Tonight in Monterey: Rubber Chicken Poetry is a Howl

Just got this e-mail from my boy Garland Thompson, host of the Rubber Chicken Poetry Slam:

Hey bro,
Just wanted to drop you a line and invite you down (Wednesday) nite. I'm doing a feature tribute to Ginsberg's "Howl" with Bill Minor and bassist Heath Proskin (the Suborbitals) over at the Rubber Chicken. I'm attaching a pdf of the poster for you to dig.

Hope you can make it!

GT

Tonight, Garland will host the slam as a tribute to Alan Ginsberg's "Howl." Ginsberg's poem is one of those legendary scrolls that every college poetry professor inflicts on first-year creative writing students. It's long and loud and rambling.

The story of the poem goes something like this: Ginsberg debuted it one night in San Francisco, during a performance event where Jack Keroac ran around the crowd serving everyone wine and the best poets on the east and west coast converged for a huge meeting of the minds."The Six Gallery reading" took place on October 7, 1955.

Ginsberg's opening line, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness," cemented his legacy as a beat poet and prophet. Tonight, my boy Garland will recreate this momentous piece with musical back-up.

Tonight's reading takes place at East Village Cafe (formerly Morgan's Coffee and Tea), 498 Washington street (on the corner of Abrego St. and Washington) downtown Monterey. Cost is $5. Hope to see you there.