Important breaking-news (regarding an earlier posting) – a Saudi court earlier this week overturned the death-sentence on poet Ashraf Fayadh – but hardly proposing leniency! His new punishment? – He’s sentenced to eight years in prison and eight hundred lashes, (to be carried out on sixteen separate occasions), and must formally renounce his poetry on Saudi state media. Needless to say, the campaign for his freedom and full exoneration vigorously continues.
William Burroughs birthday today (fitting news following such grotesquerie?) A shout-out today and we’ll be celebrating all weekend. & it’s Neal Cassady‘s birthday, incidentally, on Monday. Here is the poster from last weekend’s Cassady Birthday Bash
Wait Till I’m Dead, Allen’s new book, was officially released on Tuesday “New York to San Fran”, the longest poem in the book, excerpted in the current Poetry magazine, may be read here.
Our posting on another poem, “Amnesiac Thirst For Fame”, may be accessed here (and see here, for excerpts from Rachel Zucker‘s lively introduction)
All through the month of February, in celebration of its 75th birthday, the CVA (Centro Venezolano Americano) in Caracas (in collaboration with the bookstore, “El Buscón ” & under the aegis of actor-producer, Rodolfo Alonzo), will be hosting a series of readings, accompanied by jazz and performance, focusing on the Beat Generation
Allen Ginsberg in the Netherlands 1983 Revisited – the hommage show featuring the Mondriaan Quartet, Han Buhrs interpretating “Howl”, and more (see here) – plays Rotterdam’s Arminius space this coming Thursday
The annual Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award Winners Reading in Paterson, New Jersey is tomorrow
Marcia Resnick ‘s photo show, Punks, Poets and Provocateurs (see also her book of the same name) opened last night in New York at the Howl Happening space . That show will be up till March 2nd.
