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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications, Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Tel 609/258-3600; Fax 609/258-1301

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 5, 1996
Contact: Mary Caffrey 609) 258-5748

Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg to Hold Poetry Reading

Princeton, N.J. - Allen Ginsberg, one of the country's best-known poets, will appear at Princeton on Monday, Feb. 12. Ginsberg's visit is sponsored by the American Studies program.

Ginsberg will read selection of his poetry at 8 p.m. in 50 McCosh Hall. The reading is open to the public.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College in 1948 Ginsberg became associated with a group of writers that included Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady and, later, a San Francisco-based contingent. They became known as the ``Beat Generation,'' and their work is finding a new audience among today's college students and young artists.

Ginsberg rose to prominence after the 1956 reading of his apocalyptic poem, ``Howl.'' A recording of that first reading is contained in Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Songs and Poems (1948-1993), a collection that received critical acclaim when it was issued in September 1994. Ginsberg's Kaddish, a 63-minute poem based on his mother's insanity and death, is also featured.

At 69, Ginsberg has produced more than 30 books of poetry, prose, and photographs, as well as many essays and recordings. He is the co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colo., and is now a professor at Brooklyn College. In 1994, Stanford University obtained Ginsberg's collection of some 300,000 items that traced his quest for social, sexual, and political liberation.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Ginsberg will give a lecture, ``Clear Seeing Poetics: New Jersey Through the States,'' at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 12. This is a campus event; however, the media are invited to attend. Please contact Mary Caffrey at the Communications Office for information.

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