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Harry Smith Archives Follow

Official account for the archives of Harry Everett Smith - filmmaker, musicologist, mystic, & one of the least understood figures in postwar American culture

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gregory_ego Gregory Ego @gregory_ego ·
29 Nov

Harry Smith @HS_Archives on the cover of Bombay Gin, published in 2011 by The Naropa Press. The journal is broken down into sections mirroring Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: e.g., "Volume Two: Social Music," with Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, Amiri Baraka.

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hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
28 Nov

Today marks 31 years since Harry’s passing. His friend, poet Paola Igliori, described him as dying in her arms, "singing as he drifted away". Smith was pronounced dead one hour later at St. Vincent's Hospital.

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ginsbergpoem AllenGinsbergEstate 🐀 @ginsbergpoem ·
27 Nov

@HS_Archives - Harry Smith - American Magus https://allenginsberg.org/2022/11/s-n-27/

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hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
14 Nov

Harry Smith was greatly inspired by the work of German-American animator/filmmaker Oskar Fischinger. After meeting Fischinger on a trip to Los Angeles, Smith immediately took up filmmaking (1/5) https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1592265675028168704

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hs_archives Harry Smith Archives @hs_archives ·
24 Oct

🐐🏹 Harry Smith’s Zodiac series circa 1974 🦂⚖️

Courtesy @AnthologyFilm 💜
Music @kaitlynaurelia 💜

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Today marks 31 years since Harry’s passing. His Today marks 31 years since Harry’s passing. His friend, poet Paola Igliori, described him as dying in her arms, "singing as he drifted away". Smith was pronounced dead one hour later at St. Vincent's Hospital. Following Smith's death, his branch of the occult organization O.T.O. performed a Gnostic Mass in his honor at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. Smith's ashes were placed in the care of his friend, longtime participant in New York's Beat scene, Rosemarie "Rosebud" Feliu-Pettet, whom Paola Igliori has described as Smith's "spiritual wife." An expanded version of Paola’s book about Harry, American Magus, has just been released and is available now! . . . #harrysmitharchives #harryeverettsmith #beatgeneration #aleistercrowley
Harry Smith was greatly inspired by the work of Ge Harry Smith was greatly inspired by the work of German-American animator/filmmaker Oskar Fischinger. After meeting Fischinger on a trip to Los Angeles, Smith immediately took up filmmaking, and since he had no filmmaking skills or equipment, he drew his first films, colored by spray paint and dyes, directly on the filmstrip - with incredible complexity and fine detail. Here you can see an excerpt from Harry Smith’s film No. 3, otherwise known as “Interwoven” which premiered as part of the Art in Cinema series at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1950. Harry was completely enamored with jazz music at that time, particularly Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, and he insisted that he had synchronized his first three painted films to jazz performances by Gillespie. Unfortunately he was not able to afford the cost of transferring the tape to an optical soundtrack and then making the more-expensive sound release prints so he made do with a live jazz accompaniment at the premiere with a band consisting of Atlee Chapman on trombone and bass-trumpet; Henry Noyd on trumpet; Kermit Scott on tenor sax; Robert Warren on Bass; Warren Thompson on drums; and Stanly Willis on piano.
🐐🏹 Harry Smith’s Zodiac series circa 1974 🐐🏹 Harry Smith’s Zodiac series circa 1974 🦂⚖️ Courtesy @anthologyfilmarchives . . . #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #zodiac #alchemy
In celebration of the world premiere of Martin Sco In celebration of the world premiere of Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the singular @davidjohansen.official we’re sharing a clip of David playing a cover of Jim Jackson’s 1928 folk song “Old Dog Blue” at one of the Harry Smith Project concerts. David has long been a friend of the HSA, and in addition to fronting The New York Dolls and subsequently reinventing himself as Buster Poindexter, he also released an album in 2000 called “David Johansen and the Harry Smiths” containing songs from or inspired by the Anthology of American Folk Music. For those in the area, Personality Crisis: One Night Only will be screening at @thenyff this weekend! . . . #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #davidjohansen #martinscorsese #nyff
RIP Joe Bussard - a fascinating man and a fanatica RIP Joe Bussard - a fascinating man and a fanatical record collector; we were very fortunate that he provided some rare 78s for the 1997 re-issue of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Second slide: Opening paragraph from Joe's obituary in the @washingtoncitypaper 📸: Eilon Paz for Dust & Grooves . . . #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #joebussard #recordcollection #78rpm #physicalmedia #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives
