on beat poetry night

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar
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I watched a film 'Big Hero 6', an animation about a genius about Robots.

The kid, though very smart, isn't very much interested in studying,
gets involved in gambling - robot fighting,
and he and his brother get arrested by the police while doing that.

Their aunt rushes to the police station where they were detained and gets them out.
On their way home, she begins to tell these trouble makers off.

"What were you two knuckleheads thinking?
For 10 years, I have done the best I could to raise you.
Have I been perfect? No.
Do I know anything about children? No.
Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably!
I had to close up early because of you two felons.
On beat poetry night."

I could figure out all of what she said but one part : beat poetry night.
What could be it possibly be?

I tried to get some clues from dictionaries, which wasn't helpful.
Could I expect some comments, please?

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View best answer, chosen by SMickey

@SMickey,

There was a social-political movement, called the Beat Generation which occurred right after WW II, just before the hippy movement (pre-1965), called beatniks. These non-conformist, pacifist groups of people would collect at coffee houses and recite poetry, accompanied with bongo drums, to their dark, nihilistic poetry. That poetry was called 'beat' (bongos punctuated the recitation).

Leading beat poets who were popular were Ferlinghetti and Alan Ginsburg. Kerouac, author, was quite popular then and wrote hugely popular best-sellers On The Road and Dharma Bums.

"Beat poetry evolved during the 1940s in both New York City and on the west coast, although San Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950s. The end of World War II left poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso questioning mainstream politics and culture."

So, beat poetry night might be a night that a group of poets or would-be poets get together and socialize, reciting free-form poems to each others..sort of like amateur night.

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@Ragman,

So, the phrase has some historical background.
I see. Thank you so much for the explanation.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

That poetry was called 'beat' (bongos punctuated the recitation).

I've also heard it said that beat was a contraction of beatitude.

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@izzythepush,

I looked up the dictionary and it says beatitude has something to do with blessings God gave us. I had no idea. Thanks.

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@izzythepush,

I believe you're also correct.

The definition I've seen is that a beatitude is a proverb-like proclamation, without narrative, "cryptic, precise, and full of meaning."

The term beatitude comes from the Latin noun which means "happiness
Each Beatitude consists of two phrases: the condition and the result.

So in answer to the OP query is that it is about a certain style of poetry session.

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@Ragman,

Like gays have done, the beats may have tried to transform a word into something with a whole new meaning. But, for the population at large, a "beatnik" was simply "beat" (in the sense of beatdown, discouraged, dropping out, etc.). In the terminology others (and often they, themselves) used to refer to them, the "beat generation" were nihilists disillusioned by WWII, "mainstream" cultural values, etc. That had given up on, and "quit," society (or so they thought).

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