Adam Aleksic‘s and the Neo-Luddites mass New York City reading of “Howl” in Washington Square Park (noted here last week) took place last Monday and was (needless to say) a grand success. “Moloch and The Machines” – Direct action – Aleksic’s rationale may be read here
More photos from the occasion :
Kronos Centennial Ginsberg celebration this Monday, May 11, at The Chapel in San Francisco – see here
“What a monumental poem (“Howl“), and Ginsberg was like the most awesome vocal saxophonist known to American poetry!”, declares David Harrington, founder of the venerated ensemble.
Kronos will be playing in its entirety Lee Hyla’s 1996 setting
Not just Harrington, but an impressive roster of musicians and performers, gathered together by Peter Hale and Jesse Goodman, will be performing on the stage that night
Among the company, 94-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott . (See Allen’s 1976 interview with Ramblin’ Jack – here, here, here and here)
late-breaking news, Peter Coyote, will (reluctantly) not be appearing
but still all manner of wonders. Check out this (Joshua Rotter’s preview for 48 Hills) – It’ll be “a night built less on sequence than on accumulation. Musicians move through poems, poets move through sound, and the boundaries between forms begin to dissolve in real time”.)
See also – here
and in Los Angeles (up all this month, the show opened yesterday), a collaboration between The Philosophical Research Society and The Harry Smith Archives, “Brain Drawings – The Art of Harry Smith”
“This exhibition brings together a wide-ranging selection of Smith’s work, from early experiments in visualizing sound to a rare 1954 four-color silkscreen of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Also on view are string figure constructions, materials related to the Anthology of American Folk Music, photographs, and rarely seen films and audio works. Archival footage – including documentation of Smith’s rooms at the Chelsea Hotel and Naropa Institute – offers an intimate view into the environments that shaped his thinking.”
“Both rigorous and idiosyncratic, “Brain Drawing”s presents Smith’s practice as a sustained exploration of pattern, transformation, and meaning – an invitation to encounter a body of work that resists easy categorization and rewards close attention.”
“Brain Drawing” was curated by Rani Singh
Allen’s is not the only Poet Centennial this year. Coming up later this month – It’s 100 years since the birth of Robert Creeley. We’ll be featuring more on the Creeley Centennial soon. Meantime, a heads-up on this, next week, May 12-19, in New York, at the Anthology Film Archives – “The Story is True – Robert Creeley on Film”, a series of film screenings. We’ve already mentioned this – “Onward!” (a celebration at the Poetry Collection at the University of Buffalo) and this – “Active Complement” (an exhibition at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries).
Also, don’t miss here – Chris Mustazza‘s “Creeley Listening Station” (“Robert Creeley Live on Record” – invaluable recordings). More Creeley to follow.