July 26th 1966 (This day in history)

The Artists Liberation Front holds a meeting at the Fillmore at 8pm.

In 1966 a group of San Francisco artists formed an organization for mutual support and direct action against the arts establishment. They called themselves the Artists Liberation Front, a name that reflected their opposition to the United States involvement in the war in South Vietnam, where the Communist insurgents called themselves the National Liberation Front. Rarely do artists collaborate; even more rarely do they collaborate with a political purpose. This synthesis produced far-reaching effects for the growing counterculture.

We can trace the tradition of avant garde, bohemian arts in the Bay Area back to Gold Rush days; more directly, a signal impulse happened in October, 1955, at a poetry reading in San Francisco at the Six Gallery. Allen Ginsberg read a new poem, now-famous, "Howl." This event signaled the beginning of a new movement, the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. As Tuli Kupferburg put it, "Beat poetry threw art back into the eyes, the ears, the faces, the bodies of the people. It took type off the page and once again reading out loud to live audiences started in coffee shops, later expanding to college campuses, churches, parks, etc."

 

I attended a poetry session from one of the original San Fran beatniks in St Ann's Well cafe in Great Malvern in 2005. He was a friend of Jack Kerouac and told some stories about him.

 

cool