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Read more...The Beats and Underground Newspapers of the 1960s
The Sixties were one of the most turbulent times in American history. As the Baby Boomers came of age, underground newspapers were born with a focus on political and cultural topics the conventional press was ignoring. The antiwar movement, the sexual revolution, gay liberation, and the drug culture became the everyday focus for this burgeoning underground. […]
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Read more...Interview with ruth weiss
Poet ruth weiss has spent much of her 91 years being witness to history. Born in Germany, as a girl she and her family narrowly escaped the rise of Nazism, fleeing to America in 1939. After the war, she and her family returned to Europe, and ruth began hitchhiking around the continent, writing all the […]
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Read more...Interview with Ron Turner
We sat down with Turner to talk about his publishing career at Last Gasp, standard-bearer of the San Francisco counterculture, the Beat Generation, and their numerous intersections.
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Read more...Two Poems: North Beach Dark & Light
North Beach – Dark This magnificent citystands as beautiful as everskies as clear as freshly wiped glassstreets empty like desert highwaysThere is uncertainty in the airfear on people’s facescaution concernWalking Grant Ave I see people I’ve known for yearsrecognizing their eyes above maskswe talk ten feet apartWe check in with each othernervous laughterlooks of resignationDogs […]
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Read more...Interview with V. Vale
V. Vale has been documenting counterculture for over 40 years, and is something of a legend in it himself. We sat down with the publisher of seminal SF punk zine ‘Search & Destroy’ and RE/Search Publications to pick his brain about the Beat Generation and its influences, the French connection, Philip Lamantia, and why it’s […]
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Read more...The North Beach of the Beat Generation is in Grave Danger
When Beat Generation fans visit San Francisco there are five places everyone wants to go to: City Lights Bookstore, Vesuvio Cafe, Caffe Trieste, Specs, and The Beat Museum. All five of us have now been closed for a month. All of our businesses are on the line. There is a strong possibility one or more […]
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Read more...Interview with Ed Hardy
Tattoo legend Don Ed Hardy discusses his Beat Generation influences, why San Francisco continues to be a mecca for creative people, and more.
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Read more...Interview with Barry Gifford
Barry Gifford is the consummate storyteller: novelist, poet, biographer, and screenwriter. Beat Generation fans know Barry, with Lawrence Lee, as the author of 'Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac', published in 1978. We caught up with Barry for his take on the Beat Generation 35 years after Jack's Book came out.
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Read more...How Allen Ginsberg Turned The Tables on CNN
At the 1994 NYU Beat Generation Conference, Allen Ginsberg asserted to a CNN reporter that he was still being censored to that very day. "But that was all in the 1950s. Surely you're not being censored today, in 1994?"
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Read more...Ford v Ferrari: “…he’s a beatnik.”
The first time we met Josh Lucas was when he was playing Neal Cassady in Michael Polish’s 2013 movie Big Sur – the movie based on Jack Kerouac’s novel. Last night I had the pleasure of watching Ford v Ferrari which was nominated for best picture at the 2019 Academy Awards. It’s the ultimate corporation […]
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Read more...Interview with Brenda Knight
Writer, historian, and editor of Women of the Beat Generation discusses her introduction to the Beats, her journey to San Francisco, and some of the personalities she's met along the way.
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