National and International Beat Poetry Festival in CT features new generation of poets, writers, artists and musicians

The original Beat movement of the 1950s and ‘60s gave us Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,”, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Michael McClure’s play “The Beard” and reams of other lively radical writings. But that was just the beginning. The Beats are still among us, and this weekend many of them will beat a path to Collinsville and Barkhamsted for a weekend of readings, talks, workshops and concerts.

The 2023 National and International Beat Poetry Festival draws those from the original Beat movement of over half a century ago as well as those who are actively carrying on the Beat legacy today. Past speakers have included Clive Matson (who was with the Beats in the ‘60s but left the movement in the late ‘70s) and composer David Amram (who was instrumental in creating the bond between Beat poetry and jazz music).

Johnny Depp was given a Lifetime New Generation Beat Poet Laureate Award by the foundation last year, though he has yet to attend a festival. The actor accepted the award via a three-minute video in which he expressed the great influence Kerouac’s writings had on his life and work.

One of this year’s special guests is Ron Whitehead, who straddles both the historical and present-day Beat eras: He befriended and edited Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and is also an award-winning poet himself.

The festival also includes some extensive open mic opportunities where a wide range of poets are expected. Deborah Tosun Kilday, who runs the National Beat Poetry Foundation that holds the festival, said that the festival has become “worldwide. People in India and Australia somehow find us and want to participate.”

Kilday, a poet herself whose collections include “Tantric Love Suicide,” defines a Beat poet as “any poet who has something important to say and hasn’t been given a chance by other poetry groups. We’re carrying on a tradition of the original Beat generation who faced the same kind of hindrances with their writing. They weren’t able to just read their stuff.”

She said she knows some Beat poets who’ve been asked not to read at certain local poetry open mics. “I myself have had experiences where I went to poetry readings and was told to leave. Some of our poets have been banned from reading. It is that bad. That’s what drove me to create this event. People get excited to come and participate. They’re accepting of each other’s differences. Everyone is equal. They call us the Woodstock of poetry festivals.”

Other writers at the festival this year: Lorraine Currelley, Chris Vannoy, Carlos Raúl Dufflar, Anne Petrie Sauter, Tommy Twilite, Linda Bratcher Wlodyka, Patricia Martin, Mimi German, John Burroughs, Sandra Fee. Tammi Truaz, Erine Leigh, Leo Jarret, Chris Bodor, Susan Justiniano. The weekend’s host in Virginia Shreve of Canton. Many of these poets are the designated Beat Poet Laureates of their states or towns.

The poets and the audience members come from “all of the country” and beyond, Kilday said. “We had someone from Hungary. A couple has come from Sweden. We had no idea this would evolve into what it has.”

The 2023 festival opens Friday at 7 p.m. at Canton Town Hall in Collinsville. There are readings by the designated Beat Laureates, followed by an open mic at 8 p.m. and a spoken word/music concert at 8:30 p.m. by the trio Do It Now featuring percussionist Tony Vacca of World Rhythms Ensemble and guitarist John Sheldon, who has worked with Van Morrison and Linda Ronstadt, and poet Paul Richmond, whose accolades from the National Beat Poetry Foundation have included Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate from 2017-19, U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate from 2019-20 and the lifetime title of New Generation Beat Poet Laureate. The concert is free but donations to “the Karma Jar” are appreciated. The Do It Now performance will be captured on video to be streamed on the foundation’s YouTube channel.

Saturday’s events take place at 22 River Road in the Pleasant Valley section of Barkhamsted. There’s a reading and awards ceremony for the new Beat Laureates at 1 p.m., followed by an open mic at 2:30 p.m. and a performance by Ernest Brute and Object Echo at 4:30 p.m.

The final day of the festival is mostly online with a five-hour international Zoom-based event with dozens of poets reading their work starting at 1 p.m. Each poet is limited to three minutes. The host is Greek poet and physicist Chryssa Velissariou. There is also an informal live gathering on Sunday from 1-3 p.m. at the same River Road location as Saturday simultaneous with the first half of the Zoom event.

Many of the festival events will be preserved on video for the foundation’s YouTube channel. There are also livestreams for those who can not attend the festival in person.

The presentations mainly take the form of poetry readings, Kilday said, but Matson will be talking about the history of the Beats and some of the events may have a more academic bent.

The festival began in 2015, inspired by a Connecticut Beat Poetry Festival that was held 15 years ago. The foundation runs the festival as well as several other events, including the National and International Goddess Festival in March. The foundation also publishes books of poetry, including annual anthologies drawn from the Beat Poetry and Goddess festivals.

This is the first year that the festival has been held in Collinsville. Membership in the National Beat Poetry Foundation is not required to attend.

“We’re very inclusive,” Kilday said. “Everyone is welcome. People say, ‘I’m not a Beat poet. I don’t belong here.’ I say, ‘Do you have something important to say that you want people to hear?’ People are excited because they’ve been repressed since the original Beat generation fizzled out.”

More information on the National & International Beat Poetry Festival, including how to participate in the open mic opportunities, is at nationalbeatpoetryfoundation.org.