Yesterday my spouse and I were at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side. I usually browse the literature and poetry section. I selected a few books and sat down in the reading area. I read some chapters of two books by Beat writer Jack Kerouac. Big Sur and Dharma Bums were the books titles.
Kerouac is one writer I've taken a great interest in. I've read a few of his poetry books and a couple of his novels. I read On The Road a couple of years back but my interest in the beat writers goes back a long way.Kerouac, along with Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and later Neal Cassidy for an interesting nucleus of disaffected writers disgusted with war and the current state of society during the 1940s and 1950s.
Last Friday after an open mic I reflected on the power of the spoken word and art throughout the ages with another artist. It's amazing about some genres and some artists and poets ad writers still influence a generation of writers and artist today. That's the beauty of it. Some may wonder what our importance is. Look at the many neighborhoods artist brought attention to. Harlem, Chelsea, Greenwich and the East Village to name a few. Artist brought attention to these neighborhoods where rents were cheap, food was reasonable, and where they could develop their craft. These places are slowly going away but they will not disappear.
I love reading the history of these and other areas where the arts were a vital part of the community. The people who were the catalysts were colorful and unique. Many years after their heydays I can still feel their spirit. I can here them saying "Keep on writing!"
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