Everything Is Known: Ginsberg and Teaching (poets panel on Allen Ginsberg)

Everything Is Known: Ginsberg and Teaching
September 15th, 2009 8pm
Parish Hall
St. Mark's Church in the Bowery
131 East 10th Street, New York City
$10. Contribution at the door
to benefit “HOWL ! Emergency Life Project”
Advance tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79376

Howl Festival ‘09 presents a panel and open discussion on Allen Ginsberg and teaching. The panelists include poets and writers who have worked with Ginsberg, studied with him, and gone on to teach others. The panelists are: Eliot Katz, Andy Clausen, Steven Taylor, Brenda Coultas, Anselm Berrigan, David Carter, and Bob Rosenthal.

Selected bio's as of 8/13/09

Anselm Berrigan, raised and currently living in the east village, is a poet and former artistic director of The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. His newest book, Free Cell, is coming out from City Lights this September. He is the poetry editor for The Brooklyn Rail, and a member of the subpress publishing collective, having earlier this year published The Selected Poems of Steve Carey (edited by Edmund Berrigan) through subpress.

David Carter wrote and directed a film documentary on Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual master, that Peter Townshend produced and scored. A long-time gay activist in Wisconsin, Carter first got to know Allen Ginsberg when he interviewed him for a Madison gay television series, Nothing To Hide. After Carter moved to New York and became a writer, he was hired by Ginsberg to edit his interviews, published as Spontaneous Mind. Carter helped locate audio copies of Ginsberg interviews about Howl for the film about Howl that is currently being made. He is the author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, the basis for the forthcoming PBS film, and he is the consultant for that film. He is currently writing a biography of pioneering gay activist Frank Kameny.
www.davidcarterauthor.com

Andy Clausen is the author of many books of poetry including The Iron Curtain of Love, Extreme Unction, Without Doubt, Songs of Bo Baba, 40th Century Man (Selected 1996-1966) and memoir The Latter Days of the Beat Generation. Allen Ginsberg wrote, "...inherited Neal Cassady's American Energy Transmission.. In his intro to Without Doubt, Ginsberg said, "I'd take a chance on a president Clausen." Clausen has read and lived all over the continent and world. He has had 1,473 jobs. He teaches poetry to 5th graders on Long Island though auspices of Teachers and Writers Coll. Has taught at Naropa Institute and lectured at more than a few colleges. He read with Ginsberg approx 30 times. He was born in a Belgian bombshelter.

Brenda Coultas is the author of The Marvelous Bones of Time (2008) and A Handmade Museum (2003) from Coffee House Press, which won the Norma Farber Award from The Poetry Society of America, and a Greenwall Fund publishing grant from the Academy of American Poets. Her writing can be found in many publications including: Conjunctions, Brooklyn Rail, Trickhouse, and the Denver Review. Other books include Early Films (Rodent Press) and A Summer Newsreel (Second Story Press). She received a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fellow in 2005 and was a LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) artist-in-residence in 2009.

Poet and activist Eliot Katz is the author of six books of poetry, including Unlocking the Exits, and the recently released Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull, a collaboration with the artist, William T. Ayton. He is a coeditor, with Allen Ginsberg and Andy Clausen, of Poems for the Nation (Seven Stories Press), a collection of political poems that Ginsberg was compiling in the mid-1990s. Along with Danny Shot, Katz cofounded Long Shot literary journal in 1982 and guest-edited its final issue, a "Beat Bush issue" released in Spring 2004. His poems are included in many anthologies, including: Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets; Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, 2nd ed.; The World the 60s Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America; Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; and Blue Stones and Salt Hay: An Anthology of Contemporary New Jersey Poets. His essay, "Radical Eyes," is included in the prose collection, The Poem That Changed America: "Howl" Fifty Years Later. Called “another classic New Jersey bard” by Ginsberg, Katz worked for many years as a housing advocate for Central New Jersey homeless families. He currently lives in New York City and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Some of his writings can be viewed online at http://www.poetspath.com/exhibits/eliotkatz

Bob Rosenthal is a poet and a writer who has co-written and produced five plays. Born in Chicago in 1950 and moved to New York City in 1973. His 1970's how-to book, Cleaning Up New York, has occasionally been regarded as a cult classic. He worked as Allen Ginsberg's secretary for 20 years until Allen’s death and currently is an executor of his estate. He is also a high school English teacher. He is currently finishing Straight Around Allen, his how-to account the business of Allen Ginsberg, and has five books of poetry: Mooring Poems, Lies About the Flesh, Rude Awakenings, Viburnum, and Eleven Psalms. He is married and has two sons.

