#jeromerothenberg

Jerome Rothenberg snapped here by Allen, at Naropa Institute, August 1985.

Happy 90th Jerry!  

Jerome Rothenberg, though a very active poet, is  no doubt best known for his work in “ethnopoetics” and his extensive anthologies, the first of which  Technicians of the Sacred,  A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, was published in 1968.  He continued with  Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas (1972, 2014); A Big Jewish Book: Poems & Other Visions of the Jews from Tribal Times to Present; America a Prophecy: A New Reading of American Poetry from Pre-Columbian Times to the Present (1973, 2012), co-edited with George Quasha; and Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward An Ethnopoetics (1983), co-edited with Diane Rothenberg.

Happy Birthday Jerome Rothenberg!  Pictured here, back lawn at Naropa University, Boulder Colorado, July 1985.

Allen introduces at a 1981 reading:   “(He (Jerry Rothenberg)..) is now teaching a course in poetry and performance (here at NAROPA), which involves his specialty vocalization – "ethnopoetics" – Native American and other indigenous forms of poetry presentation and utterance and, with dance, music, song, chant, going into the seed (seat?) of language – he’s a fantastic scholar anthropologist anthologist whose specialization has been international-style of the twentieth-century, as well as archaic style, and so he’s organized a number of anthologies which are used extensively throughout the Universities in the United States, “Shaking The Pumpkin”, which as it’s name indicates is a work by American Indians among others, “America: A Prophecy”, “Technicians of the Sacred” (etc etc) – all these are classic anthologies which have extended the range of poetry considered by the Academy to be poetry, so that we now have American Indian and indigenous work, sound poetry, vocalization of poetry, sacred poetry, as part of the canon of texts that students can study - and that’s what he’s been teaching here”

    [Photo & Introduction: Allen Ginsberg Courtesy Allen Ginsberg Estate / Stanford University Libraries]

Ed Sanders, Harry Smith, and Jerome Rothenberg, St Mark’s Church, New York City, May 1987

[Photo: Allen Ginsberg Courtesy Allen Ginsberg Estate / Stanford University Libraries]

#edsanders #harrysmith #jeromerothenberg #ethnopoetics #ethnomusicology #thefugs #allenginsberg #fuckyouamagazineofthearts #fuckyou #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #americanavantgarde #occult #nyc #americanpoetry #poetry #poetrycommunity #stmarkschurch #writersofinstagram (at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery)

Original poem by Hugo Ball, performed by Jerome Rothenberg with Jan Mysjkin and Ineke Holzhuis, at Poetry International, Rotterdam 1986