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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 2015)
Beat Share your inner Tolovana Arts Colony hosts Beat poetry workshop and Cannon Beach Gallery welcomes one and all to open mic this weekend T The cultural landscape of 1950s America ÀRXULVKHGDPLGDSHFXOLDUFRQWUDVW While “Father Knows Best” — that perfect paean to the status quo — ran on television, the specter of nuclear annihilation hung over the KHDGRIHYHU\86FLWL]HQ While the country’s industrial production skyrocketed, the existential threat that techno- logical “progress” presented to America’s way RIOLIHZDVGLI¿FXOWWRLJQRUH While clean-cut family men drove to work dressed in suits and fedoras to support their up- wardly mobile middle-class lifestyles, a consid- erable number built bomb shelters, stocked up on ammunition and hoarded canned goods and jugs of water, just in case the Cold War with the 6RYLHW8QLRQVWRSSHGEHLQJFROG “You had a lot of really scary stuff,” said 0DUN0L]HOODQ(QJOLVKWHDFKHUDW6HDVLGH+LJK 6FKRRO Meanwhile, the writers of the Beat Genera- WLRQJD]HGDWWKLVSHWULGLVKRIPLVSODFHGYDOXHV and said: Are you all out of your minds? The Beats — including such luminaries as $OOHQ *LQVEHUJ -DFN .HURXDF DQG :LOOLDP 6 Burroughs — beckoned the masses to “wake up DQGORRNDWVRPHRIWKHVWXIIDURXQGXV´KHVDLG 7KH\DOVRSURGXFHGVRPHRIWKH¿QHVWPRVW original literature of the 20th century, many VFKRODUVKDYHDUJXHG 7KLVZHHNHQG0L]HOOZLOOWHDFKDQLQDXJX ral two-part workshop called “The Beat Poets” DW7RORYDQD +DOO WR EH KHOG IURP WR SP )ULGD\ )HE DQG QRRQ WR SP 6DWXUGD\ )HE7KHFRVWLVIRUERWKFODVVHV(DU ly sign-ups will receive a book about the Beat PRYHPHQW 7KHQIURPWRSP6DWXUGD\WKH&DQ non Beach Gallery will host “The Beachnik Cafe,” an open mic for people to read their work (or someone else’s work), even people who GLGQ¶WDWWHQGWKHZRUNVKRSV%DOG(DJOH&RIIHH +RXVHZLOOGRQDWHFRIIHH7KHHYHQWLVIUHHDQG RSHQWRWKHSXEOLFEXWGRQDWLRQVDUHDFFHSWHG Lisa Kerr, program coordinator of the Tolo- vana Arts Colony, which is presenting both events, said the open mic is designed for people to read their work in a comfortable, nonjudg- Photo by Erick Bengel Mark Mizell, left, an English teacher at Seaside High School, and Lisa Kerr, program coordinator of the Tolovana Arts Colony, discuss the Beat Generation over coff ee at Bella Espresso. Mizell will teach a workshop on Beat poetry at the arts colony this weekend. trol, moving outside the corporate boxes, being literature — contains passages “that you feel ZLOOLQJWRH[SORUH´ DORQJ\RXUVSLQH´0L]HOOVDLG³7KHJUDPPDU As a counterculture movement, the Beats 1D]LLQPHZDQWVWRHGLWLWWREHIUDQNEXW,¶YH may have been “smaller than the hippie move- never read anything in any literature that so cap- ment” that grew out of it, but it was “more rev- tures the free feeling of being on the road, hitch- ROXWLRQDU\´.HUUVDLG³,WZDVLQWHOOHFWXDOWRR´ hiking and just exploring with absolutely no and “deeper in a lot of ways than what came VFKHGXOH,PHDQKHMXVWWRWDOO\QDLOVLW´ DIWHUZDUGV´ Live sharing Kerr’s father actually turned her loose in Beat poetry can be especially powerful when Lower Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, the Beat PRYHPHQW¶V (DVW &RDVW ELUWKSODFH ZKHQ VKH UHDGDORXG.HUUVDLG³,OLNHLWUHDGEHWWHUWKDQ, OLNHUHDGLQJLWWKHVRXQGRILW´ ZDVDFKLOG Public performance is integral to the Beat “It was like walking into another world,” she VDLG³$OO,NQHZZDVWKDW,ZDQWHGWREHLQWKDW WUDGLWLRQ &KLOGUHVV VDLG ³,W¶V OLNH RSHQLQJ XS the doors and windows between our rooms as ZRUOGPRUHWKDQDQ\WKLQJ´ The Beat writers ushered in a “new freedom LQGLYLGXDOV´ “If all we did was write things down and LQODQJXDJH´VKHVDLG³,WZDVDOPRVWOLNHWKHLU pass notes back and forth between each other, YHUVLRQRIMD]]LQDZD\´ Beat literature “launched a new freshness that would be better than no communication at LQWRSRHWU\,WUHDOO\RSHQHGXSDORWRIWKLQJVIRU DOO´KHVDLG³%XWWRJHWXSLQIURQWRISHRSOH DORWRISHRSOH´0L]HOOVDLG0XVLFLDQVOLNH%RE and share, to give voice to those words — to me Submitted photo Dylan credit the Beat writers with raising their WKDW¶VHYHQPRUHEDVLF7KDW¶VVRPHWKLQJWKDW Artwork by Stirling Gorsuch. awareness of what was happening in the world we as human beings have been doing before we DQGKRZDUWFDQLOOXPLQDWHLW³7KH%HDWVKDYH ZHUHZULWLQJ7KHUH¶VDURRWYDOXHWRWKDWULWXDO´ Kerr hopes that the Tolovana Arts Colony LQÀXHQFHGVRPDQ\GLIIHUHQWSHRSOHLW¶VLQFUHGL PHQWDODWPRVSKHUH can turn the workshop and open mic into annual ³-XVW UHDG ZKDW¶V LQ \RXU KHDG´ VKH VDLG EOH´0L]HOODGGHG When Kerr hears the opening lines of Gins- events that branch out into other genres of po- ³7KDWZRXOGEHLGHDO´ EHUJ¶VSRHP³+RZO´ZLWKLWVXQPHWHUHG HWU\ ³7KDWZRXOGEHDZHVRPH´0L]HOODGGHG “There’s something kind of magical about a EXUVWVRIPDQLFHQHUJ\³,JHWVKLYHUV´.HUUVDLG 6LPLODUO\ -DFN .HURXDF¶V QRYHO ³2Q group of people sitting around celebrating lan- Intellectual and revolutionary Known for embracing Bohemian sensibil- WKH5RDG´²SHUKDSVWKHGH¿QLQJZRUNRI%HDW JXDJH´0L]HOOVDLG ities while rejecting conformity, mindless con- For more information contact Lisa Kerr at 503-440-0684 or email tolovanaartscolxony@gmail.com sumerism and mainstream preferences in art, literature, fashion and sexuality, the Beatnik subculture encouraged people to “break out of the mold, because the mold was so tight after ::,,´.HUUVDLG To the Beatniks — now associated with be- rets, sunglasses, goatees and bongos — there were the “squares” unconsciously trapped in a box, and then there were the “hip” folks who FRXOGVHHWKURXJKLW For Watt Childress, co-owner of Jupiter’s Rare & Used Books who will emcee the open VISUAL ARTS • LITERATURE • THEATER • MUSIC & MORE mic, the Beat movement created “the sense of breaking free from the cage of institutional con- Story by ERICK BENGEL the arts February 12, 2015 | coastweekend.com | 9