"The Beatniks are coming": On the Beat
On the Beat | Swing, vocals and freedom of speech
So, who were the beatniks actually? Barefoot people with their hair too long, wayward students or fringe people? Did they only exist in the past or are they still among us? About the movement that started somewhere in the mid-1940s and its outcomes are rooted in American culture, and Israeli culture as well.
Hebrew poetry has an ongoing dialogue with the beat generation until this very day. The dialogue includes direct and indirect influence, both on the poetics and its group character.
In a jazz show created especially for the festival, the Swing gets the lead in a journey between old and new translations of beat generation poets, the most prominent one being Allen Ginsberg. The beatniks, who gave in to the early stages of jazz and would visit the jazz clubs back when it was still racially segregated in the American space, drew inspiration from the style of music and the atmosphere that surrounded it. They saw themselves as revolutionaries, just like the Bebop musicians of the 1940s.
Menashe Noy and the Beatnik Five will bring you deep down into conscious and unconscious beat and jazz. They will host poet Dorit Weissman and poet Eran Hadas with their own translations – and others’ translations as well – in addition to original poetry that corresponds with the beat generation.
Original Production: The Beatniks Are Coming
In the current polarized dialogue, a culture of boycotts and difficulty seeing the other, we would like to remind ourselves that art can bring people together.
Poetry, a short story, and jazz come from different places and so they branch out later on, but at a certain time in the mid-20th century they had one thing in common, and that moment will last as long as we shine a special light on it.
In order to create a new, contemporary piece, we set out on a journey on two plans of connecting the ideas, texts and principles of freedom of speech with the ecstatic nature of Swing and the essence of a sober, contemporary look that is opened to the new buttons, which emerged into this world and affects us more than anything.
This is why we have invited spoken word and jazz people to correspond with the texts of Allan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski and other glorified beat generation artists, and we have curated two exhibition shows to show off the multiple levels of beat.
Art consultant, The Beatniks Are Coming – Dr. Gilad Meiri
Art director, The Beatniks Are Coming – Noa Melamed Vasana
Musical director, On the Beat – Ofri Nechemija
Musical director, And the Beat Goes On – Uzi Ramirez
Production coordinator – Merav Dadash
Production – 2023 Jerusalem Jazz Festival Original Production