We here at The Allen Ginsberg Project have been told, by some, that we are, perhaps, just a little bit overly hung-up on birthdays! – And they’re right, of course!
Today three figures of oblique, but nonetheless, generating, significance for Allen. April 7.
First up, Daniel Ellsberg, “Pentagon whistle-blower”
Second, Billie Holiday, “Lady Day”
Third, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, William Wordsworth
Here‘s 80-years-old Ellsberg on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! show – on the Chelsea Manning case (on which he’s more than qualified to speak!) (and here’s more recent updated commentary here). [2017 update – and, of course, the ongoing story of Chelsea Manning has developed significantly since this 2012 post] [2019 update note the disturbing conditions Chelsea Manning finds herself in]
Here’s “Lady Day” eulogized by Frank O’Hara – and a selection of matchless Billie tracks
and, finally, here’s Allen on Wordsworth (further NAROPA Ginsberg-on-Wordsworth, including the alarming late Wordsworth, pro-capital punishment?!, is available here).