Bob Dylan’s Birthday

15 hours ago May 24, 2018Simon Pettet

Bob Dylan’s birthday today – Bob Dylan is (believe it or not!) 77 – As always, world-wide, plenty of Bob Dylan celebrations. Tonight in New York it’s “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”, a special show at the Town Hall, produced by Hal Willner, paying tribute to his legendary 1963 breakout concert there, a headlining solo-performance in front of a thousand people.

“Tomorrow is a Long Time”, as the Town Hall announces, “reimagines Dylan’s masterful concert, with colorful interpretations by a diverse cast of musicians and artists” (backed by the eponymous Town Hall Ensemble. under the musical direction of … Read More

Remembering Robert Creeley

3 days ago May 21, 2018Simon Pettet

Robert Creeley‘s birthday today (born Arlington, Massachusetts, May 21, 1926, died Odessa, Texas, March 30, 2005).  We’re happy to share these images of Bob taken by Allen in 1963 at the legendary 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference  (regarding that conference see also here & here )

Further posts about Bob (and there are plenty) on The Allen Ginsberg Project –  here & here, here,  here and here and here

and – essential listening – the Creeley PennSound page – here 

..thinking of you, Bob

… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 366

6 days ago May 18, 2018Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg in Benares, India, 1963]

Allen Ginsberg in Asia – another early taste of David S Wills’  World Citizen – Allen Ginsberg as Traveller, (due out later this year – his fourth book, and another must-read from Beatdom‘s spirited editor).

Also from Beatdom this year (we mentioned these titles last week), The Buddhist Beat Poetics of Diane di Prima and Lenore Kandel  by Max Orsini, and, Straight Around Allen – On The Business of Being Allen Ginsberg by Bob Rosenthal.

Must-read, certainly, would also be Sudarsan Raghavan‘s piece (first appearing in The Washington Post… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 365

2 weeks ago May 11, 2018Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg, San Francisco, September 1991. Snapped by Rick Dickenson with Allen’s camera, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/Allen Ginsberg Estate.]

Bill Morgan, archivist, editor, and Allen’s biographer, is interviewed by host Charlie Rossiter on the latest episode of the podcast Poetry Spoken Here. He gets to speak of his most recent book, The Best Minds of My Generation – A Literary History of the Beats (based on transcriptions of Allen’s lectures both at Naropa and at Brooklyn College). In addition, Rossiter reviews Wait Till I’m Dead, Bill’s edition of Allen’s posthumous poems, now fresh out in paperback.

Speaking … Read More

Gary Snyder’s Birthday

May 8, 2018Simon Pettet

[Gary Snyder – March 1991, New York City –  Photograph by Allen Ginsberg]

Gary Snyder is 88 today.

Happy Birthday, Gary!

Here‘s a recent (2017) (local tv) interview

Here’s another recent (2017) radio interview

Previous Gary Snyder Birthday Celebrations on the Allen Ginsberg Project can be accessed here, here, here, here, here, and here.

[Gary Snyder – June 1963, Kyoto, Japan –  Photograph by Allen Ginsberg] … Read More

Bobbie-Louise Hawkins (1930-2018)

May 7, 2018Simon Pettet

Still saddened by the news of the death of the wonderful prose writer and long-time Naropa teacher, Bobbie-Louise Hawkins.  Previous postings on Bobbie on the Allen Ginsberg Project can be found here and here.  We miss you, Bobbie, your warm and wise insights, that wonderful Texan drawl!   We miss you!

[Anselm Hollo, Tom Raworth, Bobbie-Louise Hawkins, Jenny Dorn – photograph Jane Dalrymple-Hollo]

 [Anselm Hollo, Anne Waldman, Bobbie-Louise Hawkins, Jack Collom – photograph Jane Dalrymple-Hollo]

[Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Bobbie-Louise Hawkins, Peter Orlovsky, Michael McClure and Diane Wakowski, at a poetry festival, Bisbee, Arizona, August 1980 – courtesy of the Allen … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 364

May 4, 2018Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg

[Allen Ginsberg – Photograph by Allan Tannenbaum]

Continuing today in New York, the inaugural St Mark’s Poetry Project Allen Ginsberg Symposium – For more on that (proposed annual event) – see here

On public television this week, (presented by WGBH Boston and distributed by American Public Television) the beginning of a new tv series and multi-platform digital initiative, Poetry In America.  Allen’s poems (“Hymmnn” (from “Kaddish“)  and “Hum Bom!” are featured in the opening program

From the program credits:

“Although we think of a poem as something read from a book, poet Allen Ginsberg knew that poetry’s power … Read More

The St Mark’s Poetry Project’s Allen Ginsberg Symposium

May 3, 2018Simon Pettet

The Allen Ginsberg Symposium

Starting today – The Allen Ginsberg Symposium at the St Mark’s Poetry Project in New York City.

This evening, a group reading with Anselm Berrigan, Rin Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones, Sharon Mesmer, Lara Mimosa Montes, Trace Peterson, and sam sax.

Tomorrow (from 2-5) an Ed Sanders workshop – “Investigative Poetry and the Spirit of Allen Ginsberg” and a panel (8 o’clock), “Out of Place” with Ken Chen, Julie Ezelle Patton, Anne Waldman, and Rachel Zucker (moderated by Erica Hunt).

Saturday, concluding with (2-5) a workshop with Anne Waldman – “Antideluvian Energies – Practices” –  and (8 o’clock), short … Read More

May Day (Kral Majales)

May 1, 2018Simon Pettet

May Day. May Day. Revolution in the air. We welcome today this guest posting from Czech Beat scholar and Allen’s good friend, Josef Rauvolf

The King of May Revisited

When, on May the first, 1965, a thirty-nine-year-old Allen Ginsberg drove through the streets of Prague, observing the atmosphere in the crowded streets and in the park, where later the celebration and elections would take place, he definitely had good reason to feel elated.  As the students’ candidate for Kral Majales, (King of May), he could, reasonably confidently, count on being elected.

Actually, he was already King of Prague.  In the … Read More

Naropa University Summer Writing Program 2018

April 28, 2018Simon Pettet

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program – never too early to announce the annual event(s), taking place this year from June 10 to June 30 – “The Capital-ocene” is this year’s theme (broken down into three one-week segments)

Week One – Lyric Intelligence and Embodied Criticalty – features, amongst others, Lisa Robertson (“The Nameless Image”),  Hoa Nguyen (“Matrix Mix – Archetypes and Myths”), Tracie Morris (“Embodying Voice Through Performance (Of the Page)”), Lewis Warsh, and Samuel R Delany

Week Two – If Not Capital/The Other Side of The Forest – includes Margaret Randall … Read More