A teenage delinquent and drug addict, Ben Morea went looking for the Beatniks in the late 1950s, discovered the Living Theatre, and developed a taste for, and involvement in, art and anarchism. A painter, rabble-rouser, and troublemaker, he was the main instigator of the Black Mask group, The Family (popularly know as Up Against The Wall Motherf**ker, and no relation to the West Coast Manson “family”), and the Armed Love communal movement. By the end of the 60s, facing increased police attention, Ben Morea “disappeared” into the rural communal movement and anonymity. He continues to paint (and now blog), and galvanized by the current Imperial wars, has re-emerged to talk of the legacy and history of Black Mask and The Family, and their relevance to the struggles today.
Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherf**ker: The Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea, and the Black Mask Group
SKU: 9781604860214
Author: Ben Morea and Ron Hahne
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781604860214
Published: 1/2011
Format: Paperback, ePub, PDF, mobi
Page count: 176
Size: 9 x 6
Subjects: Politics-Anarchism, History-60s
Excerpt
“We are neither artists or anti-artists. We are creative
men—revolutionaries. As creative men we are dedicated to building a new
society, but we must also destroy the existing travesty. What art will
replace the burning bodies and dead minds this society is creating?”
Ben Morea, Black Mask #3, January 1967
“If the blacks [have] decided to get together with their brothers
first, then the whites had better do the same: they can no longer ride
the black panther. Yet revolution has no color barrier: if blacks can do
it, whites better learn, for only then will Revolutionary power replace
Black Power, revolution replace nationalism.”
Black Mask #8, October 1967
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