Tuli Kupferberg
Encyclopedia
Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture
poet, author, cartoonist
, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs
.
, Yiddish-speaking
household in New York City. A cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College
in 1944, Kupferberg founded the magazine Birth in 1958. Birth ran for only three issues but published notable Beat Generation
authors such as Allen Ginsberg
, Diane Di Prima
, LeRoi Jones, and Ted Joans
.
Kupferberg reportedly appears in Ginsberg's poem Howl
as the person "who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge
and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown
". The incident in question actually occurred on the Manhattan Bridge
, and is mentioned in the prose poem "Memorial Day 1971" written by Ted Berrigan
and Anne Waldman
:
'I asked Tuli Kupferberg once, "Did you really jump off of The Manhattan Bridge?" "Yeah," he said, "I really did." "How come?" I said. "I thought that I had lost the ability to love," Tuli said. "So, I figured I might as well be dead. So, I went one night to the top of The Manhattan Bridge, & after a few minutes, I jumped off." "That's amazing," I said. "Yeah," Tuli said, "but nothing happened. I landed in the water, & I wasn't dead. So I swam ashore, & went home, & took a bath, & went to bed. Nobody even noticed."'
The above paragraph by Berrigan and Waldman is a poetic fiction, according to Kupferberg, and did not really occur as stated. Ginsberg
's description in Howl is likewise fictional, Kupferberg told his friend Thelma Blitz and other friends such as Larry Sloman
and Steve Dalachinsky
in personal conversations. He did jump from the Manhattan Bridge in 1944, after which he was picked up by a passing tugboat and taken to Gouvernor Hospital. Severely injured, he had broken the transverse process of his spine and spent time in a body cast. He told Blitz he feels it's important that people don't think they can emulate this leap and walk away unscathed as the poetic accounts suggest he did.
Kupferberg self-published the book Beatniks; or, The War Against the Beats in 1961. Perhaps his best-known book is 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft
(1966), a satirical collage
created with Robert Bashlow. In 1961, he wrote 1001 Ways to Live Without Working, which actually contains 1005 ways to live without working. The book also contains a number of old advertisements, for items such as raffles for slaves, and unfailing ways to cure cancer and obesity. One of his last published volumes is Teach Yourself Fucking, a collection of cartoons, which was published by Autonomedia
in 2000.
In 1964, Kupferberg formed the satirical rock group The Fugs
with poet Ed Sanders
. Kupferberg took their name from Norman Mailer
's substitute for the word "fuck
" in his novel The Naked and the Dead
. He was one of the band's singers and wrote many of their songs such as "Morning, Morning," "Kill for Peace," "CIA Man," "Supergirl," "Carpe Diem," and he set to music Matthew Arnold
's pacifist wedding hymn "Dover Beach." He also released two solo albums: No Deposit, No Return in 1966, which is a collection of found pop poetry, and Tuli & Friends in 1989.
Kupferberg was active in New York pacifist anarchist circles. He appeared as a machine-gun-toting soldier policing Manhattan in W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
, a 1971 film about the revolutionary psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich
by Dusan Makavejev
. An anti-police-brutality skit from his Revolting Theatre appeared in the 1971 Richard Pryor
underground film Dynamite Chicken
. More recently Tuli appeared in the music video for Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror by Jeffrey Lewis
. His bi-weekly television show "Revolting News" still airs on Manhattan Neighborhood Network
's Channel 56, RCN Cable channel 83, Verizon
FiOS ch. 34 and MNN.org ch. 2 on alternate Mondays, 10 PM, New York time, now produced by Thelma Blitz with archival and new material.
Kupferberg suffered a stroke in April 2009 at his home in New York City, which left him severely visually impaired and in need of regular nursing care. After treatment for a number of days at a New York hospital, followed by convalescence at a nursing home, he recuperated at home. He continued to write songs and add "perverbs" to his YouTube and DailyMotion channels, both called "tulifuli." According to The Fugs website, the band had been in the studio completing a new CD, entitled Be Free, featuring five of Kupferberg’s new songs, including the anthem “Backward Jewish Soldiers” and a setting of his famous poem “Greenwich Village of My Dreams.”.
Kupferberg died in New York Downtown Hospital
in Manhattan of kidney failure and sepsis on July 12, 2010. In 2008, in one of his last interviews, he told Mojo Magazine
, "Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
poet, author, cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
.
Biography
Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a JewishJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Yiddish-speaking
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
household in New York City. A cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
in 1944, Kupferberg founded the magazine Birth in 1958. Birth ran for only three issues but published notable Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
authors such as Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Diane Di Prima
Diane di Prima
Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan...
, LeRoi Jones, and Ted Joans
Ted Joans
Theodore "Ted" Joans was an American trumpeter, jazz poet and painter.Joans was born in Cairo, Illinois, but not on a riverboat as had been claimed. He earned a degree in fine arts from Indiana University. He later associated with writers of the Beat Generation in Greenwich Village and San Francisco...
.
Kupferberg reportedly appears in Ginsberg's poem Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
as the person "who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
". The incident in question actually occurred on the Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn . It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges...
, and is mentioned in the prose poem "Memorial Day 1971" written by Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan
-Early life:Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in...
and Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
:
'I asked Tuli Kupferberg once, "Did you really jump off of The Manhattan Bridge?" "Yeah," he said, "I really did." "How come?" I said. "I thought that I had lost the ability to love," Tuli said. "So, I figured I might as well be dead. So, I went one night to the top of The Manhattan Bridge, & after a few minutes, I jumped off." "That's amazing," I said. "Yeah," Tuli said, "but nothing happened. I landed in the water, & I wasn't dead. So I swam ashore, & went home, & took a bath, & went to bed. Nobody even noticed."'
