Writers and Musicians in Painterland: City Lights and the Mid-Century Art and Music Explosion

Moderated by Peter Maravelis with Anastasia Aukman, John Bugg, John Mathias, Lewis Watts, Laura Whitcomb, and Paul Yamazaki

City Lights has played a vital role over the decades in connecting the literary world to its creative counterparts. It has served as a hub where artists crossed paths with poets and writers, who then, in turn, frequented the city’s jazz clubs, alternative music venues, and art galleries. These cultural junctions were places where the African American, Japanese, Filipino, Latino, and European communities came together, despite the prevailing segregation of the times. The cross-pollination led to groundbreaking work and the strengthening of community ties. Here’s a chance to learn about City Lights’s deep connections to the mid-20^th-century art and music scenes.