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This past Thursday night I attended one of the opening events of the Kerouac Literary Festival at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center (formerly known as the Doubletree Hotel). Novelist Russell Banks, the author of a dozen major books and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction,…
Read More »There are too many things happening today at the Kerouac Literary Festival to list them. For the schedule, visit www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org or www.uml.edu/artsandideas The 2.5 hour bus tour of Kerouac sites with Roger Brunelle guiding is already underway. Next event is 11 am at the Kerouac Commemorative, Kerouac Park, at Bridge…
Read More »Rita Savard of the Sun wrote a great background story about Bob Dylan and Lowell in nothing flat so that it hit the streets just as lots of people were talking about Dylan coming back to Lowell. Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Kerouac’s grave in Edson Cemetery, November 1975. We…
Read More »This has been an eventful week in Lowell, from city-building plans and cultural electricity to the news about CTI moving and some serious gun crimes. And the week is not over. Let’s focus on the epochal first. Following is the link to the Sun’s page one story about the Downtown Evolution plan unveiled yesterday morning by urban…
Read More »In honor of the Jack Kerouac Literary Festival, Tony Sampas share some photos central to Kerouac’s Lowell. The crucifix shown above is atop the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at the Franco American School on Pawtucket Street. The below photo of a sculpture with the crucifix tucked into a…
Read More »Late yesterday afternoon I traveled to Middlesex Community College for a presentation on a study on “voter participation demographics in Lowell, Massachusetts” conducted by Professor Marcos Luna and his graduate students in the Department of Geography at Salem State University (the full study is available HERE). Luna was attracted to…
Read More »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,…
Read More »On the heels of a discussion at Community Teamwork’s Board of Director’s meeting last night, staff members will get some important news today. Since 1979 the headquarters of this region’s highly regarded community action agency, has been housed at 167 Dutton Street – once known as the historic Mechanics Hall. Over the…
Read More »Tony Sampas wraps up his photo essay on the smokestacks of Lowell with two more views.
Read More »Kerouac Literary Festival, Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010 3.30 pm, Listen to novelist and physicist Alan Lightman (“Einstein’s Dreams”) read from his new work. Alumni Hall, UMass Lowell, North Campus, One University Ave. Free and open to the public. 4.00 pm, See “Lowell Blues,” Henry Ferrini’s poetic film based on Kerouac’s novel…
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