ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 The city of St. Petersburg has long had a fascination with the iconic Beat author Jack Kerouac, the subject of much local lore and speculation more than 50 years after his death.<\/p>\n
After all, the famous writer spent his final years in Sunshine City and died in St. Petersburg. And for years, his former home at 5169 10th Ave. N. \u2014 where he lived with his mother and his third wife, Stella, in the late 1960s \u2014 served as a pilgrimage destination, of sorts, for writers, readers and counter-culture aficionados. <\/p>\n
Now, the city is gearing up for a weekend of events celebrating the author’s birthday. If he were still alive, he\u2019d turn 101 on Sunday. (Find a full list of upcoming Kerouac events below.<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a Kerouac extravaganza, Kerouac-palooza, if you will,\u201d Ken Burchenal, president of the nonprofit group, Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg, told Patch.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThis is one of the dates that we always celebrate.\u201d <\/p>\n There are two organizations dedicated to the writer\u2019s life in St. Petersburg \u2014 the Friends of Jack Kerouac and the Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg. And both are hosting events this weekend, working together to promote the writer’s local legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had dual initiatives for a long time. They\u2019ve always been more program oriented and we were just trying to figure out how to save the house,\u201d Burchenal said.<\/p>\n The Future of Kerouac\u2019s St. Pete Home<\/strong><\/p>\n About two years ago, Burchenal and his wife formed an LLC to purchase Kerouac\u2019s former home. While a tenant \u2014 a local writer \u2014 briefly lived in the house, future plans for it focus more on programming and community initiatives. <\/p>\n The space will be available for private events hosted by local artists, writers, musicians and organizations \u2014 about 75 people fit in the home comfortably \u2014 and there are plans to host regular open houses and house concerts. The organization will also make a recording and streaming studio available to the arts community. (Learn more about booking the house for an event here.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like all the ducks are in a row and quacking, and we need to get things going,\u201d Burchenal said. \u201cWe just want it to be a cultural space for the Tampa Bay area.\u201d<\/p>\n For a donation, people are also welcome to spend the night in the writer\u2019s final home.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you donate to WMNF and give them $100, you get a koozie or something,\u201d he said. \u201cWith us, if you make a large enough donation, you can stay in the house for a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg fully controls, manages and runs the space, Burchenal added. \u201cAnd as long as I\u2019m alive, the house is saved.\u201d<\/p>\n Celebrating 101st Anniversary Of Kerouac\u2019s Birth<\/strong><\/p>\n The two Kerouac nonprofits work closely together, collaborating whenever possible, according to Burchenal. \u201cWe support each other and promote each other\u2019s events.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s clear when looking at this weekend\u2019s slate of birth celebrations for the author.<\/p>\n JKHSP will host Jack\u2019s Birthday Jam at the Flamingo \u2014 Kerouac\u2019s favorite local bar \u2014 Saturday night. The Friends will be present for the event, setting up a table about their organization.<\/p>\n There will be an open house at Kerouac\u2019s home Sunday afternoon and JKHSP was careful to schedule that event so that lit lovers can also attend the Friends group’s screening of the Kerouac documentary \u201cGo Moan for the Man\u201d at Green Light Cinema. Burchenal will also speak during a Q&A session after one of the screenings, alongside Judy and Riva Sharples, the film\u2019s producers and distributors.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, however you want to do it, you could probably come and participate in both, if you really have a Kerouac jones going,\u201d Burchenal said.<\/p>\n Kerouac\u2019s Life in Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n The Friends of Jack Kerouac formed in 2013 initially with the goal of saving his house. As it became apparent that other entities were making great strides to purchase Kerouac\u2019s home, the group shifted gears, focusing more on the writer\u2019s literary legacy and supporting the local arts community. <\/p>\n While \u201cOn the Road\u201d is by far Kerouac’s most well-known novel, the author wrote some of his other important works during his time in St. Petersburg and Orlando, James Hartzell, treasurer of the Friends group, told Patch.<\/p>\n He spent two stints in St. Petersburg \u2014 1964 to 1966 and 1968 until his death in 1969 \u2014 Hartzell said. <\/p>\n During his first years in the city, he lived in the Disston Heights home next door to the house where he would later spend his final years. In that first home, Kerouac wrote \u201cSatori in Paris,\u201d a novella about his trip to Paris and Brittany to research his family roots and French ancestry, Hartzell said. \u201cIn that house, he also wrote his last novel, \u2018Pic,\u2019 which was kind of like a hymnal from the perspective of a young Black boy.\u201d<\/p>\n He also lived in Orlando from 1957 t0 1958, during the time \u201cOn the Road\u201d was published, according to The Kerouac Project, which maintains Kerouac\u2019s College Park home as a writers\u2019 residency.