Quite the reaction at Hollywood’s Sunset 5…
Carolyn Kellogg in the LA Times
“By the time they got to the Holy-Holy-Holy part, the 50 poets and fans who’d assembled for a group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” had worked up lots of momentum. Voices raised together, arms thrust in the air, people stamped. The event was scheduled but unscripted, appropriately chaotic; the sound guy got caught in traffic so there were no mics. No problem: a rough circle formed and people raised their voices one by one, sometimes doubling or overlapping…
S.A.Griffin and Rafael Alvarado, who have long been active in the Los Angeles poetry scene, had been invited by Hollywood’s Sunset 5 Theater to do a panel discussion for the film “Howl” on its opening night in Los Angeles.
But instead of a tidy discussion of Allen Ginsberg and the poem, Griffin suggested, why not just read “Howl” out loud? And where better to read aloud than outside the theater, on the mall’s second floor plaza, where people – like those leaving the adjacent gym – might stumble across the poem-in-action and stop to listen?
Read the full story by Carolyn Kellogg – hereĀ
While we’re on “Howl” group readings, here’s one from this year’s Howl Festival, conducted by Bob Holman, with Anne Waldman, among others, reading sections.