The Beat Poets Unpacked: Episode 1

This is the first in a series on the origins and continuing influences of the Beat poets, hosted by Richard Modiano who was a member of the literary community connected to New York City’s Poetry Project, where he came to know many of the original Beat poets and writers including Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs and Ted Berrigan. From 2010 to 2019, Modiano served as Executive Director of Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice, CA, producing and curating hundreds of literary events. Along with Henry Morro, Suzanne Lummis and Liz Camfiord, he co-founded the Beyond Baroque Books’ sub-imprint The Pacific Coast Poetry Series. In 2013, The HuffPost named him one of 200 people doing the most to promote poetry in the United States. In 2019, he was elected vice-president of the California State Poetry Society. A rank-and-file member of the Industrial Workers of the World, he was awarded the Joe Hill Prize for labor poetry by the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor Labor Coalition in 2022, the same year his collection, "The Forbidden Lunch Box," was published by Punk Hostage Press.