Videos
A Celebration of Kenneth Rexroth [93 min. total]
This event was organized by City Lights Books to celebrate the life and
work of Rexroth and in particular the appearance of Rexroths
Complete Poems, which had just been published by Copper Canyon
Press. It took place February 8, 2003, at the San Francisco Public
Library, Koret Auditorium, with an overflow crowd of more than 500
people. The video was made by my late dear friend Andy Fahrenwald. It
opens with some views of an exhibit of Rexroth books and paintings in
the hallways, then moves into the auditorium, where Paul Yamazaki (City
Lights) introduces the event and the seven speakers: Sam Hamill,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Jane Hirshfield, Ken Knabb,
Terry Tempest Williams, and Robert Hass. The video appears on YouTube in five
parts:
Part 1. Preliminaries,
then Sam Hamill, then Lawrence Ferlinghetti (including a recording of
Rexroth with jazz).
Part 2.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (cont.), then Michael McClure.
Part 3.
Michael McClure (cont.), then Jane Hirschfield, then Ken Knabb.
Part 4.
Ken Knabb (cont.), then Terry Tempest Williams.
Part 5.
Robert Hass.
Interview on Radio Libertaire (Paris) [in French, audio
only, 117 min. total]
When I was in France in fall 2008 I
was invited to be interviewed on Radio Libertaire, an anarchist radio
station in Paris. I usually avoid interviews, but in this case I
accepted because the conditions were very favorable. The interviewer,
Christiane Passevant, had read with interest quite a few of my writings
(in translation) and offered me a two-hour time slot. I invited two of
my friends to join us, Hélène Fleury and François
Lonchampt. Also present was Isabelle Dubois, a representative of
Éditions Sulliver, which had just published
a large volume of my writings in French (Secrets Publics).
Overall the discussion went quite well. I had sufficient time to explain
my experiences and views in some detail as well as to respond to quite a
few questions from Christiane and the three guests, and from a few
listeners who phoned in questions during the program. The interview took
place on October 4, 2008.
Part 1
Part 2
An Evening with Ken Knabb at City Lights [124
min. total]
This event took place January 25, 2011, at City Lights Bookstore in San
Francisco. The host, Peter Maravelis, had repeatedly asked me to do an
event there, and enthusiastically agreed to the idea an extended evening in which
I would recount my discovery of the situationists in 1969 and my
trajectory since that time.
There was an overflow crowd (admittedly the room was not very large) and
quite a few of the attendees were still there when we finally ended the
Q&A after more than two and a half hours. This video (made by Andy
Fahrenwald) appears on YouTube in five parts. The first four parts are
about 30 minutes each. Part 5 runs out after just 3 minutes, though the
event actually continued for another half hour or so.
Part
1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
A talk at the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair [25 min. total]
This short talk plus Q&A took place
April 9, 2011, at the annual San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair in Golden
Gate Park (now the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair). I’ve
had a table there with my own publications for virtually every year
since its origin in the 1990s, but this was the only time I agreed to
give a talk.
Part 1
Part 2
A talk at Occupy Oakland [audio only, 48 min.]
I was invited to give this talk at
Oscar Grant Plaza, the location of the Occupy Oakland encampment, on
October 21, 2011. Not
being miked, I used the Occupy-style “peoples mike” in which the
audience repeated aloud each of my sentences so that everyone could
hear. There was a plan to do a showing of Guy Debords film The
Society of the Spectacle at the same location the following week,
but four days after my talk the Oakland police invaded and destroyed
the whole encampment. Which led to a decision by the Occupy Oakland
general assembly to call for an “Oakland General Strike” (the vote was
1484 to 46). This appeal did not result in an actual general strike, but
on November 2 it
did draw more than 50,000 people and succeeded in shutting down the entire
Port of Oakland for several days. See my articles
Yesterday in Oakland and
Welcome to the Oakland
General Strike.
The Situationists and the Occupy Movement [106 min.
total]
This talk plus Q&A took place at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in
Oakland on February 5, 2012.
For more on this topic, see my article
The Situationists and the
Occupation Movements: 1968/2011.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (The video quality is very erratic in Part 2 and somewhat
erratic in Part 3.)
Reading Rexroth poems
in the Marin County woods [11 min.]
