Tag Archives: Harry Crews

Remembering the Be-Ins at Willowbranch Park

Posted on July 24, 2021 | 1 comment

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For the briefest of moments, it was the most magical time, wild yet somehow innocent. The be-ins at Willowbranch Park in the late ’60s featured a broil of young musicians, out of which rose the Allman Brothers Band. The be-ins meant long hair, beads and tie-dye, hippies walking barefoot through Riverside, cheap rent in old mansions, but more than anything, they meant music.

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Tagged Abe Livert's, Allen Facemire, Allen Ginsberg, Allman Brothers, Allman Brothers Band, Allman Joys, Andy Aledort, Baba Ram Dass, Be Here Now, be-ins, Berry Oakley, Blues Messengers, bottle club, Boz Scaggs, Butch Trucks, Byron Colley, Cedar Hills Armory, Charles Manson, Charlie Faubion, Comic Book Club, Dale Betts, Dave Goddard, Derek Trucks, Dickey Betts, Donna Goddard, Donna Roosman, Duane Allman, Easy Rider, Euclid Street, FAME Studios, Five Points Jacksonville, Forest Inn, Friendship Fountain, Fuzzy Land, Gary Goddard, Gray House, Gray House Riverside Avenue, Green House, Green House Riverside Avenue, Greenfield Stables, Gregg Allman, Guitar World Magazine, Harley Bryan, Harry Crews, Hombre Price, Hour Glass, Human Be-In, Jacksonville Armory, Jacksonville at the Roots of Southern Rock, Jacksonville Beach Auditorium, Jacksonville Beach Coliseum, Jacksonville Woman's Club, Jaimoe, James Land, jaxpsychogeo, Jefferson Airplane, Larry Reinhardt, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lenny Renzler, Leonard Renzler, Linda Miller, Linda Miller Oakley, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshmallow Steamshovel, Michael McClure, Michael Ray Fitzgerald, Muscle Shoals, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Paul Glass, Philips Highway, Randy Scott, Ray Odum, redneck rock, Reese Wynans, Rhino Reinhardt, Richard Price, Roosevelt Mall, Sandspur Park, Second Coming, Sherri Wildstein Meadows, Southern Rock, Sugar Bowl, Summer of Love, The Forum, The Load, The Scene, Tim Gilmore, Tim Swanson, Twin Hills Civic Assocation, Ugly Jelly Roll, Wapaho Aspirin Company, WAPE, Watoma, Whiskey a Go Go, Willow Branch, Willowbranch Be-Ins, Willowbranch Park, Woodstock Youth Center

Harry Crews’s Childhood Nightmare Northside

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The novelist Harry Crews chronicled how Jacksonville imported desperation from half the state of Georgia. It offered hope, but required human sacrifice. First coming to Jax when his stepfather-uncle aimed a rifle at his mother’s head, Harry lived in half a dozen houses across the Northside, all of which his family called “the Springfield Section.” When Harper Lee read Crews’s second novel, she said William Faulkner had come back to life.

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Tagged " E.E. Cummings, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, Abraham Joseph, Andrew Jackson High School, Bacon County Georgia, Biography of Harry Crews, Blood Bone and Marrow, Drew Mansion, Erskine Caldwell, Fairfield, Florida Gothic, Franklin Street Baptist Church, Grit Lit, Harper Lee, Harry Crews, Historic Springfield Jacksonville, Hoyett Crews, Jacksonville Northside, jax psycho geo, Jeeter Lester, Junior Lister, King Edward Cigars, Klutho Apartments, Klutho House, Leland Lister, Myrtice Crews, Naked in Garden Hills, New Springfield, North Jacksonville, Okefenokee Swamp, Paschal Crews, Phoenix, Phoenix Avenue, Public School no. 8, Ray Crews, Scar Lover, Southern Gothic, Springfield, Swisher and Son, Ted Geltner, Tim Gilmore, Tobacco Road, University of Florida, white flight, William Faulkner

Jax Zoo (For Harry Crews, Jiggs and Gandai)

Posted on September 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

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In Harry Crews’s 1992 novel Scar Lover, the Jax Zoo becomes the scene of Southern Gothic anti-epiphany. For years, descriptions of the zoo in the news sounded hardly more pathetic than in Crews. If what happened to Jiggs seems unforgiveable, maybe, hopefully, the baby gorilla named Gandai can offer us all redemption.

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Tagged " E.E. Cummings, "A Day at the Zoo, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, Andrew Jackson High School, Angel Dust, Bacon County Georgia, Beth Reese Cravey, Bulera, Colo the Gorilla, Columbus Zoo, Doug Dean, Enoch Emery, Flannery O'Connor, Gainesville Florida, Gandai, Hans Tanzler, Harry Crews, Hazel Motes, J.J. Vitale, Jack Meyer, Jacksonville Florida, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Zoo, James Savoy, jaxpsychogeo, Jiggs the orangutan, King Edward Cigars, Kumbuka, PCP, Pete Butcher, Peter Lipkovic, Phencyclidine, Russell-Barton Film Co, Scar Lover, Swisher and Son, Taulkinham Georgia, Tim Gilmore, Trout River, Turlington Hall, University of Florida