Summer Strategies

The Top Five Events at Downtown’s Howl! Festival

The best events at downtown’s Howl! festival make us want to holler.

By Boris Kachka
Published May 21, 2005

Poet Miguel Algarin howls away at last year's fest.

(Photo: Courtesy of Howl!)

1. Allen Ginsberg Poetry Festival:
Country rocker turned lit gadfly Steve Earle opines on politics and poetics, reads a little Ginsberg, and then cedes the floor to usual suspects like Tracie Morris and Edwin Torres in the heart of Beat country: tamed but not forgotten Tompkins Square Park.
• Tomkins Square Park Bandshell, 7th St., between Aves. A and B; howlfestival.com. 8/20, 5-9 p.m.

2. All-Star Poetry Jam:
Thanks to Moby, Suzanne Vega, and impresario Bob Holman, the emphasis of this performance-poet benefit is definitely on the performance—which is not to say there won’t be some true bards (Torres, Carl Hancock Rux) in the mix.
• Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St., publictheater.org. 8/22, 9:30 p.m.

3. KGB Book Party:
New York’s Mark Jacobson (co-editor of the new KGB Bar Non-Fiction Reader) curates a soirée filled with contributors and other book-world luminaries—Jack Newfield, Fab 5 Freddy, J. Hoberman, Luc Sante, and Earle again—to celebrate the new house volume.
• KGB, 85 E. 4th St., 212-505-3360. 8/20, 7 p.m.

4. Is Another City Possible?
Writer-activists Sofia Quintero (Explicit Content) and James Tracy (Still a Beating Heart: San Francisco After the Brown Years) join tour guide–activist Bruce Kayton (the “Radical Walking Tours”) to discuss social-justice movements and the cities where they roost.
• Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., 212-777-6028. 8/22, 7 p.m.

5. Dissent Through Design:
Graphic designer Nicholas Blechman, along with a few contributors, speaks about his anthology Empire: Nozone IX, which rallies artists and designers against the forces that dominate our politics and culture.
• Housing Works, 126 Crosby St., 212-334-3324. 8/24 at 7 p.m.