Steven Taylor collaborated with Allen Ginsberg for twenty years. He is the author of False Prophet: Fieldnotes from the punk underground (Wesleyan UP), and is a member of the Fugs.

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg’s signal poem "Howl" overcame censorship in 1957 to become one of the most widely read poems of the century. In 1965 Ginsberg was simultaneously crowned Prague May King, then expelled by Czech police and placed on the FBI's Dangerous Security List. He has traveled to and taught in the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, Australia, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, where he received Yugoslavia's Struga Poetry Festival "Golden Wreath" 1986. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University, the first accredited Buddhist College in the West, he was Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College from 1986 till his death in 1997. He was winner of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award given by the University of Chicago in 1991 and in 1993 received France's "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Artes et des Lettres." He premiered Kronos Quartet’s poetry music performance of "Howl” at Carnegie Hall in 1994.
Allen Ginsberg was born June 3, 1926, Newark, NJ & died New York City,
April 5, 1997.

Significant publications & recordings:

Selected Poems 1947-1997, Harper Collins, 2007
Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958-1996 Harper Collins 2001 ed. David Carter
Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952-1995 ed Bill Morgan, HarperCollins, 2000
Howl Annotated, Ed Barry Miles, Harper Perennial, 1995, 2007;
Wichita Vortex Sutra [Artemis Records] 2004
The Ballad of the Skeletons w/Paul McCartney, Philip Glass, Lenny Kaye producer [Mouth Almighty/Mercury] 1996
Howl, U.S.A. Lee Hyla score, Kronos Quartet [Nonesuch] 1996
The Lion for Real [Mouth Almighty] 1997
Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems and Songs 1949-1993 [Rhino] 1994
Hydrogen Jukebox Philip Glass, libretto Allen Ginsberg [Elektra/Nonesuch] 1993
Snapshot Poetics Chronicle Books, 1993
Allen Ginsberg Photographs Twelve Trees Press, 1991


Selected drawing and photo's as of 8/15/09

(Photo credit: Steven Taylor, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky by Saul Shapiro.
Used with permission. All rights reserved. Copyright Saul Shapiro.)
(Photo credit: Anselm Berrigan courtesy the artist. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Anselm Berrigan.)
(Photo credit: David Carter courtesy the artist. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright David Carter.)
(Photo credit: Andy Clausen by Lou Pollack. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Lou Pollack.)
(Photo credit: Brenda Coultas by Brenda Coultas. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Brenda Coultas.)
(Photo credit: Eliot Katz by Vivian Demuth. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Vivian Demuth.)
(Drawing credit: Bob Rosenthal by Leah Whiteman. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Leah Whiteman.)
(Photo credit: Steven Taylor by John Saarsgard. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright John Saarsgard.)

Poetry Turn On ! St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery Poetry Reading to benefit HOWL ! HELP FUND

Bringing all the poets together for you: one night only !
Come experience the Poetry Turn On ! A HOWL! Festival Event
Hosted by Nathaniel Siegel

Thursday Sept 10th, 2009 8pm to 10pm
The Parish Hall at
St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery
131 East 10th Street @ Second Avenue

Suggested donation $10.00 to benefit the HOWL ! HELP Fund.

Come hear poets from The Bowery Poetry Club, Cave Canem,
A Gathering of the Tribes, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and The Poetry Project.

Scheduled to read and perform:
From The Bowery Poetry Club: poets Eliel Lucero, Lynne Procope,
Shappy Seasholtz, Jean Ann Verlee.


From Cave Canem: poets E. J. Antonio, Evan Burton, Juliet Howard,
Nicole Sealey, Camille Rankine.


From A Gathering of the Tribes: poets Steve Cannon, Steve Dalachinsky,
Yuko Otomo, Amy Ouzoonian, Chavisa Woods.


