Ira Cohen
1935 – 2011GNAOUA
a magazine devoted to exorcism and Beat Generation poetry, introducing the work of Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse.

GNAOUA after Black African sect in Morocco known for ecstatic dancing and possession trances. Their patron saint is Sidi Bilal who was Mohammed’s muezzin. Each spirit which possesses the dancer has a specific gesture and musical phrase associated with it. The object is EXORCISM.