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News from Jean-Christophe Cloutier, Graduate Chair, Penn English, Associate Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, www.jccloutier.com J-C Cloutier is the translator of The Unknown Kerouac: Rare, Unpublished, & Newly Translated Writings by Jack Kerouac, edited by Todd Tietchen of UMass Lowell (Library of America, 2016). “Dear…
Read More »A Kerouac Thanksgiving by Suzanne Beebe Thanks, Jack, for helping keep the city On the map; for showing us what growing up Was like in 1920s/1930s Lowell of throbbing neighborhoods and mills Where workers fed machines with wool and cotton To feed their always-hungry children at home. Thanks, too, for…
Read More »Leo with Louis at L’Etoile (PIP#3) Louise Peloquin October always conjures up visions of Jack Kerouac. And so, it seems fitting to take a peek into the past at the link between Jack’s father and Louis Biron. It was at L’Impartial, the French newspaper Biron founded in 1898, that Leo…
Read More »Jack Kerouac was born in the Centralville neighborhood in Lowell on March 12, 1922. He pictures his birth in his novel Doctor Sax, one of his “Lowell books.” He would be 101 years old today. His hometown pulled out all the stops last year for a Centennial celebration with a…
Read More »On Friday, June 10, 2022, at 1 p.m., the Pollard Memorial Library will host a screening of the new film, Jack Kerouac’s Road, followed by an interview with the film’s director, Herménégilde Chiasson, a French-Canadian director, playwright, and journalist who is also the former Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. Part documentary,…
Read More »Ti Jean By David Cappella I had your visions atop the Medicine Wheel one July afternoon and while driving Rte. 14 through Spotted Horse where I walked past a row of caged coyotes to take a piss. How the American Tao your words captured shined on me one night outside…
Read More »Lifelong Friends from Downriver Visit Lowell: An Appreciation St. Joseph’s Day, 2022 (Part II) By Mike McCormick “In my opinion Lowell, Massachusetts is now the most interesting city in the United States Of America.” – Jack Kerouac, 1962. I’m thrilled to have any opportunity to visit Kerouac’s old neighborhoods and haunts.…
Read More »Lifelong Friends from Downriver Visit Lowell: An Appreciation St. Joseph’s Day, 2022 (Part I) By Mike McCormick “In my opinion Lowell, Massachusetts is now the most interesting city in the United States Of America.” – Jack Kerouac, 1962. As my lifelong friend Jack and I start down the walkway outside…
Read More »We’ll be posting all kinds of material related to the Jack Kerouac Centennial through the year. Here are 15 haiku by Roger West, a poet and musician in France who has been to Lowell a few times for the annual Kerouac festival. With friends, he celebrated the 100th birthday of…
Read More »Two days before the 100th birthday of Jack Kerouac on March 12th, I was asked by poet and musician Roger West in France if I could connect people in Lowell with his tribute to Kerouac planned for the hour of the author’s birth 100 years ago, 5 p.m. at home…
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