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Freedman, whose previous books include “Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius,” writes in a sort of modified hipster patter that fits in well with the Beat poets Dylan once idolized, and whom the author cites as another big influence on the young singer-songwriter.

The non-narrative libretto is by one of our few remaining Beat poets and a treasure of that era, Anne Waldman.

Future exhibition subjects might include gang injunctions, Chicano community histories and Venice Beat poets, he said.

Her father was the head of Berkeley’s Buddhist temple, where the beat poets loved to hang out in the 1950s and 1960s.

But Thompson never doubted his talent and had a voracious appetite for culture in many forms: He consorted with New York’s Beat poets and its free jazz musicians as well as a broad range of artists.