In 2002, Beat and counterculture photographer Larry Keenan asked me to build a website to document forty years of his Beat Generation and counterculture photography. Working with him and learning about his vast archive of photos was a treat. After Larry's death in 2012, the site remained online, although mostly unmaintained. Last week, the site relaunched in … [Read more...]
Beatnik: Collages by Rebeka Elizegi
The series focuses on the Beat Generation as a cultural phenomenon, more specifically in the women poets who participated in the movement and who historically have had less visibility than their male colleagues. It is a tribute to those women poets, who have remained in the shadow in the history of literature. Beatnik is the derogatory term with which the conservative American … [Read more...]
Poetic Licence: The Crime and Hard Time of Gregory Corso, or A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Felon
“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state. And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries. And look upon myself and curse my fate …” --- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 “If you believe you’re a poet, then you’re saved.” --- Gregory Corso A plot to take over the city of New York, a cunning robbery with … [Read more...]
Richard’s Coat: Remembering Richard Irwin
Richard’s Coat… went into the cardboard box with all the other things for the thrift store: an orange radio with a broken antenna, a vintage purse that was only in fashion in San Francisco’s Haight Street where I had spent my younger days - some old clothes, a pink pair of cowboy boots that I was brave enough to buy but not to wear, and a sewing basket with a broken … [Read more...]
Translating the Counterculture: The Reception of the Beats in Turkey by Erik Mortenson, reviewed by Marc Olmsted
TRANSLATING THE COUNTERCULTURE The Reception of the Beats in Turkey by Erik Mortenson / Southern Illinois University Press / 978-0809336548 / 2018 The premise is a fascinating one. Erik Mortenson actually was IN Turkey during its attempted coup in 2016 and had to leave with his family. He taught at the Koç University in Istanbul, so this is no thesis conducted from afar. … [Read more...]
Now What’s Wrong? Reflections on Allen Ginsberg’s Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992
After the accomplishments of late nineteenth and early twentieth century experimentalists Whitman, Dickinson, Rimbaud, and the Modernist poets Apollinaire, Cendrars, Mayakovsky, Stevens, Williams, H.D., Lorca, Vallejo and Neruda---every poet runs the risk of being trite in subject matter or derivative or retrograde as a stylist, or drastically both. Taste is a loaded factor, … [Read more...]
Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg: A Story of Influences
The well-known link between Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman comes from both Ginsberg's readers and Ginsberg himself. One of the first explicit mentions of Walt Whitman in Ginsberg's published poetry is to be found in a 1954 poem entitled “Siesta in Xbalba And Return to the States”1: […] – Returning armed with New Testament critic of horse and mule tanned and … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac: Avatar of American Buddhism
"I have nothing to offer but my own confusion." -- JK It is intriguing that secular, educated Americans often have difficulty with the rituals and story of Christianity, seeing it as irrational, but eagerly read their horoscope or find new age morality or belief systems relevant to their lives. As traditional organized religion has lessened in influence, spiritual needs and … [Read more...]
The Guardian and the Familiar: William S. Burroughs and Cats
“O fiery river “Spread over this American land. “Drown out the falsity, the smug contempt “For what does not pay … “What would you pay Christ to die again?” -- Kenneth Patchen, from “O Fiery River” William Burroughs has to look after his cats. “I simply could not stand to see my little cats hungry.” But there’s more to this than simple natural compassion. He sees … [Read more...]
I, Too, at the Beginning by Ted Joans
I, Too, at the Beginning I am the early Black Beat I read with some of the Best Beat minds When the Apple was Beat Generating I lived in Greenwich Village I was there Where I read poems and painted poetry Whilst worthy constituents Dwelled elsewhere It was me/myself/and I Who created the original "BIRD LIVES" I wailed & wailed In coffee shops wayback … [Read more...]
