Ferlinghetti Day

In San Francisco, an Annual Literary Walkabout now takes place every 24th March to celebrate his birthday, beginning at sunrise with a reading of The Changing Light outside his former home. Last year the 1 in 12 club in Bradford hosted their version with a reading of Poetry as Insurgent Art, along with film clips and shared contributions from those gathered. 

This year David Mullin has organised the celebration to take place here at In a Land and we are very happy to host! We’ll begin with a short film about Ferlinghetti, followed by a full reading of Poetry as Insurgent Art (it takes around 15–20 minutes). After a short break, there will be space for anyone who would like to read a favourite Ferlinghetti poem, or share work inspired by him, along with a few clips of Ferlinghetti reading his own poems. There will be wine, nibbles, and poetry in good company.

Booking is free, you can make contributions to the event on the night.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021) was a poet, painter, publisher and lifelong believer in poetry as a public, insurgent art. As founder of City Lights Bookshop in San Francisco, he was famously arrested for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, later acquitted, and went on to become one of the central figures of postwar American poetry. Across a long and remarkable life he published more than twenty collections, served as San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, and remained committed to the idea that poetry should live out in the open air of civic life.