Allen GinsbergPhilip Whalen, sensei staying over in my bedroom E. 12 Street, visiting N.Y. from Santa Fe Zen Center, he poetized & lectured at my Brooklyn College class "Literary History of Beat Generation." March 16, 1987.Allen GinsbergPhilip Whalen, sensei staying over in my bedroom E. 12 Street, visiting N.Y. from Santa Fe Zen Center, he poetized & lectured at my Brooklyn College class "Literary History of Beat Generation." March 16, 1987.
Allen GinsbergGutterboy band—Barb Morrison, Dito Montiel Danny Hulsizer with button shirt & his brother Eric, with drummer Johnny Koncz on Canal Street
Allen GinsbergKen Kesey'd come to New York to perform his Bear myth Cantata at Lincoln Center, I visited at midnight his room Hotel Excelsior 81st Street near Planetarium, he held still a second in lamplight, said he had second thoughts about his former Monotheist faith after bus-crash demise of his athlete son. December 14, 1989.
Allen GinsbergJohn Giorno, Henry Geldzahler, in his garden West 9th Street, N.Y.C., Raymond Foye, A. Ginsberg rear, next to Francesco Clemente (whose Castelli - Mary Boone painting show was to open later that day with receptions), William Burroughs stepping forward glass in hand arms round Alan Ansen's shoulders, March 30, 1985. Snapped by Ira Silverberg. Allen Ginsberg
Allen GinsbergSelf-portrait in guest-suite mirror, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, October 10, 1985, I'd lectured on Ezra Pound, Poetized in private high school & visited Jefferson's Monticello.
Allen GinsbergRay Bremser master poet returned to New York after 8 years' absence, wrinkle-faced as before, to attend my "Rainbow Body Reading Series" at Brooklyn College & same night read at St. Mark's Church Poetry Project. Next evening we did two Poetry reading shows together for jazz club-- Village Vanguard anniversary week celebrations. He left early next morning by bus, for safety from drink, to his upstate New York Utica apartment. Saw him this way the night before all the poetry scenes, at my home, February 21, 1995.
Allen GinsbergFrancesco Clemente, artist, & C.T. Nachiappan (his printer host in Madras at Kalakshetra Press -- Hanuman Editions) at Kiev restaurant on Second Avenue and 7th Street
Allen GinsbergGregory Corso, Maestro Poet, ancient herald’s wand pin, messenger-god Hermes Caduceus near his pen, a quiet afternoon in “The Kettle of Fish,” an old bar in Greenwich Village under whose sign Kerouac used to drink. Gregory called me to join him, we spent a few hours talking till supper time, tired he took cab home to Horatio Street, March 13, 1995. I showed him poems by 19 year old new poet, he liked them too.
Allen GinsbergFrancesco Clemente, painter inspired by Wm. Blake, looking over album I'd scribed for his watercolor illumination, his loft overlooking Great Jones Street Manhattan. He liked this picture, October 1984
Allen GinsbergPatti Smith, poet, 70's cult pop singer, devotee of Rimbaud & Wm. Burroughs, retired 14 years from stage to raise children, her husband passed away. We did Buddhist Jewel Heart Center benefit in 4,000 seat Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor U. of Michigan, she came out of retirement; next day signed new volume _Early Work 1970-1979_ in bookstore, then we suppered at Gelek Rinpoche's house, February 17, 1995.
Allen GinsbergDanny Kalb, Cafe Au Go Go Bleecker Street, I came by with his student my work-mate Peter Hale to hear late set, Greenwich Village, N.Y., April 12, 1995.
Allen GinsbergOdalisque, my bedroom on East 12th Street March 22, 1985, New York, young boy friend naked took this picture after I'd taken his in similar repose.
