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Read more...Sorry, Bay Area. Herb Caen did NOT coin the term “Beatnik”
For the last sixty years, a commonly held belief by many “in the know” San Franciscans is the term "beatnik" was coined by the legendary San Francisco columnist, Herb Caen. It was Caen, of course, who first used the term in his daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2nd, 1958.
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Read more...The Murder that Almost Wasn’t
The libertine circle that was to assume the mantle of the “Beat Generation” and become literary outlaws through the 1950s had its first brush with notoriety in August of 1944, when Lucien Carr murdered David Kammerer in Riverside Park, New York. The story is no doubt familiar to even the casual reader, and it’s been […]
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Read more...Neal Cassady on TV in 1961
by Dave Moore In October 1961 Neal Cassady appeared on a 45-minute TV programme called “PM West.” It was hosted by Terrence O’Flaherty, the SF Chronicle film critic, was filmed on 7 October 1961 at KPIX Channel 5 in San Francisco, and broadcast on 25 October. Titled “Epitaph on a Beatnik,” the guests were Shig […]
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Read more...“I love America. I hate the system.” –Amiri Baraka
Everett LeRoi Jones was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1932. He started writing poetry while working in a library during a stint in the US Air Force and later met and published many members of the Beat Generation in numerous periodicals such as Yugen, Kulchur, The Floating Bear Press, and Totem Press. Jones was a well […]
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Read more...The Future of The Beat Museum
After the virus...then what?
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Read more...David Amram & Jerry Cimino Live
At Beatnik Shindig 2015, musician, composer, author, and raconteur David Amram performed with Jerry Cimino, reading from Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, and Ginsberg, sharing stories, perspectives, insights, and some sage wisdom for the ages.
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Read more...Human Be-In Mini Documentary
Directed by Jesse Block On January 14, 1967, a massive “Gathering of the Tribes” was convened in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for a Human Be-In (named in the same mode as the sit-ins and teach-ins of the civil rights and anti-war movements preceding it). The event served multiple purposes, one being to bring together […]
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Read more...From Beetles to Beatles: It was 60 years ago today
How Beat and a British poet changed the history of rock music by Simon Warner Liverpool, at the start of a brand-new decade. There is a beat in the air, there are beat groups, too; soon there will be a sound christened Merseybeat and not long after a weekly newspaper called Mersey Beat to record […]
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Read more...David Meltzer at Beatnik Shindig 2015
At our Beatnik Shindig in 2015, David Meltzer gave a performance encapsulating 67 years as a poet.
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Read more...An Interview with Dr. Philip Hicks
Psychiatrist to Allen Ginsberg In 1955, Allen Ginsberg began attending weekly therapy sessions at the Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco. His therapist was a young psychiatrist named Dr. Philip Hicks. It was in these sessions that Allen related to Hicks his dissatisfaction with his job in advertising, and his desire to write poetry instead; […]
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Read more...BIG MIX: Michael McClure / Ray Manzarek / Rob Wasserman / George Brooks / Jay Lane
Live at Yoshi’s June 6, 2008Directed by Jesse Block
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