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Ron
Whitehead resume, bio, testimonials
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Visiting
Writer/Professor/Full Time or Adjunct Professor of
Writing/Literature/Humanities/Readings/Performances/FilmWork/
Recording/Editing/Writing/Publishing/Speaking/Producing.
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19 years teaching University of Louisville, St. Catharine College,
Bellarmine University, Spalding University, Jefferson Community College. 23
years lecturing, presenting papers, chairing sessions at national and
international literature symposiums: University of Iceland (Reyjkavik),
University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), University of Braga (Portugal),
Trinity College (Ireland), New York University, Hofstra University,
numerous others. more info included in brief bio (included).
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1982-86
University of Louisville
Louisville , Kentucky. BA English 3.75GPA
1985
University of Oxford
Oxford ’s International Graduate School. 4.0GPA
1990-92
University of Louisville
MA Humanities 4.0GPA
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see brief bio plus testimonials (included)
hundreds of references, and transcripts, available upon request.
also glad to interview via phone, internet, in person.
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Ron Whitehead's brief bio:
Ron
Whitehead is poet, writer, editor, publisher, organizer, scholar, professor.
He grew up on a farm in Kentucky. He attended The University of Louisville
and Oxford University. As poet and writer he is the recipient of numerous
state, national, and international awards/prizes including The All Kentucky
Poetry Prize and The Yeats Club of Oxford's Prize for Poetry. He was
nominated, twice, for The Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Dr. John Rocco (NYC)
nominated Ron for The Nobel Prize in Literature.He was recently inducted into
his high school's (Ohio County High) Hall of Fame, representing his 1968
graduating class.
Ron has taught college/university for 19 years at
The University of Louisville, Spalding University, St. Catharine College,
Jefferson Community College, and Bellarmine University. He has presented numerous
talks, lectures, and writing workshops around the world at colleges,
universities, and institutions which include Trinity College (Dublin,
Ireland), The University of Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland), The University of
Braga (Braga, Portugal), The University of Nijmegen (Nigmegen, The
Netherlands), New York University (New York, New York), Hofstra University
(New York, New York), University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky),
University of New Orleans (New Orleans, Louisiana), and many more.
In 1992 Ron and Kent Fielding founded The Global Literary
Renaissance, a non-profit organization, supporting
the global literary community. Ron was Director of the Global Literary
Renaissance for 14 years.
Ron has produced over 2,000 music and poetry
events throughout Europe and the USA including many 24, 48, 72 & 90 hour
Non-Stop Music & Poetry INSOMNIACATHONs
plus he produced The Official Hunter S. Thompson Tribute (featuring Hunter,
Johnny Depp, Warren Zevon, Roxanne Pulitzer, David Amram, Hunter's mother,
Virginia, & son, Juan, & many others), the London International
Poetry & Song Festival (with Richard Deakin), The New York City
Underground Music & Poetry Festival (with Casey Cyr), The Netherland's
10-day International Meer Dan Woorden Festival (with Jan Pankow), LIVE at THE
RUD Benefit Concert (with Jim James, of My Morning Jacket, and Sarah
Elizabeth), plus many many more. After he produced INSOMNIACATHON 2008 (April
2008) he retired from producing events but has agreed to co-produce the
first ever Storm Generation Festival in Iceland June 18-20, 2010.
Ron has edited and published nearly 2,000 titles including work by His
Holiness The Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter, Seamus Heaney, Jack Kerouac,
David Amram, Diane di Prima, Lucien Stryk, Allen Ginsberg, John Updike, BONO,
Frank Messina, Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Amiri Baraka, Rita Dove, Thomas Merton,
Wendell Berry, Edvard Munch, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Herbert Huncke, James Laughlin, Douglas
Brinkley, Lee Ranaldo, Robert Hunter, Anne Waldman, Ed Sanders, David Minton,
Bob Holman, Cathal O'Searcaigh, Eithne Strong, Theo Dorgan, Jim Carroll,
Casey Cyr, Denis Mahoney, Steve Dalachinsky, Jean Genet, Jan Kerouac,
Christopher Felver, Brother Patrick Hart, Robert Lax, Sarah Elizabeth,
Michael Pollock, Olafur Gunnarsson, and many many others.
Ron's work has been exhibited round the world from
New York City to Louisville to New Orleans to San Francisco and from India to
Czech Republic to Italy to Portugal to Ireland to The Netherlands to Iceland
and beyond. The UN/UNESCO "Poetry On The Peaks" program selected
The Dalai Lama/Ron Whitehead "Never Give Up" message/poem poster as
its theme for 2002. Thousands of copies were donated and shipped to cities,
mountain villages, Buddhist, and other communities, groups, and organizations
round the world. The "Never Give Up" poem has been published in
numerous publications including NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, a book by His Holiness
The Dalai Lama, and many others. Ron's "Never Give Up" poem
can also be found on t-shirts, cards, posters, and banners all over the
world.
