Allen Ginsberg: Endless Balls

1
Allen Ginsberg Endless Balls
I want people to bow as they see me and say he
is gifted with poetry, he has seen the presence
of the creator.
2
Jew
Jew

• b. Newark, NJ 1926
• Louis- hs teacher poet
• Naomi- active communist, paranoid epileptic -)
• Letters to NY Times about political issues- WWII
  workers' rights
• Eventually went to Columbia on Young Men's Hebrew
  Association Scholarship (1948)

3
Buddhist

• Buddhism seemingly finds Gberg
• Fast friend and student of Chögyam
  Trungpa Rinpoche, Tibetan
  Buddhist Meditation
  Master, when they both
  sought the same cab in New York City
• Enough said

4
Zealous Homosexual

• America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the
  wheel.
• Lifelong public love affair with Peter Orlovsky
  1954 until 1997 death
• Discovered his true sexuality in 1943 amidst
  mountains of homosexuality
• Sought to break taboos his own through overt
  sexuality

5
Artist

• Beat Poet credited w/ Howl (1956), numerous
  others
• Controversial obscene
• Exquisite drawer

6
Heightened Consciousness

• Hallucination whilst reading poetry "Ah,
  Sunflower," "The Sick Rose," and "Little Girl
  Lost" --TURNING POINT-- Everyone is connected in
  the universe.
• He explained that hallucinations not
  drug-inspired, but manifestation of his desire to
  recapture that feeling later with various drugs
  (?)

7
Getting Censored, synonymous with getting the
shaft

• 2nd printing was seized by U.S. Customs on 1957
  on the charge of obscenities
• It is not the poet but what he observes that is
  revealed as obsceneFerlinghetti (marginal booya
  to the man)
• Ferlinghetti and Manager of City Lights
  bookstore, Shigeyoshi Murao, arrested for selling
  Howl, obscene material
• Judge Clayton Horn ruled the book not obscene
• Judge Horn declaresEvil to him who thinks evil

8
Howl

• Reading _at_ Six Gallery resulted in Ferlinghettis
  arrest on obscenity charges
• Graphic sexual language and open homosexuality
  didnt set well with authorities
• Other writings reference narcotics and subsequent
  experiences
• Yet another desire to achieve the mystical as
  metaphysics from 19th century
• Claimed to have written Howl while on drugs
• Found to have redeeming social importance

9
Olympic-class-ranter, Revolutionary

• Referenced in John Lennons Give Peace a Chance
  (with Yoko cameo)
• FREE SPEECH ADVOCATE
• GAY RIGHTS WARRIOR
• Admiration of Communists
• Promoted LSD (whaa?)
• Specifically spoke out for freedoms owed to
  NAMBLA My own experience is that a certain kind
  of genius among students is best brought out in
  bed.
• Frequently busted Hells Angels balls

10
Occasional Nudist

• Frequently photographed unclothed

11
Ball-Breaker

• Reiterate points
• Ousted from Cuba for protesting their
  anti-marijuana anti-gay agendas
• Embraced Communism during
• RED SCARE, blah blah blah

12
Idolized Whitman

• Walks through Supermarket in California with
  Walt in 1955

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Legacy

• At a time when the forces of conservatism and
  censorship are again posing a particularly
  ominous threat to artistic and personal freedoms,
  Howl stands as a prophetic masterpiece, a
  revolution of American literature and American
  consciousness.