The Audiovisual Series has been divided into two subseries: Sound Recordings and Video Recordings. The series provides a near-complete record of Piercy's recorded sound and video output, thus complementing and expanding the manuscript and photographic holdings. It consists mainly of professional recordings, although many of these works may now be out of print and unavailable elsewhere--in particular, the open reel tapes. Included are recordings of readings, lectures, and interviews given by Piercy, as well as musical performances of her poetry.
The Sound Recordings subseries has been organized according to format. Subseries include Reels, Cassettes, Compact Discs, and also Reformatted Sound Recordings. In order to facilitate access, each sound recording has been numbered. Recordings are numbered sequentially within each subseries (although some variation in the numbering system has occurred with accretions to the collection). Titles indicated in quotation marks in the finding aid are quoted directly from the labels of the recordings. In a few cases, particularly within the Commercial Recordings grouping, quotation marks are also used to indicate the title of a poem or work.
The Reels subseries is relatively small, but holds a treasury of Piercy's work from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Most of these open reel recordings were produced for radio broadcast, some for Radio Free People out of Brooklyn, New York. Included are Piercy poetry performances, in some cases accompanied by Jeriann Hilderley and others. Piercy is also recorded in interviews. "Other" features a musical setting of one of Piercy's poems composed and performed by Irwin Heilner, as well as various collaborations (which bear unclear or partly illegible labeling).
In order to facilitate access, all of the open reel tapes have been reformatted onto recordable compact discs (CD-Rs). These CD-Rs make up the Reformatted Sound Recordings subsubseries. Numbering and labeling for the CD-Rs corresponds exactly to that of the reels, so that researchers wishing to listen to the contents of PIERCYRR-1 should request PIERCYCDR-1 and so on. These CD-Rs are available for audition in the reading room of the Special Collections Library. (Advance notice may be required for retrieval and setup.) In at least one case, the tape's original label does not accurately or completely reflect the contents of the tape. In other cases, physical degradation of the original tape appears to have occurred, so that portions of the recording are less audible.
The Cassettes subsubseries is the largest in the series. The cassettes include readings, performances, and lectures by Piercy (and occasionally others); interviews; radio broadcasts featuring Piercy; commercial recordings (such as audio versions of Piercy's poetry and novels); and music (mostly musical settings of Piercy's poetry). Most of these recordings, even those not in the Commercial section, were produced for commercial use or broadcast. Within the Music section, the name listed before the title indicates composer or chief performer. Some of the music can be found in printed form in the Works by Others series.
The Compact Discs subsubseries consists of commercial recordings of Piercy and musical settings of her works. One item of note is a 2003 protest of the post-9/11 "New McCarthyism," featuring Marge Piercy, Eric Bogosian, Norman Mailer, and others.
The Video Recordings subseries consists of fourteen VHS videocassettes. The subseries is made up of the groupings Readings, Performances, and Lectures; Interviews; and Commercial Recordings. Many of the tapes are copies of television broadcasts featuring interviews of or performances by Piercy. Others capture her performances or addresses at live events, from commencement ceremonies to poetry festivals. One of the highlights of the subseries is an interview of Piercy describing a research trip to Germany for her World War II-era novel Gone to Soldiers. Most of the videotapes in the collection have been transferred to DVD. The numbering and labeling system for these DVDs reflects that of the videotapes: the contents of PIERCYVID-1 can be found on PIERCYDVD-1, and so on. These DVDs are available for viewing in the reading room, by advance request.