“I have been meditating on Alice Notley‘s image of Allen/ I see visionary eyes crooked lips wind of hair/ Basho forehead roundly voiced/all in Ginsberg at 100! – liars beware!”
(Bob Rosenthal)
Ginsberg Centennial celebrations this week (and plenty more to come!)
A list of some of the most recent recognitions and appreciations:
Tom Vitale presents a concise appreciative review for NPR (with suitable audio-clips)
“Reflections on an Angelheaded Hipster – Celebrating Allen Ginsberg’s 100th Birthday”
(Ed Simon on Lit Hub) –
David Rosen at Counterpunch – Ginsberg at 100. (and don’t miss, assuredly don’t miss,
Ed Sanders – “My Discovery of Howl!”)
Daniel Spicer -“An Enduring Howl – The Cultural Legacy of Allen Ginsberg” (The Quietus)
Michael Washburn – Happy 100th, Allen Ginsberg! (on Book and Film Globe)
A.D.Amorosi in Jazz Times elicits the thoughts of Tate Swindell, Gary Gach, and Pat Thomas (informed commentary on the Ginsberg-music connection)
Leather Saints Substack (Allen & Patti Smith)
Philip Goldberg Substack (Practical Spirituality)
Bill Brown Substack – “Notice What You Notice”
(auf Deutsch) Holger Spieirig in Jüdische Allgemeine
A taste of Allen’s international reputation: Michael Kellner (Germany), ORF (Austria), Gabor Gyukics (Hungary), Marko Mandić (Slovenia), Osvaldo Baigorria (Argentina), Anagrama (Spain), Daniel López Aguilar (Mexico – see also here and here)
Simon Warner (on his Rock and the Beat Generation Substack) has been running a series of articles, most recently, David Cope’s warm and thoughtful tribute to Allen, and Steven Taylor‘s informative “‘Birdbrain in the Land of Broz: On the road in Europe, 1980s, Part I” (itself a response to an earlier contribution by Nina Živančević – “Ginzy – A Memory”). Subsequent contributions by Jonah Raskin and Sharon Mesmer, we’ve noted here before. Raskin has also provided a second (more personal) piece – “In Memoriam – Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)”
Further contributions: Ann Charters – “What Allen Ginsberg talked about: A centennial tribute” – “ten of the reasons (both large and small) why I am grateful to him for his many acts of generosity and loving kindness during our long friendship”
Joyce Johnson writes: “I keep wishing Allen would come back from the dead to give us a new version of ‘Howl’, a poem we desperately need right now, given the current state of affairs in America. But since that resurrection isn’t possible, let’s celebrate Allen’s centennial by reading the Moloch section aloud wherever we can, since nothing could be more relevant at the present moment.”
The wild tale of Allen’s last soup! – Ian Sansom‘s quirky documentary entrée into Allen’s work via the bard’s idiosyncratic cooking may be listened to – here –
Simon Warner reviews it – here
The celebrations in New York continue tomorrow at the Anthology Film Archives with the beginning of a Ginsberg-related film series (through to June 30, the end of the month)
The first night’s programming on Saturday consists of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie‘s Pull My Daisy, Pamela Mayor and Barbara Rubin‘s Emouna and Nam June Paik and Shigiko Kubota‘s Allan and ‘N Allen’s Complaint, followed by Peter Whitehead‘s Wholly Communion and Iain Sinclair & Robert Klinkert‘s Ah! Sunflower!
Full details are available – here
The St Marks event, Centennial event, that took place on Wednesday is now available on video on You Tube
See – here