Today, as the estimable Dangerous Minds have pointed out, is the 44th anniversary of the attempted exorcism and levitation of the Pentagon. Here’s Edward Folger’s “impressionistic immersion” (in that day), “Washington 10/21/67” Devin Faraci, over on Badass Digest, inducts one of the key participants Abbie Hoffman into the “Badass Hall of Fame”. Hoffman’s spirit, all be it twenty-two years on from his physical demise, continues to hover. Certainly it’ll be hovering over the proceedings in New York on Sunday. Poets for Renewable Energy and Peace (PREP) plan on holding their first public event (part of the Howl Festival’s month of events) at Theater 80 (80 St Marks Place) 1-4. David Henderson, Eliot Katz, Bob Rosenthal and Anne Waldman are among the scheduled participants. In addition, “several emerging poets whose families are from Afghanistan and the Middle East”. In addition, the Brooklyn group,The Mast, and, a planned “group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s great anti-nuclear energy poem, “Plutonian Ode
Meanwhile, the Howl movie (we’ve not written about that for quite a while) gets its African premier (let’s hear it for cinema’s global reach) [ 2013 update – link here, no longer available}
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We thought we’d seen the end of the “The Beat Goes On” header, but, oops, here it is again – Lauren Mateer in The IthacanThe Beat Goes On – 1950’s Beat Generation Influences Current Culture (no? really?)
Against that, an intelligent, contrarian, viewpoint – Richard Oyama’s “My Beef With the Beats” (mixing personal reflection with critical reflection). [2018 update – this article is no longer on-line] –Hagiography – or, rather, Anti-Hagiography. “I’m not about to genuflect at the altar of the Beat boys’ club”, writes Richard. We’d go along with that.