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a Jack Kerouac website

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Past Kerouac and beat Events

These are events that have occurred over the last few years. Yes, there was probably a Kerouac event going on near you that you never heard about. And there are other Kerouac events that I don't know about, and which haven't been included. So it goes.

Click on link: (or scroll down and see all past events)

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2002 - 2003 Previous Events

 

Please email your Kerouac and beat event to:  kerouaczin@aol.com or write to: Attila Gyenis, DHARMA beat, PO Box 5174, Eureka, CA 95502-5174. Please include date, time, address, and contact. Thanks. 


Jack Kerouac's Birthday, March 12, 1922

Jack Safe in Heaven dead, October 21, 1969

 

 

 JANUARY 2008
I counted minutes and subtracted miles. Just ahead, over the rolling wheat fields all golden beneath the distant snows of Estes, I’d be seeing old Denver at last.   
 -- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Scroll Tour Continues -

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper. http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

 


 February 2008

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues -

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper. The scroll itself will be on display from November 9, 2007 through February 22, 2008;  http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

 

 

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation."

Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

The scroll will not be available for viewing until Friday, March 7.

This exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes, and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. Writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gregory Corso are deeply identified with cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tangier, Calcutta, London, and Paris. Indeed, without "visiting" these places one cannot truly grasp the nature of the Beat scene. Presses in Paris and London printed writings deemed obscene in the United States; a poetry reading in San Francisco vaulted Ginsberg's "Howl" to the sphere of literary myth; and Neal Cassady's scrawled description of a bus ride to Kansas City sparked Jack Kerouac's method of "spontaneous prose." The exhibition places the Ransom Center's most important Beat holdings into geographical context and includes special sections that highlight important themes such as jazz, marriage, and the beatnik phenomenon of the late 1950s.

Jack Kerouac's scroll manuscript of On the Road, on loan from the collection of Jim Irsay, will be on display from March 7 through June 1. The first 48 feet of this 120-foot "page" will be visible in the gallery. This visually stunning first draft has no paragraph or chapter breaks, and the characters are all referred to by their real names.

Docent-led tours are offered Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 2 p.m. For groups of more than 10 people, please call Lisa Murray at 512-475-8086 to arrange a tour.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/ 

 

 Other Related Events

Beat Voices PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 7 P.M.

The Harry Ransom Center presents the premiere performance of Beat Voices on Thursday, February 21, at 7 p.m.

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

After the premiere, the plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

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 March 2008

Jack Kerouac's Birthday, March 12, 1922

 

Celebrate Jack Kerouac's 86th Birthday in Lowell at these happenings:

Friday, March 7th: Talkin' Jack. Bob Pare Studio-117 Market Street. 7:30. Drop in for a time of informal conversation about how Kerouac's writings have played a part in your life. Wine and Cheese provided.

Saturday, March 8th: 6:00-7:30 Kerouac Memorabilia Display: Lowell Gallery. Stop by the Lowell Gallery at 14 Jackson Street to view Kerouac-related art, posters, and first editions of his work. Hosted by Guy LeFebvre. Refreshments provided.

7: 30 p.m. Kerouac Birthday Party! Olive That and More- 167 Market St. Readings and Music. Featured reader will be David Robinson reading from his recently published Sweeney on the Fringe. Open Mike: Bring your favorite Kerouac reading, or a Kerouac-inspired work of your own. Birthday Cake...Governor's Proclamation of Jack Kerouac Day In Massachusetts!

Wednesday, March 12th -[Actual Birth Date] O'Leary Library Auditorium. UMass Lowell. 61 Wilder Street. 7:00 p.m. Premier showing of "Remembering Jack Kerouac" a documentary about last summer's Scroll Exhibit in Lowell. Produced by Bridget Driscoll and River TV Studios. Followed by a forum on Where Do We Go With Kerouac? A Community Conversation about keeping the Kerouac Legacy alive in Lowell. Led by Paul Marion, Executive Director-Office of Outreach, University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Sponsored by Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! and the Cultural Organization of Lowell

 
 
On The Road Scroll Tour Continues (In New York and Texas) -
 

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation."

Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

This exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes, and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. Writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gregory Corso are deeply identified with cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tangier, Calcutta, London, and Paris. Indeed, without "visiting" these places one cannot truly grasp the nature of the Beat scene. Presses in Paris and London printed writings deemed obscene in the United States; a poetry reading in San Francisco vaulted Ginsberg's "Howl" to the sphere of literary myth; and Neal Cassady's scrawled description of a bus ride to Kansas City sparked Jack Kerouac's method of "spontaneous prose." The exhibition places the Ransom Center's most important Beat holdings into geographical context and includes special sections that highlight important themes such as jazz, marriage, and the beatnik phenomenon of the late 1950s.

Jack Kerouac's scroll manuscript of On the Road, on loan from the collection of Jim Irsay, will be on display from March 7 through June 1. The first 48 feet of this 120-foot "page" will be visible in the gallery. This visually stunning first draft has no paragraph or chapter breaks, and the characters are all referred to by their real names.

Other Scroll Related Events


Kerouac scroll available for viewing EXHIBITION starting FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 10 A.M.-5 P.M.

First day to see the scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.

 

Docent-led tours are offered Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 2 p.m. For groups of more than 10 people, please call Lisa Murray at 512-475-8086 to arrange a tour.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a series of plays and readings. Please visit their website for more up to date information. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/events/

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/


Poetry on the Plaza: On the Road READING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, NOON

The Harry Ransom Center hosts Poetry on the Plaza: On the Road on Wednesday, March 5, at noon.

Professor Jeffrey Meikle and two students from his class "The Beats and American Culture," Meg Halpin and Tom Bevilacqua, read poetry from the Beat Generation. They will be joined by Dr. Molly Schwartzburg, Curator of British and American Literature, who will read selections featured in the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, which runs through August 3.

The exhibition traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7-June 1, 2008.

Refreshments will be served at this free event. More Information


"Hearing Private History: The Home Recordings of John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, 1949-1951" LECTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 7 P.M.

Phil Ford, Assistant Professor of Musicology at Indiana University, presents "Hearing Private History: The Home Recordings of John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, 1949-1951," on Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.

The talk focuses on an unpublished cache of home recordings that capture Clellon Holmes, Kerouac, and Ginsberg reciting poetry, listening to jazz, and trying their hand at vocal jazz improvisation. Ford will discuss how these recordings help us think about the unstable relationship between recorded sound and its decay, and the place of nostalgia in our reconstruction of the past through such ephemeral archival materials.

This event is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3.


"Celebrating On the Road" LECTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 7 P.M.

Ann Charters, biographer and bibliographer of Jack Kerouac, talks about her association with the novelist in "Celebrating On The Road" on Thursday, March 20, at 7 p.m. at the Harry Ransom Center.

Charters, a professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, discusses the changing reputation of Kerouac's On the Road since its publication in 1957—from its beginning as a best-selling novel that aroused controversy coast-to-coast in the United States to its present status honored as an American classic throughout the world.

This event is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7-June 1.

Charters began collecting books by Beat writers in the early 1960s, and she worked with Jack Kerouac in the compilation of his bibliography in 1966. She published Kerouac: A Biography in 1973, and she's edited The Beat Reader, The Sixties Reader, two volumes of Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac, and the textbook The Story and Its Writer.


Marathon Reading of On the Road READING SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 10 A.M.-10 P.M.

The Harry Ransom Center presents a marathon reading of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, on Saturday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Spider House Café.

Readers can sign up for a time slot to read on the Ransom Center's website at www.hrc.utexas.edu/ontheroad.

This event is presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center's current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, on display through August 3. The exhibition traces the travels of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and their friends across America and the globe. Manuscripts, books, photographs, and visual art from the Ransom Center's collections tell the story of the Beat Generation and the literary and social revolution they inspired. The scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be on display March 7 through June 1.

Spider House is located at 2908 Fruth Street.    Sign up to read


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

 

 

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; The original  scroll itself will be on display from November 9, 2007 through February 22, 2008 only; will includes a facsimile copy of the scroll roll, the original is now on display in Texas (see above).  http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

 

Go to Top of page


 April 2008

 

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues - 

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation."

See March listing for more information. Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/

 Other Scroll Related events More Information


 Beat Film Series with Motion Picture, Pull My Daisy, City of Jazz, Bridges-Go-Round, Anticipation of NightFILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 7 P.M.

This series features selected works from filmmakers involved in the Beat movement, including: Frank Paine's Motion Picture (1956), Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy (1959), Ed Bland's Cry of Jazz (1958), Shirley Clarke's Bridges-Go-Round (1958), and Stan Brakhage's Anticipation of the Night (1958). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street


"California Beat: West Coast Art from the Beat Era" LECTURE THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 7 P.M.

David S. Rubin, Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, presents "California Beat: West Coast Art from the Beat Era."

 


Beat Film Series with The Last Clean Shirt, Wholly Communion, Towers Open Fire, The End, and Beat FILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 7 P.M.

Alfred Leslie's The Last Clean Shirt (1964), Peter Whitehead's Wholly Communion (1965), Anthony Balch and William S. Burroughs's Towers Open Fire (1962), and Christopher MacLaine's The End (1953) and Beat (1958). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required. More Information

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street


Anne Waldman on Life as a Beat Poet READING FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 7 P.M.

Ann Waldman, co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, discusses her life as a Beat poet. More Information

 

 


Beat Film Series with Scorpio Rising, Kustom Kar Kommandos, and A Bucket of Blood FILM SERIES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 7 P.M.

Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1964) and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), and Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (1959). Co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society. Tickets Required.

More Information

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE AT THE RITZ, 320 E. 6th Street


"Jack Kerouac's America" LECTURE THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 7 P.M.

Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and editor of Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954 and Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960, offers his insights into "Jack Kerouac's America."

 


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

 

 

April 3, 2008, Auction of Beat, Bukowski, and Counter Culture Books at PBA Galleries, San Francisco, CA. www.PBAGalleries.com  (415)  989-2665

 

April 21 - July 3, 2008 -  The Beats and Beyond, Counterculture Poetry 1950-1975.    The Beats and Beyond celebrates the remarkable growth of the Rare Book Collection’s holdings of post–World War II American avant-garde poetry over the past fifteen years. Development of this collecting area has been gradual but steady, with items purchased both as collections and individually. Today, the RBC holds thousands of modern American poetry items, by both mainstream (or “academic”) writers and by participants in the counterculture. Curated by Sarah E. Fass,  Rare Book Collection, Wilson Library,  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/beats_and_beyond/

 

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 May 2008

 

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues -

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation."

Last day to see Kerouac scroll  SUNDAY, JUNE 1, NOON-5 P.M.  Last day to see the scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.

See March listing for more information. Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

 

 

April 21 - July 3, 2008 -  The Beats and Beyond, Counterculture Poetry 1950-1975.  The Beats and Beyond celebrates the remarkable growth of the Rare Book Collection’s holdings of post–World War II American avant-garde poetry over the past fifteen years. Development of this collecting area has been gradual but steady, with items purchased both as collections and individually. Today, the RBC holds thousands of modern American poetry items, by both mainstream (or “academic”) writers and by participants in the counterculture. Curated by Sarah E. Fass,  Rare Book Collection, Wilson Library,  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/beats_and_beyond/

Go to Top of page


 June 2008

 

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues -

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation."

See March listing for more information. Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/


Last day to see Kerouac scroll EXHIBITION SUNDAY, JUNE 1, NOON-5 P.M.

Last day to see the scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the exhibition On the Road with the Beats.


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

 

 

April 21 - July 3, 2008 -  The Beats and Beyond, Counterculture Poetry 1950-1975.    The Beats and Beyond celebrates the remarkable growth of the Rare Book Collection’s holdings of post–World War II American avant-garde poetry over the past fifteen years. Development of this collecting area has been gradual but steady, with items purchased both as collections and individually. Today, the RBC holds thousands of modern American poetry items, by both mainstream (or “academic”) writers and by participants in the counterculture. Curated by Sarah E. Fass,  Rare Book Collection, Wilson Library,  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/beats_and_beyond/


 July 2008

 

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues -

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation." The On The Road Scroll will be removed June 1, however the rest of the beat exhibition will remain for viewing till the end of the exhibition.

See March listing for more information. Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/

 

OTHER RELATED EVENTS


Austin Chamber Music Center performs tribute to Beats PERFORMANCE THURSDAY, JULY 17, 7 P.M.

The Austin Chamber Music Center presents the Tosca String Quartet in a tribute to the Beats, featuring Boston composer Lee Hyla's arrangement of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl."   JESSEN AUDITORIUM


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

 

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues 

June 26 to September 21, 2008: Indianapolis Museum of Art  (awaiting confirmation on dates)

 

 

 

April 21 - July 3, 2008 -  The Beats and Beyond, Counterculture Poetry 1950-1975.   The Beats and Beyond celebrates the remarkable growth of the Rare Book Collection’s holdings of post–World War II American avant-garde poetry over the past fifteen years. Development of this collecting area has been gradual but steady, with items purchased both as collections and individually. Today, the RBC holds thousands of modern American poetry items, by both mainstream (or “academic”) writers and by participants in the counterculture. Curated by Sarah E. Fass,  Rare Book Collection, Wilson Library,  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/beats_and_beyond/

 

July 17,18,19, 24, 25, and 26th, ."Kerouac's Last Call",  Boston Playwrights' Theatre - Kerouac's Last Call, which received it's successful World Premier as a fully staged play in Lowell last February (directed by Ann Garvin)  is hitting the road and will perform at the prestigious Boston Playwrights' Theatre on July 17,18,19, 24, 25, and 26th. Featuring actor Jerry Bisantz  who will portray Jack. "...a  fitting, vivid elegy to Kerouac.." The Lowell Sun.  The iconic writer’s final  party in Queens, NY is  brought to life in Newsday reporter Patrick Fenton’s  Boston  Premier play presented by Lowell’s Image Theater at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave, Boston.  Limited run July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26th.  at 8PM.  Call 866-811-4111  or go to www.Imagetheater.com.  Tickets $20 .

 

 

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 August 2008

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues  

June 26 to September 21, 2008: Indianapolis Museum of Art 

 

 

 

February 5 - August 3, 2008 - On the Road with the Beats, Ransom Center Galleries, The University of Texas at Austin.

The Harry Ransom Center's exhibition "On the Road with the Beats" explores the lives and works of the artists who made up the "Beat Generation." The On The Road Scroll will be removed June 1, however the rest of the beat exhibition will remain for viewing till the end of the exhibition.

See March listing for more information. Featuring more than 250 items drawn from across the Ransom Center's collections, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s. The exhibition runs from Feb. 5 to Aug. 3 in the Ransom Center Galleries at The University of Texas at Austin.

"On the Road with the Beats" can be seen at the Ransom Center Galleries on Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.  http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2008/beats/


Beat Voices PERFORMANCE

The series of brief plays, produced in conjunction with the current exhibition On the Road with the Beats, are written, directed, and performed by students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. The pieces illuminate objects and people featured in the exhibition, including Beat figures Peter Orlovsky and Diane DiPrima, specific letters exchanged by Beat authors, and a painting by artist Alfred Leslie.

The performances allow audience members to engage with artifacts and historical figures in the exhibition through live performance.

The plays will be performed every Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. until the exhibition closes.  More Information

Go to Top of page

 

 September 2008

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues  

June 26 to September 21, 2008: Indianapolis Museum of Art

 

 

Please email your Kerouac and beat event to:  kerouaczin@aol.com or write to: A. Gyenis, DHARMA beat, PO Box 5174, Eureka, CA 95502-5174. I also appreciate copies of any publicity information for the DHARMA beat archive. Please include date, time, address, and contact. We try to maintain a complete list of Kerouac events. Thanks. 

 

Sunday, September 28, 2008 - KEROUAC SUNDAY AT GUNTHER'S TAP ROOM IN NORTHPORT FEATURES PLAY & POETRY

Gunther's Tap Room in Northport, New York will play host to a daylong tribute to former Northport resident and author Jack Kerouac on the upcoming 39th anniversary of his death.
 
The celebration and tribute begins at 3:00 PM with the return performance of an original one-act play, "Jack's Last Call: Say Goodbye to Kerouac", written by Massapequa playwright Patrick Fenton and directed by Ed Dennehy.
 
"I am delighted that 'Jack's Last Call' was so well received last fall at Gunther's that it is making a return engagement this September," said director Dennehy.
 
At 9 PM that night, local poet BG Cassidy will once again present "The Kerouac Connection." Since 1996 Ms. Cassidy has been host to this entertaining evening of poetry reading and music at the legendary Northport bar where Jack used to hangout.
 
Admission to all of the day's performance events at Gunther's Tap Room, 84 Main Street, Northport, Long Island are free.
 
"Jack's Last Call: Say Goodbye to Kerouac" is a one-act play featuring Long Island actors Drew Keil as Jack Kerouac; Jack O'Connell as Leo Kerouac; Sonya Tannenbaum as Memere Kerouac; Derek McLaughlin as Neal Cassady; Suzanne Guacci as Jan Kerouac; and Steve Ryan as the Newsday reporter who narrates the story. Sound design for this production is by Sue Zizza of Sue Media with additional mixing and on-site audio engineering by Marc Weiner.
 
It's the end of summer in 1964. A major cultural shift is starting to happen in the US, and on his last night in Northport, the America Jack Kerouac saw through a rear view mirror riding along side his road partner Neal Cassady is slowly playing again in his mind. Long after a small going away party that he has thrown for himself is over, Jack keeps on drinking as he prepares to move to Florida with his mother. He reflects back on his fame, his youth as a football star in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the worry that his time has come and gone. As he sums up parts of his life to the audience in a bittersweet narrative, he receives a series of soul-searching phone calls from his daughter Jan.
 
In addition to being a stage play "Jack's Last Call: Say Goodbye to Kerouac" was adapted for public radio by Sue Zizza and SueMedia Productions and has been featured on more than 40 radio stations since its April 1, 2008 release.
 
The play was also presented by the Image Theatre Company in Jack's hometown, Lowell Massachusetts in summer 2007 and winter 2008, and moved from "the town to the city" by them for a successful six night run at Boston's Playwright Theatre in July 2008.

Jack's Last Call Say Goodbye to Kerouac. A new one hour audio play featuring Len Cariou as the Reporter and Drew Keil as Jack Kerouac. Written by Patrick Fenton. Adapted and directed for audio by Sue Zizza. Available for free downloads to public radio stations at www.jackslastcall.com. CDs of Jack's Last Call can be purchased through the ZBS Catalogue at www.zbs.org

 


 October 2008

Jack Safe in Heaven dead, October 21, 1969

Annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! -  Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown. Join the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival celebrates Jack Kerouac life and writings. Take the time to spend 4 days in Kerouac's hometown, walk the streets he wrote about, and listen to lectures, see movies, go on a pub crawl and drink in the same bars that Kerouac did. Visit their website to see all the events -  Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.  

Kerouac was born in Lowell, and the city keeps a strong Kerouac presence alive all year round with a park named after the author. 

Schedule for Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! 2008

From the Merrimack to Desolation Peak: A Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of “The Dharma Bums”

 

All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Thursday, October 2nd:

 

8:00 p.m.  Opening Festival Event at Cappy’s Copper Kettle featuring Alan Crane

and others. Coordinated by John McDermott. Joining the local musicians will be

acclaimed jazzman and composer, David Amram.

245 Central Street, Lowell.

 

 

Friday, October 3rd:

 

Daytime: Poetry Competition at Lowell High School. Details TBD.

 

2:00 p.m. Screening of Pull My Daisy with David Amram. A cult film classic

directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie. Features Allen Ginsberg, Gregory

Corso, Larry Rivers, David Amram, Dephine Seyring, and others.

Community Room. Pollard Memorial Library. 401 Merrimack Street.

 

 

7:00 p.m. Screening of One Fast Move And I’m Gone.  A documentary on Jack

Kerouac’s experience at Bixby Canyon—Big Sur, California which he describes in

his novel Big Sur.

To view a trailer go to www.kerouacfilms.com. A TangoPix and Makedia Worldwide

Documentary Film.

