Chronicling the history of two New York City provocateur groups—Black Mask and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker—this account complies the complete ten issues of the newspaper Black Mask; numerous leaflets, articles, and flyers generated by Black Mask; the Up Against the Wall Motherfucker Magazine; and Free Press and Rolling Stone reports on Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker.
Founded in the mid-1960s, the Black Mask group melded the ideas and inspiration of Dada with the anarchism of the Spanish Revolution, and this volume demonstrates how they heavily influenced the art, politics, and culture of the decade as they briefly shut down the Museum of Modern Art, protested Wall Street, battled at Students for a Democratic Society conferences, and defended the shooting of Andy Warhol. This history then details how in 1968 Black Mask reorganized as Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker, which combined the confrontational theater and tactics of Black Mask with a much more aggressive approach in dealing with the police and authorities. A lengthy interview with founder Ben Morea provides context and color to this fascinating documentary legacy.
Available to buy at AK Press and AKUK.
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| Blackmask.pdf | 2.81 MB |
Comments
Great stuff, thanks for posting. I met Ben Morea in New York a few years ago, an interesting guy to say the least!
No probs, I don't understand all the hate from some in this thread.
It'd be good to have some King Mob stuff too, they were pals with these lot.
This is an important document, one I have been awaiting for years. I was involved with UAW/MF in '68 & '69 & still consider myself, at heart, a Motherfucker. My only criticism of this anthology is the near-omission of Allan Hoffman, a brilliant theorist & a true comrade, who died in a tragic, stupid traffic accident in 1969.
hi, if you have any recollections of your involvement in the group, any of the actions you took part in and any of the people (like Hoffman), we would love to publish them! So feel free to post them up here as a comment and we could add them to our history section