Though it didn’t enter World War I until 1917, the United States produced more posters in support of mobilization and civilian service than any other country. The government established a Department of Pictorial Publicity with 300 artists who were ordered to “draw until it hurts.”
The backlash fifty years later against the Vietnam War included the co-opting by activists of propaganda posters. They substituted anti-military themes, often featuring the slogan, “Make Love, Not War.”
Joan Baez and her sisters Mimi and Pauline posed for a poster challenging the popular notion that refusing to serve was cowardly or unmanly. Their message, that liberated women would have sex with draft dodgers, perhaps recalls the heroine Lysistrata, who organized a chastity movement among Greek wives to force peace negotiations.
What happens when you combine a once-in-a-lifetime voice with an unstoppable, uplifting spirit? Well, that’s easy … you get Joan Baez. Since 1959 Joan’s music has been heard around the globe - pushing for social change, inspiring the down
trodden, and bringing joy. She’s a Push Girl for not only standing up to the forces of repression but also in using her talent to foster hope, beauty, and love.
Tell your friend she’s got a little Joan Baez in her. Reblog now to give her a little push.
New Arrivals: Attractive copy of THE HAIGHT ASHBURY FREE PRESS - VOL.1, NO.1 (1967).
Premiere issue of this short-lived Bay Area underground. Contents include the editor’s thoughts on Haight-Ashbury as the “new Florence,” coverage of the funeral of Hell’s Angel “Chocolate George,” an articles on Joan Baez, the English Hell’s Angels, and panhandling, with a poem by David Gitin.
