The Theater Is in The Street: Politics and Public Performance in 1960s America

Acknowledgments

xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank Hollis Watkins, Charles Neblett, Bernard LaFayette, Bernice Reagon, Leslie Jones, and Reebee Garofalo for their information on the Freedom Singers . Tom Walker contributed unstintingly to the Living Theatre chapter and has provided consistently generous friendship over the years. Judith Malina, Hanon Resnikov, and Mark Hall Amitin have given their insights and guidance as well. Nicole Wills, Arthur Lisch, and Shelly Muzzy shared their remembrances for the Diggers chapter. Jon Hendricks, Irving Petlin, Leon Golub , and Lucy Lippard all were gracious with their time and thoughtful with their responses regarding the Art Workers Coalition and the Guerrilla Art Action Group. This project benefited from the advice of a group of colleagues in the academic world on whose mentorship I have come to rely. First and foremost, Bruce Schulman helped me conceive of this project, provided sustaining enthusiasm , and patiently responded to every request for help—requests that came early and often. Lois Rudnick encouragingly spurred me to embrace the nuanced implications of my topic. Alexander Bloom, Patricia Hills, Jill Lepore , Joe Urgo, Judy Smith, Cheryl Boots, Sarah Junkin, Barbara Tischler, and David Farber all read various portions of the text and contributed salient insights. The Boston University Americanists also helped me think through the project in its early stages. The staffs of Boston University’s Mugar Memorial Library, Bryant College’s Douglas and Judith Krupp Library, especially xii Acknowledgments Colleen Anderson and Paul Roske, and the California Historical Society patiently indulged my research queries. Ivan Bernier and Samantha Khosla assisted this project with expert clerical and administrative help. Janet Mesick’s research assistance turned up key documents for the Diggers chapter. I am grateful to the Boston University Humanities Foundation, whose Clarimond Mansfield Award helped subsidize early phases of this project, as well as Boston University’s American and New England Studies Program for its support over the years. My editor at University of Massachusetts Press, Paul Wright, patiently fielded my numerous questions and provided invaluable help in bringing this project to fruition. Managing editor Carol Betsch was equally helpful and generous in the final stages of the project, and the manuscript benefited greatly from Joel Ray’s rigorous copyediting. I wish also to thank Thomas LeBien, an editor with whom I didn’t end up collaborating but who nevertheless read the manuscript, offered valuable advice, and introduced me to important publishing world realities. It was great to revive an old friendship, especially with someone of such obvious wit and talent. There are several family members without whom this project would not have been possible. My parents, Gary and Elizabeth Unger, and my motherin -law, Joan Abrames, have been supportive in as many senses of the word as one can imagine. My children, Jackson, Hazel, and Harry, are inspiring in innumerable ways on a daily basis. Finally, my wife, Heather, enabled this project at the most fundamental level; without her patience, tolerance, and encouragement its completion would have remained only a distant prospect. THE THEATER IS IN THE STREET ...