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KEARNEY — They sipped lattes in the candlelit cafe as they listened to the words of Jack Kerouac.

Only the hippest kids, dressed in dark clothing and berets, made the scene.

The crowd of hipsters snapped their fingers to show they dug the reading.

“That was crazy, man,” Jennifer Szymanski said.

“I just want to thank all you cool cats and hip chicks for coming out today.”

Although the dark cafe was actually the library, the lattes were actually hot chocolate with marshmallows and the candles were battery-operated, the vibe of the beat culture could still be felt Tuesday during Horizon Middle School’s Beatnik Cafe.

The Beatnik Cafe was organized by Szymanski, an eighth-grade teacher at HMS.

“We wanted to do something that was different and novel and cool,” she said, “to do something the kids would enjoy.”

Every year, the school organizes events to promote literacy. This year’s events all focus on poetry.

The Beatnik Cafe was organized to give students an opportunity to hear and perform poetry.

The beat generation refers to nonconformists in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Beat writers of the time include Kerouac, best known for “On the Road,” Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.

Dressed in their best hipster attire, students arrived at school at 7:45 a.m. for the poetry reading. They ate breakfast pastries and sipped their hot cocoa as Syzmanski introduced the poetry readers.

“Clapping is for squares,” Szymanski said to the students when they arrived. “We’re not squares. We’re beats, and we snap.”

Jeff Gerdes, a poet and English language learner teacher at HMS, read the Kerouac poem. Sixth-grader Chloe Szymanski read “What If” by Shel Silverstein and seventh-grader Griffin Mims read “Sick” by Silverstein. Seventh-graders Jessie Harris, Brenna Noller, Alexis Henry and eighth-grader Sara Bihlmaier also read during the poetry reading.

Other literary events scheduled this year include a visual poetry contest, electronic performance poetry, a Lightning Thief party to celebrate the opening of the “Lightning Thief” movie and a slam poetry assembly.

e-mail to:

sara.giboney@kearneyhub.com