Reading of Kerouac’s “On the Road” to be held in Dreamers Garden on Dec. 6-8
Press release from Dreamers Garden
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A reading of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” will be held at Dreamers Garden (920 NW 4th St) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday-Sunday, Dec. 6-8.
This reading at Dreamers Garden — the Grove Street Neighborhood Community Garden — is the conclusion of the Grove Street Festival, an event that took place a week earlier on Saturday, November 30, 2024, 2-5 p.m., in the courtyard of Ignite Life Center located at 404 NW 14th Avenue, Gainesville, Florida.
This year marks the 24th Anniversary of CONTINUOUS ANNUAL READINGS of JACK KEROUAC in the Grove Street Neighborhood. The readings have been taking place at Dreamers Garden since 2002 when the garden first opened its doors to the community. These readings arose from the visionary collaboration between Maria Huff Edwards and Ian Schleifer.
We chose Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” for this year’s reading because Erik Scott (1946-2024), who passed on July 22, 2024, near Chicago, IL, was influenced by this book during his high-school years — he attended Gainesville High School from 1962-1964. He was a free spirit and an artist in tune with the universe. He was best friends with our neighbor, David J. Edwards, with whom he shared many Kerouaesque adventures.
“Of course, I was his Sancho Panza!” says David with a smile when he reminisces about those days.
Natalie McFaul, his wife and loving companion, survives Erik.
Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” is perhaps the most influential book of the Beat Generation. It is said to have been written during a three-week period in April 1951, continuously, on a long 120-foot roll of tracing paper, with the author kept awake by Benzedrine and caffeine. Jack Kerouac’s book influenced the Beat Generation, the Baby Boomers who followed them, and many generations thereafter. The Baby Boomers were inspired to take to the road and defy conventional lifestyles.
Jack Kerouac was also a spiritual seeker influenced by his Catholic faith as well as the Buddhist ideas that he pursued throughout his life. “On the Road” depicts with truthfulness, lyricism, and great vitality American life after World War II, and it honors the working class and jazz musicians Jack Kerouac encountered in his journeys across the United States and beyond.
The connection of Dreamers Garden to the Beats is through Maria Huff Edwards, Founder of Dreamers Garden, who in June 1984 attended a workshop to study with American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) at the Atlantic Center for the Performing Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The two other Beat artists in residence then were Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker Robert Frank (1924-2019) and legendary American drummer Elvin Ray Jones (1927-2004).
The Kerouac readings in the Grove Street Neighborhood started with an earlier collaboration between Maria and Ian Schleifer of impromptu “full moon readings” around historic inner city Grove Street Neighborhood in the mid-1990s. Ian was a responsible and dedicated organizer who faithfully would reach out to local poets and poetry lovers for these grassroots events. He proved to be the best partner and most conscientious participant of the Jack Kerouac Readings at Dreamers Garden for more than a decade.