Reading Ferlinghetti in the Age of Trump
This lesson feels especially relevant to our moment: that it’s possible to be both a frustrated activist and also a present and joyful human being.
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Posts Tagged: Howl
Rumpus Original Fiction: April, 1968
Used to see lots of psychedelic princes and princesses on Haight Street. Not many these days. But here were hundreds of the turned on and tuned in, dressed like birds and peacocks in heat.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Keith Newton
What’s interesting, of course, is how modern life could easily be seen in the opposite way—as an ever-expanding domain of individuality and self-expression.
...moreHip Hip for Howl
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, a veritable smorgasbord of celebrities came together at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles to put on a variety show for the ages. Hal Willner, a longtime musical producer for SNL, brought together performers from Lucinda Williams to Courtney Love and Amy Poehler to Tim Robbins, […]
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Swinging Modern Sounds #60: On Mentorship
In an empirically-preoccupied world, mentorship appears to be unscientific, impossible to quantify, and perhaps even sentimental.
...moreHappy Birthday, Allen Ginsberg!
Happy birthday to groundbreaking Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. He would have been 87 today. Celebrate by re-reading “Howl,” or, if you’re in the Bay Area, by visiting an exhibit of his photography at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
...moreDavid Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Allen Ginsberg’s Howl meets Gay Marriage
Yesterday was the 56th anniversary of the day that U.S. customs agents seized some 500 copies of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl on the grounds of obscenity. Yesterday and today, the Supreme Court of the United States heard two cases regarding marriage. The first one yesterday, regarding California Proposition 8, addressed the right to marry the person […]
...more“Howl” Anniversary
Allen Ginsberg debuted “Howl” at the Six Gallery Reading on October 7, 1955. In 2006, for the 50th anniversary of the poem’s publication, City Lights came out with Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression and The Believer reflected on the significance of “Howl” and Ginsberg’s less celebrated antiwar poem “Wichita Vortex Sutra.”
...moreNotable San Francisco, This Week: 12/13-12/19
This week in San Francisco, it’s Ladies Night at The Rumpus! Also, Dave Eggers plays ping pong, art for the blind, sitting and lying in protest of the Sit/Lie law, and crafty alternatives to traditional holiday shopping. Monday 12/13: What do the Jackson Arms Shooting Range and The Rumpus have in common today? It’s Ladies […]
...moreAnimating Howl
In yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle, I chat with artist Eric Drooker about animating Allen Ginsberg’s Howl for the film of the same name as the long poem, and his resulting new book, Howl: A Graphic Novel. One thing that was edited out of my piece was this sentence: “Howl: A Graphic Novel reads like a […]
...moreThe Rumpus Review of Howl
Howl is neither a biopic about the poem’s author Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), nor does it delve into any other poem in his literary oeuvre. These are the first of many missteps that the producers take in their approach towards the rich material of Ginsberg’s life and work.
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