For the
past 20 years Ron has been GOing non-stop. He is the author of 19 books
and he has work on more than 25 CDs.
His 19 BOOK titles include:
WESTERN KENTUCKY: Lost & Forgotten, Found & Remembered (with Sarah
Elizabeth)
THE THIRD TESTAMENT: Three Gospels of Peace (with art by Lawrence
Ferlinghetti & David Minton)
BEAVER DAM ROCKING CHAIR MARATHON
THE WANDERER
THE STORM GENERATION MANIFESTO & on parting, the
wilderness poems (with cd companion), 2010 release
4th person singular: THE ADVENTURES of BRAIN MAN
(work in progress)
GROWTH OF THE SOUL: Kentucky, Where Diamonds are Created: I Refuse, Will Not
Bow Down and I Will Never Give Up: an alchemical autobiographical history of
The Global Literary Renaissance, White Fields Press, Published in Heaven, The
Storm Generation, and my life (focus on 1990-2010)(work in progress)
His over 25 CD titles include:
TAPPING MY OWN PHONE
KENTUCKY ROOTS
KENTUCKY: poems, stories, songs
KENTUCKY BLUES
I WILL NOT BOW DOWN
EXTERMINATE NOISE
FROM ICELAND TO KENTUCKY & BEYOND
SWAN BOATS @ FOUR
THE SHAPE OF WATER
THE VIKING HILLBILLY APOCALYPSE REVUE
WALKING HOME
I REFUSE
Ron Whitehead and SOUTHSIDE's SOUTHSIDE LOUNGE
Ron Whitehead and SOUTHSIDE's WE ARE THE STORM
double cd
THE STORM GENERATION MANIFESTO & on parting, the
wilderness poems: audio book recording, (companion to new book, 2010
release)
Ron reads his work with musicians from around the
world, in all genres of music, including David Amram, Iceland's Sigur Ros
& HOH & MEGAS, Tyrone Cotton, Iceland's Michael & Danny Pollock
of UTANGARDSMENN/The Outsiders, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Paul K &
The Weathermen, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Frank Messina & Octopoet
& Spoken Motion, James Walck & The Mind2Hands Symphonia, Vassar
Clemens, Tom House, By The Grace of God, Black Pig Liberation Front, Casey
Cyr, Rich Martin, Jeremy Podgursky & The Pennies, Blowup in Japanese, RB
Morris & Hector Qirko, Scaramongo, Sarah Elizabeth, SOUTHSIDE, The Honey
Highway & numerous others.
Ron's groups have included Voices Without
Restraint, Ron Whitehead's Apocalypse Jam, The Viking Hillbilly Apocalypse
Revue, and outlaw music/spoken word band SOUTHSIDE. He and Sarah
Elizabeth performed and toured together constantly for 5 years.
Ron was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize
in Literature by New York City professor, James Joyce scholar, music critic,
and author of many books, Dr. John Rocco (see letter below).
To
The Nobel Prize Committee,
I am writing you about one of America's
greatest poets. His name is Ron Whitehead and for his entire career he has
written volatile and important verse that has given a new presence to
American poetry. Whitehead's work is in the tradition of the Beat Generation
but also deeply influenced by rock and roll, the legacy of the European
avant-garde from Knut Hamsun to James Joyce, and his own native Kentucky. He
is at the same time a regional and universal writer; Kentucky is his home but
the world is his subject. Whitehead's poetry is a powerful summation of the
American spirit.
I would like to take this time to bring this extraordinary poet to your
attention for consideration for the Nobel Prize in literature. Whitehead's
poetry is exuberant and shocking, delicate and blunt, combative and
sensitive. There is a vital spirituality in his work that questions the
nature of artistic creativity at the same time it embodies it. His work is
profoundly engaged in critiquing the control modern American culture has over
the individual and the planet. The Beaver Dam Rocking Chair Marathon is
a summation of his aesthetics: part Bildungsroman, part rock protest, all
Whitehead white hot poetic energy.
As the profile in this package indicates, Whitehead is a tireless
promoter of poetry and its power to heal the world. To recognize his work is
to recognize the power of the word to resist imperialism, intolerance, and
hate. Whitehead has made American poetry a vehicle for social change and a
power to transform the world...
Thank you for considering this important
American writer.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. John Rocco
Associate Professor of Humanities
SUNY (State University of New York Maritime)
James Joyce scholar John Rocco is the author of The
Nirvana Companion, The Beastie Boys Companion, The Doors Companion, The
Grateful Dead Companion, and other Schirmer Books. He is
completing a volume on James Joyce. His novel Fur was
released in 2005. He is a critic for American Book Review and
numerous other literary and music publications.
Several thousand of Ron's works have been published
round the world in a diverse range of publications (all mediums) from
TRIQUARTERLY (Northwestern University/Illinois) to ARTFORUM (Czech Republic)
to BLUE BEAT JACKET (Japan) to BEAT SCENE (England) to SOUTHERN REVIEW
(Louisiana) to TRIBE magazine (NYC).
