The Strip community attracted many of the people considered Freaks in their previous environments. “Let the sun shine in” was the feeling. It was exhilarating and terrifying to be launching out to explore these unknown horizons.  It was still Maddox Georgia but we were all involved in an experiment in living. Gathering together gave a feeling of strength and support even though there were as many paths being blazed as there were people. How do I live my life as I want with my circumstances? Other than a few beatniks and established gays, there were no examples of how to live with the new consciousness. Thus everybody was forced to make it up as they went along – until the media established stereotypes from how folks like that lived. You know, hippies are lazy and dirty and just sit around in a haze. Maybe, at moments, just like every other human does at times.

Turn on to an openness and  awareness of yourself and your place in the universe, tune in to what you really want from living, and drop out of the things that do not serve that objective.

Outward expressions of the new lifestyles were most visible in the changing music and in the art connected with it through posters and album covers.

Psychedelic Music

Psychedelic Art

H.I.P. – Human Improvement Project informally resulted in many human liberation  movements from the women’s movement to gay liberation to gray panthers.

The Message in 2007

Truth and individual freedom. Freedom of expression. Creativity, love and respect for all things. Freedom for an individual to make a choice – sexually, spiritually and socially. The right to be different and still belong. Honor in refusing to fight without judging those who did. Our right to make a difference. Our right to think independently. Our willingness to share with others.  – from website for 40th summer of love reunion in San Francisco

• Diamond Lil

  RIP Diamond Lil 8/10/2016 @ 80 ( a secret no longer kept)

   

  

  Coming into Atlanta from small town South Georgia in 1968 I had never met an openly gay person before and was a bit shocked ...

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• Rupert Fike interview

  There is nothing run of the mill about Rupert Fike.

  His life sounds like a novel starting with the UGA SDS being taken as a joke at the Levitation of the Pentagon in 1967, to The Farm in Tennessee, a still running commune, by way of the Haight and the Saturday class and SNCC. Rupert is ...

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• Charlie Brown interview

  Charlie Brown, Darryl Brooks and some friends came to Atlanta from Chicago. They quickly became part of life around the area. Charlie tells a good tale, so have a listen to Tale of The Chicago Boys.

        All recordings copyright the strip project

  Part 1

  Part 2

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• George Nikas interview

  George was arrested for identifying a narc in Piedmont Park. Meanwhile…There was a police riot.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  We were lucky enough to get George to sit and tell us the story behind his part ...

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• “Acid king” Atlanta Schroder

  From Atlanta and Environs: a chronicle of its people and events; years of change and challenge, 1940-1976:  “In December, though, a ...

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• Bongo Interview

  Bongo, Peter Jenkins, was Atlanta’s digger who fed the masses in Piedmont Park, ran crash pads for transient kids, and mediated between bikers and hippies.

  He has some interesting tales.

   

    All recordings copyright the strip project

  Hello ...

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• Terminus directed by Kelly Morris at the Seed & Feed Theater

  The Great Speckled Bird Oct 31, 1974
  Vol. 7 #44 pg. 8
  Terminus
   
  directed by Kelly Morris at the Seed & Feed Theater

  To be truly great, a theater must bring forth great original works of art, goes the thinking of local director Kelly Morris. By thus promoting his Seed & Feed Theater’s first production ...

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• Kelly Morris fired!

  The Great Speckled Bird Nov. 29, 1971
  Vol. 4 #37 pg. 10
   
  EMORY Politics: KELLY MORRlS FIRED
  Kelly Morris came to Emory two years ago as the first full-time director of the Emory Theatre since 1957. His experience with experimental theatre had been considerable, and he came with a list of credentials ...

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• Feed Your Head

  

  Remember what the dormouse said,  “Feed your head!” 

  

  This meant with all kinds of ideas and thoughts and experiences. Yes, that included smoking marijuana and tripping. using mind altering ...

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• The Twilight Zone

  The Twilight Zone was a communal living group in Doraville.  The kind of place you would never know about unless invited and given a map. They housed horses to ride barebacked and bare-assed and grew lots of things. Great gardens for food. Big corn rows hiding ganja plants between. People from all over ...

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