I watched the above online talk and although there was a lot of interesting information and imagery as below,,
There was one part of the talk that was really interesting and relative to my work.
In 1970, Hunter S Thompson, the famous American journalist and author helped to build and run for sheriff in a movement called Freak Power.
Thomson and his friends had seen Aspen begin to be gentrified and in 1970 Thompson ran for sheriff in Pitkin County, Colorado. They wanted to start a party to work against this and the injustices they saw in America.
The local more left wing paper in Aspen was cut and freak power started to develop and print a poster/pamphlet called Aspen Wall Poster. Each issue would contain a poster image to display with articles and content on the back. The content was made by the group but they also asked for submissions for each issue, reflecting their views but also against their views too to create a wide range of conversations and debates.
Aspen Wall Poster was offered as a folded pamphlet, or for a few bucks more you could get it delivered as a rolled up poster in a tube as they knew people would want to display the poster.
As a way to try and stop gentrification, the group pushed for the town to be renamed Ski Fat City so that tourists would not want to visit and change the place.
Will Noonan and Ned Vare also ran for posts in Aspen and Thomas W Benson, who had designed the wall posters, also designed their race posters.
Neds poster design included the tree to reflect the parties ideas about environmentalism, and ideas around Earth Day, which was the first time that this day had happened. Freak Power stood for protecting the environmental growth of the town and protecting it from tourism which was killing the town.
These posters looked at the new voting rights for 18 year olds and focused on encouraging younf people of colour to vote.
Reflecting on my project and work, I think the Aspen Wall Poster has helped me to stay inspired and think about different ways to share information and conversation in the local community.
Link to the freak Power documentary
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