Two poets formed in San Francisco, Gerald Nicosia and Ron Myers, read poetry in the original San Francisco Beat, oral tradition. Nicosia, the older of the two poets, was friends with many of the Beat writers including Gregory Corso and Jack Micheline, and he will read from his recent book of poetry BEAT SCRAPBOOK, which contains narrative-poem memoirs of dozens of the famous and non-famous Beat poets he knew during his many decades in the Bay Area. Ron Myers, the younger of the two, studied under Beat poet Harold Norse in the 1980’s and more recently post-Beat poet Neeli Cherkovski. Myers will read from his recently-published first book of poems, POWER SPOTS, with poems arising from many different San Francisco settings and characters he has known. Both poets deal with the core Beat themes: the importance of interpersonal relationships, tolerance toward people of different backgrounds and orientations, concerns with ecology and ending violent political conflicts, poetry that embodies an activist stance toward life, and poetry that is accessible to all people. The poets will allow time for a discussion with the audience after their reading.

Ron Myers began writing seriously after befriending Beat Hotel-resident and poet Harold Norse in the 1980s.  Ron previously studied creative writing and art at Indiana University, City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State.  He reads on several online forums and appears in dozens of anthologies, including a recent tribute to William Burroughs. Quite unexpectedly, the National Beat Poetry Foundation appointed Ron the Beat Poet Laureate of California in 2024.  A full length collection, Power Spots, mysteriously appeared in 2025.