:33:00
and had a very venerable history.
:33:03
I first came down in 1948...
:33:06
with a red bandana around my neck...
:33:08
on the subway to go...
:33:10
to see if I could find poets...
:33:14
in Greenwich Village.
:33:15
But there had been poets.
:33:16
I probably came into the Village
around 1952 or '53. I was a kid.
:33:21
I was living in Queens,
not liking it very much.
:33:23
And for me, it was very sophisticated.
I liked that.
:33:28
I was into jazz at the time.
:33:29
I didn't like the folk music thing much at all,
I was very snobbish.
:33:33
Over across the street, there was Nick's.
:33:35
I actually met Tony Spargo...
:33:37
who was the drummer
on the very first jazz records...
:33:39
with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band,
in 1917.
:33:45
When I was young,
it was a very laid-back place...
:33:48
intermingled with various ethnic groups
were lots of what we called bohemians...
:33:53
doing their art, walking their dogs.
:34:01
There was a wonderful creative climate there
although I didn't...
:34:04
I wasn't fully aware of it,
but it was the center of the art world...
:34:08
happenings, the first art movements
were going on.
:34:11
It was all there.
:34:12
You were suddenly able
to take your clothes off.
:34:16
You were suddenly free
of all the shackles of family...
:34:20
the baggage...
:34:23
of tradition, of bad tradition.
:34:27
I was looking for freedom,
but freedom didn't exist all over America.
:34:31
Freedom only existed, really,
here in the Village, in Greenwich Village.
:34:35
"America, I've given you all,
and now I'm nothing
:34:38
"America, two dollars
and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956
:34:44
"I can't stand my own mind
:34:46
"America, when will we end the human war?
:34:49
"Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.
:34:51
"I don't feel good; don't bother me
:34:53
"I won't write my poem
until I'm in my right mind"
:34:56
The big breakthrough...
:34:58
was in an ex-gay bar on MacDougal Street...