Symposium tribute to Jack Kerouac 1973

In 1973, a Symposium Tribute to Jack Kerouac took place at Salem State College where beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, and more discussed Kerouac’s writing and different aspects of his life. The three videos here show over 4 hours of the proceedings. The discussion is lively. The opening address is byCharles Jarvis. Jarvis, a professor at UMASS Lowell, reads an excerpt from "On the Road" to begin the Jack Kerouac Symposium. Jarvis had known Kerouac during the time when Kerouac moved back to Lowell from 1966-1968. He wrote a book about Kerouac called "Visions of Kerouac." Jay McHale, English professor at Salem State, was the organizer of the Jack Kerouac Symposium.

 

Discussion includes the sex life of Kerouac from the perspectives of the panelists, several of whom knew Kerouac intimately. Gregory Corso is a strong presence in the room, constantly interjecting and recasting the discussion according to his own particular perspective. However, Coros is also a giften poet and a sharp mind and many of this statements are profound and authentic. Corso never lost his 'beat' identity throughout is life.

 

"A Tribute to Jack Kerouac" was held as part of the Arts Festival at Salem State College in 1973. It is generally thought to be the first academic symposium on the life and work of Jack Kerouac. April 4th featured readings by Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso and a showing of the film "Pull My Daisy." On April 5th a panel discussion featuring Ginsberg, Corso, John Clellon Holmes, and Peter Orlovsky was held. The Symposium was free-wheeling, as befit the times, and became legendary over the years as the Beat Writers gained in popularity. There are many photos from the symposium archived by Salem State University and can be seen here. I have selected some to add to this post.

Corso during the poetry reading on April 4th,1973.

Corso takes a photo of the audience on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the poetry reading on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the panel discussion on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the panel discussion on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the panel discussion on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the panel discussion on April 4th,1973.

Corso during at the panel discussion on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the poetry reading on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the poetry reading on April 4th,1973.

Corso during the poetry reading on April 4th,1973.

Allen Ginsberg speaking at the panel discussion during the Jack Kerouac Symposium on April 5, 1973.

Ginsberg with an audience member at the Jack Kerouac Symposium

Writer Aaron Latham (October 3, 1943 – July 23, 2022), a member of the panel discussion, was working on a biography of Kerouac at the time of the Symposium. he never completed the book.

Peter Orlovsky at the Jack Kerouac Symposium. Orlovsky was born on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1933. He was a Korean War Veteran and American poet, as well as Allen Ginsberg's partner.

Peter Orlovsky at the Jack Kerouac Symposium.

Peter Orlovsky at the Jack Kerouac Symposium.

Peter Orlovsky at the Jack Kerouac Symposium.

Stanley Twardowicz, a painter and photographer who participated in the Symposium's panel discussion on 4/5/1973.

Stanley Twardowicz (July 8, 1917 - June 12, 2008) was an American abstract painter and photographer. Twardowicz was born in Detroit, and studied at the Meinzinger Art School during World War II. During the 1950s and 1960s he developed his painting style, related to color field paintings and abstract expressionism. In 1971 he married artist Lillian Dodson. Twardowicz also befriended Jack Kerouac, and published some of the only images of the writer in his final years.

Larry Eigner, Allen Ginsberg, and Peter Orlovsky

Eigner, Ginsberg, and Orlovsky speaking during the poetry reading on April 4th, 1973

John Holmes, Shirley Holmes, Brian Joyce, Michael Antonakes, Marvin LaHood, and Allen Ginsberg

Having a meal before the Tribute to Jack Kerouac on April 5th,1973.

Allen Ginsberg speaking at the panel discussion during the Jack Kerouac Symposium on April 5, 1973.

Allen had broken his leg, after falling on icey ground at his Cherry Valley farm in Upstate New York during the winter

Lillian Dodson, John Holmes, Allen Ginsberg and Shirley Holmes

Having brunch before the Kerouac Symposium on April 5th,1973.

Scotty Beaulieu

Beaulieu, a friend of Kerouac's from Lowell, asks a question during the Symposium while in the audience on April 5th, 1973.

Beat poet Gregory Corso speaking with two neighborhood children. Corso was in Salem participating in Salem State College's "Tribute to Jack Kerouac."

