill Ganier). A native of Brooklyn, Max was driven by a relentless desire for world peace and a great appreciation of peoples around the world. Max was a free spirit even as a young boy. In the 1980s and 1990s he travelled the globe, participating in poetry festivals from Yugoslavia to Iraq. In Baghdad before the first Gulf War, Max's poems were translated into Arabic, and he was hailed by all as a great American poet. His travels were well documented in his exquisite photographs, especially headshots of ordinary people. Many of Max's best work have been exhibited in the Fletcher Gallery of Woodstock. Max made many appearances at galleries and coffeehouses on the East and West Coasts, attracting large followings. He was a frequent opener for his friend the legendary Nina Simone at the Village Gate. Max is best remembered as a performance artist. With a strong, earthshaking delivery his improvisations glorified peace and the need for us to embrace our differences. “He puts real spirit into his work…You feel as if you can step through his photography and his poetry and right into your own experiences” (Ozz;). Max always had his cameras and lenses around his neck along with a bottle of the hottest cayenne pepper. A strapping man the fifty or more pounds of paraphernalia only left him only while he slept. Before Jim Morrison gained world fame as the lead singer of the Doors he was Max's college roommate. An aspiring filmmaker, Morrison's only surviving film is his documentary starring Max. Max resisted efforts to become rich and famous and preferred a non-materialistic life. He was most at home on the streets, drawing large crowds around him as he spoke in his loud and expansive style. He was truly a poet of the people. Max is predeceased by his parents Lillian and Samuel Schwartz and his brother Jules. He is survived by his most devoted supporter his aunt Arlene Rosenfeld, his caring cousin Jeffrey Novack and friends Pierre and Terry Leroy. Thousands of others share remembrances of Max. He will be interred beside his beloved parents on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 at Mount Judah Cemetery, 81-14 Cypress Avenue, Ridgewood, N.Y. 11385, 718-821-1060. A celebration of Max's life will be held at the Woodstock Museum this spring.

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Published by the Daily Freeman from Dec. 11 to Dec. 12, 2012.

Memories and Condolences
for Max Schwartz

Sponsored by Harry J Beeman.

27 Entries

Alice Elizabeth Rogoff

December 5, 2021

Lately, I've found more printed poetry by Max, collected from another deceased poet.

David B. Axelrod, photo by Max Schwartz

David Axelrod

October 21, 2013

Max was a long-time friend and graced me with visits to my home and poetry readings I set up for him on Long Island. What a unique talent. He also took some of the best photos of me and my family that I've ever had. What a good man--a strange and peaceful man, a real force in poetry. David B. Axelrod

Camille Ludlow

July 20, 2013

I knew Max in Los Angeles when he was at UCLA after his motorcycle accident. I was a kid of 15 and he was very kind to me. My dad managed the apt. in Bel Aire where he and some roommates lived. I remember those dinners. I think once he made lamb and it was delicious. Also he turned me on to jazz, and was a big jazz buff. Funny what you remember. I'm glad to know that he kept living his wide-open life.

March 14, 2013

I was sorry to hear about Max. I knew him from Noe Valley Poets in San Francisco in the 1970s when Noe Valley
had the Meat Market Coffee House, and low-income artists.Every once in awhile I'd run into him back in Noe Valley or at the North Beach fair. It was hard to publish Max's poems - they were so spoken word. I went to Minnie's also. Sincerely, Alice Rogoff

Ron Cohen

March 8, 2013

I just found out that Max had passed. I haven't seen Max in many years but often checked out his poetry on line. I shared an apartment with Max and Jim and Rich at the top of Roscamare Rd
when we were at UCLA. Friday nights was flank steak soaked all day in wine, some additional wine with dinner and poetry. I remember Jim making his movie of Max and Liz and only saw it again last year, since College. There was nobody like Max. He was Jim's inspiration in so many ways. Max liked to go fast. he had spent a long period in the hospital after crashing his Norton Motorcycle on Sunset Blvd during those college days. That accident would probably have killed the average guy. Max was a very tough guy with a heart larger than life. What I loved most about Max was that he had an opinion and was never afraid to express it. I hope that all those who knew Max or read his poetry learn the most important lesson Max had to teach....to truly be yourself above all. May your soul be blessed Max.

Göran Dahl

February 20, 2013

R.I.P. Max

susan silver

February 10, 2013

i knew Max in college at UCLA. I had no idea what he had become and accomplished. I just saw a PBS movie on Jim Morrison who we hung out with and that let me to find about Max. amazing...would love to be in contact with any family

Carla Kent

February 8, 2013

Max... rest peacefully now... Shall always remember you and your passion for life, peace, poetry, humanity... Thanks for sharing your poetry, spirit and wisdom...So glad I met you and karen back in 92 in Woodstock xxx

At the doctor's (a treated photo!)

Claude Palmer

January 24, 2013

Hard to imagine this power stilled.We did innumerable events in san francisco, at minnie's can-do club and elsewhere. Never reading, always reciting, a love of jazz & travel. Max once fasted on only liquids for something like 9 months in protest of the san quentin writers' workshop being closed down, coming off the fast to eat Jeannie Hahn's Korean beef- not a great idea! But he made it. All love & many stories! Would love to have taken Max to Chiapas to be part of another revolution!

