Allen Ginsberg performed at the Miami Book Fair in 1985, forty years ago. It was year two in the history of the Book Fair. The presentation lasted almost two hours. Ginsberg read poems, sang songs, and led a long Q & A from an unseen audience. Often his answers and rants veered into a political realm. It is eery how relevant they feel today.
In this first video, Ginsberg is responding to a question about traveling to Russia. Asked about conjuring the spirit of poetic camaraderie when meeting Russian poets, Ginsberg’s response is both poetic and political. The freestyle rant Ginsberg chants in the short clip is unhinged. It’s absolutely classic. Take a listen.
Allen Ginsberg at the Miami Book Fair, 1985
In this second video, Ginsberg is explaining the hypocrisy of the conservative movement, on how it co-ops the term “socialism” and how we should not throw around the term “fascism” because we still have free speech. It’s remarkably relevant today as it was forty years ago.
In our final video, Allen Ginsberg is asked about debunking Mormonism and Scientology and he quickly turns it into a sharp political skewer of the times. Again, his insights in 1985 seem just as relevant today as they did forty years ago.
Allen Ginsberg passed away in 1997 at the age of seventy.
In 1985, at the Miami Book Fair, he was on the top of his game.
Sometimes the best minds of a generation are not destroted by madness. Instead they can see clearly what is truth and what is lie.
A few of our readers may remember this event — they may have been there, on an autum day in Miami, 1985.
Flashback on Miami
In a new summer series on The Jitney, with the help of the Wolfson Archives, the largest database of visual media, home videos, and broadcast journalism documenting Miami’s history, we are looking back at unique events. In an attempt to see where we are, we want to see where we’ve been and acknowledge our ancestors and the cultural crusaders that came before. History has a way of repeating itself and unfolds in cycles, usually moving towards progress. Today, we took you to the year 1985. The great beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg was in Miami and the trip very much takes us back to the future.
