Alan Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Watts became an Episcopal priest but left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. His influence was felt in Bay Area artistic, cultural and intellectual circles throughout the period discussed on this site. → read…

Allen Ginsberg was a poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. Ginsberg is best known for his epic poem "Howl", in which he celebrated his fellow "angel-headed hipsters" and harshly denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. This poem is one of the classic poems of the Beat Generation; it was debuted in 1955 during a reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, the city where Ginsberg lived and worked. → read…

City Lights Bookstore is an independent bookstore-publisher located at 261 Columbus Avenue, amid the nexus of the North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods of San Francisco. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, who left two years later. Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's influential work Howl and Other Poems (City Lights, 1956). The bookstore was the first to primarily feature paperbound books, and has grown since its founding to become a significant part of San Francisco culture. → read…

Gary Snyder is a poet often associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance, as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His work reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. Snyder has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder served as a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, and he also served for a time on the California Arts Council. Snyder was among the poets who read at the formative Six Gallery reading in 1955, and was portrayed as a key figure in the semi-fiction of Jack Kerouac. → read…

Allen Ginsberg wrote the poem "Howl" in mid-1955, purportedly at a Berkeley coffeehouse known today as the Caffe Mediterraneum. The poem represents a groundbreaking moment in modern literature. Noted for relating stories and experiences of Ginsberg's friends and contemporaries, it moves in a tumbling, hallucinatory style, and includes frank depiction of sexuality, specifically homosexuality, which subsequently provoked an obscenity trial. → read…

Although Jack Kerouac was not a San Franciscan, and spent much of his life outside of San Francisco, he is very often naturally associated with the Beat and bohemian mid-twentieth century lifestyles that are discussed on this site. As stated here, "Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels." Someone unfamiliar with Kerouac but reading a good number of the topics on this site might wonder why he is mentioned so often; a biography here is essential. → read…

Ken Kesey was an author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey led a group of psychedelic and new media advocates known as the Merry Pranksters through a series of "acid tests" in the Bay Area which featured some of the earliest performances of the Grateful Dead. → read…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco. Ferlinghetti is best known for A Coney Island of the Mind (New York: New Directions, 1958), a collection of poems that has been translated into nine languages, with sales of over one million copies. His publication of a collection of poems by Allen Ginsburg in 1955 led to obscenity charges which resulted in a precedent setting First Amendment ruling and brought national attention to the literary culture of San Francisco. → read…

Michael McClure is a poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the Six Gallery reading in 1955. McClure and the other poets reading were rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums. McClure has been prominent in the literary and artistic movements of San Francisco since the 1950s. → read…

Neal Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. Since his death in 1968 his intellect, thirst for truth and hard-driven lifestyle have been celebrated as a legendary part of the San Francisco cultural experience. → read…

Philip Whalen was a poet, writer and Zen Buddhist monk who was also one of the five readers at the famous Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955. Whalen was known for a more apolitical, whimsical style of writing than some of his contemporaries in the San Francisco Rennaisance movement. Although he is associated with the Beats, his practice and teaching in Buddhism are perhaps more indicative of his personal philosophy and writing style. → read…

The poet Kenneth Rexroth is generally considered to be the founding father of the literary movement often called the San Francisco Renaissance. Rexroth was a prominent second generation modernist poet who corresponded with Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and was published in An "Objectivist's" Anthology. He was amongst the first American poets to explore Japanese poetry traditions such as haiku and was also heavily influenced by jazz. → read…

The Ace of Cups was a rock band formed in San Francisco in 1967. Described as one of the first all-female rock bands, the group performed throughout the summer of 1967 on the bill with many of the more well known Bay Area bands of the time. Jimi Hendrix invited the Ace of Cups to be his opening act for a free concert held in Golden Gate Park and gave strong support to the band. → read…

The Beau Brummels were a rock band formed in San Francisco in 1964. They were signed to the new regional record label Autumn Records, where Sylvester Stewart—later known as Sly Stone—produced the group's early recording sessions. The band's musical style blended beat music and folk music with a tinge of blues and typically drew comparisons to The Beatles. The minor key compositions of the Beau Brummels were influential as a basis for the folk rock style that became known as the San Francisco Sound. → read…

Big Brother and the Holding Company was a rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965. They were one of the most prominent bands of the Bay Area music scene throughout the mid-1960s, although they are best known for the period when they featured Janis Joplin as their lead singer. The band was first featured at the Trips Festival, a large scale "Acid Test" promoted by Ken Kesey with the Merry Pranksters. Big Brother was one of the multimedia highlights of the festival at Longshoreman's Hall that was staged with films, product booths, light shows and local music acts in January 1966. → read…

