A Public Reading of A. Ginsberg's Poetry

For years now, Jeffrey Skoblow, one of my colleagues in English, has provided models for what's possible with creative approaches to teaching and learning and public engagements using literary art.

Yesterday, Skoblow continued to lead the way, along with help from history professor Eric Ruckh and graduate students Jason Braun and Shane Signorino.

To commemorate poet Allen Ginsberg's October 7, 1955, reading of his famous poem "Howl," Skoblow, Ruckh, Braun, and Signorino did a public reading of some Ginsberg poems on a hill on the quad yesterday.

Jason Braun and Shane Signorino

Thirty or so folks stood and listened to the readings. And who knows how many folks passing by slowed their usual walking pace to listen to fragments from the poems being read aloud? The event was a cooled out and vibrant display of poetry.

Skoblow and Ruckh reading Ginsberg's "America"

Skoblow and Ruckh did a resonating collaborative reading of Ginsberg's "America." Their reading...no, their set, was jazz-like: sonic, interdependent, improvisational, spirited, and free.