Jerry Cimino carries a torch for the Beat Generation to Henry Miller Library.

The Henry Miller Library knows how to commit to recurring arts programs. (See above.) Although they’re folding up their Big Sur Sound and Story storytelling and audio series of last summer, they’re replace it this summer with something new called Under the Persimmon Tree.

It’s a lecture series, going down 4pm each Sunday from June through September, bringing in the kinds of fascinating writers, artists and thinkers – like Hill Street Blueswriter/producer Jeffrey Lewis and The Rolling Stones photographer Robert Greenfield – that feed into the heady atmosphere the library is known for.

On Sunday, Jerry Cimino, founder of San Francisco’s Beat Museum, will resurrect the spirit of beat figures like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and others. He’ll tell stories, read and show film clips, extolling the passions, principles and prose by these precursors to the hippie movement.

“Johnny Depp has ‘Jack’ tattooed on his arm, and his character in Pirates of the Caribbean is named Jack Sparrow, because of Jack Kerouac,” Cimino says. “You like The Beatles? They changed their name from the Silver Beetles to The Beatles because of the beats. Bob Dylan, he wanted to be Allen Ginsberg.”

Cimino spoke about his museum and its proximity to the legendary City Lights Bookstore, about the psychiatrist who helped Allen Ginsberg transform from a successful advertising exec to a gay counterculture shaman, and the upcoming biggest beat culture gathering in two decades. Go to the Weekly’s Arts & Culture blog for more of the interview. Then go to the persimmon tree for the total immersion.

Under the Persimmon Tree: Jerry Cimino takes place 4pm (“The Beat Generation in America”) and 7:30pm (“This is the Beat Generation”) Sunday at Henry Miller Library, 48603 Highway 1, Big Sur. Free; donations appreciated; RSVP. 667-2574, www.HenryMiller.org