Bill Graham was an impresario and rock concert promoter in San Francisco in the 1960s who became nationally recognized as the leading rock music promoter. After a broken childhood and escape from the Holocaust, Graham emigrated to New York and learned the music business. Moving to San Francisco in the sixties, he promoted charity concerts and then major multi-band performances throughout the city during the peak of the psychedelic era. → read…

Blackburn & Snow were a folk rock duo popular early in the mid-1960s San Francisco music scene. The group consisted of guitarist-singer Jeff Blackburn and vocalist Sherry Snow. The two were active in Bay Area music circles since the early sixties, and became romantically involved in 1965, living together in Berkeley and performing together in local clubs. Their unique vocal harmonies blending folk and country styles with rock were advanced for the times, however their management squandered the chance to issue an album before the duo broke up in late 1967. → read…

The Charlatans were an influential psychedelic rock band during the 1960s and are often cited by critics as being the first group to play in the style that became known as the San Francisco Sound. Exhibiting more pronounced jug band, country and blues influences than many bands from the same scene, the Charlatans’ rebellious attitude and distinctive, late 19th century clothing exerted a major influence on the Summer of Love in San Francisco. → read…

Chet Helms was a Southern Californian who moved to Texas with his mother as a child but returned to the state in 1962, settling in San Francisco. Through associations in the low-rent Haight-Ashbury section of the city Helms became a skillful low-key organizer of dances and concerts. After teaming with the Family Dog communal group Helms soon rivaled Bill Graham as the city's best known concert organizer. Helms was responsible for convincing Janis Joplin to move to the city to join Big Brother and the Holding Company, a group he managed. → read…

Chet Powers, perhaps better known by the stage name Dino Valenti, was a singer-songwriter and a member of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. Having toured as Valenti in the northeast United States in the early 1960s, Powers assumed several pseudonyms, including as a songwriter the name Jesse Oris Farrow. His best-known composition was the 1960s classic "Get Together", performed by the Kingston Trio, featured on the group debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and later a major hit for the Youngbloods. → read…

Country Joe and the Fish was a Berkeley folk rock band now most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War. The group was formed in 1965 featuring vocals by "Country Joe" McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton on lead guitar. Country Joe and the Fish were one of the most prominent bands in the Bay Area during the psychedelic era, and their February, 1967 album Electric Music for the Mind and Body is one of the strongest examples of the musical genre. → read…

The Grateful Dead was a rock band formed in 1965 in Menlo Park, originally as a group called the Warlocks. The band was known for its uniquely diverse style, mixing rock and folk with strong portions of bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz and psychedelia, and for live performances of lengthy musical improvisation. "Their music," writes Lenny Kaye, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." → read…

The Great Society were a San Francisco rock band that existed between 1965 and 1966, and were closely associated with the formation of the Bay Area acid rock scene. Best known as the original group of model turned singer Grace Slick, the initial line-up of the band also featured her then-husband Jerry Slick on drums with his brother Darby Slick on guitar. The Great Society experimented with mid-Eastern and Indian influenced melodies and featured superior original songwriting that set the stage for Grace Slick's later work with Jefferson Airplane. → read…

Janis Joplin was a blues and folk singer from Port Arthur, Texas. After a childhood spent being castigated by peers for her looks and artistic interests, Joplin began signing in Austin clubs. She left Texas for San Francisco in January 1963, living in North Beach and later Haight-Ashbury. Substance abuse eventually took its toll on Joplin who went back to Texas to recover sobriety. In 1966 Chet Helms, manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and a former Texan, persuaded Joplin to return to the Bay Area and join Big Brother, with whom she became known worldwide as a powerful and expressive folk rock and blues singer. → read…

Jefferson Airplane was a rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, the band was led by nightclub owner and songwriter Marty Balin and singer-guitarist Paul Kantner. Jefferson Airplane was already prominent in the city's music scene before Grace Slick joined in late 1966, bringing with her songs from her former band the Great Society. The hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" launched the band into worldwide recognition as standard bearers of psychedelic rock and the San Francisco Sound. → read…

Jerry Garcia was lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead. His interest in mastery of folk and jug band music in the early sixties was shared with among others Phil Lesh, and eventually Garcia led a group of talented Bay Area musicians called The Warlocks. Garcia was also associated with members of the Beat movement including Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey, who hired the Warlocks to play his "acid tests"; the band soon became hugely popular and influential in San Francisco as the Grateful Dead. → read…

The Kingston Trio is a folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. It rose to international popularity, fueled by unprecedented sales of 33⅓ rpm long-playing record albums (LPs), and helped to alter the direction of popular music in the U.S. → read…