O’Leary Library Auditorium—University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Wilder Street,

Lowell.

 

9:30 Amram Jam. Acclaimed jazz musician and composer—and a “compadre” to Jack

Kerouac in New York in the mid-1950s—David Amram, will play and provide back up

for an open-mike poetry reading.

Café Paradiso. Corner of Palmer and Middle Streets, Lowell.

 

Saturday, October 4th:

 

9:30 a.m. “Mystic Jack” Walking Tour led by Roger Brunelle. Tour of the St.

Louis de France neighborhood that Kerouac describes in Visions of Gerard. Meet

at the St. Louis Church, corner of 6th Avenue and Boisvert St.

 

 

11:30 a.m. Commemorative at the Commemorative. A remembrance of Jack Kerouac

with an emphasis upon the Buddhist influence on his life and writings as

described in The Dharma Bums. Kerouac Park on Bridge Street.

 

2:00 p.m. “Poets on the Peaks” with John Suiter. Mr. Suiter is the author of the

book Poets on the Peaks which describes in both word, and wonderful photographs,

the summers that Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen spent as fire

lookouts in the Pacific Northwest. Kerouac’s experience there was the basis for

his book The Dharma Bums.

 

John Suiter’s talk also includes a slide presentation.

 

Mr. Suiter’s presentation is by arrangement with the Parker Lecture Series.

Visitors Center: Lowell National Historical Park. 246 Market Street, Lowell.

 

4:30 p.m. A “Kerouac Pub Tour” led by Mike Wurm. A tour of some of Kerouac’s

favorite “watering holes” in Lowell. Begins at Ricardo’s Café Trotteria (Nicky

Sampas’ Bar in Kerouac’s day) at 110 Gorham St. and ends at Cappy’s Copper

Kettle.

 

7:30 p.m. “Ghosts of the Pawtucketville Night” tour with Roger Brunelle. A

night-time tour of many of the sites described in Kerouac’s Doctor Sax,

including the Lowell Grotto, the Moody Street Bridge, and the Sarah

Avenue/Phoebe Avenue neighborhoods.

 

Begins in front of Cumnock Hall, North Campus, University of Massachusetts at

Lowell. 1 University Avenue—formerly Moody Street.

 

9:30 p.m. The Really Rockin’ Band Hot Day at the Zoo, at the Old Worthen Bar.

141 Worthen Street. Lowell.

Donation at the door requested.

 

Sunday, October 5th:

 

10:00 a.m. And On Throughout the Day:

 

Marathon Reading of The Dharma Bums at Café Paradiso.

Palmer and Middle Streets, Lowell.

To sign up for a time slot contact Nancy Herbstman at nomi1219@verizon.net. Or

call her at 781-449-7173.

 

2:00 p.m. Downtown walking tour of the Kerouac Places of Lowell led by Roger

Brunelle.  Depart from and return to Café Paradiso.

 

Enjoy.

 

Friday, October 10 – Saturday, October 11, 2008, The Beat Generation Symposium, Chicago, IL - The Beat Generation Symposium will include academic panel discussions, a lecture and performance titled “Deaf/Def Poets and the Beats,” and readings of poetry by Joanne Kyger (October 10, 7:00 p.m.) and Diane di Prima (October 11, 7:00 p.m.). For more info:  www.colum.edu/beatsymposium

Columbia College Chicago
Film Row Cinema
1104 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL  60605

Conference Director:  Tony Trigilio, Columbia College Chicago.  Sponsored by the Beat Studies Association, Columbia College Chicago, and Illinois State University. (312) 344-8138, ttrigilio@colum.edu

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

The symposium is part of a two-month college-wide initiative at Columbia College, during which time the first draft of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road will be on display at the Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash, on the second floor. Kerouac typed the draft on a 120-foot-long scroll during a 20-day marathon session in the mid-'50s. The manuscript is a single, continuous scroll of semi-translucent paper that is nine inches wide. Kerouac created the scroll by pasting and taping separate 12-foot-long strips, then feeding them through his typewriter so he could write without interruption. 

Cost: Before August 1,  $50 Individual,  $25 Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty. August 1 and after,  $100 Individual,  $50 Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty

THE BEAT GENERATION SYMPOSIUM Schedule


ALL EVENTS IN THE FILM ROW CINEMA
1104 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE (8th FLOOR)

Symposium Registration:
http://www.colum.edu/Academics/English_Department/beatsymposium/Registration.php

For more information:
Tony Trigilio (ttrigilio@colum.edu<mailto:ttrigilio@colum.edu>; 312-369-8138)

____________________________________________________

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

OCTOBER 10, 2008

10:00 a.m.
Welcome and Plenary Address

10:15-11:30 a.m.
"Road Mapping(s): The Textual Terrain of On the Road"

Panel Chair:  Tim Hunt, Illinois State University

"Byways and Highways: Manuscripts, Typescripts, and the Process of On the Road"
Isaac Gewirtz, Curator, Berg Collection, New York Public Library

 "Visions and Versions of Jack: A Fluid Text Edition of On the Road"
John Bryant, Department of English, Hofstra University

 "Hidden Roads:  Improvisational Textuality and On the Road"
Tim Hunt, Department of English, Illinois State University



11:45-1:00 p.m.
"Jack Kerouac -- Language, Prosody, and Spirituality"

Panel Chair:  Fiona Paton, State University of New York at New Paltz

"Kerouac, Inc.: Taking Beat In"
Steven Schroeder, The University of Chicago

"'A Kick at the Icebox Door': Haiku and Beat Haikus"
Matt Theado, Gardner-Webb University

"Jack Kerouac, the Québécois Diaspora, and Québécois Literature"
Hassan Melehy, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill



1:00-2:30 p.m. (Break for Lunch)



2:30-3:45 p.m.
"The Aesthetics and Spirt of Avant-Garde Practice:  Joanne Kyger and Diane di 
Prima"

Panel Chair:  Tony Trigilio, Columbia College Chicago

"Joanne Kyger and the Aesthetics of Attention"
Terrance Diggory, Skidmore College

"'Who did we pray to'? Diane di Prima's Loba"
Tony Trigilio, Columbia College Chicago

"'From the inside': Joanne Kyger's Changes of Mind"
Linda Russo, Washington State University

"The Feminized Interzone in Kyger and Di Prima"
Amy Friedman, Ursinus College



4:00-5:15 p.m.
"Hydrogen Jukebox: Allen Ginsberg and Deaf Poetry"

Peter Cook, Columbia College Chicago
Miriam Lerner, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of 
Technology
Kenny Lerner, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of 
Technology; Member, Flying Words Project



7:00 p.m.
Poetry reading by Joanne Kyger




OCTOBER 11, 2008

8:45-10:00 a.m.
"Beat Studies, The Next Generation:  Showcasing Graduate and Post-Graduate 
Scholarship"

Panel Chair:  Tony Trigilio, Columbia College Chicago

"The Impossible Manifesto:  Tracing the Manifesto Form through Avant-Garde and 
Beat Writing"
Jimmy Fazzino, University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Parasites, Viruses, and William S. Burroughs's Method"
Michael Sean Bolton, Arizona State University.

"Summers in the Skagit: Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and the Language of the 
Lookout"
John J. Morrell, Vanderbilt University.



10:15-11:30 a.m.
"Exploring the Beat Landscape -- Welch, Ferlinghetti, and Kaufman"

Panel Chair:  Nancy M. Grace, The College of Wooster

"Lew Welch:  Hermit Poet of Rat Flat"
Jane Falk, The University of Akron

"'Unfair Arguments with Existence':  Ferlinghetti's One-Acts and the Modes of 
Beat Drama"
Deborah R. Geis, DePauw University

"Bob Kaufman and Urbanizing Pastoral"
Todd Nathan Thorpe, The University of Notre Dame



11:45-12:45 p.m.

Elizabeth Von Vogt reads from her memoir, _681 Lexington Avenue -- A Beat 
Education in New York City, 1947-1954_

In this memoir just released from Greater Midwest Publishing, Von Vogt, a sister 
of John Clellon Holmes, describes her coming of age among Clellon Holmes, Jack 
Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other Beats in post-World War II New York City.


12:45-2:15 p.m. (Break for lunch)



2:30-3:45 p.m.
"New Scholarship on William S. Burroughs"

Panel Chair:  Jennie Skerl, West Chester University

"Love and 'Genial' Laughter: Cutting Up The Ticket That Exploded (1961 and 
1967)"
Katharine Streip, Concordia University

"Conservative Politics and Literary Radicalism: Burroughs and Kerouac"
Allen Hibbard, Middle Tennessee State University

"William S. Burroughs as 'Good Ol'Boy':  Eating the Naked Lunch in East Texas"
Rob Johnson, The University of Texas-Pan American

Respondent:  Timothy Murphy, University of Oklahoma



4:00-5:15 p.m.
"Beat Reception and Recovery -- Assessing the Critics and the Historians"

Chair:  Tim Hunt, Illinois State University

"Inside the 6 Gallery with Co-founder Deborah Remington"
Nancy M. Grace, The College of Wooster

"Kerouac Reception in the 1980s: Renaissance and Scholarly Revival"
Ronna C. Johnson, Tufts University.

"Recent Reception of Naked Lunch"
Jennie Skerl, West Chester University.

"Infiltrating the Boy Gang: Women in the Encyclopedia of Beat Literature"
Kurt Hemmer, William Rainey Harper College



7:00 p.m.
Poetry reading by Diane di Prima


8:00 p.m.
Closing Reception (Film Row Theater lobby)



The Beat Generation Symposium is sponsored by the English Department of Columbia 
College Chicago, in conjunction with the Beat Studies Association, an 
international organization that fosters scholarship on Beat Generation 
literature and art; the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and 
Gender in the Arts and Media; and Illinois State University's Department of 
English and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

 

 

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues

October 3 – November 30: Columbia College of Book & Paper Arts, Chicago, Illinois

Go to Top of page


 November 2008

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues

October 3 – November 30: Columbia College of Book & Paper Arts, Chicago, Illinois

 

 

November 11, 2008 -  Exibition of illustrations for On the Road by Jack Kerouac by students of the Freie Hochschule für Grafik-Design und Bildende Kunst in Freiburg, Germany at the Carl-Schurz-Haus in Freiburg, Germany. Vernissage: November 11th 2008, 8PM.  The exhibition is accompanied by a lecture and a panel discussion:

November 20th 2008, 8PM, Dirk Goertler: The Beat Generation 1955 – 1968 lecture

November 26th 2008, 8PM, Love and Napalm, Carl Weissner (German translator of William S. Burroughs and other Beats) Pociao (German translator of Paul Bowles and Beats) panel discussion

Contact Carl-Schurz-Haus, Deutsch-Amerikanisches-Institut e.V., Eisenbahnstrasse 58-62, 79098 Freiburg, Germany.  www.carl-schurz-haus.de


 December 2008

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues

Dec. 14 – January 29, 2009: Birmingham, England – University of Birmingham

 


 January 2009

 

ON THE ROAD Scroll Tour Continues

Dec. 14 – January 29, 2009: Birmingham, England – University of Birmingham

 

 

 

Please email your Kerouac and beat event to:  kerouaczin@aol.com or write to: A. Gyenis, DHARMA beat, PO Box 5174, Eureka, CA 95502-5174. I also appreciate copies of any publicity information for the DHARMA beat archive. Please include date, time, address, and contact. We try to maintain a complete list of Kerouac events. Thanks. 


 

 

 JANUARY 2007

 

Scroll Tour Continues - January 1 to March 31, 2007 - Kerouac On The Road Scroll Display:  Denver Public Library, Denver, CO  For a complete schedule of events, see http://www.denver.lib.co.us/programs/fresh/kerouac.html
 
I counted minutes and subtracted miles. Just ahead, over the rolling wheat fields all golden beneath the distant snows of Estes, I’d be seeing old Denver at last.   
 -- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

 

HOWL ON TRIAL EVENTS
with Editor Bill Morgan

Bill Morgan, editor/author of the recent Howl On Trial, I Celebrate Myself, The Book of Martyrdom, [noted Allen Ginsberg Biographer].  January 15, Monday, 8:00 pm - Mr. Morgan will be making an appearance to discuss his three books. Held at the Unterberg Poetry Center, 92nd St. YMCA, 1395 Lexington Avenue. (with Ann Charters, Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, and Laurie Anderson)

Friday January 12, Time TBA
Northshire Bookstore
4869 Main St.
Manchester Center, VT

Monday, January 15, 8:00 pm
Howl on Trial Book Release Event!
Kaufmann Concert Hall
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
Recordings of Mr. Ginsberg are featured. Event also includes: Ann Charters, Joyce Johnson, and Hettie Jones
For more information call (212) 415-5500

 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13,  2PM,  WHAT WAS THE BEAT GENERATION? Presented by Professor Ann Charters (“Kerouac:  A  Biography”; The Portable Beat Reader”; “Beat Down to Your Soul”), this lecture will focus on the beginnings of the movement. GREENWICH LIBRARY, Connecticut, SECOND FLOOR MEETING ROOM, For more info call  ED MORRISSEY at (203) 622-7918. Part of a Beat Generation series of lectures put on by the library.

Thursday, 1/25/07, Reading of On The Road - event take place at the Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia (U of P).  4:00 PM - 12:00 AM in the Arts Cafe.

Kelly Writers House celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a rollicking, stream-of-consciousness novel, burst onto the literary scene in 1957, rocketing Kerouac to fame and inspired a multi-generational obsession with "the road." On the Road, a rapid-fire adventure tale of crossing the country (and back again) solo and with friends, discovering drugs, jazz, and the "bug" of travel, became a benchmark for the Beat Generation.

Kerouac wrote the novel in a three-week marathon burst on 12-reams of paper he taped together and referred to as "the scroll." In celebration of the book, and the spirit of the book, the Writers House will host a marathon reading of our own scroll, featuring local luminary guest readers, accompanied by improvisational jazz musicians, and you! Stop by the house to listen to the novel, enjoy the jazz and jump in on the reading! If you would like to read a section of the scroll, please RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu.


 February 2007

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues - January 1 to March 31, 2007 - Kerouac's On The Road Scroll Display:  Denver Public Library, Denver, CO  For a complete schedule of events, see http://www.denver.lib.co.us/programs/fresh/kerouac.html
 
I counted minutes and subtracted miles. Just ahead, over the rolling wheat fields all golden beneath the distant snows of Estes, I’d be seeing old Denver at last.   
 -- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

 March 2007

Jack Kerouac's Birthday, March 12, 1922

On The Road Scroll Tour Continues - January 1 to March 31, 2007 - Kerouac's On The Road Scroll Display:  Denver Public Library, Denver, CO  For a complete schedule of events, see http://www.denver.lib.co.us/programs/fresh/kerouac.html
I counted minutes and subtracted miles. Just ahead, over the rolling wheat fields all golden beneath the distant snows of Estes, I’d be seeing old Denver at last.   
 -- Jack Kerouac, On The Road
 

March 10, 2007, Saturday: Jack Kerouac's birthday celebration--Lowell, MA - self-guided tours, cemetery walk and evening event Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.  

March 11, 2007, Sunday, Auckland, New Zealand - The Literatti (a performance poetry posse) will be putting on a show to honour Kerouac on the eve of his birthday, 11th of March, at Shanghai Lils in Auckland.  The line up includes The Literatti, Genevieve McClean, Anna Kaye, Sally Legg and others.  8 pm - 12 midnight on the 11th of March. 

Thursday March 15, 2007 -New York City event to benefit the movement to bring the original On The Road Scroll back to Lowell.  Contact The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City for details. http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

GEORGE WALLACE AND FRIENDS present -- a reading to benefit 'Scroll To Lowell," a drive in Jack Kerouac's hometown to bring the original On The Road scroll to town for viewing in 2007. $6 admission at the door, proceeds will go to the cause. SCROLL TO LOWELL: George Wallace and Friends in a benefit reading to help bring Jack Kerouac's On The Road manuscript to his hometown of Lowell Massachusetts this summer. Tentative guests include Simon Pettet, Jason Eisenberg, Eero Ruuttila, LZ Nunn and special guest Yesod.

March 18, 2007, Sunday, Jack Kerouac Birthday Reading -  Composition Gallery presents Raging in the Gloom: A Jack Kerouac Birthday Celebration. Readings, live music, and refreshments. Sunday March 18, 6 p.m. Free. 1388 McLendon Ave. Atlanta, Georgia 678-982-9764. www.compositiongallery.com
 

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 7PM, FOCUS ON JACK KEROUAC - Dr. Isaac Gewirtz, curator of the New York Public Library’s Berg Collection, will speak about and give a slide show presentation highlighting the life & work of the influential “On The Road” author.  GREENWICH LIBRARY, Connecticut, SECOND FLOOR MEETING ROOM, For more info call  ED MORRISSEY at (203) 622-7918. Part of a Beat Generation series of lectures put on by the library.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - The Lost Years of Jack Kerouac -  On Wednesday, March 28, at 2:00 P.M., in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publishing of the literary classic, “On the Road,” local author and noted Kerouac scholar, Patrick Fenton, will be speaking at the Massapequa Library, 40 Harbor Lane, Massapequa Park, New York. He will discuss some interesting and unknown facts about the Beat Generation writer, and his famous journey. Mr. Fenton will also read from his play “Last call: An Evening With Jack Kerouac which had a sold out run at the Rockaway, Queens Playhouse. The play is based on Jack Kerouac’s last night in Northport, Long, Island. 
During his 12 years in Queens, Jack Kerouac, with a notebook in his back pocket, roamed the streets from Sutphin to Cross Bay Boulevards, and also to the ocean at Rockaway beach. It was in Ozone Park, Queens that the writer planned his famous “On the Road” journey from what he once described as “a little kid’s sort of library.” After many years of chasing the ghost of Jack Kerouac, Patrick Fenton has retraced a map of these years and discovered what he calls “the lost years” of Jack Kerouac. The chase took Mr. Fenton all the way from Ozone Park, Queens to Northport, Long Island where it ended at Gunther’s Bar on Main Street, a frequent Kerouac hangout for many years. 
 
Mr. Fenton can be contacted for interviews at Stoopdreamer@hotmail.com

March, 31, 2007, JACK KEROUAC ALLEY DEDICATION - Saturday, March 31st, 2007 Noon – 4:00pm,  EVERYONE WELCOME! (Jack Kerouac Alley is located between Columbus and Grant Aves. & City Lights/ Vesuvio), San Francisco, CA

Please join the Chinatown Alleyway Improvement Association, the Chinatown Community Development Center, the Department of Public Works, Vesuvio, City Lights, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, Edwin Lee, the City’s Chief Administrative Officer, Fred Abadi, the Director of DPW, mandolin ensemble Zighi Baci, St. Mary’s School students, jazz musicians, and many others to share this joyful event with us.

Jack Kerouac Alley, situated between Grant and Columbus, and a stone's throw away from Broadway, brings together the historic neighborhoods of Chinatown and North Beach. In 2007, this alley was renovated and transformed into a beautiful new passageway, lined with inspired writings by Li Po, Confucius, Maya Angelou, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Steinbeck, as well as Jack Kerouac himself.
 


 April 2007

THURSDAY, MAY 17, 7PM, FOCUS ON ALLEN GINSBERG - Writer & Ginsberg expert/biographer Bill Morgan (“I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat  Private Life of Allen Ginsberg”;  “Howl on Trial”) will discuss the life, work and influence of the late Beat  poet  and social activist.  GREENWICH LIBRARY, Connecticut, SECOND FLOOR MEETING ROOM,  For more info call  ED MORRISSEY at (203) 622-7918.  Part of a Beat Generation series of lectures put on by the library.

April 26, Auction of Kerouac and beat items-  PBA Auctions, San Francisco. The sale of Kerouac and Bukowski items. See the catalog on line at  http://www.pbagalleries.com/live/sale_details354_all.php

 


 May 2007


 June 2007

June 2, 2007, Kerouac to Receive Degree - LOWELL, Massachusetts – Fifty years after the publication of Jack Kerouac’s most famous book, “On the Road,” the University in his hometown will honor him posthumously with an honorary doctorate of letters degree.

