Kerouac Centennial. In case anybody missed it. Here’s our two-part posting on the legendary (very first) Kerouac Conference, back in 1973 in Salem, Massachusetts – here and here
Today, October 28, at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, there’ll be a celebratory event, “including a keynote address by Prof. Polina Mackay, panels on Kerouac’s literature and on the film adaptations and translations of his work, and a debate on the influence of Kerouac and the Beats on the Portuguese literary scene and a multimedia concert.”
and next Thursday and Friday, November 3 and 4, The Beat Studies Association in collaboration with Harper College, Palatine, Illinois, will host a Jack Kerouac Centenary Conference with keynote speaker, Ann Charters, and special presentations by Kerouac biographers, Dennis McNally, Holly George-Warren, Kerouac scholars Tim Hunt and Regina Weinreich, and Jim Sampas, executor of the Kerouac Estate
and more Kerouac – Simon Warner interviews Dave Olson on the recent (2021) Kerouac and The Beats exhibition in Kobe, Japan. and more on “Kerouac in Kobe” – see here
November 1 (Tuesday) pub date for Bill Morgan‘s new book for Beatdom on Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the Protection of All Beings. For an excerpt from the book see here
November 1 is also the pub date for Bob Dylan – The Philosophy of Modern Song
More next week.
So happy to be included in this fantastic round-up with my Kerouac in Kobe project.
Note: For the all the influences of Japan on the wider Beat community – especially Zen and haiku – this was the first comprehensive exhibit. While centered around Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” typescript, was really reflective of roots and branches of Beats in Japan with loads of ephemera (esp from Kazu-san at http://www.flying-books.com/ including: chapbooks, posters, editions, maps, passports, records from dear Allen as well as Nanao Sakaki, Gary Snyder + Phillip Whalen and others.
Encourage anyone with an interest about this unique viewpoint to dig in to the interview with Prof Matt Theado with loads of riffs and topics and laughs, plus the “Rock and Beat Generation” interview with Simon Warner and even a spontaneous video {https://youtu.be/Hikt9W2GWc0} from my historic barn studio in provincial Okayama with topics from car crashes to Television (the band not the communications medium) to namechecks for poets Marc Zegans and Ron Whitehead and pods from Ken Bole.
Links to interviews in the news-round-up above (click click enjoy!).
Questions and conversation welcomed.