"Jazz was my generation’s original inspiration. It was American classical music and the backdrop to the Beat Generation. Psychedelic rock soon became the definitive music of my generation. The psychedelic dance palaces like Chet Helm’s Avalon Ballroom, Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium, Straight Theater and more obscure venues like California Hall and Western Front were imitated all over the world."…

“Books have been my passion since I started reading as a boy. When I was seventeen, I read On the Road, and that book changed everything. In those pages, I found my spiritual and intellectual comrades in Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso, and their circle. After that, I read most of their books, and, except for Kerouac, I got to know the other “Daddies,” as Gregory Corso often called the Beats, to varying degrees."…

"The world is a melting pot of love, hate, joy, sadness, and everything in between.  I chose the path of enlightenment, a long, winding road with many forks and no shortcuts."

A.D. Winans: San Francisco Blues

A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco award winning poet and writer. He is the author of sixty books and chapbooks of poetry and prose,…

"Where would we be without it? Literature helps us to understand the world, to see and feel and empathise with other cultural values, other points of view. It stimulates our thinking and, on a very basic level, entertains us."

Leon Horton: Under the Counterculture

Leon Horton is a countercultural writer, interviewer, and editor. A regular…

"Some people are lighthouses that guide you for a long time, but others are just helpful buoys along the way. Let each light guide you to the harbor of your own destiny."

Brian Hassett: Further of Brainland's Nest

Canadian writer, poet, essayist, critic, columnist, reviewer, and songwriter Brian Hassett is the author of the new Hitchhiker’s…

"The music gotta be born from some simple emotions. This aint paint-by-numbers. Once you can express the most basic lustful, groovy, angry or mournful feelings with a few notes and the right rhythm then you need the technique to shape it into a tune with parts and layers. The technique that comes from learning why something doesn't work, and discipline to throw it out and try different."

Son of Dave:…

"His poetry was an extension of his life and his philosophy: Live life to the fullest, be real about your feelings, express yourself honestly, and do not compromise your art!"

Stuart Z. Perkoff: An Archetypal Beat Poet

Stuart Z. Perkoff (July 29, 1930 – June 24, 1974) was an American poet, painter, collage artist and a central figure of the Venice…

"Open mindedness, hard work and dedication to your craft, gratitude, humility and confidence. It’s all about the hang, and being in the present moment. Taking time to talk with the people you meet. Whether you’re at home practicing, traveling at all hours of the night or on the stage."

Scottie Miller: Words, Notes, and Music

Carnival…

"Emotional intelligence work was key to whether I was living life well as a human being, in respect to specifically doing no harm to others, or to myself. So, from my perspective, a “life well lived” isn’t a matter of amassing wealth, fame, notoriety, power, 40 acres and a mule, a carbon-negative energy producing self-driving car or smart home, or having a few shelves, an entire library, devoted to your archives. A life well lived is one paying down…

"In regard to my views of the world, I think they were already formed when I discovered Kerouac and the Beats. By the time I'd graduated from high school in 1976, I'd already been sufficiently radicalized by then to feel myself firmly aligned politically with the counterculture. Then, during college, the writings of Kerouac struck me right away – On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and The Subterraneans were my starting points – as being on my wavelength. I…

"You’ve got to understand a culture quickly to get what you want or need. The earth is in a terrible fix. Water to drink is a Huge issue. There are saints and assholes everywhere."

Andy Clausen:

The Blues Stories of the Beat President

Andy Clausen was born Andre Laloux in a Belgian bomb…

Τribute to David Amram, one of the greatest and pioneer composers, conductors, and multi-instrumentalists of our time

David…

"Inspiration comes from life, from all its aspects. I don’t have mentors; Once I had only a poetic grandfather, Blaise Cendrars."

Yannis Livadas:…

"Music you can’t see or you can’t touch … it’s something like magic or religion this is an amazing tool to touch people, it can move people, music is the most direct and wonderful art in the world, that is the reason many religions or governments want to forbid music because it is so damn free of everything..."

Reverend Beat-Man:

Blues…

"Because the Beats addressed many issues already in the 50s that we still have to deal with and are still red hot. Simple as that. And since mainstream writing is still as conservative as ever and still lacks courage, it’s still inspiring and refreshing to read Beat poetry and all their successors throughout the decades."

Dr. Thomas Antonic: The Beats Go On..…

"People who love and know music, poets and writers and musicians, it touches them. They understand it."

Bachir Attar: The Master Musician of Jajouka

Bachir Attar was born in Jajouka, Morocco, is the leader of Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. He is the son of Hadj Abdesalam Attar who led the group Master Musicians of Jajouka at the…

"The Arts are not a decoration. They are not to follow the understanding of political curves. The Arts are hear to inform the body politic—-to inform as well as entertain—and to resist authority if it doesn’t stand inspection."

Van Dyke Parks: Make The World More Beautiful

Van Dyke Parks established a recording career as artist,…

"It’s hard for me to believe that one can’t live without culture - especially art - which to me is music, poetry, literature as well as the visual arts. I think without the appreciation of the arts, then one is lost within their culture. Art is just as important as food."

Tosh Berman:

Growing Up in Wallace Berman's…

"The most important lessons I’ve learned from Piero are to live in each moment, and to be your most true, authentic self. People have described his playfulness, his laughter and his creativity to me and how unique he was. That love and affection still lives to this day despite his absence. In capturing all these memories of Piero, it has helped me create my own memory and connect with him through others. And, in the process I’m being my most authentic…

"This not only proves that the Blues spread from the Mississippi Delta to grow into a vital world music, but that a musical formula can work for everyone. Every person who is free, or who wants to be, identifies with the Blues."…