Quoi? Eternité: Arthur Rimbaud Doco

 

Etienne Faure’s 1985 biographical documentary provides almost everything you ever wanted to know about the life and writings of French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891).

Rimbaud, for those who are unfamiliar with his work, was the 19th century French literary equivalent of a rock legend: a blazing youthful talent who burst on the scene with a fireball of creative energy, only to burn out too fast and die too young. His meteoric poetic output began with his first professionally published poem at 16, but by 20 he stopped writing poetry and would later declare of his work: “All of that was just pig swill.” His adulthood was spent in a seemingly endless global journeys, with strange trips and odd jobs across Europe and Asia, before concluding with work as a coffee merchant and gun runner in Ethiopia before his untimely death from cancer.

The film spends a great deal of time detailing Rimbaud’s scandalous affair with poet Paul Verlaine, which ended rather badly (Verlaine, in a jealous rage, shot Rimbaud in the wrist and was later jailed even though Rimbaud sought to drop the criminal charges). But Faure fails to mention Rimbaud’s post-poetry love life, where he kept company with local women in Asia and Africa.

Rimbaud’s writing is well represented through a diverse global line-up of admirers reading his verse aloud. Some choices are inspired, such as Parisian Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, Dolores Chaplin (granddaughter of Charlie), and playwright Christopher Hampton, a schoolboy in Warsaw, a male stripper in Montreal, a hotel manager in Ibiza.

Lucifer Rising

Kenneth Anger began working on the idea for Lucifer Rising in 1966. He filmed it in 1972 but it was not released until 1980 after the sountrack was completed. Anger is 96 years old today. He represents a bridge between the older occult of rich wierdos and the new world of mainstream people following occult teachings. Lucifer Rising is the point of turning, when the counter culture and the older culture of mystercism met. Manson Family member and murderer Bobby Beausoleil, with his prison band The Freedom Orchestra, completed the soundtrack for Lucifer Rising in 1979. The film premiered in New York in 1980.

Lucifer Rising is a short film by director Kenneth Anger about the ceremonial rising of Lucifer, a sort-of birthday party of the Aquarian Age, the Love Generation. It is also a symbolic analogy of the coming Aeon of Horus as prophesied in the Thelemic sacred text, The Book of the Law. Anger himself said in The Guardian: “Lucifer Rising was about Egyptian gods summoning the angel Lucifer – in order to usher in a new occult age, in accordance with the principles of Ordo Templi Orientis – an occult order founded by British genius Aleister Crowley.”

Lucifer is not the devil. He’s the god of light and color. Luciferous – I bring the light. To me Satan and Lucifer are totally different entities. — Kenneth Anger

The film’s central theme as impersonation of gods, known to Crowley as the Dramatic Ritual, with Isis and Osiris appearing in Egypt invoking the natural elements that conjure the rising of Lucifer, not as devil but as the rebellious Angel of Light in John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), the Venus morning star, bringer of Light and “patron saint of the visual arts,” said Anger.

Bill Hicks, "Sane Man" (1989)

Sane Man was Bill’s first full-length comedy special, taped in 1989. This is the early years and the foundation of what would become his signature material and point of view. Funny and thought provoking, he attacks corporate America with venom, and almost screams at people to start thinking for themselves.

The Koumiko Mystery - 1965

 

While filming the Olympics, a filmmaker encounters a Japanese girl. Manchurian born and French educated, she's an intriguing anomaly. He films her around Tokyo, as she speaks of Japan, being Japanese and her unique perspective on life.

French documentarian Chris Marker and his rare, early 46-minute The Koumiko Mystery, screening here in a new restoration. It’s 1964, and Marker has just made his iconic La Jetée (1962) and Le Joli Mai (1963).

He’s filming in Japan for the first time, where the Summer Olympics are in full swing. There in the stands he unexpectedly discovers a subject more entrancing than any of the relay runners below: Koumiko Muraoka, a charming, elusive and inquisitive young poet, raised in colonial Manchuria and educated at a French-Japanese school. Their mutually fascinated dialogue about nationality, identity, aesthetics and, of course, cats is at the heart of this rapturously shot early jewel by the great director.

In a film that, with its Japanese setting and female co-narrator, often plays as a trial run for his masterpiece, Sans soleil (1983), we find Marker excitedly discovering many of the themes he would return to throughout his work. But nowhere else do we find a character as touching, elegant and compelling as Koumiko – or one who inspires Marker so much. His 16 mm Bolex seems to find an unforgettable image everywhere Koumiko goes, building an extraordinary portrait of a woman and her world. It’s also a remarkable document of Tokyo — a glimpse of a people, their architecture, customs and culture during a period of massive transition and through the eyes of a perceptive, questioning outsider.

Often credited with the invention of what is now called the “essay film”, Chris Marker’s influence is unmeasurable, as much for his formal innovations as for the boundless curiosity and warmth of his work. An enigma to many, this subtle and deeply private artist was called “the prototype of the twenty-first-century man” by his close friend and collaborator Alain Resnais. He described himself simply as a “bricoleur” – a collector of pre-existing material.

Journey Through India (1988)

"Every part of creation is sacred if we choose to give it reverence." - Debu Baul
Historian Michael Wood goes on a journey from Delhi in Northern India to Tamil Nadu in the South, illustrating the cultural diversity of the country and the contrasts between ancient beliefs and the influence of the modern world. This film was first broadcast: 25 Jul 1989. 

Of especial interest is a short segment of a few wandering Bauls, those wonderful nomadic musician aesthetics. Calcutta, the most amazing city. Kali Ma....Krim Krim Krim! Kashi, like an ancient jewel. 

 I visited India for the first time in November 1989 and stayed until January 1990. I recognize the world this film describes. Today much has changed in India. Much of it is not positive in my mind.

Decoder (1984)

A burger shop employee (FM Einheit from German industrial band 'Einstürzende Neubauten'!) discovers hidden hypnotic frequencies in pleasant restaurant background music, alters them (after William S Burroughs tells him how to do it in a dream) and incites a revolution against a dark, dystopian regime. His girlfriend (played by 80s icon Christiane F) helps him with her frog collection. Oh yeah... and Genesis P-Orridge from Throbbing Gristle helps him on his mission too with some magick. *Decoder Handbuch*, is a compilation of text and image brought together and edited by Klaus Maeck and Walter Hartmann as a tie-in for the film *Decoder* (in which Burroughs plays a role). Contributing editors are Volker Schäfer, Muscha, and Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge. Typesetting by Petra Petzold. A scarce item. German-language only (except for Brion Gysin's "Cut-Ups Self-Explained"). The film *Decoder* which this book supports was produced by Fett Film (Düsseldorf, Germany), directed by Muscha, and written by Klaus Maeck, Trini Trimpop, and Volker Schaefer. Camerawork by Johanna Heer, Peter "Sleazy" Christofferson, et al. Music by David Ball of Soft Cell, as well as F. M. Einheit and Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge, et al. The cast included F. M. Einheit, Bill Rice, Christiane Felscherinow ["Christiane F."], Matthias Fuchs, Bertold Bell, Ralf Richter, William S. Burroughs, Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge, et al. The film was also released in 1984. This book contains a number of Burroughs and Gysin related contents. At page 9 is a quote from William S. Burroughs taken from "Die unsichtbare Generation" ["The Invisible Generation"], along with two images: a still (uncredited) from Antony Balch's *Towers Open Fire* of Burroughs with a reel-to-reel tape machine, at rue Gît-le-Cœur, 1962, and a still of Burroughs from the film Decoder, in London, 1982, picking at a tape player (this was likely shot by Peter "Sleazy" Christophersen [of Throbbing Gristle and Coil]). At pages 10-11 is "We Are Here to Go", a brief interview of William S. Burroughs by Klaus Maeck. Photos of Burroughs by Kate Simon accompany this interview. At pages 15-16 is "Der erste Watergate–Skandal passierte im Garden Eden" [this is an excerpt from "Playback from Eden to Watergate"] by William S. Burroughs. At pages 16-17 is "Infraschall" ["Infrasound", an excerpt from *The Job* – ref. pp.54-56 of the Cape edition] by William S. Burroughs. At pages 22-23 is an excerpt from "Die Städte den roten Nacht" ["Cities of the Red Night"] by William S. Burroughs, An image of Burroughs and some text about him and Brion Gysin is at page 55, in "Decoder Drehbuch" by Klaus Maeck, Muscha, Volker Schaefer, and Trini Trimpop. At page 59 is a short bibliography of William S. Burroughs. A still from the movie showing Burroughs is on the back cover of this book, as well. In addition, there are two Brion Gysin contributions: "Cut-Up Self-Explained" – which is accompanied by a photo by Ian Sommerville of Gysin with William S. Burroughs – and "Dreamachine" – which includes Dreamachine plans. This copy was acquired from Antiquariat Kyra Maralt (Warthe, Germany). I brought it with me to the EBSN "Cut-Ups Conference" in Paris, 2023, where Klaus Maeck kindly inscribed the copy, at his foreword, following a screening of *Decoder*. https://www.miningforburroughs.com/2025/05/decoder-handbuch-by-klaus-maeck-and.html

