Today in Labor History March 25, 1957: U.S. Customs seized copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and City Lights manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were arrested on obscenity charges for publishing and distributing the poem. Howl was inspired, in part, by a terrifying peyote vision Ginsberg had in which the façade of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, in San Francisco, appeared as the monstrous face of a child-eating demon. The obscenity charges stemmed from homophobic responses to his explicit references to homosexuality. Ginsberg’s first experience with LSD, as well as Kerouac’s and Burroughs’s, was with acid provided by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, one-time husband of and long-time collaborator with Margaret Mead. You can read more about Bateson and Mead’s early experimentation with, and promotion of, psychedelics (and their collaboration with the CIA) in the recent book, “Tripping on Utopia.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #poetry #howl #lgbtq #allenginsburg #homophobia #lawrenceferlinghetti #citylights #obscenity #censorship #bannedbooks #kerouac #mkultra #cia #williamburoughs #lsd #peyote #margaretmead #gregorybateson #psycheldelics #books #writer #author #poet @bookstadon

“It always makes me proud to love the world somehow — hate's so easy compared.” — Jack Kerouac, Big Sur
#BOTD #Kerouac #QOTD #Quotation #Quote #Compassion

https://yahooeysblog.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/quote-of-the-day-5454/

Today in Labor History March 5, 1917: Members of the IWW went on trial in Everett, Washington for the Everett Massacre, which occurred on November 5, 1916. In reality, they were the victims of an assault by a mob of drunken, vigilantes, led by Sheriff McRae. The IWW members had come to support the 5-month long strike by shingle workers. When their boat, the Verona, arrived, the Sheriff asked who their leader was. They replied, “We are all leaders.” Then the vigilantes began firing at their boat. They killed 12 IWW members and 2 of their own, who they accidentally shot in the back. Before the killings, 40 IWW street speakers had been taken by deputies to Beverly Park, where they were brutally beaten and run out of town. In his “USA” trilogy, John Dos Passos mentions Everett as “no place for the working man.” And Jack Kerouac references the Everett Massacre in his novel, “Dharma Bums.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #everett #massacre #policebrutality #vigilante #strike #union #police #policemurder #FreeSpeech #kerouac #dospassos #hisfic #novel #literature #writer #author #books @bookstadon

"Jack loved public libraries… If they auction it, anybody rich could buy it and keep it out of sight"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/30/jack-kerouac-on-the-road-first-draft-scroll-to-be-auctioned

#Culture #Books #Kerouac

The Merry Pranksters footage in a wild documentary. #Kerouac #KenKesey #NeilCassedy #StarkNaked #AlanGinsberg #LSD

If you’ve read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test then this will all be familiar. The 16mm 60s colour stock film is so rich in the 1964 sun and looks great. The 1960s start here etc.

They’re all very privileged in a way, looking back from today, but they’re also pioneers of the frontiers of weird.

https://youtu.be/k_Tv82w77Rs

🧵Part 1/2

📚 This Day in History – Sept 5, 1957
On the Road was published today.
Kerouac’s myth hit the page.
Here’s mine.

on the road again
just can’t wait
to get on the road again—
the life i love
is making beat books
with my friends
and i just can’t wait
to get on the road

#OnThisDay #OnTheRoad #Kerouac #BeatPoetry #LLMPoetry #Eshu #SpontaneousProse #AmericanLiterature

Recycle Vinyl x Audial x Imaginarium @ Rave Yard - 16 Aug feat. Rob Pearson, Donton, Kerouac + more

#SESH #RobPearson #Donton #Kerouac

https://sesh.sx/events/12198297