Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 374

July 13, 2018Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg in the War Resisters League office, May 1978 – photo: David McReynolds (c) David McReynolds]

Allen Ginsberg celebrations last night in Salerno, Italy – a collaboration between Casa della Poesia and La Locanda del Mare, presented by Sergio Iagulli, Raffaella Marzano and Giancarlo Cavallo, and drawing from the extensive audio and video archive of Casa della Poesia. (The event also featured a screening of the classic Beat film, Pull My Daisy, with Marzano’s appreciative and sensitive Kerouac translation)

Allen in Cuba in 1965 – Manuel Diaz Martinez’s  suppressed newspaper interview – “Y…no les dije a mis escandalizados superiores … Read More

Larry Fagin (1937-2017)

May 28, 2017Simon Pettet

Larry Fagin, poet, editor, teacher, long-time leading member of the so-called “New York School” of poetry, died yesterday. He was 79 years old. An important co-worker with Allen at Naropa (and, coincidentally, upstairs neighbour in his 12th Street tenement in Manhattan), he was, (though not himself a Buddhist), alongside fellow St Marks poet, Anne Waldman, one of the key figures in the initial years of that on-going experiment. Allen himself was quite unequivocal – “I don’t know of a better editor and teacher of poetry and prose than Fagin”, he once declared. Larry’s early teaching there can … Read More

Gary Snyder 1983 Naropa Reading – 1

December 12, 2015admin
 
Gary Snyder‘s reading at the Naropa Institute, on the occasion of the 1983 publication of his collection Axe Handles is this weekend’s feature. 
 
The transcription of the reading will appear in two sections. 
 
The reading begins with an introduction by Allen Ginsberg  
 
AG: (This will be) the first reading by Gary Snyder in Boulder since 1972, when there was a reading up at the University with the Japanese poet, Nanao Sakaki, myself, Robert Bly, Chogyam Trungpa and Gary. And this month [August 1983] there’s been a great series of poetry readings in the town, with Anne … Read More

Joanne Kyger’s Birthday

November 19, 2013admin

Happy Birthday! – Happy Scorpio Birthday – Joanne! – It’s the birthday today of the great Joanne Kyger. Her 2012 reading at the St Marks Poetry Project may be viewed here

A Naropa reading from the same year can be found here (and includes the following  “found piece”  – “Allen Ginsberg On His Search” – Allen Ginsberg, in Chile, 1960, staying with the poet Nicanor Parra outside Santiago – “I wish I knew who, if anyone, there is to work with who knows, if anyone knows, who I am, or what I am. I got so depressed after a … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 35

August 5, 2011admin

[Allen Ginsberg Memorial Library plaque photo via http://katie-ing.tumblr.com/]

Two weeks since the last “weekly round-up”, so let’s get right down to it. First, to sing the praises of a wonderful essay by “our own” Steve Silberman, (see earlier contributions here and here) – “Ginsberg’s Failure” – his contribution to the second issue of the new Long Shot cyber-experiment (“submitted to, compiled, edited, and published, all within the space of 48 hours”) – not to be confused – tho’ it inevitably will be, on occasions, with – the fondly-remembered Eliot Katz-Danny Shot-edited, New Jersey-based Long Shot magazine.

Allen’s 1980
… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up 27

May 27, 2011admin
Some up-dates and commentary.
More Lew Welch – Passing quietly, a few days back, the anniversary of Lew Welch’s disappearance. Here’s a thoughtful piece from the local papers.
More Ira Cohen – Here’s Indra Tamang, Romy Ashby – (from their respective blogs – and Nina Zivancevic (on the website – Reality Sandwiches), on their friend, Ira.
Nina: “Ira had never liked Allen Ginsberg, whom I adored, because he acquired more fame than he (Ira) did, in many ways. Allen had fame but he had no children. The last time I saw the latter he said how much he envied … Read More

Lew Welch Speaks From Beyond The Grave

May 11, 2011admin

[Lew Welch and Allen Ginsberg outside City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, October 30, 1963, (the day of the Madame Nhu protest) – photo c. John Doss]
The recordings of the San Francisco State University Poetry Archives are, as we have dubbed them, “More Beat Treasures“. We’ve been featuring them this week. Here’s another – from that seemingly-inexhaustible trove – their 1959 recording of the legendary Lew Welch, reading and commenting on his work.
He reads “Chicago Poem” (speaks about his time spent in Chicago), and reads his famous “Wobbly Rock”, and his virtuoso musical engagement, “A … Read More