The Loading Zone was a soul-influenced Oakland rock band that was a component of many Bay Area rock shows and dances beginning with the Trips Festival in 1966. Although primarily an R&B band that included a horn section, The Loading Zone added contemporary psychedelic influences and soon became a popular attraction of the San Francisco music scene. → read…

Moby Grape is a San Francisco rock band formed in late 1966. The group was conceived by Matthew Katz, a former manager of Jefferson Airplane who had been dismissed by that group. Katz along with former Airplane drummer-turned-guitarist Skip Spence formed a three guitar lineup that received high critical praise, with some critics deeming Moby Grape the best musical ensemble from San Francisco. Marketing blunders and drug use however prevented the talented and acclaimed band from reaching their commercial potential. → read…

Owsley Stanley, also known as Bear, was a prominent and enigmatic figure of the San Francisco Bay counter-culture in the 1960s. His activities spanned the late Beat-era years of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters through the peak of psychedelic culture. Best known simply as 'Owsley' – the LSD "cook" – he was a chemistry savant who was credited with manufacturing over a million doses of the compound. Under the professional name of "Bear", he designed and engineered rock music sound systems, most famously for the Grateful Dead. → read…

Quicksilver Messenger Service was an eclectic rock band formed in San Francisco by singer Dino Valenti in 1965. However, Valenti was jailed on drug charges while the group was being formed and did not perform with his band until years later. With their jazz and classical influences, as well as a strong folk background, the band attempted to create a sound that was individual and innovative. Quicksilver Messenger Service was a frequent performer and prominent act in the Bay Area during the mid 1960s, though they resisted signing a record deal, unlike others who by late 1967 had gained national recognition. → read…

Sly Stone is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. In San Francisco during the mid 1960s, Stone worked as a disc jockey and produced recordings for Autumn Records, including productions for the Beau Brummels and the Great Society. He founded the multiracial band Sly and the Family Stone in San Francisco in 1967; the band played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. → read…

The Sons of Champlin is an R&B influenced rock band formed in 1965 in Marin County. They were named for and led by Bill Champlin, the band's lead vocalist and keyboardist. Throughout the mid-1960s the Sons played alongside many of the more well-known Bay Area acts, adding a jazz and soul influenced rock sound with a horn section to the guitar dominated psychedelic music scene. → read…

The Vejtables were a mid-1960s rock group from Millbrae, a San Mateo County suburban town south of San Francisco. Vejtables lead singer Jan Errico also played drums for the group's recordings, making her one of the relatively few female drummers at the time. They recorded a style of garage folk rock for the Autumn label. → read…

The Whiskeyhill Singers were formed in early 1961 by native San Franciscan Dave Guard after he left The Kingston Trio. Guard formed the Singers as an attempt to return to the Trio's earlier roots in folk music. The group lasted about six months before disbanding. During that short period the group released one album, Dave Guard & The Whiskeyhill Singers. The presence of female lead vocalist Judy Henske resulted in an innovative folk sound. The group recorded a number of songs for the soundtrack of the film How the West Was Won, which received an Academy Award for best soundtrack in 1962. → read…

The Berkeley Teach-in was a three day discussion of the quickly developing Vietnam war, held during late May 1965 at the University of California's flagship Berkeley campus. The event was organized by the Vietnam Day Committee and promoted a strongly pacifist skepticism over the conduct of the war as it was being handled by the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. Several thousand participants attended lectures, speeches and performances by folk musicians. The event was the largest early protest against the Vietnam war, which eventually become widely unpopular. → read…

"Black Friday" is a name used to describe excessive police reaction against student protesters at regional hearings of the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee on Friday, May 13, 1960 at San Francisco City Hall. The HUAC hearings were known for using patriotic rhetoric to drum up opposition against left wing or progressive activities. Students involved in a non-violent sitting demonstration protesting the negative portrayal of academia by the Committee were forcible removed from the rotunda of City Hall by police using fire hoses, prompting condemnation of the Committee and the police reaction. → read…

The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. In protests of unprecedented size prior to that time, students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom. → read…

The Human Be-In was a happening in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park the afternoon and evening of January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol as the center of an American counterculture and introduced the word 'psychedelic' to suburbia. → read…

KPFA is a Berkeley radio station launched in 1949 by the Pacifica Foundation of pacifist Lewis Hill. It became the first station in the Pacifica Radio network and the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States. The groundbreaking listener-oriented programming of KPFA was often controversial. The first interview with anyone from the gay political movement was broadcast by KPFA, as was Allen Ginsberg's ground-breaking poem "Howl" in the 1950s. In 1954 the broadcast by a group of marijuana reform advocates extolling the pleasures of cannabis resulted in the tape being impounded by the California Attorney General. → read…

