Queen’s University Belfast, 28 July 2017
The Summer of Love was not simply an American phenomenon but an occurrence with international and intercultural influence and significant social and political effects, transforming the ways in which the counterculture, intergenerational relationships, class, gender, and race are understood. Thousands of young people ventured to the Bay Area, particularly the Haight-Ashbury district. The media’s coverage of the influx of students, hippies, and others considered part of the “counterculture” drew national and international attention.
This event will consist of a strong arts and entertainment component. Local artists from Belfast will display their original works, a screening of a countercultural film at Queen’s Film Theatre will take place, and the day will conclude with a special after-party with retro music and drinks at one of Belfast’s popular clubs.
Topics will include:
– Vietnam and the student protests; the New Left; Students for a Democratic Society; Hippies, Yippies, and Diggers
– Timothy Leary; psychedelia and drug culture
– Deviance; intergenerational conflict; youth alienation; Free love and the sexual revolution
– Freaks, bikers, communes, cults, and other marginal groups
– San Francisco rock, folk music, protest songs, and experimental music; Bob Dylan; the Beatles (particularly Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); Jimi Hendrix; the Grateful Dead; music festivals
– Independent and cult films; the Hollywood Renaissance
– Civil disobedience, riots and race relations; the Black Panthers; the feminist movement
– Eastern religion; the New Age movement; mysticism
Call for Art
Works of art—oil paintings, watercolors, charcoals, prints, etchings, photographs, etc.—are requested for part of the Summer of Love art exhibit. Protest art, photographs representing alternative lifestyles, psychedelic or experimental works, and other subversive counterculture creations are especially desirable.
Please email an image of your work to plederer01@qub.ac.uk.
The deadline is May 1, 2017. Results will be announced by June 1.
The event will take place in the Peter Froggatt Center at Queen’s University Belfast. A vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch will be served.