Beat Poets perform in Marquette

An era of poetry was remembered tonight. The “Beat Poets” story was featured at the Regional History Center in Marquette. Beat poetry dates back to the 1940’s.

This event celebrated the work of those beat poets that came through Marquette to share their gift of words. Beat poetry sparked the culture that is known as the hippie movement and the breaking down of stereotypes. Beat was derived from the word Beatific, meaning exalted. But others had a more earthy definition.

Poetry lover, Dan Rydholm described it as, “Beat generation said beat means beat down, just because they were all poor and they were sort of looking at the world from the bottom up. So beat really was a description of seeing the world that way.”

“A poem short story is like a work of art like a painting and you as the creator of that art stand back after you have read it or in the act of reading it is almost art in of itself too,” said Russ Thornburn, Local Poet.

Beat poetry also has roots in Jazz music with the braided imagery in the words or sharing of lines going back and forth when performing.