NOLA Express
Encyclopedia
NOLA Express is a singular publication started in 1967 in New Orleans as part of the Underground
Free Press movement of the 1960s that protested the Vietnam War
and other government policies along with social hypocrisies. Published by two young poets, Darlene Fife and Robert Head, and produced by a dedicated band of activists, poets and illustrators based in the French Quarter
, NOLA Express was profoundly opposed to American imperialism
, racism
and materialism
. The paper was named after William S. Burroughs
's cut-up novel, Nova Express
, and published uncensored news, art and literature featuring Charles Bukowski
, Hedwig Gorski
, and many others.
NOLA Express was one of the most outrageous papers of the Sixties. It was one of the most notorious underground
newspapers to join UPS and rallied activists, poets, and artists by giving them uncensored voice. Editors Robert Head and Darlene Fife were part of political protests that extended the "memeo revolution" through pamphleteering used by freedom-of-speech poets during the 1960s. NOLA Express was also a member of COSMEP (Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers). These two affiliations with organizations that were often at cross purposes made NOLA Express one of the most radical and controversial publications of the counterculture movement. Part of the controversy about NOLA Express included graphic photographs and illustrations that many in today's society would be banned as pornographic.
Bukowski's syndicated column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, ran in NOLA Express, and Francisco McBride's illustration
for the Bukowski's "The Fuck Machine" was considered sexist, pornographic, and created an uproar. All of this controversy helped to increase the readership and bring attention to the political causes that editors Fife and Head supported.
In 1967, the cooperative Underground Press Syndicate
(UPS) was formed at the instigation of the publisher of another early paper, the East Village Other
. The UPS allowed member papers to freely reprint content from any of the other member papers. One can make a comparison between the democratic free speech newspapers like NOLA Express and Wiki
publications on the Internet today.
New Orleans was considered the Third Coast by the 1960s migrants of the counterculture
who hitch-hiked between San Francisco, Austin, New Orleans, Key West and New York. These Hippies and other social revolutionaries were able to find support, free housing and food, and work without commitments on this counterculture circuit. NOLA Express was mobilized by an ever-changing ragtag army of street vendors, and at its peak sold 11,000 copies every two weeks.
Dripping with righteous venom and acid, NOLA Express beat federal obscenity charges in a landmark decision in 1971. Poet and translator Fife has written a personal and insightful memoir of the paper, the people who produced it, and the community it served titled Portraits from Memory: New Orleans in The Sixties. The book includes some of the correspondence and illustration from notorious issues. The archives of correspondence and issues are now housed at the University of Connecticut.
and community issues, essays about current political and social issues, bold cartoons, statements by self-styled fringe leaders, and more created for the large fringe Hippie
and artist society of New Orleans and Algiers
across the Mississippi River
by bridge or ferry
.
Issue of NOLA Express #108 from June 9, 1972, with cover art by Hedwig Gorski
pictured at right.
Contents:
The underground press
movement unified those in the anti-establishment
service, social, and political movements along with the bohemian circuit of artists, freewheeling travelers and hitchhikers into a force that permanently impacted American policy and culture.
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
Free Press movement of the 1960s that protested the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and other government policies along with social hypocrisies. Published by two young poets, Darlene Fife and Robert Head, and produced by a dedicated band of activists, poets and illustrators based in the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
, NOLA Express was profoundly opposed to American imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
. The paper was named after William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
's cut-up novel, Nova Express
Nova Express
Nova Express is a 1964 novel by William S. Burroughs. It was written using the cut-up method, developed by Burroughs with Brion Gysin, of enfolding snippets of different texts into the novel. It is the third book in The Nova Trilogy, preceded by The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded...
, and published uncensored news, art and literature featuring Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, Hedwig Gorski
Hedwig Gorski
Dr. Hedwig Gorski is an American performance poet and an avant-garde artist who labels her aesthetic as American Futurism...
, and many others.
