Political and cultural counterculture events clustered in summer 1962

Evidence

Summer 1962: There are early intimations of the orgy to come. Students for a Democratic Society draft their Port Huron Statement. With help from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), a group co-led by Archie Shepp and Bill Dixon brings Free Jazz to the Eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki. … Lee Harvey Oswald returns from the Soviet Union and the Soviets prepare to send missiles to Cuba. JFK dispatches troops to Ole Miss. The French leave Algeria, Marilyn Monroe (the subject of commercial artist turned painter Andy Warhol’s first one-man show) departs this earth, and The Flower Thief enjoys maximal visibility with a three-week run at the Charles Theater. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 371

Categorization

• XREF: The density-of-invention thesis: avant-garde cultural production coincided with a cascade of political flashpoints — Port Huron, Helsinki festival organized with CPUSA help, Cuba, Ole Miss. This is evidence for the book’s core argument that scene and politics moved together.