Audio By Carbonatix
Though the date is the subject of debate, most agree that it was October 7, 1955, when six relatively unknown poets headed to Six Gallery in San Francisco to participate in a showcase of promising up-and-comers. One of the bards, an upstart by the name of Jack Kerouac, opted not to read, choosing to take up a collection and make a wine run instead. So it was up to Philip Lamantia, Mike McClure, Gary Snyder, Phil Whalen and Allen Ginsberg to go on with the show.
Performing second to last, Ginsberg, a 29-year-old novice participating in his first public reading, shared “Howl,” a poem he had written in a mad burst only weeks earlier. Behind intelligentsia glasses and a face full of black fuzz, the author sang like a Jewish cantor, delivering the long, epic lines in labored, single breaths. The crowd was entranced by what would become the Beat song of defiance. Kerouac banged on his wine jug and shouted, “Go! Go!” after every line. Audience members burst into disbelieving tears. Later, poet and City Lights bookstore proprietor Lawrence Ferlinghetti sent Ginsberg a telegram: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career.”
Prophetic words. Today, “Howl” stands as one of the most widely read poems of all time. Ginsberg — who was catapulted to notoriety in 1957 after U.S. Customs agents seized 520 copies of the poem on the grounds that it was obscene — enjoyed a long and prolific career before his death in 1997.
The poem, his life and that magical night in 1955 are celebrated in Transatlantic Howl! A Dedication to Allen Ginsberg, taking place on Thursday, October 14, across the globe.
“In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of ŒHowl,’ we have put together a celebration of nations to promote peace through poetry,” says poet and event co-producer Mary Kite. Poets will perform live readings and poetic theater pieces of “Howl” in London, Paris and cities throughout the United States. The event will be streamed to computers around the world, allowing anyone with broadband access to watch.
Local Beat enthusiasts can witness the action live. The Allen Ginsberg Greek Chorus — a group composed of professors, students and alums from both the University of Colorado and Naropa University — will recite the final section of the poem.
