Every year, a small group of dedicated Kerouacians puts on the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival in Jack's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. This year the festival runs from October 8-12. For an agenda, click this link: http://www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/festival.
Every so many years, the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for the Public Humanities at UMass Lowell sponsors events during and around the festival, and this is one of those years. Click this link for events: http://www.jackkerouac.com/kerouac-center-events-fall15/.
Every year, I establish a secret word whereby whoever first comes up to me at LCK and whispers it in my ear gets a free signed copy of my book, The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions. Last year, no one took me up on the secret word offer, so we need to do better this year. This year's secret word is "subterraneans."
If you are a Kerouac fan, Lowell is a must-see city and Lowell Celebrates Kerouac just makes it all the more essential a trip. Let no ocean or number of states stay your journey. Get busy right now making reservations at local hotels and booking your air travel/planning your drive.
See you in Lowell. And don't forget the secret word!
P.S. Remember that when you are in Lowell, you can visit the famous Memory Babe archive at the Center for Lowell History in the Mogen Center (my own visit is chronicled here: http://thedailybeatblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-memory-babe-kerouac-archive-part-3.html).
