Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

attended (Michael Stern 1), while the alternative media guessed the number at 7,000(Jezer et al 1). Ever the masters of hyperbole, the Yippies themselves claimed that 8,000hippies and activists flooded the station (Hoffman, Revolution 91). In any case, it was anexcellent turn out for an event advertised by paper flyers and word-of-mouth networkingaround New York’s East Village and Lower East Side.The size of the crowd proved that the Yippies’ communication network worked.The East Village hippies came: the youths who shared packed crash pads, dozens to aroom, and endured constant police raids in search of runaways and drugs, the “armies ofspring . . . armed with bells, flowers, beads, kazoos, music, FM radios, pillows, eats, love,peace” (Lennox 2). The radicals were there as well, like the anarchist artists of UpAgainst the Wall, Motherfucker (UATW/MF) who felt that that art should berevolutionary, and that a good way to be radicalized was to suffer police brutality. Theycame armed with firecrackers and cherry bombs, and a grudge against authority. Inaddition to the flocks of hippies and radicals, the actors in this performance, both themainstream and alternative media were there as audience to witness the event:photographer Fred W. McDarrah from the Village Voice, reporters Michael Stern of theNew York Times, Raphael Lennox of the East Village Other, and Martin Jezer of theLiberation News Service.The “armies of spring” came prepared to party and participate. They took theinvitation literally, and brought roller-skates and balloons, food and music. Thealternative media outlet the Liberation News Service reported that “people came to thestation armed with jelly beans, songs, and popcorn” (Jezer et al 1). Colored balloons104