Howl - Reading Ginsberg

Howl – Reading Ginsberg
Fundraising Event: Thursday, July 14, 2011 from 7pm to 10pm

Join the Cartoon Art Museum for an unusual reading of Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl, hosted by Anna Conda featuring local celebrities Ben McCoy, Supervisor Eric Mar, James Tracy, Sunny Angulo, Dean Disaster, Carol Stewart, Dam Dyke, Shanice Walcott, Kegel Kater, and Fred Lopez.  This is not your average poetry reading though, prepare yourselves for an inspired presentation of excerpts from Allen Ginsberg’s ground-breaking poem.  Local artists Justin Hall (Glamazonia, True Travel Tales) and Jon Macy (Teleny and Camille, Fearful Hunter) will attend this event courtesy of Northwest Press and Prism Comics.

Tickets to the event range from $5 to $100.
$5 – General Admission
$20 – Admission plus Howl: the Graphic Novel*
$35 – Admission plus an Individual level membership to the Cartoon Art Museum
$55 – Admission, Individual level membership to the Cartoon Art Museum, plus Howl: the Graphic Novel*
$75 – Admission, Family level membership to the Cartoon Art Museum
$100 – Admission, Family level membership to the Cartoon Art Museum, Howl: the Graphic Novel* signed by Eric Drooker

Tickets can be purchased online at:
Online ticket sales for the Cartoon Art Museum are sponsored by Guestlistapp.com 

*please note: Howl: the Graphic Novel recently ran its print run, and is in production for a 2nd printing.  Because of this we have a limited number available.  Once they run out, we will offer back-order, or an alternative book in its place.

About the exhibition:
The Art of Howl
May 14 – September 11, 2011

San Francisco, CA:   Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's film, Howl, produced by Werc Werk Works, opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Featuring James Franco as the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the film took an experimental approach to documenting the creation and performance of Ginsberg's revolutionary poem, "Howl"– as well as the obscenity trial that followed when, after undercover policemen purchased copies of Howl and Other Poems from City Lights Bookstore, the state tried to suppress its publication. The film blends glimpses of Ginsberg's personal life, recreations of the obscenity trial, and animated sequences that accompany Franco's performance of the poem, riffing on its ideas and images.

The Art of Howl gives a revealing look behind the scenes at the creative process of turning poetry into animation. The film directors enlisted Eric Drooker to design the animation; Drooker, a graphic novelist and painter, was friends with Ginsberg and had collaborated with him on the book Illuminated Poems. John Hays, a San Francisco-based animation veteran, directed the sequences, which were animated by The Monk Studios in Thailand.

Translating Ginsberg's incendiary, oracular, stream-of-consciousness language into moving images was a unique challenge. The animation, like the poem, conjures a world of outcasts, "deviants," outlaws, poets and prophets digging for scraps of connection and enlightenment under the shadow of "Moloch" – the overpowering industrial cityscape that demands submission, conformity, and ultimately annihilation.

This multimedia exhibit includes character design drawings, animation keyframes & concept art, photos by Allen Ginsberg, storyboards, animatics, and images from Drooker's graphic novel version of the poem.

The Cartoon Art Museum is pleased to present this animated interpretation of a piece of literary history – just a couple miles from City Lights Bookstore, the launching-pad for Ginsberg's poetic career, and through their victory at the "Howl" trial, a historic ground zero for freedom of expression.

Curated by Andrew Farago, Eric Drooker and Chris Lanier