This is the 30th anniversary year of The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, founded by Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and Diane Di Prima at the Naropa Institute, and its annual summer convocation of writers, “joining a passion for writing and literature with the mindfulness and awareness developed through traditional contemplative practices.”

Marking the anniversary, the East Coast Naropa alumni are gathering to celebrate 30 years of “the pursuit of sane poesy” at the Bowery Poetry Club on April 25th, 3 - 5:30 pm, featuring past and present Naropa students and faculty: Anne Waldman Steven Taylor, Brenda Coultas, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Bob Holman, Lorna Smedman, Alan Gilbert, Kristin Prevallet, James Ruggia, Joel Lewis, Robert Masterson, Mary Kite, Rembert Block, Kirpal Gordon, Michael Smoler, Steve Hirsch, and perhaps “some very special guests.” Says organizer Steve Hirsch: “Let’s stir the spirits of Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs and the rest of our departed beat heros with a howl of our own to commemorate the founding of one of this country’s leading academies of poetic pursuit at the first fully-accredited, Buddhist-inspired university in America. A READING NOT TO BE MISSED! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!”