And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead: a review of the Bob Kaufman documentary
THE POET KNOWS HE MUST WRITE THE TRUTH, EVEN IF HE IS KILLED FOR IT, FOR THE SPHINX CANNOT BE DENIED -- Bob Kaufman, "THE POET" The life and times of Bob Kaufman, the influential and defiant Beat poet, are chronicled in Billy Woodberry's spellbinding documentary, And When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead. And while Kaufman may have died over thirty years ago, his beatific … [Read more...]
Neeli Cherkovski’s Elegy For My Beat Generation, reviewed by Yannis Livadas
Elegy For My Beat Generation by Neeli Cherkovski / Lithic Press / 978-0-9975017-9-7 The Beat Generation as a literary phenomenon was over, or more correctly, was completed, with the last works of Jack Kerouac. Its poetical and prose heritage, although it concerns, at most, works of only five or six people, is particularly important. The first echo of this generation, or … [Read more...]
The Intersection of Buddhism and the Beat Generation
The 1950s in America was not a period known for its religious diversity. The spiritual consumerism that we know today had yet to be established and the post-War era was defined by adherence to familial and traditional values, including a religious conformity of traditional Catholic-Protestant beliefs (Ellwood 172). The Beat writers were among the minority of spiritual seekers … [Read more...]
Book Review — First Thought: Conversations with Allen Ginsberg
First Thought: Conversations with Allen Ginsberg edited by Michael Schumacher / University of Minnesota Press / March 17, 2017 / 978-0816699179 Michael Schumacher is one of the major scholars of Allen Ginsberg, and has thus far written the best biography of him, Dharma Lion. First Thought, Michael Schumacher's collection of Allen Ginsberg interviews, is an excellent … [Read more...]
Anything Can Happen: Bruno Sourdin in conversation with Gary Cummiskey
Bruno Sourdin is a French poet and collagist. He was born in 1950 in the Mont-Saint-Michel area. After studying journalism in Paris, he travelled in Morocco, Egypt, and India. He now lives in Normandy. His first collection of poems, Les Haillons d’Ecume, was published in 1977. His more recent titles include Hazel (2005), L’air de la route (2013), Vers les fjords de l’ouest … [Read more...]
BOB KAUFMAN poet of ecstatic litany
BOB KAUFMAN poet of ecstatic litany Bob Kaufman’s poetry of jazz echoes Bob Kaufman is a traveler of deep space Bob Kaufman is a holder of many sorrows Bob Kaufman in syncopated dream chanter Bob Kaufman speaks from his flawless memory Bob Kaufman suffers along with the drumbeats Bob Kaufman rides along on his word cotillion Bob Kaufman does not monetize the … [Read more...]
Out to Lunch with William Burroughs: Who Owns the Dropper Owns the Fix
It was summer 1991, I think, when sharing a joint on a brick fire escape after a night of acid-tapped cartoon lunacy, my friend Steve exhaled smoke into the Manchester morning and casually asked if I’d heard of a writer called William Burroughs. I hadn’t, but that moment has stayed with me as the dawn of what was to become a deep and unremitting love for the man J.G. Ballard … [Read more...]
Prelude to Big Sur: Kerouac in Spring & Summer 1960
It is sunny, no humidity in the late spring of 1960. A brisk breeze blows in Northport, Long Island where Jack Kerouac has made his home with his mother for two years now. He sits in his yard reading his copy of Suranguma Sutra: What suffers rebirth is not the individual, but the pain of individuality… He is sober, for now, having taken upon himself a concerted effort … [Read more...]
Beatnik / Kerouac and Rock ‘n Roll: Two essays by Juan Arabia
Beatnik The origin of "beat" is as a word of oral usage, closer to experience; in its meaning of "beat down" it suggests the being as defeated or battered down. It points toward a certain continuation--open to the world--of the body that breaks with unveiling death. Kerouac includes it into the discourse of “the other,” that is, us, in the middle of a conversation. In … [Read more...]
My meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangier, 1980
In June of 1980 my manuscript submission had won me a place in the School of Visual Arts pilot program of study with writer/composer Paul Bowles in Tangier, Morocco. At the time of my acceptance to the program I was working as a regional reporter at the Record, a newspaper in Northern Jersey. I hated it. I wanted to create stories not record them. Paul Bowles was a hero to … [Read more...]
