beat poetry

A revolution started by the beat poets that mainly dealt with issues such as censorship. Accordingly, many beat poems are vulgar or obscene in nature, not only to foil censorship laws, but to be free, kickass poetry. The beats are typically considered pre hippies. The revolution started with what was called the Sixth Gallery poetry reading. At this reading on the west coast, a bottle of wine was passed around, and Jack Kerouac read his soon to be famous poem "Howl". The audience felt so emotional that they began shouting, a tradition that continues when the poem is read today.