Michael Schumacher‘s revelationary collection of fugitive pieces, First Thought, Conversations With Allen Ginsberg, out just this month is a must-read. Here’s an excerpt (Allen on the necessities of drug legalization) – but there’s so much more.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti will celebrate his 98th birthday next week. Here he is interviewed by Penelope Bloom Aprile a student at San Francisco’s Yick Wo Elementary School.
From the interview:
PBA: What is your most beautiful memory and the saddest one?
LF: My favorite memory is my years in Paris as a student. My saddest is the 2016 Presedential election…
PBA:: What is the secret of life?
LF: Tenderness, live with tenderness.
Jack Kerouac’s birthday last weekend gave us a valuable reminder of the perennial example of freedom epitomized by the Beat Generation. It also reminded us of a more troubling component – gender bias, Beat sexism?
We’ll continue to recommend (along with recent advances in scholarship) Brenda Knight‘s groundbreaking 1996 book, Women of the Beat Generation
Shaun Fitzpatrick in Bustle presents here “7 Female Beat Writers To Read Instead of Jack Kerouac”
– alongside Jack Kerouac?
John Sampas, controversial literary executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate passed away peacefully at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, aged 84
Sampas on Kerouac (from 1996) may be viewed here
Tomorrow in San Francisco (Berkeley), the 61st anniversary of the first complete reading of “Howl” taking place at the original location (now the wittily-named Sconehenge Cafe). Local Beat-o-phile George Killingsworth and several others organized a great commemorative group reading last year on the occasion of the 60th anniversary. They’re doing it again this year. If you’re in te neighborhood… For more details about the event – see here