Allen Ginsberg – an icon: American poet and writer, actor and screenwriter, from a Jewish family, Buddhist by choice, homosexual, known as the voice of the beat generation and the leading figure of the beat stream – a group of artists and playboys who propagated liberation from the bourgeois norms of the American middle class. However, in the reality of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) he was known to few. The Socialist authorities made it difficult for his works to spread in our country. Therefore, it is not surprising that he carried out his trips to Poland completely anonymously, and was recognised only by a small group of fans. Allen Ginsberg visited Krakow three times – in the 60s, 80s and 90s. Only a few people remember this.
Agata Dutkowska, a graduate of the Jagiellonian University and Krakow’s Academy of Fine Arts decided to investigate the history of these visits by contacting people who had met him at that time. On the basis of the materials she collected, she has prepared a performance which is a sort of tour of Krakow which leads tourists in the steps of Allen Ginsberg. The story told by the guide is a mix of memories and legends that have come up surrounding Ginsberg’s trips to Krakow.

The almost two-hour walk from the Stu Theatre to the train station portrays the atmosphere of those times and allows us to see Krakow from the artist’s perspective, to walk in his footsteps. The walk is part of the Dutkowska’s dissertation which was awarded during the Fresh Zone competition.

You can walk in Allen Ginsberg’s footsteps in Krakow for the last time tomorrow. It starts at 4 p.m. at the STU Theatre (16 Krasińskiego Avenue).