NOLA Express was one of the most outrageous papers of the Sixties. It was one of the most notorious underground
Underground
Underground most commonly refers to:* The regions beneath the surface of the EarthUnderground may also refer to:-Places:* London Underground, a rapid transit system* The Underground , a Christian-affiliated concert venue...
newspapers to join UPS and rallied activists, poets, and artists by giving them uncensored voice. Editors Robert Head and Darlene Fife were part of political protests that extended the "memeo revolution" through pamphleteering used by freedom-of-speech poets during the 1960s. NOLA Express was also a member of COSMEP (Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers). These two affiliations with organizations that were often at cross purposes made NOLA Express one of the most radical and controversial publications of the counterculture movement. Part of the controversy about NOLA Express included graphic photographs and illustrations that many in today's society would be banned as pornographic.
Bukowski's syndicated column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, ran in NOLA Express, and Francisco McBride's illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
for the Bukowski's "The Fuck Machine" was considered sexist, pornographic, and created an uproar. All of this controversy helped to increase the readership and bring attention to the political causes that editors Fife and Head supported.
In 1967, the cooperative Underground Press Syndicate
Underground Press Syndicate
The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
(UPS) was formed at the instigation of the publisher of another early paper, the East Village Other
East Village Other
The East Village Other , was an American underground newspaper in New York City, New York, published biweekly during the 1960s. EVO was among the first countercultural newspapers to emerge, following the Los Angeles Free Press, which had begun publishing a few months earlier...
. The UPS allowed member papers to freely reprint content from any of the other member papers. One can make a comparison between the democratic free speech newspapers like NOLA Express and Wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
publications on the Internet today.
New Orleans was considered the Third Coast by the 1960s migrants of the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
who hitch-hiked between San Francisco, Austin, New Orleans, Key West and New York. These Hippies and other social revolutionaries were able to find support, free housing and food, and work without commitments on this counterculture circuit. NOLA Express was mobilized by an ever-changing ragtag army of street vendors, and at its peak sold 11,000 copies every two weeks.
Dripping with righteous venom and acid, NOLA Express beat federal obscenity charges in a landmark decision in 1971. Poet and translator Fife has written a personal and insightful memoir of the paper, the people who produced it, and the community it served titled Portraits from Memory: New Orleans in The Sixties. The book includes some of the correspondence and illustration from notorious issues. The archives of correspondence and issues are now housed at the University of Connecticut.
Contents in Issue June 1972
The contents of a single issue covered investigative reporting about environmentalEnvironmental policy
Environmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on...
and community issues, essays about current political and social issues, bold cartoons, statements by self-styled fringe leaders, and more created for the large fringe Hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
and artist society of New Orleans and Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
across the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
by bridge or ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
.
Issue of NOLA Express #108 from June 9, 1972, with cover art by Hedwig Gorski
Hedwig Gorski
Dr. Hedwig Gorski is an American performance poet and an avant-garde artist who labels her aesthetic as American Futurism...
pictured at right.
Contents:
- The Poisoning of Our Water Supply
- Lake CharlesLake CharlesLake Charles may refer to:in Canada*Lake Charles, Nova Scotia, a lake in the Halifax Regional Municipalityin the United States*Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city in the United States*Lake Charles , the lake after which it is named...
Police Sued - Suit Against Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
Dismissed - Kumi Maitreya La-La by John BennettJohn Bennett-Arts & entertainment:* John Bennett , British actor from the film The Fifth Element* John Bennett , British composer and organist* John Bennett , drummer of the UK doom metal band The Prophecy...
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles BukowskiCharles BukowskiHenry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
- Walter Collins Ani Maitreya Marilyn Austin John Dulude Ericka Huggins Poem/Art Centerfold
- Merit Unified Field Theory III Geophysical Warfare: VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
- The Youth International Party in Miami
- Planet News Small Press Communications Conspiracy
- The North American Book Of The Dead by D.A.
- DA Levy Letters Calendar of Events Community Bulletin Board Classified Ads
- Ads for: Warehouse Concerts (1/4 page ad for gigs by Edgar WinterEdgar WinterEdgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
/ Groundhogs, Z.Z. Topps / Wishbone AshWishbone AshWishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular records included Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub , and New England...
) - ZZ TopZZ TopZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
The underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
movement unified those in the anti-establishment
Anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...
service, social, and political movements along with the bohemian circuit of artists, freewheeling travelers and hitchhikers into a force that permanently impacted American policy and culture.