Ron has presented over 6,000 readings of his own creative work round the
world.
Ron's work is in museum, library, and private collections around the world.
The University of Louisville Rare Books & Archives, Directed by Delinda
Buie, is the permanent repository for Ron's work (past, present, future).
Four exhibits have been held. A major exhibition, with catalog, is being
planned. Several thousand, of tens of thousands, of items have already been
catalogued.
Many of Ron's poems have been and are being
translated into many languages. For a time Ron was Velocity's (Kentucy's
Courier-Journal) Advice Columnist. He has written for and been featured in a
multitude of publications around the world. In February 2009 Ron was a
featured poet at the International Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua. 130
poets from 50 countries, all 7 continents, participated. He recently returned
from NYC where he completed film work for Ralph Stevens' independent film,
AMAZING SPACE plus he did performances with Frank Messina, David Amram Trio,
Tyrone Cotton, and SOUTHSIDE members Scott Mertz, Andy Cook, and Lee Troutman
at the Cornelia Street Cafe and the Chelsea Hotel.
After his Father's June 2009 death (plus the deaths of 15 friends within 90
days of his Dad's death) Ron entered a state of semi-seclusion to
recover from the grief and to focus on three new books but he will
continue to teach and edit some plus perform and record with musicians
and bands, all genres of music, plus give readings talks performances
round the world plus do more film work.
To book Ron email tmopinsight@yahoo.com or call
502-451-9426 (land) or 502-475-47772 (cell).
When not traveling Ron lives in Kentucky and California. Ron´s official
website, www.tappingmyownphone.com, annually receives approximately one
million hits from more than 80 countries. He is presently looking for a
new webmaster to overhaul and maintain his site. The brilliant Kurt Maddox is
webmaster for Ron's facebook site and facebook fan club.
here are
a few Testimonials regarding Ron Whitehead and his work:
His poetry, prose, and other writings have appeared round the world in a
spectrum of journals, magazines, anthologies, newspapers, posters, CDs,
cassettes, vinyl, chap-books, zines, books, literary, music, films & arts
publications. Below, you will find quotes and testimonials, from folks round
the world, regarding Ron and his work:
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (City Lights, San Fransisco): "Ron
Whitehead is a real visionary!"
Hunter S. Thompson (Colorado): "I have long admired Ron
Whitehead. He is crazy as nine loons, and his poetry is a dazzling mix of
folk wisdom and pure mathematics."
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russia): "Ron Whitehead is a prophet. He is
one of the world's greatest poet prophets. What an inspiring honor to hear
him read here at Granada Nicaragua's International Poetry Festival!"
Cameron Crowe & Nancy Wilson (California): "We love
Ron and Sarah Whitehead's WESTERN KENTUCKY masterpiece...and Sarah
Elizabeth's stunning music...Ron Whitehead is a genius...Ron and Sarah are
quite the inspiring couple..."
David Amram (New York): "Ron Whitehead is already acknowledged by
many of his Elders to be a Major Literary Figure and the epitome of the work
ethic! Ron and I have collaborated, recorded and performed at major festivals
and universities all over the USA and Europe. Ron Whitehead is an
extraordinary motivator who inspires young people to pursue the highest
standards, to work tirelessly and to celebrate the intellect by constant
study of Classic Literature while remaining Creative. At 73, I continue to
learn from him."
Blanca Castellon (Nicaragua): "Ron Whitehead was the hero of our
2009 Granada Nicaragua International Poetry Festival."
Casey Cyr (Connecticut): "Ron Whitehead transends even the
devestatingly hard lessons of our times and speaks to the only true lessons,
the eternal ones. He cuts right through the chaos that comprises our
chattering thoughts. Ron Whitehead asks: Can art matter? Is it merely a gold
exchange for the rich? Art IS the Holy Grail. And at the deepest primal
level, everybody knows it. Only a few, like Ron Whitehead, can perceive it as
clearly and communicate it while in his incarnate human being."
Frank Messina (New York): "Ron Whitehead is one of my closest
allies. He is a man of wisdom and tolerance. Ron and I debate over political
issues, and sometimes he's even right. But, in the end, we're still friends.
There is only one man I want to fight along my side in the trenches of life
and his name is Ron Whitehead. He is one of the last warriors left in
America."
Carolyn Cassady (England): "I had heard people talk about Ron
Whitehead for years so when I heard him read at The Ocean on the last night
of the London International Poetry and Song Festival I understood why. His
poems, and his reading of them, are pure genius."
Annalisa Papaleo (Italy): "Ron Whitehead is an alchemist of
language, a magician of poetry, a King of Words...I am honored to translate
his work into Italian."
