Beat at Book Arsenal, Kyiv, May 17-21 2017
Beat Generation is a significant cultural phenomenon of postwar America of XX century, which includes writers and artists, who were connected all together by single space, time, personal relationships and a tendency to collective reflections.
The cultural heritage of this phenomenon cannot be underestimated, since it has left not only significant and multidimensional literary achievements, but also seriously influenced the process of social liberalization of the world (women rights and the rights of minorities), establishment of freedom of speech (censorship trials on books), anti-war and anti-militarist movements of ecological consciousness and even music.
Predominantly, the Ukrainian public is not familiar with Beat Generation literature, and such a project is the first attempt to present the Beat as a cultural phenomenon, not as two or three most popular books. To realize this goal, we would like to invite people to study the Beat and reflect with us. Of course, there won’t be any ultimate answers, but at least it will trigger a process of reflection and re-thinking of this phenomenon.
The project consists of two components that work in synergy:
- Artistic
- Educational
The Artistic component includes a physical representation of the Beat Generation via a map, showing roots, events, phenomena, personalities, places and influences. The map is interactive: some nodes would be turned into art pieces that will invite the visitor to interact with it and study the represented phenomenon closely.
This component also includes readings, performances and replication of the Beat Hotel room that will help to immerse the public into the atmosphere. This room will serve as a background stage for other Project components.
The Educational component includes several lectures on Beat Generation literature and the phenomenon as a whole and its topicality in contemporary culture and society; also, we foresee panel discussions and amendment of the map by the public.
Our team consists of independent curators, translators, and poets; three of us are also members of VERBatsiya NGO (in the process of registration), a non-commercial organization mainly focusing on promotion of contemporary literature and translation.
Topics:
Beat Generation Impact on European Literature
Being Junkie: political implications of addiction for Beats and its influence on Beat Writing
If you are interested in the topics and would like to become one of our lecturers, please just contact us by a deadline of December 15: