Kimono to Participate in the Kerouac Festival

You may know that Lowell is the hometown of Beat poet and author Jack Kerouac.  Every year at this time Lowell celebrates his work in festival of poetry readings, films, pub crawls and more.  This year's festival has been expanded to four days starting tomorrow  and continuing through Sunday, October 3.  We are excited that Sonja and I are going to bring a visual arts element to one of the events.  The kimono that we made for the Brush Arts exhibit earlier this year is going to be used for the backdrop at a concert and poetry reading on Friday night.

What's the connection between Jack Kerouac and our kimono you might ask?  Believe me there is a connection.  The link is the song 'Long Way' by one of Friday night's performers, Antje Duvekot which talks about a road trip a la Jack Kerouac.

When we began to plan our kimono we read about and studied pictures of kimonos from different eras.  We were especially drawn to kimonos that were inspired by poetry and/or nature.  That gave Sonja the idea to use Antje's song as the basis for ours.  We contacted her and she gave us permission to use it.  We've incorporated the full lyrics and images from our own cross country travels and reflects the excitement of travel and the wonder of nature.  We call it 'Wandering.'

When we learned that Antje was participating in the Kerouac Festival this year we contacted her and the festival organizers and offered our kimono as a backdrop.  Yesterday we got confirmation that they want it.  We are totally thrilled.  So if you are in town on Friday night, the concert is at 8:00 p.m. at the Old Court restaurant at the corner of Central and Middle streets in downtown Lowell.  We'll be there.