Political theater groups turned venues into contested ideological territory

Evidence

Leaflets floated through the room and were distributed outside: “The Fillmore is Open and FREE NOW. Come join the celebration Now. This leaflet printed in the Fillmore. Demand a free night.” Chaos followed. Graham took the stage and, baited by the Motherfuckers to dig the liberation of his concert hall, melodramatically shouted, “If you want to take this theater by force, you’ll have to kill me first.” Standing serenely beside him, Julian Beck (the man who turned Morea on to anarchism) had been advised of the Motherfucker plan and told the crowd to “take” the theater with love. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1327

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s core thesis about avant-garde scenes becoming markets — here the counterculture directly seizes the venue infrastructure from its capitalist proprietor.