Ron Padgett, "Joe Brainard's Painting Bingo" & "The Austrian Maiden"
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Al Filreis brought together James Berger and Richard Deming (who traveled together from Yale) and Sophia DuRose to talk about two poems by Ron Padgett. The poems are “The Austrian Maiden” and “Joe Brainard’s Painting Bingo.” Our recording of “The Austrian Maiden” comes from a February 26, 2003, reading Padgett gave at the Kelly Writers House; the poem had just recently been published in Padgett’s book You Never Know (2002). The recording of “Joe Brainard’s Painting Bingo” — a poem published in Great Balls of Fire (1969) — was performed at a November 20, 1979, reading given at a location that is now (sadly) unknown. That reading in its entirety is available at Padgett’s PennSound page; the recording comes to us courtesy of the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, now housed at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
April 17, 2024
Response to Horowitz's rabid anti-BDS ad in New York Times
I was disturbed on Monday to read a vicious and unwarranted attack on my colleague, Amy Kaplan, in an ad on the Op-Ed page of the Times. This is the (unpublished) letter written in response to the ad.
To the Editor [The New York Times]:
We are professors who teach in universities across this country. We are appalled
at the advertisement by the David Horowitz Freedom Center (Op-Ed page, April
24, 2012 [see below]) which compares the international movement for Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions against Israel (BDS) to the Holocaust and ancient blood libels. It
also asks that professors who support it be “publicly shamed and condemned.”
It grossly distorts the statements of such professors, which are publicly available
online and can be verified.
The Horowitz Center’s advertisement seeks to shut down informed debate. Free
speech and thought was a crucial right at stake in 1930s Germany and it remains
so today. The discussion that took place at the University of Pennsylvania did
not use any objectionable language, and included many Jewish participants,
including rabbis. Your readers can hear for themselves what was said
at www.PennBDS.org. It is Horowitz who uses the language of hatred and
bigotry. Even those of us who do not support BDS are alarmed at your carrying
an advertisement that misinforms and names individuals who do not have the
money that Horowitz has to defend themselves through his chosen medium.
We hope you will publish this letter to make this point.