BUSBOYS AND POETS AND SPLIT THIS ROCK PRESENT “HOWL” IN THE CITY

In celebration of the landmark exhibition Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg on view at the National Gallery of Art through September 16, 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 will perform accompanied by a quartet of musicians led by DC-based Matthew Hemerlein, and the event will conclude with a free concert by musician Kyp Malone.

Waldman will present three performances of Allen Ginsberg’s legendary poem Howl. A string quartet comprised of Matthew Hemerlein, violin; Matvei Sigalov, violin; Katie Chambers, 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 www.busboysandpoets.com .

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. Matthew Hemerlein will open with a solo set. No tickets are required for the patio performance.

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 scheduled for March 22-24, 2012 and will feature Alice Walker. www.splitthisrock.org

Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, full service bar, bookstore, fair trade marketplace and fully equipped performance space that features political and cultural events. Busboys and Poets have 3 locations, 2021 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C 20009; 1025 5th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001; and 4251 South Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206. www.busboysandpoets.com

Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
National Gallery of Art, West Building
May 2–September 16, 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.

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 for a number of years, a culturally active feminist, and an ambassador for the oral revival of poetry, appearing on stages from Berlin to Caracas and 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, Hemerlein'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 its 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. Hemerlein has performed at such venues as The House of Blues New Orleans, SXSW in Austin, and Wolftrap and 9:30 Club in the DC area, He also headlines two popular monthly shows in DC on H Street and at the Gibson Guitar Artist Showroom. 

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