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I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me

Poet, singer-songwriter, jazz and blues anglo-saxophonist, leader-singer of William Blake Klezmatrix Band, editor-publisher, journalist and visual artist, among other afflictions.
"Mike Horovitz is a poet by calling, trade, impulse, habit and anything else you care to mention. Poetry for him is part of life, part of showbiz, part of walking down the street.I can remember him in Oxford in the early 1960s, hair threatening to knock his specs off, declaiming, challenging the audience to realise that Truth and Art were in the very air between them." Miles Kington
An early champion of oral and jazz poetry, whose flamboyant performances have energised every kind of audience on both sides of the Atlantic, Michael Horovitz has been variously described as, for instance,"an original poet, with an original voice" (Margaret Drabble);
"a Cockney, Albionic, New Jerusalem, Jazz Generation, Sensitive Bard" (Allen Ginsberg);
and
"a dreamer, a maverick ... transmedial crusader" (Martin Amis).
He has had to fight, against considerable odds, to continue over 48 years as actor-manager of New Departures, "the most substantial avant-garde magazine in Great Britain" (Times Literary Supplement).
Less appreciative voices of the establishment claim that Horovitz's selections and modes of presentation are 'subversive'.Horovitz hopes that this charge is justified: "Subversion usually means change", he says, "and poetry should change people."
New Departures was followed by 'Live New Departures', and the modestly entitled 'World's Best Jam', about which Danah Zohar wrote in Streetlife magazine: "It's like dropping in on a first-rate party at an old friend's and finding yourself entertained by a warm, wonderful bunch of incredibly talented troubadours."
And then came the Poetry Olympics.The Times, having predicted "the jolliest gathering since Babel", confirmed after the Westminster Abbey launch that ". . .The Poetry Olympics, hugely enjoyed on a somewhat ad hoc basis, was a sign that poetry is not dying, nor poets."The Poetry Olympics have taken Horovitz all over the world, his aim being "to join hands, hearts and heads, to communicate and exchange at the grass roots."For more information, visit www.poetryolympics.com

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Strictly Whom innit? William Blake, Sappho, Louis Armstrong, the Gautama Buddha, Frances Horovitz as she was in this car nation, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Paul Robeson, St. Francis of Assisi, Michelle Pfeiffer, and, for throwing custard pies at, Clinton, Bin Laden, Ahmedinejad, Bushes sr and jr, Blair and Brown.

My Blog

William Blake Congregation event

The William Blake Congregationpresents: "All that we See is Vision"Southbank CentreSt Paul's Pavilion, Level 6 (above the Poetry Library)Sunday 26th October : 2pmadmission free "&...
Posted by on Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:56:00 GMT

ATTILA The Stockbroker @ The Poetry Olympics 2007

Attila The Stockbroker @ The Poetry Olympics 2007Sorry for the delay in adding the video to the blog.The blog censor is replacing their own standard MySpace Bulletin code with the Double-Dots of ...
Posted by on Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:36:00 GMT

LEMN SISSAY @ The Poetry Olympics 2007 ("I Like")

LEMN SISSAY @ The Poetry Olympics 2007 ("I Like")
Posted by on Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:14:00 GMT

Bob Dylan does not deserve this snobbery and pedantry

Bob Dylan does not deserve thissnobbery and pedantryAcademics need to stop pretending that pop lyrics have no literary worth, writes Michael HorovitzMichael HorovitzThe Guardian, Friday July 18 2008Fr...
Posted by on Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:09:00 GMT

Wholly Communion : Film of the 1965 Poetry Olympics

Wholly CommunionA short film by Peter Whitehead of a precursor of the Poetry Olympics in 1965.The event was held in the Royal Albert Hall and there were over 7,500 people in attendance with ...
Posted by on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:14:00 GMT

50 Years of CounterCulture presented by Michael Horovitz

50 Years of CounterCulturefrom the Beat Generationto the New Waste LandThursday, 20th March, 7:30pm@ london print studio the Poetry Olympics london print studio myspace.com/michaelhorovitz _________...
Posted by on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:20:00 GMT

National Poetry Day reading

On National Poetry Day, Thursday 4th October, Michael Horovitz will be presenting his annual Jazz Poetry SuperJam at the 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London W1, from 7.30pm till late, featuring  amon...
Posted by on Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:27:00 GMT

Special guests at the Poetry Olympics Enlightenment Festival

Poetry Olympics 2007: The POE! FestivalThis summer's Poetry Olympics will levitate Hackney Empire from 7.30pm on Sunday 15 July, as The POE! Festival  a cosmic kangaroo leaping forth from the pouch o...
Posted by on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:09:00 GMT

Poetry Olympics Enlightenment at the Hackney Empire

For Your Diaryon Sunday15 July 2007HACKNEY EMPIRE, from 7.30 till Latewill levitate to the diverse vibes ofThe POE! Festival Poetry Olympics Enlightenment featuring poetry, songs, music and wordsoun...
Posted by on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:41:00 GMT