The award will be accepted by the executor of Kerouac’s literary estate, brother-in-law John Sampas, at the June 2, 2007 commencement ceremony at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Two weeks after that, the 120-foot “On the Road” scroll, upon which Kerouac’s manuscript was drafted in 1951, will be on display at the Boott Mills Cotton Museum in Lowell. The book was published in 1957.

“Jack Kerouac is synonymous with Lowell,” said John Wooding, UMass Lowell provost. “His books made Lowell a literary location known to the world, like Thoreau’s ‘Walden’ did for Concord. It is fitting for UMass Lowell to be the university that recognizes his achievement as one of the most important authors of the 20th century.”

This will be the only college degree awarded thus far to the famous writer, who is studied by English literature majors world-wide. Kerouac dropped out of Columbia University in his second year.

UML has a Kerouac Center for American Studies and offers a biennial Kerouac Conference on Beat Literature, directed by English Prof. Hilary Holladay, which draws Kerouac scholars and fans from the region and the world.  Kerouac died in 1969 and is buried in Lowell.

Kerouac was nominated for an honorary degree by UMass Lowell’s Community Relations Director Paul Marion, who is an author and Kerouac scholar. Marion edited “Atop an Underwood,” a collection of Kerouac’s early work. UMass Lowell then recommended the honorary doctorate recipient to the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees, which voted to accept it.

“Kerouac’s books are read and studied in colleges and universities around the world,” said Marion. “Kerouac has always been popular in the community of readers. With this honor, UMass Lowell welcomes him into the community of scholars.” 

Contact: Renae Lias Claffey 978-934-3233 or Renae_Lias@uml.edu

On The Road Scroll tour, Lowell, MA - From June 7, 2007-September 16, 2007 - Lowell National Historical Park and its partners will present an exhibition of Jack Kerouac's original scroll manuscript of On the Road at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum! http://www.ontheroadinlowell.org/

June 30, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, CO - In celebration of the 50th anniversary of On the Road, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics will share news of Kerouac celebrations around the world, updates about the School's own Kerouac Festival on June 30 and July 1, 2007 and perspectives of special guest bloggers.


 July 2007

July 1, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, CO - In celebration of the 50th anniversary of On the Road, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics will share news of Kerouac celebrations around the world, updates about the School's own Kerouac Festival on June 30 and July 1, 2007 and perspectives of special guest bloggers.

July 5th, Thursday: Kerouac’s Last Call playing in Lowell, MA.  A play directed by Ann Garvin. Jerry Bisantz as Jack Kerouac. National Park’s Visitor Center Theater, 246 Market Street, Lowell, Massachusetts. Reserve your seat by calling 978-441-0102 
On Thursday, July 5th, at 8:00 P.M., the Image Theater of Lowell, Massachusetts will perform a fully staged reading of a moving new play by Newsday writer Patrick Fenton which deals with Kerouac’s Ozone Park, Queens years and Northport, Long Island. It is his last night on Long Island, the America he saw through a rear view mirror along side of Neal Cassady is slowly playing again in his mind.
 
After throwing a small going away party for himself, he spends the night tallying up his road years long after the few guests have gone. Over some bourbon, he’s visited by the memory of his father Leo and the early hardscrabble days when they lived as a family over a drug store in Ozone Park, Queens. During the evening, he receives a series of soul-searching phone calls from his daughter Jan.

For reservations for this one night only event, go to www.Imagetheater.com or call 978-441-0102. Limited seating available.  Image Theater is a not for profit theater company that only produces new works.  (producing 35 local playwrights in less than two years, we like to think that we would be Jack's favorite theater company!)

 
Mr. Fenton can be contacted for interviews at Stoopdreamer@hotmail.com 

 

On The Road Scroll tour, Lowell, MA - From June 7, 2007-September 16, 2007 - Lowell National Historical Park and its partners will present an exhibition of Jack Kerouac's original scroll manuscript of On the Road at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum!  Lots of related events, check here http://www.ontheroadinlowell.org/events.html


 August 2007

On The Road Scroll tour, Lowell, MA - From June 7, 2007-September 16, 2007 - Lowell National Historical Park and its partners will present an exhibition of Jack Kerouac's original scroll manuscript of On the Road at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum! Lots of related events, check here http://www.ontheroadinlowell.org/events.html


 September 2007

On The Road - 50 Years old

In honor of this anniversary, Viking is publishing several Kerouac books, including the original scroll version of On The Road.


On the Road: The Original Scroll
Jack Kerouac - Author

Howard Cunnell - Editor/introduction
Joshua Kupetz - Introduction by
George Mouratidis - Introduction by
Penny Vlagopoulos - Introduction by


The legendary 1951 scroll draft of On the Road, published word for word as Kerouac originally composed it
.

[from the press release] Though Jack Kerouac began thinking about the novel that was to become On the Road as early as 1947, it was not until three weeks in April 1951, in an apartment on West Twentieth Street in Manhattan, that he wrote the first full draft that was satisfactory to him. Typed out as one long, single-spaced paragraph on eight long sheets of tracing paper that he later taped together to form a 120 foot scroll, this document is among the most significant, celebrated, and provocative artifacts in contemporary American literary history. It represents the first full expression of Kerouac’s revolutionary aesthetic, the identifiable point at which his thematic vision and narrative voice came together in a sustained burst of creative energy. It was also part of a wider vital experimentation in the American literary, musical, and visual arts in the post-World War II period.

It was not until more than six years later, and several new drafts, that Viking published, in 1957, the novel known to us today. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of On the Road, Viking will publish the 1951 scroll in a standard book format. The differences between the two versions are principally ones of significant detail and altered emphasis. The scroll is slightly longer and has a heightened linguistic virtuosity and a more sexually frenetic tone. It also uses the real names of Kerouac’s friends instead of the fictional names he later invented for them. The transcription of the scroll was done by Howard Cunnell who, along with Joshua Kupetz, George Mouratidis, and Penny Vlagopoulos, provides a critical introduction that explains the fascinating compositional and publication history of On the Road and anchors the text in its historical, political, and social context.

Book: Hardcover | 5.98 x 9.01in | 416 pages | ISBN 9780670063550 | 16 Aug 2007 | Viking Adult | Adult  $25.95


On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition
50th Anniversary Edition
Jack Kerouac - Author

A 50th anniversary hardcover edition of Kerouac’s classic novel that defined a generation

Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “beat” and has inspired generations of writers, musicians, artists, poets, and seekers who cite their discovery of the book as the event that “set them free.” Based on Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose four cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naïveté and wild abandon, and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up. This hardcover edition commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of the novel in 1957 and will be a must-have for any literature lover.

Book: Hardcover | 5.98 x 9.01in | 320 pages | ISBN 9780670063260 | 16 Aug 2007 | Viking Adult | Adult $24.95


Why Kerouac Matters
The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)
John Leland - Author

The author of Hip: The History reveals the lessons of the original hipster bible, On the Road

Legions of youthful Americans have taken On the Road as a manifesto for rebellion and an inspiration to hit the road. But there is much more to the novel than that.

In Why Kerouac Matters, John Leland embarks on a wry, insightful, and playful discussion of the novel, arguing that it still matters because at its core it is a book that is full of lessons about how to grow up. Leland’s focus is on Sal Paradise, the Kerouac alter ego, who has always been overshadowed by his fictional running buddy Dean Moriarty. Leland examines the lessons that Paradise absorbs and dispenses on his novelistic journey to manhood, and how those lessons— about work and money, love and sex, art and holiness—still reverberate today. He shows how On the Road is a primer for male friendship and the cultivation of traditional family values, and contends that the stereotype of the two wild and crazy guys obscures the novel’s core themes of the search for atonement, redemption, and divine revelation. Why Kerouac Matters offers a new take on Kerouac’s famous novel, overturning many misconceptions about it and making clear the themes Kerouac was trying to impart.


Book: Hardcover | 5.51 x 8.26in | 224 pages | ISBN 9780670063253 | 16 Aug 2007 | Viking Adult | Adult $23.95

Meet the author at the following events:

9/16/2007

New York, NY

BROOKLYN LITERARY FESTIVAL

 

9/17/2007

New York, NY

BARNES AND NOBLE #2619 Leland to read from Why Kerouac Matters

 

9/19/2007

Washington, DC

OLSSONS BOOKS & RECORDS Leland to read from Why Kerouac Matters

 

9/20/2007

Denver, CO

TATTERED COVER

 

9/22/2007

San Francisco, CA

BOOKSMITH Leland and Johnson to read (off-site at All Saints Church)

 

 

10/4/2007

Philadelphia, PA

PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC LIBRARY

 

10/14/2007

Denver, CO

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY (event with John Ventimiglia and David Amram)

 

 

 


 

On The Road Scroll tour, Lowell, MA - From June 7, 2007- October 14, 2007 - Lowell National Historical Park and its partners will present an exhibition of Jack Kerouac's original scroll manuscript of On the Road at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum!  The Lowell stay has been extended to October for the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival. Lots of related events, check here http://www.ontheroadinlowell.org/events.html

 

September 5 - 9th: The City celebrates Jack Kerouac and the 50th Anniversary of his iconic novel. Lowell, MA

Celebrations include:

  • Wednesday, September 5th
    10am-10pm: Marathon Reading of Kerouac's On the Road--50th anniversary of the novel's publication
  • Thursday, September 6th
    7pm: Montreal jazz bassist Normand Guilbeault's "Visions de Kerouac" bebop and spoken word show at McDonough Arts Magnet Theater (This event is free!)
  • Friday, September 7th
    7:30pm: David Amram's Kerouac Jazz at Boarding House Park
  • Saturday, September 8th: Jack Kerouac: Writers of the Next Generation
    1:00pm-2:30pm, The Brush Art Gallery, located in the complex with the LNHP Visitor Center at 256 Market St. Readers: Ken Janjigian, Lawrence Carradini and J.D. Scrimgeour.
    3:00pm-4:30pm Life Alive, 194 Middle Street. Readers: George Wallace, David Robinson, and Cesar Sanchez Beras.
    6:00pm-7:30pm Brew?d Awakening Coffee Haus , 61 Market Street. Readers: Jay Atkinson, Paul Marion, Peter Loosigian, and Mark Schorr.
  • Sunday, September 9th
    1:00-3:00 p.m. Next Generation Writers continued....
    Readers: Jean Monahan, Gigi Thibodeau, Richard Wollman, and Danielle Legros Georges. Boott Events Center, 115 John St, Lowell
    2:30 Special viewing of On the Road: An Exhibition of Jack Kerouac's Original Scroll Manuscript. Members of the exhibition team will be on hand to answer your questions. Boott Cotton Mills Museum, 115 John Street, Lowell. Free admission & refreshments
    4pm: Kay Roberts' New England Orchestra Kerouac classical and jazz tribute concert at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre (Tickets $15 available at the door; $10 for students/seniors)

 

 

September 5, 2007, On The Road at 50: A Celebration of Jack Kerouac, New York, NY.

A TimesTalks Panel. The Lighthouse Theatre, 111 East 59 St., NY, NY
Featuring Douglas Brinkley, Billy Collins and Joyce Johnson
Moderated by John Leland.  See most of the authors and editors of the Kerouac book onslaught—Brinkley edited the Library of America volume, Johnson’s memoir is being reissued for the anniversary and moderator Leland’s new critical book on Kerouac is at the top of Viking’s list—in one place on the big day. 

 


September 5, 2007, Wednesday, VESUVIO TO HOST LITERARY EVENT TO HONOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF “ON THE ROAD”  SAN FRANCISCO  – Vesuvio Café, long associated with Jack Kerouac since the earliest days of the Beat generation, is hosting The Ragged Promised Land, a live show to honor Kerouac’s On the Road on the 50th Anniversary of the book’s first publishing.

The literary entertainment event scheduled for September 5 features readings of excerpts from the book, punctuated with live acoustic jazz. “The excerpts from On the Road have been selected specifically to showcase Kerouac’s travels in California,” says Rodger Jacobs, the show’s director. Jacobs, an award-winning writer and documentary producer, will be performing the readings along with Joe Shackel, Jim Reese, Gregg Martinez, and Jan Becker. Vesuvio co-owner Janet Clyde is handling producing chores. Popular acoustic jazz trio Alt Tal will be on hand to round out the show. Event details: “The Ragged Promised Land,” 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Vesuvio Café,
255 Columbus @ Kerouac Alley, 21 & Over/ID Required. No Cover Charge

 

Thursday, September 6th, 10:00pm, Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of On The Road, New York, NY: Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery @ Bleeker.  Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Tim Moran accompanied by David Amram's Trio. John Ventimiglia ("Artie Bucco" of "The Sopranos") reads, as well. http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

 

September 6, 2007, Back On The Road, Boston MA. Celebration of On The Road sponsored by Harvard Bookstore at Brattle Theatre, Featuring John Leland and Joyce Johnson.

 

Monday, September 10, 2007, 8 pm - A Tribute to Kerouac's On the Road, 8:00 pm. San Francisco, CA.

With David Meltzer, Wavy Gravy, Lenore Kandel, Joanna McClure and other surprise guests. An exuberant celebration of the 50th anniversary of publication of Jack Kerouac’s immortal On the Road, featuring Bay Area poets, bebop jazz musicians, and beat aficionados of all stripes. Lose yourself in the Dionysian fire and musical magic of one of literature’s most enduring and artistic movements. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA. (415) 292-1233.  $8 Members | $10 Public

 

Wednesday, Sep 12 2007, 7:00pm, - Jack Kerouac's Road, Medford, MA.

Jack Kerouac's life and work are very complex. Steve Edington will discuss these sides of this Lowell, Massachusetts born writer whose works are now read world-wide. Steve Edington is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua, New Hampshire. He's the author of "Kerouac's Nashua Connection" and "The Beat Face of God--The Beat Generation Writers as Spirit Guides." Steve is a long-time member of the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Committee. Price: Free. Phone: (781) 395-7950. Web Page: http://www.medfordlibrary.org


 

Saturday, September 22nd, 7pm, Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of On The Road, San Francisco, CA.

San Francisco, CA: All Saints Church, 1350 Waller Street. City Lights, The Booksmith and Penguin Books celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road with Jon Leland, Joyce Johnson, Michael McClure, Barry Gifford, and Suzanne Kleid.  

Book related to this event: You'll Be Okay: My Life with Jack Kerouac by Edie Kerouac-Parker, 2007 Edition. "We’ve officially entered what might as well be called Jack Kerouac Awareness Month. It’s the 50th anniversary of the publication of 'On the Road,' and the commemorations include . . . a memoir, 'You’ll Be Okay,' from Kerouac’s first wife." – NY Times.

 

September 30, 2007, KEROUAC’S LAST CALL, Northport, NY - IN CELEBRATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLISHING OF “ON THE ROAD,” JOIN US FOR A SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT GUNTHER’S WITH KEROUAC. (Gunther’s Bar, Jack Kerouac’s old hangout, 84 Main Street, Northport, Long Island.)
      On Sunday, September 30th, at 2:00 P.M., actor, director, Ed Dennehy, will present a new play by Patrick Fenton entitled “KEROUAC’S LAST CALL.” The play deals with Jack Kerouac’s time in Ozone Park, Queens, Richmond Hill, and Northport, Long Island. It is the end of the summer in 1964, a major cultural shift is starting to happen, and on his last night in Northport, Long Island, the America Kerouac saw through a rear view mirror along side of Neal Cassady is slowly playing again in his mind. While wondering back on his road days, he receives a series of soul--searching phone calls from his daughter Jan.
      
    “KEROUAC’S LAST CALL,” starring, Ed Dennehy, Jack O’Connell, Sonja Tannenbaum, Drew Keil, Sophie Vanier, and Michael Newman, music by Sue Sizza, is directed by Ed Dennehy. Contact Patrick Fenton at Stoopdreamer@aol.com  516-797-1483   Check it out.
 
(With the help of the Image Theater in Lowell, Massachusetts, Jack Kerouac’s hometown, a reading of the play recently took place there, which starred actor, director Jerry Bisantz and was directed by Ann Garvin.)

 

 October 2007

Jack Safe in Heaven dead, October 21, 1969

October 4 - 7, Memories of Lowell from the Road. Lowell, MA

20th Annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! -  Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown?Join the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival celebrates Jack Kerouac life and writings. Take the time to spend 4 days in Kerouac's hometown, walk the streets he wrote about, and listen to lectures, see movies, go on a pub crawl and drink in the same bars that Kerouac did. Visit their website to see all the events -  Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.  

Kerouac was born in Lowell, and the city keeps a strong Kerouac presence alive all year round with a park named after the author. The original scroll is there right now, and will be through the end of this annual festival, which features four days of talks, readings, and events in what may be the most Kerouac-oriented town in America.

 

On The Road Scroll tour, Lowell, MA - From June 7, 2007- October 14, 2007 - Lowell National Historical Park and its partners will present an exhibition of Jack Kerouac's original scroll manuscript of On the Road at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum!  The Lowell stay has been extended to October for the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival. Lots of related events, check here http://www.ontheroadinlowell.org/events.html

 

October 19-21, 2007, Marathon Reading of On The Road - Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center of Venice California will be holding a marathon reading of On the Road from October 19 through October 21.  Poets, actors and original Venice Beat Philomene Long (the Beat Nun) will be reading, and in the Project Room there will be a "Road" inspired photo exhibit.   email - beyondbaroque@aol.com 

681 VENICE BLVD
VENICE, CA 90291
(310) 822-3006


 

email kerouaczin@aol.com to list your Kerouac event here!


 November 2007
 

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper. http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

 

November 27, 2007,  Tuesday, Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, 1957-2007, New York Public Library

Length: 1 hr 30 mins
Intermission: None
Seating: General Admission, You choose your seats when you get to the theater.

This event is currently not on sale. Please check back soon for updated details.

https://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showCode=BEA9

With the Library’s exhibition Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, 1957-2007, LIVE from the NYPL will pay tribute to the career of Beat writer and poet Jack Kerouac and the Beat Movement. Drawing on the contents of the Jack Kerouac Archive, housed in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, many of Kerouac’s unpublished manuscripts, diaries, journals, correspondence, drawings, photographs, and treasured objects will be on display. The exhibition’s title is derived from a characteristically awe-struck observation by the narrator of On the Road, Sal Paradise, about the novel’s central figure, Dean Moriarty, based on Kerouac’s friend and (as Ginsberg called Whitman) “courage teacher”: “He was BEAT—the root, the soul of Beatific.” Join us for an evening celebration of the life and work of Jack Kerouac.

 

November 29, 2007, On The Road Discussion, Sudbury, MA. Bill Schechter, History Department of Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Ma will hold a two night discussion of the Beat Generation and  "On The Road".
 
This open "Book Club" will be held on Thursday night November 29, 2007 and Thursday night December 6, 2007.  The event will be held at the LSRHS library.  This is a fundraiser for FELS (Foundation for Educators at Lincoln Sudbury) which gives grants to faculty and staff for personal and professional development.

 


 December 2007

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper. http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.

 

December 6, 2007, On The Road Discussion, Sudbury, MA. Bill Schechter, History Department of Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Ma will hold a two night discussion of the Beat Generation and  "On The Road".
 
This open "Book Club" will be held on Thursday night November 29, 2007 and Thursday night December 6, 2007.  The event will be held at the LSRHS library.  This is a fundraiser for FELS (Foundation for Educators at Lincoln Sudbury) which gives grants to faculty and staff for personal and professional development.

Up To Top


January 2008

November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 - On the Road Scroll at the New York City Public Library. Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper. http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm  

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008.


email kerouaczin@aol.com to list your Kerouac event here!

