http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/17190
March 26th, 2010
by Claude Scales
It's not a great stretch to see stylistic, and perhaps even thematic,
similarities between, say, Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric"
and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". The relationship between the poetry of
the nineteenth century Bard of Brooklyn (see some local folks
reciting Whitman's verse here) and that of the Beats a century later
is the topic of an all-day conference tomorrow (Saturday, March 27)
at St. Francis College, Remsen Street between Court and Clinton.
"We hope to break new ground in addressing Whitman's presence in the
works of Beat writers and the reception of Whitman's poetry by the
Beats," said co-chairman of the conference St. Francis College
Communication Arts Professor Scott Weiss. "Our panelists will
explore, in depth, how the legacy of the Beats, their perspectives of
their era and artistic innovations can be traced to Whitman's
influence on American literary culture."
Among the topics to be discussed in a series of panels will be
sexual identity, power and politics, media, technology and art,
notions of time and space, and poetic form and style. Some of the
papers include: Ambassadors of Power: Whitmanic Anarchism, Eroticism,
and the Beats' Opposition to the Cold War State; Humanizing War: Walt
Whitman's Civil War Writings, Robert Altman's MASH, and the American
Anti-War Movement and Time, Space, Self, and Walt Whitman in Allen
Ginsberg's "America."
There will be a keynote address by Ann Charters, professor of English
at the University of Connecticut and a renowned authority on the
Beats. Registration for the conference is from 8:00 to 9:00 tomorrow
morning, at 180 Remsen Street. Panel presentations will be from 9:00
to 12:15 and from 2:15 to 5:30; Ms. Charters' address will begin at
1:00 p.m. Beginning at 6:00 p.m there will be a concert by New Music
New York "celebrating Whitman themes and Beat poetry."
The conference will conclude on Sunday, March 28, with two walking
tours. The first, covering Whitman's Brooklyn, begins at 180 Remsen
at 12:00 noon and goes until 2:00 p.m. The second, covering the
Greenwich Village of the Beats, meets outside Minetta's Tavern, 113
MacDougal Street, between Bleecker and West 3rd, at 2:30 p.m., and
continues until 3:30.
There is no charge for any of these events.
.
1 comment:
Interesting thought on Whitman. I had known he influenced Ginsberg, and that the title of his most famous poem was taken by such musical groups as Weather Report.
He also invented the “personalist” philosophy that came to be adopted by such Catholics as Dorothy Day and Emmanuel Mounier - both of whom are acknowledged as influences upon the Beats. According to the book The Spirit of the Sixties, Whitman was the first to use the word “personalism” (in 1868). Since the advent of punk and Reaganomics, personalism has seemed a little quaint, but before AC/DC it was very important to the ideals of hippies.
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