The program will include readings from the works of Judith Malina and Allen Ginsberg, a performance of the Living Theatre’s Not In My Name – a street theater piece about the death penalty – and special appearances by Tony Kushner and surprise guests.
Judith Malina, co-founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Living Theatre, has been challenging the political and artistic boundaries of performance for more than five decades. Since its founding in 1947, the Living Theatre has performed provocative works exploring such issues as military culture, the death penalty, poetic expression, homelessness and the shrinking of public space. Born in Germany in 1926 to Rabbi Max Malina and actor Rose Zamora, and raised in the United States, Judith Malina has had a profound impact on contemporary theater as a poet, playwright, actor, essayist and director.
Allen Ginsberg (1926 - 1997) was one of the founders of the Beat Generation. He inspired countless poets, musicians, visual and performance artists with his innovative verse and lifetime commitment to spiritual, political and sexual liberation. His signal poem “Howl,” published in 1956 and subsequently translated into 26 languages, was the object of an obscenity trial that became a culture-altering milestone in American history. Born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, he lived for many years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.