January 22, 2013

i am still dealing with how max would want me to celebrate is life, let alone his demise, you , your Voice on the late nite Tinkrer St Poetry readings, old news to you, you were one of the first beat Poetry Slammers. a white Man carrying a Blackman' soul in your knapsack, You Hobo Of universal appeal, we get your appeal and welcome you to our our soul, forever, Max we will grow in numbers in as the days you fasted for all of us, ahppy forever to you, i never expected the last time you helped me to be our last, when the world met you an Bruce Gibson , something had to give, we did,lol

Nancy Wallace

January 4, 2013

“It's you, Oak Tree, that tell me life outlasts death.” Max Schwartz, Sept. 21, 2003 in his back yard facilitating the Third Sunday Writing group. I can still hear and feel his passion inspiring one of my favorite poems...

Jim Palmarini

January 3, 2013

I ran a poetry reading around Church & Noe/SF in the early 80s. It was in one of those hallway coffee houses that was really too noisy and ambitious for the spoken word. Max was the feature, but he was late (aren't all great featured poets late?) and when he arrived with backpack and friends in tow, he laid his notebooks out, looked around the room (some poets, some listeners, lots of food & drink conversers), and just start booming out his poems. I honestly don't remember the poems, but I do remember how he quieted and squared the room with his passion and open heart. There are a lot of poets from those days who seem to have blended for me. Not Max. He was, as they say, one of kind. Godspeed Max.

Jon Raskin

January 2, 2013

He brought poetry to the prisons, not giving up on the encarcerated. He arranged for the Tumbleweed Dance troupe to perform at San Quentin and used hunger strikes to move the unmovable.

January 1, 2013

I remember Max Schwartz well from the 1970's - a large, robust young man with boundless energy and booming voice that could be heard above all the shouts at a demo. One of his ways of showing solidarity with the Native American movement was to pierce his bare chest with a hook to participate in the sun dance. The hook was attached to string or rope that was attached to a pole the all-male participants danced around.
That was Max: boisterous and a one hundred percent present : body and soul. No cameras hanging from his neck. It is hard to imagine him standing still long enough to take a picture. i'd love to see his fotos. He threw himself into the local scene of poetry, radical activist politics, and KPFA. Max Schwartz, presente!
Nina Serrano, Oakland, CA

Leslie Simon

December 31, 2012

He was a powerful poet and ran one of the most exciting open mikes in San Francisco in the 70s, at The Minnie Can-Do Club on Haight Street (earlier on Fillmore). I'll never forget the night he brought up Ntozake Shange to read her poem "Stuff." He told us we would be blown away, and, of course, we were. His work with prison poets was tireless, from writing workshops at Folsom to large readings at places like San Quentin. I'm glad to hear how he later roamed the world with poetry and pictures. My picture will always be of him at a mike blasting a great poem and then welcoming someone else up to the mike. Always generous, always conscious.

December 31, 2012

lotta us gonna miss you max qr

December 31, 2012

He was one of the most amazing poets, especially his spontaneous onthespot poetry. I'm glad to have known you Max, I'm sorry you're goine. Love, Love Sharon Doubiago

December 30, 2012

el amor de amigos y familiares ronda mundial nos llevan hacia el futuro responsable dulce
max knew this , KNOWS this

Juan Manuel Carrillo

December 30, 2012

A great friend. My wife Ada and I found him to be open to different peoples. He lived with few resources and I bought him a glass of wine whenever we ran into each other at cafe poetry readings, especially at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento. I first met him while working at the California Arts Council. He was legendary already in 1978. He was bringing poetry to inmates at Folsom State Prison.

December 29, 2012

Max, you were like the first time I saw a print develop, the image just appeared and it and you were magic. Joe Finkleman

Annie Menebroker

December 29, 2012

Max made it to Sacramento, California, where I met him, although I knew him through some friends of mine from N.Y. He was a larger than life person, who always seemed to have a jangle of keys hanging from his belt. You could always hear Max coming by the clanking, jangle of those damn keys! xo
Annie Menebroker

Traci Gourdine

December 29, 2012

A memorable poet, artist, and character during his years here in Sacramento, CA. I worked with Max on several levels and always knew he would bring a smile and a laugh everytime we crossed paths. He'll be missed

Bill Gainer

December 29, 2012

Max,
I will miss you forever...remember you forever...and love you always...
Bill

brenda morisse

December 24, 2012

Oh no! I loved you so so much, once upon a time. Just the other day, the beautiful Dalai Lama book that you gave to me, so many birthdays ago, just appeared when I need some light. I thought of you and read your note to me. It was very sweet, you could be truly romantic in that wild way of yours. Good-by my "bombastico" poet, with your weapon of words that could soar buildings and undress the trees.

jeff feller

December 16, 2012

a very passionate man.a poet. a concerned citizen.

Ronald Whiteurs

December 15, 2012

To one of the very best of us in the Mid-Hudson region of Poets, You have earned your rest in peace many times over, Max Schwartz.

Karen Sullivan

December 12, 2012

Rest in peace, warrior of the heart. You were an inspiration to countless poets and great hearts. Your love of jazz and Kukitcha tea and the common people will stay with me always.

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