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November 10, 2003
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Cathy Briner (cabriner@comcast.net)
541-689-1833
Kesey the Storyteller to be Memorialized in Eugene
Exactly two years to the day since the funeral service was held for renowned author, Ken Kesey, his
likeness in bronze will be unveiled on Friday, November 14 in downtown Eugene. The event, to be held
at 1:00 PM on the Broadway Plaza, at the intersection of Broadway & Willamette streets, will be open
to the public. Speakers will include author Barry Lopez, Mayor Jim Torrey, Brian Lanker, sculptor Pete
Helzer and Faye Kesey.
The lifesize sculptural piece, entitled "The Storyteller," will depict a characteristically casual
Kesey seated on a granite bench reading a book to 3 youngsters, an activity which he enjoyed. Along
the sides of the bench various quotes from his classic books will be inscribed. Pete Helzer, a
well-known sculptor and a friend of Kesey's, was commissioned to create the special memorial.
In order to raise funds to cover the project's estimated cost of $120,000, a steering committee led
by Kesey friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Brian Lanker, sought donations and sold a
commemorative poster, a photograph taken of Kesey by Lanker. The project has received broad-based
support, selling thousands of posters and receiving contributions from over 250 donors to date.
Supporters have been successful in raising over 90% of the target, and are now in a final push
to raise the remainder.
Lanker commented, "I'm extremely gratified by the overwhelming and far-reaching support for this
memorial. Ken's impact from the grass roots level to famous admirers across the country has been a
testament to the rightness of this project."
A variety of well-known authors, celebrities and admirers have contributed support to the effort,
including Phil Knight, Paul Newman, Michael Douglas, Mason Williams, Milos Forman, Phil Lesh, Bob
Weir, Tom Robbins, Larry McMurtry, Jean Auel, Tom Wolfe, Ed McClanahan, Kenny Moore, Sterling Lord,
Dale Wasserman, Rolling Stone Magazine, Viking Penguin, Rich Brooks, Dave Frohnmayer, Brian Booth,
the Chambers Foundation, and Bill Walton.
The City of Eugene will be the recipient of the sculpture gift and it will become part of the City's
Art in Public Places collection, which includes outdoor artwork funded through the 1% for Art program,
donations and commissioned works. The artwork is expected to become a destination point for residents
and visitors alike.
The author, who was born in 1935, was almost a lifelong resident of Oregon, attending Springfield High
School and the University of Oregon where he was on the wrestling team. He later returned to the
University as an occasional lecturer and was an avid supporter of the university's athletic teams.
His wife and family, who are in support of the project, continue to live in the Pleasant Hill area and
will attend the unveiling ceremony.
Kesey is best known for two novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes A Great Notion,
both of which are routinely studied in classrooms across the country and are frequently to be found on
favorite book lists . Both books were adapted for the screen. Other books include Demon Box, Sailor's
Song, Kesey¹s Garage Sale, Last Go Round, and The Further Inquiry. He was also a writer of children's
books, including Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear and The Sea Lion.
University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer eulogized Kesey in 2001, saying "no one writes as deeply
or as profoundly about Oregon and its meaning for the soul as Ken."
The unveiling date was selected to coincide with a Kesey Symposium which will be held at the
University of Oregon that weekend (http://kesey.uoregon.edu). Speakers from all over the United States
will be attending and presenting papers on the author¹s works and literary influence.
Fundraising for the memorial will continue. Posters are available for $25 each and will be sold at the
unveiling event. Contributions, which are tax-deductible, and poster orders may be sent to Kesey-Lane
Arts Council ( 99 West 10th Avenue, #100, Eugene, OR 97401). Donors of $1,000 or more will be
permanently recognized on a plaque to be placed on the memorial statue's bench. Cathy Briner, project
coordinator, can be contacted for additional information (cabriner@comcast.net).
**************
His net caught me...
November 14, 2001
Eugene, Oregon
Dear Friends in lots of places;
You may or may not yet know that a Great Influence has passed
on, exchanging his body for something a little more flexible in
our times of need. Some of you wanted to be at Ken Kesey's
memorial today, but couldn't make it. Others of you are simply
at wide ends of my net, and I have the feeling Ken would appreciate
the idea of our nets cast wide.
I just came from there, and want to share this small reflection
of what transpired. Feel free to pass it on if you're so moved,
but mostly just remember:
"Our job is nothing less than to Save the World"
--Ken Elton Kesey
--September 17, 1935 - November 10, 2001
**************
I've just come from a seat in a theatre where I sat-and-sang in
the warmth of hundreds who loved him, while held in the minds of
thousands who loved him, held in return - I'm certain of it - by
a man who knew how to love millions at once.
The memorial for Kesey gave me much food for hope and thought. From Dave Frohnmayer's opening remarks, to the last Grateful Dead
refrain of "We Bid You Goodnight", fattened up in the middly by
a rousing chorus of "Shall We Gather at the River", led by Preacher Kesey
himself via Zane's wonderful video collage during which we all, every
last god-phearing one of us, sang our hearts out as we rode
together on one last good trip.
