Ed Sanders

Aus Ugugu

US-American poet and singer ; born 17 August 1939 in Kansas City (Missouri, USA)

Bibliography	Discography	Songs	Weblinks

In 1957 Ed Sanders first read Allen Ginsberg's Howl and other poems and started to read the poem to anybody who would listen. School officials' admonitions to stay away from such "despicable ravings of a homo" were ignored, and before the year was up he'd be suspended for refusing to stop bringing "filth" onto school property. After graduating from high school, Sanders and a friend "got really loaded and then said goodbye. I'm going to New York to become a poet."

In 1964 Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg founded the literate-tone folk rock band the Fugs: they "chanted poetry, wrote songs and did a lot of partying". Among Sanders' other ventures in the 1960s were the Peace Eye Bookstore on East 10th Street in Manhattan, and a journal called Fuck You (A magazine of the arts). Other books included The Family about Charles Manson and Hymn to the Rebel Cafe. In the late 1990s he presented his Amazing Grace project at St. Mark's Church in the East Village; this involved many poets, singers and other creative people contributing verses to the old gospel song.

Ed Sanders lives in Woodstock, New York, where he publishes The Woodstock Journal, a community newspaper with poetry and art.

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