Friday's Weekly Round-Up - 273

                                         [Bernard Plossu - Mexique, Le Voyage méxicain, 1966 © Bernard Plossu]




Opening this week in Paris at the Centre Pompidou, another big Beat exposition (see our announcement back in April). This ambitious multi-media exhibition (up until October 3rd) comprises over six hundred different items - photographs, texts, documents, films, videos, paintings, drawings - and objects and devices for reproducing text, image and sound. A high point is, of course, the presentation of the famous "On The Road" scroll, the thirty-six meter- (one-hundred-and-eighteen foot-) long roll of teletype paper on which 
Kerouac typed up his fabled text. Another highlight, fitting for the Parisian location, is a focus on the so-called "Beat Hotel"  (one of its rooms is lovingly reconstructed, and a prominent feature is Harold Chapman's extraordinary set of photos from that period).

                                                          [The Jack Kerouac  "On The Road" scroll]

                                       [Allen Ginsberg at The Beat Hotel - Photograph by Harold Chapman]

The curators have orchestrated the exhibition around a geographical as well as historical framework, so the show traces Beat cultural manifestation not only in Paris - (and, obviously, San Francisco and New York, its spawning ground) - but also, significantly, (amongst other central locations), Mexico 

  
1953 finds William Burroughs writing to Allen (on the trail of ayahuasca) 
1959 (but written earlier) is the publication-date of Kerouac's seminal  Mexico City Blues 

               [Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, Lafcadio Orlovsky, Mexico City, 1956]

Light is shone on several neglected areas of Beat culture, the specifically West Coast muse (artists like Wallace Berman, Jay Defeo and Bruce Conner), the African-American Beat... Here's Bob Thompson's "LeRoi Jones and his Family" (1964), just one of the six hundred items on display    

 [Bob Thompson - LeRoi Jones and his Family (1964) © The Estate of Bob Thompson]

Previews and reviews are beginning to come in - Here's several - First, en francais - "la retrospective vibrant" (Laetitia Cenac in Le Figaro), the AFP announcement, Tiphaine Dubled in ParisBogue   - & here, a review/preview in Spanish - and here (and here) a notice of the event in German

and don't miss the catalog, now available from the Pompidou Center - "Les nombreux documents reproduits (photos, manuscripts, pochettes de disques, dessins et peintures) témoignent de l'euphorie creative des membres du groupe, ainsi que de la pluridisciplinarité du mouvement (arts visuels, littérature, jazz, poésie sonore..)…Une dizaine d'entretiens inédits avec des protagonistes du mouvement, ainsi que des extraits de textes et poèmes (Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, notamment) viennent enrichir le catalogue" - (The numerus documents reproduced (photos, manuscripts, album covers, drawings and pantings) testify to the creative euphoria of the members of the group - thus (also to) the multi-disciplinary nature of the movement - (visual art, literature jazz, sound poetry). Ten previously unreleased interviews with the  movement's protagonists, as well as excerpts of texts and poems ( (by) Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, in particular) (also) enrich the catalog)."  

Meantime, simultaneously, also in Paris, at the Galerie Semiose (up until July 23), there's an exhibition of the art of William Burroughs. Here's two reviews/previews on that - here and here.
That one also has a collectable catalog, "Pleased to Meet You"- (see here)


[William S Burroughs & Brion Gysin at Joujouka, Morocco (1992) -William S Burroughs - ink and collage on board - 50.8 cm X 76.2cm]

Et aussi  Jack Kerouac - and one to look out for -  An intriguing notice appeared in Macleans (Canada) - The Secret Canadian Life of Jack Kerouac by Richard Stursberg, (regarding Kerouac's recently-published French writings) - see here

The European Beat Studies Network's annual conference starts up again on Monday (this year in Manchester, England - the two central themes this year - music and science). Among the specifically Ginsberg-centric papers - Rona Cran, "Simultaneous Data - Collage in Allen Ginsberg", Peggy Pacini, "Writing and Reading Kaddish - An Exploration of the Soundscape(s) of the Poem", and Franca Bellarsi - "Ginsberg's Poetry through the prism of Buddhist Theories of Mind". Ginsberg biographer Steve Finbow will be chairing these Ginsberg sessions.

