Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 381

August 31, 2018Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg & Kate Millett, Boulder Colorado, July 1978 (photo: probably snapped by Cynthia MacAdams with Allen’s camera, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/Allen Ginsberg Estate)]

The Beats and Women – that continually thorny topic (we noted last week Blair Hurley’s Paris Review article – You might also recall Lynnette Lounsbury’s piece in The Guardian, a few years back – and, indeed, Amy Newman’s “Howl” (sic)) – David S Wills’ piece in the current Beatdom, in this context, comprehensive and scholarly, is well worth a read – “Beats and Women – “The Personal is Political” –  tentative notes on … Read More

Jacqueline Gens Interview – part 2

August 21, 2018Simon Pettet

Robert Frank – New York City, September 1993 – photo: Allen Ginsberg]

John Shoesmith interviews Jacqueline Gens on Allen Ginsberg’s Photography – continues

JS: Do you have any favourites from the collection?

JG: I loved the portraits from the 1980s. The one of Juanita Lieberman, from the Twelve Trees book, one of the few females he photographed, I think that’s a magnificent one, the stress that’s going on between Peter (Orlovsky, her boyfriend) and Juanita is clearly seen in her face. And then there’s Anne Waldman, Allen’s long-time friend and colleague, the famous Joanne Kyger photo taken … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 375

July 20, 2018Simon Pettet

The Beat Scene – Photographs by Burt Glenn – edited by Tony Nourmand and Michael Shulman (with an essay by Jack Kerouac), a dazzling portfolio of images shot between 1957 and 1960,  both in New York and San Francisco – close up, contemporaneous, and at the heart of the Beat phenomenon – has just recently (just this month) been published by Reel Art Press.

From the publishers’ notice:

“This magnificent volume features a remarkable collection of largely unseen photographs of the Beat Generation by renowned Magnum photographer Burt Glinn. This amazing, untouched treasure trove of images was … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 363

April 27, 2018Simon Pettet

An Allen Ginsberg Symposium coming up next week at the Poetry Project. Three days of events next Thursday through Saturday. Full details of the programming can be found here. Highlights include, “Allen Ginsberg: An International Poetry, Its Genius & Particles”, a keynote talk by Alice Notley, workshops with Anne Waldman and Ed Sanders, an opening-night (Thursday-night) reading with Anselm Berrigan, Rin Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones, Sharon Mesmer, Lara Mimosa Montes, Trace Peterson, and sam sax, and much more.

 

Allen Ginsberg’s Iron Curtain Journals (announced here a couple of weeks back), … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up -360

April 6, 2018Simon Pettet

[Protest in front of Brazilian Varig Airlines with the Psychedelic Venus Church, San Francisco 1971, demanding the release of The Living Theater then jailed in Brazil.  Photo courtesy Harold Adler]

National Poetry Month in America this month. “April is the cruellest..” and all that. We’re very much of the opinion of noted poet Charles Bernstein.

`Beats and Buddhism. We mentioned David S Wills’ essay, “The Intersection of Buddhism and the Beat Generation”, a few weeks back, here’s another one, Michael Amudsen’s essay in Empty Mirror – “Jack Kerouac – Avatar of American Buddhism”

The Other Minds’ Sound Poetry … Read More

Anne Waldman’s Birthday

April 2, 2018Simon Pettet

[Anne Waldman Poet Orator, Co-director Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Naropa Institute Boulder Colorado, first accredited Buddhist contemplative college in the western world, experiencing “Make-up on Empty Space” for premiere of “Uh-Oh! Plutonium” video, Public Theater N.Y. September 14, 1984.” (photo by Allen Ginsberg, courtesy Stanford University Libraries/Allen Ginsberg Estate) ]

Monday April 2nd and it’s Anne Waldman‘s birthday. Each year we try to keep up (somewhat) with her astonishing energy (“making the world safe for poetry”) and productivity  (see, for example, here, here, here, here, here and here – and don’t miss … Read More

Howl Vinyl Release

February 22, 2018Simon Pettet

There will be a celebration at CIty Lights tonight (Thursday the 22nd) for the Concord Music box-set re-issue, Allen Ginsberg reading “Howl”, 

The Howl deluxe box set includes a reissue of the classic 1959 Fantasy Records red vinyl LP, a replica of the original poetry book, published by City Lights in 1956, a photograph of Allen, and a booklet with liner notes by Beat scholar Ann Charters and poet Anne Waldman.

Following opening statements by Garrett Caples (editor at City Lights), an appearance by Bill Belmont  (producer of the set), and remarks by Ann Charters, the evening will … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 351

February 2, 2018Simon Pettet

Next week, Neal Cassady‘s birthday.,   On Friday and Saturday, next week, they’ll be the big celebration in Denver (with special guests, Jami Cassady and David Amram – for more information on those celebrations – see here).

Monday,, it’s another Beat birthday – William Burroughs. There’s a celebration of that tonight – Three Rooms Press (publishers of the upcoming Don’t Hide The Madness – William S Burroughs In Conversation with Allen Ginsberg) present, at New York’s Cornelia Street Cafe (starting at 6 o’clock), a William Burroughs Birthday Tribute, featuring Anne Waldman, Steven Taylor, and … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 348

January 12, 2018Simon Pettet

Reposting and restating last week’s big news – “Howl’,  a newly-assembled red vinyl  box-set will be available soon – next month – from Craft Recordings.  February 23 is slated as the release-date. Hold your breath!

A couple of weeks back,  Chris Agg uploaded a scattering of short Beat-related video-clips onto You Tube. See here (a few selected examples). We start off with Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading his prose-poem “Look Homeward, Jack – Two Correspondences”  from the book Wild Dreams of A New Beginning. (Ferlinghetti can also be seen here, reading “Constantly Rising Absurdity”, from A Coney Island of the … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 347

January 5, 2018Simon Pettet

Looking forward and looking back, with the year’s first “Weekly Round-Up”, starting off with Allen Ginsberg – Fotografìa y Poetica Beat at the Photology Gallery in Garzon, Uruguay –  the first ever showing of Allen’s photographs in South America!  (this show is coming to a close, closing-date is next Tuesday, January 9).

And more photo news – Opening January 29, and up through 27 April, at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto – ‘Fleeting Moments, Floating Worlds, and the Beat Generation – The Photography of Allen Ginsberg” 

“This exhibition”, the Library states, in its preliminary … Read More