Symposium :: The Beat Generation

Sponsored by the English Department of Columbia College Chicago in conjunction with the Office of the Provost, The Beat Generation Symposium will include academic panel discussions, a lecture and performance titled “Deaf/Def Poets and the Beats,” and readings of poetry by Joanne Kyger (October 10, 7:00 p.m.) and Michael McClure (October 11, 7:00 p.m.).

The symposium is part of a two-month college-wide initiative at Columbia College, during which time the first draft of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road will be on display at the Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1104 South Wabash, on the second floor.

Kerouac typed the draft on a 120-foot-long scroll during a 20-day marathon session in the mid-’50s. The manuscript is a single, continuous scroll of semi-translucent paper that is nine inches wide. Kerouac created the scroll by pasting and taping separate 12-foot-long strips, then feeding them through his typewriter so he could write without interruption.

This event is co-sponsored by Columbia’s Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Illinois State University English Department and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Beat Studies Association. Conference Director: Tony Trigilio, Columbia College Chicago