John Rocco (New York): "In BEAVER DAM ROCKING CHAIR MARATHON:
fragments of a lost text, Ron Whitehead is 'the great rememberer' and 'the
great experiencer'...a scintillating portrait...a Bildungsroman...in which
each memory becomes charged with his history and the embrace of his
subject...capturing the memory of what Ginsberg calls 'Mortal' America...and
Whitehead's new CD TAPPING MY OWN PHONE is a mercurial collection which
features some of the 'fragments' that appear in the novel."
John Tytell (New York): "With The Declaration of Independence
This Time: Selected Poems 1996-2000, Ron Whitehead has a brave powerful book
and the voice to carry it."
Zen Master Dae Gak (Korea): "Ron Whitehead is Angry tender
hearted Poet lover Who, Ripped open by life's Sharp, diamond caesarean Edge,
Emerges, awake, alive, Shaking blood and tissue. Howling at the, with a shriek,
Morning sun AAAAAGH!!!!!!!"
Theo Dorgan (Ireland): "Ron Whitehead is a one man Atlantic
bridge."
Eimear O'Connor (Ireland): "Ron Whitehead's words travelled at
high speed Along the Liffey and out into the sea...mesmerised By the motion
Of emotion...Something magic Happened over the Winding Stair Above the
streets, Closer to the stars."
Vincent McWilliams (Ireland): "Ron Whitehead's poetry is like a
fast train coming."
David Amram (New York): "At the dawn of the 21st Century our
young people have few role models of distinction and even fewer people close
to their own age to look up to. Ron Whitehead gives hope to our artistic and
intellectual future and gives our young people someone to look up to and
emulate. Having worked with Ron many times, round the world, I can only share
my amazement at his genius-level ability to organize and create memorable
events that make all involved feel inspired to do their best. His own
brilliance as a poet is matched by his dynamism, integrity and ability to
communicate with anybody and everybody. I am honored to work with him anytime
he ever needs me."
Lee Ranaldo (New York): "Ron Whitehead's TAPPING MY OWN PHONE is
superb!"
Michael Pollock (Iceland): "Ron Whitehead is The World Ambassador
of Poetry."
Karel Srp (Czeck Republic): "The ARTFORUM '98 Exhibition of Ron
Whitehead's important work, both his and his work as Director of The Literary
Renaissance, was a big hit and a huge success. It is very important for us to
see, through poetry and art, the situation in USA and round the world.
Through Ron's work we see. Now all his work is in our archives. The people of
Prague can continue to see. We are proud. It is important for us. Thank
YOU!"
Lana Witt (California): "Ron Whitehead is amazing. I've seldom
known poetry to rise to the honesty, stubborness, and energy of what came
charging straight at me in his CD TAPPING MY OWN PHONE."
Frank Messina (New York): "Listening to TAPPING MY OWN PHONE is
like tapping into an oil well of inspiration; a poetic horn of plenty where
the flavor of American political angst and true Kentuckian local color shoots
its way straight to the soul. Ron Whitehead is at least Chaucer's equal. The
BEAVER DAM ROCKING CHAIR MARATHON is a Masterpiece better than THE CANTERBURY
TALES. Three cheers to Ron Whitehead!"
Kevin Ring (England): "Ron Whitehead explodes in a tirade aimed
at pulling down all the garbage that society holds dear: rampant
commercialism, couldn't care lessism. If the President thinks he's got
trouble with Ms Lewinsky then he'd better watch out for Ron as he gives us
the REAL AMERICA."
Frederick Smock (Kentucky): "BEAVER DAM ROCKING CHAIR MARATHON
achieves an urgency and immediacy that is truly poetic."
Jordan Green (North Carolina): "Ron Whitehead is the incantatory,
subversive bard of Kentucky. He is a poet with higher vision and higher
frequency tuning. He has a performance style learned from his Pentecostal
preacher grandfather but which also takes the best from the oral poetic style
of the Beats. Ron is an energy force that encourages articulation and voice,
that makes young people proud to be part of something. His voice cuts through
the rough reality of his western Kentucky coal mining roots and reaches for a
higher cosmic grace. Ron has produced over 400 readings and INSOMNIACATHONs
and has read all over Europe and the USA. At the age of 48, with a family to
support and complete commitment to his craft, Ron Whitehead will get in a car
or on a plane anytime and travel anywhere he's asked to give a reading."
Miguel Moors (Belgium): "Ron Whitehead dissects American Society
with a butcher knife."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (California): "Ron Whitehead, out there in
Kentucky, out there where the tall heroes used to grow, is sowing the
dragon's teeth of new heroics."
Bob Holman (New York): "And now it was like a cyclone hit that
stage - Ron Whitehead is screeding a poem with an 8-piece orchestra toodling
out sounds by Jeremy Podgursky, amazing, high energy, a battle for
soul!"
Anastasios Kozaitis (New York): "Ron Whitehead is the most
engaged poetry activist in the United States of America!"
