Beat the Reaper was an Intergenerational Gathering of the Tribes, held on August 25 2007, at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in San Francisco. The event can be summed up as a spiritual invigoration to inspire the entire nation. /i/Beat the Reaper/i/ is being presented by Advancement Through Evolution Enterprises (ATE), with the help of artist Jesse Mosher, as a benefit for the Beat Museum in San Francisco, CA.

The event invoked and called to mind the spirits of the beat that liberated the minds of humanity all those years ago: the wandering souls of Kerouac and Cassady. Find those wandering souls and let them enter for our fervent delight, touch upon those distant far behind miles with hopes of igniting intrepid travels. As a young adult today, one can only imagine the release of On the Road, written in April 1951 by Jack Kerouac, and published in 1957. One can only imagine the thought invoking, fiery frenzy it must have created as: Every word and expression sinks into the brain with the sensations of the first intimate touches of love upon a virgin. Quietly murmuring blissfully upon new horizons of emotion. Resisting and accepting all at the same time. Timid and sincere.

The beat generation emerged and then spread throughout the country and the world. Like a virus or possibly a contagious antibody. An antibody to the two-dimensional. Growing and spreading amongst many other antibodies of higher ideals and energies.

We are that contagion, in mutation, in evolution, growing and flowing in a world of spiritual and emotional death. Staring blindly into the herding and corralling of existing life. As cookie cutter as the fifties and as eager for change as the 60's, this generation needs liberation...

As that antibody's evolution, as that long distance lineage of those first radical wordplays and concepts, it's our duty and responsibility to fuck this generation wildly, but gently with care and tenderness and to also wake it up to ecstasy. If fucking is all this generation is brought up to understand, then we are going to fuck it until it understands glistening passion. Until it catches our infection. Making it understand every positioning and stance on life and love possible. Because we are the contagious antibodies of the beats. And that antibody is love, passion and hope; desirous of nothing and everything at the same time; curious and playful; commanding with a gentle caress; sympathetic to fellow humanity.

As this article was being written, it was shared with performance artist Elizabeth Newman, of Living Folklore, who participated in /i/Beat the Reaper/i/. In the tradition of the unbridled free form that influenced the life and art of the Beat generation, her unedited response is included:

"Flesh out the metaphor for fucking the generation. It is good, put some meat on it before you edit it down. Why fuck, instead of wake it up to ecstasy? How does the virus in mutation fit the sex metaphor -- is it a sexually transmitted disease? You could bring in Pro-noia possibly.

/p1end/
/p2header/
Inspiration is what we need. Something to make us wonder, to think, to believe. It's like Robert Hunter said, "We just might get shown the light in the strangest of places if we look at it right."
/p2headerend/

The generation that has been assaulted with images of distorted sex, anorexic women and men on steroids half naked and depressed since they were toddlers is the same generation that is rightfully scared to death of sexually transmitted disease. It is both the most easily accessible imagery (sex is what sells everything from cars to coke), and the most denied and unloving subject. For our generation sex education was learning what you would get (herpes, bugs, AIDS) if you did the nasty -- well it is time for us to BECOME that virus... We have to become that virus in mutation, in evolution, growing into the pants of every American.

How do you scare someone as much as a STD, but wake them up to life -- to being genuine? real? not commercialized? Freak them out of their pants! Give them a kundalini experience! Tear their clothes off of their cultural entrancement!!! Gently allow them to open deeper and deeper as you fuck for hours and hours?"

Our thoughts were then shared with San Francisco artist and writer Jesse Mosher, who was also involved with /i/Beat the Reaper/i/. His response came back with the sincerity and positive invigoration of his art:

"I agree with Elizabeth that the virus metaphor could use some reworking. The radical change, mutation idea seems to ring truer to me. Words like flowering, evolution, etc. are good aspects like the truest ideals, or most time proven ones coming to influence future generations. All these people went for it and time has show not all ideas to be relevant to our generation. Artists create following a muse, it's up to the next generation to decide which ideas resonate with them, which ideas have the most meaning to their times and struggles."

Inspiration is what we need. Something to make us wonder, to think, to believe. It's like Robert Hunter said, "We just might get shown the light in the strangest of places if we look at it right."

I myself was inspired by Ken Babbs and over the years of absorbing all he could throw at me my youthful idealism gave way to vision of man. My latest inspiration was a girl named K.D., long red hair, opal eyes sweet as can be. As she struggled to cope with the entrapments of modern day survival, she said to me quite simply, "This is not being alive." At that moment all he taught me came to mind. The mission became real.

That is our job. To let the other four-dimensional beings know that it is time for us to tear down the walls of this two-dimensional world. To set it free from the restraints of a world of fabricated thoughts and realities instilled by less evolved individuals only concerned with self. To represent a world discovered long ago that is made up of the true America -

not the one created by MTV, Disney and other corporate throngs who foist the dulling pap upon our youth as art and music. Those hopeful of creating generations of gold plated crack dealers and girls comparing their own flesh with fabricated role models. Corporations have sucked the very life from creative expression.

