Alice Notley on Allen Ginsberg – 2
September 11, 2018
Alice Notley on the internationalism of Allen Ginsberg continued from yesterday AN: The second poem selected by chance (I am opening the book randomly, plonk, trying to be vaguely chronological is “Going to Chicago” – dated August 24, 1968,[…]
Compositional Practice (Sustained Attention – 2)
May 16, 2018
Allen Ginsberg on compositional practice continues from here Student: Ted (Berrigan) says you write poems when you’re on a retreat. AG:  Sometimes. If I’m somewhere where I don’t have to do anything, then I tend to write. Like, I wrote a lot up in.. when I went up that week for the[…]
Elazar Larry Freifeld Tel Aviv 1988 Interview
March 3, 2018
Allen Ginsberg in Israel. This interview with Elazar Larry Freifeld was conducted at Tel Aviv University in 1988, and published in Moznaim (in Hebrew). It appeared a year later (In English) in The Tel Aviv Review, and most[…]
WNET Whalen & Snyder – Whalen
January 27, 2018
Continuing our spotlight on vintage tv, WNET’s extraordinary USA Poetry series. Today (this weekend) , Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder The only printed biography of the poet Philip Whalen is very brief. It reads, “born Portland, Oregon, October 1923, US Army Air Force 1943-1946, Reed College, Bachelor of Arts[…]
Eric Mottram and Philip Whalen 1985 Naropa Reading
December 30, 2017
  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[…]
Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971)
December 4, 2017
Remembering today one of the great Buddhist teachers, Suzuki Roshi,  Shunryu Suzuki, influential Soto Zen priest and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (the first Soto Zen training monastery in the United States and one of the very first Buddhist training monasteries to be established[…]
Jack Kerouac to Allen Ginsberg November 1957
November 30, 2017
Another Ginsberg letter today – this one to Allen (dated November 30, 1957 – sixty years ago today) from Jack Kerouac in Orlando, Florida to Allen in Paris.  Jack confesses he’s drunk,[…]
Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 338
October 20, 2017
It’s Michael McClure’s birthday. The legendary Beat poet turns, astonishingly, 85 today. Happy Birthday, Michael! Some of our previous McClure postings here, here and here.  Michael on Bob Dylan here.  Reading  with Allen in 1976[…]
Buddhism and The Beats (Ginsberg 1993 – I – Introduction)
July 15, 2017
A real treat this weekend – with gratitude to Robyn Brentano and students from the NYU Ethnographic Film Program – “Buddhism and the Beats.”. “In 1993, Allen Ginsberg spoke to a gathering of students of the Tibetan Buddhist monk, Lobsang Samten, about the impact of Buddhist thought and practice on himself, the[…]
Saturday May 20 (Robert Creeley)
May 20, 2017
Robert Creeley would have been ninety-one tomorrow, May 21st (he died in 2005). In honor of the great man and his birthday, we present, this weekend, another transcription from the extraordinary Bay Area Writers series (from back in 1975-76) – (see also here and here) – Rudimentary recording equipment, so there are,[…]