»We thought of ourselves as free because of the risks we’d taken, though we weren’t free at all«, Hettie Jones writes in her memoirs.

Have you ever heard of Hettie Jones? Or of Joyce Johnson, Carolyne Cassady, Joanne Kyger, Edie Parker, Joanna McClure, Denise Levertov or Elise Cowen? No? It’s not that uncommon; most people, even the ones who can recite the first lines of “Howl” off by heart, don’t know them. These women belonged to the US bohème of the ‘50s and ‘60s, to the circle of the Beat Generation. They loved jazz and poetry and almost all of them severed the ties with their families for their independent lifestyle.

In her presentation, Stephanie Fezer tells us about the women of the Beat Generation.

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Karlsruhe