The Inaugeral Kerouac Project Open Mic Channeled the Beat Generation.

Posted on by Thor

On February 27th there was a Kerouac Project Open Mic at the Gallery at Avalon Island (39 South Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida). This was the inaugural Kerouac Project Open Mic, with featured poets Frank Messina and Caitlin Doyle, and guest jazz pianist Per Danielsson.

Naomi Butterfield was the host for the evening.  She had on a bright yellow scarf as she read from Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums.  “Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that’s the way to live.”

Writers were invited to take that line and run with it! Then bring your best was shared share with the Kerouacians. Others, like me just came to listen to some fine auditory vibes. The open mic sign-up sheet was out by 7:30, and each author had five minutes at the mic.

The pianist improvised as a poet read which gave the reading an added cinematic feel.  If only we had a soundtrack for the everyday moments of our lives. Listening to pop music while driving doesn’t count as an inspired sound track. The Kerouac Project crowd are creative people who aren’t afraid to live out loud.

Kerouac House Yard Sale Raises Money for the Resident Author Project

Posted on by Thor

The Kerouac Project hosts resident authors every few months in the house where Jack Kerouac wrote the Dharma Bums and where he was living with his mom when On the Road became a best seller putting him on the literary map. Jack really couldn’t handle the fame and he ended up drinking himself to death at a very young age. Jack is a writer who burned bright and was insanely prolific.

The Kerouac Project is a grassroots local organization hat purchased the College park home and maintains it for resident authors. The author get to live rent free with all expanses paid giving them the freedom to truly focus on their writing. The present author is Anne Marie Ni Churreain. She hails from the North-West of Ireland.
Her work has appeared in various journals such as Poetry Ireland Review
and The London Magazine. Anne Marie is the co-founder of the Upstart Arts Collective. I met Anne at a recent potluck dinner held in the Kerouac House. She comes from an incredible family with so many siblings that she can’t even be sure of the number. Her father was raised in an orphanage and so the home is filled with multicultural foster children along with her actual biological siblings. At home she is seldom alone, so the Kerouac House is a very different setting.

Once a year the Kerouac Project asks people to donated items for a Yard Sale. This is an awesome place to find books since these folks actually read printed books. Terry always finds some item she can’t live without and I relax in a lawn chair to get a sketch. Proceeds from the yard sale help keep authors coming to Orlando. Caitlin Doyle, who was a resident author last year has returned to Orlando to get away from the constant cold in Milwaukee. This is a testament to the warm reception writers get when they call Orlando Home. She will be going for her doctorate degree so that someday she will find a secure university position with tenure while she continues to write her poetry. Conversations at a Kerouac House potluck get intense, ranging from domestic violence to the state of art in America today. With enough wine, we just might solve the world’s problems.

Mark Your Calendar! On Wednesday October 22, at noon, there will be a dedication ceremony at the Kerouac House (1418 Clouser Ave, Orlando, FL), commemorating the houses recent induction into the Florida Historic Marker Foundation. Local Newscaster Bob Kealing discovered this homes tie in to the author of On The Road as he was researching an article commemorating the posthumous 75th birthday of Jack Kerouac.