Al Aronowitz (New York): "An autobiographical gem that marks
compassion and defiance as the touchstones of heroic myth in the
coming-of-age of a young man in the western Kentucky coal fields. Ron
Whitehead is one of the greatest poets of our time."
Paul McDonald (Indonesia): "Ron Whitehead has the gift of
perceiving the divine in the ordinary. His work is always at least exciting
if not magical. It is simultaneously hard-bitten, stark and urban while
containing a gentle, pastoral lyricism all of which is always compelling. His
work is a dharma gate that must be entered, a magnificent Zen koan where the
question and answer lie hidden in the experience."
Rene Hendrix (The Netherlands): "William S. Burroughs and Ron
Whitehead, in a series of dreams, taught me how to save the world."
Casey Cyr (Connecticut): "Ron Whitehead has been working so hard
all his life, has climbed the equivalent of a hundred Mount Everests for
poetry, music, integration, inclusion, non-specialization, LOVE and the
advancement of humankind. No one else who I know has the endurance and
capacity and generosity of spirit (except for David Amram who shares these
qualities) to achieve what he is achieving. Ron is clearly chosen for the
work that he is doing, and it is a ray of clarity and grace that shines from
his being. HIS GIANT HEART IS SINGING!"
Jan Pankow (The Netherlands): "Ron Whitehead's poems are a
magnetic field of poetry energy: encounters, viewpoints, and facts of life
mingling with emotions, dreams, and visions."
Robert Lax (Greece): "Ron Whitehead's "Moxley and
Eirene" worked its way into one of my just-before-waking dreams last
night. The whole story. And yes, naturally I'm ready to endorse all he says
in I Will NOT BOW DOWN, too!"
Douglas Brinkley (Texas): "Ron Whitehead is one of the most
exciting poets in America. Poet and literary activist, he is one of the great
poets of his generation."
Tenzin Geyche Tethong, Secretary to His Holiness The Dalai Lama
(India): "Ron Whitehead, His Holiness The Dalai Lama thanks you and
offers his blessing and permission for you to create a poster of his message
to you which you have written in the form of a poem. I would like to express
my personal appreciation to you. Your poem for of His Holiness's message is
extremely powerful and moving. I am confident that it will inspire
many."
Robert Hunter (California): "Ron Whitehead's energy and important
work never fail to amaze me!"
Diane di Prima (California): "Ron Whitehead, Fellow traveller
riding the winds of change between worlds, in the thick of the creative
process, Bon voyage! I enjoyed EVE AND THE OPHIDIANS. "White
Horses" is really strong!"
Bob Holman (New York): "Spoken word at its purest and most
fulfilling. Ron's combination of full drawl, magnolia sweet and Wendell
Berry's Mad Farmer's blue hot rage, vitally fashions a new post in the
American ear."
Jim Carroll (New York): "Love, Angelic Orders, and Blessings on
Ron Whitehead's good work!"
David Amram (New York): "There were over 300 poets and musicians.
Ron Whitehead was the highlight of the New York City festival. When he read I
was knocked out! I marveled at the talent he possessed! He captures the
spirit of the South in his poetry!"
Eithne Strong (Ireland): "Ron Whitehead's dazzling energetic
work, his poetry and his prose never cease to impress and astonish!"
Allen Ginsberg (New York): "Ron Whitehead is energetic
Bodhisattvic poetic spirit! Happy to see and read so much poetry
energy!"
Harper Tobin (Washington, D.C.): "Ron Whitehead's BEAVER DAM
ROCKING CHAIR MARATHON is no cheesy nostalgia trip. Anyone familiar with
Whitehead's work knows better. He gives achingly real portraits of Beaver
Dam's inhabitants, offering up the disturbing as well as the beautiful, the
ugly as well as the quaint. His style shifts from page to page always
capturing the reader, evoking the spirit of defiance and hope that is the
heart of this literary treasure...Why isn't Ron Whitehead already a household
name?! His TAPPING MY OWN PHONE is a gem. Ron reads as if any breath could be
his last. He captures the world in all its beauty, corruption, and potential.
I cannot recommend his work highly enough!"
Joe Slavin (Kentucky): "Ron Whitehead is the most extraordinary
teacher-scholar it has been my great good fortune to know over a career
spanning thirty seven years. His success in encouraging students, to express
themselves and grow as students, is unrivalled."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (California): "Ce Ron Whitehead
est un brave type! Il a ecrit un poem autobiographique que est epatant...sur
San Francisco et un certain fer-ling-g hetti...Qui est? Ron Whitehead is Bodhisattva in
Kentucky!"
Seamus Heaney (Ireland): "Ron Whitehead, the only begettor of all
this, is here for good!"
Colin Cooper (England): "Ron Whitehead lives at 100 miles an hour
judging from his book of poetry...like Ferlinghetti...he's a rabble rouser
and wildly romantic and we need plenty of those...the book is illustrated by
full colour paintings by Ferlinghetti...Fit him alongside Gary Snyder for wit
and insight...certain to shake up the old guard."
