Queer North Beach and Beyond 1930 – 1965

Michael Flanagan will trace the history of queer North Beach from its beginnings to the period in the 60s when the community moved (in large part) to other parts of the city and answer these questions. By reading from the biographies and memoirs of Jack Spicer, Sam Steward, Elsa Gidlow, Allen Ginsberg, James Broughton and Jose Sarria as well as Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 by Nan Boyd and “Robert Duncan in San Francisco” by Michael Rumaker he will recreate a vibrant world which has disappeared and tell the story of how bohemian San Francisco and Beat San Francisco blended (and didn’t) into one another.