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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1976)
Surface ai»d Synjbol The Emerald’s weekly arts and entertainment supplement ^ Thursday, June 3, 1976 Ken Kesey wilt be coming, along with plenty of others. F^Kjto by Perry Gask* ITS ART .. General unusual ness on tap for D-day A considerable amount of word, thought and perhaps even deed will be offered up Sunday (D-Day for non-history buffs) in and around Mac Court. The event is the first perennial Poetic Hoohaw and Spring Trip (PHAST), conceptualized, put together and actualized by the Intrepid Trips Society for Aesthetic Revolutionary Training (ITS ART) and the Northwest Review. At least twelve hours of poetry, music, theatre, magic, general happenings and whatever happens'es are promised and expected. To facilitate that end, the Society and Review have gathered together a most im pressive array of well-known and/or soon to-be well-known people to share then tal ents with our community. Among the head liners are Ken Kesey, William S. Burroughs, Ann Waldman, William Stafford, Bob Kaufman, Charles Lloyd and Quintet. Walt Curtis, Tomas Fuentes, Gurney Norman, Paul Krassner, Ed McClanahan, Jerry Kamastra, Stewart Brand, and Ken Babbs. These are only the expected ones. There are possibilities of others. Names are not available. Hope is. Now a quick glance at a few of the people mentioned above. William Burroughs... where to begin talking about William Burroughs? Ken Kesey calls him "... the first man in about 320 years to do anything new in writing." Jack Kerouac said, "Burroughs is the greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift." Norman Mailer gives still higher praise, "(Burroughs is) the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius.” Burroughs is the author of Junkie (a book based on the events of his own heroin addiction), Naked Lunch (called "one of the most important pieces of literature in our bime" by Ken Shapiro, and which for quite a while was deemed too dirty and strange to be published in America), Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, The Yage Let ters (with Allen Ginsberg), The Soft Machine, The Wild Boys and, more re cently, The Exterminators. Back in the Beat days (pre, during and post) Burroughs served as a fellow writer, teacher, philosopher and sometimes prophet to people like Kerouac, Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, to name but a few. He has appeared many times in the writings of all three, especially Kerouac's. Anne Waldman, the fastspeakingwo man, was once called by Newsweek, “the reigning queen of the downtown New York poetry scene." She has put out several vol umes of poetry and done several poetry readings/performances throughout the country. A few of her collections of poetry: Life Notes, Fast Speaking Woman and Journals and Dreams. She has been re cently published in Adventures in Poetry, Crawdaddy and Transatlantic Review. Ginsberg says of her, “this woman-girl vocalizes, rhapsodizes and defines metaphysics of a whole spectrum of mod ern consciousness, communal as well as mine and hers." Ted Berrigan calls here “ ... brave. She is experimenting and I think she is the most exciting poet of her genera tion." William Stafford, Oregon's poet laureate, wiH be there. His poems of quiet intensity and eloquence have won him wide esteem, including a National Book Award for Traveling Through the Dark. His other works include Allegiances, The Rescued Year, West of Your City and Someday, Maybe. His poetry has also won him a Gug genheim award and the Shelley Memorial Award. Stafford served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970-71. He is now Professor of English at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. Gurney Norman wrote The Divine Rights Trip in the Last Whcle Earth Catalogue. Bob Kaufman is a Beat poet. In France he is called the American Rimbaud, no small compliment from a Frenchman. Jerry Kamastra is the author of Weed and Frisco Kid. Tomas Fuentes will read his poetry. The Theatro Campesino (Farmworkers' Theatre) will perform their mixture of theatre, music and poetry. I could go on and on. Several local groups will be performing on the Freestage. The ones scheduled in clude the New Mime Circus, The Check ered Players, Reverend Chum ley and The Count. The Freestage, by the way, is open to anyone who desires a platform upon which to do anything one would like to do on a platform. A sign-up table for stage time will be set up next to the stage. Also on hand will be Stewart Brand, founding father of the Whole Earth Catalogue and now the Co-Evolution Quar terly. He will be bringing his Earth Balls (huge inflatable globes, six feet in diameter) and other games to play with in the after noon. Bob Gardn er (Closed Mondays) is bring ing his rainbow painting machine from Port land, along with some films and holog raphs. A poetry wall will be set up for when the muse strikes. Kesey and Krassner will be in the pit chal lenging all comers, whatever that may mean. There will also be music, magic, daring escapes, a musical saw, juggling, bag pipes, dancing and such merriment as peo ple are wont to make. All this, and probably more, will be hap pening in the field between the covered tennis court and the baseball field, just east of Mac Court. If the rain gods loom ugly, all will be moved into Mac Court. The evening of poetry and readings, and all films during the day, will be in Mac Court. The cost tor this entire event, lasting from roughly noon to roughly midnight (hands will be stamped so one may come and go), is $3.75 in advance and $4.75 at the door. Advance tickets may be had at the EMU Main Desk, Meier and Frank, and the Springfield Creamery. A number of balloons have been sent into the sky with invitations attached. Each invi tation admits two people free. A special secret prize will be given to the holder of the invitation from furthest away. In case any of the above isn’t clear, the information number is 747-9124./by Bob Webb.