From Nuyorican Poets Cafe: poets Samuel Diaz, Daniel Gallant,
Carlos Andres Gomez, Mariposa.


From The Poetry Project: poets Jim Behrle, MacGregor Card,
Paul Foster Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones, Stacy Szymaszek.


Selected bio's as of 8/12/09:

NATHANIEL SIEGEL is the author of TONY published by Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs. (host)

SHAPPY SEASHOLTZ is the current Slam-Master of NYC-URBANA poetry slam series which runs every Tuesday at 7PM at the BOWERY POETRY CLUB where Shappy is also the surly barkeep. He's the head Dungeon Master of Spoken Nerd and runs the NERD SLAM every year at the National Poetry Slam. He has 8 long boxes of comics, over 100 Viewmaster reels and a complete run of WackyPackages. He has been seen in DEF POETRY, SLAM PLANET
and most recently as a Trekkie in the film FANBOYS. He will be touring this fall with the Elephant High-Dive Revival tour with WRITE BLOODY PRESS. He is the Chosen One.

E.J. ANTONIO is a 2009 fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a recipient of fellowships from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Cave Canem Foundation. Her work has been published in various Journals and magazines; most recently, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Mobius: The Poetry Magazine, and The Mom Egg Literary Journal. Her work is forthcoming in The Encyclopedia Project. Her first chapbook, Every Child Knows, was published in the Fall of 2007 by the Premier Poets Chapbook Series, and she is one of the featured poets on the CD, Beauty Keeps Laying It’s Sharp Knife Against Me: Brant Lyon and Friends.

EVAN ROSS BURTON has been writing poems since he could read. His first poem was about his grandmother sleeping on the couch on Christmas morning. It was a marginal success. Born in Baltimore, Evan is completing his MFA at The City College of New York, and is a resident of Brooklyn. He is published in The Promethean, Gigantic Sequins Magazine, and on line at http://www.un-mute.com

JULIET P. HOWARD, a native New Yorker, is a poet, lawyer and Cave Canem fellow. Her poems have been published in Queer Convention: A Chapbook of Fierce, Cave Canem XI 2007 Anthology, Promethean Literary Journal’s Spring 2008 and 2007 editions, The Portable Lower East Side (Queer City) and Poetry in Performance. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of the City University of New York in 2009 and holds a BA in English from Barnard College, as well as a JD from Brooklyn Law School.

NICOLE SEALEY is a writer, editor, and poet. Her interviews with acclaimed writers Sapphire, DJ Spooky and Patricia Smith can be found in Artists and Influence: Volume XXV, Studio, and Mosaic literary magazine, respectively. Her poems have appeared in Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought and His Rib.

STEVE DALACHINSKY was born in 1946, Brooklyn, New York. His work has appeared extensively in journals on & off line including; Big Bridge, Milk, Unlikely Stories, Xpressed, Ratapallax, Evergreen Review, Long Shot, Alpha Beat Soup, Xtant, Blue Beat Jacket, N.Y. Arts Magazine, 88 and Lost and Found Times. He is included in such anthologies as Beat Indeed, The Haiku Moment and the esteemed Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He has written liner notes for the CDs of many artists including Anthony Braxton, Charles Gayle, James "Blood" Ulmer, Rashied Ali, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp and Roscoe Mitchell. His 1999 CD, Incomplete Direction (Knitting Factory Records), a collection of his poetry read in collaboration with various musicians, such as William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, Thurston Moore (SonicYouth), Vernon Reid (Living Colour) has garnered much praise. His most recent chapbooks include Musicology (Editions Pioche, Paris 2005), Trial and Error in Paris (Loudmouth Collective 2003), Lautreamont's Laments (Furniture Press 2005), In Glorious Black and White (Ugly Duckling Presse 2005), St. Lucie (King of Mice Press 2005), Are We Not MEN & Fake Book (2 books of collage - 8 Page Press 2005). Dream Book (Avantcular Press 2005). His books include A Superintendent's Eyes (Hozomeen Press 2000) and his PEN Award winning book The Final Nite (complete notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook, Ugly Duckling Presse 2006).
His latest CD is Phenomena of Interference, a collaboration with pianist Matthew Shipp (Hopscotch Records 2005).
He has read throughout the N.Y. area, the U.S., Japan and Europe, including France and Germany.

