The Howling
Unless all my instruments are miscalibrated, the reading on Friday was enormous fun for all involved. Gillian Coats couldn't make it, as she missed her return flight from Jamaica (I'm sure she hated that!), but Sebastian Matthews brought another member of the Warren Wilson writing faculty, Gary Lilley, and Gary seemed to find the spirit of the evening congenial, and read some interesting work. Richard Cambridge did a great job of getting the evening underway, and some of our poets just went off the hook - as usual. Jaye Bartell was animated, and Ted Pope... well, Ted's always animated. It's what he does. He didn't stand on the seats Friday, but he did walk through the room, and come crawling back to our "stage" on his hands and knees, reading beautiful verse all the while from his notebook, as the band played - truly an over-the-top homage to the Beat spirit.
The reading of "Howl" itself was energizing for both readers and audience. Richard started us off, chanting the first eighteen extended lines solo, with a few pauses for howls, which the audience joined enthusiastically. Thomas Rain Crowe and I took the next twenty lines, reading them antiphonally, David Hopes and Ted took the next twenty, likewise reading alternating lines, and Sebastian, Jaye, and Gary finished out the first section, Jaye reading several of his passages from the audience. Thomas and I then took the second section, and the Chorus (everyone else) chanted "Moloch" each time Ginsberg used the word in his text (he begins almost every line of this section with that exclamatory denunciation), and a few extra for good measure, and a few howls as well. For the third section, the Chorus took the "I'm with you in Rockland" refrain (virtually every other line), and David read the rest. Once again, the Chorus made sure there were lots of howls thrown in too, and the audience howled along - joining us in the performance. For the "Postscript", the Chorus chanted "holy, holy, holy" as a foundation over which Sebastian, Jaye, and Gary read the rest of Allen's poem. It was an amazing occasion - we were all summoned into the vortex of energy that Allen created five decades ago. Thanks, Mr. Ginsberg, a tip of the hat to you!
After it was all over, Richard said he thought Allen had been beaming a great big smile over us during the performance. If Allen was indeed tuned in, I, too, feel sure he was pleased.
Sebastian sent an email yesterday that summed it up well, I thought, as a "powerful, goofy, exhilarating, energizing and soulful evening." It was all that.
Alice took some photos during the course of the festivities, so I'll try to get a few scanned and posted later.
Special thanks to the Q-Trio for the just-right cool jazz, both behind us as we read and during the breaks, and to Steve Davidowski, who sat in on soprano sax and clarinet, and did some stunning fills. And thanks, of course, to Richard, Thomas, Sebastian, David, Jaye, Gary, and Ted, for another night to remember, a night of the book that was truly for the books, as well.
AUW-OOOU!
The reading of "Howl" itself was energizing for both readers and audience. Richard started us off, chanting the first eighteen extended lines solo, with a few pauses for howls, which the audience joined enthusiastically. Thomas Rain Crowe and I took the next twenty lines, reading them antiphonally, David Hopes and Ted took the next twenty, likewise reading alternating lines, and Sebastian, Jaye, and Gary finished out the first section, Jaye reading several of his passages from the audience. Thomas and I then took the second section, and the Chorus (everyone else) chanted "Moloch" each time Ginsberg used the word in his text (he begins almost every line of this section with that exclamatory denunciation), and a few extra for good measure, and a few howls as well. For the third section, the Chorus took the "I'm with you in Rockland" refrain (virtually every other line), and David read the rest. Once again, the Chorus made sure there were lots of howls thrown in too, and the audience howled along - joining us in the performance. For the "Postscript", the Chorus chanted "holy, holy, holy" as a foundation over which Sebastian, Jaye, and Gary read the rest of Allen's poem. It was an amazing occasion - we were all summoned into the vortex of energy that Allen created five decades ago. Thanks, Mr. Ginsberg, a tip of the hat to you!
After it was all over, Richard said he thought Allen had been beaming a great big smile over us during the performance. If Allen was indeed tuned in, I, too, feel sure he was pleased.
Sebastian sent an email yesterday that summed it up well, I thought, as a "powerful, goofy, exhilarating, energizing and soulful evening." It was all that.
Alice took some photos during the course of the festivities, so I'll try to get a few scanned and posted later.
Special thanks to the Q-Trio for the just-right cool jazz, both behind us as we read and during the breaks, and to Steve Davidowski, who sat in on soprano sax and clarinet, and did some stunning fills. And thanks, of course, to Richard, Thomas, Sebastian, David, Jaye, Gary, and Ted, for another night to remember, a night of the book that was truly for the books, as well.
AUW-OOOU!
posted by Jeff Davis at 12:30 AM
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