Yippies - The Art of the Prank

July 21, 2019July 22, 2019

Paul Krassner, RIP

Sadly, my friend Paul Krassner, satirist, activist, comedian, author, and publisher of The Realist, has passed away. Since the 1960s, he was always there for me, as I was for him.

Paul was with me on my Hippie Bus Tour To Queens and was part of my Vietnamese Christmas Nativity Burning in Central Park, both in 1968.

In 1969, he published a photo of himself standing with my Grotesque Statues of Liberty on the back cover of his book How a satirical editor became a Yippie conspirator in ten easy years.

Paul used his voice to draw attention to social injustice, inequality and challenges to our freedom. I’ll miss his satirical wit.

Here’s his full obit in The New York Times (for people who can’t access it).

[Editor’s note: The New York Times covered my Hippie Bus Tour to Queens in 1968 when it happened. Years later, in 1992, they misattributed it to Abbie Hoffman and had to print a retraction. They’ve now done it a second time in Paul’s obit. Paul was one of 60 hippies who accompanied me on the tour (Hippie Bus Tour to Queens Remembered 50 years later! by Joey Skaggs, Artsy.net). I know he’d want to set this record straight.]

Paul Krassner, Anarchist, Prankster and a Yippies Founder, Dies at 87
by Joseph Berger
The New York Times
July 21, 2019

Paul Krassner, right, in 1969 with, from left, Ed Sanders of the rock group the Fugs and Abbie Hoffman. Mr. Krassner helped start the Yippie movement and was the founder of The Realist magazine. Credit The New York Times

He was a prankster, a master of the put-on that thumbed its nose at what he saw as a stuffy and blundering political establishment. Continue reading “Paul Krassner, RIP”

October 25, 2016January 15, 2019

R.I.P. Tom Hayden (1939-2016)

Yippie activist, Chicago 7 defendant, California State Assemblyman, author, publisher, rabble-rouser, and Los Angeles legend Tom Hayden has passed away at the age of 76.

“Prominent Antiwar Activist and Member of the ‘Chicago 7’ Tom Hayden Dead at 76”
by Reuters Staff
The Huffington Post
October 24, 2016

aotptomhayden Veteran social activist and politician Tom Hayden, a stalwart of America”™s New Left who served 18 years in California”™s state legislature and gained a dash of Hollywood glamour by marrying actress Jane Fonda, has died at age 76, according to media reports.

Hayden died in Santa Monica, California, after a lengthy illness, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website.

“A political giant and dear friend has passed,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote on Twitter, adding “Tom Hayden fought harder for what he believed than just about anyone I have known.”

Hayden, who forged his political activism as a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society, which stood at the core of the 1960s anti-war and civil rights movements, was principal author of the group”™s revolutionary manifesto, the Port Huron Statement.

The University of Michigan student ventured into the Deep South, where he joined voter registration campaigns and was arrested and beaten while taking part in the “freedom rider” protests against racial segregation.

Hayden, however, became perhaps best known as one of the “Chicago Seven” activists tried on conspiracy and incitement charges following protests at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges. Read more.

February 5, 2012January 15, 2019

Haight-Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History – Call to Action

From Linda:

Efforts to create the Haight-Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History are underway.

From the IndieGogo fundraising website:

The Haight-Ashbury movement left an undeniable impact upon the world and the reverberations of the psychedelic sixties are still being felt today. Strangely there is no museum dedicated to keeping the history alive and relevant for the millions of visitors who come to San Francisco searching for inspiration and authenticity. A non-profit community supported museum will permanently cement San Francisco as the home of psychedelia. Our intention is for the museum to become an attraction in and of itself that will educate and inspire visitors for generations to come to reinvent the world according to how they want to live.

Watch the video narrated by Peter Coyote…

For more information: Haight Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History or send an email to info @ haightashburymuseum.com.

June 24, 2009January 15, 2019

Krassner: Who’s to Say What’s Obscene

Our friend and Art of the Prank contributor Paul Krassner has a new book coming out:

Yippie founder Paul Krassner still testing limits
by John Rogers, Associated Press Writer
June 22, 2009

Books Paul Krassner Desert Hot Springs, Calif. – He was once a child music prodigy and in the decades since, Paul Krassner has been everything from political satirist to author, editor, anarchist and an advocate for both peace and pornography.

But the title he may favor is one he found buried in his FBI file.

“To classify Krassner as a social rebel is far too cute,” a letter in the file said in response to a favorable magazine interview with the co-founder of the Yippie Party, the group that notoriously disrupted the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “He’s a nut, a raving, unconfined nut.”

So Krassner titled his autobiography “Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut.”

“I figured I might as well make use of it,” says the author, smiling broadly as he sits in the living room of his modest tract home in this sandy, sagebrush-dotted corner of the Mojave Desert on a scorchingly hot morning. On a nearby table is a copy of “A People’s History of the United States of America” by historian and social activist Howard Zinn. Continue reading “Krassner: Who’s to Say What’s Obscene”

May 25, 2009January 15, 2019

Paul Krassner: High Times Profile

A tribute to Paul Krassner, one of our ArtofthePrank.com contributors from templedragon420, the official archives of High Times Productions:

Paul Krassner founded the underground press when he launched the Realist in 1958. He went on to found the Yippies and publish groundbreaking conspiracy research. Today, he writes a monthly column in High Times called “Brain Damage Control.”

Paul Krassner’s Contributions to the Counterculture

thanks Toni