Two scholars from the University of Notre Dame attended the annual Kerouac literary festival last month. One of the two was the keynote speaker, Prof. Ben Giamo, author of Kerouac, the Word and the Way: Prose Artist as Spiritual Quester. They co-wrote a letter to the community about their impressions of the city and the annual festival, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Ben Giamo gave me permission to post the letter here. Notre Dame, Kerouac, football, literature, fall…it all seems to go together.Click on the link to read the full letter.—PM

.

“We recently visited Lowell for an extended weekend. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate the life and literature of Jack Kerouac in his own hometown. In a 1951 letter, Kerouac described the importance of the place where he was born and bred: ‘Much solitude led to thoughts about Lowell until now I just have to re-visit home – as soon as possible … I want to re-visit the mysteries of my past, which is my job; the mysteries of my source, my soul, the things that now teach me the meaning of universal love.’ It would not be the first time that this author thought of Lowell while on the road; indeed, wherever Kerouac traveled – from New York to Mexico City to San Francisco, and into the vast reaches of the big continent – Lowell was never far behind. The town was always with him, comprising his identity as an individual, and featuring prominently in his literary works. This is something that many individuals – including both literary critics and Lowellians – often overlook. When one thinks of Kerouac, one likely thinks of the great American road-novel and a picaresque coming of age that requires one to move on down the line with no glances in the rear-view mirror.

“Kerouac, as James Joyce before him, discovered his hometown while being elsewhere. And though it has been decades since their deaths, it is upon making the pilgrimage to Lowell that one realizes an interesting, even uncanny twist: though both find and write about their hometowns in absentia, it is also in their absence that their respective hometowns become present to others worldwide. Anyone who opens the covers of their books will encounter the rich textures of Dublin and Lowell. So, in coming to Lowell after reading the entire Kerouac shelf, one has a sense of déjà vu. Such a feeling can be ascribed to Kerouac’s artistic knack for vividly rendering the setting and spirit of Lowell. Even though we had never set foot in Lowell, being here felt familiar. But what of the ‘mysteries of my source, my soul,’ that Kerouac attributes to his hometown? For illuminating this essence, one must thank the outstanding program planned and produced by the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival. It is because of this annual program that the significance of Lowell to Kerouac is understood beyond the text. Offering a wide range of events to commemorate the life and work of one of the most innovative and misunderstood writers of the twentieth century, over the past twenty years the LCK festival has operated par excellance – and this year, its twenty-second, was no different.

“Merging many activities (from pub-crawls to historical tours and scholarly lectures) with forms of artistic expression, such as literature, music, poetry, drama, and film, it is no surprise that this annual event, occurring over an extended weekend in the first week of October, draws such a diverse audience. For example, some of the forty languages and dialects one might hear in passing through the halls of Lowell High School were represented in the words read by each of its students who participated in the festival’s poetry competition. Similarly, the festival’s visual exhibition – comprised of the aesthetic labors of Lowell’s painters and photographers – drew attention to an apparently burgeoning local art scene. And, for those wishing to bring more than memory back into their homes, a select artist’s work was reproduced for sale.

“More than the youth, however, were encouraged to take part in the festival. Drawing together local musicians and wordsmiths from New England and beyond, all were welcome to perform their works at numerous open-mike and performance venues, a definite boon to Lowell establishments. From comic to cataclysmic, this common experience united what would otherwise be simply literary tourists in an active and distinctly democratic aesthetic event. The musical dimension of the festival drew to a climactic conclusion in the collaborative performance of the New England Chamber Orchestra, the Lowell Youth Orchestra, players from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and yet another living legend drawn to Lowell by the festival, David Amram. Having played with elite musicians of jazz – and innumerable classical orchestras and rock ensembles – Amram did not fail, in drawing musicians together around Kerouac’s words, to impress.

 “Navigating so many one-way streets in traveling from event to event, those drawn to the festival are struck not only with the daily experience of Lowell but also by so many sites of beauty, as much a part of Kerouac’s literature as Lowell itself. For example, to name only a select few: the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, iron-clad bridges that span the Merrimack, the streets and canals that define Lowell and lead one around the twelve mega-mills at its heart, the unique local color of the neighborhoods, and the world-class architecture of the Pollard Memorial Library. All of these places were highlighted by tours – literary and historical – to those who made the pilgrimage through the muted reds and stonewash blues so characteristic of Lowell in the early days of autumn.

Upon returning to South Bend, Indiana, our minds as swollen as the Merrimack in mid-March, we found ourselves concurring wholeheartedly with none other than Kerouac himself, who, in one of his final letters to a family member, posted from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida, reflects upon his tropical location. Kerouac writes, ‘I’m not having as much fun as in Lowell,’ and we believe it as we would a fact of nature.”

 Benedict Giamo

Louis Pignatelli

University of Notre Dame

October 2009