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37th annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival: October 9–13, 2025 Poetry and musical performances, tours, and more planned to commemorate life and legacy of Jack Kerouac Lowell, MA — Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell and became a writer here. Each October, the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Festival (LCK!) illuminates his local influences…

Lowell People – (PIP #82) By Louise Peloquin In the pre-LinkedIn era, the local daily newspaper allowed readers to learn about Lowell people. Here are 4 peeks into the past. L’Étoile – January 6, 1925 HE SPENDS 28 YEARS AT LOWELL HUMANE SOCIETY ——- Agent Charles F. Richardson has seen…

Kerouac’s Characters: E. Gaston Campbell By Kurt Phaneuf Edward Gaston Campbell (1891-1952) was already a citizen of note by the time he began appearing in the hometown novels of Lowell native Jack Kerouac.  Born in Montreal, QC, Gaston arrived in America in 1893 and became a U.S. citizen in 1919. …

The Lowell City Council met last Tuesday night. In this newsletter, I’ll discuss several issues that arose at that meeting. **** The Markley Group LLC, represented by former Mayor Bill Martin (who is the last attorney to have served on the Lowell City Council), came before the council with a…

Kerouac’s Characters: An Introduction By Kurt Phaneuf Of the 600-plus personages in a literary oeuvre Jack Kerouac called his “Duluoz Legend,” over 200 of them are Lowellians.  Kerouac’s first novel–The Town and The City (1950)–is filled with his friends and neighbors.  His personal favorite works–Visions of Gerard (1963) and Doctor…

The Kerouac Commemorative Has Become a Sore Spot By Steve Edington [This article originally appeared as an editorial in The Lowell Sun on September 24, 2025. Visit the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac website for the full schedule of events.] This coming October 9-13 Lowell Celebrates Kerouac (LCK) will present our 37th…

Nana by Leo Racicot I liked few things better than being with my Nana, sitting beside her in her kitchen, waiting for everything to cook. I can still hear the good heat bubbling up from aromatic casseroles, my whole boyhood exoticized by almonds, the scent of sesame, strong licorice, black…

What’s on Tonight? By Jacqueline McDonald The sun set in the winter of 1968 on my part-time job as the uncredited TV reporter for the Lowell Sun.  The unsupervised job was to copy licensed show summaries and format them for the paper’s TV section. Not much fun in that. Instead,…

Dry Spell – (PIP #81) By Louise Peloquin       Weather news has always ignited readership interest. L’Étoile – October 28, 1924 THE DANGERS OF THE PROLONGED DROUGHT _____ Hunting permits could be suspended in order to avoid the dangers of forest fires. _____      For several weeks now, drought has…

Last Saturday I traveled to Springfield for the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention, a decidedly niche event for most readers. However, with no city council meeting this week and with the city’s preliminary election behind us, today’s newsletter will look ahead to next fall’s state election. Unless you’re obsessed with politics,…