Drawn from their investigation of Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, 11 actors animate SFMOMA with a cycle of song, gesture, and movement that challenges the conventions of theater-based performance. Ginsberg’s words flow through blues, rock, pop, opera, and even punk idioms as the performers themselves flow through the audience. Coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Workcenter, this West Coast debut of Electric Party Songs creates a social space for new encounters with Ginsberg, American music, and the space of the museum. Before the performance, we screen Ginsberg portraits spanning three decades: Costanzo Allione’s 1978 documentary about the Naropa Institute, Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds; behind-the-scenes sections from Jerry Aronson’s 1993 chronicle The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg; and Ginsberg’s self-shot Household Affairs.
When: Thursday, April 21, 6pm – 9:45pm
7pm Screening: Allen Ginsberg’s “home movies”
9pm Open Program of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Press release and image provided by the museum.
Kimberly Kradel
Bryan Stillman
Staff Writer