Ira Cohen
Ira Cohen (February 3, 1935 – April 25, 2011) was an American poet, publisher, photographer and filmmaker.
Cohen lived in Morocco and in New York City in the 1960s, he was in Kathmandu in the 1970s and traveled the world in the 1980s, before returning to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. Cohen died of kidney failure on April 25, 2011.[1] Ira Cohen's literary archive now resides at the
Early life
Cohen was born in 1935 in the
Morocco
In 1961, Cohen took a Yugoslavian freighter to Tangier, Morocco where he lived for four years. Before settling in Tangier, he crossed over to Spain's Costa del Sol and stayed for a spell with friends in Torremolinos. (Cohen's early sojourns in certain European cities, including London and Paris, were as part of a return trip he made up from Morocco a little later on.) In Tangier Cohen edited and published GNAOUA, a literary magazine devoted to exorcism and Beat-era writings (prose and poetry), introducing the work of Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse and others. GNAOUA also featured Jack Smith and Irving Rosenthal. Cohen also produced Jilala, field recordings of trance music by a sect of Moroccan dervishes made by Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin. The original 1965 LP record was reissued in 1998 by Baraka Foundation/Mystic Fire as a CD.
Return to New York
Cohen returned to New York in the mid-1960s. There he published The Hashish Cookbook (Gnaoua Press, 1966), which had been written in Tangier at Brion Gysin's suggestion by Cohen's then-girlfriend Rosalind, under the
Travels in the 1970s
In company with former Living Theatre member
Amsterdam
In early 1964, Cohen visited Amsterdam (during the same trip up from Tangier when he arranged for the printing of Gnaoua in Antwerp, Belgium). He befriended writer Simon Vinkenoog, who would later translate many of Cohen's writings into Dutch. Ira was also in Amsterdam in 1974, having visited Paris and the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky with an intention to involve his partner, Petra Vogt, in Jodorowsky's forthcoming film Dune. Unfavorably received, he traveled to Amsterdam, again in the company of Simon Vinkenoog, Louise Landes Levi - poet, musician & translator with whom he would later collaborate on many projects – and Gerard Bellaart (Cold Turkey Press - Rotterdam, publisher of Burroughs, Bailes, Pound et al.), who became Ira's first publisher in the West & a lifelong friend, as was Levi. However his most continuous Amsterdam period began in the spring of 1978. It was then that he met Caroline Gosselin, a French girl who was making and selling life masks at the Melkweg (Milky Way) multimedia center. She and Cohen expanded this into Bandaged Poets - a series of papier-mâché masks of dozens of well-known poets that he subsequently photographed. He also reconnected with Eddie Woods, whom he had first met in Kathmandu in 1976. Woods, who co-founded Ins & Outs Press with Jane Harvey, was preparing to launch Ins & Outs magazine. Cohen's work appeared in every issue and he regularly served as a contributing editor. He performed at the first of Benn Posset's long-running One World Poetry festivals, P78. Cohen (and Gosselin) lived in Amsterdam for the next three years; and even after leaving he made several return visits to the city, often staying for long spells. Ins & Outs Press, which had already published postcards of the Bandaged Poets series, produced three limited-edition Kirke Wilson silkscreen prints of the photographs, including those of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.[4] His film Kings with Straw Mats was also edited, in collaboration with Ira Landgarten, at Ins & Outs.[5] In September 1993 Cohen returned to Amsterdam from New York to participate in a Benn Posset-organized tribute to Burroughs, along with Woods, the American writer William Levy, the German translator & publisher Udo Breger, and others.
Cohen further developed a close association with the artists colony village of Ruigoord (eight miles west of Amsterdam) and is one their very few non-Dutch trophy holders.[6]
Second return to New York
In 1981, Cohen again returned to New York, and moved in with his mother in an Upper West Side apartment. In 1982 he married Carolina Gosselin, and they had a daughter, Lakshmi Cohen, before divorcing in 1989.[1]
Cohen continued to travel during the 1980s, making trips to Ethiopia, Japan, and back to India, where he documented on film the great Kumbh Mela festival, the largest spiritual gathering on the planet, in the film Kings with Straw Mats.[7] In the latter part of the decade Synergetic Press published On Feet of Gold, a book of selected poems.[8]
Cohen also worked as a contributing editor of Third Rail, a review of international arts and literature based in Los Angeles.
