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101.
JOHN SINCLAIR FREEDOM RALLY. Original poster designed by Gary Grimshaw announcing a benefit concert for John Sinclair at the Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 10, 1971.
SIGNED by Gary Grimshaw in the lower right corner. Offset litho. 55.6x43cm. Central colour-tinted photograph of John Sinclair smoking a joint, flanked by marijuana leaves.
Among the participants listed are John Lennon and Yoko Ono (convinced by Jerry Rubin to play at the rally after reading Ed Sanders' poem 'The Entrapment of John Sinclair'), along with Archie Shepp, Phil Ochs, Up, David Peel, and Commander Cody (surprise latecomer Stevie Wonder also performed but isn't listed). Speakers included Rennie Davis, Allen Ginsberg, Bobby Seale, Leni Sinclair, Jerry Rubin, and Ed Sanders.
John and Yoko performed the former's song for John Sinclair, Yoko's feminist rallying cry, 'Sisters, O Sisters', and their protest song against the American penal system, 'Attica State', none of which had been heard before. This now legendary event, dubbed a "political Woodstock" by Jerry Rubin, was Lennon's first concert appearance in America since the Beatles' final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and helped catalyse John Sinclair's release from prison three days later.
Unobtrusive, almost unnoticeable expert conservation to old corner pinholes, o/w Fine.
