Allen Ginsberg Poetry Readings & Lectures on Audio

Allen Ginsberg's Howl is the ultimate beat poem, and what better way to experience it than listening to Ginsberg read it himself. PennSound features two recordings of Ginsberg reading Howl, one from 1956 (the year he published it) and one from 1995 (a few years before his death).

Witchita Vortex Sutra is Ginsberg's epic poem about the Vietnam War written in 1966....

Studs Terkel talks with poet Allen Ginsberg in this 1976 interview. They talk about what has changed in America since their first chat in 1959.

Allen Ginsberg class on Beat literary history of the 1950's, discussing William S. Burroughs's book Junky and his first meeting with Herman Hunke.

First half of a class with Allen Ginsberg discussing vividness and close observation in writing, particularly the writers who do it, including Walt Whitman, haiku, Jack Kerouac, Reznikoff, Imagists and William Carlos Williams.

Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg lecture on dharma poetics…

First half of a class by William S. Burroughs on the technology and the ethics of wishing.

Allen Ginsberg class on steps of revising autobiographical poems.

An Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg poetry reading. Waldman reads "Fast Speaking Woman" and other poems. Ginsberg reads "Howl" in its entirety, and other poems.

In this archive lecture from Naropa University recorded in 1984, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs discuss their views on writing.