Join Yippie on the Marijuana Trail - Spring/Summer 1978
- Title:
- Join Yippie on the Marijuana Trail - Spring/Summer 1978
- Alternate Title:
- Join Yippie on the Marijuana Trail
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Youth International Party
- Date:
- 1978
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2474.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2474_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1960 - Present
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Other Moral & Social
Politics & Government
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 38 x 53 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This joyful invitation to "Join Yippie on the Marijuana Trail" promotes a schedule of nationwide "Smoke-Ins" scheduled for the Spring and Summer of 1978. It appeared in The Yipster Times ("America's Only National Underground Newspaper"), the semi-official publication of the Youth International Party, and it is evocative of the counter-cultural, prankster, anti-authoritarian activists of the 1960s and 1970s. Other articles in this issue of the Times include "Who Really Killed Malcolm X?," "Jailhouse Rock: How to Survive in Prison," and "How to Cheat Your Ass Off Through Skool."
The birth of the Yippies has been well documented: "On December 31, 1967, Abbie [Hoffman], Jerry [Rubin], Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory, and friends decided to pronounce themselves the Yippies. (The name came first, then the acronym that would satisfy literal-minded reporters: Youth International Party.) They would coax, goose, entice, and dazzle thousands of freaks to Chicago for the August Democratic Convention, create there a 'Festival of Life' against the 'Convention of Death,' a 'blending of pot and politics ... a cross-fertilization of the hippie and New Left philosophies.' In an age of instant panaceas, commercial promises of instant gratification, this was the first instant organization, if in fact it was an organization at all. The underground press as well as the Establishment media, relaying the prophecy, would fulfill it. The myth would 'inspire potential yippies in every small town and city throughout the country to throw down their textbooks and be free.'" Gitlin 1987, 227.
The Yippie movement ("if in fact it was an organization at all") attracted a great deal of attention following the riots in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Hoffman and Rubin were among those later accused of conspiracy and acquitted in the trial of the Chicago Seven. The Yipster Times was founded in 1972, and the Yippie brand continued to be adopted into the 1980s and later by a variety of groups engaged in political activity, particularly anti-war protests and marijuana "Smoke-Ins" like those detailed on this map.
The events advertised for the summer of 1978 were apparently a success. On May 6 in New York, "Chanting 'we want pot,' . . . nearly 2,000 paraders marched up Fifth Avenue" and "hiked the more than 50 blocks from Washington Square Park to Central Park for a 'smoke-in'" featuring protest speeches and music. New York Times, May 7, 1978, p.37. And on July 1 in Washington, "nearly 500 marijuana smokers gathered together at a smoke-in on the lawn between the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool . . . . sponsored by the Youth International Party." Washington Post, July 2, 1978.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Yipster Times, March 1978.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.