For a full list of the schedule - see here

Allen Ginsberg and Indran Amirthanayagam] 

Cafe Dissensus, Issue 26 - "The Beat and the Hungry Generation - when losing becomes hip" - (a special issue on the Beats and the (Indian) Hungryalist movement, edited by Goirick Brahmachari & Anhimanyu Kumar) appeared on-line at the end of last week and there's plenty there worth looking into. Among the specifically Ginsberg-centric pieces: Spring and Oblivion" - ("Indran Amirthanayagam revisits Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other Poems through his personal memory of the poet (who was close friends with his father), their interactions, the copy of the book gifted to his father by Allen and Ginsberg's readings that Indran attended."),  "Mind Breaths - Learning Buddhism from Allen Ginsberg"  ("Poet and Beat researcher, Marc Olmsted's essay investigates Ginsberg's source and commitment towards Tibetan Buddhism and how he balanced it with his political views/socialism"),  "The Ginsberg-Dylan Express - Tangled Up in Vomit and Blues  ("Brinda Bose looks at two decades of collaborations between Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, through poetry, music and films"),  "Talking  Poetry - Ginsberg and the Hungryalists - Samir Roychoudhury - a retrospective"  ("Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury writes a first-hand account of her visit to the Roychoudhury residence in Kolkata, where she meets and converses with Samir Roychoudhury about Allen Ginsberg and the Hungryalist Movement")  
& Malay Roychoudhury is interviewed about Ginsberg and the Hungryalist Movement in a previously-published interview - here

As with the EBSN conference, tho' we cite the Ginsberg pieces, there's plenty more  - see Pamela Twining's  "The Women of the Beat Generation", for example - or Marc Goldin's "A Sojourn in Tangier"

And, still on Beat scholarship, Josef Rauvolf's recent presentation on Allen in Czechoslovakia (note - the presentation is in Czech) may now be found here 

Hilary Holladay interviews Todd Swindell re Harold Norse  in advance of the upcoming (July 6) Harold Norse Centennial

For more on Harold Norse - see here 

Patti Smith is interviewed for Vice this week - here 

Here's a recently-posted performance of Patti reading "Footnote to Howl" (on June 23, 2000 at the Mural Amphitheatre in Seattle, as part of the Experience Music Project concert series) - "Holy, holy, holy..".

For more renditions of that epic chant of passion - see here 

Ginsberg in India

Jeet Thayil's radio documentary, Ginsberg in India, currently available here, 

provides the occasion for a brief review of that always-intriguing subject. 

American poet, Bob Holman (along with producer-editor-director, Ram Devineni), a few years back, made a film-documentary, Ginsberg's Karma

(This may be seen in its entirety here) 

Deborah Baker's authoritative book, A Blue Hand, we've already featured (along with notice of the remarkable symposium that took place at the Asia Society in New York, in 2011, following the publication of that book). 

And, of course, there's the primary source, Allen's own published Indian Journals  

The contribution of the Hungryalists (sic), curiously omitted from Baker's survey, continues to be examined by the Sunflower Collective - (see here and here, for example) 
(also, see their recent reprint of Deborah Baker's memoir/article here)

We'd also draw your attention to two earlier postings from the voluminous Allen Ginsberg Project archives, regarding artist Francesco Clemente and Allen and Peter Orlovsky in India  -  here and here 

and then there's our curiously popular SS Amra posting. 

Friday's Weekly Round Up - 204

Herbert Huncke Centennial Celebrations at the Beat Museum today - Laki Vazakas, Hilary Holladay, Ben Schafer, Dennis McNally, Brenda Knight, Regina Marler and Tate Swindell look back upon and discuss Herbert Huncke's genius. 

Two weeks since the last Friday Round-Up, so a bit of catching up to do.  Here's (talking of the Beat Museum), the meeting-up of Gerd Stern (the man erroneously accused of losing it) and Mike McQuate, the man largely responsible for saving it - tho', as others have pointed out, Jean Spinosa should also be credited with exemplary dispersal of her father's estate) -  Yes, more gab on the fabled "Joan Anderson Letter" 
- Jerry Cimino's the moderator

More Kerouac news - The Toronto Star reports on further developments in the re-examination of Kerouac's French-Canadian roots (for more on that particular topic - see here). Two early novels written in French - La unit est ma femme (1951) and Sur le chemin (1952) are being readied for publication. A French-Canadian editor, Gabriel Anctil, is working on the French version of the books, while the Library of America (publishers of Kerouac's Collected Poems, not to mention Road Novels 1957-1960), have committed to publishing the work in English translation sometime in the course of next year. 



[Jack Kerouac circa 1956 - Photograph by Tom Palumbo]

The Hungryalists - the Beats in India - Don't miss this BBC radio documentary (produced by Dominic Byrne) on this important critical moment in both Beat and Indian literary history (up and available for listening to on-line on the BBC's site for just two more weeks)

[Dominic Byrne interviews Hungryalist poet, Samir Roychoudhory for BBC's Indian Beats - The Hungryalist Generation]

[Shig Murao, Al Bendich and Lawrence Ferlinghetti at the Howl trial - photo from Life magazine, 1957]

And, finally, an historic passing to report on today - Al Bendich, as the New York Times notes, "the last living member of the defense team in the "Howl" (obscenity) case" (and also the sole defender in the first of Lenny Bruce's obscenity trials in 1962) died January 5, aged 85, of a heart attack. It was he who wrote up the crucial brief or legal memorandum, "a document widely considered to have brought the defence victory". Looking back (now over half a century) to the Howl trial, the legendary Howl trial. In these times of increasing oppression, it is important, no, crucial, to remember the unsung heros of free speech.