A.D. Winans Remembers Bob Kaufman
Bob Kaufman, known in France as the American Rimbaud, was one of the original Beat poets to come out of the Fifties. He is rightfully regarded as one of the most influential black poets of his era, but his poetry transcends any race identification. In San Francisco's North Beach, home of the West Coast Beats, he was regarded as the original be-bop poet. As a jazz poet, he … [Read more...]
Neal and Carolyn Cassady’s house at 29 Russell St., San Francisco
It’s been about ten years now since I saw Beat legends Neal and Carolyn Cassady’s house. It was such a thrill for me; I can remember it perfectly. My old friends Kirstin and Colin, from Alaska had just moved down to San Francisco the year before in 1998, and had told me about it. “Yeah,” Kirstin told me, “it’s just up the street from our apartment.” Jack Kerouac lived with them … [Read more...]
For Beat’s Sake: An Interview with Carolyn Cassady
We all live inside history, and Carolyn Cassady has seen her share. Ms. Cassady was gracious and open when she sat for an interview at her home in Monte Sereno, not far from Los Gatos. Carolyn Cassady, best known for her relationships with husband Neal Cassady and novelist Jack Kerouac, is an attractive woman with an easy laugh. The fifth child of a Nashville biochemistry … [Read more...]
Dearly Beloved, Part I: Growing up in 1950s San Francisco
In San Francisco, a handsome old Lutheran Church is for sale. My "Beat Generation", progressive, bohemian, intellectual, Jewish, left-leaning, scholarly, non-conformist, art professor parents, Leonard and Helen Breger, are deeply devout prolific artists. They buy the church. It promises walls galore for hanging their growing bodies of artwork. The basement Sunday School … [Read more...]
Translations of three poems by Helle Busacca
Helle Busacca (1915-1996) was born in Messina and moved with her family to Bergamo as a young child. She spent her working life as a high school teacher in various cities in Italy and ultimately settled in Florence in 1971. Eugenio Montale and Corrado Pavolini, among others, took note of her writing, and Pavolini enabled the publication of her first volume of poetry, Giuoco … [Read more...]
October Ghost
The smudged days of October—when my mood is hand in hand with the weather—remind me of Jack Kerouac. He died in October, on the 21st, and the anniversary of that day always comes and goes like a local subway suddenly gone express. I watch it pass, thinking I should do something, somehow commemorate the event, but I never do anything at all. I am aware that it is no longer … [Read more...]
Ted Joans website in works; photos sought!
For several years, there's been a very small, basic website devoted to Ted Joans. Now, it's time to go big. The new website will launch in April 2015. But, before that happens, I need to track down some photos and information. We'll be sure to credit you for anything you can supply! (And, I'll send you a free TED JOANS LIVES! letterpress postcard - just ask.) Here's what … [Read more...]
The Howl Hat
My friend Sylvain went to San Francisco recently and brought us back some souvenirs as gifts. One of the places he'd visited on his trip had been City Lights Books. He brought me a t-shirt from there. And he also brought me one of the most complicated objects I’ve ever had in my possession: a khaki-colored baseball cap emblazoned with the word HOWL in large, black capital … [Read more...]
The Road Toward Visions of Cody
In March 2015, Jack Kerouac's masterpiece, Visions of Cody, will be reprinted by Library of America (along with Visions of Gerard and Big Sur). Edited by Todd Tietchen, the novel has been extensively annotated with notes and a number of editorial idiosyncrasies restored. * * * In the months following Jack Kerouac's April 1951 typing of On the Road, an act born out of a need … [Read more...]
Beat Generation Poet to Get New Voice with Kickstarter Campaign
A collection of rare and out-of-print interviews with Gregory Corso, one of the founders of the Beat movement in American literature Arlington, MA, February 11, 2015 -- After five years of research and editing, Rick Schober, publisher at Tough Poets Press (Arlington, MA), has announced the completion of The Whole Shot: Collected Interviews with Gregory Corso. The … [Read more...]