 
 JANUARY 2006

Scroll Tour:  January 14 - March 19, 2006 - Kerouac Scroll in San Francisco - On the Road: The Jack Kerouac Manuscript Jack Kerouac wrote the manuscript for the now classic Beat Generation novel On the Road within a 20-day period in New York City in 1951 employing “spontaneous prose,” a nonstop, unedited style inspired by letters from his friend Neal Cassady. Kerouac’s manuscript is a 120-foot long scroll consisting of a series of single-spaced typed twelve-foot long rolls of paper that have been taped together. Thirty-six feet of the original manuscript will be exhibited along with an overview of Kerouac’s life and other works, a brief history of the Beat movement and Beats in San Francisco, told through photos, books and ephemera. This manuscript is on loan from the collection of James S. Irsay. © Estate of Anthony G. Sampatacacus and the Estate of Jan Kerouac. Sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/coming.htm

Exhibition:  January 14 – March 19, 2006, Main Library, Lower Level, Jewett Gallery, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove), Ph: 415-557-4400 

Related Program: Thursdays at Noon Large Screen Video Series
January 2006 The Beats: Jack Kerouac and Friends

  • January 5 – The Source (1999)
  • January 12 – The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (1992)
  • January 19 – The Coney Island of Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1996)
  • January 26 – Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats (1985)

Related Program: January 21, 2006 Kerouac's On the Road: From East to West - Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac, discusses the life of Jack Kerouac, his classic book On the Road and Kerouac's connection to San Francisco. Saturday, January 21, 2006, 2 p.m. - 3 p.m., Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

January 13 - The Beat Museum opens in San Francisco- GRAND OPENING/RECEPTION, Friday, 7 - 9 PM.  - Come join Jerry Cimino and an assortment of North Beach characters as we celebrate our Grand Opening in San Francisco.  Carolyn Cassady will be there as will her children John Allen Cassady and Jami Cassady.  Refreshments will be served.  We'll have original artwork on display by Jack Michelene, Aggie Falk and Jack Hirschman. LOCATION:  The Beat Museum, 1345 Grant Ave, San Francisco http://www.kerouac.com


 February 2006

Scroll Tour continues: January 14 - March 19, 2006 - Kerouac Scroll in San Francisco - Main Library, Lower Level, Jewett Gallery, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove), San Francisco, CA, Ph: 415-557-4400 

Related Program - Women of the Beat Generation - Join us when Brenda Knight, author of Women of the Beat Generation discusses the lives and times of the Beats with Eileen Kaufman, Mary Norbert Korte, Jamie Cassady and Joanna McClure. Author ruth weiss will read poetry accompanied with jazz.
Thursday, February 9
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

Neal Cassady Birthday Bash - February 8, 2006, Wednesday. 7 PM until - ? at the newly opened Beat Museum, 1345 Grant Avenue, North Beach, San Francisco, CA. http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/schedule2.htm  In addition to Neal's children there will be many acquaintances on hand - people who knew Neal both in the 50's and the 60's. It would have been Neal's 80th birthday.

DAVID AMRAM PLAYS AT THE SACRED RUN CONCERT IN SF FRIDAY February 10, 2006 - 8 PM. Nancy Lewis and our friends at Red Hot Promotions are sponsoring a terrific line up at Studio Z to kick off the Sacred Run - a Celebration of Land, Life and Peace. With Hosts Dennis Banks & Peter Coyote. Sacred Run Benefit Concert will kick off the 2006 Sacred Run
which begins in San Francisco Feb. 11, crossing the U.S., with stops in Gulf Coast territory to be with those who are rebuilding after the hurricane,and arriving in Washington D.C. Earth Day, April 22. www.SacredRun.org for info.

February 19th, 2006 -  Reception for the release of STASHOU and YASHOU—a Photographic Art Portfolio featuring photos by Stanley Twardawicz of Jack Kerouac, Dix Hills, NY.

STASHOU and YASHOU has been selected by Kate Kelly, Director/Curator for the prestigious Art League of Long Island (ALLI), and co-curator, Nancy Olivier, to be included in the exhibition “On Paper/Of Paper,”, which opens on Saturday, February18th, with an opening reception on Sunday the 19th, 2-5pm at the Art League of Long Island—Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery, 107 East Deer Park Rd., in Dix Hills, New York.

See the Kerouac Stuff page for more information on the portfolio.


 march 2006

Jack Kerouac's Birthday, March 12, 1922

Scroll Tour continues: January 14 - March 19, 2006 - Kerouac Scroll in San Francisco - Main Library, Lower Level, Jewett Gallery, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove), San Francisco, CA, Ph: 415-557-4400 

Related Program: The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour - Bill Morgan, author of The Beat Generation in San Francisco, provides a virtual “walking tour” of the Beat homes and haunts in San Francisco. Co-sponsored by City Lights Books.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

 

Beat Events at the new Beat Museum in San Francisco (contact the Beat Museum for info). Check out the Kerouac Birthday Bash, and the 6 Gallery re-creation where Ginsberg read Howl back in 1955.

March 9, Thursday, Open Mike Poetry - 7 PM, Hosted by Jessica Loos, Sign up to read at the door. Free!

March 10, Friday, Poetry Event - 7 PM, Three Featured Poets, Hosted by Jessica Loos, Free!

March 12, Sunday, KEROUAC BIRTHDAY BASH - 7 PM, Come Celebrate With Us! Jack was born March 12, 1922 in Lowell, MA.

March 15, Wednesday, Movie Screening of Beat Angel - 7 PM, A Film About the Spirit of Jack Kerouac, Benefit Screening for the Film Makers, $5 at the door (http://www.beatangel.com)

March 22, Wednesday, Movie Screening of Beat Angel - 7 PM, A Film About the Spirit of Jack Kerouac, Benefit Screening for the Film Makers, $5 at the door (http://www.beatangel.com)

March 24, Friday, 8 PM, RE-CREATION of the 6 POETS at the 6 GALLERY READING! Join us as well known San Francisco Poets and Writers recreate the famous event that set it all in motion in 1955. We'll be reading works from all the poets that were read back in 1955.  This is the night Ginsberg read HOWL for the first time and the reason Ferlinghetti asked to publish it!

The Beat Museum - Jerry Cimino
1345 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA  94133
1-800-KER-OUAC
http://www.kerouac.com
http://www.thebeatmuseumonwheels.com

 

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! - Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown? Go to Lowell Celebrates Kerouac  for schedule information.

 

March 9, 2006 - Auction of Beat Material - The Edwin Blair Collection of Beat Literature will be auctioned off by PBA Galleries in San Francisco. The catalog is available on-line at www.pbagalleries.com (sale 327). Great Kerouac and beat stuff.

 

SIGN UP FOR BEAT WALKING TOURS LED BY BILL MORGAN - Friday, March 17th and Saturday, March 18th - Two tours each day, at 11am and 2pm. Cost is $10 payable in cash only to Bill Morgan just prior to the tour. Reservations can be made by emailing your date and time of choice to walk@citylights.com, calling (415) 362-8193 or signing up at the front counter at City Lights.

Meet in front of City Lights Bookstore (261 Columbus Ave.) Tours will last two hours.

Morning tour (11 am) will see: Ginsberg's apartment where he wrote "Howl"; Homes of Corso, Snyder, Whalen, Ferlinghetti, Kaufman, McClure; Night spots and bars of the Beat Generation; Kerouac Alley and Vesuvios; Caffe Trieste; Grant Avenue haunts, The Place, and more.

Afternoon tour (2 pm) will see: Kerouac's Chinatown; Site of the "Howl" trial Foster's cafeteria; Towne & Oller, where Ginsberg worked in market research; Ginsberg's Moloch sighting; and Neal Cassady's home where Kerouac visited.

Bill Morgan is the author of The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Tour and The Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City.

Read more about Morgan’s The Beat Generation in San Francisco at http://www.citylights.com/CLpubBC1.html#3255


 April 2006

 


 May 2006

Scroll Tour Continues - May 1 to July 31: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, Indiana


 June 2006

Scroll Tour Continues - May 1 to July 31: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, Indiana


 July 2006

Scroll Tour Continues - May 1 to July 31: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, Indiana


 August 2006

 


 September 2006

THE BEAT MUSEUM "GALA GRAND OPENING," WEDNESDAY - SEPTEMBER 27, 2006. Beat Museum has a new, and permanent home.

Come celebrate the “Gala Grand Opening” of The Beat Museum, Wednesday - September 27, 2006 at 6:00 PM
CONFIRMED SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE:
- Michael McClure - Beat Poet, featured at the Six at Six Reading in October, 1955
- Magda Cregg  - Companion to Lew Welch
- Stanley Mouse - famous 1960’s Poster Artist
- Hugh Romney (aka Wavy Gravy) - Beat Poet turned Merry Prankster
- John Allen Cassady - The Sarah Jessica Parker of The Beat Generation
- Many more to come...FEATURING:
Original Artwork by Nano Lopez, Stanley Mouse & Richard Whalen
Allen Ginsberg Photo Exhibit by Harold Adler
The Beat Museum
540 Broadway
San Francisco, CA  94133
 
 www.kerouac.com

 

LARRY KEENAN PHOTO EXHIBIT, September 6th - September 30th - You know Larry Keenan's photos.  He's took many famous photos of the Beat Era including The Last Gathering at City Lights.  Larry's photos will be on exhibit during the months of September in San Francisco.

Exhibit - The Micaela Gallery, 333 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA

 

JACK HIRSCHMAN READING -  Thursday, SEPTEMBER 14th -SF Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman Reading his new book "The Arcanes"

Thursday - September 14th at 6 PM
Friends of the SF Public Library
391 Grove Street (at Gough)
San Francisco, CA
http://www.friendssfpl.org
415-626-7500

 

[NOTE: The On The Road Scroll is not being displayed at Columbia College in Chicago as previously stated]


 October 2006

Jack Safe in Heaven dead, October 21, 1969

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! - October 5 - 8, 2006 - Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown? Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.  Join the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival celebrates Jack Kerouac life and writings. Take the time to spend 4 days in Kerouac's hometown, walk the streets he wrote about, and listen to lectures, see movies, go on a pub crawl and drink in the same bars that Kerouac did.

 The 19th Annual 2006 Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival   
Kerouac For All Seasons
SCHEDULE

Sunday October 1 - Official Lead-in Event

Noon  -  Dubliner Restaurant; 4th Annual Running of Kerouac 5K Road Race (to pass by Kerouac Park), proceeds to benefit scholarship. For more information call (978) 649-6189.


Thursday October 5

PM  -  4:00    LNHP Visitor Center; Film: Lowell Blues, Market St.

   8:00    Cappy¹s Copper Kettle; Musicians Frank Morey, Allen Crane, poets Jim Dunn and Diana Saenz, Central St.    

Friday  October 6

AM  -  9:30    Lowell High School; Youth Poetry Contest, 50 French St.

PM  -  4:00    LNHP Visitor Center; Film: Lowell Blues

           5:30    Pollard Library; Scroll to Lowell Fundraiser, UMASS Lowell Writers in Residence, musician Frank Morey, others, presentations, and special guest David Amram, 401 Merrimack St. Fundraiser Admission $25, Students $15

           9:00    Pawtucketville; Ghosts of the Pawtucketville Night, Roger Brunelle. Meet at McDonald¹s on corner of Mammoth Rd. and the bridge overlooking the falls.

Saturday October 7

AM  -  10:30    Kerouac Park; Commemorative at the Commemorative, intersection of French St. and Bridge St.

PM  -  12:30    Pollard Library; Cairo to Kerouac, David Amram and friends

   2:00    LNHP Visitor Center; Kerouac walking tour (contingent on sufficient number of reservations). For info./ reservations, call (978)970-5000.

   2:00    Nashua; Van Tour, Steve Edington. For info./ reservations call (603)883-3141 or (603)930-8781. Meets on sidewalk in front of Visitor Center, Market St.

   4:00    Rainbow Cafe¹; Reading at the Rainbow, 'Open Mic,' Cabot St., between Merrimack & Market

   4:00    LNHP Visitor Center; Film: Lowell Blues

   6:00    Kerouac Pubs Tour; Mike Wurm. Meets on sidewalk in front of Visitor Center, Market St.

   8:00    Rainbow Cafe; Janet Hamill and Moving Star, Cabot St.

Sunday October 8

PM  -  12:30    Caffe' Paradiso; Amram Jam, 'Open Mic' poets reading in collaboration with David Amram and friends, corner of Palmer St. and Middle St.

   4:00    LNHP Visitor Center; Film: Lowell Blues

 

 

BEAT ANGEL – FILM ABOUT “THE SPIRIT OF JACK KEROUAC” – TO BE RELEASED ON DVD, OCTOBER 21

DVD SCREENING EVENT AT THE BEAT MUSEUM IN SAN FRANCISCO, OCTOBER 22, The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, San Francisco, CA  94133

The film, Beat Angel, about “the spirit of Jack Kerouac,” will be released on DVD, October 21.  The date also marks 37 years since Beat Generation author, poet Jack Kerouac passed away. 
On the 30th anniversary of his own death, the angelic spirit of Jack Kerouac (played by Vincent Balestri) returns to earth in the abandoned body of a street bum.  “Jack” drops in at a poetry slam held in honor of his “death day,” and backed by a jazz trio, explains the meaning of “bop spontaneous prose” and “speaking the truth.”  He begins to transform the lives of three people:  Gerard Tripp (played by Frank Tabbita), a secretive writer who locks his manuscripts away; Mary (Amy Humphrey), a shy young writer; and Carol (Lisa Niemi), a former painter turned bartender.
Beat Angel was inspired by Balestri’s heralded one-man play, Kerouac: The Essence of Jack that began in the early ‘80s and ran off and on for 17 years.   Kerouac’s first wife, Edie Parker-Kerouac, encouraged Balestri to portray Jack on stage, coaching the actor in Jack’s voice and mannerisms, and sharing old letters and home tape recordings.  The play evolved as Balestri met a number of Jack’s old friends.  In 1993 Frank Tabbita brought Balestri to Seattle where he performed the show in several long runs.  Interested in translating the “essence” of the piece to film, Tabbita teamed with filmmaker/writer Randy Allred,  writer/producer Bruce Boyle, and Balestri to create Beat Angel.
The film’s “old movie feel” was a deliberate design of director Allred, invoking the atmosphere of Kerouac’s world and the sense of the dream-like sequences.  Scenes shot at Desolation Peak (where Kerouac served as a fire lookout, and wrote about in his books, Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels), a jazz music score and recreations of moments in Kerouac’s life, give the film a haunting yet inspiring quality.   Beat Angel has received such critical praise as “Superb…intriguing twists and turns…” --Winston-Salem Journal.  Composer/musician David Amram noted: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers and I all made Pull my Daisy in 1959 in part to show our kids and grandkids someday that we were for real and able to enjoy life and one another…Like Pull My Daisy reflected the fun we had together as well as the hard work we did when alone.  Like Pull My Daisy, Beat Angel is free of any Hollyweirdness and Post Modern gloom…Beat Angel is full of soulfulness, joy, surprises, warmth and humor…”
Beat Angel was a popular festival selection across the U.S., garnering two award nominations at The Method Fest in Los Angeles, and winning the Wine Country Film Festival’s Special Prize of the Fest.  
A DVD release-screening event, with a performance by Vincent Balestri, will take place on Sunday, October 22 at The Beat Museum (at 540 Broadway) in San Francisco.
DVD features:  19 minute video of Kerouac: The Essence of Jack; Writers Commentary with Balestri, Boyle, Tabbita and Allred; 12 chapters; deleted scenes; in English with French, Spanish, Italian and English subtitles.  Film running time 99 minutes, color NTSC, all Regions.  Available October 21 through www.BeatAngel.com , FilmBaby.com, Amazon.com, Kerouac.com and other selected outlets.  Also find Beat Angel at My Space:  www.myspace.com/beatangelthemovie

 

email kerouaczin@aol.com to list your Kerouac event here!

 

San Francisco Beat WALKING TOUR & LIVE PERFORMANCE WITH JOHN ALLEN CASSADY - The son of Neal Cassady will lead Walking Tours of North Beach and all the Beat Generation haunts.      

Thursday, October 26th at 2 PM
or Friday, October 27 at 2 PM

$15 in advance, $20 at the door
Meet at :
The Beat Museum
540 Broadway
San Francisco, CA  94133
1-800-KER-OUAC
 www.kerouac.com

This 90 minute tour will focus on the bars, coffeehouses, jazz clubs, homes and other highlights of North Beach.  See the places where Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso and Robert Creely lived.  We’ll see the apartment where Allen Ginsberg was living when he wrote Howl!  The streets of North Beach look pretty much the same and knowing what happened where brings old voices to life!
 

[NOTE: The On The Road Scroll is not being displayed at Columbia College in Chicago as previously stated]


 November 2006

CITY LIGHTS & THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB CELEBRATE HOWL'S 50TH!  Wednesday, November 15th, from 5:30- 7pm

In 1956, City Lights published Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems. Soon after, City Lights publisher & owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights store manager Shigeyoshi Murao were arrested, charged with publishing and distributing "obscene material." What followed is one of the most important first-amendment battles of the 20th century, with City Lights emerging victorious. Allen Ginsberg became a house-hold name, City Lights was known worldwide, and the court decision set a crucial precedent for subsequent free speech battles.

Please join City Lights as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Howl and Other Poems on Wednesday, November 15th, from 5:30- 7 pm, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Special Guests include: Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Artistic Director for Youth Speaks, reading from "Howl" followed by a panel discussion with Bill Morgan, editor of Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression and author of the new biography, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg, Al Bendich, the attorney who successfully defended "Howl" at the original trial in 1957, Dorothy Ehrlich, Executive Director of the ACLU-NC, and Jason Shinder, Editor of Howl: Fifty Years Later. The Club is located at 595 Market St, San Francisco, 94105.

Get more info and advance tickets here: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/ & (415) 597-6700

City Lights Bookstore Howl Links

Howl Turns 50

A History of Howl

Howl Celebrations

Howl On Trial
 

November 1, Wednesday - Bill Morgan, editor/author of the recent Howl On Trial, I Celebrate Myself, The Book of Martyrdom [noted Allen Ginsberg Biographer]  - Mr. Morgan will be making an appearance to discuss his three books. Held at St. Mark's Poetry Project, 131 E 10th Street (at Second Avenue), 8:00 pm, (with Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, Alice Notley, Bob Rosenthal, Lee Renaldo, Simon Pettet, Eileen Myles, Steven Taylor, and others)

 

November 19, Sunday,  - The Shepherd & Knucklehead Pub is hosting a night of OPEN - MIC POETRY - all who are 21 and over are welcome, starts around 9:00pm and there is a sign up sheet at the bar - original works or readings from your favorite writer/poet are welcome - you can read or just come to listen and enjoy - and of course, some Kerouac will be read as well. 

A beer please - Please know that "The Shepherd & The Knucklehead Pub" in Haledon, NJ, is the home of a shrine dedicated to the spirit of Jack Kerouac, and just down the street from where "On the Road's" real trip began. Each thought and image inside the pub is inspired on by Kerouac's spirit, the pub was built in his memory; here where we make a virtue out of restlessness, where "we want to prowl and roam and to see the real America that had never been uttered." We think too, that Kerouac would have wanted to drink here because, everything he wrote "was true because he believed in what he saw!"   To here at the pub, where we believe in "order, tenderness and piety."   Come join us on poetry night and our opening vesper to Jack Kerouac. Monthly Poetry Reading in New Jersey, Kerouac style = www.myspace.com/shepherd_knucklehead
 
The Shepherd & The Knucklehead Pub
529 Belmont Ave.
Haledon, NJ
973-942-8666

 


 

 December 2006

December 29, 2006, Friday  - AN EVENING WITH CAROLYN CASSADY -  at 7:30. Carolyn Cassady will be on-stage at The Beat Museum for an evening of remembrances, story telling and readings.  Carolyn's the reason the Beats landed in San Francisco - once she moved out here Neal had to follow - and Jack and Allen weren't far behind.  The evening will include plenty of time for Questions and Answers as well as autographs and conversation.

The Beat Museum
540 Broadway (at Columbus)
San Francisco, CA
415-399-9626 - Museum Direct
Tickets are $20 in advance; $30 at the door
Friday, December 29th - 7:30 PM

This event is sure to sell out as newspaper publicity is starting now.  As Carolyn rarely makes appearances in the U.S. we don't want those of you on our mailing list to miss this opportunity.  Call the museum direct at 415-399-9626 (between 11 AM - 7 PM Pacific) with your credit card information so we can hold your ticket for you at the door.
 

