Lowell Celebrates Kerouac this weekend. For more details see last week’s Round-Up
and see here
& please note – Sunday, (from 11 to 1) at the former St. Jean Baptiste Church (741 Merrimack St), where Kerouac once served as an altar boy – the Jack Kerouac Mural Unveiling/Dedication.
The mural, (see above), a stunning creation by local artist, Kori Thomas (Quest Nine),
will be officially revealed and dedicated at that time, along with live music, and accompanying remarks by Jim Sampas, the executive director of the Kerouac Estate,
on the thrilling up-coming plans being proposed for this site – the establishment of
the Jack Kerouac Center, “a future cultural hub in Lowell dedicated to the author’s
life and works”
and plans afoot for a new museum in San Francisco (opening Spring of 2025) – The Counterculture Museum
“The Counterculture Museum will explore countercultures, subcultures, and the dominant cultures from which they arise, with a strong focus on 20th century countercultures—in particular those important to San Francisco and the Bay Area.
In addition to the Beat Generation and the countercultures of the Sixties, from the hippies to the anti-war movement, the Counterculture Museum will address the struggles for civil rights, feminism, LGBTQ+ liberation, the free speech movement, Vietnam, the environmental movement, along with the music of those times – jazz, rock n roll, punk rock, and more”
The Counterculture Museum, which will open at 1485 Haight Street (at the intersection of Haight-Ashbury (sic)), is the brainchild and vision of Estelle and Jerry Cimino, founders of the extraordinary Beat Museum (at 540 North Beach in North Beach, across from the City Lights Bookstore, which, they assure us, will not be closing). For more on this thrilling adventure and to help realize the dream – see here
Steve Silberman on Philip Whalen
“In May of 1993, Michael Wenger at the San Francisco Zen Center contacted Steve and asked him if he would be interested in helping Philip, whose macular degeneration was quite advanced, perform daily tasks, answer mail, take him shopping, and act essentially as in-home support and companion. During a brief period, from May to Sepembert of that year, Silberman kept a journal of his interactions..” – See here and here
Steve reviews Crowded By Beauty for Lions Roar – here
His obituary for Philip is here
More Steve on Philip (posthumously), (more from that 1993 interaction, Steve interviews Philip on Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation Substack) – here
William Burroughs – Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” debuted last week at the New York Film Festival.
Here’s an interview with screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes
and more on Queer
More spell-bound reviews (one pro and one con) here and here
& Ted Joans – right now there are currently two Ted Joans shows up in the US
One is at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Ted Joans -Land of The Rhinoceros (through till November 17). The other, Jazz Is My Religion (through till October 29) at New York’s Zurcher Gallery
See more on Ted Joans – here
& Five years on (today) – the anniversary of the passing of John Giorno
Remembering John Giorno
Check out his 1979 Naropa Performance – here
“John Giorno’s Former Home Is Now One of New York’s Coolest Art Spaces”