Perhaps the seeds had been sown in North Carolina's experimental Black Mountain College all the way back in the early 1930s but post-war USA saw an explosion of socially conscious, formally adventurous poetry. Some of these new poets were also working in other disciplines such as painting, music, film-making, and dance. The civil rights movements was being born. The Beats and the New York School poets embraced this new world with a joy that is almost tangible in the design of their books.