Celebrating the 37th Annual LCK! Fall Festival
The Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2025 Fall Festival will feature numerous events over the long weekend, including tours of Jack Kerouac landmarks, LCK open mic, Talking Jack discussions, book events, jazz and classical music from David Amram and friends, a concert performance of “The Last Pink Glow: Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life” by Rocking Horse Music Club, and our annual Moses Greely Parker Lecture keynote presentation, given this year by noted Kerouac scholar Hassan Melehy. See the full official schedule below.
Room reservations are now available at a special rate at the Sonesta Select Boston/ Lowell/ Chelmsford Hotel, the official hotel of the LCK! festival. Make them here: Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2025.
Pre-festival events
October 1-November 30
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! Poster Exhibit. Posters from previous LCK! festivals will be on display. Hours: Mon-Thurs: 12:00-9:00 pm; Fri: 10:00 am-6:00 pm; Sat: 9:00 am-1:00 pm; Sun: closed.
Dracut Access Television, 91 Mill St., Suite 8, Dracut
Thursday, October 2
6:30 pm. Edgar Allan Poe and Jack Kerouac readings
lala books, 189 Market St.
Wednesday, October 8
**5:30 pm. “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur.” After the film showing, the filmmakers Curt Worden and Gloria Bailen-Worden will speak about the film and answer questions. This showing is in celebration of the filmmakers’ gift of the film archive to the Kerouac Archive at the University. Watch trailer. Free and open to the public. Free parking available in Wilder Faculty/Staff lot. (**note that previously published start time has changed)
222 O’Leary Library, UMass Lowell, South Campus, 61 Wilder St.
7:00–9:00 pm. Trivia night. Questions will focus on Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and Lowell.
Fuse Bistro, 45 Palmer St.
Festival events
Thursday, October 9
3:00–4:30 pm. Panel discussion on Kerouac’s novel Pic. The panel is chaired by Hassan Melehy (UNC), with short presentations by Keith Mitchell (UML), Kurt Hemmer (Harper College), Brett Sigardson (Alexandria College), and Michael Millner (UML). Free and open to the public. Free parking available in Wilder Faculty/Staff lot.
222 O’Leary Library, UMass Lowell, South Campus, 61 Wilder St.
5:00 pm LCK! Festival Opening Gathering
Worthen House Café, 141 Worthen St.
5:30 pm. Jack at Night Walking Tour. Includes stops at the “Watermelon Man Bridge,” the Grotto, and the Archambault Funeral Home, where Jack was waked. These sites are described in Doctor Sax. Led by Bill Walsh. Departs from, and returns to, Worthen House Café, 141 Worthen St.
7:00 pm. Music and Poetry. Hosted by John McDermott. Features poets Meg Smith, Jim Dunn, and Erin Piedra. Music by duo Mark Aleo & Jed Rosen, as well as Mike Dion of the ODB Project, with George Koumantzelis of Aeolian Kid.
Worthen House Café, 141 Worthen St.
Friday, October 10
9:00–11:00 am Coffee with Kerouac! Check in with LCK! over coffee, grab a schedule, and plan your day or weekend.
Sonesta Select Lowell Hotel, Commons Room, 30 Industrial Ave East
9:30 am. Lowell High School Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest. Sponsored by LCK!.
[This is an LHS event and not open to the public.]
11:00 am. Reality Alley Poetry Workshop. Facilitated by poet and educator Dan Bacon. Open to poets of all stripes and experience levels.
Worthen House Café, Courtyard, 141 Worthen St.
11:00 am–1:30 pm. St. Joseph Cemetery Walking Tour: Encounter Jack’s Franco-American Ghosts. Once the almost-exclusive resting place of Lowell’s French-Canadian immigrants and their descendants, St. Joseph’s Cemetery in nearby Chelmsford, Mass., presents Kerouac readers and students with myriad connections to the Franco-American world of Jack’s childhood and youth. Led by Kurt Phaneuf, tour-goers will be introduced to many of the friends, family, and acquaintances who populated that world — the world of his five Lowell novels.
Attendees needing a ride to the cemetery can inquire about carpooling at the Coffee with Kerouac! event (see listing above). Those driving to the cemetery should meet near the cemetery office after entering the main gate on 96 Riverneck Road, East Chelmsford. Please do not park on either side of the road near the chapel or between the chapel and office in order to ensure adequate parking for any late-morning or early-afternoon funerals. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes! Donations gratefully accepted.
St. Joseph Cemetery, 96 Riverneck Road, East Chelmsford.
2:00 pm. Talking Jack: Rethinking Kerouac. Join us for the launch of Rethinking Kerouac: Afterlives, Continuities, Reappraisals (Bloomsbury Press). This recently published collection of essays is written for all of those interested in Kerouac’s life and writing. Come hear a panel discussion that will explore a wide range of Kerouac-related topics. Authors will not only talk about his work, including Kerouac’s visual art and lesser-known attempts at screenwriting, but we will also discuss how Kerouac lives on in archives, translations, and the public consciousness both here in the U.S. and globally. Erik Mortenson, the book’s co-editor who has published extensively on Jack Kerouac and the Beats, will host.
lala books, 189 Market St.
