THE DAILY BEAT: Jan Kerouac memorial event in Lowell on October 8

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Jan Kerouac memorial event in Lowell on October 8

I just learned that there will be an event during Lowell Celebrates Kerouac this October to memorialize the 20th anniversary of the death of Jack Kerouac's daughter, Jan Kerouac. It will take place at Edson Hall of St. Anne's Church on Saturday, October 8, from noon to 1:30 PM.

St. Anne's is a 5-minute walk from the Visitors Center of the Lowell National Historical Park (which has free parking during the day), so this will not conflict with the Parker Lecture at 2 PM that day. It does overlap with a portion of the marathon reading of Satori in Paris (10:30 AM - 1:30 PM), but since that is a 3-hour reading, it is possible for you to catch part of the reading and still come to the memorial event (or at least some of it).

There will be several speakers at the event who knew Jan, including Gerry Nicosia, Brad Parker, Jacques Kirouac, and others to be announced. I suspect there may be other members of the Kirouac Family Association in attendance in addition to Jacques, founder and first president of the Kirouac Family Association (of which I am a proud member). I spent some time with Jacques back in April 2013 and detailed it here: http://thedailybeatblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-week-with-beat-legend.html. He's a very charming and interesting man!

Jan was an accomplished author in her own right, publishing two excellent books, Baby Driver and Trainsong (pictured above) during her lifetime and writing a third, Parrot Fever, which remains unpublished.

For more detailed information about Jan, you might be interested in Jan Kerouac: A Life in Memory, edited by Gerald Nicosia. I reviewed that book here on The Daily Beat on March 1, 2012: http://thedailybeatblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/review-of-jan-kerouac-life-in-memory.html

We have a family wedding to attend that dropped right in the middle of LCK weekend this year, so our plans are a little up-in-the-air right now. Tentatively, we hope to spend Thursday night in Lowell, and then return late Friday night after the wedding so we can get up on Saturday and attend the Commemorative at the Commemorative (here's the LCK schedule in case you haven't yet seen it: http://www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/festival) and make it to the Jan event at noon.

I encourage you to attend. It's a unique opportunity to honor Jack's daughter and hear from people who knew her. See you there (I hope).

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Reviews of The Beat Handbook

Gerald Nicosia, author of the acclaimed Kerouac biography Memory Babe, said The Beat Handbook is "full of Jack's heart."

Jared Randall, author of the excellent book of poetry, Apocryphal Road Code, said this about The Beat Handbook: "Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. In my wandering pack of experiences, I find they often do. Enter The Beat Handbook by Rick Dale."

Kenneth Morris, Kerouacian extraordinaire, said this:
"I just finished reading Rick Dale's beautiful utterance and call to action of Kerouac mind-set and zen sensibilities. It made me laugh and reflect on my own life and road I have naturally grooved into after absorbing the Kerouac canon. The road less traveled always had my name on it. And that has made all the difference. The Beat Handbook 100 Days of Kerouactions reaffirms the attitudes and ideology that made the Beats and Kerouac the important men of ideas that America (and the world) thirsted for, needed, and swallowed whole. Beautiful, absorbing, Top Ten whipsmart from my articulate, tender-hearted friend and fellow traveler. Highly recommended."