89 - Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti — Celebrating 99 Years

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In honor of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 99th birthday we celebrate with River’s of Memory, produced by Jim McKee of Earwax Productions. Over the last 20 years, Jim McKee has been chronicling Lawrence and Lawrence’s good friend radio dramatist Erik Bauersfeld (voice of Star Wars' Admiral Ackbar). Set to a rich soundscape that travels throughout San Francisco, the piece features poetry, interviews, and overheard conversations about Ferlinghetti’s life, work, the San Francisco beat culture, Ferlinghetti’s fight for First Amendment rights and more.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, opened City Lights bookstore in 1953, one of the first paperback bookstores. He also began publishing the Pocket Poet Series featuring poems by Beat Poets of the 1950s and 60s. In 1956 he published “Howl and Other Poems,” by Allen Ginsberg and was brought to trial on obscenity charges. The landmark first amendment case paved the way for the publication of other “banned books.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Radio Topia.
0:02.0	Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters Present.
0:04.0	PRX.
0:05.0	We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nicki Silva.
0:09.0	This is Nicki Silva of the Kitchen Sisters present.
0:13.0	Thanks so much to everyone who's already donated to Radiotopia's fall fundraiser.
0:18.0	If you haven't donated to the network before, you might wonder where exactly your dollars go.
0:24.2	The short answer is your donation goes to the Kitchen Sisters present and all the shows in
0:30.0	our network so that we can keep making the audio that you love and listen to.
0:35.0	Radio Topia from PRX is a non-profit public media company.
0:39.0	They connect us with new listeners and they've built an infrastructure around the work from sponsorship
0:44.2	publishing tech and other industry expertise. It's a great benefit to the
0:49.0	kitchen sisters to be part of a group of independent creators for
0:52.3	troubleshooting, camaraderie, and inspiration.
0:55.9	Head to radiotopia.F.M. slash donate.
0:58.9	To make a tax deductible contribution, you'll receive a special curated playlist from all of the Radiotopia producers.
1:07.0	Go to Radiotopia. I was conceived in the summer of 1918 or was it 38 when some kind of war was
1:17.8	it 38 when some kind of war was going on but it didn't stop two people from making love in Ossining that
1:25.8	year. I like to think, on the riverbank and sun, on a picnic by the Hudson. I, Lawrence Firling Getty, wrought from the dark in my mother long ago.
1:38.3	Born in a small back bedroom, in the next room my brother heard the first cry.
1:45.0	Someone squeezed my heart to make it go.
1:48.0	I cried and sprang up.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.