Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg Still Creating A Community

When I was 22 I went on a pilgrimage to Lowell, Massachusetts to visit Jack Kerouac‘s home. It was ill planned, we were walking in the snow, there were no signs, and what was worse, no one had even heard of him! I would have given anything for a map with directions of where to go and what to do. Well, The Beat Museum and The Contemporary Museum (CJM) did just that. They partnered together to create a walking tour based around the history of the Beat Generation in North Beach, San Francisco, in honor of Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg at the CJM. More than fifty years after On the Road and Howl were published, a large group of people gathered to listen to their stories and to see their historical geography.

Kathryn Jaller, of The Contemporary Jewish Museum, kicking off the walking tour of North Beach with Jerry Cimino, Founder and Director of The Beat Museum

Howling with Allen Ginsberg

As you read Allen Ginsberg‘s Howl, it carves out a little pocket in your brain and heart and lives there forever. He is one of those poets you imagine being friends with. His friendships with fellow Beat writers are legendary. Through decades and different countries, his very public relationship with Peter Orlovsky is inspiring.

Written in 1955, this big poem, in this little book changed the course of poetry, literature, and free speech as we know it. Part of City Lights’ Pocket Poets Series, it’s meant to fit into one’s pocket so that one will never be without poetry.

Scott used to invite friends over to read Ginsberg’s poetry as a group.