DEEP DIVE is series of blog posts, dialogues, wonderings, and archival research into the history & culture of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s, and the queer & counterculture communities that flourished there. These posts are the product of nearly 6 months of research and conversations, including oral history interviews & correspondences with Joey Cain, Michael Sumner, David Weissman, Jim Siegel, Fayette Hauser, Peggy Casserta, and Mike Caffee; books such as Smash the Church, Smash the State! The Early Years of Gay Liberation (Tommi Avicolli Mecca); Flower Power Man (Mary Lou Harris, Jayne Anne Harris, Eloise Harris); I Ran Into Some Trouble (Peggy Casserta); films such as The Cockettes (David Weissman, 2002) and Pickup’s Tricks (Gregory Pickup, 1973); and many more organizations, friends, and resources too numerous to name. These posts, we hope, will serve as companion pieces to our show as well as rooting our work in its rich historical context.
Author: Jax Blaska, a San Francisco-bred, East Coast-baked theatremaker and teacher now based in Oakland, and the research & production assistant on Out of Site: Haight-Ashbury. I hope you enjoy. Yours in creative solidarity and ongoing queer liberation, Jax.