The poet Michael Horovitz is one of the few surviving links to Allen Ginsberg and other major figures of the Beat generation and has published countless poets and writers over the last half century in anthologies such as Children Of Albion, Grandchildren Of Albion and his long running literary magazine New Departures (the first ever publication to publish pages from what would become Naked Lunch). This Friday he heads up an impressive cabal of poets investigating the horrors and corrupt political fall-out of 9/11 with a festival of words, music and light. "Many of the illustrious poets and other performers on this eighth anniversary of 9/11 will be pitching their wordsounds toward the redemption of femina-cum-homo sapiens from the currently prevalent recourse to more violence and destruction as the routine response to most outbreaks of violence and destruction," says the poet, who was involved in the setting up of CND in the 60s and more recently in the Anti-War Coalition.
Expect an in-depth profile of Michael in a forthcoming issue but in the meantime check out the event on Friday at Chelsea Town Hall from 7.30pm. Performers include Molly Parkin, Tom Paulin, John Hegley, Pete Brown, John Agard and Francesca Beard, and past events have been known to feature impromptu sets from the illustrious likes of Damon Albarn and Linton Kwesi Johnson.

This is the first in a series of forthcoming events that celebrates 50 years of New Departures. Tickets are available from poetryolympics.com