[The Robert Bertholf poetry show] /

Recorded at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio on April 4, 1971 on a 7 inch Scotch reel-to-reel tape. Recorded by Robert J. Bertholf, while serving as Professor of English and organizer of the Creative Arts Festival at Kent State University. Recording was donated to the Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo, where Bertholf subsequently served as Curator. This piece was broadcast on the Robert Bertholf Poetry Show.

This recording is of one episode of the Kent State University radio program titled The Robert Bertholf Poetry Show. The subtitle of the show for this episode was "featuring the poetry of William Blake." An unidentified host, who interviewed Bertholf at the end of the program, introduced and played a recording of Allen Ginsberg's performance at the Creative Arts Festival at Kent State University on April 4, 1971. At that performance, Ginsberg sang a selection from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and one poem, "The Grey monk," from The Pickering Manuscript. Ginsberg was joined by at least one back-up singer (unidentified), with the accompaniment of a flute, horn, and other instruments. The radio host then introduced and played the studio versions of "Hare Krishna," sung by Ginsberg on the Fugs' album Tenderness Junction, and "Ah! Sun-Flower" and "Song (How sweet I roam'd from field to field" (the latter two poems by Blake), sung by the Fugs' frontman Ed Sanders and featured on The Fugs first album. The episode concludes with a brief interview with Bertholf about Blake. The audio then cuts to an unidentified woman testifying in a court case or a commission hearing. There is questioning about a break-in of a campus building, protests, and Bob Pickett. It is unclear whether the case is connected with the Kent State University shootings of May 4, 1970. At the time of the shootings and the Creative Arts Festival, Bertholf was a professor at the university.

The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries. Digital conversion was made possible through a 2009 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

1970

Sound recording

CUR034

Reading of Blake by Allen Ginsberg:(Songs of innocence):Introduction (Piping down the valleys wild) --The echoing green --The lamb --The little black boy --The blossom --The chimney sweeper --The little boy lost --The little boy found --Laughing song --Holy Thursday --Night --(Songs of experience)Introduction (Hear the voice of the Bard!) --Nurses song --The sick rose --Ah! Sun-flower --London --The human abstract --To Tirzah --The grey monk. --Hare Krishna (version from the Fugs' album titled Tenderness Junction) --Ah! Sun-flower /written by Ed Sanders, version from the album The Fugs first album --Song (How sweet I roam'd from field to field) /written by Ed Sanders, version from the album The Fugs first album.

Hear@Buffalo: The Poetry Collection’s Audio Archive

UB Only

lib-pc002-CUR034.mp3