The P-Orridge family (and guests) at Beck Road London 1985

The P-Orridge family (and guests) at Beck Road London 1985 from Thee MediaShaman on Vimeo.

"It teaches that mind is the sovereign power of the universe, and that when its forces are properly concentrated upon any particular object, the true nature of that object will be revealed. Instead of using" How To Be A Yogi by Swâmi Abhedânanda

[1902] p. 66

Genesis P-Orridge at home speaking about culture, art, magick and revolution. Say what you want about Genesis, (self-absorbed, demanding, greedy, attention seeker, martyr syndrome, opportunist and performance junkie?), they were not stupid. The ideas and actions were forerunners and templates for millions of people who woke up and saw through the consumption and lies of post-Industrial culture.

This was filmed at 50 Beck Road, in the poorest East-London district Hackney, winter 1984/85. An italian film-crew makes a spontaneous visit to the family and home of UK-avantgarde musician and industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge. Throbbing Gristle had split up and Genesis and Sleazy aka Peter Christopherson were committed to their new band-project Psychic TV and launching the Temple Ov Psychick Youth as a worldwide network system.

This unedited open talk interview-documentary includes Gen's beautiful wife Paula - highly pregnant with her second daughter Genesse - and friends discussing society and (po-)culture, religion, art, fear, media- manipulation, the heroin-boom and Dr. Margaret Patterson who treated drug addiction using electric stimulation aka "neuro-electric therapy", as well as war and existentialism during England's Thatcher aera ... and how it feels as a young family.

Participants and guests were Monte Cazazza, co-founder of the Industrial Records music label from the US who phrased the slogan "Industrial Music for Industrial People", as well as Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Jym Daly and Dorothy Max Prior, who released her song 'I Confess' (1980) on industrial records. youtube.com/watch?v=35ONE_dc2pQ

The original of this privat recording got confiscated when Scotland Yard raided the family's home in Brighton (1991) due to absurd accusations made in UK-tabloid newspapers and a 100 % fabricated one hour TV documentary (Channel 4, Dispatches). The Orridge's and their kid were touring through Nepal at that time and went into exile to the United States (California), where the father of Wyona Rider, US-publisher Michael Horowitz, helped them to settle down.

The VHS-tape was copied and archived by Boris Hiesserer aka. Eden 123, founder of the Pyromania Arts Foundation, a former german access point to the TOPY.

Morphine: Journey Of Dreams (2014) | Full Documentary

 

The band Morphine blazed like a comet across the global music scene in the 1990s, rising from local Boston clubs to major label record deals, international touring, and wide critical acclaim until their tragic and untimely demise in 1999. Intimate band member interviews, live shows and TV appearances, display why their unique and "low rock" sound continues to resonate with music lovers today.

Weed (1972)

 

Documentary about the prevalence and popularity of marijuana in the early 1970's. Featuring interviews with customs agents, a drug dealer, a law professor, and marijuana smokers, such subjects as the growing, smuggling, smoking, selling, and legalization of marijuana are all addressed. Moreover, the filmmakers take us on a tour around the world to various places that include Mexico, Canada, Cambodia, Nepal, and Saigon, Vietnam in order to show the ubiquity and availability of marijuana all over the globe. 

For the first couple years of his feature filmmaking career, X-rated auteur Alex de Renzy focused almost entirely on directing documentaries. His distinct style of cinéma vérité crossed with informal interviews resulted in a unique series of films exploring world cultures, as seen through underground and transgressive sex and drug lifestyles. 

This ambitious examination of marijuana takes deRenzy on an international journey as he meets dealers, users, and the various lawmen out to stop them. A sometimes funny, sometimes unsettling, but constantly engrossing examination of the then burgeoning "war on drugs".