Beat happenings March 24, 2011: Check out these terrific pictures by Gordon Ball of “Ginsberg &; Beat Fellows” from 1967-1997. Mostly the pics document our hero-poets in decidedly domestic, non-heroic situations. Our favorite is naked Ginsberg in a leg cast, apparently singing Blake. Of course. by Poetry News

Richard Prince loses copyright lawsuit; ordered to destroy paintings March 24, 2011: Appropriation artist Richard Prince has been ordered to destroy paintings worth millions of dollars after a court ruled that the work violates copyright, according to The Guardian. The paintings, which are “reworkings” of photographs of Rastafarians by French photographer Patrick Cariou, feature the addition of “spotches” and other [...] by Harriet Staff

Happy 92nd birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti March 24, 2011: In 1919, you were a spring baby. by Poetry News

‘No Deal’ for Google book settlement, but plenty of chances to play again March 23, 2011: When Google settled their book scanning case with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers for $125 million a few years ago, all sides were pretty happy with the deal. Google would get to index the 15 million books it had already scanned in partnerships with university libraries, and authors and publishers would get some [...] by Harriet Staff

Treme turns to local poet to capture post-Katrina New Orleans March 23, 2011: The Times-Picayune talks with Gian Smith who is featured reciting his poem "O Beautiful Storm" in a new promo for the HBO show Treme. Smith now hosts an open mic at The McKenna Museum of African American Art, but it was Katrina that first made him turn to poetry. In both the poem and his interview, he describes scraping the residue off the [...] by Poetry News

Copyright as infringement March 23, 2011: The Millions features an interview with artist and copyright lawyer Alfred Steiner on the present and future of copyright. Steiner's own work plays with the boundaries of originality, and he suggests that copyright, as it stands, does some disservice to the individual artist because it doesn't allow for imitation, and imitation is an affirmation [...] by Harriet Staff

The writing of music and the music of writing March 23, 2011: Composer Gary Barwin is writing new series of posts for Lemon Hound, “Music for Writers.” The posts are thoughtful meditations on the relationship between text, speech, song and music in a particular composer’s work. This week Barwin focuses on Luciano Berio: Perhaps Berio's most famous piece is the extraordinary Sinfonia for orchestra [...] by Harriet Staff

Will lil’ books kill the Kindle? Probably not. March 23, 2011: The Melville House blog posted on the “flipback,” a new small book format aimed at commuting urbanites. Flipbacks are small books that open vertically and have a “special spine” that allows the book to fall open easily. It also features very thin pages, so that a small book formatted for more pages than it’s larger edition still fits in [...] by Harriet Staff

The Making of This Part II March 23, 2011: ('This' At the Chocolate Factory) Or: on writing text for K.J. Holmes’s “This is Where we Are (or take arms against a sea of troubles)” Performed at The Chocolate Factory, L.I.C NY, March 9-12, 2011 Performed by: Jodi Bender, Keith Biesack, K.J. Holmes, Marin Sander-Holzman, Kathy Westwater, Devika Wickremesinghe. Music performed by: [...] by Julie Carr

Put your spine into it for National Poetry Month March 22, 2011: On the blog of the Association for Library Services to Children, Travis Jonker has put out an unusual call for submissions for National Poetry Month: book spine poetry. Last year, inspired by artist Nina Katchadourian, I tried my hand at book spine poetry and came away convinced that this was just the sort of thing that kids would take to. I [...] by Harriet Staff