MetroActive: “Tech Bros Forget Beat Generation’s Imprint”

Jimmy Page and William Burroughs, photo by Charles Gatewood

Last week, I slithered back into the Beat Museum in San Francisco, arriving by sheer chance. Turns out the museum is currently angling to raise a cool few million so it can buy a new facility up the street.

Within minutes, director Jerry Cimino and I found ourselves venting—er, contemplating—the current generations of tech in San Jose, San Francisco and everywhere between, especially how they seem clueless to the counterculture history of these parts.

“Silicon Valley, as we know it today, wouldn’t exist without The Beat Generation,” Cimino said. “In many ways, Beat Generation values became Bay Area values. One of the reasons so many young people want to live here is because the Bay Area is the leading edge and the Beats made it hip.”

Read the full article at MetroActive