The big news today. Upcoming on the Ginsberg site, we’re working on a number of upgrades and changes. Stay tuned (and bear with us as we iron out all of the issues of transition). Starting next week, we’ll no longer be with blogger, the blog will be accessible, instead, via a newly-vamped and considerably-improved ginsberg.org site. We anticipate a few problems vis a vis access to some of the older posts (the archives), but, don’t worry, we’re on the case with this and we’ll have everything back up, accessible and better-than-ever, before too long.
Meantime, a quick Friday Round-Up:
Tom Hayden‘s passing this week. We continue to mourn.
The New York Times obituary is here, the LA Times obituary is here
Here is Democracy Now! ‘s memory and celebration
Here is his 30,000 word Port Huron Statement (the key text that he was instrumental in drafting in 1962 for the SDS) – Tom Hayden, a prescient voice of conscience against the Vietnam War
Several decades later – August 2 1993, Allen to Gary Snyder:
“Returned tonight from Naropa – saw Tom Hayden who was addressing our Ecological Studies section. We mentioned Peter Warshall‘s work in unbuilding a dam in Maibu. Hayden said he’d got the money out of state legislature for some project (but hadn’t met Warshall except maybe briefly). Interestingly, he seemed to’ve moved (as an ex-Catholic) to spiritual ground for ecology, focusing on local politics. Knew your work and had read Rick Fields (who was present at the lecture) – strange circles..”
Strange circles.
Looking back to December, 1967
Alan Ziegler (who we’ve featured here before) posted, earlier this week, a delightful Allen Ginsberg remembrance – “Tales of the Sixties: Allen Ginsberg’s Three Days In Schenectady“. Among the recollections: (Bob) Dylan‘s Scarf: “Allen notices the album jacket for Dylan’s John Wesley Harding propped against our stereo speaker, and points to the scarf worn by one of the people standing next to Dylan. “Dylan gave it to me,” Allen says, extending the scarf he is wearing”. (and) Dylan’s Poetry: “We discuss (Bob) Dylan as poet: “ ‘The motorcycle black Madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen!’” Allen declaims. “That’s as good as anything I’ve written!”
Uncle Allen: “Allen walks by the poster of him wearing an Uncle Sam hat. He stops, backtracks, and signs his name on the ribbon.”
Bathtub: “I awaken in the middle of the night and step into the bathroom, startled to see Allen Ginsberg in his underwear crouching over the bathtub. He is washing his blue jeans.”
For more sacred and profane revelation, (crumbs, but nonetheless interesting crumbs) – see here
Congratulations to Allen’s (ex-) student, Paul Beatty, 1989 alumnae (MFA) of Brooklyn College, winner of the prestigious 2016 Man Booker Prize
” Allen Ginsberg’s generosity, his oddball stories, and his boundless love for poetry and process, always left me grateful and thinking, ‘I didn’t know you could to that…
and, still in the environs of the UK,
Allen’s reading of “Who Be Kind To” at the Albert Hall in 1965 at the International Poetry Incarnation is featured in this brief clip from BBC radio – here