Ai Weiwei – His current exhibition at New York’s Jeffrey Deitch Projects – “Laundromat” – One of the aspects, included in the exhibition, one of its inspirations, in fact, is the Allen Ginsberg poem, “September on Jessore Road”. Weiwei explains:
“Allen is an old friend of mine. He has always had a strong compassion for those in need of help. With the help of the Allen Ginsberg Project and Larry Warsh, we received [recordings of] Allen’s early poems and readings. I think this is the best location for New York City to experience its own poet, the son of an immigrant, reading “September on Jessore Road”. His voice reflected the Bangladesh refugee crisis, which he saw when he visited the West Bengal refugee camps in the “70s. It’s a very touching poem evoked by a gentle, human voice. The story it tells is the same one unfolding today, the same story from a thousand years ago and, unfortunately, one that might continue into the future.”
Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize. So last weekend it was the ceremonies in Stockholm – See here – and Patti Smith‘s nervous heart-felt rendition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” -see here..
Read Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech – here
“……Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I’ve been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: (Rudyard) Kipling, (George Bernard) Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, (Ernest) Hemingway. These giants of literature, whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words……”
Remembering the Phoenix Bookstore and book-seller and publisher Robert A Wilson
