Allen Ginsberg and the Beat Generation will be celebrated with a six-day festival starting on Friday in downtown Manhattan. “Beat & Beyond: A Gathering,” presented by Howl! Happening and Bowery Poetry, will run through Wednesday, June 8, and include readings, screenings and musical performances.
Ginsberg, who died in 1997, would have turned 90 on Friday, June 3, and contemporaries including Michael McClure and Ed Sanders will offer readings and remembrances at the gallery Howl! Happening on East 1st Street. At 8 p.m., a group of musicians will discuss and perform selections from “Last Word on First Blues,” a collection of Ginsberg’s music that was recently reissued.
On Saturday, June 4, Mr. McClure will present a historical re-enactment of the first time Mr. Ginsberg read “Howl,” in 1955 in San Francisco. On Monday, June 6, Howl! Happening will screen a collection of short films related to the Beats, including the Jack Kerouac-written “Pull My Daisy,” from 1959.
A full schedule is at howlarts.org.