Philip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Nanao Sakaki: benefit poetry reading for the people of Suwanose Island, Japan. [poster]

San Francisco: Committee to Save Suwanose. Design: Good Times Grafix; printed by San Francisco Community Press. [1973]. 15x18 inch poster on faint green stock with central motif consisting of the kanji character “Mu,” meaning “nothingness,” a central concept of Zen Buddhism; the names of the poets and of the event are written in a circle around this character in simulated brush strokes. The poetry reading was to be held at Everett Jr. High on Sunday, May 27 of an unnamed year; the words “School yard parking available” have been penned at the bottom, otherwise very good condition, without pinholes. OCLC lists a holding at Brown University, which has estimated its date as 1962. However, since Nanao Sakaki did not come to San Francisco until 1969, the combination of Sunday falling on the 27th and Sakaki’s presence suggests 1973.

Suwanose is a volcanic island of few inhabitants, which is partly why it was selected by Buzoku (“The Tribe”), a Japanese countercultural group, for the location of its commune, the Banyan Ashram. Snyder and others in his circle stayed there and wrote extensively about it. The Committee to Save Suwanose was devoted to protecting the culture of the local people who inhabited the island. A different poster for a Berkeley reading that was part of the same campaign described the event as “A benefit for Suwanose Island defense and planet-wide resistance to the destruction by industrial nations of tribes, farms, and forests.”.

Cat.No: 182964

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