On Saturday, 14 Harker students were among the first guests at the newly reopened Beat Museum in San Francisco. The museum features many of the original works of the Beat Generation of American writers, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs.

The museum was closed for the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the annual field trip taken by the students in Charles Shuttleworth’s class on Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation was also canceled. Upon hearing that the museum would be reopening, students jumped at the chance to visit.

During the visit, the students received a tour from Jerry Cimino, the museum’s owner, and listened to a talk by beat poet and biographer Neeli Cherkovski, who offered his perspectives on the Beat Generation’s great influence as a literary and social movement. The reopening was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, which briefly mentioned the Harker students’ visit in their story on the event.