Mikhail Horowitz

Mikhail Horowitz
Mikhail Horowitz, circa 1970
Born	Michael David Horowitz (1950-01-18)January 18, 1950 Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation	editor, journalist, poet, performance poet, social commentator
Spouse	Carol Zaloom
Children	None

Mikhail Horowitz (born January 18, 1950) is an American poet, performance poet,parodist, satirist, social commentator, author and editor.

Mikhail Horowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1967 and went on to attend State University of New York at New Paltz where he performed in a production of Carlo Gozzi's Turandot. He frequented on and off-campus poetry readings and performance gigs, reading his own poetry, playing the recorder and harmonica and performing with local musicians, including Raoul Vezina, Richard J. (Rich) Rizzi and others. In classic '60s style, he dropped out of college in 1970 to work full-time on the Gargoyle, the Hudson Valley's first alternative or "underground" which he helped to start in 1969 in New Paltz, Ulster County, NY — then a major center of student action, antiwar protest, assisted psychotropics, and artistic renaissance.

While working on the Gargoyle Horowitz changed his name to Mikhail ("Mik") Horowitz, as he was often confused with Michael Horovitz, a widely published post-Beat British poem who was enamored of jazz and who orchestrated the Poetry Olympics in London, and Michael Horowitz, author, activist, friend of Timothy Leary and later father of Winona Ryder. The deciding straw was receiving a mistakenly delivered packet of galley proofs from one of Michael Horovitz’s publishers.

Beginning in 1973, Horowitz spent five years on the road, mainly on the West Coast, as the 'Null' half of the comic duo Null and Void. 'Void' was his comedic partner Francesco (Frank) Patricolo. Horowitz referred to this collaboration as "a metaphysical stand-up tragedy team." The partnership, but not the friendship, broke up in 1978. After this, he continued to perform on his own, with musicians and a variety of performance artists in the Mid-Hudson Valley, New York. In 1989, he teamed up with Paris born/American raised Gilles Malkine, a musician and composer. Malkine performed with Tim Hardin at the original , 1969; through the years he worked with many other musicians, including John Sebastian and Billy Faier. Horowitz and Malkine continue to perform together actively into 2009. They have presented more than 750 performances in New York, New England, Michigan, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington (state), Ohio, and Ontario to date. Their repertoire varies greatly but often contain audience favorites, particularly routines with literary motifs and references to American culture, particularly the 60s/70s and [Jewish culture]. In 1978 City Lights books published Big League Poets, baseball card collages of imaginary historical and literary baseball players.