Category Archives: Beats

Cecil Taylor (1929-2018), Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Andrew Epstein

When the groundbreaking avant-garde jazz pianist and composer Cecil Taylor died last month, there was an outpouring of obituaries and tributes to his genius and influence.  But there was less attention paid to Taylor’s connections to the literary world, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Beats, Billie Holiday, Bob Kaufman, Cecil Taylor, Charles Olson, Frank O'Hara, Franz Kline, Gilbert Sorrentino, In Memoriam, Influences on the NY School, Jack Kerouac, Jazz, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Michael McClure, Morton Feldman, Music, Norman Mailer, NY School Influence, Ornette Coleman, Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Thelonious Monk | 1 Comment

Look What They’ve Done to The San Remo

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Andrew Epstein

There is no shortage of opportunities to feel nostalgic for the good old days when rents were cheap, bars were smoky and filled with intellectual chatter, Kafka was the rage, and New York was a haven for rebellious artists.  Nor do you … Continue reading →

Posted in Barbara Guest, Beats, Frank O'Hara, Jack Kerouac, Joe LeSueur, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, New York, William S. Burroughs | Leave a comment

Frank Lima’s Ode to the New York School of Poets

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Andrew Epstein

The poet Frank Lima, who passed away in 2013, was an important yet undersung member of the New York School of poetry’s second generation.  Although he was close with Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, David Shapiro, and many other poets of the first and … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Beats, David Shapiro, Frank Lima, Frank O'Hara, Guillaume Apollinaire, Joe LeSueur, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman | 1 Comment

Drunk on the Poetry of a New Friend: John Wieners and Frank O’Hara

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Andrew Epstein

It’s been heartening to see all the recent attention to the poetry of John Wieners, whose moving, strange, and powerful poems deserve to be better known.  Wieners, an important but lesser-known figure within the post-World War II avant-garde scene known as “New American Poetry,” is … Continue reading →

Posted in Barbara Guest, Beats, Charles Olson, Frank O'Hara, Influences on the NY School, James Schuyler, John Bernard Myers, John Wieners, Marjorie Perloff, NY School Influence, Ted Berrigan | Leave a comment

David Kirby on a Wild Allen Ginsberg Reading

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Andrew Epstein

                  Over the past few months, the 92nd St. Y has been hosting a “75 at 75” series, which asks authors to select and respond to a recording from the 92Y Poetry Center’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Beats, David Kirby, Frank O'Hara, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac | Leave a comment

Wynn Chamberlain (1927-2014), Painter of “Poets Dressed and Undressed”

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

The painter Wynn Chamberlain recently passed away at the age of 87, the New York Times reported on Sunday.  Friendly with Frank O’Hara and other poets of the New York School, a fixture in the Andy Warhol orbit, Chamberlain achieved notoriety in the mid-1960s for his series … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Beats, Bill Berkson, Frank Lima, In Memoriam, Joe Brainard, Joe LeSueur, John Giorno, Taylor Mead, Tony Towle, Visual Art, Willem de Kooning, William S. Burroughs, Wynn Chamberlain | 1 Comment

A Real Mad, “All-American” Combination: LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka’s Salon

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

Last week, on a trip to the Czech Republic, I had the pleasure of meeting Josef Jařab , one of the most important Czech scholars of American literature.  Jařab is a leading Czech authority on American poetry, and he has translated and written … Continue reading →

Posted in Abstract Expressionism, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Beats, Cecil Taylor, Frank O'Hara, Franz Kline, Jack Kerouac, Jazz, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Music, Ornette Coleman, Visual Art | 1 Comment

Patti Smith: Horses “Evolved Organically From My First Poetry Reading”

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

Via the Poetry Project at St. Marks, I came across this brief video posted by the music site/magazine NME featuring Patti Smith, called “My First Gig: Desecrating a Church with Electric Guitar.”  Smith talks about her first performance “worthy of remembering,” which was … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Anne Waldman, Beats, Gerard Malanga, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Music, Patti Smith, Poetry Project at St. Marks, Video | 3 Comments

Frank O’Hara, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the Evolution of Lunch Poems

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

w There’s been a lot of welcome attention lately to the 50th anniversary of Frank O’Hara’s 1964 book Lunch Poems, including a star-studded group reading of the book at the Poetry Project the other night.  As I mentioned before, City Lights … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Beats, Frank O'Hara, Joe LeSueur, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Letters / Correspondence, Vincent Warren | Leave a comment

PoemTalk podcast on Anne Waldman

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Andrew Epstein

The latest installment of the terrific podcast series PoemTalk, hosted by Al Filreis, features a discussion of a poem by Anne Waldman.  Filreis is joined by Orchid Tierney, Stacy Szymaszek, and Pierre Joris for a lively and illuminating conversation about Waldman’s poem “To the Censorious Ones,” … Continue reading →

Posted in Anne Waldman, Beats, Podcast | Leave a comment