653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood

1-415-586-3733
[email protected]

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noon to six

 

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Sunday, March 19th – 4:30-6:30 pm
which way west?
Jami Cassady reads from the Joan Anderson letter

jack-and-neal70 years on…

Having met Neal Cassady in December 1946 in NYC, Jack Kerouac says so long to Neal on March 4, 1947, and Neal returns in a tear to Denver. By March 7, Neal has written a letter to Jack from Denver, the “Great Sex Letter,” astonishing and thrilling Jack with its energy & drive… It is also in March 1947, in Denver, that Neal meets Carolyn Robinson, who would be the enduring love of his life, and the linchpin in the relationship between Neal and Jack, and in a very real sense the anchor between Neal’s desire for constant movement and for deep connection and stability. It is Carolyn who becomes the motive for Neal’s move to San Francisco where she has gone. They take up residence on Russian Hill, where Jack joins them, and then move down to San Jose, his base from that point on, raising three children, though his time behind the wheel of Ken Kesey’s bus takes him away, ever further, to his death at age 42 on a train track in Mexico.

But back to December 1950… when Jack receives from Neal the 40,000 word “Joan Anderson letter,” the letter that Jack credits for giving him the approach he uses to rewrite On the Road, making it one of the great novels of the 20th century.

lovealwayscarolyn_web
This March, on the 19th — Jack’s christening day, as it happens — we’ll welcome Neal’s daughter Jami to read from the Joan Anderson letter and from Off the Road, the autobiographical book by Carolyn Cassady, Jami’s mother, that tells so much about the guys that define the “Beat Generation” for all time.

The Patrick Wolff Quartet winds through the proceedings – Patrick Wolff, tenor sax; Adam Shulman, piano; Eric Markowitz, bass; and Evan Hughes, drums.

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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.

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The Independent Musicians Alliance

Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.

https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/

Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site

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