EUGENE,
Ore. -- (March 21, 2011) - Ken Kesey fans will gather at the University of
Oregon on Friday, April 8, for a day-long celebration of Kesey's life, work and
status as Oregon's iconic author and counterculture personality.
In
honor of the accomplished author and one of the area's most famous residents, "From
Ken's Pen: Celebrating the Ken Kesey Collection at the University of Oregon
Libraries"
will include talks, a special collection open house, an art exhibit, and the West
Coast premiere of the new Ken Kesey documentary, "Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's
Search for a Kool Place."
Kesey day events
are sponsored by Cinema Pacific, the UO Libraries Special Collections and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
The
film "Magic Trip" takes audiences into the Pranksters' counterculture and their
legendary LSD-spurred road trip across the country. The documentary features
Kesey's personal footage, audio recordings and photographs that intertwine to
create an immersive cinematic experience. Director Alex Gibney, the Academy
Award-winning director of "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "Enron: The Smartest Guys
in the Room," will attend, along with
co-director Alison Ellwood, Pranksters George Walker and Carolyn "Mountain
Girl" Garcia, and other special guests.
An
afterparty will follow the film screening with live music, a Ken Kesey gallery exhibit and
readings. Tickets for the film and afterparty are $20. More information about
events associated with the screening is here.
The film premiere
is part of the university's five-day Cinema Pacific film festival, which will include more than 20 film
screenings, live performances, symposiums, gallery exhibitions and two filmmaking
competitions.
According
to event organizers, the day's events will allow attendees to gain insight into
the mind of Kesey through his jail journals, his published and unpublished
writings, and original footage from his road trip with the Merry Pranksters
across the United States.
As a
prelude to the film, Ed McClanahan, Kesey's fellow Stanford University classmate
and Merry Prankster, will present a talk about Kesey's Jail Journal, which will
be on display at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. McClanahan
wrote the introduction to the published edition of "Kesey's Jail Journal," a
series of large-scale pages of art and writing Kesey created while serving time
in the minimum security San Mateo County Honor Camp in 1967.
The
university's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art opens an exhibit, "Kesey's Jail Journal,"
to display 21 original pages of the publication. The pages are on
loan from Faye Kesey, Ken's wife, and housed at the UO Libraries Special
Collections. The
exhibit will remain on view at the Gilkey Center at the museum through June 26.
In addition to the Jail Journal pages, the museum
exhibit will display some "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" deposition notes, and photographer James
Smircich's rarely seen images of Kesey's bus Further, the "Acid Test at the
Longshoremen's Hall," and a young Jerry Garcia.
"These story boards are Kesey's visual
records of his experiences in jail," said Lawrence Fong, curator of American
and regional art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. "They're provocative, darkly humorous, and in
some cases, downright confusing, but all reveal his intense vision and artistic
genius."
An open house at the UO
Libraries Special Collections will feature items from the Ken Kesey Collection,
which has been placed on deposit with the UO Libraries. Several UO faculty
members, students and community members will read portions of Kesey's
unpublished writings from the collection.
As
part of the day's events, Kesey biographer Robert Faggen will speak about the
importance of the work for research and scholarship purposes. Faggen is a
scholar of American literature from Claremont McKenna College and author of the
forthcoming book
"Ken Kesey: An American Life."
"This
collection offers tremendous research opportunities to Kesey scholars, students
and fans," said James Fox, head of Special Collections and University Archives
at the UO Libraries. "The reading of unpublished works and opportunities to
view rarely seen Kesey items on April 8 is a great opportunity for the campus
and wider community."
Improving access to the author's work is one goal
of the UO Libraries' ongoing effort to purchase the Kesey Collection, a
comprehensive archive of typewritten and handwritten manuscripts, journals,
artwork, photographs, correspondence, personal papers and other material Kesey
amassed during his lifetime.
For
more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174718149242348.
MEDIA
CONTACTS: Julie
Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu; Ron Renchler, UO Libraries,
541-346-1459, ronr@uoregon.edu; Debbie Williamson-Smith, Jordan Schnitzer Museum
of Art, (541) 346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu, http://libweb.uoregon.edu/, http://jsma.uoregon.edu/
###