Poster for the Ginsberg reading, “Groove on Ginsberg,” Courtesy of the Ray Shankman Fonds, Jewish Public Library Archives, Montréal.
Gary Genosko
American poet Allen Ginsberg’s Canadian itinerary of readings throughout 1969 brought him to a number of major urban centres, including Montreal and Vancouver. For instance, at the end of October and beginning of November in Montréal, Ginsberg read at Sir George Williams University, where he was introduced by poet George Bowering; he then read at McGill University in an event sponsored by the Hillel Jewish Students Society and Debating Clubs. These readings and question and answer periods are archived online on The Allen Ginsberg Project, https://allenginsberg.org/.
However, this article concerns a visit Ginsberg made to a regional Ontario city earlier, in March of that year. Ginsberg performed in Thunder Bay (then Port Arthur), Ontario on Friday, March, 14, 1969, singing Buddhist chants and reading from his soon to be published collection, The Fall of America, at Lakehead University (LU). The leading idea here is to build up a small archive of materials related to this under-documented visit. This will not only assist Ginsberg scholars, but it will assist local cultural historians by filling out some elements of the event, while acknowledging Ginsberg’s own cultural and religious affiliations and the roles they played. Continue reading →
