Jack Collom (1931-2017)

July 2, 2017Simon Pettet

Following the death of Larry Fagin, news reaches us this morning of the death of another of the great Naropa poet-teachers, Jack Collom. When Allen and Anne Waldman set up the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 1974 in Boulder, Colorado, Colorado already had one distinctive inventive joyful maverick poet at hand, Jack Collom. He was swiftly engaged in the experiment and soon (not soon enough, as we recall) became an integral part of the faculty. This page (from the Naropa University Archive) provides links to countless instances of Jack’s participation. We might, arbitrarily, single out … Read More

Anselm Hollo – The Tortoise of History

September 1, 2016admin

So pleased to announce this – a posthumous volume of poems by Anselm Hollo 

“In this posthumous collection, avant-garde poet Anselm Hollo displays his spare, sly lyrical greatness. The poems are fragmentary, with echoes of William Carlos Williams, finding pathways between the ancient Greece and Wild Bill Hickock – both the American and the European alive in him at all times. This is Hollo at his witty, inventive best.” 

Publishers Weekly is likewise delighted:

“In this posthumous trove of brief, zestful poems, Hollo (1934-2013), a prolific poet and multilingual translator, relates the “incredible ONSLAUGHT of being” , seemingly … Read More

Carl Rakosi

November 6, 2014admin
[Carl Rakosi (1903-2004)] – Photograph by Gloria Graham]

 
Two introductions by Allen Ginsberg and one by Anselm Hollo to readings by Carl Rakosi (who shares the same birthday as the compiler of these notes) and who lived to be a spry one hundred. He would have been one hundred-and-eleven today! Allen Ginsberg’s Introduction to Carl Rakosi‘s reading at Naropa on June 30, 1987 (with David Cope) comes first (the entire reading can be listened to, in two parts – here – and here) 
AG: Carl Rakosi was born in Berlin in 1903. He was, for
… Read More

Cross Worlds

September 18, 2014admin

 

“Transcultural Poetics”, global action, cross-cultural activity, is something we’re very much in support of here. Transcultural Poetics, the new anthology from Coffee House Press, drawing from the wealth of material available in the archives of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa is thus a timely, welcome and inspiring collection. It celebrates, as the publishers declare, “the leap, the engaged jolt of creation and recognition that cultural hybrids and transcultural alliances and associations spark”. “In essays, conversations, and Socratic raps, it celebrates, interrogates, and annotates the vital work poets perform when they write across borders”. … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 152

November 15, 2013admin

Jean Jacques Lebel’s Beat exhibit (extended in Metz) now comes to Budapest, Hungary, to the Ludwig Contemporary Art Museum (it opened just last week, and will run there until January 12). Here‘s a variety of Hungarian artists, in individual videos, extolling the Beat ethos (it’s all in Hungarian, but for those of you who speak Hungarian…) – musician and tv personality, Varga Livius, poet-rapper, Peter Zavada, poets Tibor Babiczky and Karafiath Orsolya, and DJ Erelyi “Superman” Zsolt  (Lebel’s own introduction to his “jungle”, as he calls it (see above), a helpful survey of the show, (advance

… Read More

Announcing Naropa University’s Digital Archive

June 1, 2013Peter Hale

THE NAROPA UNIVERSITY DIGITAL ARCHIVE 

Great news! Naropa’s extraordinary audio archive (hitherto hosted as part of the estimableInternet Archive) has now been upgraded, refurbished and newly-hosted by Naropa University– The JKS (Jack Kerouac School) audio collection (part of a wider collection held by the university) is now available and ready for on-line exploration and practical use here  Close to 2,000 (1,925) recordings are now immediately accessible. (A further 1,500 – 1, 800 more have been digitalized and will subsequently be made available – and this is just the JKS component!). As Naropa, on their web-site, declare:… Read More

Friday Weekly Round-Up – 128 (Whitman’s Birthday)

May 31, 2013Simon Pettet

[Walt Whitman (1819-1892)   c.1867-70 – Unknown photographer (probably William Kurtz) via The Walt Whitman Archives]

Whitman’s birthday today!  (for Whitman-birthday celebration on The Allen Ginsberg Project see here and here)

and Allen’s birthday beckons!  (Monday June 3rd)

Howl Festival celebrations open tonight in New York, (inaugurated, as usual, with the regular“group-reading” of “Howl”, co-ordinated by poet-impresario Bob Holman (Bob Rosenthal and Eliot Katz, among those taking part in the event) – and there’ll be readings and performances taking place around the park (Tompkins Square Park) all day Saturday (more details here)

and Splab’s … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 113

February 15, 2013admin

From last weekend’s Round-Up: 

Beat Memories – the show of Allen’s photographs currently up in New York, at the New York University’s Grey Gallery (until April 6), has inspired some intelligent response. Here’s Roslyn Bernstein in Guernica. Here’s Seth Rogovoy in the Jewish Daily Forward. Here’s Alana Shilling in The Brooklyn Rail. Here’s Arielle Budick in The Financial Times. Here’s Martin Chilton in the Daily Telegraph. Here’s Mariano Andrade’s AFP report. Here’s the Huffington Post (with a slide-show!) – and Flavorwire with even more of a side-show!)

The show continues to gather international responses – here… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 111

February 1, 2013admin

An autographed signed poem (and accompanying signed letter) by Allen, from 1971 -“On Neal Cassidy’s (sic) Ashes” – goes up on the auction block (Bonham’s, San Francisco) later this month. Estimate $800 – $1200. Stephen J Gertz writes about it on Booktryst here.

Another piece of Allen ephemera recently posted by “Melanie” at “The Poisoned Ink Well”: 

“One of my most treasured possessions”, she notes. The “very funny” poem of hers (“Your Dick”) that he refers to can be seen in its entirety here (scroll down) – “Your dick was so fine/Your dick was circumcised/Your dick was a gun … Read More