Depp scoops prestige Beat award

A Hollywood star of major standing and an actor and musician with a long-held affection for Kerouac and his literary partners is named lifetime poet laureate

SOME MAY SEE him as a James Dean for our times, a rebel without a cause. Or a latter-day Brando, delivering compelling dramatic performances on screen. Or a celluloid Keith Richards, as at home with plugged-in Fenders in his band Hollywood Vampires as he is with movie cameras. But actor and musician Johnny Depp, for all his bravura and swagger, has also been a man haunted by his own demons.

Yet, when the US-based National Beat Poetry Foundation announced last week that Depp is to become a Lifetime New Generation Beat Poet Laureate, there seemed to be a certain logic to that decision. For, in the life he leads and the art he makes, in the acclaim that bolsters his celebrity and the controversy and criticism that dog his reputation, there is something akin to the experiences, the volatile reception, endured by the original Beat Generation members in their 1950s heyday.

And more than that: the Kentucky-born actor has exhibited a lifelong interest in and affection for the Beat writers, revealing that attachment in various ways over his career. As Debbie Tosun Kilday, founder of the National Beat Poetry Foundation, points out: ‘Johnny Depp has been interested in the Beats and the Beat movement since he was 15 years old and was given the Jack Kerouac book On the Road.’

Tosun Kilday, of the Connecticut-based body, adds: ‘Depp later took a role in the movie The Source where he played Kerouac in the film. He also has videos on YouTube reciting Jack Kerouac’s poetry and prose. And he became friends with Allen Ginsberg a few years before his death to try to gain inside information as to what the Beat movement was.’

She continues: 'Johnny Depp has always been a fan of Kerouac and his wider writing. Besides On the Road, he also particularly liked Kerouac’s book, The Dharma Bums. Through the years, Depp has always continued his interest in the Beats, buying Jack Kerouac memorabilia when it came to auction.’

The National Beat Poetry Foundation was launched by Tosun Kilday in 2015. She felt determined to raise ‘renewed interest in the original Beat movement, with the hope, determination and passion to bring a different perspective on how people viewed Beat poets.’

Its awards to poets in the US and internationally have helped to promote the foundation’s activities and give credit to writers associated with the Beat tradition, carrying the original movement’s messages and aims into the 21st-century. Depp will accept his own prize at the National & International Beat Poetry Festival 2022 awards ceremony to be held in September.

Tosun Kilday, who has always been particularly drawn to Kerouac’s spontaneous prose style, has particular goals in mind for her organisation. ‘I want to bring all different people, from all over, with different backgrounds, together through their expression of poetry, art and music, and change the negative views of the past into a positive image.’

She adds: ‘Only through co-operation, inclusiveness, respect and growth will there be positive changes to the world. We are a new generation of Beat poets. The freedom to express through our writing, words, music and art brings a voice to all as we keep evolving.’

Further, she has been an admirer of Johnny Depp for many years, moved by stories of him taking time away from his busy schedule to visit children’s hospitals, ‘bringing some laughter and joy to children facing dread and deadly diseases.’

‘He has also given huge donations to the hospitals he visits to ensure these children get the best care possible.’ To her, his actions speak of the type of person Depp is, ‘a caring and compassionate man’.

How did the NBPF manage to engage with Johnny Depp to share this invitation? She explains: ‘The current US Beat Poet Laureate Ron Whitehead knows him and has collaborated on music projects with him and was able to make contact.’ Tosun Kilday told the actor she would like to ‘welcome him into her family of new generation Beat writers, poets, artists, and musicians.’ Depp is, she says, ‘happy to be accepting the award’.

Had the recent court hearings involving the actor had been any source of consideration as her organisation made its decision about the award? She comments: ‘The recent trial defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has nothing to do with the Beat movement, Beat poets, or the family of new generation of Beats that we are continuing to grow.’

Note: You can find out more about the National Beat Poetry Foundation by visiting its website here: http://nationalbeatpoetryfoundation.org