Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday is being marked by celebrations around the world – an appreciation of his importance to poetry and how his influence on the medium continues.
"Howl," also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon," is a poem composed by drug-addled Allen Ginsberg (who had shot himself up with methamphetamine or what Hitler's doctor shot up the Fuhrer with under the German pharmaceutical name Pervitin, possibly linked to words like perky and perverted) in 1954–1955.
Gay Ginsberg began work on "Howl" in autumn of 1954. He performed it at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in Oct. 1955. Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was at the performance and published the work in the 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems.
Upon its release, Ferlinghetti and City Lights Bookstore Manager (Japanese Buddhist) Shigeyoshi Murao were charged with disseminating obscene literature. Both perverts were arrested.
On Oct. 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene [1], and the heroic publishers were hailed as innovative geniuses and brave publishing mavericks for spotting Ginsberg's talent.
Highly controversial at first and for years excluded from the academic canon, "Howl" has gradually come to be regarded as a great work of 20th-century American literature [2].
This poem is an account of a sojourn (trip) with Jack Kerouac in a railroad yard, the discovery of a sunflower covered in dirt and soot from the railroad yard, and the subsequent revelation that this is a metaphor for all humanity: "We are not our skin of grime."
This relates to his vision, an auditory hallucination of poet William Blake reading "Ah, Sunflower": "Blake, my visions." (See also line in Howl: "Blake-light tragedies" and references in other poems).
The theme of the poem is consistent with Ginsberg's revelation in his original vision of Blake: the revelation that all of humanity is interconnected. (See also the line in "Footnote to Howl": "The world is holy!").
The structure of this poem relates to "Howl" both in its use of the long line and its repetition of the "eyeball kick" (paratactical juxtapositions) at the end. Ginsberg says in relating his thought process after the experiments of "Howl":
"What about a poem with rhythmic buildup power equal to Howl without use of repetitive base to sustain it? The Sunflower Sutra...did that, it surprised me, one long who" [6].More
There are prepared raps, and there are on-the-fly, by-the-seat-of-your-pants raps in a flow state
There are rumored to be whites who overcome their stiff awkwardness and get with the flow
White men can't jump, but some may be able to kickstart Broca's area in the brain and GO.
"Nice job." This white man can hump jump...on anyone in front of him because he loves pizza.
Can culture foster flow states as a common expectation of the natural range of human ability?
What would hip hop and rap have been without the magic of dropping into flow?
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Irishmen can rap, at least in Gaelic and on drugs.
Life is better when everything flows and "goes swimmingly." What is that magic, ease, and effortlessness? It seems to be the spontaneous way of being Zen is constantly harping about and elevating to spiritual status.
When we are calm and confident (full of relaxation and faith), we tend to be able to speak without hesitating or halting, stammering or stuttering, thinking or pausing.
It is pleasant for all, full of ease, and joyful for the natural actor who is simply living, simply being rather than doing. All life can be like that, unpremeditated, artless, authentic?
The "zone," the "zone," where is the zone? Twilight Zone? Drugged state? Zen and [the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"] the art of relaxation?
Where's science when we really need it? Tell us how to get it! Breakthrough alert:
Flow state uncovered: We finally know what happens in the brain when we're "in the zone"
Meditative absorption flows with ease
Many of us know the feeling of being "in the zone" as we're fully immersed in a task [absorbed = jhana = Zen], the background noise of the world fades and we may not notice time passing or things going on around us. [It is sweet relief, producing piti].
Gymnasts may enter this all-consuming mental state as they're refining a floor routine, an artist might find "the zone" when adding delicate brushstrokes to a painting, and writers might enter it as they're crafting the climax of a chapter.
Life can be full of bliss and ease (piti and sukha).
They conducted a new brain-scan study that has finally revealed which regions of the brain are activated in the midst of a creative flow state.
Their findings contradict one popular theory of flow while supporting another, and they seem to reveal the key ingredients needed to get "in the zone.":
Those dirty hippies on the road took over America with the movie Easy Rider (1969):
What is he holding in his hands? Drink, smoke
What's the big deal about Kerouac (1922-1969) — can he even write? Let's look at an excerpt from On the Road the book that made him famous:
"...and I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
American Buddhist Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) is recognized for his style, which is stream of consciousness called "spontaneous prose."
Sit like the Buddha sat.
Thematically, his work covers topics such as Buddhism, promiscuity, his Catholic spirituality, drugs, jazz, travel, life in New York City, and poverty.
He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beat Poets, a progenitor (precursor) ofthe hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements [8]. He has left a lasting legacy; he greatly influenced many 1960s cultural icons, including the Beatles, the Doors, Bob Dylan, and the founder of theGrateful Dead Jerry Garcia.