Mantra-Rock Dance was a musical countercultural event held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. It was organized by followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness as an opportunity for its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to address a wider public, and as a promotional and fundraising effort for their first center on the West Coast of the United States. Several prominent rock bands, leaders of the psychedelic movement and literary figure Allen Ginsberg were among dance participants supporting the Krishna center. → read…

The Six Gallery reading was a poetry reading which occurred on Friday, October 7, 1955, at the Six Gallery, located at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco. At the gathering organized by the eminent poet Kenneth Rexroth, poets Allen Ginsberg, Philip Lamantia, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen each read to a large and enthusiastic audience. While Beat Generation figures Neal Cassady and an exclamatory Jack Kerouac lent support, Ginsberg introduced his important poem "Howl" at the event. → read…

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and Improv actors operating from 1966–68, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics blended a somewhat anarchic desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived. The Diggers were closely associated with and shared a number of members with the avant guard theater group called the San Francisco Mime Troupe. They staged events and concerts, and provided free food and other amenities to the swelling transient population of the neighborhood. → read…

Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The quaint, relatively cheap and underpopulated district became a well-known haven for free thinkers and for counterculture activity as thousands of transient visitors were drawn there to celebrate the music and culture of the city by the summer of 1967. → read…

LSD is an acronym for lysergic acid diethylamide, a psychedelic drug which was first synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938. Hofmann later discovered intense mind-altering effects of the drug. It was cited as a critical development for humanity by author Aldous Huxley by the 1950s and was received favorably, although quietly, by some prominent individuals as a way to greatly increase mental awareness. Through the promotional efforts of Dr. Timothy Leary and author Ken Kesey among others, LSD or "acid" became an essential part of the development of artistic culture in mid-1960s San Francisco. → read…

The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which has performed free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California since 1959. The Troupe does not perform silent mime; rather each year they create an original musical comedy that combines aspects of Commedia dell'Arte, melodrama, and broad farce with topical political themes. Legal fees due to a censorship trial faced by the group in 1965 led to a major charity concert that was the first promoted in the city by Bill Graham. → read…

The Oracle of the City of San Francisco, also known as the San Francisco Oracle, was an underground newspaper published in 12 issues from September 20, 1966, to February 1968 in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of that city. Allen Cohen, the editor during the paper's most vibrant period, and Michael Bowen, the art director, were among the founders of the publication. The Oracle was an early member of the Underground Press Syndicate and served as a centerpiece of news and commentary for the counterculture during its publication. → read…

The San Francisco Sound refers to rock music performed live and recorded by San Francisco-based rock groups of the mid 1960s to early 1970s. It was associated with the counterculture community in San Francisco during those years. The music is primarily folk rock with jazz influences, often incorporating minor key compositions with unorthodox instrumentation and pensive lyrical exploration not found in traditional rock music. In addition, extended improvisation and prominent male-female harmonies in a rock setting were featured. → read…

The Avalon Ballroom is a music venue at 1268 Sutter Street in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco. The space first operated from 1966 to 1968 hosting shows organized by impresario Chet Helms and his music production company, Family Dog Productions. Many of the prominent musical acts of the mid-1960s performed at these shows, which were advertised by highly artistic stylized posters featuring now famous works by Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly and Victor Moscoso. → read…

The Fillmore Auditorium is a historic music venue in San Francisco made famous by renowned promoter Bill Graham. Named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it lies on the boundary of the Western Addition and Pacific Heights neighborhoods. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Big Brother and the Holding Company all performed at the venue, which was heavily booked by Graham in the mid-1960s. → read…

The hungry i was originally a nightclub in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1950. The club featured many well known comedians such as Godfrey Cambridge, Mort Sahl, Bill Cosby, Dick Cavett and Woody Allen and folk musicians the Kingston Trio, We Five and John Phillips' The Journeymen. Barbra Streisand received her first extended residency as a professional at the club. → read…

The Matrix, a renovated former pizza shop, was a nightclub located at 3138 Fillmore Street in San Francisco from 1965 to 1972. The Matrix was opened August 13, 1965 by singer Marty Balin, showcasing Jefferson Airplane, which Balin had put together as the club's "house band." After Balin sold his part of the Matrix, Jabberwock club owner Bill Ehlert hosted Berkeley groups such as Country Joe and the Fish, the New Age, and Blackburn & Snow at the venue. → read…

The Purple Onion is a celebrated cellar club in the North Beach area of San Francisco, located at 140 Columbus Avenue. With an intimate, 80-person setting, the club was a popular influence in local music and entertainment during the Beat era. Entertainers such as Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Phyllis Diller, poet Maya Angelou, and folk musicians the Kingston Trio and the Smothers Brothers all performed at the venue. → read…