In her memoir, 681 Lexington Avenue – A Beat Education in New York City, 1947-1954 (Greater Midwest Publishing), Elizabeth Von Vogt, a sister of John Clellon Holmes, describes her coming of age among Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other Beats in post-World War II New York City.

The Beat Generation Symposium was a two-day conference devoted to the literary and cultural legacy of the Beat Generation. Sponsored by Columbia College Chicago’s English Department and Office of the Provost, in conjunction with the Beat Studies Association, an international organization that fosters scholarship on Beat Generation literature and art; Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media; and the Illinois State University Department of English and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Also recorded as part of this event:
Aesthetics and Spirit of Avant-Garde Practice
Poetry Reading by Joanne Kyger
Memoir Reading by Elizabeth Von Vogt
Beat Reception and Recovery, Assessing the Critics and the Historians
Poetry Reading by Michael McClure

Recorded Saturday, October 11, 2008 at Columbia College Film Row Cinema.