[Poetry reading at the Creative Arts Festival, Kent State University, May 8, 1971] / Allen Ginsberg.

Recorded at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio on May 8, 1971 on 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 recording of Allen Ginsberg chanting mantras, reading poetry, and talking at Kent State University on May 8, 1971 begins in medias res. The audio begins as Ginsberg finishes chanting an unidentified mantra and then cuts to Ginsberg reading an early version of the poem "Spring 1971 anti-war games" which would be printed as part of the transcription "War and peace: Vietnam and Kent State (War and Peace Class: Kent State, April 6, 1971)" in the collection Allen verbatim: lectures on poetry, politics, consciousness (1974), edited by Gordon Ball. Ginsberg also discussed the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, read an early version of "Ecologue" from The fall of America: 1965-1971, and concluded by chanting the "Om Namo Shivaye" mantra, while playing a harmonium.

Allen Ginsberg.

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

1971

Sound recording

CUR026

Mantra (unidentified) --Spring 1971 anti-war games (early version of the poem that would appear with the same title in the transcription of "War and Peace: Vietnam and Kent State: War and Peace Class: Kent State, April 6, 1971)" collected in Allen Verbatim: Lectures on Poetry, Politics, Consciousness, edited by Gordon Ball) --Ecologue --Om Namo Shivaye (mantra).

Hear@Buffalo: The Poetry Collection’s Audio Archive

UB Only

lib-pc002-CUR026.mp3