The Fall of America – Vol II, The Fall of America tribute record gets its official release today
As we announced last week, there’ll be an official launching in New York at the Howl Happening Gallery, this evening, 6-8 (250 Bowery, 2nd floor)
“Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive proudly announces :
“Howl! Arts/Howl! Archive celebrates the release of Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America Vol II, a musical interpretation of poems from Ginsberg’s The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971.
Join us for a film screening including Philip Glass & Allen’s Have you Seen this Movie?, Ai Weiwei and O Future‘s Allen Ginsberg’s Hum Bom, Jack Dangers & Allen‘s Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss, CJ Mirra and Kai Campos & Allen ‘s Bixby Canyon, and Seb Taylor & Allen‘s, Over Denver Again.
Vinyl and CDs will be available for purchase at the event. All proceeds from sales will benefit Pen America.
& Material Wealth – Pat Thomas‘ new book that we announced back in May (Material Wealth- Mining The Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg) will be out next month. Beatdom last week offered a glimpse, a few selections
More, much more, on this exciting project in the coming weeks
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, the annual Kerouac celebration in Jack’s home town is taking place again this weekend.
Tonight sees a spectacular evening at Olympia’s Zorba’s Music Hall on Market Street, an evening of tributes to nonagenarian and eminent Jack-o-phile, David Amram.
Tomorrow, (2 pm, at the MCC Donahue Family Academic Arts Center on Central Street) – the Annual LCK Parker Lecture, this year will be delivered by Paul Marion – Jack Kerouac’s Evolving Position in Lowell, 1950 to 2023. (Marion, one of the LCK founders, will discuss “the evolving public perception of 20th-century author Jack Kerouac in his hometown, examining the dynamic relationship between an innovative, news-making writer and the city that shaped him.”)
Sunday (6pm, at the Luna Theater. Mill Number 5. 520 Jackson Street) Brian Hassett will be presenting his “Jack on Film, Take 2”
For a full list of the programming for this year – see here
and more Kerouac news – Kerouac biographer, Steve Turner, looks back on his Kerouac biography, Angelheaded Hipster – here
Paul Maher Jr‘s – Becoming Kerouac – A Writer In His Time is scheduled for a November release – see here
William Burroughs news – pleased to report that the recent Paris-based Cut-Up Conference turned out (but, of course) to be a great success. Oliver Harris‘ “Les “Cut-Ups” de William Burroughs, Peru et retrouves dans la traduction” (a translation by Bertrand Grimaud of his 2018 essay, “William Burroughs’ Cut-Ups Lost and Found in translation”) may be found, (en francais), in its entirety – here, Brandon W Joseph, in a brief review, sings the praises of Harris’ work on the cut-up novels, in a recent note in Artforum – here
and – more illuminating Burroughs scholarship – Thomas Antonic‘s pioneering 2020 work in Amongst Nazis: William S. Burroughs in Vienna 1936/37 – (see here) was recently amplified by Richard Byrne and Antonic’s Substack posting – “Meet Ilse Burroughs – Ilse Herzfeld Klapper, (a once-shadowy figure, Burroughs’ first wife, pre-Joan) – see here
Banned Books week this past week – KGNU community radio have unpacked an interesting item from their archive – “From The Archives to the Air” – “This episode ..begins with a recording of a KGNU listener call-in show, dating from early 1988, discussing contemporary censorship and the banning of “Howl” on the radio ( a hot issue then and still the case)
The second half consists of an interview (from 1994) with poet and Fugs, Ed Sanders. in conversation with KGNU’s Sam Fuqua
The program concludes with a rendition by Allen of “New Stanzas for Amazing Grace“
More audio (radio ) – in italiano – Queerology – Radio Beckwith Evangelica (RBE) examines the poet as queer hero
William Blake – News comes to us that the venerable Tate collection of the great master’s work has had a reshuffling and works moved to a more contemporary re-location (see here) – Michael Glover, the author of the piece, recalls the Blake-obsessed Allen:
“I recall, as if it were yesterday, one rainy evening I spent in a giant marquee at the Hay Festival in the early 1990s. Ginsberg was sitting on a chair on the stage in front of me, squeeze-box bouncing up and down on his bony knees as he sang, with painfully exquisite tunelessness, a fragment of a famous verse from Blake’s Songs of Innocence – “…And all the hills echo-ed.” – “He sang it over and over, over and over, over and over, and over”