3:30 pm. Author Talk: Legends of Little Canada with author Charlie Gargiulo. On the cusp of becoming a teenager, Charlie Gargiulo lived through the planned destruction of Lowell’s Little Canada neighborhood in the 1960s. Charlie never knew Jack, but he knew the teeming life of Little Canada’s crowded streets and tenements as Jack would have known them in the 1930s when attending school and church there. This is Charlie’s story of the people and place he loved—and the injustice of what was done to them. He went on to become a legendary community organizer who led efforts to ensure people would have decent housing and a fair chance to earn a living and make a happy life for themselves.
lala books, 189 Market St.
7:00–9:00 pm (doors at 6:00). Words & Music. Readings from poets Malissa Lach of Lowell and Tanya Grae, a former writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida, followed by music from critically acclaimed folk and bluegrass artist Rachel Sumner, who is known for her “songs about saints, scientists, and stubborn women.” Hosted by Amy Roeder & Meg Smith. A $10.00 donation is requested to support Lowell Celebrates Kerouac. Food is available for purchase.
Dragonfly Cafe, 165 Thorndike St.
9:00 pm–12:00 am (doors at 8:00). Alligator Wine with Special Guests Mike Younger & The Tennessee Tree Huggers. Hosted by Cliff Whalen and emceed by poet Dan Bacon. Alligator Wine is a talented group of professional musicians from the Lowell area who celebrate the music of the Grateful Dead. Mike Younger is a Nashville-based, Nova Scotia-born, former street musician who has forged an impressive career as a national touring and recording artist with an excellent original catalog, which draws upon influences from blues to folk to rock ’n’ roll and Americana.
Worthen House Café, upstairs, 141 Worthen St.
Saturday, October 11
9:00 am. Commemorative at the Commemorative: An LCK! Annual Gathering. We take time to honor the of lives those in the Kerouac World, either in Lowell or beyond, who have recently passed away. This year, we remember: Arthur Tingas and Douglas Bishop.
Jack Kerouac Park, 93 Bridge St.
10:00 am–12:00 pm. Bus Tour of Lowell Kerouac Sites. Led by Bill Walsh. Includes stops at Kerouac’s birthplace, some of the neighborhoods he describes in his Lowell novels, and his gravesite at the Edson Cemetery. A $10.00 donation is requested to cover bus costs.
Departs from the Commemorative, Jack Kerouac Park, 93 Bridge St.
10:00 am. Walking Tour of Downtown Kerouac Sites. Led by Kurt Phaneuf with guest contributions from Bernie Zelitch. Bookended by Jack’s favorite childhood movie theaters and the two locations of his father’s Spotlight Print shop, this walk takes in some of the downtown places Kerouac writes about in his hometown novels. For the first time, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac will collaborate with the founder of the by Annie Powell Project, revealing the rich crossover between two of Lowell’s great creative minds. Works covered include The Town And The City, Doctor Sax, Memory Babe, and Maggie Cassidy. Donations gratefully accepted.
Departs from the Commemorative, Jack Kerouac Park, 93 Bridge St.
11:00 am–1:00 pm. Talking Jack Poetics. Hosted by poet A. Logan Hill and guests. This is an open conversation about Jack Kerouac’s poems and poetic being. We will talk about his poetic mind and influences, his love for spontaneity and music and prose, the visions behind Mexico City Blues, his American Haiku, the Koans, and his other poems and poetic ephemera. We will discuss his poeticism as an athlete and traveler, his spiritual connectedness to Zen Buddhism and other ancient teachings, exploring the value and importance of nature and kindness, empathy, the bodily presence, getting at the ancient art and root of what it means to be a truth-teller, a writer, a poet—waking to see the world go wild, to dig the music, to dream the miracle, and possibly even, go mad.
Pollard Memorial Library, Community Room, ground floor, 401 Merrimack St.
1:00 pm. Library Haunts and Hookey Tour. Led by Bill Walsh. The tour centers on the Pollard Library’s Kerouac Corner, noting the times Jack played hooky from Lowell High School in order to read books of his choosing. Donations gratefully accepted.
Pollard Library, 401 Merrimack St.
2:00–3:30 pm. Annual LCK Parker Lecture by Hassan Melehy. For most of its 200-year history, Lowell has been the home of immigrants. While growing up in the city’s Franco-American community his parents had come to from Québec, Jack Kerouac knew people from many groups: Irish, Italian, Greek, Eastern European, Asian, among others. Immigrants and their families figure prominently in his novels that take place in Lowell. When he wrote about traveling in America and across international borders, he showcased a great variety of people and their cultures, especially the migrants with whom he felt an affinity. The speaker will show how Kerouac painted the entire world as a place where migrants are true citizens.
Lowell National Historic Park Visitor’s Center, Theater, 246 Market St, Market St. [***In the event that the Park Visitor’s Center is still closed due to the government shutdown, the lecture will be held in the Pollard Library’s Community Room.]
