Everything You Need To Know This Week On New York's Art Scene

Beat Memories, The Photos of Allen Ginsburg

[Photo via] Allen Ginsberg is widely recognized as a highly influential writer and poet of the Beat generation, responsible for bringing attention to social causes such as the end of the Vietnam War, gay rights, and for his outspoken support of free speech. Ginsberg's lesser known talent and hobby-- his photographs--have proven to be of equal importance due to the fact that they document Ginsberg's inner circle from 1953-1963, which just so happened to include Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, and William S. Burroughs amongst others. The late Allen Ginsberg eventually gave up photography, instead focusing exclusively on his writing but rediscovered these lost photographs in a dresser drawer in the 1980s. He described the feelings these rediscovered photographs evoked as a  "little shiver of a moment in time preserved in the crystal cabinet of the mind." With his exceedingly detailed foot notes on each photograph, viewers have a chance to acquaint themselves with Ginsberg's New York and the Beatniks that continue to influence us today. Date: Through April 6th Location: Grey Art Gallery, at NYU , 100 Washington St