Bob Edwards (Washington D.C.): "I LOVE Ron Whitehead's "The
Coal Miner(I & II)" and "Moxley and Eirene!"
Denis Mahoney (Rhode Island): "These past months I have read Ron
Whitehead's BLOOD FILLED VESSELS RACING TO THE HEART: Beyond Chaos is The
Ocean of Consciousness several times. What a remarkable work it is! It's
subtle (and not too) back and forth gestures and movements and openings and
its Placement! I wish he would continue this work! This is the direction that
people need to See towards, be, at least, opened to. Thank You Ron Whitehead
for The Work!"
Danny O'Bryan (Kentucky): "The Great White Light, Whitehead that
is, swept over The College last night with a round of passionate posey mined
directly from his ever raucous life. Mentioning notables like Amiri Baraka
and The Dalai Lama - illustrious heroes many of the role-model-starved
students probably never heard of - the poet quickly had them under his spell.
The man, who always wears his life on his sleeve for everyone to gawk at,
flexed his tattoo covered arms at the scribes "I might be skinny but
look at those muscles!" and spit out tales of Kentucky rocking chair
competitions and wild family antics that made "Do You Want To Be A
Millionaire" look life watching paint dry. Certainly all present learned
an important lesson: It doesn't hurt to celebrate life in all its painful and
joyful manifestations!...Ron Whitehead, a virtual P.T. Barnum of Poetry, is
on a one-man crusade to change the consciousness of the world through poetry
and music...Whitehead and his non-porfit organization The Literary
Renaissance launched a series of multimedia INSOMNIACATHONs (Temporary
Autonomous Zones): 48-hour marathons of poetry and music and art and film
(all the Arts), similar to Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters minus the bus,
attracting large audiences and worldwide attention...This led Whitehead to
take his traveling magic mystery theatre on the road to New York City and New
Orleans (where the TIMES-PICAYUNE named his INSOMNIACATHON 1996 "Arts
Event of The Year") and The Netherlands and numerous other cities states
and countries...Never one to separate art from show biz or politics (or
newcomers from old-timers) Whitehead assembled an odd cast of characters for
his Hunter S. Thompson "This is Your Life" Tribute which the NEW
YORK TIMES called "a beautiful literary last waltz." The event
included actor Johnny Depp, musician Warren Zevon, socialite Roxanne
Pulitzer, historian Douglas Brinkley, world musician composer David Amram,
the Sheriff of Pitkin County (Aspen), former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane,
Hunter's Mother Virginia, his son Juan, and a host of others including a
bluegrass band. Everyone at the SRO event closed out the night standing
singing "My Old Kentucky Home."
Casey Cyr (Connecticut): "I got to know Ron Whitehead's I WILL
NOT BOW DOWN: Selected Poems 1990-1995 well and from it I feel an
understanding for some of what Ron has been doing in the world. The
physicality of which is astonishing - but that doesn't even compare with what
kind of alchemy is happening on the mental levels. Ron Whitehead is Shaman
and Shamas (the candle that lights other candles) contributing to, directing,
promoting, integrating, expanding, and possibly healing the consciousness of
an artistic body of thought that sure does need help to go to the next level,
which I believe has something to do with the heart region. And if I might
prophesize, I think that Ron will be seen as one of the great poets of our
generation, which I believe spans about 50 years. The kids of tomorrow's
wasteland are really going to need him. Just like we need Patchen and
Kerouac. Those guys changed and saved my life."
John Tytell (New York): "Ron Whitehead reminds me of Corso...early
Yeats in the Celtic Twilight...Ferlinghetti...Ginsberg...spontaneous
transcription emerging in a tumultuous rush...infused with Whitehead's belief
in the magical transformations implicit in poetry, with the music of the poem
serving as chant, incantation, ultimately pagan prayer...the same can be said
for the poetry rants (Insomniacathons) Whitehead has been organizing around
the country, non-stop marathon readings."
David Amram (New York): "The first time I heard Ron Whitehead
read I felt what I imagine those who heard Abraham Lincoln deliver The
Gettysburg Address felt."
Thomas Nord (Kentucky): "Ron Whitehead eats, sleeps, and breathes
poetry."
Michael Dean Odin Pollock (Iceland): "The London International
Poetry & Song Festival's response to Ron Whitehead's I WILL NOT BOW DOWN
was Incredible POWERFULL it felt like a bomb hit The Ocean...people were
yellin, clappin, sayin YEAH others riveted wide eyed to their seats...i stood
at the back of the room up on some stairs to get an eagle eye view of this
poem which I consider along with LEAVES OF GRASS by Walt Whitman and HOWL by
Allen Ginsberg and THANKSGIVING PRAYER by William S. Burroughs to be one of
the GREAT American poems of All Times. I WILL NOT BOW DOWN and ALL ALONG THE
WATCHTOWER capture the voice/heart/spirit of later 20th Century and on better
than anything I've heard!"
