The Coffee Cup

Mark Opsasnick delivers a 90-minute presentation entitled COFFEE, CONFUSION AND JIM MORRISON: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF HIP COFFEE HOUSES AND BEATNIK POETS IN THE NATIONS CAPITAL on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at the Kensington Row Bookshop in Kensington, Maryland. THIS IS PART ONE. This is the live version of Mark Opsasnick's article in the online Beltway Poetry Quarterly washingtonart.com Volume 9, Number 3, Summer 2008 The article is about the emergence of the DC Beats, their hangouts, in particular the coffee house known as Coffee and Confusion, and the entire affect and influence that scene had on rock icon Jim Morrison as he attended high in Alexandria, VA (1960-63). This youtube video chapter covers the nightclub era of 1940s Washington, DC, and the radical transition to rock and roll in the 1950s. For additional information see Mark Opsasnick's book THE LIZARD KING WAS HERE www.amazon.com