[Al Bendich (1930-2015)]

Friday's Weekly Round-Up - 95

The Hungryalists   - who here remembers The Hungryalists? Even we, in our extensive Beats In India post last year neglected to mention them. We do have a permanent link to Tridib and Alo Mitra's important account - and an updating of it and restatement appeared in the Indian press last week (see the Calcutta Telegraph here.)

Meanwhile in China... at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Museum (sic) in Beijing, the poet Bei Dao has a photography show, 14 singular works, "Nil Mirror". "Bei Dao himself admits, his mentor for photography is fellow poet...Allen Ginsberg". "He suggested to never use the flash in photography", he declares, "because it threatens to compress the whole space into a flat surface that lacks any real atmosphere".

Meanwhile at la Maison de la Poésie in Paris (all this month)...  "66 Gallery - Howl", a performance piece, featuring Douglas Rand (with music by Jean-Damien Ratel), directed by Bérangère Jannelle.  Jannelle (alongside another important European theatrical director and Ginsberg-adaptor, Maya Boesch)  is featured in this intriguing article from Movement magazine.
Jannelle: "Le lien entre la Beat Generation et l'époque actuelle est le désespoir....Dans une époque  comme la notre où, en tant qu'artistes, on se sent écartelés  entre artistique et economique, le "retour de ces mythologies n'a rien d'etonnant.." 
["The link between the Beat Generation and present times is despair...In a time like ours, where, as artists, we feel torn between the artistic and the economic, the "return" of these (Beat) mythologies [sic] is not (at all) surprising.."] 

David S Wills' Beatdom remains an invaluable Beat site ( take that as a recommendation). Up recently is a Thurston Moore interview, conducted by Katie Ingegnieri, that first appeared in Bombay Gin in the Fall of last year. Thurston on Allen: "I would run into (him) here and there and it was always cool. He came to hang out at the NYC stop of Lollapalooza 1995 and I have some pictures of him and myself with my baby daughter Coco. While I talked to him Coco would be grabbing at his beard and mouth, and while most people would flinch at such messiness, Allen allowed her to stick her fingers into his mouth and he sucked and bit at them. I was very impressed! We never did get around to collaborating beyond him sending me a package with a nice letter and a sheaf of poems to peruse"

Carl Solomon - it's been a while since our Carl Solomon birthday post, Holy March 30, here on the Ginsberg Project. Chris George at Fans In A Flash Bulb just posted a timely piece on him (selections from the (out-of-print) City Lights book, More Mishaps, photographs by Mellon Tytel). See here.)

Speaking of City Lights, we're happy now to report that video of the recent Lew Welch celebration is now up - Gary Snyder, Joanne Kyger, Peter Coyote, David Meltzer, Jerry Martien, Steve Sanfield, Tom Killion and Huey Lewis reading on the occasion of the release of the new edition of the classic Ring of Bone. The book continues to garner enthusiastic reviews. Most recently, here's Maria Damon in the current Rain Taxi 

Carolyn Cassady - oh dear! - "Carolyn Cassady will not be watching (Walter Salles') "On The Road". "Jack was a big athletic man", she's quoted as saying, "and Neal was very muscular. But the actors they've chosen to play them are such wimps!". Perhaps more revealing is the following (from the same article) - "Fighting the legend that has swallowed up her life is beyond her now-dwindling powers. And anyway, she needs what energy she has left for her on-going battle with the UK Border Agency over its refusal to allow her 60 year old son, John Allen ("named after Jack and Allen Ginsberg") to visit her. He was turned back at Heathrow (airport) earlier this year because he had (only) a one-way ticket, though he'd been here (the United Kingdom) many times before" - "I'm getting old and I need his help. I can't even get to the shops for groceries", she declares.

"On The Road" opens today in England. We'll have more reports about and reviews of it in the coming days.

Calcutta College Street Coffee House turns 50

I
[image: College Street Coffee House, Calcutta. Sunil Ganguly Foreground, Peter Orlovsky to his left. Summer 1962. c. Allen Ginsberg Estate]

Unfortunately this is the only photo Ginsberg snapped at the coffee house where he & Peter spent hours talking poetry with among others the Krittbas writers Sunil Ganguly, Shakti Chattopadhyay and Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay during the summer of 1962. In commemorating the 50th aniversary, The Calcutta Telegraph give us a little background and history to this Bengali literary landmark & institution.