The Ginsberg visage looming colorfully over First Avenue & East 9th St, New York City, announcing this weekend’s upcoming Howl Festival. Art by Chico
A Thursday Round-Up instead of a Friday Round-Up today, in preparation for tomorrow, June 3 -“the big day” – what would have been Allen’s 85th birthday!
Howl Festival in full array, kicks off tomorrow, Friday-night, in Tompkins Square Park, “just before dusk”, with the annual group-reading of the poem, “conducted in a symphonic manner”, by Bowery Poetry Club’s Bob Holman, and featuring, this year, amongst others, Ed Sanders, Steven Taylor, Eliot Katz, Hettie Jones, Bob Rosenthal, David Henderson, John Giorno, Miguel Algarin and Andy Clausen – followed by numerous events.
And meanwhile in Edinburgh, Read This Press and The Forest have combined to host Happy Birthday Allen Ginsberg
And, as we mentioned last week, in Atlanta, Georgia, there’s the Atlanta Howl-a-Thon.
In the meantime…
We like to start with stories about the apocalypse, how’s this? – taking shelter from the tornado (twice!) during the performance of Hydrogen Jukebox!
Jerome Weeks recounts – he actually had – this experience (recently, at the Sanders Theatre, Fort Worth Texas) here – and Peter Simek, here. John Austin’s preview, in the Star-Telegram (of the piece he describes – flatteringly, it should be pointed out – as “the love child of Ginsberg and minimalist composer Philip Glass”), and a subsequent review, an enthusiastic review, in the same paper, several days later may be read here. [2013 update -these reviews from the Fort Worth local paper are no longer available]
Speaking of enthusiastic reviews. We know we’ve sung its praises before, but here’s another review (Jarren LaLonde Alenier’s at The Dressing) of The Beat Atlas
And Lewis Huxley at Popmatters looks at another of Bill Morgan’s books, The Typewriter Is Holy.
Lest you missed them, and strictly speaking only peripheral to our Ginsberg concerns, but worth reading, two from the West Coast – Carolyn Kellogg (in the LA Times) on Kerouac in Orlando, Florida – and Ron Dart in San Francisco writes of the Beats and the California mountains.
Drinking tea/without sugar/no difference. We love Allen’s haiku – and we love Tim Joiner’s under-stated film evocation of it.