4:00 pm. LCK! 37th Annual Open Mic. Hosted by Cliff Whalen and emceed by Dan Bacon. Featured lead-off reading by award-winning poet Matt W. Miller. A native of Lowell, Miller is the author of four books of poetry, including Cameo Diner: Poems (Loom Press).
Worthen House Café, upstairs, 141 Worthen St.
6:00–6:30 pm. spectral-in-my-mind Bridge Street presentation. Lowell photographer Annie Powell took more than 3,000 images in and around Lowell by the time of her death in 1952 at age 92, but much of her life remains a mystery. The by Annie Powell project is dedicated to preserving Annie’s photographic legacy, researching and authenticating her work, as well as contextualizing and promoting the historical significance of her images.
Brad MacGowan, Lowell historian and board member of by Annie Powell, will focus on the overlap between Annie Powell and Jack Kerouac from the years 1922 to 1936. The title of the presentation is quoted directly from Kerouac’s novel Visions of Gerard. Read more about why Bridge St. was “spectral” for both Kerouac and Powell.
Middlesex Community College, Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, recital hall, 240 Central St.
7:00 pm (doors open). Many Worlds/ No Walls: David Amram at LCK!. Legendary jazz man and Kerouac collaborator David Amram and his band (Kevin Twigg, Rene Hart, Jerome Harris, and Adam Amram), along with guest classical soloists Yoshiko Kline and Kenneth Randofsky, perform a program of music covering the many overlapping worlds of David Amram and Jack Kerouac. A $20.00 donation is requested to support Lowell Celebrates Kerouac.
Middlesex Community College, Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, recital hall, 240 Central St.
Sunday, October 12
10:00 am. Mystic Jack Tour. Led by Bill Walsh and Suzanne Beebe. A walking tour of the sites described in Visions of Gerard. Donations gratefully accepted.
Former St. Louis de France Church, 241 West 6th St.
12:00–1:00 pm. Dreams, Creativity, and Kerouac. Author and psychologist Deirdre Barrett will discuss her work on the connection between dreams and creativity, problem solving, and emotional processing—and share insights from her analysis of Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams.
lala books, 189 Market St.
1:30 pm (signups begin at 1:00 pm). Annual Amram Jam. Bring your Kerouac-inspired poem or prose to read while accompanied by David Amram, Adam Amram, Kevin Twigg, Jerome Harris, and Rene Hart. Emceed by Wireless Mike Flynn.
Fuse Bistro, 45 Palmer St.
5:00 pm. Ghosts of the Pawtucketville Night Tour. Led by Bill Walsh and Kurt Phaneuf.
Walk in the spectral footsteps of Doctor Sax as we take a deep dive into Jack’s most magical,
Lowell-rich book. From the doorway overlooking the wrinkly tar corner to the rose-scented
shadows of the Grotto, visit the places that inspired one of Kerouac’s personal favorite
works. Donations gratefully accepted.
Walk from Worthen House Café, 141 Worthen St., or meet at Cumnock Hall, UMASS Lowell North Campus, 1 University Avenue by 5:15 pm.
7:00 pm. Rocking Horse Music Club performs The Last Pink Glow: An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life. Working directly with Jim Sampas, the literary executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate, The Last Pink Glow puts Kerouac’s coming of age story to music—often using the author’s own words as lyrics. Set in Lowell in the summer of 1941, the album tells the story of a bright and restless university student named Peter Martin, his family, and his friends, as they all try to adapt to the economic, social, and political changes swirling around them at the onset of World War II. $20 admission. Order tickets.
Taffeta Music Hall, Western Avenue Studios, 110 Western Ave.
Monday, October 13
10:00 am–1:30 pm. Kerouac’s Nashua Connection Tour. Led by Steve Edington. A van tour to Kerouac sites in Nashua, New Hampshire, as primarily described in Visions of Gerard, Doctor Sax, and Vanity of Duluoz. Concludes at the St. Louis de Gonzague Cemetery and the burial sites of Leo and Gabrielle Kerouac, Gerard Kerouac, and Jan Kerouac. Donations gratefully accepted.
Departs from the Lowell National Historical Park Visitors Center, 246 Market St.
10:00 am. LCK Loop Tour. Led by Bill Walsh. Touches on several of Lowell’s Kerouac places.
Begins at the Commemorative, Jack Kerouac Park, 93 Bridge St., and ends at Worthen House Café.
2:00 pm. (approximately). Wrap Party at The Worthen. Give a farewell toast to Jack and have a safe journey home!
Worthen House Café, 141 Worthen St.
Post-festival events
October 21
6:30 pm. Jack Kerouac Memorial Walk. To mark the passing of Jack Kerouac on October 21, 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida, LCK! holds a Memorial Walk in his memory. We begin at the Grotto on Pawtucket Street, walk past the site of the former Archambault Funeral Home where Jack was waked, down Merrimack Street past the former St. Jean Baptiste Church where his Funeral Mass was held, and on to The Old Worthen for a toast in his memory.
October 24-26
The Poe in Lowell Festival, celebrating Poe’s three visits to Lowell. Edgar Allan Poe visited Lowell three times, in journeys of history and mystery. Celebrate Poe’s legacy with readings of Poe’s works, art exhibits, dance, and more. Learn more.