 

Up To Top

 
2005

 JANUARY 2005

1/19/05 - Kerouac knickknacks go up for bid online. Read about it in the Lowell Sun.  http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4761~2645387,00.html

Scroll Tour - Jan. 19 to March 31: University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2005/january/010705on-the-road.html

JAN. 28 - IN UI MUSEUM OF ART - LATHAM WILL TALK ABOUT BEATS AND BEATNIKS. The University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA) will host “Beat vs. Beatnik: Pop Cooptations of Kerouac and Company,” a free lecture by Rob Latham, a UI associate professor of English and American Studies, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, in the museum’s Lasansky Room. Latham will discuss the changing paradigms of aesthetics during the Beat era and beyond.  He will focus on how the Beat generation writers of the 1950s were caricatured throughout the contemporary mass media as ‘beatniks.’ He will also talk about how the Beat writers themselves, especially Kerouac, responded to these media caricatures.

JAN. 30 - DALE FISHER WILL LEAD A TOUR OF UI MUSEUM OF ART. Dale Fisher, director of education at the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA), will present a tour of the museum’s collections and “Jack Kerouac: On the Road,” an exhibition of Kerouac’s scroll manuscript of the Beat Generation novel, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30. The tour will be free and open to the public.

 February 2005

Beat Angel (movie showing) 7pm Tuesday, Feb. 15:  The Live Poets Society and the Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop will present a special showing of “BEAT ANGEL” at the Sedona Harkins Theatres. Vincent Balestri ("Jack") will give a special reading, and Vincent with director Randy Allred will be present after the film for Q&A.

Harkins Theatres
2081 West Highway 89A
Sedona, AZ, 86336

For more information email info@newterritoryarts.com or call Jim Bishop at 928-282-1966, or John Reid at 204-0695. Tickets for the Beat Angel evening will be $10 and will be available at the door.

Scroll Tour - Jan. 19 to March 31: University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2005/january/010705on-the-road.html

 March 2005

Jack Kerouac's Birthday, March 12, 1922

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! - Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown? Lowell Celebrates Kerouac

March 11-13 - Fifth annual Jack Kerouac Birthday Party, Denton, Texas. It began as a house party, starting on the night of March 11th 2001 to allow for a collaborative birthday toast to Jack Kerouac. The idea was to have typewriters placed throughout the house with taped together lengths of paper for attendants to type freely whatever they felt at the moment. Kerouac books were also scattered throughout the house to provide equally scattered readings. Mostly original writings were read, but granting the party was a celebration of the artist as an inspiration to all of our art, in some form or fashion, we wanted those without writings at hand to have a varied selection of literature to read aloud. Success, success, success! Cheap wine and other alcohols were had by all. Original Kerouac songs were spontaneously written and performed by all. Typings were read and preserved by all. The party, holding those precepts, has continued to this grand continuance, our fifth annual Jack Kerouac Birthday Party. This, our fifth year, will be held at 2301 W. Prarie #2, Denton, TX 76201. Out of town attendants are encouraged to travel and will be housed. Begins evening of March 11th and ends evening of March 13th. You may feel free to contact Greg at 214-533-8736 or Eddie Cain at 806-773-6555 for more information. 

Sunday March 13, 2005, 2 pm - Reading of 242 choruses of Mexico City Blues, Knoxville, Tennessee. The Urban Bar (corner of Jackson and Central), accompanied by a Jazz jam by the Suburbanterreanians. The readers are know collectively as the Karma Thieves. For more info gregleton@netzero.net

Saturday, March 12, 8 pm onwards - A CAFÉ & DANCE CELEBRATING DHARMA ARTS with the disembodied poetics of Jack Kerouac (on the occasion of his birthday*). 118 W. 22nd Street, 6th Floor, New York City, Edible treats & cash bar, $10 donation. A delectable smorgasbord of theater, comedy, music, video, visual art & spoken word. We'll mix the Dharma and the city, explore, develop, and share the arts in an open, responsive, and playful environment. SPECIAL TREAT: In honor of Jack Kerouac's birthday, we'll offer Performances-- Storytelling with Laura Simms and theater with Peter Goldfarb, Lanny Harrison, and the GESTURE Theatre Company.  Spoken word artists include Jim Storm, Rachel Lund, Ken Caffrey, Jr., Ethan Nichtern, and more! Video & Film--The Listen With Your Eyes contemplative media project curates a program of shorts, including work by John Benton, Carina Tautu,, Eric Zechman,  plus ambient video. Comedy--Master Lee and Joseph Mauricio add leavening. Dancing--The celebration concludes with a DJ'ed dance featuring live performers. Musicians include Tal Varon, Timothy Quigly, and Arnold Hammerschlag. Visual art --The exhibit "Love at First Sight: Clear Seeing and Visual Dharma," will be on view at the Center from Friday, Mar. 11, through Sunday, Mar. 13. Work by Jack Niland, Lela Shields, Erin Koch, and others. On sale will be an assortment of poetry and other literary work. Come see the Center transformed by work produced in the preceding day-long workshop, "Dharma Art: All at Once" led by Jack Niland. This celebration is part of the month-long international Dharma Arts festival sponsored by Vajra Dawn. The Shambhala Center is located at 118 W. 22nd St., between 6th and 7th avenues, on the sixth floor. Nearby subways are the F/V, 1/9, W/R, C/E. For more info: 212.675.6544, or visit http://www.ny.shambhala.org.

Beat Angel - March 5 (showtimes TBA), Sedona, AZ: "BEAT ANGEL" screens at the 11th Annual Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop in Sedona, AZ. Poetry, Films and a SLAM! at the Canyon Moon Theatre in the Old Marketplace.  If poetry is your thing, you MUST be at Canyon Moon Theatre for an afternoon of poetry, slams and special screenings of “Beat Angel” and “Sunday Night Poets.” The festival and workshop runs March 3 to 6, 2005. For more information e-mail or call the festival at 928.282.1177

Scroll Tour - Jan. 19 to March 13: University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2005/january/010705on-the-road.html

Scroll Tour - March 24 to May 15: Las Vegas Public Library, Las Vegas, Nevada, the city of luck.

 April 2005

On The Road Scroll Tour - March 24 to May 15: Las Vegas Public Library Las Vegas Public Library, Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Dr., Las Vegas, Nevada 89128. Phone:(702) 507-3710. Hours: M-Th, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., F - Sun, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

April 3,  MEMORIAL FOR PHILIP LAMANTIA SUNDAY APRIL 3RD IN SF. Philip Lamantia passed away on March 7th.  Philip was one of the participants at that famous "Six Poets at Six Gallery" in October, 1955.  He chose not to read his own poems that night but rather those of a recently deceased friend, John Hoffman.  This is the same night Ginsberg read Howl for the first time and the rest is Beat History. Please note:  Some of the newspaper articles below say the memorial for Philip is scheduled for this coming Sunday March 27th.  This appears to have changed as the City Lights website says the memorial has been rescheduled for Sunday April 3rd at Enrico's from 2PM-5PM. http://www.citylights.com/
 

 May 2005

On The Road Scroll Tour - March 24 to May 15: Las Vegas Public Library Las Vegas Public Library, Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Dr., Las Vegas, Nevada 89128. Phone:(702) 507-3710. Hours: M-Th, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., F - Sun, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

May 13 - BEAT ANGEL screens 9pm Friday, at GALLERY CO. 7, 2000 SE 7th, Portland, OR 97214. 7:00 pm - Buffalo Poetry open mic - free. 9:00 film - $5. 12:00 am - 'Round Midnight Jazz Jam - $4. Special thanks to Michael Franklin. For more information call Michael (503) 282-5784
 

 June 2005

Scroll Tour - June to August: National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

June 5 - "The Dharma at Big Sur" by John Adams. Lincoln Center in New York City is hosting the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Sunday, June 5 at 2pm when they perform John Adams’ “The Dharma at Big Sur”, his tribute to the California landscape as described by Gary Snider, Henry Miller, and Jack Kerouac.  Newsday calls the piece ‘an unhurried meditation for electric violin and orchestra, reminiscent of Jerry Garcia guitar solos.’ You could link to http://lincolncenter.org or   http://www.lincolncenter.org/esro/load_event_1.asp?event=3578&programid=119

 

 July 2005

Scroll Tour - June to August: National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

BEAT FACE OF GOD - CLASS IN BERKELEY - JULY 11 - 15, There's still time to sign up for Steve Edington's one week session - "The Beat Face of God - The Beat Generation Writers as Spirit Guides".  The course is based on Steve's forthcoming book of the same title.Class Description - http://www.sksm.edu/academics/summer_2005.php
 

 August 2005

Scroll Tour - June to August: National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

 September 2005

Scroll Tour - Sept. 1 to Nov. 30: University of Texas, Austin

Kerouac Fest at the Midway Hotel - Windber, PA, starting Thursday, September 8 to Sunday. An informal weekend, but filled with events at the Midway Hotel located 1303 Midway St, in downtown Windber (not a public hotel but they have the occasional special events). Winber is about an hour east of Pittsburgh. Just the way to celebrate Kerouac and his life. Wish I could be there. Celebrated in style, it's one big hell of a slumber party. The Beat Museum on Wheels, carrying John Cassady (son of Neal), will hopefully arrive there in time for the Big Beat Symposium.  www.kerouacfest.com

Events:

Thursday September 8th - Evening Check-in at the Grand Midway Hotel, 1303 Midway, Windber, PA 15963 -direct center of town- It is free but please contact us ahead of time if you plan to attend (What to bring: you must bring something -anything- to share with others at the event, your writing or your work, anything to contribute to the group experience, beer or wine or food for the pot lucks, a musical instrument if you play jazz, your own sleeping bag and pillow and towel, a pen, a few bucks to shop at the Beat Mobile. Enthusiasm.) Late night poker games and other surprises

Friday September 9th - mini-classes throughout the day with special guests Beat Mobile arrives via 3000 miles from California. 8 pm- the Big Beat Symposium at the beautiful Arcadia Theater! (across the street from the Hotel). 10:30 pm John Cassady Birthday Party at the Hotel (with undisclosed band) -it is also Marshall Ruben and Aimee Kast's birthday as well!

Saturday September 10th - Noon several thousand motorcycles begin the Dog Run out front Hotel, mini-classes throughout the day with special guests, Night Marathon Reading of Kerouac's On The Road set to live improv jazz! Possible Coney Island Midnight Hotdog Run Adventure

Sunday September 11th - Sunday morning big breakfast and good-byes

You must be 18 or older to attend. (NOTE: we will be filming the last of the footage for the film Coolsville the weekend of the event.)

See you there! www.kerouacfest.com

 October 2005

Jack Safe in Heaven dead, October 21, 1969

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! - October 6 - 9, 2005. Are you going to be in Lowell, MA, Jack's hometown? Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.  The 18th Annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival celebrates "Jack's Roots." Take the time to spend 4 days in Kerouac's hometown, walk the streets he wrote about, and listen to lectures, see movies, go on a pub crawl and drink in the same bars that Kerouac did.

Events:

Thursday, Oct.6

A.M.
-9:30 UMASS Jack Kerouac Conference on Beat Literature. South Campus. Panels and readings in O'Leary 222, Wilder St.


P.M. -3:30 film screening, Pull My Daisy. Beat classic starring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, David Amram and others, narrated by Jack Kerouac. David Amram will be on hand to speak. UMASS, So. Campus, O'Leary Room 222, Wilder St.

-4:00 showing of Henry Ferrini's Lowell Blues. LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-5:00 Destination Lowell, an evening of events focused on Franco-American of French-Canadian origin. Films, music, food tasting, exhibits. Various locations. Meet at LNHP Visitor Ctr., Market St. $5

-7:30 reading by poet Nancy Schoenberger. With David Daniel. Cosponsored by LCK! and UMASS, O'Leary 222, Wilder St.

-9:00 reading featuring poet, David Surette, Caffe' Paradiso. Located on the corner of Market and Palmer St.

Friday, Oct.7

A.M.
-9:00 Lowell High School (LHS) youth poetry competition. LHS, French St.

-9:30 UMASS Conference continues.

P.M.
-2:00 UMASS Conference keynote speaker, Sam Kashner, author of When I Was Cool, his account of life as the first student at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

-2:30 Hey Jack Kerouac walking tour. Lowell National Historical Park. Includes Kerouac artifacts on exhibit. Meets at LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-4:00 showing of Henry Ferrini's Lowell Blues. LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-7:30 reading event at Life Alive focusing on Kerouac's literary/artistic roots. Readings from Wolff, Saroyan, others. With Tony Sampas, Paul Marion, more. 194 Middle St.

-9:00 Ghosts of the Pawtuckettville Night walking tour led by Roger Brunelle in conjunction with the Mogan Cultural Center. Meets in front of Cumnock Hall, UMASS No. Campus, University Ave. Suggested donation $5

Saturday, Oct.8

A.M.
-9:00 Kerouac's Lowell bus tour led by Roger Brunelle in conjunction with the Mogan Cultural Center. Will meet at the Mogan Cultural Center, French St. Suggested donation $10

-10:30 Commemorative at the Commemorative. Short readings from passages dedicated to Jack and words of remembrance by personal friends of Lucien Carr, Robert Creeley, Philip Lamantia, and Hunter S. Thompson. Kerouac Park, Bridge St.


P.M.
-12:00 David Amram, Cairo to Kerouac a journey in music at the Pollard Memorial Library, Merrimack St.

-2:00 Bill Morgan on Allen Ginsberg, part of the Parker Lecture Series. Pollard Memorial Library, Merrimack St.

-2:00 Kerouac's Merrimack boat tour. Lowell National Historical Park. Meets at LNHP Visitor Center, Market St. Fees and reservation required. Call (978) 970-5000

-3:30 Poetry and Spoken word open mic reading at the Rainbow. Cabot St.

-4:00 showing of Henry Ferrini's Lowell Blues. LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-5:30 Kerouac Pub Crawl. Tour some spots Jack was known to socialize, led by Mike Wurm. Meet in front of LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-7:00 Book signing and discussion by Steve Edington, author of The Beat Face of God, The Beat Generation Writers as Spirit Guides. David Amram wrote the introduction and will be on hand to answer questions. Barnes & Noble, 151 Merrimack St.

-8:30 Jazz In Jack's Town with the David Amram Trio. Gallery Grill, EVOS. DVD release party. DVD recorded last year with John Allen Cassady, David Amram and Trio, Steve Edington. Raffle ticket with purchase of DVD. 98 Middle St. Suggested donation, $5


Sunday, Oct.9

A.M.
-10:00 Kurt Hemmer's film on Michael McClure and Henry Ferrini presenting rough cut of film on Charles Olson. Henry Ferrini is being presented in conjunction with the Lowell Poetry Network and is partially funded by Walter Bacigalupo. Both film makers will be on hand to discuss their work. Brush with Art Gallery and Studios. Market St.


P.M.
-2:00 Amram Jam. Poetry and spoken word open mic with live accompaniment by David Amram Trio. Caffe' Paradiso, corner of Market and Palmer St.

-2:30 Hey Jack Kerouac walking tour. Lowell National Historical Park. Includes Kerouac artifacts on exhibit. Meets at LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.

-4:00 showing of Henry Ferrini's Lowell Blues. LNHP Visitor Center, Market St.
 

Litquake - San Francisco, CA, October 7 - 15, 2005.  Litquake gives everyone who reads a reason to put down their books and get out of the house. Named Best SF Lit Scene by San Francisco Magazine, this annual literary festival runs from October 7-15, 2005.

Litquake’s opening night will feature a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Ginsberg’s “Howl” at the 6 Gallery. Co-produced with City Lights, Howl Redux: Revolutionary Writers of San Francisco will pair authors and celebrities to give voice to seminal Bay Area writers who have put the Bay Area on the international literary map. Works by Jack London, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Dashiell Hammett, Jack Kerouac, Randy Shilts and more will be read by Daniel Handler, Cintra Wilson, Amy Tan, Armistead Maupin, devorah major, Barry Gifford and special guests. Howl Redux takes place Friday, October 7 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Advance tickets will be available through http://www.cityboxoffice.com/

A complete list of authors, times and venues is available at http://www.litquake.org/. Admissions vary according to event, with some free of charge. To purchase tickets ahead of time: http://www.cityboxoffice.com/

 

Scroll Tour continues- Sept. 1 to Nov. 30: University of Texas, Austin

THE BEAT MUSEUM ON WHEELS FALL TOUR - SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER:  The Beat Museum on Wheels hits the road. Jerry Cimino and John Cassady (son of Neal Cassady) are now putting their Fall Tour in place and expect to hit many of the same locales they hit last Fall - Lowell, New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Raleigh and other locales.  Contact thebeatmobile@yahoo.com or 1-800-KER-OUAC  if you want to get your school or organization in the queue.   Check The Beat Museum on Wheels website: http://www.thebeatmuseumonwheels.com/

"Beat Generation" by Jack Kerouac- Thunder's Mouth Press will publish a new Kerouac book, BEAT GENERATION, this October.  ($18, cloth, 112 pages, 1-56025-742-3) This is an unpublished, unproduced play written by Kerouac that his agent, Sterling Lord, recently rediscovered. With an introduction by A. M. Homes.

 November 2005

4th Annual BEAT GENERATION AND BEYOND Premier collaborative conference of art, film, poetry and performance, sponsored by JOHN NATSOULAS GALLERY located in Davis, California. info: http://www.natsoulas.com/

4TH ANNUAL BEAT GENERATION AND BEYOND CONFERENCE TAKES PLACE NOV 11 & 12

The Fourth Annual Beat Generation & Beyond Conference will be presented by John Natsoulas Center For The Arts (521 First Street, Davis, CA). The gathering offers a rare opportunity to meet world-renowned poets, artists, filmmakers, and performers of the Beat Generation. The Beats’ rebellious spirit, a bent for collaboration, and their wildly creative vision changed the culture of 20th century America—a vision that continues to inspire today’s artists.

This year’s conference headliner, Amiri Baraka, was known during his Beat period as LeRoi Jones. He lived in New York’s Greenwich Village and Lower East Side where he published several important little magazines and hung out with other bohemian writers like Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, and Gilbert Sorrentino. Baraka, a foremost African/American poet, will perform on Saturday, reading his poems. For more information, see http://www.natsoulas.com/html/beatweb/beat.html or contact nancy@natsoulas.com

 

Scroll Tour continues - Sept. 1 to Nov. 30: University of Texas, Austin

THE BEAT MUSEUM ON WHEELS FALL TOUR - SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER:  The Beat Museum on Wheels hits the road. Jerry Cimino and John Cassady (son of Neal Cassady) are now putting their Fall Tour in place and expect to hit many of the same locales they hit last Fall - Lowell, New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Raleigh and other locales.  Contact thebeatmobile@yahoo.com or 1-800-KER-OUAC  if you want to get your school or organization in the queue.   Check The Beat Museum on Wheels website: http://www.thebeatmuseumonwheels.com/

 December 2005

THE BEAT MUSEUM ON WHEELS FALL TOUR - SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER:  The Beat Museum on Wheels hits the road. Jerry Cimino and John Cassady (son of Neal Cassady) are now putting their Fall Tour in place and expect to hit many of the same locales they hit last Fall - Lowell, New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Raleigh and other locales.  Contact thebeatmobile@yahoo.com or 1-800-KER-OUAC  if you want to get your school or organization in the queue.   Check The Beat Museum on Wheels website: http://www.thebeatmuseumonwheels.com/

 

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2004

  JANUARY 2004

1/15/04 - On The Road Scroll Display, Orlando, FL


 FEBRUARY 2004

February 28th at 2:00 pm (Orlando, FL) - Co-founder of the Kerouac Project Bob Kealing's new book, "Kerouac In Florida - Where the Road Ends"  The Orange County Regional History Center is hosting a party in to celebrate the publication of "Kerouac in Florida" on Saturday, February 28th at 2:00 pm. David Amram will be coming back to Orlando to help celebrate this special event.

