Historic Audio

Bunny: Susan Howe on V.R. Lang

Clocktower Radio

Charles Ruas is joined by Susan Howe to reminisce about their collaboration in the production of a 1975 WBAI radio project that celebrated the life and work of poet and playwright, V. R. "Bunny" Lang. This 2004 recording of their discussion serves as an entree to Clocktower Radio's rebroadcast of the short series of historic programs that they produced about the late writer whose "querulous warmth and astounding energy (made her a) 'queen' to her circle of friends".

The original tribute consisted of a series of interviews with Lang's collaborators and contemporaries and a radio play/re-enactment of one of her works.

The young Susan Howe knew Lang, her mother was a member of The Poets' Theater in Cambridge-- a collective that Lang co-founded in 1950 along with Thornton Wilder, William Carlos Williams and others. As a girl, Howe performed in some of their productions, which strongly influenced her future work.

In addition to The Poets' Theater, Lang served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps during WWII and was an editor for the Chicago Review. Following this she move to New York where she became associated with the New York School of Poets and established an important friendship with Frank O'Hara. She died of Hodgkin's disease in 1956 at the age of 32.

American poet and critic, Susan Howe (born 1937) is known for her work infused with historical and mythical references. She is often linked with the Postmodern Language poets. Howe has been awarded with numerous awards, such as two American Book Awards and a Guggenheim fellowship. She has taught at universities across the United States. Her published works include; Hinge Picture (1974), Articulation of Sound Forms in Time (1987), The Birth-Mark: Unsettling the Wilderness in American Literary History (1993), and Frolic Architecture (2011).

Howe has two 2015 releases from New Directions, The Quarry, selections from her uncollected essays, nominated for a National Book Award and including her seminal piece, The End of Art, and a re-issue of her 1993 The Birth-mark, examining the histories of landmark works from Cotton Mather to Emily Dickinson and subsequent American writers.

Walter Benjamin, Herculaneum and Pompeii

Clocktower Radio

A reading of one of the many stories the German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin wrote involving catastrophes or natural disasters. Here, you will find first-hand accounts of the ancient volcanic explosion; witness the perfectly preserved remains (petrified unrest) of people living their final moments; hear the poetry written in ash; and see, scrawled on the walls what appeared to be the last words of a civilization. Benjamin reanimates the daily life of these ancient dwellers through a gorgeously considered forensic urbanism, in a radio piece broadcasted in its original in German for children, and here read in English by artist Corey McCorkle.

Benjamin was an eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, he made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism.

Walter Benjamin’s radio broadcasts (1929 - 1932) were written and read by Benjamin during his colossal research project The Arcades Project, an allegorical look into the birth of modernity in 19th Century Paris. The independent radical publishing house Verso Books has published a nuanced translation of Radio Benjamin, and Clocktower Radio is pleased to present the recorded version of the comprehensive project for the first time in English. Read by New York artist Corey McCorkle, the 29 extant transcriptions will also be annotated with linking principle themes explored in the Arcades Project with the wild variety of subjects Benjamin outlines in these 20 minute stories.

Walter Benjamin, Cagliostro

Clocktower Radio

Follow the most fantastic swindler of the Age of Enlightenment with German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin, in a radio piece broadcasted in its original in German for children, and here read in English by artist Corey McCorkle. Listen as Cagliostro peddles a mix of Masonic and Alchemical nonsense to the aristocracies of Europe, becoming the most sought after charlatan of the 18th Century. Sleight of thought, humor, spiritual cons and prophecies abound here.

Walter Benjamin’s radio broadcasts (1929 - 1932) are a selection of children stories written and read by Benjamin during his colossal research project The Arcades Project, an allegorical look into the birth of modernity in 19th Century Paris. Though the series of broadcasts and the Arcades in general are decisively incomplete, the two enterprises echo one another in content, replete with provocative digressions, and unlikely connections (or "secret affinities").

Walter Benjamin, Gypsies

Clocktower Radio

Magic (once again!), deception, melancholy, and constant persecution, dog German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin's description of the history of the Gypsies of Europe, in this radio piece broadcast in its original for children in German, and read here in English by artist Corey McCorkle. From origin myths to popular ideas about cannibalism, the Gypsies were depicted as idle, and therefore against the moral (historical) imperative to work to be of use. Here mass expulsion and resettlement are inevitable options for the ultimate "other" and, as with most Benjamin stories, they seem to be written just yesterday. This recording also features an amazing musical accompaniment on violin.

Joseph Chaikin, Outtakes

Clocktower Radio

In 1983, off off Broadway pioneer, Joseph Chaikin, produced and starred in four radio plays for WBAI. Collectively, the plays were entitled Night Voices and they aired consecutively at 11:00pm, over the course of two nights. Written by Bill Hart, each play is about the twilight state; the line that is drawn between wake and sleep. While the plays themselves have been lost, the following recording offers a rare opportunity to learn of the content of the plays, as well as a peak into Chaikin's creative process. He is joined by Roger Babb, Ronnie Gilbert and Tina Shepherd. All four of them were members of the company; The Other Theater.

Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003) was a celebrated founder of New York's The Open Theater and The Winter Project. He worked closely with The Living Theater and San Francisco's Magic Theater. As a playwright, actor, and director, he has influenced today's off off broadway productions. Chaikin is perhaps best known for producing and directing Viet Rock and The Serpent. His book, The Presence of The Actor was first published in 1972 by Theatre Communications Group and reprinted in 1991. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into The American Theater Hall of Fame.

Tennessee Williams: Outcry (1975)

Clocktower Radio

Charles Ruas sits down with Tennessee Williams and the director of Williams' later plays, Bill Lynch, to talk about the meaning of success, the zeitgeist of the era, and the arc of Williams' career. A unique and legendary voice in American theater, Williams describes what he sees as the problems in the 1970s, namely, a general withdrawal from responsibility and society. In response, according to Williams, his plays became increasingly dark and solitary, a vision not well received by the theater-going public, but one now recognized as ahead of its time.

Ed Sanders: Tales of Beatnik Glory (1975)

Clocktower Radio

An interview by Charles Ruas with the author of Tales of Beatnik Glory, originally broadcast in 1975 on WBAI-FM.

Richard Foreman (1975)

Clocktower Radio

In this 1975 interview, originally broadcast on WBAI-FM, New York, playwright and director Richard Foreman gives detailed insight into his process with several illustrations from recorded performances at his Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

William S. Burroughs: The Making of Naked Lunch (1975)

Clocktower Radio

Breakfast with Lunch, the focus of a 1975 program produced by Charles Ruas at WBAI-FM in New York. It contains matchless readings by author William S. Burroughs, plus a fascinating discussion led by Allen Ginsberg, and including publisher Maurice Girodias, James Grauerholz, and Carl Solomon discussing the publication of Burroughs' best-known novel, Naked Lunch. An introduction to the influence of Jack Keroac on Burroughs is provided by the remarkable Felicity Mason (aka Anne Cumming), the professed "adoptive" sister of Brion Gysin.