Publications and exhibitions
In the 1990s, Cohen met with increasing international recognition as his poems were published in England by Temple Press under the title Ratio 3: Media Shamans Along with Two Good Poet Friends, the friends being
The '90s also introduced an extremely inspired dynamic and prosperous period of collaborations with Musician/Composers Sylvie Degiez and Wayne Lopes with the creation of "CosmicLegends", an improvisational music theater group, resulting in the world premiere of Angus Maclise's ORPHEO staged at The Kitchen NYC.[10] Billed as an Akashic Event, the name was changed to ORFEO:The $500 Opera to reflect the sparse budget made available by the Kitchen. For the next 20 years Cohen was a regular collaborator and member of Cosmiclegends, along with Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov, Wayne Lopes, Rashied Ali, Taylor Meade, and Louise Landes Levi, all contributing to the larger-than-life performances conceived by Swiss/American composer Sylvie Degiez: "Let the Beast Scream", "Devachan and the Monads", "The Moody Moon" and more.
In May 1995, Cohen edited an Akashic Issue for Broadshirt, a magazine on a T-shirt designed by Phyllis Segura, with more than 20 contributors, including Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, Gaerad Melanga, Judith Malina, Louise Landes Levi, and others.
In 1994,
In the 2000s (decade), Cohen gave a number of readings in New York City, including a collaboration with the musical group Sunburned Hand of the Man.
Cohen was a participating artist in the Whitney Biennial 2006, "Day for Night", with two back-lit transparency photographs, Jack Smith as the Norebo, Prince of the Venusian Munchkins, and The Magician from the Grand Tarot.
In May 2007, Cohen was featured in performance Georg Gatsas' Process VI - FINAL exhibit at the
In October 2007, an exhibit of Cohen's portrait photographs Hautnah / Up Close & Personal was mounted at the WIDMER+THEODORIDIS contemporary gallery in
Also in October 2007, an exhibit of Cohen's mylar photographs opened in London at the October Gallery.[15]
Bibliography
- Seven Marvels (Katmandu: Bardo Matrix, 1975)
- Poems from the Cosmic Crypt (Katmandu: Bardo Matrix and Kali Press, 1976)
- From the Divan of Petra Vogt (Rotterdam: Cold Turkey Press, 1976)
- Gilded Splinters (Katmandu: Bardo Matrix, 1977)
- The Stauffenberg Cycle and Other Poems (Heerlen, Netherlands: Uitgeverij 261, 1981). ISBN 90-6512-013-0
- Media Shamans Ratio 3 (with Gerard Malanga and Angus MacLise, London: Temple Press, 1991). ISBN 1-871744-30-X
- On Feet of Gold (Synergetic Press, London 1986). ISBN 0-907791-10-7
- Minbad Sinbad (Didier Devillez, Brüsszel 1998)
- Kaliban und Andere Gedichte (Göttingen: AltaQuito Press, 1999, translated by Florian Vetsch)
- Wo das Herz ruht (Herdecke: Rohstoff Verlag, 2001, bilingual, translated by Florian Vetsch)
- Poems from the Akashic Record (New York: Goody, 2001)
- Shamanic Warriors Now Poets (anthology edited by J. N. Reilly and Ira Cohen, Glasgow, Scotland: R & R Publishing, 2004). ISBN 0-9534280-1-X
- Chaos and Glory (Utah: Elik Press, 2004)
- Whatever You Say May Be Held Against You (Shivastan Press) (2004)[14][16]
- Cornucopion - Bőségszaru (Budapest: Új Mandátum and I.A.T. Press, 2007, translated by Gabor G. Gyukics). ISBN 978-9-639609-64-8
- Ira Cohen: God's Bounty (Salt Lake City, Utah: Elik Press, 2008)
- Ira Cohen: Wo das Herz ruht (enlarged second edition, bilingual; Wenzensdorf: Verlag Stadtlichterpresse, 2010, translated by Florian Vetsch)
- Ira Cohen - in Memory of (Fabrikzeitung Nr. 272, Zurich, June 2011, edited by Etrit Hasler & Florian Vetsch)
- Ira Cohen: Das grosse Reispapier-Abenteuer von Kathmandu (München: Verlag Books Ex Oriente, 2011, translated by Florian Vetsch)
- Ira Cohen, Jürgen Ploog, Florian Vetsch: A Night in Zurich (Luzern: Verlag Der Kollaboratör, 2012)
- Hautnah / Up Close & Personal (Papageien-Verlag) (unpublished)
- Ira Cohen, Jürgen Ploog, Florian Vetsch: A Night in Zurich (second enlarged edition; Mainz: Gonzo Verlag, 2018)
- Alcazar – 17 Poems / 17 Gedichte (bilingual edition; translated into German by Axel Monte and Florian Vetsch; with a postface by Jürgen Ploog; edited by Florian Vetsch). Moloko Print, Pretzien 2021
Filmography
- The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968)
- Kings With Straw Mats (1986)
- Brain Damage (2006)
References
- ^ a b c d Douglas Martin (May 1, 2011). "Ira Cohen, an Artist and a Touchstone, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Obituary. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- ^ "PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE IN AMERIKA DVD ANTHOLOGY Invasion Of Thunderbolt Pagoda". Arthur. November 9, 2007.
