"First Annual Interzone Beat Festival" Catalogue (2006)

Desert Hot Springs, California, US: The Beat Hotel / Steven Lowe (exhibition catalog), 2006.
8.5" x 7", 20 pages, stapled wraps.

The catalogue for The First Annual Interzone Beat Festival. This item bears the long title of “A Celebration of the Birthday of William S. Burroughs (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) – The First Annual Interzone Beat Festival at the Beat Hotel, Desert Hot Springs, California, February 4 – March 5, 2006”, and features "Beat Hotel Paris, 1957-1963: Photographs by Harold Chapman", an exhibition of Chapman's photographs, in cooperation with OMC Gallery (Huntington Beach, CA.).

20 pages, including texts by Harold Chapman, Steven Lowe, and Anthony Merchell (in the form of an introduction, a brief overview of the Beat Hotel in Paris, an overview of the Beat Hotel in Desert Hot Springs, bio of William S. Burroughs, a text by Harold Chapman about the Beat Hotel in Paris, and a list of works by Harold Chapman in the exhibition).

The Beat Hotel in Desert Hot Springs operated between 2000 and 2007 as a project of Steven Lowe, a friend and associate of William S. Burroughs, who had assisted him on several projects, most notably in the creation of Cities of the Red Night. Lowe saw the hotel as an incarnation of the hotel in Brion Gysin's The Last Museum, which is moved to Southern California, atop the San Andreas Fault, in the novel.

Steven also ran Casa Sin Nombre, a graphic press and art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

From this catalog: "[The hotel] houses a collection of artwork by William S. Burroughs, including collaborations with Keith Haring and Robert Rauschenberg. The Hotel's art collection contains works by artists who were part of Burroughs' circle, including John Giorno, Lynda Benglis, and George Condo. The hotel also houses a library of works by William S. Burroughs and related Beat authors, including limited and rare editions by Burroughs. There is also an extensive collection of photographs of the Beats by Allen Ginsberg."

Steven Lowe died unexpectedly in 2007; the hotel closed; the estate [located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, US] retrieved and likely sold off its contents; and the hotel itself was put back on the market. Thus, the Interzone Beat Festival was quite short-lived.

This copy of the catalog was acquired from poet Max Blagg, who attended the event and wrote about it in the inaugural issue of Room 100, a Thompson Hotels publication distributed in their rooms.

External Links:

• Palm Springs Life: Winning Retreats (Steven Lowe and The Beat Hotel)
• Palm Springs Life: Desert Hot Springs Motel and Beat Hotel: Steven Lowe Remembered
• Palm Springs Coral Sands: Good-Bye to Steven Lowe, Cultural Preservationist
• YouTube: A (late) view of the hotel