Linda Frye Burnham: Poet & Publisher

Linda Frye Burnham is a poet and publisher who moved to downtown Los Angeles in the mid-1970s.

Her loft at 240 S. Broadway, in the historic Victor Clothing Building, became the central headquarters of High Performance, a magazine Burnham founded to document the thriving performance art scene that flourished throughout the '70s and '80s.

"I saw a lot of very vigorous art activity going on in Los Angeles around live performance by visual artists," Burnham explains in "Young Turks." "I didn't think anything was being done about it in the press, so I thought, 'Well, I'll just borrow the money and start my own magazine.' "

High Performance was a comprehensive chronicle of performance art activities not only in Southern California, but around the world. It was published from 1978-1998, and its archives now reside in the Getty Research Center.

Burnham and her husband, Steven Durland, moved to North Carolina in the early 1990s. She continues to write poetry on 28 acres in Saxapahaw. She also gardens and raises chickens.

Burnham also wrote the song "Downtown Blues," which is featured in "Young Turks." She sings as Jimmy Townes plays guitar on the recording, which was produced by The Dark Bob.