YUKO OTOMO
Japanese origin. A bilingual (Japanese & English) poet & a visual artist (in pursuit of Pure Abstraction). She also writes haiku, art criticism & essays. She has read in St. Mark's Poetry Project, Tribes, Bowery Poetry Club, ABC No Rio, La Mama, NY Public Library, Knitting Factory, the Living Theatre, etc & in Japan, France & Germany. Her latest publication includes "Small Poems", "The Hand of The Poet" (both from Ugly Duckling Presse) & "A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Museum" & "Fragile" (both from Sisyphus Press). She exhibited her art work at Court House Gallery @ Anthology Film Archives & Vision Festival, etc.

SAMUEL DIAZ is a poet, chemist and computer whiz. A longtime chronicler of the Nuyorican poetry phenomenon, he wrote the monthly online column Our New Nuyorican Thing and is currently the host of a monthly poetry series at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

DANIEL GALLANT is the Executive Director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. His writing has appeared in the Random House anthology Talk To Me and the Best American Short Plays of 2007-2008, among other publications. Daniel's plays and monologues have been performed at venues including the 92nd Street Y, Center Stage, Galapagos, HERE and Theater For The New City.

CARLOS ANDRÉS GÓMEZ is an actor, playwright, and poet from New York City. He is a Russell Simmons HBO Def Poet and 2006 International Poetry Slam Champion. Winner of the 2009 Artist of the Year Award at the Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, he stars in Spike Lee’s number one box office smash hit film “INSIDE MAN” with a lead role alongside Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. Carlos has headlined over 200 college shows and at international festivals spanning 3 continents, delivered the keynote address at numerous conferences, and facilitated thousands of workshops on a wide range of topics around the world.

MARIPOSA, a.k.a. Maria Teresa Fernandez Rosario, is an award winning Nuyorican Bronx poet, actor, educator, artist and activist. As a poet-in-residence at The Caribbean Cultural Center, Poets & Writers, Poets House, The Bronx Writers Center and Teachers & Writers Collaborative, she has taught poetry workshops to elementary, junior high and high school students throughout New York City, as well as several branches of The New York Public Library and senior citizen centers. She has performed in major poetry venues, including The Nuyorican Poets Café, at The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in San Juan, Puerto Rico; over a hundred colleges and universities throughout the United States; at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa; and at the Essence Music Fest in New Orleans. Mariposa's current projects include the development of her one woman show; and the completion of her spoken word CD and a manuscript of poems and memoir.

JIM BEHRLE lives in Brooklyn, NY. Recent work of his hasn't appeared anywhere.

MACGREGOR CARD is a poet, translator and bibliographer living in Queens. His first book, Duties of an English Foreign Secretary, will be out in Fall 2009 from Fence Books (selected for the Fence Modern Poets Series by Martin Corless-Smith). He was the editor of The Germ (archives at germspot.blogspot.com) and Firmilian: A Spasmodic Knowledge Base (firmilian.blogspot.com). He is currently editing an anthology of New York School poetries with Olivier Brossard.

PAUL FOSTER JOHNSON’s first collection of poetry,Refrains/Unworkings, was published in 2008 by Apostrophe Books. With E. Tracy Grinnell, he is the author of the g-o-n-g press chapbook Quadriga. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of literary journals, including Cannot Exist, GAM, EOAGH, Pom2, Fence, The Portable Boog Reader 2, Antennae, Bird Dog, and Octopus. From 2003 to 2006, he curated the Experiments and Disorders reading series at Dixon Place. He is an editor at Litmus Press and currently lives in New York, NY.

PATRICIA SPEARS JONES is an award-winning poet, editor, playwright, teacher and former Program Coordinator at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. Her poetry collections are Femme du Monde and The Weather That Kills. Her work is anthologized in Bowery Women: Poems; broken land: Poems of Brooklyn; Poetry After 911; Blood & Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard; Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology; and Best American Poetry, 2000. Poems, interviews, reviews and commentary in The Poetry Project Newsletter, Black Renaissance Noire, Court Green, Bomb, Calabar, Callaloo, Black Issues Book Review, Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, The Southampton Review; TriQuarterly, and www.tribes.org. Two plays were commissioned and produced by Mabou Mines: ‘Mother’ in 1994 and Song for New York: What Women Do When Men Sit Knitting in 2007. Her website is http://www.psjones.com.

