Angels of Light

[San Francisco]: Free Theatre / [Free Print Shop], [1970]. Xerox. 8 1/2 x 11 in. Very good. Item #7265

Flyer from the Angels of Light, the Free Theatre troupe from the Sutter Street Commune that hosted the Free Print Shop and distributed Kaliflower, the inter-communal weekly newsletter.

Various members of the Cockettes had split from the group after the Cockettes began to charge admissions for their wildly popular shows. These members in exile coalesced around Hibiscus, one of the original members of the Cockettes, who devoted his energies to founding the Angels of Light, an anarcho-drag theater troupe part of the Free movement started by the Diggers, a hugely influential radical activist and theater collective.

Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris II) moved to California with the Beat generation writer Irving Rosenthal in 1969 to live in the Sutter Street commune. He is perhaps most well known as the subject of iconic photograph at the Pentagon protest, placing a flower in the muzzle of a soldier’s rifle. Influenced by the likes of The Living Theatre and Jack Smith, Hibiscus pioneered a new breed of hippie drag performance utilizing elaborate costumes, glitter, and a mix of decadent Orientalist fantasy and show tunes.

Price: $350.00