Saturday, June 4, 2016, starting at 2:00 PM
FREE Howl! Happening, 6 East 1st Street

2 PM: Remembering d.a. levy and Reminiscing on the value of Bookstores
Readings of d.a. levy’s poetry and a panel discussion featuring Ed Sanders, David Kirschenbaum, Mike Golden, Kent Taylor (via Skype), and others.
Turning his native Cleveland into a capital of Beat culture, people’s poet, publisher, non-comformist, pamphleteer, and counter-cultural icon d.a. levy embodies the spirit of the Beat underground. The event also shines a light on another Cleveland Beat centerpiece, Jim Lowell’s Asphodel Bookshop, raided in 1966 for selling obscene literature.  From there we journey to other bookstores like City Lights, 8th Street Books, St. Marks Bookshop and Peace Eye Bookstore, sacred sites that were the hubs and homes of the Beat poets and so many others.

4 PM: The Six Gallery Reading
Michael McClure orchestrates a celebration for the Six Gallery reading Oct.7, 1955 in San Francisco, when Ginsberg first read “Howl” to the public. The legendary reading McClure’s first reading ever, and also included, included Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen.  Kenneth Rexroth was the MC, and Jack Kerouac kept busy passing around the red wine jug, shouting “Go! Go! Go!” and recording the scene in Dharma Bums. McClure will present as Kenneth Rexroth and be joined by Ava Chin as Gary Snyder, Hettie Jones as Allen Ginsberg, Max Blagg as Philip Lamantia, Andy Clausen as Philip Whalen and Nikhil Melnechuk as McClure, himself.

5:30 PM: We Remember
A gathering of the Beat poets and others to share poetry, stories, memories, and personal anecdotes of those we’ve lost as they are added to a Wall of Names. John Giorno will open the proceedings with “The Death of William Burroughs.”  Photos and short film will be shown, and the audience will share memories and names aloud and on a remembrance wall, alongside Mark Turgeon‘s ongoing live-painting, “An Incomplete History of Beat.” The evening will close with a group reading from Ginsberg‘s “Kaddish.”

8 PM: Concert
We’ll all dance over to Bowery Electric for a concert featuring Peter Stampfel The Fugs, and The Last Poets, with Abiodun Oyewole. Umar bin Hasan, and Babatunde.