Research Catalog

The Invisible Circus : a 72 hr environmental community happening

Title: The Invisible Circus : a 72 hr environmental community happening / sponsored by the Diggers, Artists Liberation Front, Glide Foundation ; Glide Church, Taylor at Ellis, Friday 24, 8 P.M.
Publication: [San Francisco, Calif. : s.n.], c1967

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Still image	Permit needed	Berg Coll+ Counterculture Diggers I58 1967	Schwarzman Building - Berg Collection Room 320

Details

Additional Authors

Description

1 poster : col. ill.; 36 x 51 cm.

Summary

Broadside for a Digger-sponsored event, with psychedelic design featuring circus motif. Text, printed in red, yellow and blue on white paper, surrounds a central illustration of a tiger. Poster copyright 1967 by Dave Hodges.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Posters – California – San Francisco – 1967.

Note

The Diggers were an anarchist, guerrilla, street-theater group in San Francisco, 1965-1973, which inspired a sister group in London. They took their name from the mid-17th-century English Diggers (and Levellers)--revolutionary Utopians who exploited the dislocations of the Civil War to promulgate their vision of a propertyless, classless society. The most famous services provided by the San Francisco Diggers were distributing free food every day in the park, and their Free Stores, in which everything (clothing, tools, books, etc.) was free. The Diggers coined various slogans that became popular in counterculture circles and soon after in society at large. The best known of these are "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life."
Advertises one of San Francisco's most notorious counter-culture "happenings," sponsored by the Diggers and held at the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco in February 1967. Though not mentioned in the poster, the program featured music by the Orkus'tra, and poetry readings by Lenore Kandel and the Beat poet Michael McClure. In addition to the free food supplied by the Diggers, liberal quantities of LSD were consumed by the participants. Various incidents of sexual exhibitionism occurred without repercussions, but in the event's eighth hour, around 2:00 a.m., an outraged church vestryman telephoned a superior to report having witnessing a couple engaged in cunnilingus on the church altar; two hours later church officials canceled the event and evicted the participants.
Glide Memorial Church, established in 1929, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In the mid-1960s it became a favorite venue for counter-culture events. Taylor and Ellis are the cross streets of the Church's location. It was here that the Artists Liberation Front had held one of the first Free Fairs in the fall of 1966.
"[Novelist and poet] Chester Anderson and [his protégé] Claude Hayward brought the Gestetner equipment that constituted the free printing presses of the Communication Company, and set up shop in one of the church offices. From there, they issued bulletins and news flashes every few minutes."--From the website of the Digger Archives, http://www.diggers.org/diggers/incircus.html

Access (note)

Restricted access;

Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture Diggers I58 1967

OCLC

38256358

Title

The Invisible Circus : a 72 hr environmental community happening / sponsored by the Diggers, Artists Liberation Front, Glide Foundation ; Glide Church, Taylor at Ellis, Friday 24, 8 P.M.

Imprint

[San Francisco, Calif. : s.n.], c1967 (San Francisco : Bindweed Press)

Access

Restricted access; request permission from holding division.

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Added Author

Barnum, David. Artist

Diggers (San Francisco, Calif.)

Artists Liberation Front.

Glide Foundation (San Francisco, Calif.)

Glide Memorial United Methodist Church (San Francisco, Calif.)

Research Call Number

Berg Coll+ Counterculture Diggers I58 1967

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