At age 6, he went to Catholic Confession and was told to say a rosary as punishment, during which he heard God tell him that he had a good soul, that he would suffer in life and die in pain and horror, but that in the end he would receive salvation [22]. His dying brother had a vision of the Virgin Mary (as the nuns fawned over him, convinced that he was a saint). This, combined with a later study of Buddhism and an ongoing commitment to Christianity, solidified the worldview that informed his work [22].
In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible at the San Jose Library, which marked the beginning of his study of Buddhism.
Between 1955 and 1956, he lived on and off with his sister, whom he called "Nin," and her husband, Paul Blake, at their home outside of Rocky Mount, N.C. ("Testament, Va." in his works) where he meditated on Buddhism and studied it [49].
He wrote Some of the Dharma, an imaginative treatise on Buddhism, while living there [50, 51]. However, Kerouac had earlier taken an interest in Eastern thought.
In 1955, Kerouac wrote a biography of Siddhartha Gautama entitled Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha, which remained unpublished during his lifetime, but eventually serialized in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 1993–95. It was published by Viking in September 2008 [52].
The success of his book On the Road brought Kerouac instant fame. His celebrity status brought publishers desiring unwanted manuscripts that were previously rejected before its publication [19].
After nine months, he no longer felt safe in public. He was badly beaten by three men outside the San Remo Cafe at 189 Bleecker Street in NYC one night. Neal Cassady, possibly as a result of his new notoriety as the central character of the book, was framed (set up) then arrested for selling marijuana [58, 59].
In response, Kerouac chronicled parts of his own experience with Buddhism, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder and other San Francisco-area poets, in The Dharma Bums, set in California and Washington and published in 1958.
I'm like a rebel without a cause, Daddy-O.
It was written in Orlando between Nov. 26 [60] and Dec. 7, 1957 [61]. To begin writing The Dharma Bums, Kerouac typed onto a ten-foot length of teleprinter paper, to avoid interrupting his flow for paper changes, as he had done six years previously for On the Road[60].
Kerouac was demoralized by criticism of The Dharma Bums from such respected figures in the American field of Buddhism as Zen teachers Ruth Fuller Sasaki and the great Alan Watts.
He wrote to Snyder, referring to a meeting with Zen teacher and Nobel Peace Prize nominee (1963) D. T. Suzuki, that "even Suzuki was looking at me through slitted eyes as though I was a monstrous imposter."
He passed up the opportunity to reunite with Snyder in California and explained to Philip Whalen, "I'd be ashamed to confront you and Gary now I've become so decadent and drunk and don't give a shit. I'm not a Buddhist any more" [62].
In further reaction to their criticism, he quoted part of Abe Green's café recitation, Thrasonical Yawning in the Abattoir of the Soul: "A gaping, rabid congregation, eager to bathe, are washed over by the Font of Euphoria, and bask like protozoans in the celebrated light."
Kerouac used earnings from On the Road to purchase the first of three homes in Northport, New York — a wood-framed Victorian on Gilbert Street that he shared with his mother, Gabrielle. They moved there in March 1958 and stayed in Northport for six years, moving twice during that time.
Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others.
Later, Kerouac included ideas he developed from his Buddhist studies that began with Gary Snyder. He often referred to his style as "spontaneous prose" [78].
Although Kerouac's prose was spontaneous and purportedly without edits, he primarily wrote autobiographical novels (or roman à clef) based upon actual events from his life and the people with whom he interacted.
This approach is reflected also by his plot structure: Kerouac's narratives were not heavily focused on traditional plot structures. Instead, his works often revolved around a series of episodic encounters, road trips, and personal reflections.
The emphasis was on the characters' experiences and the exploration of themes such as freedom, rebellion, and the search for meaning.
Many of his books exemplified this spontaneous approach, including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans.
The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist breathing meditation), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision.
Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the period (.), substituting instead a long connecting dash (—). As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks.
Kerouac's early writing, particularly his first novel, The Town and the City, was more conventional and bore a strong influence of Thomas Wolfe.
The technique Kerouac developed that later gained him notoriety was heavily influenced by jazz, especially Bebop, and later, by Buddhism, as well as the Joan Anderson letter written by Neal Cassady [91].
Mahayana Buddhist sutra
The Diamond Sutra was the most important Buddhist text for Kerouac and "probably one of the three or four most influential things he ever read" [92].
In 1955, he began an intensive study of this sutra, in a repeating weekly cycle, devoting one day to each of the six spiritual perfections (pāramitās), and the seventh to the concluding passage on meditative stillness or superconsciousness (samādhi).
This was his sole reading on Desolation Peak, and he hoped by this means to condition his mind to emptiness (aware of the universal characteristic that all things are impersonal), and possibly to have a vision [93] like an Indian seer (rishi).
Hooray for influential Irishman James Joyce!
Irish James Joyce (author of Finnegans Wake, 1939) was also a literary influence on Kerouac, who alluded to Joyce more than any other author [94]. Kerouac had high esteem for Joyce, and he often used Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique [94, 95].
