Kerouac Literary Festival Today, Oct. 1

Jack Kerouac Literary Festival, Lowell, Mass., Friday, October 1, 2010

9:30 a.m. Poetry and Short Prose Competition, Lowell High School Freshman Academy Theater, 43 French Street(Use John Street Entrance)

10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Ongoing Children’s Book Illustrators Program, Brush Art Gallery. Next to LNHP Visitors Center. 246 Market St. Exhibit, receptions, artist talks, book signings featuring six illustrators:  David Macaulay, Chris VanAllsburg, David Wiesner, Christopher Bing,  Kelly Murphy, Matt Tavares.  Also involves third grade Lowell students’ work influenced by these artists. Check the Brush Gallery for further details and additional information.

12:00 Noon UML Campus Presentation: “Jack Kerouac and the American Bohemian Tradition.” Dennis McNally, author of Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation and America  and A Long, Strange Trip: The Inside History of The Grateful Dead.  UML O’Leary Library Auditorium, Room 222, 35 Wilder St., South Campus.

3:00 p.m. A Walk in Doctor Sax’s Woods. Led by Margarita Turcotte. Lowell/Dracut/Tyngsboro State Park. Directions available at earlier events. (Sorry, not handicapped accessible.)

4:00 p.m. Lowell Blues, film by Henry Ferrini based on Kerouac’s novel Doctor Sax. Lowell Nat’l Historical Park Visitor Center, 246 Market St, Market Mills, downtown Lowell.

6:30 p.m. Kerouac Literary Walking Tour: “Ghosts of the Pawtucketville Night” A tour of some of the sites of Jack Kerouac’s Doctor Sax. Led by Roger Brunelle. Begins atUMass Lowell North Campus,  Cumnock Hall, 31 University Avenue. *Suggested donation of $5.00.

8:30 p.m. Urban Village Artist Series (UVAS) Event. Performers:  Antje Duvekot, Poet and Folk Singer. A winner of Boston Music Awards “Outstanding Folk Act of the Year.” Andrew Schelling, Poet/Essayist/Writer. Instructor at the Naropa Institute/Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, Colorado. Samkhann C. Khoeun, Middlesex Community College, editor and translator of the honored  “Cambodian Book of Poety” and “O’ Maha Mount Dangrek”, Upstairs at the Old Court Bar. 29 Central St. Free and open to the public.

For the complete schedule all weekend, visit www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org