When most people think of Boulder, they picture the Flatirons, world-class hiking trails, cyclists climbing canyon roads, and a community that embraces the outdoors. Yet for more than 50 years, Boulder has also been one of America’s most influential poetry cities—a place where groundbreaking writers, students, artists, and everyday residents have gathered to celebrate the written and spoken word.
It’s a side of Boulder that surprises many visitors, but it has helped shape the city’s identity for generations.
The story begins in 1974, when Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, with the support of Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Named after Beat Generation legend Jack Kerouac, the school quickly became unlike any other creative writing program in the country. It encouraged experimentation, performance, mindfulness, and artistic freedom, attracting some of the most important literary voices of the twentieth century.
Over the years, celebrated writers including William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Amiri Baraka, Joanne Kyger, Philip Whalen, and many others visited Boulder to teach, perform, and exchange ideas. Their influence extended far beyond the classroom. Poetry readings spilled into bookstores, coffee shops, living rooms, galleries, and community spaces, creating a culture where poetry became part of everyday life…