Search PennSound

Bob Kaufman

page edited by Raymond Foye

PoemTalk #158, Discussing Bob Kaufman's "Suicide," feat. Christopher Stackhouse, Maria Damon, and Devorah Major

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

"Suicide" filmed by Will Combs

used with the permission of Will Combs

Recording (0:45): MP3

Audio provided by A.L. Nielsen, date/location unknown

Complete recording (21:34): MP3

"Jail Poems" (6:40): MP3
"Would You Wear My Eyes" (1:27): MP3
"Hollywood" (4:03): MP3
"Second April" (8:42): MP3

Bob Kaufman, poet: the life and times of an African-American man (1992)

Written and produced by David Henderson; courtesy of Naropa University Audio Archive, David Henderson, and Neeli Cherkovski

Part 1 (57:12): MP3

0:00 jazz intro and comments by George Kaufman, Raymond Foye, Gary Gach, Jerry Kamstra, Jerry Stoll
1:27 Allen Ginsberg speaks about Bob Kaufman
4:25 recording of Bob Kaufman reading from "2nd April" (2:20): MP3
7:02 Nathanial Mackey
10:34 Maria Damon
10:45 narrator gives biographical info about Bob Kaufman
12:05 family life discussed by George Kaufman
15:31 For My Son Parker, Asleep in the Next Room - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
18:53 Eileen Kaufman
20:08 Charles Nilon
21:48 Jerry Kamstra
22:49 Jerry Stoll
23:50 Amiri Baraka
24:54 Abomunist Manifesto - read by Tony Seymour
28:36 side one ends
28:49 side two starts with jazz
29:40 Eileen Kaufman
30:26 Bob Kaufman, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis read Jail Poems from Solitude Crowded with Loneliness
33:11 Jim Johnson
33:58 Jerry Stoll
34:38 Raymond Foye
35:58 excerpt of Kaufman reading more from Jail Poems (2:30): MP3
39:11 Bagel Shop Jazz - read by Susan Cockerall
41:00 Charles Nilon
42:46 Raymond Foye
43:26 Neeli Cherkovski
44:04 Allen Ginsberg
45:45 Walking Parker Home - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
48:27 Charles Nilon comparing Kaufman's poetry to the jazz of Charlie Parker
50:34 excerpt from a poem about Charlie Parker read by Roscoe Lee Brown
51:54 testimonials about Bob Kaufman by unnamed sources (friends)
54:21 Diluted - a recording of Bob Kaufman reading (1:10): MP3

Part 2 (57:04): MP3

0:00 introduction by David Henderson
1:17 opening collage with Simon Alexander, Charles Nilan, and Maria Damon
2:35 Raymond Foye
3:17 Allen Ginsberg
3:41 Eileen Kaufman
4:47 Ted Joans
5:46 Joe Overstreet
7:49 Allen Ginsberg re: Bob Kaufman, Jack Kerouac and Timothy Leary
10:20 Ginsberg, For Allen - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
13:27 Rocky Road - Peter, Paul and Mary
14:53 Eileen Kaufman
16:00 Ancient Rain - recording of Bob Kaufman (0:43): MP3
16:47 Ancient Rain - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
19:28 Raymond Foye
21:10 Tattoo Bob Murphy
23:03 All Hallows Jack-o-Lantern Weather, North of Time - read by Ruby Dee
26:24 Our bending night is ending (1st line) - recording of Bob Kaufman (1:23): MP3
28:10 side ends
29:00 Allen Ginsberg
29:40 Jack Hirschman
29:56 Amiri Baraka
30:31 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
30:39 Eileen Kaufman
32:58 All Those Ships That Never Sailed - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
34:58 Parker Kaufman
36:06 Alix Geluardi
36:36 Parker Kaufman
37:22 Jean Carlisle
38:53 Raymond Foye
40:56 Ancient Rain - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
42:01 Nathaniel Mackey re: Lorca and Bob Kaufman
43:30 Dark man, dark man (1st line) - Roscoe Lee Brown reading Lorca
44:14 Nathaniel Mackey
45:30 Ancient Rain - read by Roscoe Lee Brown
46:32 Lynn Wildey
48:48 QR Hand
49:26 Would You Wear My Eyes - recording of Bob Kaufman (1:20): MP3
50:47 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
52:16 So I wrote this poem from the core of bone (1st line) - by Lynn Wildey
52:47 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
53:20 Jack Micheline
53:46 Narrator closes

Bob Kaufman birthday celebration, San Francisco, 1985

Filmed by Steven S. "Kush" Kushner.

Reading at Malvinas Cafe, San Francisco, December 6, 1974

Video by Horace Washington. Courtesy of Raymond Foye.

Media.SAS direct URL (31:53): MP4
YouTube mirror: External URL

Reading, with a lecture on poetry by Philip Lamantia, KPFA, Berkeley, CA, 1979

Complete recording (50:13): MP3

Reading from The Abomunist Manifesto and interview, 1959

Mirror URL: YouTube courtesy of Raymond Foye

These recordings are available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the estate of Bob Kaufman estate. Recordings used with the permission. Distributed by PennSound.

Inside PennSound