Beat Generation in SF: Rebels, Writers, and Visionaries

Neighborhood: North Beach

Description

With the publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, the writers of the Beat Generation burst on the scene in the late ‘50s in San Francisco. World War II had ended, and hundreds of thousands, uprooted by the war, returned home and found themselves in a changed America. These poets and dreamers, visionaries and vagabonds saw coming west as the chance to escape from button-down conformism. Old-style bohemia, which welcomed non-conventional lifestyles and creativity, was still going strong in the city, and its heart was in North Beach, the place where new literary associations began, and where what became known as the Beat Generation came together. The San Francisco Beat poets and writers had a profound impact on American literature and culture. Come with us to visit Beat hangouts such as Caffe Trieste and City Lights Bookstore and learn more about the men and women who helped define a generation.