Kerouac & Lowell

Lowell, Massachusetts is the birth (and resting) place of Jack Kerouac. And since Jack died in October of 1969, October is Kerouac month here in Lowell. And this year marks the 40th anniversary of his death. This weekend we're in the middle of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac. It started Thursday, but if you hurry on down this rainy Saturday you can still catch events like readings from Dr. Sax at Kerouac Park.


If you can't make that, then get downtown by 4 for The Kerouac Places of Downtown Lowell tour. This starts at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitors Center at 246 Market Street (around the corner from Unreliable Narrator's historic condo building). If you don't want to take a walking tour of Lowell in the rain, then find out how you can do it on your own time here.

If that's not your style (plus, it's raining), then check out an open mike starting at 5:30 at Brew’d Awakening, 61 Market Street. Here anybody can read a selection of their favorite Kerouac writing. Or, if you're a writer and Kerouac acolyte, then you can read your own Kerouac-inspired writing.

If you can't get to Lowell until tomorrow, then your best bet is to show up by 11:30 a.m. at Caffé Paradiso on Palmer Street, for a screening of Grave Concerns—A Deadly Road Trip, a documentary filmed during the On the Road scroll exhibit. Despite this gruesome and questionable title, it sounds like an interesting and apt addition to this festival.

Here's the trailer for Grave Concerns:

Two summers ago when the On The Road scroll exhibit hit the Boott Cotton Mills Museum in Lowell, Liz and I attended the opening night festivities.



Here's the scroll. I took this picture before I found out that I wasn't supposed to photograph it, especially with a flash. The flash didn't cause any additional damage, although I did spill some coffee on it: