Howl in the City - Poetry & Music Celebrating Ginsberg's Photos at the National Gallery

BUSBOYS AND POETS AND SPLIT THIS ROCK PRESENT “HOWL” IN THE CITY
FEATURING ANNE WALDMAN, KYP MALONE, AND MATTHEW HEMERLEIN

--Night of Poetry and Music Honoring Allen Ginsberg Photography Exhibition--

Washington, DC—In celebration of the landmark exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg on view at the National Gallery of Art through September 17, Busboys and Poets and Split This Rock present “Howl” in the City at the Fifth and K Streets location of Busboys and Poets on July 23 and 24. Renowned poet Anne Waldman and musician Kyp Malone will perform, both accompanied by a quartet of musicians led by DC-based Matthew Hemerlein.

Waldman will present three performances of Allen Ginsberg’s legendary poem Howl. A string quartet comprised of Matthew Hemerlein, violin; Matvei Sigalov, violin; Janel Leppin, cello; and Karin Kilper, viola; will accompany Waldman’s reading of the poem with a musical improvisation inspired by the spontaneous nature of the Beats. A contemporary and close friend of Ginsberg and one of the few female poets associated with the Beats, Waldman will also present her original poems each night and will be preceded by local poets Chris August, Kenneth Carroll, and Venus Thrash. The performances will take place at 8:00 p.m. on July 23 and 24, with a 10:00 p.m. show on July 23. Tickets are $10 for each of the shows and may be purchased at http://brownpapertickets.com/event/118024.

On Saturday, July 24, at 10:00 p.m., Kyp Malone, guitarist and singer for the popular experimental rock band TV on the Radio, will bring the event to its grand finale with a free performance on the K Street patio in front of the restaurant. Malone’s musical projects mirror the Beats’ unrelenting pursuit of creativity.

The program is made possible in part by grants from the Alice Shaver Foundation and Poets & Writers, Inc. Cosponsored by The Passenger.

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Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
National Gallery of Art, West Building
May 2–September 17, 2010

In the first major exhibition of American poet Allen Ginsberg's photographs since his death in 1997, all facets of his work in photography are explored. Some 79 works range from the 1950s "drugstore" prints to his now celebrated portraits of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, snapshots of Ginsberg himself taken just before he achieved literary fame, and his later portraits of the Beats and other friends made in the 1980s and 1990s.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund. Additional support is provided by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. Information and online resources relating to the exhibition are available at www.nga.gov/ginsberg.

Anne Waldman

Poet Anne Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community for over 40 years as writer, Sprechstimme performer, professor, editor, magpie scholar, infra-structure and cultural/political activist. Her published work is prodigious and she has concentrated on the long poem as a cultural intervention, with such projects as Marriage: A Sentence, Structure of The World Compared to a Bubble, and the recent Manatee/Humanity (Penguin Poets 2009), a book-length rhizomic meditation on evolution and endangered species. In 1974, Waldman co-founded with Allen Ginsberg the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She was also featured, along with Ginsberg, in the experimental film Renaldo and Clara (1978) by Bob Dylan. During their long friendship and work together, Allen Ginsberg called her his “spiritual wife” and she has spiritedly continued their vision of keeping the world safe for poetry (& everything else!). In 2009 she co-edited Beats at Naropa, an anthology of conversations and essays examining the living tradition of the Beats. Waldman has been a student of Buddhism a number of years, a culturally active feminist, and an ambassador for the oral revival of poetry, appearing on stages from Berlin to Caracas, from Mumbai to Beijing.

Kyp Malone

Kyp Malone is the guitarist and singer for the band TV on the Radio, an experimental rock group with ties to electro, punk, and soul music. TV on the Radio has released several albums to critical acclaim—most recently Dear Science in 2008. The band has worked with a variety of artists, including David Bowie and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, performed with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and appeared on Saturday Night Live, the Colbert Report, and The Late Show with David Letterman. Last year, Malone released a solo album under the name Rain Machine, with similar sounds to TV on the Radio but rooted in bluegrass and jazz. He also a contributed to Iran’s Dissolver album and produced Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s second album, Summer of Fear.

Matthew Hemerlein

Matthew Hemerlein is a dynamic and central figure in the DC music community. Known for his vibrantly creative Solo Looping Show, Matthew's music is an original blend of classical, pop, jazz and trip-hop that calls to mind such artists as Radiohead, Andrew Bird, Moby and Prince but ultimately falls into a category of it's own. Fluent on six instruments, including the violin, cello, seven-string guitar, mandolin, piano, and upright bass, he collaborates with both local and international acts and was the recipient of the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities Young Artists Award. Matthew has performed at such venues as, The House of Blues New Orleans, SXSW in Austin, Wolftrap and 9:30 Club, and also headlines two wildly popular monthly shows one on H Street and one at The Gibson Guitar Artist Showroom. Find out more at www.matthewhemerlein.com.

Split This Rock integrates poetry into public life and supports socially engaged poets. Its cornerstone program is the biennial Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness; the next festival is schedule for March 22-24, 2012 and will feature Alice Walker. www.SplitThisRock.org

Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace. Busboys and Poets creates an environment where shared conversations over food and drink allow the progressive, artistic and literary communities to dialogue, educate and interact. www.BusboysandPoets.com

Photo of Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg at Naropa Institute in 1975 by Rachel Homer.