Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 704

More trail-blazing research from David S Wills on Allen on the Beatdom Substack.
This most recent contribution “Allen Ginsberg and the 1955 San Francisco Arts Festival”. is
an early excerpt from his currently-in-the-works book about the legendary Gallery 6 reading

Willis provides an in-depth analysis of  “an important claim that potentially rewrites Beat history” (one he finally rejects but acknowledges is undoubtedly “compelling”) – that Ginsberg first read “Howl“ at the San Francisco Arts Festival some “three weeks earlier than previously believed”

After an extensive examination of the materials  (principally the eye-witness recollections of Jack Goodwin, “almost certainly the most reliable source of information regarding the 6 Gallery reading and other poetry events of that era”, in Wills ‘estimation),  Wills concludes:

“I believe that Allen Ginsberg intended as of late August to read “Howl” in front of an audience at the San Francisco Arts Festival but that he changed his mind in the two or three weeks between (Goodwin’s) letter and the event. Perhaps this was due to a recognition that his poem was incomplete or perhaps it was due to the potential ramifications of reading lines like “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy,” which was in every draft from the first onwards. Perhaps his decision took into consideration both of these thoughts.”

“Remember also that by early September he had a new event lined up—the 6 Gallery reading of October 7. I think it is highly probable that he decided to keep working on “Howl” and test it in front of a smaller audience more open to challenging work, which might include people mentioned in the poem or similar enough that they could see themselves as among “the best minds of [his] generation.” Reading “Howl” at the Nourse Auditorium (for the San Francisco Arts Festival)  might have landed him in jail or put him back in a mental hospital but reading it at the 6 Gallery had the potential to kickstart a literary revolution. I believe Ginsberg recognized this, made a smart choice, and used the Arts Festival as a warm-up for the reading of a lifetime.”

He goes on:

“Of course, it is impossible to prove this all one way or another. I have presented the facts as best I can and drawn conclusions using probability but it is possible I am wrong and perhaps the reader will reach a different conclusion.”

More Wills, not to be missed –  Oliver Harris‘ endlessly-intriguing One Shot mystery, that we reviewed here last month, is reviewed by David on Beatdom – see  here

“When I Died, Love, When I Died..” – Allen’s early poem “A Western Ballad” gets another musical interpretation (back in 2011 there was Shannon McNally), this time from Malakoff Kowalski & Igor Levit (on piano). This one, as Kowalski enthusiastically describes it, is possibly the harbinger of “a new kind of music, possibly a whole new genre that has never before appeared in this form” – “sung poems by Allen Ginsberg, paired with piano miniatures by classical composers” (Allen’s poem is paired here with the Chopin’s Prelude in E mInor) Igor Levit is the first of them,  Chilly Gonzales & Johanna Summer to follow.  The whole project, called “Songs With Words”. will be released next month as an album on Sony Classics. We’ll be previewing more of them in the weeks ahead – Stay tuned.

Political theater – time to remember the value of that particular form of resistance, perhaps?  We’ve quoted Abbie Hoffman‘s memorable quip in the past, “Free speech is the right to shout “Theater!” in a crowded fire” –  Faith Zamblé  reminds us here of the infamous 1967 attempted exorcism and levitation of the Pentagon

including here, a remarkable document

Ed Sanders’s detailed instructions for the Pentagon exorcism:

Marianne Faithfull – The outpouring of love and warm words continues.  From the Autobiography – “Three years ago I was made a Professor by Allen Ginsberg. The certificate says: MARIANNE FAITHFULL, PROFESSOR OF POETICS, JACK KEROUAC SCHOOL OF  DISEMBODIED POETS.. It was a real ceremony in which he dubbed me, saying,
“Arise. You are now educated. ‘Cause I say so!”
Steven Taylor writes here  and David Cope writes here of her memorable Naropa presence (which, as we mentioned last week, was recorded, and may be accessed – here)

William Burroughs’ birthday this week – Stuart Mitchner pitches his ten cents in – here

Ira Sachs’ film adaptation of Peter Hujar’s Day by Linda Rosenkrantz is getting enthusiastic reviews, we’re happy to report. For Allen’s appearance on that day (December 18, 1984) – see here 

From The Art Newspaper‘s review (David D’Arcy writes):

“The world in Peter Hujar’s Day (2025) is a small segment of the art world, but global events figure into the film in mocking references to Allen Ginsberg howling about corporate power, when Hujar (Ben Whishaw) recalls shooting a portrait of the poet. The author of Howl, Hujar says, was not much to look at – or to photograph. “He kept doing ‘om, om om, om om‘, and then he sits down in the lotus position, very Buddha, right in the doorway, and he starts to chant,” Hujar says. “I can’t interrupt God. I can’t say, ‘Can you please stop that.’”

& CUNY’s exemplary Lost and Found – CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, (celebrated yesterday), continues apace. Among the current on-going (2025) projects (we wish him well) – Sam O’Hana‘s “Allen Ginsberg vs the IRS” –

“Sam O’Hana’s research project examines Allen Ginsberg’s tax returns over the 47 year period of his career and compares it to the publication dates of his major works to give a clearer picture of the relationship between creation of literary writing and the income that is generated as a result of its publication. The aim is to better understand how writers without pre-existing financial support generated literary work in relation to personal income, and whether the initial investment of time and energy into a poet’s craft can be undertaken without financial support in societies with high levels of income inequality”.
Other projects involve work on Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, others – see here