Click here to read an excerpt, as published in the current issue of Orlando Magazine.

 


 MARCH 2004

3/12/22 - Happy Birthday Jack

Penguin Books is releasing 'Neal Cassady: Collected Letters,' edited by Dave Moore ('the Kerouac Connection'). March 30, 2004. The collection includes more than 200 letters to Kerouac, Ginsberg, Holmes & others, as well as to Carolyn, Neal's wife. 'Neal Cassady, raw & uncut.'


Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Birthday Celebration - March 12, Lowell, MA, with the Hot Spot Jazz Trio


An Evening with Jack Kerouac, a play  - March 20, 27 Winter Park, FL

 


 APRIL 2004

An Evening with Jack Kerouac, a play  - April 17,18. Fall River, MA


An Evening with Jack Kerouac, a play  - April 24, 25. Winter Park, FL


Beat Angel, a movie premiere -  April 5th, 7:30pm - "Beat Angel"  Dir: Randy Allred, Starring: Vincent Balestri, Frank Tabbita, Lisa Niemi
A homeless man is reincarnated as Jack Kerouac. Location: AMC Theaters, 201 E. Magnolia Blvd. (inside mall, 3rd floor). Monday, April 5th, 5:30-7:30pm. "The Method Fest invites you to go back in time to the days of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Movement for an evening of poetry and music. Following the event will be a screening of the film "Beat Angel" by Director Randy Allred.
Location: Shakespeare at Play Theater, 328 N. Brighton Ave. Method Fest - An Independent Film Festival April 2nd - 9th, 2004 Downtown Burbank, CA - info -  www.methodfest.com

 


Friday, April 2nd at 3:30 at the Bull’s Head Bookshop Gordon Ball will read from ‘66 Frames (Coffee House Press), his memoir of 1960s New York.  Featuring encounters with Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and Andy Warhol, ‘66 Frames is a record of the New York underground art scene of the time and a history of American avant garde cinema.  Ball is Professor of English at Virginia Military Institute and has edited several volumes of Allen Ginsberg’s early journals and other writings; he will be appearing on campus as part of the conference “The Beats in America: Alternative Visions, Then and Now.”   He will also be reading from a new, unpublished work entitled East Hill Farm: Seasons with Allen Ginsberg.  Call (919)962-5060 for more information. (919) 962-3450.  Bull’s Head Bookshop UNC Student Stores CB, 1530 Daniels Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 pelech@email.unc.edu

 


 MAY 2004

Scroll Tour: May 10 to June 25: Naropa University, Boulder, Colo.


May 29, in the country of Argentina - SETNOVA is not only a band, but a complete beat movement. They play around the country, traveling like Kerouac, and they project some beat images in the concerts, the also read poetry from Kerouac, Ginsberg, and from Nicolás Chanseaud, the leader of the Argentinian beat movement. The calendar of concerts are published in this page: www.fotolog.net/setnova The next one is the 29 of May 29th. In a town named Castelar, near Buenos Aires. Around midnight, in the city theatre.

JUNE 2004

Scroll Tour: May 10 to June 25: Naropa University, Boulder, Colo.

 


 JULY 2004

JULY 31 - BEAT ANGEL Screening at the  18TH Annual Wine Country Film Festival, Napa Valley, CA, With Open Mike Poetry Event featuring Beat Angel Star Vincent Balestri.


An Evening with Jack Kerouac, a play  - July 23, 24 & 25 at 8:00 PM, Southern Winds Theater, is taking it's productions to the West End Theatre in Gloucester, Massachusetts. An Evening with Jack Kerouac will be presented,   at the theatre. Tickets are $12.00. For Reservations and information call (978)283-2525.


 

Kerouac – King of the Beats - July 31st – 4 PM (Saturday) -  movie,  Sponsored by Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Visitor’s Center of the    1-877-KER-OUAC, Lowell National Historic Park, 246 Market Street, Lowell, MA       http://lckorg.tripod.com

 


 AUGUST 2004


 SEPTEMBER 2004

Scroll Tour: Sept. 15 to Nov. 30: Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis.


 OCTOBER 2004

October 21, 1969 - Kerouac Safe in Heaven Dead

September 29 to October 3 -  Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival, Lowell, MA


On The Road Reading - October 16, 2004: The Grand Midway Hotel, 1303 Midway, Windber, PA 15963. The entire reading of Kerouac's On The Road will start at 12 noon. Last year it took eleven hours. Live jazz music and free coffee. The second annual reading? http://www.thecemetery.net/currentpage/kerouac1.htm


October 24th, 2004 (Knoxvillle, Tn) - A reading of all 242 choruses of Kerouac's Mexico City Blues with jazz accompaniment will be at the Urban Bar and Corner Cafe Corner of Jackson and Central Knoxvillle, TN, 3 PM Sunday afternoon. This in the third annual reading.


Scroll Tour continues: Sept. 15 to Nov. 30: Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis.

 


 NOVEMBER 2004

Scroll Tour continues: Sept. 15 to Nov. 30: Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis.

 


 DECEMBER 2004

 

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January 15, 2004 - ON THE ROAD SCROLL on Exhibition- ORLANDO, FL. - (December 15, 2003) - Award Winning Composer, multi-instrumentalist, author and Kerouac's principal musical collaborator David Amram will perform and host at the opening ceremonies celebrating the public showing of the original scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road at the Orange County Regional History Center on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004, from 5:30p.m. to 6:30p.m.  Cost is $15 per person and space is limited.

Amram's performance marks the worldwide tour launch of On the Road - The Kerouac Scrolls, Jack Kerouac's breakthrough 1957 novel presented for a limited engagement at the Orange County Regional History Center of Orlando from January 10 through March 21.  The original "On the Road" Scroll recently sold for $2.4 million at Christie's New York auction house.  The Scroll is central to the special exhibit as it documents Kerouac's work in its original form, as well as chronicling his time in Orlando, where he lived when the publication of On the Road in 1957 catapulted him to worldwide fame.

For more information call (407) 836-8500 or visit www.thehistorycenter.org.


The "On the Road'' scroll exhibition schedule -

Coming to a city near you. The scroll will be making 13 stops during the 4 year tour. Check it out. The tour is subject to change. Please call to confirm.

2004

Jan. 10 to March 21: Orange County History Center, Orlando, Fla.

May 10 to June 25: Naropa University, Boulder, Colo.

Sept. 15 to Nov. 30: Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis.

2005

Jan. 19 to March 13: University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa

March 24 to May 15: Las Vegas Public Library

June to August: National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

Sept. 1 to Nov. 30: University of Texas, Austin

2006

Jan. 14 to March 19: San Francisco Public Library

May 1 to July 31: Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis

 

2007

January 1 to March 31, 2007: Denver Public Library, Denver, CO
 
April 6 to May 31,  2007: Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico
 
June 7 to September 14, 2007: Lowell, MA National Historical Park
 
September 28, 2007 to February 15, 2008: New York Public Library, New York City
 
 
 
2008
 
September 28, 2007 to February 15, 2008: New York Public Library, New York City
 
March 7 to May 30, 2008: UT, Austin TX
 
July 3 to September 28, 2008: Indianapolis Museum of Art       
 
 October 3 to November 30, 2008: Columbia College, Chicago,  Illinois
 
December 3, 2008 to March 6, 2009: Fitton Center , Cincinnati, OH
 
2009
 
December 3, 2008 to March 6, 2009: Fitton Center , Cincinnati, OH


For articles on the auction of the scroll back in 2001 click here


An Evening with Jack Kerouac - written by David A. McElroy and Steve A. Rowell, performed by David A. McElroy

July 23, 24 & 25 at 8:00 PM, Southern Winds Theater, is taking two of it's productions to the West End Theatre in Gloucester, Massachusetts. An Evening with Jack Kerouac will be presented,   at the theatre. Tickets are $12.00. For Reservations and information call (978)283-2525.

March 20, 2004 - Dinner and show 7:00 PM
Chapters Restaurant and Bookshop
358 N. Park Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
Phone: 407-644-2880

March 27, 2004 - Dinner and show 7:00 PM
Chapters Restaurant and Bookshop
358 N. Park Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
Phone: 407-644-2880

April 24 and 25, 2004 - Dinner and show 7:00 PM
Chapters Restaurant and Bookshop
358 N. Park Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
Phone: 407-644-2880

For more information:
http://chaptersonpark.com

We will also be performing An Evening with Jack Kerouac:
Saturday April 17, 2004 8:00 p.m.
Sunday April 18, 2004 7:30 p.m.
Narrows Center for the Arts
16 Anawan St.
Fall River, MA 02721 (508) 324-1926

For more info:
http://www.ncfta.org

Here are two reviews about An Evening with Jack Kerouac:

                                    AN EVENING WITH JACK KEROUAC
 By Don Owens From: The New Sun Newspaper @ newsun.com

At first the setting seemed in congruent with the occasion. It was a late March southern night in Winter Park, Florida and we were about to spend  An Evening with Jack Kerouac. The annual Art Festival in this tony, town was in full swing as we were seated at The Dinner Theatre of Chapters on Park.

With grace and romance the subtropical moon illuminated the restaurant's art affected windowpanes. The sounds of servers serving, wine glasses chiming and the sold out audience conversing, immediately disappeared when actor David A. McElroy as Jack Kerouac stepped into the spotlight. For the next hour and ten minutes Mr. McElroy mesmerized his audience by transporting us to the 1969 Green Room at PBS network studios in New York City. The occasion was the weekly William F. Buckley broadcast, the event was to become the prophetic last interview with the 47 year old Beat writer, Kerouac.

Much of this performance finds the animated Jack Kerouac, in the green room; standing, sitting, pacing and binge drinking the minutes away while awaiting his queue to join Buckley and guests. A brilliantly conceived script by co-playwrights Mr. McElroy and Steve A. Rowell explore the distant corners of this icon¹s world, along with the darkest passages of his mind.

Without using one word of his writing an amazingly Kerouacain flavor exists within the lines of this imaginative play. Off stage voices serve as a counterpoint to David McElroy¹s rapid fire dialogue. By nights end we had all become intimately acquainted with the bohemian friends, the forever young - older brother and the truest passion of Jack Kerouac¹s life, his mother.

An Evening with Jack Kerouac concluded with an interpretation of Buckley¹s on air interview with the semi coherent genius of his time. As the spot light faded to black David McElroy stepped from the stage leaving Jack Kerouac emblazoned in our hearts and minds forever.

As word of this stunning performance travels the theatrical telegraph line, calls have come in from across America as well as a theatre company in England asking if David A. McElroy and company would consider taking this production "On The Road." This reporter hopes that they do.


"BEAT ANGEL" SCREENING

JULY 31, 2004 AT THE 18TH ANNUAL WINE COUNTRY FILM FESTIVAL

RESURRECT THE SPIRIT OF JACK KEROUAC

WITH OPEN MIKE POETRY EVENT FEATURING BEAT ANGEL STAR VINCENT BALESTRI

In honor of the screening of Beat Angel at the Wine Country Film Festival, there will be an open mike poetry event, July 31, 6:00 p.m. at the Sequoia Grove Vineyards followed by the film at 9:00 p.m. in the festival’s outdoor theatre. The pre-film event will feature Vincent Balestri and other special guests paying homage to poets Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and Jack Micheline. "Sparks fly" said The San Francisco Examiner of Balestri’s performance in his one-actor jazz play, "Kerouac: the Essence of Jack" which played in Bay Area theatres for 14 months during the late ‘80s, with appearances by Beat luminaries such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Ruth Weiss. Also at the poetry/film event from the Beat Museum in Monterey, will be Jerry Cimino’s Beat Museum on Wheels displaying Beat Generation memorabilia and collectibles. Admission for the evening is $20.

Beat Angel is a film about the spirit of Jack Kerouac starring Vincent Balestri (as Kerouac) who returns to earth to re-inspire a burnt out writer (played by Frank Tabbita) and shows up at an open mike poetry slam in honor of his "death day." Backed by a jazz trio, Balestri’s Kerouac character explains the meaning of "bop spontaneous prose" and "speaking the truth." With footage shot at Desolation Peak (where Kerouac served as a fire lookout - and wrote about his mountaintop experience in "Dharma Bums" and "Desolation Angels"), dream images, a jazz music score and recreations of moments in Kerouac’s life, the film has a haunting yet inspiring quality that appeals to artists and writers and Beat fans alike. Beat Angel was nominated for two awards at the Method Fest in Los Angeles and of its screening at the River Run International Film Festival in North Carolina was praised by the Winston-Salem Journal who said, "Tabbita and Balestri are superb."

Sequoia Grove Vineyards is located at 8338 St. Helena (Hwy. 29), Rutherford, Napa Valley. For tickets and information call (707) 935-FILM or go to WineCountryFilmFest.com. Also see film website, BeatAngel.com.


 

 

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2002 - 2003 Previous Events

A play by Tom O'Neil called "Kerouac" Performances begin on Saturday, January 11th, 2003; Opens January 26th through February 23rd, 2003 in New York City at the PC2 theatre.

Oct. 12 through Dec.16, 2002 Kerouac Scoll on display at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. Saratoga Springs, NY.

Wed., Dec. 4, 2002, 6:30 p.m., Anne Waldman Reading, Chicago, IL

October 17, 2002 -John Suiter, Poets on the Peaks, A Reading and Discussion, 7:00 PM. Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, 44 Baker Farm, Lincoln, MA 01773.

Thurs., Oct. 17, 2002, 6:30 p.m.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti Reading, Chicago, IL

Oct 4 - Oct 13, 2002 Raving Lunatics -a spoken word cut-up of spontaneous prosody by Jack Kerouac, New York City

October 4 -6 - Lowell Celebrates Kerouac - October 2002 in Lowell. Massachusetts. Be there or be square.

AUG 30, 2002, 7:00 PM, FRIDAY, PHILIP WHALEN MEMORIAL READING - San Francisco, CA.

"Jack Kerouac - Last Call", a play. Opens Thursday, April 18, 2002 - Closes Sunday, July 14, 2002 in New York City.

April 26 through July 27, 2002 - "Victorians, Moderns, and Beats: New in the Berg Collection, 1994—2001" - See the new Kerouac acquisition at the New York Public Library, NYC

June 27, 2002, 6 - 8 PM, Thunder's Mouth Press and the Jack Kerouac Writers in Residence Project of Orlando Inc. invite you meet composer David Amram in New York City

SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2002 , Live from Lowell, MA, C-SPAN'S AMERICAN WRITERS FOCUSES ON AUTHOR JACK KEROUAC  (on TV) (Check to see if this is being rebroadcast by clicking to http://www.americanwriters.org .)

Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, 2002 - Door Wide Open, a play (based on Joyce Johnson's book)- New York City

April 7 -14, 2002, Kerouac Writer In Residence program in Orlando, Florida Event

March 31, 2002, 4-8 PM, Sunday - David Amram-Benefit for WBAI-99.5FM, New York City and celebrating the 45th Anniversary of Kerouac/Amram jazz poetry readings at the Brata Art Gallery and Circle -In-the- Square in NYC ,1957. Read Amram's new book "Offbeat."

March 21-24, 2002 - David Amram Back on the Bowery: 1957-2002 The Beat Goes On David Amram Trio & Lee Ranaldo headline Viking/Hillbilly Festival's Final Night

Sunday March 10, 2002 - "Last Call: An Evening with Jack Kerouac" Wantagh, NY

March 8th-10th, 2002 - Jack Kerouac's 80th Birthday Celebration, Lowell, MA

Carolyn Cassady lecture in the UK - February 12, 2002

Auction of Dharma Bums scroll - October 29, 2001

Past Event - On the Road scroll sold at auction - May 22, 2001

 


 

A play by Tom O'Neil called "Kerouac" Performances begin on Saturday, January 11th, 2003; Opens January 26th through February 23rd, 2003 - After a well received run at the 13th Street Rep, producer Lavezzo Leone will present “KEROUAC” for six weeks at PC2 (616 9th Avenue at 44th St.) beginning performances Saturday, January 15th, opening on Sunday, January 26th at 7PM through February 23rd. In a small bungalow located in St. Petersburg Florida, Jack Kerouac, mythical beat poet/novelist, conjures peers and past loves during the final hour and twenty minutes of his life. In a twist of time and space we find a 1940’s Kerouac meeting with Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady while two journalists compose his obituary. The ensuing dialogue navigates Jack’s life in a manner that is both direct and dream-like. With a jazz resonance, “KEROUAC” blends fiction and fact in this witty, revealing new play.

It has been called “Absolutely fascinating! It is a short, sharp, fever-dream of a play.” nytheatre.com; “A Theatrical Jam Session! O’Neil’s script is poetic.” oobr; “Wistfully lyrical” offoffoff.com; “A must see!” US Frontline.  

Performances begin on Saturday, January 11th; Opens January 26th through February 23rd. Performance Schedule: Wednesday – Monday at 8PM (except: Saturday, January 11th and Sunday, January 12th at 3PM)

PC2 is located at 616 9th Avenue at 44th St. Tickets are $35, to purchase tickets visit http://www.theatermania.com/ny/shows/jackkerouac/ or call (212) 352-3101.


2002


October. 12 through Dec.16, 2002 - Kerouac Scoll on display at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. Saratoga Springs, NY. The exhibition includes 195 black-and-white ’50s-era photographs, organized in categories such as politics, mechanization, the Cold War, celebrities, and everyday life.

Featured in the Tang’s presentation of “The Tumultuous Fifties” will be the original draft of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel On the Road. On loan to the Tang from the collection of James Irsay, the rambling Beat classic was pounded out in a three-week writing marathon in April 1951. Typed onto a 120-foot-long scroll Kerouac taped together from 20-foot strips of teletype paper he found in his loft, the novel was strikingly innovative in form as well as content.

The Tang Museum is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is free. Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, New York, 12866. 518-580-5000 http://apollo.skidmore.edu/news/news.release.detail_show?p_news_id=189

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Wed., Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m., Anne Waldman Reading - Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S. Michigan. The readings are sponsored by The Poetry Center of Chicago. More info by phone at (312) 899-1229, or at www.poetrycenter.org

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October 17, 2002 -John Suiter, Poets on the Peaks, A Reading and Discussion, 7:00 PM. Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, 44 Baker Farm, Lincoln, MA 01773. (co-sponsored with the Concord Bookshop) A book signing will follow the reading. Spacing and seating are limited. For reservations: Jeff.Cramer@walden.org or call: 781-259-4730.

John Suiter is a Boston-based writer and photographer whose work has appeared in numerous national and international magazines. In 1995 he spent two weeks at Desolation Lookout, working as a volunteer for watcher for the National Park Service while making pictures for a photo-essay commemorating Jack Kerouac’s sojourn on Desolation forty summers before. In 1997 and 1998, after meeting poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, Suiter made further trips to the Upper Skagit, staying on Sourdough Lookout and making hikes on Sauk and Crater mountains. Poets on the Peaks is a result of those adventures.

Excerpt from Poets on the Peaks:

Then there was Thoreau. Surprisingly, Snyder had never read Walden, or anything else by Thoreau, before going on lookout in 1953. If the old log-cabin guard station on Granite Creek had been the perfect setting for his encounter with Hui-Neng the summer before, then surely Sourdough Lookout was the place for Henry David Thoreau. Few backdrops could be more fitting or employments more compatible with a first reading of Walden. Had there been lookouts in Thoreau’s day, it is hard to imagine him not doing at least a fire season or two. Even without lookout cabins per se, Thoreau clearly had seen glimpses of the lookout’s mountain world — on Maine’s Katahdin, and especially from Massachusetts’ Mount Greylock. In July 1844 he spent a night in the perch of Williams College observatory on Greylock’s summit and awoke to find himself in “cloud-land”— alone in his tower just above a vast, smooth-topped sea of ground-fog that had rolled in during the night. For Thoreau, it was one of the grandest mornings of his life — “a favor for which to be forever silent.”

