Wed. October 7, 2026, 6pm
Original poster by artist Peter Forakis
When the Six Gallery held its inaugural gathering of what would become its ongoing poetry series “6 Poets at the Six,” on October 7, 1955, few could’ve anticipated it would make history, becoming a pivotal moment of the San Francisco Renaissance. Featuring Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder—poets then unknown outside their relatively small circle of friends—and emceed by Kenneth Rexroth, the event was advertised on simple, typewritten postcards as “…all sharp new straightforward writing—remarkable collection of angels on one stage reading their poetry. No charge, small collection for wine and postcards. Charming event.” It was one of Allen’s earliest public readings, and McClure’s first ever.
“When Allen read ‘Howl’, we all
knew a line had been crossed.”
Michael McClure
Well, perhaps Allen, given his seeming prescience for historic moments, had some idea the night would be significant. After all, when first approached by Rexroth on behalf of artist Wally Hedrick, part of the collective that opened and operated the Six Gallery, Allen initially turned down the offer to read. Then he composed the first draft of “Howl,” and “changed his fucking mind” (his words). He knew he’d written something special, and the small crowd in attendance had no idea what they were about to witness.
David S. Wills, author, editor, and publisher of leading Beat Generation literary journal Beatdom and Beatdom Books, joins us all the way from Cambodia for a discussion of this historic poetry reading and its role in putting the Beats, along with San Francisco itself, on the literary map of America.
Beatdom is an annual literary journal founded in May 2007 by David S. Wills, dedicated to the work of the Beat Generation. Each issue of Beatdom tackles a topic—such as religion or politics—and explores the Beat Generation through that particular lens. Since 2010, Beatdom Books has also published numerous books related to the Beat Generation.
Wills is the author of A Remarkable Collection of Angels, released on October 7, 2025, to mark the 70th anniversary of the 6 Gallery reading, published by Beatdom—the first book-length study of that pivotal event. It was one of the most important moments in Beat history, yet until now very little was known about it. It has been mentioned in many hundreds of books, but none of these have managed to get the basic facts right. Based on years of research, David S. Wills has picked apart the myths and attempted to construct a history of this literary event, tracing its origins and showing how the various participants came to know each other at just the right time, in just the right place, so that the unlikeliest of things would happen–a poetry reading would change the world.