Friday, February 29, 2008

Landmark College to Present Strange Prophecies Anew: A Panel Discussion on Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish"


Photo: Copyright by Elsa Dorfman, 1996.

STRANGE PROPHECIES ANEW: A Panel Discussion on Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish"

Considered by many as Ginsberg's finest poem, panelists Bill Morgan, Bob Rosenthal and Jacqueline Gens (05) will discuss inspirations and influences in "Kaddish," the eulogy for his mother, Naomi, that Ginsberg completed nearly 50 years ago. All three panelists knew the poet well and will each examine different aspects of the poem from their personal perspectives.


Landmark College
April 17, 2008 at 7:30 PM
East Academic Building
Putney, Vermont.

The event is free and open to the public. For further information contact: jgens@sover.net

Panelists:

Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant. His most recent book, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg, was published by Viking in October of 2006. He is also the author of The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac’s City and The Beat
Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour
and editor of the book Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays of Allen Ginsberg
1952–1995
. He is co-editor of Ginsberg’s The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems, 1937–1952
and Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression.

Bob Rosenthal, who studied poetry under Paul Carroll, Ted Berrigan, Joel Oppenhiemer, Bernadette Mayer, and Alice Notley, is a poet and a writer who has co-written and produced five plays. His 1970's Cleaning Up New York was regarded as a cult classic. His latest collection of poetry is Viburnum (White Fields Press, Tennessee). He has taught workshops at The Poetry Project, Snug Harbor, and the Naropa Institute. He worked as Allen Ginsberg's secretary for 20 years until Allen’s death and currently is a Trustee of the Allen Ginsberg Trust. Bob is on the faculty at Abraham Joshua Heschel High School. He is currently writing his account on the business of Allen Ginsberg and has written three other books of poetry, Morning Poems, (Yellow Press, Chicago, 1972), Rude Awakenings, (Yellow Press, Chicago. 1976) and Eleven Psalms (1999). He is married and has two sons.]

Jacqueline Gens is the co-director and a founder of the MFA Program in Poetry with Chard deNiord at New England College. For many years she worked at the Naropa Institute (now University) in Boulder, Colorado before she joined the staff of the late poet, Allen Ginsberg, in NYC with Bob Rosenthal and Bill Morgan. She has worked as program director for numerous regional non-profits, including, the Great River Arts Institute and the Shang Shung Institute of Tibetan Studies located in Conway, MA. She is currently working towards establishing the Brattleboro Center for Literary Arts and curates a reading series at the Hooker-Duhnam Theater. Her chapbook, Primo Pensiero with a preface by Anne Waldman is forthcoming from Shivastan Press in the Spring of 2008.