One of the core group of Beat poets who gained fame in 1950s San Francisco, Michael McClure is also a playwright, journalist and memoirist. His life and writing reveal a deep interest in nature, ecology, and consciousness. McClure continues to live and work in San Francisco where he is more active than ever, writing and performing his poetry at festivals, as well as colleges and clubs across the country. Most recently McClure joined with composer Terry Riley to create a CD titled I Like Your Eyes Liberty. Recent books include Huge Dreams: San Francisco and Beat Poems, Rain Mirror, and Touching the Edge.

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.