The Poetry Project will honor the life and work of Peter Orlovsky, longtime partner of Allen Ginsberg, at free event at the Poetry Project on September 22 (photo by Ludwig Urnig)
The Poetry Project, St. Marks Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
Wednesday, September 22, free, 8:00
212-674-0910
www.poetryproject.org
On May 30, Beat Generationer Peter Orlovsky died of lung cancer at the age of seventy-six. Although most well known as the longtime on-and-off partner of Allen Ginsberg, New York City native Orlovsky was a poet in his own right. “Make my grave shape of heart so like a flower be free aired & handsome felt, / Grave root pillow, tung up from grave & wiggle at blown up clowd,” he wrote in 1958’s “Snail Poem.” Orlovsky also taught at the Naropa Institute’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, was an army medic in the Korean War, and appeared in several Robert Frank films, including the classic short PULL MY DAISY and ME AND MY BROTHER, which dealt with Peter’s mentally troubled brother, Julius. On September 22, a large group of friends and admirers will gather at the Poetry Project to pay tribute to Orlovsky, reading from such works as CLEAN ASSHOLE POEMS AND SMILING VEGETABLE SONGS, STRAIGHT HEARTS’ DELIGHT: LOVE POEMS AND SELECTED LETTERS, and LEPERS CRY; among those scheduled to participate in the free event are Chuck Lief, Philip Glass, Ed Sanders, Steven Taylor, Hal Willner, Janine Pommy Vega, Andy Clausen, Patti Smith, Anne Waldman, Gordon Ball, Rosebud Pettet, Simon Pettet, Bill Morgan, Anselm Berrigan, and John Godfrey.