“The most interesting dwellings in this country,” wrote Thoreau in the opening chapter of Walden, “are the most unpretending, humble log huts and cottages of the poor commonly.” What could be more unpretentious than an L-4 fire cabin? Gary’s L.O. was only slightly wider than Thoreau’s Walden cabin, and with the exception of the fire finder (a device Thoreau surly would have appreciated, and probably improved somehow) the Spartan furnishings — low rope-webbed bunk, single chair and table, woodstove — were basically the same.

Gary was drawn to Thoreau’s economy — the notion that “a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” Snyder had done without by necessity all through his boyhood and adolescence until it had become his habit. He jotted down Thoreau’s famous admonition to “beware of all enterprises that require new cloths.” In a more poetic vein, he also recorded the exultant and promissory closing lines of Walden: “Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” This last line — one of the most famous in nineteenth-century American letters along with “Call me Ishmael” and “I sing the body electric” — Gray played with until he made it his own. “The morning star is not a star” became the opening line for Myths and Texts. It was all fitting together: the Zen, the Blake and Thoreau, lookouting, poetry. . .

Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades Text and Photographs by John Suiter (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2002)

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Thurs., Oct. 17, 6:30 p.m.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti Reading - Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S. Michigan. The readings are sponsored by The Poetry Center of Chicago. More info by phone at (312) 899-1229, or at www.poetrycenter.org

 


Oct 4 - Oct 13, 2002 Raving Lunatics -a spoken word cut-up of spontaneous prosody by Jack Kerouac: created and directed by Tom Marion, music composed and performed by Bruce Huron, featuring Brett W. Butler, Jessica Colotta, Karl D. Kahofer, Amy Mahfouz, Amy Robinson, Shane Snipes.  Call for reservations; seating is limited. $10 donation suggested. Latecomers cannot be seated. Ward Studio, 145 West 28th Street, #8F, (between 6th & 7th Avenues), New York NY. (212) 239-1456.

Friday, October 4 at 8 pm

Saturday, October 5 at 8 pm

Sunday, October 6 at 3 pm & 7 pm

Friday, October 11 at 8 pm

Saturday, October 12 at 8 pm

Sunday, October 13 at 3 pm & 7 pm

   http://shanesnipes.com/headshots/raving.html


October 4-6, 2002 - Lowell Celebrates Kerouac - Lowell, Massachusetts, - 15th Annual Festival  is being held in Lowell, Massachusetts (of course) to commemorate the life and work of Lowell born writer Jack Kerouac. Jack's classic, On The Road, turns 45 this year. Jack, himself, remains 80 years young. Along with the various tours, poetry competition, and open mic's that have been a hallmark of the festival for years, this year brings photographer, author (Poets On The Peaks - Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades) John Suiter, who will be presenting a lecture on photo-documentary technique at the University of Massachusetts Lowell South Campus, room. 222 of the O'Leary Library building, located on Wilder Street, from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm on Friday October 4. Suiter will, additionally be presenting a slide show and talk on his book at Boott Cotton Mills, 400 Foot of John Street at 7:30 pm.

FRIDAY - Events will be going on all afternoon with a showing of "Pull My Daisy," at 2:30 pm, hosted by the movie's theme composer and Kerouac musical collaborator, David Amram. This event will also take place in room 222 of the O'Leary Library building of the University of Massachusetts Lowell South Campus, on Wilder Street. A special feature of this years festival will be two showings of the PBS aired and cinema presented Beat documentary, "The Source," by Chuck Workman. This will show at Boott Cotton Mills, 400 Foot of John Street at 4:00 pm, and again Sunday at 4:00 pm in the same location. Friday evening will rock. Blues aficionado and legendary underground band, MC5 associate, John Sinclair will do a show at The Worthen, 141 Worthen Street, starting at 9:30 pm. Come get a seat early. Live jazz begins at 8:30.

SATURDAY - more tours, the Commemorative Event at The Commemorative located in Jack Kerouac Park on Bridge and French Streets at 11:00 am, and book signings, additional tours and performances, such as David Amram's Cairo to Kerouac at The Pollard Memorial Library at 1:30 pm prove to keep things moving through Saturday afternoon. There will be a 4:00 pm showing of film maker Henry Ferrini's award winning "Lowell Blues," at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center on Market Street. Another regularly held event, Reading at The Rainbow Cafe, 14 Cabot Street, begins at 4:30 pm. Saturday evening features Janet Hamill. Janet is a poet and artist currently working with Moving Star musicians Bob Torsello (bass), Jay LoRubbio (guitar), and Sean Healy (drums). Janet and Moving Star have performed at numerous venues including, The Knitting Factory and CBGB's Gallery. Recently Janet and the band released their first full-length CD, Flying Nowhere, produced by Lenny Kaye, with cameo appearances by Patti Smith on clarinet. Janet and Moving Star will be joined by guest artist David Amram. Amram has been described by the Boston Globe as "the Renaissance man of American music."

SUNDAY - finishes off with more tours, the 'open' Amram Jam, at The Sugar Shack, and local 'feature' talent showcased in the evening, again at The Sugar Shack, 100 University Avenue.

For more information on Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!, visit http://lckorg.tripod.com. For an audio listing of the festival schedule, dial 1-877-KEROUAC.

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AUG 30, 2002, 7:00 PM, FRIDAY, PHILIP WHALEN MEMORIAL READING - @ Presentation Theater, University of San Francisco (formerly The Gershwin Theater), 2350 Turk Blvd, west of Masonic, San Francisco, California. Admission is free. Together with the Hartford Street Zen Center, and the MFA Writing Program at USF, The Poetry Center is sponsoring a memorial reading in honor of Philip Whalen's life and poetry. Philip Whalen's friends and fellow poets will speak and read from his work, and from their own and others' work in tribute to him. Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, Leslie Scalapino, David Meltzer, Clark Coolidge, Anne Waldman, Jane Hirschfield, and Bill Berkson are among the many poets and friends who will appear on the program.

 


"Jack Kerouac - Last Call", A play, opens Thursday, April 18, 2002 - Closes Sunday, July 14, 2002:  Jack Kerouac - Last Call, A new play by Tom O'Neil. Directed by Stanley Harrison. Performances Thursdays through Sundays at 7pm. $15 adults; $10 seniors/students with ID. Purchase tickets online at www.ticketweb.com or by calling TicketWeb toll-free at 866-468-7619. For more information, call 212-675-6677 or visit their website at www.13thstreetrep.org

SYNOPSIS: Jack Kerouac spent his last night on earth in a small bungalow located in St. Petersburg, Florida, his last residence. It is October 21, 1969. Visions of his past come back in waves of both exhilaration and doom, representing the true dichotomy of his own character. In his imagination, he has brought together characters from his past to play out his own sense of martyrdom. These characters also include two writers who represent Kerouac's fear of how he will be remembered. This story is about the man and his inner turmoil.

Two rotating casts (please contact 13th Street Rep to find out which company will be performing):

Red Company - John Jordan, Kyle Pierson, Gavin Smith, Deirdre Schwiesow, Meredith Falton, Neil Feigeles, Jason Rosette; Blue Company - Alexander Lange, David Cochrane, David Renwanz, Maggie Ridge, Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud, Tim Cox, John Kwiatkowski

Tom O'Neil (PLAYWRIGHT) has written two other plays - Soldier's Death and Mary Bryant. Mr. O'Neil is currently working on an adaptation of William Butler Yeats' The Cat and the Moon. This is his first play produced at 13th Street Rep. Mr. O'Neil has been involved with 13th Street Rep for over five years.

Stanley Harrison (DIRECTOR) has been a director, teacher and actor for over 40 years. Mr. Harrison is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where he studied with the late Professor Constance Welch, "one of the finest teachers in the American theatre." In addition, he studied and worked with the directors of the National Theatres of Denmark and Holland. Mr. Harrison's students have gone on to Broadway, film and television. As an actor, he has appeared in over 300 roles. Mr. Harrison recently played the role of Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing for The American Globe Theatre, New York City.

Edith O'Hara (PRODUCER/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) founded 13th Street Rep in 1972. 13th Street Rep provides a place for actors, directors, playwrights, and technicians to develop their craft in a caring, nurturing, professional environment. Anywhere between five to seven shows run weekly, including children's shows on the weekend. 13th Street Rep is also home to the longest running Off-Off-Broadway play, Line, by Israel Horovitz, now in its 28th year at 13th Street Rep.

For more information, call 212-675-6677 or visit our website at www.13thstreetrep.org.

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April 26 through July 27, 2002 - "Victorians, Moderns, and Beats: New in the Berg Collection, 1994—2001" - The New York Public Library, New York City. Victorians, Moderns, and Beats: New in the Berg Collection, 1994--2001 is on view from April 26 through July 27, 2002 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Exhibition hours are Monday and Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; closed Sundays and national holidays. Admission is free. For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call 212.869.8089 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org

The most significant acquisition of the Berg Collection during the period covered by Victorians, Moderns, and Beats was the Jack Kerouac Archive, which came to the Library in July of 2001. The exhibition also features a healthy selection of letters, manuscripts, and other items relating to such major Beat figures as Ginsberg, Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Gary Snyder.

It was Kerouac who coined the term "Beat Generation" and can be considered its central figure. The archive contains more than 1,050 manuscripts and typescripts, including novels, short stories, prose pieces, poems, notebooks, journals, correspondence, and personal items, as well as papers relating to Kerouac's intense passion for sports.

The Kerouac items on view include a Valentine's Day card he created for his mother in 1933 at age 11; a journal he kept in 1939 soon after he arrived in New York to attend the Horace Mann School; and two revisions of his landmark work, On the Road, that succeeded the original scroll version of 1951. There is also a draft of a novel called Gone on the Road, which bears only a peripheral relationship to On the Road, but became the core of Visions of Cody, only excerpts of which were published during Kerouac's lifetime.

Also shown is an array of fascinating materials he created in relation to his passionate interest in baseball. As a youngster Kerouac devised an intricate fantasy baseball game which required the use of hundreds of cards that allowed for very specific descriptions of each play. These card sets, along with related team rosters, and newsletters he wrote to report on the results of his fantasy games, are displayed in the exhibition and give a sense of the vivid imagination he had as a youth and which later found expression in his literary work.


June 27, 2002, 6 - 8 PM, Thunder's Mouth Press and the Jack Kerouac Writers in Residence Project of Orlando Inc. invite you meet composer David Amram in New York City -  on Thursday, June 27 from 6 to 8 PM at the Arsenal in Central Park, 5th Ave. at 64th St. Reception to follow. David Amram will be reading from his new book OFFBEAT: Collaborating with Kerouac. Please RSVP to Alan Young at 646-375-2570 X7930. Come join us for this celebration of the joyous collaborations between Kerouac and Amram, and to learn about the restoration of the Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida and their annual writing and residency grants.


SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2002 , LIVE FROM LOWELL, MA, C-SPAN'S AMERICAN WRITERS FOCUSES ON AUTHOR JACK KEROUAC - C-SPAN's latest historical series, "American Writers II: The 20th Century " visits Lowell, Massachusetts on June 9 at 3 PM ET for a two-hour live program looking at the life and times of author Jack Kerouac. The program, originating from Kerouac's hometown in Massachusetts, examines his first novel "On the Road," and the impact of his writing on society at the time. (This is being shown again on Friday, June14, 2002, at 8:00 pm.)

American Writers II: The 20th Century is a 15-week historical series airing live on C-SPAN at 3 pm ET for two hours every Sunday through July 7. Each program will re-air the following Friday night at 8 pm ET accompanied by several other events about the featured authors' lives and works.

American Writers II will examine American history through the lives and works of 18 selected writers-- from the literary to the political, from war correspondents to social critics. Selected writers represent the Progressive Era (1901-1929), Depression and War (1929-45), the Early Cold War (1945-1961) and end with the Social Transformation to Vietnam (1961-75).

American Writers II considers how America forged its role in the world during this past century and how authors offer insight into the nation it is today.

A full listing of the writers and sites included in the series can be found at: www.americanwriters.org <http://www.americanwriters.org> where interested viewers can also purchase all works featured in the series through a partnership with the online subsidiary of Borders Group, Inc., Borders.com. This is the fourth historical series produced by C-SPAN. Visit its web site at C-SPAN.org.


Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, 2002 - Door Wide Open - New York City, "THE SOPRANOS" JOHN VENTIMIGLIA TO PLAY JACK KEROUAC IN STAGED READING OF JOYCE JOHNSON'S "DOOR WIDE OPEN" - Sanctuary Theater & The Ontological Theater are to present a staged reading for potential backers and the general public of Joyce Johnson's new play DOOR WIDE OPEN at Saint Mark's Church on Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, at 8 PM.  Directed by Tony Torn, the reading will feature "The Sopranos'" John Ventimiglia, acclaimed actress Amy Wright, and introducing Adira Amram in her New York debut. Special guest David Amram will provide live musical accompaniment. DOOR WIDE OPEN is a biting, romantic and elegaic adaptation of Johnson's latest book, which features the intimate correspondence between the writer and Jack Kerouac from 1957-58, just before and after Kerouac became famous overnight with the publication of ON THE ROAD. The 120-foot scroll upon which Kerouac typed his first draft of this American classic was recently sold by Christie's for the record-breaking sum of  2.43 million dollars. Joyce Johnson is also the author of the Beat generation memoir, MINOR CHARACTERS, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983. Musician and  composer David Amram wrote the original score for the Robert Frank film classic "Pull My Daisy," which was narrated by Kerouac.

The Ontological Theater  will host the reading in its theater at Saint Mark's Church, at Second Avenue & 10th Street, for two nights only, Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5, at 8 PM. Admission is $15 suggested donation. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis.  For reservations call: 212-533-4650.

 

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2002


April 7 -14, 2002, Kerouac Writer In Residence program in Orlando, Florida Event - As part of the Kerouac Writer In Residence program, they are having the Second Snnual Street Festival.

April 7 will be a showing of "New York in the 50s with Dan Wakefield" with special guests of David Amram and the film's director Betsey Blankenbaker.

April 13 and 14 in Orlando Florida, just minutes away from where Jack Kerouac wrote Dharma Bums and currently houses a writer in residence program, will be a book, art and music festival. David Amram will headline the music part of the festival with a cozy dinner concert Friday night, and headlining the concert Saturday night.

April 13 at night will be our first Spoken Word event sponsored by the Kerouac Project and the Philips Phile or Real Radio. All this information can be found at www.kerouacproject.org.


March 31, 4-8 PM, Sunday - David Amram-Benefit for WBAI-99.5FM - 55 Christopher Street, New York City. Sponsored by Bright Moments! @ 55 Bar presents on - (1,2, 9 trains)

Readings "From Cairo to Christopher St. to Kerouac” and music, poetry by the Amram Jam: Keeping the Flame Alive Celebrating 45th Anniversary of Kerouac/Amram jazz poetry readings at the Brata Art Gallery and Circle -In-the- Square in NYC ,1957.

This Bright Moments! @ 55 Bar event is being done as a Benefit for WBAI-99.5FM Radio and we encourage all to give generously to benefit WBAI. Founded in 1960, WBAI-Pacifica Radio at 99.5 FM, is New York's premier community station. WBAI serves the city, the nation and the world with award-winning programs in news, information, politics, art, culture, music and much more. WBAI is a non-profit and non-commercial station that is listener-supported and part of the Pacifica Foundation. David Amram has been a steadfast supporter of WBAI and we hope you will join us this day in recognizing their importance to NYC.

David Amram will feature readings from his new book, "Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac" and "Vibrations", his autobiography. Amram will also be performing classics of jazz, and world music as well as his own compositions with Vincent Giangreco (jazz guitar) and Warren Tesoro (congas/bongos) celebrating the enduring cultural influence of Greenwich Village, NY. Reading with David will be: Bob Fass, WBAI host of RADIO UNNAMEABLE and innovator of Free form radio; Garry Goodrow, pioneer of improvisatory theater and original member of the Living Theater featured prominently in Offbeat; George Wallace, Poet and Founder of PoetryBay.com, historian and producer of last year’s JACK KEROUAC BIG SUR MARATHON READING held in 4 cities nationwide; Adira Amram, actress and narrator; Casey Cyr, poet, songwriter, painter, founder of 1st NYC Underground Poetry and Music Festival 2000. The poetry of Gregory Corso, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sonia Sanchez and Casey Cyr will be featured.

The Boston Globe has described David Amram as "the Renaissance man of American music". His live jazz recording, Kerouac and Amram: Pull My Daisy, celebrates Kerouac and Amram's collaboration in the first ever jazz poetry reading in New York City in 1957, and the subsequent 1959 film that combined Amram's chamber music and jazz with Jack Kerouac's narration. With his return to the 55 Bar it marks 45 years since the Kerouac/Amram jazz poetry readings took place in Greenwich Village at the Brata Art Gallery andCircle -In-the- Square in 1957. David also will be signing copies of both books after his performance

 


March 21-24, 2002 - David Amram Back on the Bowery: 1957-2002 The Beat Goes On David Amram Trio & Lee Ranaldo headlineViking/Hillbilly Festival's Final Night - Young Poets & Musicians from Iceland and Kentucky complete their International tour with a 4-day Festival at Bob Holman's new Bowery Poetry Club. "From Cairo to Kerouac" will conclude the Festival Sunday March 24 at 8 PM with classic Jazz, World Music and readings from Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso and a Centennial Song especially written for Langston Hughes by David Amram. Forty-five years ago, in the winter of 1957, composer/multi-instrumentalist/author David Amram performed on the Bowery at the Original Five Spot with his Quartet, 150 feet from the new Bowery Poetry Club, where he will be performing on Sunday, March 24 at 8pm. It was at the Original Five Spot that the group of poets, painters and musicians who attended every night, included author Jack Kerouac, who came to hear his friend Amram perform and often sat in with the Quartet to read his poetry and excerpts from his yet-to-be published "On the Road."

Sunday Night, March 24th at 8pm, David Amram returns to the Bowery with his trio, joined by Sonic Youth's innovative musician/poet/songwriter Lee Ranaldo to perform with 18 Viking/Hillbilly poets and musicians from Iceland and Kentucky, who are ending their international tour with the four day engagement at the Bowery Poetry Club March 21-24.

Poet, publisher and recording artist Ron Whitehead of Louisville, Kentucky is producing the Viking Hillbilly Apocalypse Revue. Whitehead has produced over 800 events during the past 20 years and tours the world as Kentucky's Ambassador of Poetry, from Harlan County Kentucky to concerts for the Dalai Lama in the Himalayas, encouraging and inspiring young people to participate in the Arts.

The Bowery Poetry Club was founded by award winning poet Bob Holman, who has been referred to by the Village Voice as "The World Czar of Poetry" and by the Daily News, as "The King of New York." The brand new Bowery Poetry Club is located at 308 Bowery, in the exact same neighborhood frequented by the original members of what later became known as the Beat Generation, all of whom went to the Original Five Spot 45 years ago as a meeting place to share new ideas with one another.

Whitehead and Holman wanted David Amram, one of the last surviving members of this group, to give a grand finale concert which would celebrate the music he and Kerouac championed in the 50's: Jazz, Middle Eastern, Native American, Latin American and Amram's own compositions, as well as re-creating the readings of Kerouac's words accompanied by Amram's music. The final event of the Festival will include Lee Ranaldo reading, and include the members of the touring ensemble from Kentucky and Iceland, as well as poets and musicians from New York, all of whom will be invited to join in with Amram on special selections.

"We were always egalitarian, in the spirit of jazz, with the older artists encouraging the younger ones to join in," says Amram. "We were and still are inclusive rather than exclusive. To return to the Bowery where Kerouac and I and many others started our collaborations is the completion of a circle and a new beginning for a new generation to join hands and hearts to create their own global network. Ron Whitehead and Bob Holman are setting the standards for future collaborations among today's young artists.

"I hope the young artists from Iceland and Kentucky, as well as members of the audience can take the spirit of New York home with them, and encourage their friends to participate and appreciate the lasting value of poetry and music that come from the heart. That's what our generation was and still is all about. The gift of sharing."

