Makes very little difference what happens, the next ten years, because the main thing in the universe isn’t at all affected by these little shifts of anthills, musics, nations, marriages. Let Allen Ginsberg inform your Sunday afternoon. [more inside]
posted by Obscure Reference on Nov 20, 2011 - 21 comments

Tonite Let's All Make Love In London (1967) NSFW [more inside]
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist on May 5, 2011 - 9 comments

Impossible Happiness, an elegy for Peter Orlovsky, 76, a writer best known as a longtime muse, inspiration and companion of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, [he] died May 30 of lung cancer at a respite care center in Williston, Vt.. Naropa co-founder poet, Anne Waldman on Peter's death. 4 poems l "It's never too late to do nothin' at all" l Ida Spaulding reads Peter's "Writing Poems is a Saintly Thing".
posted by nickyskye on Jun 2, 2010 - 26 comments

For more than 50 years, it was believed that the first recording Allen Ginsberg made of Howl was in Berkeley in March 1956. Now, an earlier recording – made on Valentine's Day 1956 at Reed College, Portland, Oregon – has been found. Reed have made it – along with seven other poems Ginsberg read the same night – available here. (Click on "Allen Ginsberg reads ..." for drop down menu; apologies for crappy quicktime interface.)
posted by Len on Feb 15, 2008 - 27 comments

Too Hot To Hear. Fifty years ago today, a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem "Howl" was not obscene. Yet today, a New York public broadcasting station decided not to air the poem, fearing that the Federal Communications Commission will find it indecent and crush the network with crippling fines. More on Allen Ginsberg here. Via.
posted by amyms on Oct 5, 2007 - 69 comments

The Internet Archive just got beat. William Burroughs on wishing. Mystical audio by Harry Smith. Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) on "jism and jazz". Ginsberg reads "Howl." The most historically significant archive of Beat and post-Beat recordings is now free for the downloading. Lossless or lo-fi, saved or streamed -- the tape vault of Naropa Institute is unlocked on archive.org as the Creative Commons grows.
posted by digaman on Jun 22, 2004 - 25 comments