Allen GinsbergSan Francisco "K." Commune feeds hundreds of homeless folk on Saturdays and their Small Free Inn Band puts on a show, we had a private viewing when visiting Irving Rosenthal & Friends May 23, 1988-- in their vegetarian-grain soup-kitchen, Jimmy Gutierrez in cap watching Jeannie- single hand to heart John O'Brien first time in Curlers, Chandler hand raised in lyric surprise, shadow-eyed Gren behind music stand. "I saw it in a millinery shop-window in 1928... They look like they're made of wax," Harry Smith noticed later.
Allen GinsbergShig Murao, up late night reading in his middle bedroom, he'd had a stroke just after mastering Shakuhachi flute, I stay in his Grant Street North Block apartment when visiting San Francisco, his front room looks down on noisy street & bars. He'd managed City Lights Bookstore, part owner, 1950s all thru the sixties
Allen GinsbergLucien Carr, my oldest friend from college days, had introduced me to Jack Kerouac after they’d met at the West End bar on 113th St. & Broadway, and connected Jack + me to his fellow St. Louis uppermiddle-class (aristocrat we thought) confrère William S. Burroughs, late winter 1944. We lived down the hall from each other on 7th floor Union Theological Seminary, Columbia freshman dorm during W.W.II, I heard haunting Brahms sextet music through his door, knocked, we met. Kerouac heard _Old Angel Midnight_ eloquence in Lucien’s laconic “Celtic” intonations. Here four decades later, wise Old Dog Bureau Manager United Press International he was visiting former house-mate Alene Lee’s Soho loft. More eyes perused his wire-service prose than all Jack’s & my texts, I’ll bet. December 2, 1986.
Allen GinsbergKaren Minzer & Babe, Dallas. This is the good one. The eyes strong
Allen GinsbergDic Jones, ex Bardic Chair-holder, farmer on school steps where Eisteddfod Englynion contest was held. _In the Night_: "No hymn of birds, no Tremor -- save the sounds of the sea's sad tenor, / The stars ascend in splendor / and the dark creeps round the door." Aberystwyth, Wales April 8, 1995.
Allen GinsbergWilliam Burroughs, 11 PM late March 1985, being driven home to 222 Bowery. Experimenting with hand held half-second Rolleiflex exposure, camera upside down for view, Burroughs phantom in street light stop sign illumination fuzzy, couldn’t move back further to focus sharper, I was in rear seat.
Allen GinsbergCenter, John Cage, Merce Cunningham conscious & Jasper Johns hand clasped at Academy induction ceremonial meeting, May 17, 1989.
Allen GinsbergLiving Theater genius Julian Beck 48th Street New York hospital room, his stomach-abdomen lining cancer allowed remission for the next year while he made films & video & theater & books from Zurich to Miami; “Death is the ultimate corruption,” he announced, that day I visited, Medical Arts Center, May 1984.
Allen GinsbergDavid Greenberg, Phi Beta Kappa Rutgers U. '93, Poet, art curator & essayist, guitar-singer Indie-Rock group "Pen Pal", co-editor Soft Skull Press, Great friend & scholar, fresh from 24th birthday head-shave: when you look at it closer it doesn't look menacing," he said first seeing this portrait. After graduation he stayed six months in little guest-room open-doored behind him. March 13, 1995.
Allen GinsbergRobert Duncan in his front room, San Francisco October 12, 1984
Allen GinsbergBoiler repairmen on East 12th Street near Avenue A, Manhattan December 4, 1986.
Allen GinsbergLafcadio Orlovsky, with sister Marie. I went to Park Lake Rest Home Ronkonkoma L.I. where he’d been sheltered & sedated the last few years, silent - till Catholic Charities arranged for Day-Care thrice weekly, he woke a bit & began crayon drawing again, phoned me & asked me to visit with Marie after 2 years absence. “Can I go home and live with Marie?” We went to restaurant on highway nearby March 21, 1995.
Allen GinsbergGelek Rimpoche, Tibetan Vajrayana teacher, visited to say Goodbye at his student Yael Crawford's house, Cleveland, Ohio, I'd stayed over with Philip Glass for Jewel Heart Meditation Center benefit. A Friend gave me this cloth-sewn Uncle Sam hat, too small for Rimpoche's dome. He'd just gotten U.S.A. citizenship & passport. Dalai Lama enshrined over mantel. March 20, 1995.
