Allen Ginsberg’s Centennial being celebrated around the world.
Tomorrow it’s in one of the essential locations, Boulder, Colorado.
On the occasion of his birthday this year (June 3rd) Naropa (initially Naropa Institute, now Naropa University) released the following:
“Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Allen Ginsberg – poet, activist, co-founder of Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and a major figure in the Beat Generation and the countercultural movements that helped shape Naropa’s founding vision.”
“Allen Ginsberg had a comprehensive and longstanding impact on Naropa. He not only co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, but fundraised, administrated, and convened at Naropa for over twenty years. Naropa also impacted Allen, and marked a major shift in his life; it was at Naropa that he first took up the mantle of a teacher…Speaking to the meaning of his endeavors at Naropa, he commented:
‘Today’s colleges are turning out money speculators, yuppies trained to build Star Wars. It’s really a good thing to create a school where the basis of the studies is wisdom. I feel proud of that. I feel like I’ve done something in my life. I feel better than if I was just a poet.'”
The quotation is from Ben Williams‘ – “A Countercultural Institute: Ram Dass & Allen Ginsberg” in Naropa Magazine
“Queer Shoulder To The Wheel” – week three of the Naropa Summer Writing Program this year was a special dedication to Allen
and tomorrow (Friday) 6.3O – 8.00 at Boulder Bookstore – see here
Join Anne Waldman, Chuck Lief, Reed Bye, Thomas R. Peters Jr, Jim Cohn, Carolina Ebeid, Gary Allen, Jeff Pethybridge, Max Davies, and others for a night of poetry and music
Remembering Allen!