STACY SZYMASZEK is the author of Emptied of All Ships and Hyperglossia (both with Litmus Press). She is the Artistic Director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. (introducing)

Selected photo credits as of 8/12/09:

(Photo credit: Shappy Seasholtz by Shappy Seasholtz. Used with permission.
Copyright Shappy Seasholtz. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Macgregor Card by Macgregor Card. Used with permission.
Copyright Macgregor Card. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Paul Foster Johnson by Stacy Szymaszek.Used with permission. Copyright Stacy Szymaszek. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Nicole Sealey by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.Used with permission.
Copyright Rachel Eliza Griffiths. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Juliet P. Howard by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Used with permission. Copyright Rachel Eliza Griffiths. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Evan Ross Burton by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Used with permission. Copyright Rachel Eliza Griffiths. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: E.J. Antonio by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.Used with permission.
Copyright Rachel Eliza Griffiths. All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Nathaniel Siegel by Nathaniel Siegel. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Nathaniel Siegel.)
(Photo credit: Steve Dalachinsky by Marilyn Kaggen. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Marilyn Kaggen.)
(Photo credit: Yuko Otomo by Marilyn Kaggen. Used with permission.
All rights reserved.)
(Photo credit: Samuel Diaz by Samuel Diaz. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Samuel Diaz.)
(Photo credit: Daniel Gallant by Jim Block. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Jim Block.)
(Photo credit: Carlos Andres Gomez by Billy Bustamante.
Used with permission. All rights reserved. Copyright Billy Bustamante.)
(Photo credit: Jim Behrle by Jim Behrle. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Jim Behrle.)
(Photo credit: Patricia Spears Jones by Teri Slotkin. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright Teri Slotkin.)
(Photo credit: Stacy Szymaszek by John Saarsgard. Used with permission.
All rights reserved. Copyright John Saarsgard.)
(Photo credit: St. Mark's Church in the Bowery by Nathaniel Siegel.
Used with permission. All rights reserved. Copyright Nathaniel Siegel.)

HOWL HELP Press Conference Announcing The Fund

HOWL! EMERGENCY LIFE PROJECT (HELP)

HOWL! EMERGENCY LIFE PROJECT (HELP) OF THE ACTORS FUND
www.actorsfund.org
HOWL! HELP provides emergency assistance to qualified performing artists in crisis and offers other Actors Fund support services.
If you are in the arts, have made or continue to make your career in NYC's East Village, Lower East Side or downtown community and are in need of emergency assistance, get in touch and find out how HOWL! HELP can provide life-changing support. Eligible artists include participants in the annual Howl Festival and those in the East Village Arts Community in theatre, music, performance, dance, multimedia, the spoken word and visual arts. Assistance is based on need and qualifying work history.
The Actors Fund is a national human service organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis or transition. HOWL! HELP eligible applicants have access to all Actor's Fund programs including HEALTH SERVICES (free Health Clinic and low-cost or free Health Insurance Resource Center), SOCIAL SERVICES (Mental Health, Chemical Dependency, HIV/AIDS, Seniors, Disabled, Women's Health, Financial Wellness and the Dancer's Resource), EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICES and HOUSING SERVICES.
For more information or to get help call 212.221.7300 ext. 119 or visit www.actorsfund.org.
All inquiries are COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL, please reach out if you are in need.
The JACKIE FACTORY is proud to serve on the Advisory Board of HOWL HELP!, a wonderful new community resource years in the making. This project will be announced at an upcoming press conference this summer, please let us know if you need more information or would like to help spread the word!

(Photo credit: Richard Hell, Barbara Davis of The Actors Fund, Bob Holman, Marguerite Van Cook, Riki Colon, Reverend Winnie S. Varghese St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, Chi Chi Valenti, Riki Colon, Hattie Hathaway. All photo's by Nathaniel Siegel. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Copyright 2009 Nathaniel Siegel)