Allen GinsbergActing tough, indifferent, sexy, self absorbed forward looking & relaxed together, Gutterboy on the roof, Empire State building a distant spire, East Twelfth Street September 12, 1991.
Allen GinsbergJesse Cabrera Lover & Neeli Cherkovski, Kaye MacDonough, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Micheline & friends, plateglass of Trieste Coffeeshop Grant Street San Francisco March 16, 1985, Camera snapshot by Gregory Corso's finger.
Allen GinsbergInternment of Julian Beck August 19, 1985 New Jersey cemetery—Among Living Theater folk Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach with filigreed yarmulke front left, tall Hanon, daughter Isha holding Judith Malina widow weeping goodbye, Bob Foss carrying tape machine, Poet Jackson Machour centered, eldest son Garrick Beck emptying first shovel of earth into fosse, at right.
Allen GinsbergJohn Giorno, Tibetan Nyingma Buddhist Practitioner a senior U.S. student of H.H. the late Ven. Dudjom Rinpoche whose N.Y. Center Giorno helped found. Poet & Performance Artist, Giormo'd worked early with Andy Warhol ("Sleep") , Jasper Johns, R. Rauschenberg and William Burroughs whose "Bunker" loft on Bowery he inherited when W.S.B. removed to Lawrence Kansas. Innovative record producer through Giorno Poetry Systems, he founded "Dial-a-Poem" via Museum of Modern art, N.Y. Here at Board-room big table in Bunker, Giorno uses the space to host visiting Roma teachers and Doctors. Burroughs visiting December 20, 1987.
Allen GinsbergRobert Frank, inquisitive private look not unkind, patient, "Maybe I could show you something too." Kiev Restaurant, 2'nd Avenue & 7th Street, March 7, 1984.
Allen GinsbergJoe Richey and New York ladies on Roland Leggiardi-Laura's film crew, waiting at Ministerio de Cultura door, outside Managua, January 23, 1986
Allen GinsbergAnne Waldman poet orator, co-Director Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics Naropa Institute Boulder Colorado, first accredited Buddhist Contemplative College in the Western world experiencing "Make-up on Empty Space" for premiere of "uh. 'oh. 'plutonium" video, public Theater N.Y. September 14, 1984.
Allen GinsbergNeeli Cherkovski & Jesse Cabrera lover doctor at his left, Nile & Gregory Corso, friends, Jack Micheline right, Trieste Coffeeshop March 16, 1985.
Allen GinsbergGregory Corso embraced by intimate friend, The Bistro, Jane & W. 4th Street, December 21, 1992.
Allen GinsbergR.D. Laing's shadow, his front porch Mapleton around Boulder, Colorado. July 7, 1987.
Allen GinsbergSandro Chia & William S. Burroughs at double vernissage Francesco Clemente's paintings, Mary Boone/Leo Castelli Galleries, Soho, March 30, 1985. Chia & Clemente had read Burroughs works when they were young poets in the '60's in Italy.
Allen GinsbergFrancesco Clemente taking a break from painting my portrait in oil, his first from life model, here working on background of imaginary Afric head, his studio Broadway & Great Jones Street. We'd done several illuminated books together (notably _White Shroud_ 1984) & he'd published my Blake discourse "Your Reason & Blake's System" in his Palm-sized Hanuman Editions. Manhattan December 14, 1989.
Allen GinsbergRobert Frank and Allen Ginsberg at Frank's Apartment
Allen GinsbergSandro Chia & William S. Burroughs, March 30, 1985 at Francesco Clemente's opening Castelli Gallery New York.
