Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965–1973
Edited with text by David Jacob Kramer. Text by David Jacob Kramer, Rembert Browne, Melania Gazzotti. Oral histories by John Sinclair, Ishmael Reed, Marjorie Heins, Mariann Wizard-Vasquez, Abe Peck.
A glorious design herbarium of marijuana spot illustrations, drawings, writing, ads and ephemera from the great underground magazines of the 1960s and '70s
The youth uprising now simply known as the Sixties was fed by one of the greatest booms in publishing history. The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) began as a loose confederation of five papers in 1966, and within a few years swelled to over 500 across the world, including Kaleidoscope, International Times and the East Village Other. They "spread like weed,” said the UPS director, weed dealer and eventual founder of High Times Tom Forcade. The metaphor was apt: the UPS spurred the legalization movement, and weed became its totem—and a helpful means for government agencies to crack down on the UPS, since weed permeated UPS pages, with gaps in text crammed with weed-inspired “spot illustrations.” Heads Together collects these drawings, shining a light on lesser-known names in the stoner-art canon, and many who weren’t names at all since no signature was attached. It also compiles guides for growing weed from the period that were treated like contraband by the CIA. Activist-oriented, psychedelic rolling papers are showcased too. As pot now fast-tracks toward legalization in the US and beyond, its once-incendiary status is brought into odd relief. Pot’s contemporary corporate profiteers do not reflect those who fought for legalization, or the Black and Latino populations strategically criminalized for pot well before hippies were targeted and long after. The art in this book speaks to a time when pot was smoked with optimism, as something capable of activating transformation in the face of corrupt and powerful forces.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
LA Weekly
Shana Nys Dambrot
Powerfully demonstrate[s] the effectiveness of art to express the outsider voice, garner and galvanize far-flung communities, and advance and bolster the work of social justice and cultural progress.
New York Review of Books
J. Hoberman
Artfully designed...it’s a spicy version of a late 1960s rag.
Apollo
Fascinating, comprehensive…leafing through its prismatic ephemera can get you a little high.
Different Leaf
Cassidy Anthony
Heads Together serves as a captivating look into the pathway that was etched out for the eventual legalization of weed...shines a much-needed new light on the counterculture movement of the 1960s and ’70s.
Apollo
Todd McEwen
Heads Together is a fascinating, comprehensive chronicle of the magazines and newspapers of pot. Selecting this material must have been a real head-nip for the editor; for the reader, leafing through its prismatic ephemera can get you a little high.
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Thursday, 4/20, from 6–8 PM, MOCA Store at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles presents the launch of Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965–1973, published by Edition Patrick Frey. Join author David Jacob Kramer for an evening of documentary clips from the Underground Press. Also on display will be original grower’s guides from the era and Underground Press publications. Please RSVP here. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965–1973, Edition Patrick Frey’s enlightening 566-page compendium of marijuana graphics from the Underground Press Syndicate during the height of the American counterculture. UPS coordinator and cofounder of the East Village Other John Wilcock writes, “Pot was to become a significant part of the impending youth revolution, corresponding to the black flag of anarchy in the way that it rallied the troops. Even if it began as an act of defiance, it soon became the one thing shared by all sectors of the anti-establishment throughout the Western world. There wasn’t any underground newspaper that I visited—Zurich, Rome, Amsterdam, London, Paris, to name but a few where I wasn’t invited to share a friendly joint, just as we had shared pictures and stories… it was impossible to overestimate how important pot had been as a unifying banner and rallying point.” continue to blog
Featured spreads are from Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965–1973, Edition Patrick Frey’s enlightening 566-page compendium of marijuana graphics from the Underground Press Syndicate during the height of the American counterculture. UPS coordinator and cofounder of the East Village Other John Wilcock writes, “Pot was to become a significant part of the impending youth revolution, corresponding to the black flag of anarchy in the way that it rallied the troops. Even if it began as an act of defiance, it soon became the one thing shared by all sectors of the anti-establishment throughout the Western world. There wasn’t any underground newspaper that I visited—Zurich, Rome, Amsterdam, London, Paris, to name but a few where I wasn’t invited to share a friendly joint, just as we had shared pictures and stories… it was impossible to overestimate how important pot had been as a unifying banner and rallying point.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 7.5 x 9.75 in. / 566 pgs / 300 color / 150 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $77 ISBN: 9783907236543 PUBLISHER: Edition Patrick Frey AVAILABLE: 4/20/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965–1973
Published by Edition Patrick Frey. Edited with text by David Jacob Kramer. Text by David Jacob Kramer, Rembert Browne, Melania Gazzotti. Oral histories by John Sinclair, Ishmael Reed, Marjorie Heins, Mariann Wizard-Vasquez, Abe Peck.
A glorious design herbarium of marijuana spot illustrations, drawings, writing, ads and ephemera from the great underground magazines of the 1960s and '70s
The youth uprising now simply known as the Sixties was fed by one of the greatest booms in publishing history. The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) began as a loose confederation of five papers in 1966, and within a few years swelled to over 500 across the world, including Kaleidoscope, International Times and the East Village Other. They "spread like weed,” said the UPS director, weed dealer and eventual founder of High Times Tom Forcade. The metaphor was apt: the UPS spurred the legalization movement, and weed became its totem—and a helpful means for government agencies to crack down on the UPS, since weed permeated UPS pages, with gaps in text crammed with weed-inspired “spot illustrations.”
Heads Together collects these drawings, shining a light on lesser-known names in the stoner-art canon, and many who weren’t names at all since no signature was attached. It also compiles guides for growing weed from the period that were treated like contraband by the CIA. Activist-oriented, psychedelic rolling papers are showcased too. As pot now fast-tracks toward legalization in the US and beyond, its once-incendiary status is brought into odd relief. Pot’s contemporary corporate profiteers do not reflect those who fought for legalization, or the Black and Latino populations strategically criminalized for pot well before hippies were targeted and long after. The art in this book speaks to a time when pot was smoked with optimism, as something capable of activating transformation in the face of corrupt and powerful forces.
