A single janitor could sustain an entire one-man counterculture in 1960

Evidence

A one-man counterculture, Tyler published manifestos and editions of his oversized woodcut prints, hawking them from the “bookbarrow” wheeled out each day and positioned in the tiny Judson Church courtyard. In addition to the Uranian Press, Tyler organized the Uranian Alchemy Players, a group he characterized as “ ‘Old Bohemians,’ shell shocked Vets, beatnik dopers, hustlers & street people” who liked to smoke pot and improvise what Oldenburg recalled as anti-music using “various instruments in all the ‘wrong’ ways.” Often timed to coincide with “planetary occurrences,” these lengthy stoned jams were convivial, ceremonial, and sometimes performed at the Judson. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 126

Categorization

• XREF: Evidence for the cheap-rent conditions argument: a building janitor publishing manifestos and running performance troupes out of a near-derelict building on Avenue D.