Nick Obis (Ohio): "Ron Whitehead, I thank you and Quincey
Troupe for headlining the University of Dayton's 2nd Annual Literature
Conference, 2002. Friday evening was nothing short of astounding - certainly
like nothing my students had ever heard! I heard so many wonderful comments
from them in the following days and weeks about all the various aspects of
your performance, with your group The Viking Hillbilly Apocalypse Revue. I
too can still hear the Icelandic rapping, the ambient music, and the powerful
words; it was a staggering, moving experience; I don't think I have ever seen
anyone, anywhere, break dance at a poetry reading! But what moved me more
than the poetry and music was your patience, kindness, and understanding. I
was so nervous before the festival, and so relieved by your sympathy and
easygoingness. You are truly a remarkable person with a remarkable group.
Thanks for teaching me to "never give up!"
Denis Mahoney (Rhode Island): "Ron Whitehead has the goods and is
the last and forward maker of the fire breather preacher with the text
written new across the starry night. I can picture him reading poems with
snakes crawling out of his mouth and nostrils, like those maniacs who work
the snakes for Jesus, turning to medusa flames, the fork filled flavor flick
fuck tongue is two words split into a thousand pieces of black and white sand
and delivered like a Sioux death chant, a new ghost dance to live and rise
out of the ashes. Ron's word is poet breath, new creation out of decay,
intentions are color worlds, filled with color, every tint is blow breath
glass and I keep coming back to his nostrils flared like John Brown in
Kansas, hard muscle break tracks, or soft glow of love he is able to bring
the rage round to snake crazy snake soul sonnets to orpheus, our brother
Rilke Flower-muscle that slowly opens back the anemone to another
meadow-dawn, until her womb can feel the polyphonic light of the sonorous
heavens pouring down is prophecy and vision blast bleak and we all stand
naked against the capitalist relation that has come to encompass existance
and Ron as new prophet stands against that as strong as John Brown, Rilke,
just a neck down the vision ladder from our kooky Dada Queen Baroness Elsa
von Freytag-Loringhoven and is exactly what is needed. I give Ron the world
in his breath."
Tom House (Nashville): "That's a wild and fierce look on the
cover of Ron Whitehead's new I Will Not Bow Down CD, and that's a wild and fierce
picture of him there on the inside, and that's a wild and fierce
performance/production he presents. I was not prepared. Finally got back home
and settled in here last night put it on and blew my head right from the
start. Old favorite, "Tapping My Own Phone," the music is like the
subconscious of the mind mouthing those feverish thoughts. "4th Person
Singular" a favorite as well. Not sure if I've heard that one before.
"Raven Hair And Turquoise" and "Comes Night And Wind"
both great. The music never gets in the way of the words and, as in the very
best one to me "Gimme Back My Wig," the whole becomes way more than
the components, damn almost like rock and roll - and in many ways this feels
as much like a "band" CD as it does a "spoken word" one.
And I think Ron paces it like one. That's just something always important to
me, almost like a set, and Ron is a master at that. He couldn't end it more
personally, poetically, beautifully than with "You Grow Wild In My
Heart." I Will Not Bow Down is definitely a masterful work and I
congratulate Ron and all who perform on it. I'll be giving this guy some
hardcore listening these days to come. "
Dan Roberts (KZYX Radio, California): "TAPPING MY OWN PHONE is
the most amazing CD of poetry I've heard!"
August Highland (California ): "Ron Whitehead is The Dalai Lama
of the literary world."
Frank Messina (New York ): "I've seen thousands blinded by the
white light, halos and fractal geometry of Ron Whitehead. I've seen
tundra-demons, geothermal genies, naysayers forever turned to stone by that
Kentucky 'Bone Man'. And yes, I've seen Ron Whitehead levitate over stages 3,
4 and 5,000 miles from Kentucky, held up high by coal mine spirits, red wine
and Buddha at the palms of his feet."
Jean Ritchie (New York): "Kentucky, by Sarah Elizabethth and Ron
Whitehead, is a stunning CD. Sarah and Ron both did a beautiful job."
Dr. Joe Slavin (Kentucky): "Kentucky, by Sarah Elizabeth &
Ron Whitehead, is a stunning piece of work, beautiful in both sound and
heart."
Tommy Gaffney (Oregon): "Spending time with Ron
Whitehead a few years back changed my life. The whole damn
experience, from the wine-soaked meeting in his living room to the
bourbon-infused book signing, he so graciously hosted, is still with me
everyday. Not sure how to repay him for all that. And I
appreciate the email updates on his mad adventures. I open the ol’
yahoo account every morning hoping for more
news. What can I say, he's an inspiring man. And I’ve been
spreading the word about his work around Portland,
Oregon. In fact, I currently volunteer to host a small writers
group (in my cramped little living room), and we discussed Ron's Tapping
My Own Phone as our first “assignment.” We also listened to my
copies of “I Will Not Bow Down” and “The Viking Hillbilly
Apocalypse Revue." The overall theme for the session was
“this is how this shit is done.” In a word, Ron
Whitehead's influence continues to cross mountain ranges that ain’t used
to being shown up. Thanks Ron for being you, my friend."
