move image to right |
needs verification from reliable sources |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{verify}} |
|||
[[Image:Stephen Gaskin at the Nambassa 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, New Zealand 1981. Photographer Michael Bennetts..jpg|thumb|150px|right|Stephen Gaskin at the [[Nambassa]] 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, [[New Zealand]] 1981]] |
[[Image:Stephen Gaskin at the Nambassa 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, New Zealand 1981. Photographer Michael Bennetts..jpg|thumb|150px|right|Stephen Gaskin at the [[Nambassa]] 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, [[New Zealand]] 1981]] |
||
Revision as of 15:43, 21 August 2006
Stephen Gaskin is a counter-cultural icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual Intentional Community in Summertown, Tennessee. He was a Green Party presidential primary candidate in 2000 on a platform which included Campaign Finance Reform, Universal Health Care, and Marijuana Decriminalization.
Gaskin was born on February 16, 1935 in Denver, Colorado and served in the United States Marines from 1952 to 1955. In the 1960s, he moved to San Francisco where he taught five classes (3 in English, 1 in creative writing, and 1 in general semantics) at San Francisco State College where he was a student of S. I. Hayakawa. His writing class became an open discussion known as Monday Night Class involving up to 1500 students and in 1970, a caravan of 50 school buses crossed the United States to settle 60 miles south-east of Nashville, Tennessee. Gaskin went to prison in 1974 for marijuana possession. He served one year of a three-year sentence.
Stephen Gaskin produced in his Sunday Morning Services and earlier talks a substantial body of spiritual teaching which is contained in his books and tapes of the Services which were published by the Farm. They speak of Magic, energy and life in community as well as of service to humanity.
Gaskin has authored the following: Monday Night Class (his most famous book), Haight Ashbury Flashbacks, Amazing Dope Tales, Cannabis Spirituality: Including 13 Guidelines for Sanity and Safety, This Season's People: A Book of Spiritual Teachings, The Caravan, Mind at Play, Rendered Infamous: A book of Political Reality, An Outlaw in My Heart: A Political Activist's User's Manual, Hey beatnik!: This is the Farm book, The Hidden Holocaust: Stephen Gaskin reveals what's really going on in Guatemala, Stephen Speaks to San Francisco, Volume one: Sunday Morning services on The Farm, among other works.
Gaskin was recipient of the first Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1980, and an inductee into the Counterculture Hall of Fame in 2004. He was awarded the Golden Bolt Award by The Farm Motor Pool (for helping buy a lemon semi), and won the Guru-Off (without ever entering), racking up 77 points to Krishnamurti’s 73.
Gaskin works as an international activist and speaker, and continues to write. His most recent books are revised and annotated versions of Monday Night Class and The Caravan.
See also
External links