Allen Ginsberg(1926-1997)
Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926. Ginsberg's early life was full of struggles such as a mother that was mentally unstable. In 1939 Ginsberg was awarded a scholarship to go to Columbia University where he was admitted in 1940. While at university, Ginsberg met several men that influenced the start of his "New Vision." His new vision was the thought that the truest art was untouched by an outside source, but straight from the heart and expression of the creator. Ginsberg went to San Francisco in 1955 and read his poem, "Howl," in 1955. The poem, and the reading itself, started Ginsberg's popularity. Soon after the publication of the poem, it was censored for how obscene it was. "Howl" did eventually pass the censorship trials, however. Ginsberg went on to protest the Vietnam War and support freedom of speech. In the 1960s and 70s Ginsberg had several more works published and later died in 1997 of hepatitis.
|
Maya Angelou(1928-2014)
Maya Angelou was born on April, 4 1928. Her birth name was Marguerite Johnson. Angelou was an extremely successful woman. She traveled the world and went to Egypt to help edit the only English language news magazine in the Middle East, The Arab Observer. After her time with the previous magazine, she worked with The African Review as the main editor. In 1966 Angelou came back home to the United States. She was appointed for several commissions and then worked for a Professor Reynolds at Wake State University of American Studies. Angelou wrote a poem and presented it for Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Angelou died on May 26, 2014.
|
Frank O'Hara(1926-1966)
Frank O'Hara was born on March 27, 1926. O'Hara was studied the piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He then went to WWII and worked on a US destroyer called US Nicholas as a sonarman. Once O'Hara got back from the war, he went to Harvard and majored in music. After meeting John Ashbery, O'Hara changed his major to English and graduated Harvard in 1950. He then went on to get his Masters Degree at UofM in Ann Arbor. After leaving the University of Michigan, he was hired at the Museum of Modern Art. While at the museum, O'Hara began to take writing more seriously. He became part of the New York School of Poets and was one of the most distinguished poets from the school along with John Ashbery. O'Hara worked a lot with painters to make paintings out of writing poems called "poem-paintings." While away on vacation, O'Hara died in an accident with a sand buggy on July 25, 1966.
|