Allen GinsbergDorothy Norman recovering from broken leg, her house Easthampton July 7, 1985 - we'd met in late 1950s, I'd known her as editor of Civil-libertarian 1930s _Twice a Year_ journal - same decade she'd been Alfred Stieglitz’s love, he'd photographed her hands in this mudra 1932.![Gelek Rimpoche from Lhasa and Ann Arbor unwrapping Tibetan text & beginning to chant it, Tokden Rinpoche, handling brass Vajia (Diamond Lightning Bolt) and Ghanta (Bell) Sonam, former chanting. master of Gyuto Tantric College idling behind them at picnic table outside lodge shrine-room after lunch, "just fooling around rather than having a ceremony." Sonam came in from Chicago, Tokden from Eastern Tibet to give oral Transmissions of one-volume short-form _Prajnaparamita_ [Highest perfect wisdom] _Sutra_ to Gelek's hundred students. "Gate Gate Para Gate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!" Over annual summer retreat, Yankee Springs State Park, Michigan, August 27, 1993., Allen Ginsberg, 1993, printed 1995](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/b1ae88f0-bb0c-4b98-bd7f-3d50148b518e/full/!400,400/0/default.jpg)
Allen GinsbergGelek Rimpoche from Lhasa and Ann Arbor unwrapping Tibetan text & beginning to chant it, Tokden Rinpoche, handling brass Vajia (Diamond Lightning Bolt) and Ghanta (Bell) Sonam, former chanting. master of Gyuto Tantric College idling behind them at picnic table outside lodge shrine-room after lunch, "just fooling around rather than having a ceremony." Sonam came in from Chicago, Tokden from Eastern Tibet to give oral Transmissions of one-volume short-form _Prajnaparamita_ [Highest perfect wisdom] _Sutra_ to Gelek's hundred students. "Gate Gate Para Gate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!" Over annual summer retreat, Yankee Springs State Park, Michigan, August 27, 1993.
Allen GinsbergTom Parkinson visiting upstairs office City Lights Books 261 Columbus San Francisco March 16, 1985.
Allen GinsbergTrieste Cafe corner Grant & Vallejo-- Neeli Cherkovski & his friend Dr. Jesse Cabrera, Gregory Corso holding son Nile, mother Kaye MacDonough behind them-- Painter daubing Trieste window- interior, morning haunt of poets & North Beach Bohemians to this day March 16, 1985.
Allen GinsbergRobert Frank at his kitchen table, Bleeker Street house, casual visit, November 8, 1988, New York City.
Allen GinsbergHarry Smith exhausted 3 A.M. over Chinese take-out supper. Car had backed into him up on 12th Street corner Avenue A weeks earlier, compression-fractured his knee, so he stayed with me nine months in small room behind him he’d fixed with door-latch and lock. Old postcard of Manhattan Island on toilet door panel to his right. Ethnomusicologic archivist, film-maker, alchemist, he’d designed my new _Collected Poems_ book cover, he’d been moved out of hotel room on 28’th Street, lived in Bowery shelters, was now homeless in New York! June 17, 1985.
Allen GinsbergPublisher-hero Barney Rossett whose Grove Press legal battles liberated U.S. literature & film — at Tower Books’ N.Y. symposium on new 90’s Censorship Politics, June 20, 1991.
Allen GinsbergRobert Frank & his car rented for him by Atlantic Center For Arts where we taught together three weeks with jazz drum genius Elvin Jones. We’d come to town New Smyrna Beach on errands, he showed me how to use his polaroid 195 that gives negative, but when we washed it in his plastic container of water, car-heat-cooked in Florida mid-day sun, the emulsion cracked, dissolved—this copy print from original is o.k. to catch his smile at my amateur focus, June 1984.
Allen GinsbergCity Lights Bookstore visit—Philip Whalen poet Zen Sensei, anonymous eyeglassed onlooker, Amy and Michael McClure with shopowner poet-painter Laurence Ferlinghetti standing framed in door; below Nanao Sakaki Japonesia’s Bum-Academy longhair poet king, and John Montgomery kneeling beside him, Proud to be Characterized by Jack Kerouac 30 years earlier as a foolish mountaineer in _The Dharma Bums_. San Francisco, May 22, 1988.