Art, Music & Aquarius - Block Museum Opening Day Celebration of "William Blake and the Age of Aquarius"

In the summer of 1967, more than 100,000 young people streamed into San Francisco to celebrate peace, love, and music. Many of the artists, poets, and musicians associated with the “Summer of Love” embraced the art and ideas of British visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827). Blake’s protests against the conventions of his day were inspirational for many young Americans disillusioned by social uniformity, materialism, racial and gender discrimination, and environmental degradation. From the 1940s through the 1960s, some 200 years after his birth, Blake became a model of non-conformity, self-expression, and social and political resistance.

On September 23, 2017 more than 1000 guests came to the Block Museum at Northwestern University to celebrate the imaginative spirit that unites Blake and the Age of Aquarius.The audience made original prints with Chicago-based print collective Spudnik Press, followed their muse with typewritten Poems While You Wait, grooved to WNUR DJs and took part in Old Town School of Folk Music "Counter Culture Jam Sessions with Jimmy T & Mary Peterson."

Video by Ian Vecchiotti