The Venice Beat Poets – The Great River Outside the
Mainstream
By Hillary
Kaye
Shortly before she died, Philomene
Long and Jim Smith planned that Philomene would do an ongoing series of
articles, celebrating the work of the beat generation of Venice poets.
In her memory we’ve decided to go
ahead with that plan. We do this to call attention to their work for new
generations and to highlight the idea that most of what is significant,
creatively, politically and socially is unfortunately invisible, lying outside
the standard historical narratives. This narrow view of “history”
serves to locate power in the establishment and justify its privileged position.
The power, creatively, politically and socially is with the
people.
There was no Horace Greeley to
urge these poets to “Go Venice West Young Man.” They came because in
Gertrude Stein’s words “there was no there there.” She was
talking about Oakland but it was more accurately about Venice.
They wanted to be outside of the
establishment, outside of an established literary scene like North Beach or the
Village. And there was none of that in Venice, just the decaying shell of Abbot
Kinney’s abandoned dream. It was like living inside a poem.
So while they faced the conformist 50s
and hassling politicians and the LAPD trying to put America into a social
straightjacket, they were free from the weight of tradition. Free to drop those
establishment values of ambition and fame and follow their muse and create. And
so they did.
This series begins with
Stuart Perkoff, a close friend to Philomene and one who shared her view that
their being poets was a calling. Perkoff grew up in St. Louis. He moved to
Venice in the early 50s and founded the Venice West Café in 1958 as a
meeting place for local artists. One of those artists, Wally Berman had come up
with a line that summed up so well what Stuart believed, so Stuart wrote it on
the wall of the café in huge letters. “Art is love is
God.”
A SUGGESTION TO MY FELLOW CITIZENS
By Stuart
Perkoff
imagine revolutions have
occurred! yes! why not?
& revelations!
more! love! more! communal joy!
forget the
rules, the rulers, the restrictions
which
limit every action, every flight
of grace
& wing. create
instantly yr
ideal
city! its market places
stocked
with fulfilled desires wrapped in
images
unknown, but known to
be
lovely as yr selves. extend yr arms &
dreams
& see how interlaced a
web
is structured by yr separate human
needs.
Posted: Thu - November 1, 2007 at 01:57 PM