Remembering Allen Ginsberg at 100

6 06 2026

And a Reminder: Kopkind’s Pride Weekend Events, 6/27-28

Allen Ginsberg was born 100 years ago, on June 3, 1926. We remember that brave, gentle, howling soul, guide to the power and beauty of the word. Like another of America’s great gay poets, Walt Whitman, Ginsberg contained multitudes. ‘A Supermarket in California’ invokes Whitman — an homage, now, to both these giants of literary imagination and liberation.

Those who attended last year’s lgbt short film fest CineSLAM would have seen the remarkable Allen Ginsberg’s Lost Work. That film, mysteriously, is now nowhere to be found — at least we can’t locate it — which goes to show that you never know what extraordinary treat is to be found at CineSLAM.

Tickets for this year’s CineSLAM, on Saturday, June 27, beginning at 4 pm at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, may be purchased at filmfreeway/cineslam.com.

On Sunday, June 28, we’re hosting a Raise the Rainbow Late Brunch at Tree Frog Farm, 158 Kopkind Road in Guilford. There will be food, drink and a talk by Roger Lancaster, a fascinating thinker and speaker — author, most recently, of The Struggle to Be Gay, in Mexico, for Example. Roger will speak on themes central to his exploration of working-class gay life and the ambiente: ‘the urgency of desire’, the salience of class and material want in the creation of identity, the universal necessity of ‘vistas of freedom’, connection, a better life. (Scroll down to previous post for more.)

There is no charge for Sunday’s event (donations will be gratefully accepted). People must make a reservation, though, so that we have a count for food. Please reserve by writing to JoAnn Wypijewski at jwyp2000@gmail.com.

Happy Pride Month!

Happy 100th Anniversary of the life of Allen Ginsberg!

Come, Raise the Rainbow with us on June 27 and 28!

And now for a snippet from the cutting room floor of Before Stonewall. A peek behind the scenes during Andy Kopkind’s interview with Ginsberg for John Scagliotti et al.’s Emmy-winning documentary on gay life before the uprising. Click on image.


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Celebrating James Baldwin 💯: June 29

21 06 2025

Richard Goldstein, award-winning journalist, talks on Baldwin’s legacy and their extraordinary 1984 interview on race, sex, liberation and the politics of getting free. Co-sponsored by 118 Elliot. Sunday, June 29, 4 pm, at 118 Elliot. A free public event. Donations welcomed.

‘Go the Way Your Blood Beats’

“Go the Way Your Blood Beats,” Baldwin famously told Goldstein, an admonition to live one’s life authentically. As a black man, a gay man, a person who grew up in Harlem before WWII and left the country for Europe—spending the rest of his life in transit—Baldwin resisted what he called “all of the American categories” and, in his novels, essays and speeches, uniquely challenged America to look at itself, to liberate itself from the violence that still consumes it and defines its power in the world. Baldwin’s homosexuality, evident in his works’ frankness about sex, desire, fear and the many, intertwined obstacles to love and human freedom, is often un- or under-discussed. Our event honors the man, his dazzling originality and rebellious vision in full.

Richard Goldstein was executive editor of The Village Voice, for which he wrote on popular culture and sexual politics for 32 years. Among the umpteen interviews Baldwin gave in his life, Goldstein’s is perhaps the only one that dealt directly with homosexuality, the queer liberation movement and their relationship to Baldwin’s life and work. An award-winning commentator on lgbtq issues, a founder of rock criticism and early champion of graffiti culture, Goldstein is the author of, among other works, The Poetry of Rock; Homocons: Liberal Society and the Gay Right; and Another Little Piece of My Heart: My Life of Rock and Revolution in the `60s. He lives in New York City and Vermont.

This celebration of James Baldwin will be Kopkind’s second Pride Month event. It is part of the prolonged centenary commemoration of the revolutionary author and public figure, who was born in August 1924. On the preceding day, Saturday, July 28, Kopkind presents its annual lgbtq short film fest, Cineslam, at the Latchis Theatre at 4 pm. A reception and Pride Cake to follow. For tickets to Cineslam: https://www.cineslam.com/


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