For the first time ever, Ferlinghetti Day will be celebrated here in the UK, and not just in San Francisco where the poet, artist, publisher and anarchist’s birthday has been marked since his death, aged 101, in 2021.
Coinciding with his birthday on 24 March, all things Lawrence Ferlinghetti will be applauded – everyone is welcome to pop by and read their favourite Ferlinghetti poem, or work inspired by him, or share an anecdote or story about him or the famous City Lights Booksellers & Publishers he established in San Fran’s North Beach in 1953. It was through this that he launched the Pocket Poets Series, subsequently finding himself arrested for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and charged (and acquitted in 1957) with publishing an obscene work.
Ferlinghetti Day is organised in California by Chris Buck and Richard O Moore, with cooperation from City Lights and Lorenzo Ferlinghetti, and starts with a reading of Ferlinghetti’s poem “The Changing Light” outside his old home at 706 Wisconsin Street, Potrero Hill, at sunrise, followed by a Literary Walkabout, reading his poems at places he is associated with. So why Bradford, you say? Organiser David Mullin (who read at the last More Song event of 2024, organised by Tom Branfoot) admits there is no specific Ferlinghetti-Bradford link, but the 1 in 12 Library is the largest anarchist library in the UK, and one of the largest in the world, and Ferlinghetti described himself as an anarchist. And that’s good enough for us. David says: “We hope to have a lively event and a true celebration of poetry, art and the anarchic imagination.”
A special, letterpress printed celebration poster which will be available on the night and the club bar will be open.
Born on 24 March 1919 in New York, Lawrence Ferlinghetti studied at the Sorbonne in Paris before moving to San Francisco in 1951, where he was a central part of the West Coast poetry community and long-time supporter of Beat poets such as Ginsberg, Corso and Di Prima. He served as San Francisco’s Poet Laureate between 1998-2000, recognition for his long engagement with, and involvement in, American poetry. In his lifetime he published over 20 collections of poetry, as well as several novels and plays. In 2003 he won a lifetime achievement award from the Author’s Guild, was awarded the Frost Medal by the Poetry Society of America, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of City Lights. He was also a painter and has work in a number of American galleries. A retrospective of his painting was held at Reggio Calabria, Rome in 2010.
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