This reading (September 7, 2015) was part of an event celebrating
Rexroth, held not far from the
location of the little abandoned cabin where he wrote many of his most beautiful
nature poems.
David Chadwick
interviews Ken Knabb [139 min.]
David Chadwick manages the huge
Cuke.com website, which archives material
by and about the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki “and those who crossed paths
with him.” He is also the author of the excellent biography, Crooked
Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki and the often
hilarious personal memoir, Thank You and OK! An American Zen Failure
in Japan. He now lives in Bali. In this leisurely Zoom conversation (September 21, 2022) we chatted
briefly about various
aspects of our respective Zen experiences, but mostly I attempted to answer his
questions on what the situationists were all about.
The Secret World of French Songs
This was a 10-session
Zoom series (January-May 2021) in which I presented some of the great French
singers and songwriters of the last two centuries. My presentations took around
90 minutes each. The link leads to the programs for each session, including links to the 150
songs we actually listened to plus many more links to alternative performances,
interviews, film clips, etc., plus links to video recordings of each session.
Exploring the Situationists
This is an ongoing series of Zoom
sessions where I comment on various situationist texts, followed by Q&A.
The sessions are being recorded and posted on YouTube. We recently
finished
going through the Situationist International
Anthology: Revised and Expanded Edition (10 sessions, about two
hours each):
Session 1
(Sept. 10, 2023) Pre-SI texts (SIA pp. 1-43)
Session 2
(Sept. 24) Internationale Situationniste ##1-6 (pp. 47-99)
Session 3
(Oct. 8) I.S. ##7-9 (pp. 100-188) except “Basic Banalities”
Session 4
(Oct. 22) Vaneigem’s “Basic Banalities” parts 1 and 2 (pp. 117-130
and 154-173)
Session 5 (Nov. 5) I.S. #10
(pp. 189-239)
Session 6 (Nov. 19) The
Strasbourg Scandal (pp. 263-273 and 408-429 and 500-510)
Session 7 (Dec. 3) I.S.
#11 (pp. 240-287)
Session 8 (Dec. 17) The May 1968
revolt (pp. 288-325 and 435-457)
Session 9 (Jan. 14, 2024) I.S.
#12 (pp. 326-383)
Session 10 (Jan. 28,
2024) Miscellaneous
Publications and Internal Documents (pp. 387-407 and 430-432 and 461-478)
Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle
This is a
continuation of the above series, this time reading my annotated
translation of Guy Debord’s book The
Society of the Spectacle. In this case we did a slower and
more detailed study. It took us 19 sessions — 15 sessions on the book
itself plus
two sessions viewing and discussing Debord’s film adaptation of his
book, The Society of the
Spectacle (87 minutes), and two sessions viewing and discussing
his final film, In girum imus
nocte et consumimur igni (95 minutes).
Session 1
(March 24, 2024)
Session 2
(April 7)
Session 3
(April 21)
Session 4 (May
5)
Session 5 (May
19)
Session 6
(June 2)
Session 7
(June 16)
Session 8
(June 30)
Session 9
(July 14)
Session 10
(July 28) (Debord’s film of the book, first half)
Session 11 (August 11) (Debord’s
film of the book, last half)
Session 12
(August 25)
Session 13
(September 8)
Session 14
(September 22)
Session 15
(October 6)
Session 16 (October 20)
Session 17 (November 3)
Session 18 (November 17) (Debord’s
final film, first half)
Session 19 (December 1) (Debord’s
final film, last half)
The sessions take place every other Sunday, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and participation is free. Let me know if you’d like to join us.
I also lead a literary discussion group called “Exploring the Classics,” which meets via Zoom at the same time on the alternate Sundays. For more information on those readings and meetings (which are not recorded), click here.
The Old Weird America
This is a 5-session Zoom
series in which I am presenting old-time American folksongs and blues.
Each session is about two hours.
Session 1: Early Country
Songs and String Bands
(October 27, 2024)
Session 2: Field Holler and
Early Blues (November 10)
Session 3: The Depression and
New Country Styles (November 24)
Session 4: More Blues, Jug Bands,
Religious Songs, and Urban Styles (December 8)
Session 5: The Folk Music Revival and
Beyond (December 15)
Video and audio recordings of Ken Knabb. Most of the above videos are posted on YouTube.