The wonderful folks at Low Profile Podcast recentl The wonderful folks at Low Profile Podcast recently chatted with musician (Beat Happening, D+) and author Bret Lunsford about his 2021 book Sounding For Harry Smith, a thorough history of the region and communities that helped shape Harry Smith's life's work by way of newspaper clippings, firsthand stories from Harry's schoolmates, and general detective work. The book is a fascinating glimpse into Anacortes, WA and the unconventional beginnings of Harry's many fascinations. Head over to @lowpropodcast or wherever you get your podcasts to have a listen, and check your local indie bookstore or soundingforharrysmith.com to buy Bret's book! . . . #harrysmitharchives #harryeverettsmith #anacortes #bretlunsford #beathappening #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic #freakfolk
Discovered quite a strange throwback in the archiv Discovered quite a strange throwback in the archives: Harry in a Sotheby's World Mastercard ad 🧐🍸🥫 From left: Jack Smith, unidentified man, Harry Smith, Panna Grady, William S. Burroughs, and Andy Warhol at El Quijote restaurant, New York City, winter 1964-65. Photograph by David McCabe . . . #harrysmitharchives #harryeverettsmith #andywarhol #pannagrady #williamburroughs #jacksmith #beathappening
Peter Lamborn Wilson American anarchist, author, Peter Lamborn Wilson American anarchist, author, and poet Peter Lamborn Wilson a.k.a. Hakim Bey, passed away on May 22, 2022. Longtime Harry Smith Archives board member, PLW and Smith shared many scholarly interests including mysticism, the occult, approaching the world with unique and unconventional ways of thinking. PLW attended Harry Smith’s lecture series at Naropa Institute from 1988 – 1991. After Smith’s death Peter took up the post lecturing at Naropa annually what became known as The Harry Smith Lectures in Strange Anthropology. He also edited Harry Smith’s Naropa Lectures which remain unpublished. He will be sorely missed.
On this day 99 years ago, Harry Everett Smith was On this day 99 years ago, Harry Everett Smith was born at Wilcox Hospital in Portland, Oregon to a salmon cannery manager and a school teacher. From that day forward the worlds of ethnomusicology, animation, preservation, art, and mysticism would be forever changed by this scrawny and endlessly curious future iconoclast. Happy Birthday Harry! Pictured: Harry in the Bellingham High School 1943 Shuksan yearbook, followed by Harry front and center with the freshman boys at Anacortes High School in 1939. . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #beatgeneration #ethnomusicology
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to ou It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our friend Bob Neuwirth. Bob was important to the Harry Smith Archives in many ways, having known Harry from his days at the Chelsea Hotel (introduced to him by the inimitable Patti Smith, pictured here with Neuwirth) and playing at all the Harry Smith Project concerts. When asked about the enduring influence of the anthology, Bob stated, “I think the reason that these songs continued to be relevant because they have to do with life, death; you know, blood, betrayal, murder, intoxication, resentment, envy, greed, you know, pride, gluttony, lust, sloth. Have I left any of the deadlies out? They really are down to the bone songs, man. And hey, if you can’t relate to these, you are your television set, you know.” We’ll miss you Bob. 💜
What a great honor to attend the opening festiviti What a great honor to attend the opening festivities for the beautiful @bobdylancenter in Tulsa. A selection of books and records from Harry's personal collection are now housed there (in The Douglas and Anne Brinkley Archive Reading Room) to be kept safe and sound. Special thanks to curator and archivist Mark Davidson (pictured in final slide) for acknowledging the value of Harry's contributions and allowing us to be a part of such a momentous project. . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #bobdylan #bobdylancenter
BOB ! On BOK. @bobdylancenter BOB ! On BOK. @bobdylancenter
Film #10, the final selection in Smith's first fil Film #10, the final selection in Smith's first films that were compiled and came to be called Early Abstractions, was recut in 1957 to create Film #11, aka Mirror Animations. The film is meticulously synchronized to Thelonious Monk's "Misterioso". Smith said that he originally intended to base a painting on Monk's work, but "I realized that it would be impossible to make it in the form of a painting, because his music was so complex, and it would be better to make a film." In these films, Smith arranged alchemical and hermetic imagery to Monk's piano pyrotechnics in a precise and rigorous way, assembling mandala-like collages with found materials. . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #theloniusmonk #misterioso #collageanimation #alchemy
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg Today marks the 25th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's death. Smith and Ginsberg were friends for over 30 years, during which Allen allowed Harry to live with him on multiple occasions for months at a time. Ginsberg often tried to support Smith when he fell on hard times, and expanded upon their complex relationship in this snippet from an interview with Hal Willner: "Everytime we'd go up there he'd get me high, then he'd ask me for money, because he was starving. Apparently, he went around doing that with everybody. He had no source [of income] but he was a genius, like the painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. I got to be scared of going up there because he'd get me tremblingly high on grass and show me these amazing movies. I'd be totally awed and intimidated by the universality of his genius in music and painting. In addition, he could write mad long, long poems, rhymed. But he'd always hit me up for money, if he could capture me, get me up there and hypnotize me with his films." These drug-fueled evenings served as inspiration for Ginsberg's poem "Journal Night Thoughts" (1961-64). [Photo credit: Brian Graham] . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #allenginsberg #beatgeneration #halwillner
