Jack Spicer and the Loyalty Oath “The testing of a University faculty by oath is a stupid and insulting procedure. If this oath is to have the effect of eliminating Communists from the faculty, we … [Read more...]
Two Songs for Samson: An Invective Poem for Carl Solomon
Two Songs for Samson (an invective poem) for Carl Solomon Where goes your nose, Old Sam? How mighty a germ that nestled there Could cause so mighty a blow? Does a note so dissonant … [Read more...]
Beat Generation film – Kill Your Darlings trailer released!
Kill Your Darlings dramatizes an actual event that took place in 1944, as the writers who would later be identified with the Beat Generation became embroiled in a murder that made headlines. While … [Read more...]
Two Poems by Alessandra Bava
Apres Nous, Le Chaos (to Lawrence Ferlinghetti) In the bookstore the voice slowly uncurls some pages of life, revealing Allen's loss: "There is a HUGE … [Read more...]
Review – The Beats: A Very Short Introduction by David Sterritt
The Beats: A Very Short Introduction by David Sterritt / Oxford University Press / 978-0-19-979677-9 / 126 pages David Sterritt's work might be familiar to Beat or film aficionados through his … [Read more...]
Charged Vision: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
The photographs of Allen Ginsberg recently were on display at the Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco. Walking through the museum is like going on a jaunt through Beat History. A spritely Jack … [Read more...]
Cry, Exploration, Ceremony
Oppositional postmodernist literature is associated with the Beat movement and came about after the terrible, unforeseen destruction of World War II. While the modernists were positive about the human … [Read more...]
Ginsberg’s Refrigerator
In Allen’s tenement flat at 170 East 2nd Street, even the refrigerator is an outlet of poetry. The picture in black and white shows a handle pointing north. On the off-white surface a picture of … [Read more...]
Ginsberg at the Grey
How belly they aged, your friends, how hard the young years, every look, an eye for an eye, rapscallions when this country had corners rounded to secret, sweet places unfound by blab and tweet. In … [Read more...]
Celebrating Allen Ginsberg’s birthday with a few videos
In honor of Allen Ginsberg's birthday (June 3, 1926), we've gathered a few videos together. We've got some poetry for you, a chant, and an interview or two. What are your favorite Ginsberg … [Read more...]
Review – Alleycats and Beatsters: The Hip, the Gone, and the Way Gone
Alleycats and Beatsters, a collection of essays by British writer Kenton Crowther, explores what it means to be Beat, the nature of hipness, and the poets, writers and hipsters who orbited the Beats, … [Read more...]
Three pieces for Beat poets
1 For Eileen Myles (New Generation Beat) He licked his lips but not at me. I watched his eyes walk by, glazedly, hanging their thumbs on their belt loops oh so casual. We had only just … [Read more...]
The Language of Bebop: Syncopated Sounds and Rhythms in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’
America, mid-twentieth century. Wearied by civilization, excesses and ornamentation, complications and. All precursors to extinction: The drone of war, the machinery of death, the … [Read more...]
Beat Generation Photos by Rob Lee
[Editor's note: These photos are small! This page was first created many years ago for smaller screens. I have larger photos somewhere and will update this page as soon as possible.] Shig … [Read more...]
A. D. Winans: 11 Photographs
Pete Brown, Legendary Poet and Cream Lyricist, Interviewed by Bill Ectric
On June 16 ("Bloomsday"), 1964, Pete Brown gave the first ever poetry reading at Morden Tower, now a literary landmark in Newcastle, England. The Morden Tower Readings, conceived and organized by Tom … [Read more...]
Chorus of Poets Gather for Allen Ginsberg “Howl” Celebration (2005)
A horn call sounded the start of the 50th anniversary celebration of Allen Ginsberg's first public reading of his masterpiece Howl, on this occasion, Oct. 7, 2005 at Skylight Books in Los Feliz … [Read more...]