It was the poem that defined a generation. Howl, the defiantly gay manifesto that Allen Ginsberg read aloud for the first time at a Six Gallery public reading in San Francisco in 1955, railed against the life-snuffing hetero-oppressive conformity of the 1950s.
Filled with anger and rage, Howl bemoans the causes of addiction as it simultaneously celebrates Walt Whitman, Ginsberg s Beat Generation comrades, cum, Bach, jazz and jism, the Bible, and a litany of transgressive acts. Hearing it read aloud by Ginsberg, in a voice in which heartbreak and fury intermingle, is an experience like no other.
That the poem s coming out party, so to speak, came just a few months after the somewhat closeted Leonard Bernstein s 40-minute opera,
Bay Area Reporter :: Allen Ginsberg s first recorded Howl ebar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ebar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Home > new music > Reissue CDs Weekly: Allen Ginsberg - At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems
Reissue CDs Weekly: Allen Ginsberg - At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems | reviews, news & interviews Reissue CDs Weekly: Allen Ginsberg - At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems
Reissue CDs Weekly: Allen Ginsberg - At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems
The important, first-ever release of a remarkable personal appearance from February 1956
by Kieron TylerSunday, 07 February 2021
Allen Ginsberg in New York, 1953. Photograph by William S. BurroughsCourtesy The Allen Ginsberg Estate