Smith, Glass honor Ginsberg at Hill

By Sheila Chapman McClear

Daily Arts Writer

The Patti Smith Group and composer Philip Glass remembered and celebrated the late Beat poet Allen Ginsberg Thursday at the Michigan Theater for the annual Jewel Heart benefit/Allen Ginsberg Memorial concert.

Before his death, Ginsberg, a prolific writer famous for his fantastical, disturbing 1955 poem "Howl," was a regular performer at these benefits. As Glass said, the event is not only a concert but a way for the poet's friends and fans to create "our own way of being with him, of invoking his presence and spirit."

Glass performed four short piano pieces, each uniquely powerful and bittersweet. Patti Smith then joined him to read two of Ginsberg's poems. Both artists were friends of Ginsberg, and they seemed to have a special understanding of his work, reading his poems lovingly and with great emotion. One dealt with Ginsberg's lamentations over the death of his beloved Buddhist teacher; the other, entitled "the Magic Psalm," had never been revealed to the public before.

The surprise guest of the night was eighteen-year-old Jackson Smith, introduced by his mother Patti as "a humble Michigan fellow." He performed a charming and imperfect acoustic piece. The audience was unfazed, however - as he walked offstage shrugging at his mistakes, two impressed girls in the next row over enthused, "He's kind of cute!"

Diane Suess - teacher, published author, and winner of the Ginsberg Memorial poetry contest - read her poem "Green." Smith remarked that when Ginsberg was alive to judge the contest entrants, he labored painstakingly over each poem, whether they were from a published author or "a little librarian from Des Moines."

The Patti Smith Group, famous for their sultry, surly Lower East Side rock and roll, kicked out a long, unpredictable semi-acoustic set. The band ran through several songs from their newest album, Gung Ho, along with older classics like "People Have the Power" and "Dancing Barefoot."

The evening's highlight came with Smith's reading of Ginsberg's "Footnote to Howl." Complete with a wailing clarinet solo, she ended it by spitting on the stage.

If Ginsberg's ghost was there that night, sitting just out of sight in the balcony behind the spotlights, he certainly would have smiled.