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Beats, Bhakti and Bauls: Ginsberg at 100 Goes Back to India
Beats, Bhakti and Bauls: Ginsberg at 100 Goes Back to India
Centenary Concert Hall, University of Leeds, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 3AR.
Leading Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s South Asian inspirations were manifold. He travelled to India and Bangladesh twice in the 1960s-70s, collaborated with avant-garde Bengali poets of the Hungry Generation, raised consciousness of the suffering caused by the Bangladesh Liberation War and wrote poetry inspired by Bengali mystics such as Lalon Fakir. Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music celebrates Ginsberg’s birth centenary with an innovatory exploration of these connections. Among others Indian classical vocalist Chandra Chakraborty, poet and singer T M Ahmed Kaysher, semi-classical vocalist Amith Dey, performance poet Shree Ganguly, Bengali folk and Tagore singer Sahana Bajaie and Matthew Pritchard from the School of Music will be reciting, dramatizing and discussing Ginsberg’s poetry, presenting mystical songs by Lalon, Kabir and Hason and spiritual and semi-classical forms from bhajan to thumri
The event is hosted by Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music (www.saudha.org) in collaboration with the Music Department of Leeds University.
Venue: From Oct 3, 2026 to Oct 3, 2026 in Centenary Concert Hall, University of Leeds