Perhaps that in itself is the best example of the difference between beat culture influence and corporate culture influence. The beats inspired the Grateful Dead culture that up until Jerry Garcia's death in 1996 had major impacts upon American culture. The Grateful Dead heavily influenced many youth like myself. We were no bombarded with fantasies of driving around the block, slingin' rock all day, seeking out big bootie hoes.

We were influenced by the beautiful poetry of Robert Hunter set to life by the interweaving marvel of music and sound known as the Grateful Dead. We were concerned with driving around the whole damn country if not the world. Concerned with real love, and friendship, with adventure and freedom. We cared about the betterment of mankind.

Corporate culture is selfish and dull; beat culture is selfless and alive. It's as Neal Cassady said, "We are not here for self, we are here for service. Here to multiply. To make like three-dimensional chess. Subdue ye' the Earth and all that."

What better way to make like three-dimensional chess then to spread like a virus. A mutation of past influences, all stemming from the same desirous passions. As it was observed and put to me by Brooke Jenkins, "In genetics, mutations can eventually accumulate to create evolutionary change..."

/endp2/
/p3header/
"Anyone in this country that hit the road is rooted in the Beat Movement, it is a branch of an ancient tree, one that has always been and will always be. Anyone who has made any decision based on the voices within the heart rather than just following the norm is a pupil of the Beat Culture. And only until I understood that did I realize the importance of the Beat Generation and the Psychedelic movement and what impact it had on the evolutionary consciousness of the entire planet and very likely beyond..."
/p3headerend/

But a future is coming where, if we love our influences so much, if we love this viral antibody that is vibrating within our bodies, then we must do what it takes to ensure its perpetual existence.

It is time to find that rhythm again, to put our cars to the highway and eyes to the lodestone. Listen for the bear that still pulsates, though almost lost in the static of fear, the drum machine of "safety" that is so resonate across the land.

I will close this article with an interview of Dominic D'Allesio III, of Evolve 2 Advance, asking a few questions about /i/Beat the Reaper/i/ and his other projects.

(RN) How did you being Evolve 2 Advance and what were your intentions?

"Evolve 2 Advance in a sense, began the day I was born... and evolved as the universe and I have grown. I didn't actually consciously envision the concept as a business until 2000 or so, I was going through a major life transition and some heavy soul searching and became aware that with the coming of my daughter I was to create a business model that as closely resembles the free spirited life I had been fortunate to spend some years living while also embodying a true stewardship of our resources including that which some believe to be our most powerful and corruptible resource, the human mind. And so came A.dvancement T.hrough E.volution Enterprises. An enterprise of all human expression, with the goal of simply living with joy and freedom of the mind, body and spirit. A convergence of independent artists who believed that through waves of color, light, sound and though we can manifest a brighter tomorrow and coexist with all that is. Humans hold a key to a as well as the detonator. We at A.T.E. are here to help us all make the right choice..."

(RN) How did you come up with the concept of posing the question "What is Hip" for your series of shows?

"I was curious to find a root of the true American culture and seek a source of what kept us together as well as what divided us. We here have a unique situation because all this "melting pot" of cultures has formed this echo chamber where we emulate and modify each culture, then a new amalgamation is created and this is precisely where we find hip. That frontal love of culture, is usually perceived as a counter culture, however as even some historians are beginning to postulate today, perhaps the counterculture is actually the ether from which creative evolution beings and the "crazy" hippies and hipsters, and hip-hoppers and all things hip are actually the driving force of our nation and its redeeming values. The counterculture is typically a youth movement and the young see the world of tomorrow. The generations that have spring from the Beat- today are intertwined and situated and seemingly opposing forces. Yet all of these subcultures have common roots. Through my quest for hip I have found the sources to include the existentialists, Thoreau, Emerson, the founding fathers, all true ideals of free thought born here...

and this is [the] American way, the Union of the Hip."

(RN) What do you hope to get out of this show in San Francisco?

"I really desire that there will be an understanding of what our attempt is here, we hope to gather the young and old of all types and creeds can gather as one to proclaim that we are free and each individual and unique while at the same time we show respect for the great oneness and our tiny role in the whole. Let's step forward from the hatred and separation of the negative people surrounding us, let's enjoy each other no matter what we believe, because we all, each and every one believe that that is our true inherent right to be and to be free. I hope to see smiles on every face in the crowd..."

(RN) What do you see as the importance of understanding what spring from Beat Culture and where is leaves us today, and also where it should go in future?

"Anyone in this country that hit the road is rooted in the Beat Movement, it is a branch of an ancient tree, one that has always been and will always be. Anyone who has made and decision based on the voices within the heart rather that just following the norm is a pupil of the Beat Culture. And only until I understand that did I realize the importance of the Beat Generation and the Psychedelic movement and what impact it had on the evolutionary consciousness of the entire planet and very likely beyond... Today the world is a million times more open and free than it was 10 years ago, and I don't just mean all that democracy mumbo jumbo. True democracy lies with the mind, body and spirit. Where to go we all decide. Even though we have more "freedom" the dark forces have gained and we must not be suppressed, oppressed, or made complacent by mainstream, watered down pseudo-culture, instead let us ride the rising tide and climb the resonating wave of consciousness to global utopia."

/r/On the web at:
www.kidtomfoolery.com
www.evolve2advance.com/r/