Pubdate: Mon, 07 Oct 2013
Source: Michigan Times, The (MI Edu)
Copyright: 2013 The Michigan Times
Contact: http://www.themichigantimes.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.themichigantimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4909
Author: Hiba Dlewati
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/John+Sinclair

JOHN SINCLAIR: MUSIC, POETRY, MARIJUANA

Poet, activist, writer and University of Michigan-Flint alumnus John
Sinclair paid the school a visit on Wednesday Sep. 25, introducing
himself to a new generation and answering questions for the older one.

Sinclair took the audience back to the 60s and 70s, talking about the
first few steps he took that would shape the rest of his life. Looking
around the lecture hall, Sinclair laughed and said it was good to be
back on campus so many years later and first of all, still be alive,
and also to see how much the institution had grown.

As a freshman, Sinclair dropped out of Albion College, his main reason
being the segregated environment in his fraternity, and moved back to
his hometown in Davison. He then enrolled in UM Flint, citing the
urban feel as his main reason for choosing the campus.

In Flint, Sinclair studied poetry like the works of Allen Ginsberg,
worked in a record shop and frequented the jazz scene. Attendees
nodded in recognition at the names of places in Flint that Sinclair
frequented decades ago, some that have since then changed or closed.

"All the things I became in life, were rooted here...jazz, music,
poetry, marijuana," Sinclair said.

Sinclair moved on to the next and perhaps better known phase of his
life; Detroit.

Down in Detroit, Sinclair started performing and publishing, as well
as becoming an activist while still on probation, something he
referred to as "not the smartest move". He was leader of the White
Panthers, an anti-racism group that tried to assist the Black Panthers
in the Civil Rights movement.

Sinclair was also involved in the struggle for legalizing marijuana,
and was convicted many times for possession leading up to his famous
arrest. According to Sinclair, the police in Detroit harassed him and
his friends not only because of drugs, but also because of the
activism they were involved in.

"For us as hippies, we fled Detroit in May 1967 to Ann Arbor where
they only had 10 police cars...Now we wanted to be bad, but it was
shocking how much they (the police) believed us. We were a rock and
roll band, what were we going to do, make someone dance?" Sinclair
said.

At the mention of the 1971 "John Sinclair Freedom Rally", a rally held
after two years of Sinclair's imprisonment and sentenced to 10 years
of prison for offering an undercover cop two joints, Sinclair shrugged
it off. He said while he was grateful that he was set free three days
after the famous rally attended by many famous artists like John
Lennon, Yoko Ono and Stevie Wonder, it wasn't his work. Sinclair
encouraged attendees to look at his own works, including his online
radio station FreeAmsterdam.com, adding, "people only know my name
because Lennon wrote a song about me."

Sinclair read a few of his own poems out loud to the audience, and
then started to answer questions. The two faculty members seated next
to him in order to ask questions didn't get a chance to; the audience
had plenty of their own.

When asked why hippies had stopped being hippies, Sinclair pointed out
that their main goals had been to get rid of Nixon and end the Vietnam
war. When both those goals were met, they weren't sure what to do
anymore, especially after 1973 when gas prices doubled overnight.

"The economy shrunk and everyone had to conform with it, because you
need to eat," Sinclair said.

The conversation meandered from Malcolm X, who Sinclair referred to as
the "greatest guy in America", to Hurricane Katrina to Occupy Wall
Street and modern day music.

"You used to have the music to carry you forward, to sustain you, but
now you have these minstrels," Sinclair said.

Sinclair advised attendees to just turn off the TV if they wanted to
have any thoughts of their own, and added that he doesn't watch TV at
all because the "box" shapes the minds of people. He did, however
appreciate the works of Michael Moore, adding, "I wish Hollywood was
Michael Mooresville."

As for his activism in marijuana, Sinclair still writes for the
Michigan Medical Marijuana Report.

"I think all use of marijuana is medicinal, we live in a sick societal
order," Sinclair said.

Some of the attendees were there for a class, and Brittany Newland, a
junior majoring in elementary education was one of them. Newland said
Sinclair's talk had tied in everything they had been talking about in
her teaching and social work, building a sustainable community class,
and she felt she needed to read more.

"What I took away the most is what he said; what you're interested in
the most  just follow that path-do your research, and everything else
will come as long as you're motivated," Newland said.

Alicia Kent, a professor in the English Department, is not sure she
agrees with Sinclair that today's music is all bad, although she was
struck by how much poetry, music and activism were so
intertwined.

"I thought what was so interesting is he's still involved, still doing
things now. He's right, everybody focuses on the 1971 rally to get him
out of prison and they don't learn about anything else, he's still
really engaged, still producing music and still really politically
engaged," Kent said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt