Beat Generation Conference - Page 2

Other events include Jonah Raskin discussing 'The San Francisco Beats 1955: Sex, Drugs, Art & Poetry'; the movie 'Neal Cassady - The Denver Years'; a panel discussion 'Young Scholars Discuss The Beats'; and David Amram performing music and telling stories about his days with Jack Kerouac.

One session that Cimino is particularly proud of will be a talk by the psychiatrist who convinced Allen Ginsberg, back in the days when homosexuality was a crime, that it was OK to live a life as a homosexual.

"Dr. Hicks, you need to be on the program," Cimino told Dr. Philip Hicks, a reserved man who has never discussed the topic in public before. Despite the dangers, Cimino told Dr. Hicks, "You told your patient it was OK to lead an authentic life, regardless."

Cimino originally conceived of the event as something that might attract 200 serious readers and scholars. But a friend who helped organize the shindig nixed that. "My friend told me, you want to make it like a three-ring circus. You want to have a whole lot of things happening all over the place."

For more on 'Beatnik Shindig,' click here. For more on the Beat Museum, click here.