Ira Cohen

In Tangier Cohen edited and published GNAOUA, a literary magazine devoted to exorcism and Beat-era writings (prose and poetry), introducing the work of Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse and others.

Cohen also produced Jilala, field recordings of trance music by a sect of Moroccan dervishes made by Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin.

There he published The Hashish Cookbook (Gnaoua Press, 1966), which had been written in Tangier at Brion Gysin's suggestion by Cohen's then-girlfriend Rosalind, under the pseudonym "Panama Rose".

Among the reflected artists in his mirror were John McLaughlin, Ching Ho Cheng, William S. Burroughs and Jimi Hendrix - who said that looking at these photos was like "looking through butterfly wings".

Unfavorably received, he traveled to Amsterdam, again in the company of Simon Vinkenoog, Louise Landes Levi - poet, musician & translator with whom he would later collaborate on many projects – and Gerard Bellaart (Cold Turkey Press - Rotterdam, publisher of Burroughs, Bailes, Pound et al.), who became Ira's first publisher in the West & a lifelong friend, as was Levi.

Ins & Outs Press, which had already published postcards of the Bandaged Poets series, produced three limited-edition Kirke Wilson silkscreen prints of the photographs, including those of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

Cohen further developed a close association with the artists colony village of Ruigoord (eight miles west of Amsterdam) and is one their very few non-Dutch trophy holders.

[9] The '90s also introduced an extremely inspired dynamic and prosperous period of collaborations with Musician/Composers Sylvie Degiez and Wayne Lopes with the creation of "CosmicLegends", an improvisational music theater group, resulting in the world premiere of Angus Maclise's ORPHEO staged at The Kitchen NYC.

For the next 20 years Cohen was a regular collaborator and member of Cosmiclegends, along with Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov, Wayne Lopes, Rashied Ali, Taylor Meade, and Louise Landes Levi, all contributing to the larger-than-life performances conceived by Swiss/American composer Sylvie Degiez: "Let the Beast Scream", "Devachan and the Monads", "The Moody Moon" and more.

In May 1995, Cohen edited an Akashic Issue for Broadshirt, a magazine on a T-shirt designed by Phyllis Segura, with more than 20 contributors, including Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, Gaerad Melanga, Judith Malina, Louise Landes Levi, and others.

In 1994, Sub Rosa Records released Cohen's first CD, The Majoon Traveller, with Cheb i Sabbah, which also included the work of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman.

Cohen was a participating artist in the Whitney Biennial 2006, "Day for Night", with two back-lit transparency photographs, Jack Smith as the Norebo, Prince of the Venusian Munchkins, and The Magician from the Grand Tarot.