River City Reunion audiovisual recordings
Overview
The River City Reunion was a large-scale cultural event held in Lawrence, Kansas in September 1987 that celebrated the town's contributions to the arts in the Midwest and a gathering of cross-generational counter-culture writers, musicians, and performers. This collection predominately contains audiovisual materials covering the event and a number of release forms associated with the audiovisual material.
Dates
- Creation: 1987, 1993, and February 1995
Creator
- Kaplan, Mark (photographer) (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Audiovisual materials are stored in the KU Annex off-site storage area. Researchers are encouraged to first consult the digitized copies of audiovisual materials.
All researchers interested in reviewing this material must consult Spencer Research Library Public Services staff (785-864-4334 or ksrlref@ku.edu, 9-5 M-F CST) before a planned visit. Staff will respond within three days though materials may not be available in that timeframe. Access to audio visual materials may require digitization first. Be advised that drop-in requests for this material cannot be accommodated.
Conditions Governing Use
Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.
Extent
8.25 Linear Feet (9 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Contents
This collection contains audiovisual recordings of events held at the River City Reunion, a cultural gathering held in Lawrence, Kansas from September 7-13, 1987. Over the course of the conference, noted writers, film auteurs, musicians, and publishers spoke on their work and Midwestern contributions to the arts, particularly from the Kansas region. Events during the Reunion included book signings, film showings, art exhibitions, poetry readings and musical performances, industry discussion boards, lectures, and open-mike performances. Professor George Wedge of the Department of English, University of Kansas; Bill Rich of Fresh Sounds, Inc., a Lawrence-based entertainment promoter; and James Grauerholz, personal secretary to author William S. Burroughs, helped to organize the event. The recordings on u-matic tapes were created by Mark Kaplan and Mark Kaplan Productions to create a documentary on the River City Reunion and primarily feature the performances and presentations held at the event. Participants included Beat figures and a variety of writers, musicians, and performers, many of whom associated with the counterculture. Featured event participants include Gene Bernofsky, Jello Biafra, Barrack Bird, Stan Brakhage, William Burroughs, Donald Byrd, Jim Carroll, Robert Creeley, Andrei Codrescu, Brad Denton, Diane di Prima, Ed Dorn, Marianne Faithfull, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, James E. Gunn, John Kessel, Timothy Leary, Bradley Lenz, Leonard Magruder, Michael McClure, James McCrary, Lerory McDermott, John Moritz, David Ohle, Frankie Edie Kerouac Parker, Wayne Propst, Danny Sugerman, and Anne Waldman.
With footage of the conference, the recordings also feature behind-the-scene interviews with visiting performers, B-roll footage of the University of Kansas (KU) campus and Lawrence, and "person on the street" interviews with visitors and KU students. Also included, though unrelated to the River City Reunion, are tapes of William Burroughs's last public reading in February 1995 at a bookstore on Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas as well as miscellaneous Mark Kaplan Productions footage recorded on the same tapes as conference footage. Finally, several release forms associated with the audiovisual materials are also included with the collection.
Most tapes and their containers include some basic descriptive labeling that has been transcribed in quotations by KSRL processors. Spelling errors on these labels have been kept and denotated with [sic]. Any descriptive information added by KSRL processors is described in brackets. To increase ease of access to the collection, KSRL processors have also organized the collection first by each day of the River City Reunion and then by conference events, interview, and B-Roll footage. Audiovisual recordings not attached to the River City Reunion have been placed at the end of the collection.
Physical Location
SC AV 56
Physical Location
Annex (Contact Spencer Library Public Services)
Physical Location
MS 385
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, Mark Kaplan and Jim McCrary, 2021 and 2022.
Existence and Location of Copies
The majority of these audiovisual materials have been digitized. Consult the Spencer Library Public Services staff (785-864-4334 or ksrlref@ku.edu, 9-5 M-F CST) regarding access to the digitized versions.
Source
- Kaplan, Mark (photographer) (Donor, Person)
- Byrd, Donald (Person)
Subject
- Brakhage, Stan (Person)
- Burroughs, William S., 1914-1997 (Person)
- Creeley, Robert, 1926-2005 (Person)
- Di Prima, Diane (Person)
- Dorn, Edward (Person)
- Faithfull, Marianne (Person)
- Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997 (Person)
- Gunn, James E., 1923-2020 (Person)
- Kessel, John (Person)
- Leary, Timothy, 1920-1996 (Person)
- Lenz, Bradley Andrew (Person)
- Magruder, Leonard MacKenzie, 1928-2015 (Person)
- McClure, Michael (Person)
- McCrary, Jim (Person)
- Moritz, John (Person)
- Ohle, David (Person)
- Kerouac, Edie Parker, 1923-1992 (Person)
- Propst, Wayne S. (Person)
- Waldman, Anne, 1945- (Person)
- River City Reunion (1987 : Lawrence, Kan.) (Organization)
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the River City Reunion Collection
- Subtitle
- River City Reunion audiovisual recordings
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by mmj. Finding aid encoded by mmj. Finding aid revised by cmp.
- Date
- 2024-03-05
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Finding aid written in English.
- Finding aid permalink
- https://hdl.handle.net/10407/4025825009
- Preferred citation
-
River City Reunion audiovisual recordings, SC AV 56, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository