Marvin Bell tonight

While we were running down upcoming poetry events on last Sunday's show, I believe that Sebastian and I both mentioned the Bell reading at UNCA; unfortunately, we gave the wrong day for the reading. It's tonight, not Thursday, or tomorrow. Hopefully there's been enough other information about the event out there that most folks who'd attend have the date right.

Sorry about that.

Coming up this week ...

Rose McLarney joins us again this week, another year older (happy birthday, Rose), and wiser. She's now in the MFA program at Warren Wilson, and seems to like it so far, despite earlier reservations about such programs for poets. She's got lots of new work, so we'll listen to some of it and talk with her about her developing views on poetry and poetics.

Hope you'll come join us.

That's 4:00 this Sunday on WPVM, 103.5 FM, or streaming from the station website.

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The photo of Rose dates from a reading at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in May of last year.

Fifty years later, still no Howl

User Knowfish of WPVM's listserve passed along last week an editorial from the N.Y. Times which reflects on the fact that 50 years after its having been declared "not obscene", Ginsberg's "Howl" still can't be broadcast on the public airwaves:

WBAI, long the radio flagship of cocky resistance to government excess, decided last week that it couldn't risk a 50th anniversary broadcast of the late poet's recording of "Howl."

...
If Ginsberg were still with us, he would undoubtedly pen a mocking line or two about his poem being banned from the airwaves 50 years after it was ruled not to be obscene. Congress, of course, could redress the F.C.C.'s bullying powers if it wanted to. But lately, the Capitol's most energetic broadcast agenda has been conservative members' organizing against any attempt to restore the fairness doctrine to political broadcast, which could crimp the 24/7 rants of right-wing talk radio. The poet would understand, having once noted: "Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture."

Indeed. We've thought several times about playing "Howl" and "America," another wonderful Ginsberg poem, on Wordplay, but have passed, since we'd have to bleep or cut them under current rules. Strange but true.

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Cross-posted at NatureS.

Last week ...

on WordPlay, Audrey Hope Rinehart, who wrangles poets for the Flood Gallery reading series, sat down with me to talk about her own work and read some recent poems. Our conversation will be available as a download or stream on the station Archive page until Sunday night.

So I wrote last week over at NatureS.

Make that next Sunday night, October 14th, though, because the station's automation system glitched, and didn't record yesterday's fine program with California poet Mara Leigh. If you were listening live, you heard something much more ephemeral than any of us could know at the time!

Not to worry, though; we'll have Mara on again in the very near future. I'll keep you posted.


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