“In San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district, young people were seeking a way out of what they saw as the soul-destroying alienation of materialism,” curator Joey Cain says. “They created new art, philosophies, politics, forms of self-expansion, music and relationships. The city already had a dynamic LGBTQ community, and many members saw the developments of the Summer of Love as opening the way to greater liberation.”
“Lavender-Tinted Glasses” tells this story by highlighting the roles of four queers in the making of the Summer of Love: poet Allen Ginsberg, filmmaker Kenneth Anger, philosopher Gavin Arthur and singer Janis Joplin. All of them brought their perspectives as artists, visionaries and sexual outsiders to the uprising; all made a lasting impact on American culture. In addition, the exhibition documents the ways San Francisco’s homophile community responded.
“Lavender-Tinted Glasses: A Groovy, Gay Look at the ‘Summer of Love” opens Friday, April 7, with a public reception from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the GLBT History Museum at 4127 18th St. in San Francisco. Admission is $5.00; free for members. The show runs through September 27. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org/museum.
Alan Ginsberg dancing to the Grateful Dead at the Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park (1967). Photo: Copyright © 1967 Lisa Law.