Regarding On the Road, he wrote in a letter to fellow Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, "I can tell you now as I look back on the flood of language. It is like Ulysses and should be treated with the same gravity" [96].
Additionally, Kerouac admired Joyce's experimental use of language, as seen in his novel Visions of Cody, which uses an unconventional narrative as well as a multiplicity of authorial voices [97]. More: Jack Kerouac
Dhr. Seven, Charles Harmon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Kerouac
Paul & Friends will perform at the famous hippie commune known as Zorthian Ranch (zorthianranch.com) Sunday morning at 11:00 am in the shade of Apo's Garden, lower ranch -- all the way up Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena, above Pasadena, Los Angeles County, up against the foothills. Come for "music meditation medicine" inside an art colony.
PBS, Chuck D; Public Enemy; Sheldon S., Crystal Quintero, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World
(PBS) Schomburg Center - This post-screening conversation (shown below) with hip hop legend Chuck D and guests was simulcast and streamed live on Jan. 23, 2023. Chuck D of Public Enemy and one of the producers of Fight the Power explore hip hop’s political awakening over the last 50 years. With a host of rap stars and cultural commentators, he tracks hip hop’s socially conscious roots. From The Message to Fight the Power 2020, he examines how hip hop has become "The Black CNN."
Join as half a century of hip Hop are celebrated with a preview of Fight the Power followed by a conversation with Chuck D and invited guests. The evening was produced in partnership with PBS.
ABOUT: Fight the Power is an incredible narrative of struggle, triumph, and resistance that will be brought to life through the lens of an art form that has chronicled the emotions, experiences, and expressions of Black and Brown communities: hip hop. In the aftermath of America's racial and political reckoning in 2020, the perspectives and stories shared in Hip Hop are key to understanding injustice in the U.S. over the last half-century.
ITBEFY; Louis Armstrong: Black & Blues; Sushmita's Diaries; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Not Black enough: cultural scapegoating
(The Situational Therapist) Aug. 15, 2021. I have grown up hearing from friends, family, and others that I was not Black enough. Black and white people always said I was "acting white, dressing white, and talking white." I have always felt this experience of othering in the Black community left significant emotional scars, but I was not able to articulate it until I became a therapist. People who feel they are too Black for white people and too white for Black people all have experienced some form of being scapegoated by their family. Like this video? Please consider donating or joining my app The Situational Practice
Today, June 1st, is the first day of summer (if "Summertime" is understood to refer to the most temperate season in the Northern temperate zone) -- the meteorological season, which runs from June 1 through August 31. In the Solar or Celtic season, summer is already a month old. Our "Summertime Sadness" (Lana Del Rey) has already set in, but here's young Darci Lynne, 12, with her rendition of the heartbreaking old-timey tune composed by George Gershwin in 1934, with a ventriloquist twist and shyness that won her the Golden Buzzer from Mel B in 2017 on #AGT (Kids Got Talent) #AmericasGotTalent
African Americans deserve the credit for the best American music!
Here Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong show Darci how it's done.
American musical genius Billie Holiday inspired the world in 1936.
But she covered the song from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.
Prominent black scholar Dr. Gerald Horne* presents his two new books, Jazz & Justice, which explores racism and the political economy and White Supremacy Confronted, which compares US imperialism and anti-communism vs. the liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela.More + TIX
*ABOUT: Moores Professor of History and African-American Studies Gerald Horne,at the University of Houston, has written more than 30 books. His most recently published books include White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa, from Rhodes to Mandela and Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music. He is also the author of Facing the Rising Sun: African Americans, Japan and the Rise of Afro-Asian Solidarity, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean, and Storming the Heavens: African Americans and the Early Fight for the Right to Fly. At the 2017 National Council of Black Studies Conference, Dr. Horne was granted the "Ida B. Wells and Cheik Anta Diop Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership in Africana Studies."
The 1920s were the source of many of today's popular dance styles such as the Foxtrot, Quickstep, and Charleston. There was polite "white dance" and some very hot black-and-white dance. Most of the early jazz records are marked Foxtrot. In fact, the Fast Foxtrot became the Quickstep, and the slower version retained the name Foxtrot. The Charleston was a major development, along with the Blackbottom. Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. What is jazz dance?
Innovative jerks Fall Out Boy produced a masterpiece song and video.
Who needs traditional dancing/surfing when we have hobo humping slobo chaos from Whale?
...efying. Oh, to laugh, hurl, donate, or smash our screens!? Metal Core-tet "Dance, Dance" (F.O.B. cover)
Get this song (starting May 6, 2015) and all my others for free (plus other perks) simply by donating $1 per month to my Patreon account so my Jackass friends (Justin Hockaday, Austin Dickey, Casey Molenaar) and I (Jared Dines) can keep making videos. Mixed and mastered by Fluff (Ryan Bruce). Ask Jared: "Dude, do you do drugs?"
(JB) Abysmal failure Lady Gaga once had something to say: Just Dance!
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