I asked a female engineer in L.A. where I was recording a while back what music she listened to. She was tattooed with bold streaks of primary colors in her wildly uneven hair. I’d worked with her several times before and a change seems to have come over her–she’s a lot more relaxed, present, funnier…. Continue Reading »
November 20, 2010: Johannesburg, South Africa It’s been a long trip. With a 13-hour layover in Heathrow (luckily four of them in an airport hotel bed courtesy of the travel agency), I’ve been traveling for close to 38 hours. The only reason I’m still vertical is because I’m waiting for my bag. I said I’d… Continue Reading »
Originally published in “Elephant Journal”: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/02/the-poet-that-changed-america-allen-ginsberg-beat-poet-naropa-activist/ Randy Roark: I’m an example of the apprenticeship program that Allen ran here. It was a class that you could sign up for, you got credit for it, and met once a week for three hours. Some of the time was spent looking at your own work as a… Continue Reading »
A Gallery of Troubadours: A Manuscript Prepared in Anticipation of a Trip to Southern France in April-May 2012 to Partially Recreate a Walk by Ezra Pound on Its Centenary Table of Contents Notes for a Walking Tour of Provence with Jonathan Gill on the 100th Anniversary of Ezra Pound’s Walking Tour of Provence, Summer 1912……………………….…………7 William IX,… Continue Reading »
I was invited by the Literary Activities Committee of the Athenaeum Book Store in Amsterdam to speak last night for ten minutes and take questions on a book that had changed my life. This is a slightly cleaned-up version of the talk that I gave. Because spontaneous poetics was so important to Allen and the… Continue Reading »
As part of my role as “Foreign Desk” of the Museum of American Poetics, I was asked to review two exhibits in Paris, July 2016. PASSING THE TORCH: The Beats and the Velvet Underground in Paris. In July 2016, on opposite sides of the city, Paris hosted two exhibits that began with Allen Ginsberg. At… Continue Reading »
CO-EMERGENCE IN RANDY ROARK’S MONA LISA’S VEIL: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (1979-2001). Stanley Fefferman Posted on August 11, 2017 by Stanley Fefferman INTRODUCTION A light veil covers the hair and forehead of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. That veil is the organizing image of Roark’s book Mona Lisa’s Veil: New and Selected Poems (1979-2001) where he… Continue Reading »
Berkeley Lake ParkDenver, CO. September 22, 2019 Produced by Passport to Mindfulness I was asked to give the opening talk at a mindfulness retreat for the parents of the children who were off doing other stuff. Mindfulness as a Means of Self Discovery First I’d like to acknowledge Lauren and Ahva and Jason and Drew… Continue Reading »
Sometimes You’re Lucky, Sometimes You’re Not Nouvelle ChansonAn Anthology 1997-2009 Randy Roark Cover Photo #s 1-12: Anna TernheimCover Photo #s 13-24: Emily LoizeauCover Photo #s 25-36: Anja GarbarekCover Photo #s 37-50: Emilie Simon Published by Laocoon Press in a limited edition of 50 and distributed for free to friends and others on the occasion of… Continue Reading »
Allen Ginsberg on Bob DylanExcerpts from interviews and lectures 1974-1993 Transcribed and compiled for AG by Randy Roark, August 1993 Introductory Note: In 1993, I transcribed 10 hours of interviews between Allen Ginsberg and Hal Willner, producer of the box-set “Holy Soul Jelly Roll.” I edited this down to 87 pages and submitted it and… Continue Reading »