• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • For Writers
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Free Stuff + BOOKS
  • Patron Love

Literary Tour: The Beat Museum, North Beach, San Francisco

By Will Willingham 6 Comments

Roughly across the street from City Lights Books in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, and tucked in behind a small bookstore of its own,  sits the Beat Museum. I know this not because I saw City Lights on my first visit to the museum,  nor on my second (I ran out of battery in my camera on the first, necessitating a repeat visit). I saw it on my third (or fourth, maybe fifth) trip past, when the museum had become a sort of landmark. My son wanted to see nearby Chinatown, and once done, we inadvertently returned to the same place an undisclosed number of times in our circuitous 10-or-so-mile walk. “Wait, ” I’d say. “I know where we are now. There’s the Beat Museum.”

the beat museum outside

On one of these passes, I spotted City Lights, and of course it made perfect sense that the Beat Museum would be found across the street from the bookstore and publishing house famous for (among other things) selling Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s banned Howl, which landed owner and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti in jail and on trial for obscenity.

city lights books

 

Howl in draft
Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” in draft form
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” on display at the Beat Museum
Beat Museum Howl trial coverage
Press coverage of the “Howl” obscenity trial

The Beat Museum—dedicated to spreading “the spirit of The Beat Generation” (which the museum defines as “tolerance, compassion, and having the courage to live your individual truth”)—boasts an impressive collection of photographs and memorabilia from the artists, poets, and writers who comprised the “Beats, ” including Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Neal Cassady, and more.

Human Be-In poster
Diana DiPrima and Michael McClure (above) Lenore Kandel (below)
Diana DiPrima and Michael McClure (above) Lenore Kandel (below)

Jack Kerouac’s jacket
Dharma Bum memoriabilia
Cosmograph by Harold Norse, created by splattering pigment and rinsing in a bidet

Poem by Harold Norse
Allen Ginsberg’s organ

Ginsberg and Kerouac
Allen Ginsberg and typewriter
What James Dean and Marlon Brando were to film the Beat Generation was to literature

It all began with Neal Cassady
Door from the old Audiffred Building

In one section of the museum there is a display featuring women who were prominent in the movement (such as Anne Waldman, Diana DiPrima, Jan Kerouac), along with a quote from Gregory Corso in response to the question, “Why were there so few women?” Corso explained, “There were women, they were there, I knew them, their families put them in institutions, they were given electric shock. In the ’50s if you were male you could be a rebel, but if you were female, your families had you locked up.”

gregory corso quote on women in the beats

Works by Beat Generation women

I talked with a friend yesterday about the importance of movements such as the Beats. How, even if one doesn’t have the constitution to bear reading Howl for its graphic images, the unrestrained language of its anger, the work of Ginsberg and others (radical as it was) paved the way for a more gentle openness, a more subtle evolution of thought. Indeed,  while one may not find himself identifying directly with their work, one can appreciate that they did much of the heavy lifting in that tolerance, compassion, and courage to live one’s truth, which (though much work remains to be done) we now enjoy.

The Beat Museum is located at 540 Broadway, North Beach, San Francisco and is open daily

Learn more about the Beat Poets in Glynn Young’s series, September Beats

Post by LW Lindquist. Photos by LW Lindquist, taken with permission from the Beat Museum.

_______________

Every Day Poems Driftwood
Dip into poetry every weekday morning with a subscription to Every Day Poems and find some beauty in your inbox. 

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
  • Book Club Announcement: The Reindeer Chronicles - January 11, 2021
  • Adjustments Excerpt: The Dinner Party - September 9, 2020
  • Poet Laura: Difficult to Forecast - August 26, 2020

Related

❤️✨ Sharing is caring

Filed Under: Beat Poets, Blog, Literary Tour

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.

Comments

  1. L. L. Barkat says

    November 21, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    “tolerance, compassion, and having the courage to live your individual truth”

    Maybe that’s what poetry itself brings about. I’d like to think so.

    Reply
  2. Simply darlene says

    November 22, 2014 at 1:26 am

    What was your take-away mood from the Beat Museum?

    It’s such an intriguing era.

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      November 22, 2014 at 11:35 am

      Really interesting question. I think in some ways, gratitude. A part of me that maybe felt a little wistful for an era (and pocket, really, since it was certainly not the mainstream) that fostered such free thought. And then, liking order as I do, perhaps a bit of relief. 😉

      Reply
  3. Mark Elber says

    April 19, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    Below the picture of Diane di Prima and Michael McClure is a picture of Lenore Kandel at the Tribal Stomp, October 1, 1978, in Berkeley, California. When my mouse was over that picture it continued to say Diane di Prima and Michael McClure as though it was also a solo picture of Diane.

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      April 24, 2015 at 8:07 pm

      Mark, thanks for the clarification. I added Lenore Kandel to the caption for that image.

      Reply
      • Mark Elber says

        April 25, 2015 at 10:14 pm

        My pleasure. Thanks for writing back. Be well, Mark

        Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our January Menu.

Keep the World Poetic

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world thoughtful and poetic.

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Join the Poetry Club

Join the poetry club, when you become a subscriber to Every Day Poems ✨

The classic—Now a Graphic Novel!

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

Recent Comments

  • Will Willingham on The Artist’s Way: Safety
  • Callie Feyen on Poetry Prompt: Poems of Experience
  • Rick Maxson on Poetry Prompt: Poems of Experience
  • Rick Maxson on Poetry Prompt: Poems of Experience

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Join Tweetspeak Poetry

Categories

Explore Work From Black Poets

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Free Printable Poet Bios

Browse all poet bios now

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

About Us

  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • How to Write Form Poems-Infographics
  • • Poetry Club Tea Date
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • A Ritual to Read to Each Other
  • • Best Love Poetry
  • • Book Club
  • • Children’s Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Literary Analysis
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • VerseWrights Journal
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2021 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure