Allan+Ginsberg

﻿﻿ Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey on June 3, 1926. Allen grew up in a household greatly affected by his mother’s mental illness. Starting when Allen was a junior in high school his mother spent 15 years in different mental hospitals undergoing treatments and therapies. She died in 1956. Her distressing death had a great effect on Allen and for the rest of his life he wrote poems about her condition. After graduating from high school Allen attended Columbia University where he planned to study law. Ginsberg found inspiration in jazz music and with a curiosity for street life he soon strayed from traditional values and encouraged drug-use as a way to enlightenment. Allen Ginsberg was known as being the founder of the beat literary movement of the 1950's. The beat literary movement was a group of poets who had expressed and portrayed some of the bad quatlities of America through their poetry. During the 1960s, Allen tried a number of different drugs, believing that with them he could create a new kind of poetry. Using LSD, peyote, marijuana and a series of other drugs he attempted to enlargen his perception and wrote a number of books under the influence including the "Yage Letters.” Allen Ginsberg was the most famous living American poet in the 1980’s. As a celebrity he maintained his fame as a spokesperson for peace and tolerance, working often as a teacher and lecturer. Ginsberg continued to write through his final illness, with his last poem, "Things I'll Not Do ", written on March 30. He died April 5, 1997, surrounded by family and friends in his East Village loft in New York City, succumbing to liver cancer. He was 70 years old. Critics have said that his works represented "a struggle for spriritual survival in a dehumanied society."  He used his dark writing to show how our barbaric society has been warped, shining light on the dark waters where we had preferred not to see.
 * By Isabel, Yoorie, and Collin **
 * Biography **




 * Quick Facts**
 * “Howl” was his most famous poem.
 * He co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Politics.
 * He was a professor at Brooklyn College.
 * He was influenced by Walt Whitman.
 * He was friends with Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs
 * The Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres was given to him.

This is a PhotoStory video we made based on a poem called Homework by Allen Ginsberg. media type="file" key="AllenGinsbergphotostory[1].wmv" width="383" height="352"

= = =**Homework**= If I were doing my Laundry I’d wash my dirty Iran I’d throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap, scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in the jungle, I’d wash the Amazon river and clean the oily Carib & Gulf of Mexico, Rub that smog off the North Pole, wipe up all the pipelines in Alaska, Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, Flush that sparkly Cesium out of Love Canal Rinse down the Acid Rain over the Parthenon & Sphinx, Drain Sludge out of the Mediterranean basin & make it azure again, Put some blueing back into the sky over the Rhine, bleach the little Clouds so snow return white as snow, Cleanse the Hudson Thames & Neckar, Drain the Suds out of Lake Erie Then I’d throw big Asia in one giant Load & wash out the blood & Agent Orange, Dump the whole mess of Russia and China in the wringer, squeeze out the tattletail Gray of U.S. Central American police state, & put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or an Aeon till it came out clean.


 * Bibliography **

"Allen Ginsberg." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. http://kirjasto.sci.fi/ginsberg.htm Lorio, Paul. "Allen Ginsberg." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8. "Howl by Allen Ginsberg : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry." The Poetry Foundation : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=179381. Allen Ginsberg - Poems, Biography, Quotes." Famous Poets and Poems - Read and Enjoy Poetry. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/allen_ginsberg. Crystal, David. The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994. Print.  "Site Policies — Central Intelligence Agency." Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/site-policies/index.html#copy.  "Howl - A Poem by Allen Ginsberg - American Poems." American Poems - YOUR Poetry Site. Web. 28 Jan. 2011. [].
 * Photo Sources **

"Styleblog: Search Results." Web. 28 Jan. 2011. <http://www.stylebayarea.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=random&IncludeBlogs=6>. Jerusalem Weather. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. http://www.02ws.com/images/SnowFlake.jpg. "Bijou Photo Studios." Bijou Media. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. http://www.bijoumedia.net/photo_ art_Gallery_Waterscapes.htm. Kallistos. "File:Parthenon-2008.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 25 Apr. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Parthenon-2008.jpg. "River Thames." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/River_Thames Trip. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. http://www.layoutsparks.com/myspace-layouts/winter_0 html/852_map.html. "Intute - World Guide - China." Intute - Home. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. http://www.intute.ac.uk/worldguide/ Files from Tony. Tony. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2xmHOoPqAIQ/ TBfviASUPYI/AAAAAAAABqM/SqVi4M8h4OE/s1600/100604_gulf_oil_spill_lg25.jpg. "African Animals Zebra - Animal Pictures." Free Pictures - A Variety of Free Picture Gallery. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. [].