Beat Studies – Beat Studies in academia. We were late (we are late) in putting out word about The Beats – A Teaching Companion (edited by Nancy McCampbell Grace) – “The volume’s twenty-two essays are divided into six sections: 1) Foundational Issues, 2) Beat Literary Genres, 3) Beat Literary Topics, 4) Beat Lineages and Legacies, 5) Selected Resources, and 6) Sample Assignments. The volume presents a blending of authors and subject matters representative of current styles and methods of Beat scholarship”. Fortunately our good friend, David S Wills, over at Beatdom has provided a useful and comprehensive review – see here
The Beats – A Teaching Companion is part of a wider project – a collaboration between the Clemson University Press and the Beat Studies Association – the Beat Studies series. The next title in the series (due in October) is Matt Theado‘s The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes of American Poetry
Another title we missed, the first in the series, published August 2020, Ed Sanders‘ – In the Rebel Cafe – Interviews with Ed Sanders (edited by Jennie Skerl). Reviews of that volume may be read here (by A Robert Lee of the European Beat Studies Network) and here (for Sensitive Skin by Marc Olmsted)
Speaking of the European Beat Studies Network, co-founder (along with Oliver Harris), Polina Mackay has a new book out in December – Beat Feminisms: Aesthetics, Literature, Gender, Activism
“This is the first book-length study to read women of the Beat Generation as feminist writers. The book focuses on one author from each of the three generations that comprise the groups of female writers associated with the Beats – Diane di Prima, ruth weiss and Anne Waldman – as well as on experimental and multimedia artists, such as Laurie Anderson and Kathy Acker, who have not been read through the prism of Beat feminism before.”
& speaking of the Beat Studies Association (and Matt Theado), the Kobe exhibition that we mentioned here last week is now fully up and running. First edition books, rare broadsides, gallery talks, the center piece is Kerouac’s “On the Road” typescript replica, a stunning achievement produced by Okamura Printing Company. See here:
and also from last week More on The Beat Museum’s Lawrence Ferlinghetti show.
See here for an interesting note on Hollis Holbrook, whose painting (it’s not a self-portrait) graces the cover of Ferlinghetti’s last book of poetry, Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems
Beat ambassador, Blake aficionado, jazz poet Michael Horovitz passed away this past Wednesday – a spirited anti-academic, an indefatigable poetry proselytizer, and a long-time energetic and ubiquitous presence on the English scene.
Michael was, of course, one of the organizers of (and a memorable participant in) the legendary 1965 Royal Albert Hall International Poetry Incarnation
Read his obituary notice from England’s Poetry Society – here and from Jazzwise – here
and from The Guardian – here
Concluding, as has been our habit in recent weeks, with a little music. Another cut off The Fall of America Tribute CD – Devendra Banhart – Milarepa Taste.
“Who am I? Saliva,/ vegetable soup/ empty mouth?/ Hot roach, breathe smoke/ suck in, hold, exhale—/ light as ashes”