Earliest Known Recordings of Charles Bukowski to be Premiered During 'Radio Beats,' a New Sound Performance by Pacifica Radio Archives Director Brian Deshazor Set for Oct. 26 & 27, 8PM, at NYC's Rapture Cafe

Earliest Known Recordings of Charles Bukowski to be Premiered During 'Radio Beats,' a New Sound Performance by Pacifica Radio Archives Director Brian Deshazor Set for Oct. 26 & 27, 8PM, at NYC's Rapture Cafe

ALLEN GINSBURG'S ORIGINAL 1956 BROADCAST OF 'HOWL' AND RARE RECORDINGS BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI, ANNE SEXTON AND OTHERS ALSO TO BE FEATURED

Event is one month prior to Pacifica's major national fund drive, 'Sounds That Changed The World,' on Nov. 27

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27, 2007 at 8PM, "Radio Beats," a new sound performance by Pacifica Radio Archives (PRA) Director Brian DeShazor will make its debut at Rapture Cafe in New York City's East Village. The two-night run will mark the 21st century premiere of recently discovered recordings that are the earliest known in existence of legendary Los Angeles-based poet Charles Bukowski. Via extremely rare recordings, Radio Beats will also feature the voices of other seminal American poets including Anne Sexton, Beat-era godfather Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Beat icon Allen Ginsberg. The performances are free and open to the public; Rapture Cafe is located at 200 Avenue A (between 12 & 13th), New York City, NY 10009.

The Bukowski recordings were first broadcast on KPFK/Los Angeles in 1962, and feature him reading from his first book of poems. Unearthed in early '07 as part of a critical PRA preservation and access project funded by the National Endowment For The Arts, the tapes were in such poor condition that they required months of restoration at the Safe Sound Archive preservation facility in Philadelphia before they could be heard. The Huntington Library in Pasadena, where many of Bukowski's manuscripts are housed, has provided scholarly verification that PRA's find -- now among their over 50,000 historic archived tapes -- is the oldest known recording of the author. Previously, a 1966 tape held that distinction. The recording of Ginsberg performing "Howl" is equally momentous, representing the first-ever broadcast version of the Beat masterpiece, originally aired on Pacifica's KPFA-FM/Berkeley in 1957. Pacifica recently presented a 50th anniversary webcast of that currently-censored-for-broadcast reading.

"Consider the mainstream landscape of radio and media in 1962," says DeShazor, who has been PRA's Director since 2001. "The idea of Charles Bukowski on a public broadcast was unheard of -- but Pacifica has always given attention to things no one else was recognizing, and therefore has been influential in connecting like-minded communities of people. And for Pacifica audiences who'd already heard "Howl" broadcast in 1957, Bukowski didn't sound that outrageous. It's my hope that Radio Beats will highlight the importance of poetry and cultural programming on the public airwaves, their influence on the Beat generation and Pacifica's legacy of fearless innovation."

Pacifica Radio was founded in 1949 by former commercial broadcaster Lewis Hill, a Quaker and conscientious objector (WWII) whose mission was to create a new kind of radio, 100% listener-supported and sponsor-free (pre-dating NPR), providing a safe haven for artistic experimentation, creative expression and alternative views. Beginning with KPFA-FM in Berkeley, CA, the network added four stations over the next three decades: WBAI/NYC, KPFK/Los Angeles, WPFW/Washington D.C. and KPFT/Houston. Renowned as a chronicler of social justice movements and profound cultural change, Pacifica stations have consistently embraced the arts, often providing the only forum for cutting-edge and classical endeavors, and put listeners in earshot of the ideas of leaders, activists and thinkers who've shaped our political and cultural landscape.

Pacifica Radio Archives (PRA) and its inventory of 50,000 plus recordings dating back almost sixty years is considered by many historians and scholars to be among the most important audio collections in the world. Many of the tapes in this one-of-a-kind library are deteriorating rapidly and urgently in need of rescue.

PRA runs a number of preservation and access projects, both ongoing and cyclical, completely funded by donations and grants. Next month, on Tuesday, November 27, all five Pacifica radio stations will pre-empt regular programming to simulcast a 19-hour national fund drive titled "Pacifica Radio Archives: Sounds That Changed The World." Specially selected programming will address the message of "Correcting The Historic Record," and cover the arts, politics and far reaching social movements.

Leading up to that, Radio Beat at NYC's Rapture Cafe on Oct. 26-27 will be an extraordinary way to experience the cultural significance and world-rocking sounds of the Pacifica Radio Archives.

         For more information on Pacifica Radio Archives, log on to                    http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/         For more information on Pacifica Radio Network, log on to                          http://www.pacifica.org/  

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Pacifica

CONTACT: Meghan Helsel, +1-626-585-9575, meghan@jensencom.com, for
Pacifica

Web site: http://www.pacifica.org/

---

Profile: International Entertainment