Vast Regions from Nowhere: Paul Bowles, Unfathered Authors, Mother-Bonded Sons
“I think that having spent my life trying to hide everything from everyone, I’ve ended up by no longer being able to find many things myself. Seriously.” —Paul Bowles, 1975 The Core “Other people’s indifference is the only horror.” —Paul Bowles, 1948 The first time I read a word of Paul Bowles, I was sitting on a bench in the zócalo in Oaxaca, Mexico, around twilight. It … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac’s “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica”
--- from a work-in-progress, I, Duluoz!: An Appreciation of Jack Kerouac If I had to pick my favorite poem of Jack Kerouacʼs, it would be “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica” published in Some of the Dharma (1997). Strangely, or even tragically, it was omitted from the Library of America volume of Kerouacʼs Collected Poems, as it signifies Kerouacʼs creative breakthrough of … [Read more...]
An interview on Jack Kerouac and Library of America
March 2015 will mark the occasion of the publication of the third volume of Jack Kerouac works published by Library of America. I took this occasion to catch up with editor, Todd Tietchen, assistant professor of English at University of Massachusetts Lowell. The book is a chronological publishing continuum of the first volume and contains the groundbreaking novel Visions of … [Read more...]
The Great Consciousness of Life
Reaching in, pulling out. The great divide is conquered; and there lies an ever-evolving mission to extract meaning from chaos. This, then, is where it resides, the theater of the soul and the heart. In rewriting my biography of Jack Kerouac, I found that the only way to revisit that book once again was to take all of Jack Kerouac's epic letters to Neal Cassady, all of … [Read more...]
Celebrate the life of Herbert Huncke!
Please come celebrate the life of Herbert Huncke on Friday, January 16, 2015, 7pm at the Beat Museum in San Francisco. Herbert Huncke was born in 1915; let's mark the centennial of his birth together! Participants include: Hilary Holladay, author of Herbert Huncke: The Times Square Hustler Who Inspired the Beat Generation Dennis McNally, author of Desolate Angel: Jack … [Read more...]
Wordsworth and the Beats: The Longevity of Influence
Although William Wordsworth once stated that he was “not a critic” and, in fact, “set little value upon the art” (Leitch 556), in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” he nevertheless proposed and discussed several controversial ideas that would become key components to his literary philosophy, securing the “Preface” as a significant and influential addition to the cannon of … [Read more...]
Herbert Gold Kicks off his Tenth Decade with his 20th Novel
Jorvik Press has some exciting news: What does a prizewinning author do when he’s about to enter his tenth decade with a track record of more than 30 books, sound of mind and body, full of ideas, and still obsessed with characters he’s been developing for years? If you’re Herbert Gold, you write another novel. Just before his 90th birthday last March Herb was talking to … [Read more...]
William S. Burroughs centennial events at Lake Forest College
You are invited to join Lake Forest College in celebrating the 100th birthday of William S. Burroughs Lake Forest College, located in Lake Forest, Illinois, is helping to curate a series of events connected to the William S. Burroughs centennial. 1. Poetry in Performance: Gossamurmur, Gaza, Jaguar Harmonics Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel, Lake Forest College / … [Read more...]
Calling on Paul Bowles: Tangier, Morocco, August 1979
Calling on Paul Bowles Tangier, Morocco, August 1979 ”There it is,” someone says, and in the darkness, in the distance, you can see Tangier sprawled across several hills, a white city illuminated by electric lights and veiled by a thin fog. After docking, disembarking and a wearisome wait to clear Moroccan customs, we take a taxi to our hotel, hurtling through the … [Read more...]
October in the Railroad Earth – Jack Kerouac
Every October, I think of Jack Kerouac's short story, "October in the Railroad Earth." Jack recorded it for his album with Steve Allen, Poetry For The Beat Generation; take a listen below. Want to download the track? It's available here. … [Read more...]
