I chose the case on The Counterculture in Court, which features two different items. The first is the ninth and twentieth issue of The Floating Bear. This was a newsletter that published Beat writers and was edited by poets Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones. The editors were briefly arrested but eventually won the battle in court to published the newsletter, which prompted the cover of the twentieth edition, saying “Hello Ma, I Glad I Win!” The second feature was of The Love Book by Lenore Kandel. This erotic collection of poetry was seized by police in 1966 for violating obscenity laws. This helped to sell the collection and eventually it was found not to violate obscenity laws, prompting Kandel to donate a portion of profits to the Police Retirement Association, as the lawsuit helped the book succeed. I picked this case because I have always found the role of the courts and law in cultural revolutions interesting, possibly because my father is a lawyer. The idea of defining what is obscene is a challenging question and it was legally decided in 1973 in Miller vs. California, meaning these cases against Beats writers are part of what set the stage for a formal definition. To me, this raises the question of how the Beats movement tied to the larger discussion of obscenity in America at that time. To answer this, I would need to do more legal research, possibly looking more specifically at the actual court cases of Beats writers, as well as cases outside of this movement. This connects with many of the poems we have looked at that focus on social change because at the root, the Beats Movement is challenging the mainstream culture. I was already interested in looking at Alice Walker’s activism through her work, so the entire exhibit was interesting to understand how to go about telling a story about activism, both by framing the social context and the long-term implications of such efforts. Although I will be focusing on one person, not an entire movement, it was a good reminder to try to show diverse examples that focus on various different themes. For the Beats exhibit, this came in the form of discussing topics like the courts, conscientious objection, and how many influential Beats writers came together.