In his inimitable style, Kesey took all of us with him. Whether we knew
him or not - whether we knew *it* or not - we were on the Bus.
What touched me most was Ken Babbs' wonderful retelling of A
Life lived So Large there Ain't Enough Capital Letters For It
All. I could have listened to him for hours talk about how he
and ken "Had to study things straight."
He did the Short List -
the quotes:
"It's not the destination, it's the journey. Keep your eye on
the ball and enjoy the journey."
"True currency is the Spirit - the currentcy of Spirit - let
everybody have richness of Spirit."
"Our job is nothing less than to save the world"
the Short List:
...*It* was, in part, the flow from the convergence of that
infamous writer's class, that small band of merry meet men who
lived for the perfection and excellence of achievement in their
brothers, true comrades-in-arms, that shaped so much of the road
to come, tumbling into the 1964 bus trip that was done at first
to *make* a movie, and not for control over what would come
because *of* the movie, but just because the movie would bring
on the Next Cool Thing;
...skip, skip and it's into the origin of the acid tests in the
denouement of an impossible movie editing job wherein all the
players discovered that living the trip is much more interesting
than re-living the trip, but too many dirty dishes in the
morning makes for evolution onto greener pastures, and so the
astronauts of Inner Space suited up and slipped into another
Universe;
...and all the while Ken's writing, writing notes to the last -
in the hospital bed, writing notes that are the raw material of
the next story that waits to be told, and Babbs' hand stops
waist high as tells how many inches of unpublished writing are
poised in the wings, ready to fly out to all of us, and I'm
thrilled at the thought of getting to see more of Kesey in his
un-righted, un-edited, un-perfected-but-perfect word streams,
streams that I spent less time in than I know now I would have
enjoyed;
...where there's promise of "Spit In The Ocean #7" and "Bend In
the River Reality", and "Atlantis Rising", and "Where's Merlin"
and "Sunshine Daydream" and thousands of other poetic spoor that waft
across my ears and my minds' eye;
...with Babbs imparting to us the social action message - the
action of a society, the acts needed by a society, a fellowship,
of persons - the "take-Home" lesson that we should all - all of
us - insist, by contacting the producers of any of these
magnificent film footages shot so blithely, so intently, so long
ago by these intrepid funsters, insist and urge and make a
compelling case for the presentation of these movies as movies,
and honest-to-cod-celluloid films, and not just
the-rush-to-video - and he implored us to act on behalf of these
films, and that this would have been something Kesey would have
very much appreciated;
...the prophecy and the vision - "the Internet is the Campfire"
- even right now it's burning at http://www.intrepidtrips.com. what a big, fat, dream.
Ken knew the digital bridge was built and he
knew it would bring us together in new and unexpected ways, and
I sat inside the McDonald theatre that Kit Kesey and another
intrepid troupe have just finished restoring into a magnificent
Venue - a capital V Venue - and I'm here because I got the message on
the Internet, and the word got around, and we all hooked up in real-time
and real-face - and I knew that he, also, is right, and that I'm so very
glad he is;
...and as Babbs talked, and kept promising to end his speech,
and didn't - probably because he didn't want to turn loose of
our laughter and our shared remembering him back into Being, and
I didn't want him to let the moment go either, so I was secretly
saying "one more story, Babbs...just one more story, and then
I'll go to bed." - because I knew how he felt - how the talking
keeps it all moving, and words can sometimes, sometimes, change
things;
...As long as the words flow, they can be with us - with the
stories comes the presence, the current-cy; the current see-ing
of Spirit - and I could have listened to Babbs all night, and I
told him that, in my mind, that he could always find me and tell
me a story and I'd have fresh ears to help dance the life back
into them again;
...but the most useful, most practical moment that was probably
so clearly in the spirit of the small slice of the Ken that I
know - the guy wants something that's great, and American and
novel (truly, one of the finest authors of the Great American
Novel(ty)!) - was that moment when Babbs reminded all of us
about the definition of a Prank:
a True Prank doesn't hurt.
a True Prank has to illuminate.
a True Prank must be funny...
...a samurai to the end.
*************************
Last year, after I'd finished singing at Chez Ray's one night
while Kesey had been dining, he urged me to just let the poetry
come, to let the sound be its own poem, to let the words be
their own thing - outside of the Song, even - and to trust that
the words in the sound can hold their own, and need no other
justification beyond the fact that they simply are.
It seems true that it might also be that a Spirit is its own
thing - outside of the Body, even - and that the intent and the
dream in the Spirit of Living holds its own, and needs no other
justification beyond the fact that it always will be an intent and a
dream.
Blessings to another light shared amongst the rising rest of us.
cynthia beal
eugene, oregon
http://www.skymind.org
Ed. note: Cynthia is a jazz singer. A real jazz singer. If you ever have a chance to hear her, Hear her... here or here!
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey Paperback - 628 pages (Reprint edition June 1988) Penguin USA; ISBN: 0140045295
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Paperback - 311 pages Reprint edition (August 1977), Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140043128
More Kesey Books
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