- ^ "Photography (Art and design), Art and design, Culture, Jimi Hendrix, William Burroughs (Author), Allen Ginsberg". The Guardian. London. May 13, 2011.
- ^ "Allen Ginsberg - from a photo by Ira Cohen - Ins & Outs Press". April 17, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2023 – via Flickr.
- ^ "Ira Landgarten". sitarsetc.com.[dead link]
- ^ "Google Sites: Sign-in". accounts.google.com. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
- ^ John Brandi. "IRA COHEN: MYSTICAL MADNESS". Big Bridge. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ^ "On Feet of Gold". Synergetic Press. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ISBN 0-9520217-0-6.
- ^ "Ira Cohen". Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ "Ira Cohen & Mahasiddhi - Swiss Institute NYC - May 2, 2007". Punkcast. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
- ^ "Georg Gatsas biography" (PDF). Retrieved June 21, 2023.
- ^ "Ira Cohen Hautnah / Up Close & Personal". likeyou.com. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
- ^ a b Louise Landes Levi (April 4, 2008). "A review of two books from Shivastan Press". Retrieved May 18, 2011.
- ^ "Ira Cohen: From the Mylar Chamber". October Gallery. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
- ^ Ira Cohen page, Shivastan Press.
External links
- A detailed account of the life and works of Ira Cohen
- Ira Cohen exhibit at Big Bridge
- A short excerpt from Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda on The Wire Magazine's website
- Kathmandu Dream Piece Audio. Ira Cohen reciting the prose piece he wrote specially for the first issue of Ins & Outs magazine.
- Ira Cohen with Paul Bowles in Tangier, Morocco, 1963
- Ira Cohen interview in "Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer" on YouTube. Hour-long video interview
- "Ira Cohen in conversation with Nina Zivancevic", New York, 2001. Jacket magazine #21, February 2003.
- James Gaddy, "Long, Strange Trip for a Hypnotic Film", The New York Times, August 27, 2006.
- Waldemar Januszczak, "Ira Cohen: From the Mylar Chamber at October Gallery", The Sunday Times (London), November 25, 2007 (behind paywall)
- Ira Cohen: psychedelic photography master. Slide show of Ira Cohen photographs.
- Waldemar Januszczak, "Ira Cohen, an Artist and a Touchstone, Dies at 76", The New York Times, May 1, 2011
- Douglas Martin, "Ira Cohen, poet, filmmaker, cultural icon", Boston Globe obituary. May 3, 2011.
- Frank Rynne, "Ira Cohen obituary: Doyen of the Beat generation feted for his psychedelic photos from the underground", The Guardian (UK), May 13, 2011.
- "Ira Cohen: Writer, artist and publisher who devoted his life to his alternative vision of the world", obituary in The Independent (UK), May 30, 2011.
- Ira Cohen Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Bonny Finberg & Ira Cohen & Lucia Wong: Thin Ice Press: Unbearables Portfolio Number 3: Collaboration Poets & Artists *Unbearable Portfolio Number 3 Table of Contents