The Organist
Episode 62: Language Is Speech: An Interview with Joshua Beckman
A conversation with poet Joshua Beckman about the aural delights of reading, writing, and listening to poetry.
By Andrew Leland • • 20m ListenSince the early 2000s, Joshua Beckman has experimented with nature of performing poetry. He has traveled with gangs of poets around the country in a bus, reading in far-flung and unusual venues. He has written live improvisational collaborative poems and recently has given many one-on-one poetry readings. In this episode of The Organist, Ross Simonini speaks to Beckman about the way he reads and writes his poetry aloud, his favorite poetry recordings, and the many poets—Lew Welch, Frank O'Hara, Robert Creeley—whose verbal and performative antics have inspired him.
Joshua Beckman's Poetry Mixtape
For The Organist, Joshua Beckman selected eight of his favorite audio recordings of poets performing their work aloud.
John Cage - Mushroom Haiku
John Wieners - from Memories in a Small Apartment
Lorenzo Thomas - Anuresis
Eileen Myles - April 5th
Bernadette Mayer - 1979
Kenneth Koch and Allen Ginsberg - Improvisation
Helen Adam - Cheerless Junkie's Song
Yoko Ono - Let's Go Flying
Banner image of Lew Welch appears via the Poetry Foundation.