Happy April Fools' Day from everyone's favorite tr Happy April Fools' Day from everyone's favorite trickster anthropologist 😈 "Over the course of many years he claimed, as his biographer Darrin Daniel has noted, variously: to be the mystic Aleister Crowley’s illegitimate son; that his mother was the “missing” Romanov Czarina, Anastasia; and that he smoked marijuana for the first time with Woodie Guthrie in the back of the Sun studios in Memphis, Tennessee—none of which were true." - Michael Betancourt Photo credit: John Cohen . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #occult #beatnik #anthropology
More than just an avid collector of interesting ob More than just an avid collector of interesting objects, Harry was fascinated by finding nonverbal ways to communicate using taxonomy and patterns. As he told John Cohen in a 1969 interview: “…The type of thinking that I applied to records, I still apply to other things, like Seminole patchwork or to Ukrainian Easter eggs. The whole purpose is to have some kind of series of things. Information as drawing and graphic designs can be located more quickly than it can be in books. The fact that I have all the Seminole designs permits anything that falls into the canon of that technological procedure to be found there. It’s like flipping quickly through. It’s a way of programming the mind, like a punch card of a sort.” Swipe through to see stills from Smith’s Film #15 (Untitled animation of Seminole patchwork patterns), ca. 1965-66. . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #seminolepatchwork #beatgeneration
Between 1999 and 2001, legendary producer Hal Will Between 1999 and 2001, legendary producer Hal Willner staged a series of concerts paying tribute to Harry's Anthology of American Folk Music. The Harry Smith Project highlighted the profound impact of the compilation with tribute performances by a genre-transcending lineup including the likes of Marianne Faithfull, Philip Glass, and Eric Mingus. Here we see Nick Cave performing Blind Willie Johnson's powerful 1930 gospel blues call and response song "John the Revelator" . . . #harryeverettsmith #harrysmith #harrysmitharchives #harrysmithproject #halwillner #nickcave #blindwilliejohnson #anthologyofamericanfolkmusic
Enochian Tablet Series, ca. 1979, watercolor, goua Enochian Tablet Series, ca. 1979, watercolor, gouache, ink, acrylic, and enamel on board From the 1960s through the 1980s, Harry produced some of his most complex work, including these pieces from his Enochian Tablet series. Rapt with cosmology, metaphysics, and alchemy, in these paintings Harry linked what he regarded as the principles underlying Highland tartans to the Enochian language, which was said to have been communicated by angels to John Dee through his medium, Edward Kelley, in the 16th century. . . . #harrysmith #harryeverettsmith #harrysmitharchives #cosmology #metaphysics #enochian #beatgeneration
Untitled (Schemes for projection of Film #18: Maha Untitled (Schemes for projection of Film #18: Mahagonny), c. 1978, watercolor on paper Harry worked obsessively on MAHAGONNY for over ten years, shooting it from 1970-72 and editing it from 1972-1980. Based on the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the film is an epic, four-screen projection which the filmmaker considered to be his magnum opus and described as a mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass. These schemes/studies illustrate Smith's desire for an extravagant mode of presentation---involving, in this case, projecting the film on the tops of four pool tables set up vertically within a boxing ring and accompanied by scrolling subtitles of the opera's text. While ultimately these dreams did not come to fruition, he did design slides, colored gels, framing masks, and other elements that he attempted to use for the initial screenings. He reportedly broke them in the street in a fit of anger after one of the shows. . . . #harrysmitharchives #harryeverettsmith #experimentalfilm #mahagonny #allenginsberg #jonasmekas #pattismith
[Harry Smith, Allen Ginsberg, and Wade Walton at W [Harry Smith, Allen Ginsberg, and Wade Walton at Wade’s Barber Shop, a center of musical activity in Clarksdale, Mississippi, April 1987. Harry records Wade playing percussion with his razor and strop.] We were recently connected with the wonderful William Cochrane (@deltapup) who was kind enough to share these photos of Harry along with the following story: "I was an undergrad Southern Studies major at Ole Miss (84-87) under the direction of legendary folklorist, Dr. Bill Ferris. I had been asked by the English department chair to escort Allen Ginsberg while he was in town on a book tour. His particular interest was rural African-American life and Wade Walton's barbershop (see his Wikipedia page) was a terrific microcosm of black Mississippi Delta culture. Harry Smith was traveling with Allen and came along. I believe that the day I escorted them to Wade's shop would have been the Saturday before Easter Sunday in April, 1987. The folks getting their hair cut in the shop were doing it as a last detail in preparing for Easter and it was a vibrant, bustling moment. Wade was a great guy, very generous with his time. He worked Allen in for a haircut and demonstration of his boogie woogie razor strop technique which Harry recorded. His shop was open to all and I should mention that Wade had no familiarity with Allen or his work at all, although that would not have mattered. Wade was unfailingly gracious even on one of the busiest days of the season." . . . #harrysmith #harrysmitharchives #allenginsberg #billferris #beats #wadewalton
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