Beat Poets Unpacked: Episode 2

This is the second episode in a series on the Beat poets of the 1950s and ‘60s, produced by Poetry.LA and hosted by Richard Modiano who was a member of the literary community connected to New York City’s Poetry Project where he came to know many of the Beat poets. The episode spotlights four poets whose work strongly influenced the Beat esthetic: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Gary Snyder.

[@davieboy3814]

Part two let’s gooooo! I love the Beats.

[@vincentsonoma]

Wonderful series!

[@SweetKel]

I love this! Thank you 🙏

[@TheCarmabum]

Outstanding series!! Richard is the best, the master. Thanks for creating this series. Great production! However, they are too brief, too brief...

[@davieboy3814]

I could definitely watch longer videos on the Beat Generation.

[@MichelleBittingPoet]

Okay, this, too, rocks BIGTIME!

[@zverina]

Inspired in equal parts by Kurt Vonnegut and punk rock, in the late '80s I went to college to study literature. Oh man, the poetry curriculum was 200 years out of date, so, having heard rumors of the Beats, one day I read Howl on my own and had my mind blown. I immediately stood up and read it again, this time aloud. I didn't know a thing about Ginsberg's theories of line lengths and breath, but it just felt right to give it voice. One year later, I was at Brooklyn College studying poetry with Ginsberg himself. I was expecting a wildman, but he was a meticulous scholar with a seemingly bottomless well of knowledge. One of his key tenets (which I haven't since seen mentioned elsewhere since) was his idea of a poem being like sheet music for breath--that by reading aloud and replicating the breathing of the poet one accesses through physical means the emotional state of when the poem was written. Does that make sense? Anyway, excellent video series and thanks for the refresher course!