<\/p>\n There, he \u201ctinkered with\u201d the novel \u201cDharma Bums” and \u201cDesolation Angels,” as well as parts of \u201cOn the Road” before its publication, Hartzell said. <\/p>\n While people focus on Kerouac\u2019s drinking habits and his death in St. Petersburg, the Friends group works to share what his life in the city really looked like.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of myths and legends that still surround him. I\u2019ve heard people talk about all sorts of odd stories, like maybe he went skinny dipping here or people get the facts of his death wrong,\u201d Hartzell said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s kind of that element of his life being obscured. We hope every time when we do an event that we can clear a little bit of that up and point people in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Rumors range from Kerouac dying on the side of the road to who might have been with him when he passed away, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to try to honor and uplift someone\u2019s last moments, their last days,” Hartzell said. “We try to put it in a context for people that this was a literary meteor that burned really bright at one point in time and did influence a lot of people, despite, maybe, how things ended at the tragic, early age of 47.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s partially why the Friends group has organized a regular Kerouac bicycle tour through the city. While the guided tour includes his former 10th Avenue home, St. Anthony\u2019s Hospital \u2014 where he died of a stomach hemorrhage on Oct. 21, 1969 \u2014 and, of course, the Flamingo Bar, \u201cwhich potentially served him his last drink,\u201d there\u2019s more to the writer’s life in St. Pete, Hartzell said. <\/p>\n The tour includes stops at the now-closed Haslam\u2019s Book Store, which the writer frequented, and Al Lang Stadium, since Kerouac was an avid baseball fan and often watched spring training there. It also rides by the Manhattan Casino, where he went to see live music, and because he wrote for the Evening Independent, which later was bought by the St. Petersburg Times, the group passes the former Times building.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal has always been with our group to widen our aperture and honor also the years that Kerouac spent in Orlando. What\u2019s his legacy in the Sunshine State? And try to break some of those myths about how productive he actually was when he came to live in St. Pete and Orlando,\u201d Hartzell said. \u201cAll in told, he got a fourth of his novels written in Florida. So, we\u2019re kind of countering that idea that he just kind of crawled into a bottle; he did have productive years here.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Kerouac organizations have touched upon Kerouac as a polarizing literary figure and the misogyny of the the Beat Generation, but try to separate the artist from his life. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not to excuse them,\u201d Burchenal said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like, well, (Ernest) Hemingway was a jerk to women and his friends and himself on a regular basis, but the value of his art was important. It\u2019s important to our cultural process to look at our past.\u201d<\/p>\n As plans to preserve Kerouac\u2019s home moves forward, the author\u2019s body of work will be central to that, but more so, it will be an homage to American counterculture, Burchenal said. <\/p>\n And the writer has inspired countless other artists and writers, he said. \u201cWe want to preserve this home because (Kerouac) was a really important cultural force and we want to expand on how the space is used. Not everything at the Kennedy Center in New York is about Kennedy.\u201d <\/p>\n Burchenal added, \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to make it a museum for Jack Kerouac. \u2026 Just half of the stuff in that house happens to have been theirs. We\u2019re more trying to curate a space where cool stuff can happen and, in the process, hopefully, educate people about that whole American counterculture that really swept the globe and was very, very far reaching.\u201d<\/p>\n Upcoming Kerouac Events<\/strong><\/p>\n Learn more about upcoming events celebrating Kerouac: <\/p>\n Jack\u2019s Birthday Jam<\/strong><\/p>\n When: March 11, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n Where: Flamingo Bar, 1230 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N., St. Petesburg<\/p>\n What: Featuring Paula Bradley, David Kraii, C.B. Carlyle, Chuck Walston, James Hawkins. Hosted by the Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n Jack\u2019s Birthday Party<\/strong><\/p>\n When: March 12, noon to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n Where: Jack Kerouac House, 5169 10th Ave. N., St. Petersburg<\/p>\n What: An open house of Kerouac\u2019s St. Petersburg home. Suggested donation $20. RSVP here. Hosted by the Jack Kerouac House of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n \u201cGo Moan for Man\u201d Documentary Film Screening<\/strong><\/p>\n When: March 12, 2 and 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Where: Green Light Cinema, 221 2nd Ave. N., St. Petersburg<\/p>\n What: A screening of the Kerouac documentary \u201cGo Moan for Man: The Literary Odyssey of Jack Kerouac\u201d by the late filmmaker Doug Sharples. Screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions with Judy and Riva Sharples, the film\u2019s producers and distributors. Special guests include Ken Burchenal, owner of the St. Pete Kerouac House and Erik Deckers, president of the Kerouac Project in Orlando. Hosted by the Friends of Jack Kerouac. Purchase tickets here.<\/p>\nFind out what's happening in St. Petewith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n
Find out what's happening in St. Petewith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n