From our friends at San Francisco’s Beat Museum – honoring the historical literary, artistic, and musical heritage of the Beat Generation. If anyone’s interested, here’s a way to help support the preservation of some of our world artistic history (and if any readers have a similar project or fund in your own towns/countries for your own cultural heritage, please feel free to email me or comment and I’ll make a post.)
They mentioned purchasing something from the museum during the slow California winter months…a great choice would be the film Beat Angel, about what would happen if Kerouac came back from the dead for one day, to inspire others. We’re reviewing that in next month’s issue, fantastic film!
Wanted to put out this opportunity to celebrate and support the arts! By the way, the Beat Museum is right around the block from our reception at Caffe Trieste – and they’re open till nine on Fridays now.
PLEASE HELP US PRESERVE THE JACK MICHELINE WALL
Jack Micheline was a beloved character in North Beach and all of San Francisco for many years. A friend and confidante of many of the writers and artists who made up The Beat Generation, he was often called The Poet’s Poet. Jack was well known for his live poetry performances and unique painting style.
We had a sudden and magnificent opportunity presented to us recently that required us to act fast and ask for help and support later. A local bookstore, The Abandoned Planet located in the Mission District in SF, closed on December 31, 2009. Micheline spent a lot of time over the years at The Abandoned Planet and became friendly with the owner, Scott Harrison. At one point Scott asked Jack to paint a back room and Micheline covered it floor to ceiling on all four walls with his images and poetry.
With the sudden closing of Abandoned Planet we worked closely with Scott, Poet Jack Hirschman, Matt Gonzalez and the building manager Claude Marks to salvage Jack Micheline’s masterpiece and bring it to The Beat Museum.
Now we need to restore, preserve and display this magnificent piece of Beat Generation and San Francisco history. The wall (all 25 linear feet of it) is now stored in pieces in our back rooms awaiting restoration. We figure we need to raise $5,000 to restore and rebuild the wall so we can put it on permanent display at The Beat Museum.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Please consider making a donation to our Restoration Fund so we can achieve our goal of raising $5,000 so we can get to work on Rebuilding the Micheline Wall. I realize this may not be the best week to ask for donations given so many of us have been riveted by the news and doing what we can to help the people of Haiti. But my belief is we all do more than one thing at a time every day of our lives and there’s no reason we can’t help the people of Haiti and rebuild the Micheline Wall at the same time. You can donate with either a credit card at Kerouac.com or via Paypal.
To Read the Story and See Photos of the Disassembling of the Painting at Abandoned Planet click here:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/jack-micheline-wall/
To Make a Donation to the Reconstruction Fund and Receive a Free Gift from Kerouac.com, click here”
http://www.kerouac.com/cgi-local/cart.pl?db=michelinewall.txt
Watch a video of Abandoned Planet’s closing (includes footage of Micheline’s Wall):
http://missionlocal.org/2010/01/leaving-an-abandoned-planet/
Also, Diane di Prima’s San Francisco’s new Poet Laureate, and she’s coming to speak at the public library on Larkin St. in a few weeks! Go women Beats, and other under-recognized Beats!
DIANE DiPRIMA – SF’s NEW POET LAUREATE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 – 5pm – 8pm
*Poet Laureate Address*
Locations: Main Library Koret Auditorium
Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
Library Sponsored Public Program
Description:
San Francisco Poet Laureate inauguration address
Poet laureate Diane DiPrima discusses Poetry as Spiritual Practice.
Click here: http://tinyurl.com/pnso4