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Black Panther Party, “Petition for Community Control of Police,” 1968. Black Panther Party collection 1965-1998.

Deriving from the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party established themselves in Oakland, California in 1966. A prominent movement of the civil rights era, the Black Panther Party was a counterculture movement where their purpose was to educate and uplift the black community by using words as weapons and unmasking the racism of police agencies. Their genesis began when California attempted to outlaw carrying loaded weapons in public. To which they made sure “to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which [sic] is now considering a legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless.” They retaliated against the police with petitions and anti-establishment propaganda for giving the power back to the people by advocating for the community to gain control over the system. Throughout the party’s existence, they never once took a pause to consider if they would fight for the people; they just did it.

Elizabeth Smart, “A Little Book of Private Information on a Collection of Friends by Anon,” 1940. Raymond Danowski Collection, 1904-2013.

In 1940, Elizabeth Smart hand crafted a guide to San Franciscan Beats for her then friend and future lover George Barker. In it she gives an accounting of some of the people she recommends Barker connect with once he arrives in California. From “kind, alive, and civilized” to simply “over 60,” Smart details both the colorful and the less colorful aspects of her friends in order to paint a full picture of her network for Barker. In addition to her own opinions, Smart includes remarks from two of her friends Yvonne and Adrian. Through creating this collection of both her own and her friends’ remarks, Smart adds to the idea that the Beat Generation — and the definition of the word “beat” itself — was subject to the perceptions of others. By presenting Barker with this book, Smart has chosen who she and her friends should consider to be “beat,” ultimately taking part in the definition hunt that has continued for decades.

Brion Gysin, “Journal,” 1969. Brion Gysin Collection, 1939-1980.

Brion Gysin, the Beat artist perhaps most memorable for inventing the Dreamachine, spent his years traveling the world exploring different cultures, most notably Tangier, Morocco. Hailed as a paradise for members of the Beat Generation, Tangier offered artists and writers an escape from the rigid norms of Euro-Western society, providing social, artistic, and sexual freedom. Beat interaction with Tangier resulted in a dynamic microcosm of artists intent on experiencing the exotic, bestowing foreign lands with mystical properties that oftentimes overlooked the realities of the cultures they toured. In the journal Gysin kept during his time in Tangier, we get powerful lines like: “The [scratched out] is with us; as a little reminder that this is, after all, the great and terrible continent of Africa,” that give us a glimpse of the artist’s intimate impressions of the land.

Allen Brown, “Life and Love Among  the Beatniks,” The San Francisco Chronicle, (22 June 1958)

Allen Brown’s 1958 San Francisco Chronicle article “Life and Love among the Beatniks,” explores the politics of Beatnik sexuality. Brown’s interviewees believe that the women of the scene, view sex as a symbol of subversion against “stuffy middle-class ideas about premarital virginity (5).” But Brown’s article also reveals that attempts to find symbolic and political meanings in sex, often led to the objectification of minorities within the Beatnik community. Gay men were seen as “non-conformists willing to go all the way (6),” and whites pursued interracial affairs with “Negros” in an effort to “wed the primitive (4).” The parodic drawings of self-serious, scantily clad Beatniks that surround the article’s text objectify the movement as a whole by portraying Beatniks as comical, instead of subversive. In its complex representations of Beatnik sexuality, “Life and Love among the Beatniks” illustrates the way society’s subcultures interact with the world at large.

Togrophy. Sleek photo gallery template with tiled home page, individual photo pages, and tagging options. The text on the photo pages appears to the left of the images.

Gridsby. Another pinterest-style, tiled home page template. The photos pages here have text below the images, as the design is meant to highlight a single image at a time.

Magnus. A more dramatic gallery theme featuring zoom effects and a bold look.

Portfolio Gallery. A gallery theme emphasizing roll-over effects and the ability to scroll through strictly images or call up the full case page with image and text.

Hatch. This theme has the plus of a space on the landing page to include an introductory text.

Bibliographic Information using the Heading 3 Style.

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