Moving A Piano

June 14, 2018Simon Pettet

Every so often, we’ll beg your indulgence with a fragment of transcript that’s pretty incidental, but kind of fun. Here’s Allen, at the very end of his 1980 “Basic Poetics” Naropa lectures (the penultimate one, we’ll be concluding it next week), making arrangements (including arrangements for assistance in moving a piano)

AG: I thought finish maybe with singing one (song)… finish it now.. finish with some song..(since this is the end of the.. (1980 Summer session).. where’s that Blake again?, I forgot..  yeah….. so, from what you’ve got (here) in your book – Oh, we’ve got two things to ask … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 369

June 8, 2018Simon Pettet

 “The Lost Ferlinghetti Tapes” is a mini-documentary by Paul Iorio that presents audio excerpts from an exclusive interview he conducted with Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 2000 — inter-spliced with segments about Ferlinghetti, City Lights, the Beats, Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” and the “Howl” trial.

And the big news (announced in the New York Times this week) –  the upcoming publication of Little Boy, ninety-nine-year-old Ferlinghetti’s surprising new novel (due out from Doubleday next year, to coincide with the occasion of his one-hundreth birthday) – ““It’s not a memoir, it’s an imaginary me,”, Ferlinghetti is quoted as declaring – ““It’s an … 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

Eric Mottram and Philip Whalen 1985 Naropa Reading

December 30, 2017Simon Pettet

 

Eric Mottram]

A vintage Naropa reading from July 21 1985 in two parts for this weekend.

Today, the first part, features Eric Mottram and Philip Whalen. Anne Waldman gives the introductions.

Allen Ginsberg tomorrow.

AW: We’re pleased to have Eric Mottram, Philip Whalen and Allen Ginsberg reading – and Eric and Philip will be reading first and then we’ll have a short break and Allen will complete the evening

I have a couple of announcements to make. Please no smoking in this room and no flash photographs and also I’d like to announce there’ll be copies of this … Read More

Peter Orlovsky Arrives Late For Class

August 16, 2017Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. Photo: Herbert Rusche]

continuing from yesterday

AG: Aw! Come on!

Peter Orlovsky : I’m sweating. I had to go to Casey High – all over the place , I had a chair for you. I had to rush here because I thought you were..

AG: You went to Casey?

Peter Orlovsky: Yes, I went to Casey looking for you. I thought you were at Yeshe House!      I stopped off here before I thought of going to Yeshe House. You didn’t tell me the class was here. No one told me the class was here.   … Read More

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

Naropa Summer Writing Program 2017

June 10, 2017Simon Pettet

Starting tomorrow – the 2017 session of the Naropa Summer Writing Program.

Here are all the details. From June 11 to July 1st – “The New Weathers” – Anne Waldman explains: “By The New Weathers, we intend to name the ramifications of climate change wrought in the Anthropocene. The luminous details evidencing these changes abound, and daily the case of inevitably grows. These are urgent days, and a new world is possible––and this world is yet worth struggling for. To face facts with creative and spirited resolve; to see through webs of ignorance and power; to witness and study, … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 318

June 2, 2017Simon Pettet

Anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s birth tomorrow. Anne Waldman and guests will be celebrating it at the Fox Theatre in Boulder

Meanwhile in NYC (from 3-9) at the Howl Happening Gallery (also celebrating the upcoming re-release of the Ginsberg-Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience on CD)  – Ed Sanders, Steven Taylor, Ernie Brooks & Bear 54 and readings by Bob Rosenthal, Bob Holman, Hettie Jones, David Henderson, Basil King, & other surprise guests.

Speaking of Anne Waldman, how about this? – the Anne Waldman comic! – “the story of Anne Waldman in her … Read More

Naropa Summer Writing Program, 2015

June 15, 2015admin

It’s that time of the year again. This week sees the beginning of the 2015 Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Summer Writing Program

“The Summer Writing Program is a four-week-long convocation of students, poets, fiction writers, scholars, translators, performance artists, activists, Buddhist teachers, musicians, printers, editors and others working in small press publishing. Programming includes workshops, lectures, panels, readings, special events and more.”This years’s theme – “The Braided River – Activist Rhizome” – the four weeks being broken down as, week one – “Disparities, Exigencies, Identity, Language”, week two, “Who am I when I dream: Philo-poetics”, week … Read More

William Burroughs and Ken Kesey – 1978 at Naropa

November 22, 2014admin

William S Burroughs

Ken Kesey

Vintage audio – William Burroughs and Ken Kesey reading at the Naropa Institute on July 19, 1978 Kesey begins/reads first click here

 

Ken Kesey: This is a piece called “Abdul the Bulbul”. [Editorial note –  published as “Abdul and Ebenezer”] It was published a while back [March 1976] in Esquire. It’s a piece from a work that I’ve been doing for some time called The Demon Box. The Demon Box is a way of trying to write a novel, and keep your mind scattered upon raising four teenage kids,

… Read More