For information about tickets, prices, and the complete four day schedule of The Viking/Hillbilly Apocalypse JAM, please see the enclosed flyers or consult these websites.

websites:

www.bowerypoetry.com ----------- (For the Bowery Poetry Club)

www.tappingmyownphone.com-------(For Ron Whitehead)


Sunday March 10 - "Last Call: An Evening with Jack Kerouac" at 2PM , In celebration of Jack's Birthday, Wantagh, NY - Local writer Patrick Fenton will read from his play about Jack Kerouac's Northport, Long Island years. Mr Fenton will also share some information on Kerouac's life in general and tell us some interesting and unknown facts about this Beat Generation writer, and his famous journey. Read Kerouac's famous book "On the Road," attend this informative and entertaining lecture then come to the 2:30 PM Tuesday afternoon book discussion to further investigate Kerouac's book On the Road. Refreshments will be served. Wantagh Public Library Wantagh, Long Island, New York 516-221-1200


March 8th-10th, 2002 - Jack Kerouac's 80th Birthday Celebration, Lowell, MA.

The Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Birthday Celebration is smaller than the October festival and in recent years has had more of a focus on Kerouac's writings with marathon readings of his books in order of publication. The book for this year is Dharma Bums. For more info visit their link at http://lckorg.tripod.com

SCHEDULE:

Saturday, March 9th

2:30 PM: Tour led by National Park Sevice

Evening: Jazz performance at Dove Cafe


February 12, 2002, at 5.30pm (Tuesday) - "Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady: Dispelling the Myths" - A talk by Carolyn Cassady- A public lecture inaugurating the new lecture theatre at The Nottingham Trent University on Clifton Campus. Organised by the Faculty of Humanities.

Carolyn Cassady is most famous for her close involvement with the renowned post-war American writers Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (to whom she was married).

She was born in Michigan, and at the age of 8 moved to Nashville, where she began art lessons. At 14 she joined the local playhouse as make-up artist, and at 15 won first and second prizes for her set designs. She sold her first portrait at the age of 16. She received a scholarship for writing and painting, and continued her art and drama studies at Bennington College, Vermont, earning a degree in Stanislavsky Drama in 1944. She served as an air-raid warden in Manhattan before becoming an Occupational Therapist, serving with the US Army in Palm Springs, California. After the war she studied for her MA in Fine Arts and Theatre Arts at the University of Denver, where she met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. She married Neal in 1948 in San Francisco, and they had three children. She also continued to do her theatre work, and her painting and writing.

Carolyn has written many articles as well as forewords in some of Kerouac's books, and also in biographies about him. Her own book, Off The Road, was published by Penguin in 1991 and is still in print today. It centres on her involvement with Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac at a time when the latter was working on and publishing his novels, particularly On The Road. She is now a British subject and has lived in or near London since 1983.

Lecture commences at 6.00pm. Refreshments and snacks will be available.

All welcome. Admission is free but please try to notify us of your attendance in advance.

Contact Basia Filipowicz:

Tel: (0115) 848 3098, Fax: (0115) 848 6632, Email: basia.filipowicz@ntu.ac.uk

Address: English and Media Department, The Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS

 

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October 29, 2001 - Auction of The Dharma Bums scroll -  Christie's Auction House in New York will be offering the scrolls of The Dharma Bums and Origins of a Beat Generation, besides other Kerouac related material.  Go to www.christies.com.  I thought that the NY Public Library brought the remaining archives after the sale the the On The Road scroll earlier this year. What else was not included in the Library purchase and is still floating out there waiting to be auctioned off to the hightest bidder?


Sunday, October 28th, 2001 - Dedication of City Lights Book store as a landmark building - 1:00pm at City Lights, 261 Columbus Avenue, North Beach, San Francisco, (street closing on Columbus Ave. from Broadway to Pacific)

On July 16th, 2001, the Board of Supervisors unanimously conferred Landmark status on City Lights Booksellers & Publishers for its contribution to the cultural life of San Francisco: as an icon of bohemian literary culture and as a publisher of influential works of literature and cultural commentary.

This urban bookstore has become a world-destination point because of its carefully chosen stock of cutting-edge books in many fields and as a site for informal discussions, readings, and other events. The City Lights Building was also recognized for its architectural features. Founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights has remained in its original location. One of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, City Lights is where book lovers from around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambience of alternative culture.

"It's gratifying to be named a landmark not only for our Beat Generation associations but also for our larger contribution to free intellectual inquiry. Our goal as booksellers and publishers is to offer works of imagination and dissenting opinion in a radical democratic spirit," says Nancy J.. Peters, co-owner of City Lights, "and this landmark decision validates that. We're now hoping that City Lights will soon be included in the National Register of Historic Places."

"This is a wonderful old building," says Ferlinghetti. "I love the place. It's meant so much to what we've tried to accomplish."

The nation's first all-paperback bookstore, City Lights has expanded several times over the years and features an extensive selection of poetry, fiction, translations, politics, history, music, spirituality, and more, with a staff whose special book interests in many fields contribute to the hand-picked quality of what you see on the shelves. Also housed within the building is City Lights Publishers, launched by Ferlinghetti with the now-famous Pocket Poets Series.

Sponsoring the Landmark celebration is Telegraph Hill Dwellers, a neighborhood organization founded in 1954 to perpetuate the historic traditions of Telegraph Hill and greater North Beach in San Francisco history. They vigilantly monitor development plans to ensure that new buildings, renovation projects, and land uses are appropriate to the present neighborhood, and that existing areas be recognized for their historic and cultural significance. The landmarking of Washington Square is a current THD initiative, as is the preservation and care of the Grace Marchant Garden and Jack Early Park. The Dwellers past efforts include rebuilding Pioneer Park around Coit Tower, a public-private partnership that raised $1.4 million.

We invite the public to come and celebrate with us, beginning at 1:00 pm with the Landmark presentation ceremony in front of City Lights Bookstore. Following will be a roster of authors and friends of City Lights sharing memories and stories, and later signing books.

We encourage everyone to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the restaurants, cafes and shops of North Beach, one of San Francisco's most unique and historic neighborhoods.

For more information, please contact Stacey Lewis at (415) 362-1901 or stacey@citylights.com. For other events at City Lights, check www.citylights.com


October 26 - 28. 2001- THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL POETRY AND SONG FESTIVAL (LIPS) PRESENTS A BEAT WEEKEND - the beat goes on - original poetry, song, film and beat rebellion, with: David Amram, Bob Holman, Jeremy Hardy, Carolyn Cassady, Bap Kennedy Band, Rob Spragg and Jake Black (of Alabama 3), Bragi Olaffson, Richard Deakin, Ron Whitehead, Tania Glyde, Jane Bom-Bane, Peter Jagger, Pollock Bros, Big Steve and Stephanie Arlene, Charlie Newman, Annie Lawson, Frank Messina, Lord Buckley (Jason Eisenberg),Yoruba Mason, Scaramongo, Marisa Barnes, ANONYMOUS, Dylan Whitehead, Geir Svansson PLUS IN SPIRIT Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady (in the memories of Carolyn Cassady and David Amram) + classic beat film PULL MY DAISY narrated by Kerouac scored by Amram +beat film premieres inc. 'Lowell Blues' and 'Corso in Louisville.'

 

London Events

Friday 26 October @ 7 pm - LIPS' CABARET PARTY and PRESS LAUNCH TRAFALGAR HOTEL, Trafalgar Sq, London W1 (next to Angus Steak House): FREE launch party and poetry/music night to kick off a great weekend of Beat celebrations at this gorgeous newly-opened venue, the coolest 'bourbon bar' in the West.

Saturday 27 October @ 7pm, LIPS' REBEL NIGHT - an evening of poetry, song, comedy and beat rebellion Hackney Empire¹s BULLION ROOM Theatre, 117 Wilton Way London E8 Box Office: 020 8985 2424. The evening will be punctuated by the acidic rebel jests of master-comic JEREMY HARDY, and driven by the unstoppable world beat of Jack Kerouac's principal musical collaborator DAVID AMRAM (see www.davidamram.com) A host of international poetic and musical talents include Icelandic poet BRAGI OLAFFSON and the POLLOCK BROS of Iceland's 'band of the century' the OUTSIDERS who join locals BIG STEVE and STEPHANIE ARLENE. Poetry will be backed by beat daddy Amram, Kerouac¹s poetry-accompanist, greatest poetry-music collaborator alive. The subversive routines of beat comic LORD BUCKLEY will be rendered by New York's JASON EISENBERG. This transatlantic night will feature poets including RON WHITEHEAD (www.tappingmyownphone.com) and FRANK MESSINA (USA), RICHARD DEAKIN, JANE BOM-BANE, TANIA GLYDE, ANNIE LAWSON (UK), and climax with maybe the best performance poet in the world, the King of New York, The World Emperor of Slam, the mighty BOB HOLMAN. (SEE http://poetry.about.com + holman@Bard.edu  + www.worldofpoetry.org + www.peoplespoetry.org + www.bobholman.com)

Sunday 28 Oct @ 2pm - LIPS' BEAT AFTERNOON  - an afternoon of beat memories, film, music and poetry Hackney Empire's BULLION ROOM Theatre, 117 Wilton Way, London E8 Box Office: 020 8985 2424. Featuring a panel including CAROLYN CASSADY, widow of Neal, and DAVID AMRAM, two 'Soul Survivors' of the Beat Generation, remembering their friendship with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady on and off the road. DAVID AMRAM will present beat films from the hilariously anarchic PULL MY DAISY (narrated by Kerouac, scored by David, filmed by Robert Frank) through to modern classic LOWELL BLUES premiering with a film about Gregory Corso filmed at the Nuyorican Café. DAVID SANDISON will read from his forthcoming biography of Neal Cassady, and GEIR SVANSSON will talk about MEGAS, Iceland's beat singer-songwriter. Amram will accompany latterday beat poets including Charlie Newman, Ron Whitehead, Richard Deakin and the mighty Bob Holman. Tickets (for both Hackney Empire events) £8.50 adv. £10 door, £6 concs, £15 double ticket

Sunday 28 Oct @ 7pm - LIPS' BEAT NIGHT - an evening of lyric and song, original and classic 'keeping the beat flame alive', OCEAN, 270 Mare St, Hackney E8 Box Office: 020 7314 2800. The finale of the weekend will be an evening of poetry, lyric and song, and occasional Beat Generation history. We will explore the beat influence on the development of poetry and song, showcasing the lyrical talents of the BAP KENNEDY BAND and ROB SPRAGG and JAKE BLACK (THE LARRY LOVE and THE REVEREND D- WAYNE LOVE - the dark voices of the awesome ALABAMA 3). PLUS CAROLYN CASSADY, widow of Neal, and perhaps the love of Kerouac's s life, and DAVID AMRAM, Kerouac's principle musical collaborator, will recall JACK KEROUAC and legendary 'fastest man alive' NEAL CASSADY. DAVID AMRAM introduced jazz-poetry to New York, playing with Jack Kerouac in 1957, and has played with Leonard Bernstein, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Willie Nelson, Odetta, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Tito Puente... Seventy years young and bearer of a living tradition, David meets here some of the most vital musicians on the London scene, as well as carrying on with the discipline he developed with Kerouac, that of making a spontaneous musical framework for live poetry. As well as great bands playing original songs we pay tribute to modern beat masters like Bob Dylan (performed by the superb PETER JAGGER) and Van Morrison (performed by BAP KENNEDY BAND, back from supporting Van the Man in Belfast). LIPS¹ BEAT NIGHT will feature an international cast of performance poets headed by THE KING OF NEW YORK, the mighty BOB HOLMAN, plus RON WHITEHEAD (with Scaramongo & violinist Marisa Barnes & jazz vocalist Yoruba Mason) and FRANK MESSINA of USA, local talents including RICHARD DEAKIN and TANIA GLYDE plus Icelandic poets BRAGI OLAFFSON + the POLLOCK BROS + further routines of ³LORD BUCKLEY². Five hours of lyric and song - the final night of LIPS will try to mark the start of a new millenium of poetry and music with the mad ones, the bad ones, the ones who blaze and pop like fabulous yellow roman candles in the night and the crowd sez aaah... £8.50 adv. £10 door.

 


Weekly Poetry Reading in New Jersey, Kerouac style - Someone wrote to tell us of an ongoing Kerouac-related event. Every Sunday night at 'The Shepherd and the Knucklehead' bar in Haledon, NJ is an open mic poetry readings - and it is kicked off with a reading of the last page of 'On The Road'. In fact, the bar itself is dedicated to Kerouac, complete with a sign dubbing him 'the patron saint of this pub'. The address is 529 Belmont Ave, Haledon, NJ...anyone who loves great literature (especially our ol'; Jack) great beer, and great people will love this little place! www.geocities.com/shepherdandknucklehead

 

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On The Road Scroll Sold at Auction May 22, 2001-

I don't know if it really makes any difference, after all it is only a piece of paper, but Kerouac's On The Road scroll was auctioned off May 22nd at Christie's Auction House in New York. Without editorizing too much here, it is a shame to me that Kerouac's intentions, of having his complete archives placed in a public institution, are not being honored. To see articles and images of the scroll, click here

The following is reprinted from the New York Times a few weeks before the auction.

By KATHRYN SHATTUCK*

Fifty years after its completion on April 22, 1951, the product of a three-week typing marathon said to have been stoked by Benzedrine and coffee, the scroll on which Jack Kerouac composed "On the Road" is to be auctioned on May 22 at Christie's in Manhattan.

The single-spaced quasi-autobiographical ode to free living is nearly 120 feet long and pasted together in sections about a dozen feet long, the seams later reinforced with tape. A faint pencil line runs along its right edge, suggesting that Kerouac cut the paper to fit his typewriter.

Darkened with age, the scroll is tattered near its beginning, probably from handling. (Kerouac was fond of showing it, unrolled and roadlike, to friends.) And its final paragraphs are torn away, a mishap that Kerouac attributed to his friend Lucien Carr's dog chewing off the end.

The scroll's consignor is Tony Sampas of Pepperell, Mass. A nephew of Stella Sampas, Kerouac's third and last wife, he inherited the scroll from an uncle, Anthony G. Sampatacacus, who died in December 1999. He is the executor of his uncle's estate and is the joint beneficiary of the scroll with another uncle, John Sampas, and Sampatacacus's longtime girlfriend, Nancy Bump.

"The scroll needs to go into the public," Tony Sampas said of his decision to sell. "It has been locked up in a safe, it has been rolled up for decades, and it's an important work. It needs to be studied by scholars and by ordinary folks." He added: "We have a financial imperative. I have to settle an estate, and we have some bills."

Christie's estimates that the scroll will fetch $1 million to $1.5 million.

"On the Road" is one of the elemental texts of the Beat generation and remains popular today. The book has sold nearly 3.5 million copies in the United States and continues to sell at a rate of 110,000 to 130,000 copies a year, a pace that has increased slightly since 1991, when steady annual sales of 25,000 quadrupled in one year.

"I would place Kerouac in the same league as Kafka, Joyce and Proust, and we have sold manuscripts of all of those authors for substantial sums," said Chris Coover, senior specialist in manuscripts at Christie's.

The scroll was kept in the vault of the Sterling Lord Literistic agency until about 1993 and resurfaced at the New York Public Library several years later, Mr. Coover said. It was moved from the library to Christie's in January and is being studied by conservators at the Pierpont Morgan Library in Manhattan.

Christie's plans to exhibit the scroll in Chicago and San Francisco in early May, and it will be on view at the auction house beginning around May 17.

"On the Road" was closely based on the cross-country wanderings of Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady, a charismatic drifter, as they traversed the highways of postwar America and Mexico. Armed with a rucksack filled with small notebooks, Kerouac verbally sketched scenes from everyday life, concentrating on what he considered the neglected cities of the West, where he imagined himself a sort of Sundance Kid to his companion's Butch Cassidy. The book's seemingly endless strands of rhythmic prose echoed the jazz Kerouac loved and heralded its author's belief that he had discovered a new form of writing both spontaneous and unrevised.

"I really wrote a great book, my very best, one of the best to be published this year anywhere (or next Jan.) and wrote it too in 20 days as I say and I feel the pull and strain of having to type with a rusty typewriter like this and a dull ribbon that won't enact my tones," Kerouac wrote to Cassady on June 10, 1951.

In fact, it would take six years to get the manuscript published, during which Kerouac met with forceful rejections, beginning with the reaction of Robert Giroux at Harcourt Brace. "How the hell can the printer work from this?" the editor is said to have roared.

Mr. Coover surmises that within the first year, Kerouac retyped the scroll onto conventional pages.But the manuscript was still summarily turned down by several major New York publishers, perhaps partly because of its glorification of car thieves, con men, hobos and prostitutes, and its unconventional style.

Finally, Malcolm Cowley of Viking agreed to edit the book, but only after Kerouac submitted to substantial revisions and agreed to get signed release forms from its characters. Eventually, Kerouac assigned aliases: Cassady became Dean Moriarty, the poet Allen Ginsberg appeared as Carlo Marx, and Kerouac christened himself Sal Paradise.

In a review in The New York Times in 1957, Gilbert Millstein hailed its publication as "a historic occasion" and called "On the Road" "the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as `beat,' and whose principal avatar he is."

The historian Douglas Brinkley, who is writing a Kerouac biography for Viking, said: "I find the scroll one of the really fascinating documents of 20th-century American literature. There is such a mythology grown on the coffee-and-Benzedrine frenzy in which he produced the scroll." But, he cautioned, "a lot of the mythology is inaccurate."

In fact, Mr. Brinkley said, Kerouac was a seasoned writer who kept meticulous notes and journals filled with anecdotes he honed to perfection. Later, in that April marathon, he is likely to have retyped these notes onto the scroll, while drinking countless cups of coffee rather than the Benzedrine of lore. The myth was perpetuated by Ginsberg but debunked by Kerouac himself.

"I tell you another," Kerouac wrote to Cassady. "I wrote that book on COFFEE. . . . Benny, tea, anything I KNOW none as good as coffee for real mental power kicks."

Kerouac referred to the scroll — 9 inches wide and 119 feet, 8 inches long — as Teletype paper, although it was probably architectural drafting paper that he found in the West 20th Street loft in Manhattan to which he and his second wife, Joan Haverty, had recently moved.

Although Kerouac gave the impression that his writing was spontaneous, the scroll suggests otherwise. There, in the author's minuscule handwriting, words are changed, punctuation added, paragraphs indicated and entire passages crossed out in pencil and red crayon. In the scroll's earlier sections, Kerouac took care to change real names; somewhere around midpoint he abandoned the painstaking process, leaving references to himself, Cassady and others. And the missing portions torn off by his friend's dog? Perhaps no more than a ruse perpetuated by Kerouac when he decided to rewrite the book's ending.

Kerouac died in 1969 at 47 from an alcohol-abetted hemorrhage induced by a bar brawl in St. Petersburg, Fla. The sale of the scroll may finally help put an end to a battle that, like its creator, crisscrossed the country over the last decade as litigious factions tried, unsuccessfully, to wrest control of the Kerouac estate from the Sampas family.

Last week John Sampas, the executor of the Kerouac estate, said he was working to place the Kerouac archives with the New York Public Library. The estate is thought to be worth close to $10 million.

"Jack moved to New York in 1944, and he spent quite a bit of time at the public library," John Sampas said. "I feel the archives should go there. We are committed to it, but as they say, nothing is done until the fat lady sings."

Tony and John Sampas and Ms. Bump will retain the scroll's copyright, said George Tobia Jr., a partner with the Boston firm of Burns & Levinson and the attorney for Kerouac's estate.

John and Tony Sampas and Ms. Bump are the joint beneficiaries of the scroll, but Tony's position as executor of Anthony G. Sampatacacus's estate enables him alone to decide to auction the scroll.

"I'm very disappointed," John Sampas said of the auction. "I almost feel the appraisal could have been more conservative and that the library could have purchased it, but I have no control over it." The library refused to comment.

"My only concern is that I hope that whoever buys the scroll will end up donating it to a public institution and not keep it sequestered away in a private home," Mr. Brinkley said. "It's one of those literary documents that belongs to the American people and should be expected to be seen as we would expect to see the first edition of Whitman's `Leaves of Grass' or the draft of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address."

*copyrighted by New York Times


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