The above paragraph by Berrigan and Waldman is a poetic fiction, according to Kupferberg, and did not really occur as stated. Ginsberg
Ginsberg
Ginsberg, Ginsburg, Ginsburgh, Ginsparg, Ginzberg, Ginzborg, and Ginzburg are variants of the same surname.-Ginsberg:* Allen Ginsberg, Beat poet* Asher Hirsch Ginsberg , Zionist writer and philosopher...
's description in Howl is likewise fictional, Kupferberg told his friend Thelma Blitz and other friends such as Larry Sloman
Larry Sloman
Larry "Ratso" Sloman is a New York-based author best known for his collaboration with Howard Stern on the radio personality's two best-selling books, Private Parts and Miss America. He also appears in all of Kinky Friedman's mystery novels as the Dr. Watson to Kinky's Sherlock...
and Steve Dalachinsky
Steve Dalachinsky
Steve Dalachinsky is a New York downtown poet. He is active in the poetry, music, art and music- Free jazz scene.Dalachinsky was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946...
in personal conversations. He did jump from the Manhattan Bridge in 1944, after which he was picked up by a passing tugboat and taken to Gouvernor Hospital. Severely injured, he had broken the transverse process of his spine and spent time in a body cast. He told Blitz he feels it's important that people don't think they can emulate this leap and walk away unscathed as the poetic accounts suggest he did.
Kupferberg self-published the book Beatniks; or, The War Against the Beats in 1961. Perhaps his best-known book is 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft
1001 Ways to Beat the Draft
"1001 Ways to Beat the Draft" is a satirical Vietnam War protest pamphlet written in 1966 by Robert Bashlow and Tuli Kupferberg.The text reels through dozens of ways that young men facing conscription during the Vietnam War could avoid service. Kupferberg leaves no societal more unscathed in this...
(1966), a satirical collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
created with Robert Bashlow. In 1961, he wrote 1001 Ways to Live Without Working, which actually contains 1005 ways to live without working. The book also contains a number of old advertisements, for items such as raffles for slaves, and unfailing ways to cure cancer and obesity. One of his last published volumes is Teach Yourself Fucking, a collection of cartoons, which was published by Autonomedia
Autonomedia
Autonomedia is one of the main North American publishers of radical theoretical works, especially in the anarchist tradition. For many years, it was linked with Semiotext, one of the major sources for English language translations of post-structuralist literature, especially in the 1980s...
in 2000.
In 1964, Kupferberg formed the satirical rock group The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
with poet Ed Sanders
Ed Sanders
Ed Sanders is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher and has been a longtime member of the band The Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.-Biography:...
. Kupferberg took their name from Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's substitute for the word "fuck
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
" in his novel The Naked and the Dead
The Naked and the Dead
The Naked and the Dead is a 1948 novel by Norman Mailer. It was based on his experiences with the 112th Cavalry Regiment during the Philippines Campaign in World War II...
. He was one of the band's singers and wrote many of their songs such as "Morning, Morning," "Kill for Peace," "CIA Man," "Supergirl," "Carpe Diem," and he set to music Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
's pacifist wedding hymn "Dover Beach." He also released two solo albums: No Deposit, No Return in 1966, which is a collection of found pop poetry, and Tuli & Friends in 1989.
Kupferberg was active in New York pacifist anarchist circles. He appeared as a machine-gun-toting soldier policing Manhattan in W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism is a 1971 film by Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev that explores the relationship between communist politics and sexuality, as well as exploring the life and work of Wilhelm Reich.-Narrative and documentary elements:The film intercuts documentary footage with,...
, a 1971 film about the revolutionary psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
by Dusan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
. An anti-police-brutality skit from his Revolting Theatre appeared in the 1971 Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
underground film Dynamite Chicken
Dynamite Chicken
Dynamite Chicken is American comedy film from 1972, starring Richard Pryor.“A contemporary probe and commentary of the mores and maladies of our age... With shtick, bits, pieces, girls, some hamburger, a little hair, a lady, some fellas, some religious stuff, and a lot of other things” boasts the...
. More recently Tuli appeared in the music video for Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror by Jeffrey Lewis
Jeffrey Lewis
Jeffrey Lewis is an American singer/songwriter and comic book artist.-Early life:Lewis attended State University of New York at Purchase and graduated in 1997 with a degree in Literature...
. His bi-weekly television show "Revolting News" still airs on Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Manhattan Neighborhood Network is a non-profit organization that broadcasts programming on four public-access television cable TV stations in Manhattan, New York and provides a community media center that enables individuals and groups to produce shows for its network.-History:It has operated...
's Channel 56, RCN Cable channel 83, Verizon
FiOS ch. 34 and MNN.org ch. 2 on alternate Mondays, 10 PM, New York time, now produced by Thelma Blitz with archival and new material.
Kupferberg suffered a stroke in April 2009 at his home in New York City, which left him severely visually impaired and in need of regular nursing care. After treatment for a number of days at a New York hospital, followed by convalescence at a nursing home, he recuperated at home. He continued to write songs and add "perverbs" to his YouTube and DailyMotion channels, both called "tulifuli." According to The Fugs website, the band had been in the studio completing a new CD, entitled Be Free, featuring five of Kupferberg’s new songs, including the anthem “Backward Jewish Soldiers” and a setting of his famous poem “Greenwich Village of My Dreams.”.
Kupferberg died in New York Downtown Hospital
New York Downtown Hospital
New York Downtown Hospital is a not-for-profit, acute care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan...
in Manhattan of kidney failure and sepsis on July 12, 2010. In 2008, in one of his last interviews, he told Mojo Magazine
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, "Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."