Casey Cyr (Connecticut): "Ron Whitehead's new CLOSING TIME CD is
magical, radical inspiration, stark truth, gentle beauty. It portrays the
human experience completely. The flame reflected in four generations, all
together reveal the purity of oneness."
David Amram (New York): "Ron Whitehead's 'The Sound of Snowflakes on
Christmas Eve' and 'Old Blue Got Run Over by A Coal Truck on Christmas' are
right up there with Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL and Dylan Thomas' A
CHILD'S CHRISTMAS in WALES. Not one word could/should be changed. They are
classics! I have always loved Ron Whitehead's spirit and generosity as well
as his work...These stories are like the late paintings of Matisse, and
Richard Strauss' last art songs, where they both turned to simplicity and
clarity when in their prime. Ron's stories/poems should be read at The White
House, if we get a President who knows where the South is located and
understands the poetry of the lives of everyday people and the beauty of
family life as well as the magic of Snow in the South...Ron's work is right
up there with Mark Twain...It transcends politics. His work should be read in
classrooms, as children's stories, Southern Studies, poetry classes, church reading
groups...His work can reach the whole world...His work is way Beyond Beat!!
Ron Whitehead's work is lyrical, touching, and perfectly written AND SO
REFRESHING...I'll be glad to write a Forward or Introduction to any of his
books anytime... Nobody is doing what Ron Whitehead is doing, especially in
his newest works...They are 100% Whitehead."
Dennis Kirtley (Morocco): "I am all about music. I think music. I sleep
it. I eat it. It's just in me. And not just my own music - also the music of
great composers. I know many symphonies by heart, great jazz compositions,
note for note. As I was reading Ron Whitehead's poems last night, music was
playing in my head and it wouldn't stop. It was the score of "Rhapsody
in Blue" by Gershwin. The brainscreen image was that of a train,
streaming forceful and unstoppable through the countryside. This is the sense
Ron Whitehead's poetry and person brings to me. I thank him for being
him!"
Gui Stuart (Kentucky): "Ron Whitehead is the greatest living
writer...and he is still struggling to pay the bills so how can I hope for
anything more than to write...writing is an unnatural act...but it is not any
more unnatural than working in an office or talking on a cellphone...and in
some strange ways it is the most natural act of all...being human feels like
an unnatural act in these trying times of fascism...the absurdity of fascism
is everywhere but I don't want to live like that and I sure as hell don't
want to write like that...I owe Ron Whitehead more than I can ever repay...he
has taught me that failure is nothing and that it is okay to fail as long as
I write what I feel and know...and I'm gonna continue, just like Ron does,
regardless of whether I ever get published...I'm gonna continue to test my
own limits and probe my own humanity...I would love to make some money to
live on and be able to start a printing press with Ron someday but that is
not why I write...I write to try and redeem my own soul for myself...that is
why I write...I write out of some alien innate gnostic urge to express the
conflict of humanity that is in me and in all of us...that is why I
write...they can't beat us...Ron Whitehead proves that every day...they can't
take our souls from us...Ron Whitehead reminds us of that in his writing and
in his life...they can lie and cheat and steal and even kill us but they'll
never take our souls...Ron Whitehead reminds us of that in all he says and
does...Ron Whitehead reminds us that no matter what happens Never Give
Up."
Paul K (Detroit/NYC/Kentucky): "Ron Whitehead is America's greatest
living poet."
We Are THE STORM GENERATION!!!!!!!
www.tappingmyownphone.com
email tmopinsight@yahoo.com
cell 502-475-7772
We Are
THE STORM GENERATION!!!!!!!
www.tappingmyownphone.com
“For an
average man, the world is weird because if he’s not bored with it, he’s at
odds with it. For a warrior, the world is weird because it is stupendous,
awesome, mysterious, unfathomable. A warrior must assume responsibility for
being here, in this marvelous world, at this marvelous time.”
Don Juan
Journey to Ixtlan [Castaneda] www.tappingmyownphone.com
We Are THE STORM GENERATION!!!!!!!
“For an
average man, the world is weird because if he’s not bored with it, he’s at
odds with it. For a warrior, the world is weird because it is stupendous,
awesome, mysterious, unfathomable. A warrior must assume responsibility for
being here, in this marvelous world, at this marvelous time.”
Don Juan
Journey to Ixtlan [Castaneda] www.tappingmyownphone.com
We Are THE STORM GENERATION!!!!!!!
www.tappingmyownphone.com
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