Brothers and sisters, coming up is the 50th anniversary of the first public performance by Allen Ginsberg of his loooong poem, Howl. That was 7 October, 1955 at the Six Gallery in San Francisco.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix
A poem that is probably more talked about than read, to my mind Howl is actually better said than read. Still, if you want to read the poem: Howl + Ginsberg's Footnote to Howl.
Better yet, listen to Ginsberg give a bravura performance: go here, then click to download. The mp3 features Chogyam Trungpa, rinpoche; Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg. Recording made, date disputed, at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado. The file is biggish (87.8M zip file), so it takes a bit of time to download. Ginsberg starts 40 mins into the recording...
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