John Sinclair (poet)

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John Sinclair (born October 2, 1941 in Flint, Michigan), was a Detroit poet, one-time manager of the band MC5, and leader of the White Panther Party from November 1968 to July 1969. He was jailed in 1969 after selling two joints of marijuana to undercover narcotics officers. His case received international attention when John Lennon performed at a benefit concert on his behalf in 1971. He was honored by the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor when the smoking suite in Georgia O'Keeffe Cooperative House was named Sinclair.

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[edit] 1960s activism

Sinclair was involved in the reorganization of the Detroit underground newspaper, Fifth Estate, during the paper's growth in the late 1960's. Fifth Estate continues to publish to this day, making it one of the longest continuously published alternative periodicals in the United States. Sinclair also contributed to the formation of Detroit's Artist's Workshop Press, which published five issues of Work magazine.

Sinclair was managing the MC5 at the time of their free concert outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The band was the only group to perform before baton-wielding police broke up the massive anti-Vietnam war rally, calling it a riot.

[edit] Prison sentence

In July 1969 Sinclair was sentenced to prison for 9-1/2 to 10 years for giving two joints to undercover narcotics officers. His supporters viewed his prosecution and harsh sentence as political persecution, and campaigned to free him from prison.

Sinclair was the subject of the "Abbie Hoffman incident" at the Woodstock music festival in August 1969, when Hoffman interrupted The Who's musical set to speak in protest against Sinclair's imprisonment, and Who guitarist Pete Townshend in turn interrupted Hoffman by knocking him into the audience with his electric guitar. Townshend later said in an interview that he was a supporter of John Sinclair, but that Hoffman's choosing to voice his opinions during the Who's set was the issue. (For a more detailed discussion of what actually happened see Woodstock Festival#The Abbie Hoffman incident.)

On December 10, 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono headlined the "Free John Now Rally" in front of 15-20,000 people at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Lennon performed the song, "John Sinclair," calling on the authorities to "Let him be, set him free, Let him be like you and me." Three days after the concert, the Michigan Supreme Court released Sinclair, and later overturned his conviction. The series of events was one factor in the adoption of Ann Arbor's famously lenient "five-dollar pot law" in the early 1970s (see Marijuana laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan).

While he was in prison, Sinclair wrote the books Guitar Army and Music & Politics, the latter of which was co-written with Robert Levin. Extensive information on Sinclair is available in the John and Leni Sinclair Papers, at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan (see External links).

On February 4, 2003, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, at the urging of Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, voted to honor Sinclair with a resolution congratulating him for his "multi-faceted lifetime of poetry, music, activism, and inspiration." In October of 2006, his book Va Tutto Bene ("It's All Good") was published in Italy by Stampa Alternativa. It contains some of Sinclair's best poetry, as well as provocative essays, in both the original English and translated into Italian (page by page) by John Giorno.

[edit] The Blues Scholars

John Sinclair has released several albums as leader of the Blues Scholars (named after Professor Longhair's band). The music typically features Sinclair's poetry recited over jazz and blues accompaniment. The band first came together in Detroit in 1982.

Sinclair moved to New Orleans in 1991 and assembled a new edition of the Blues Scholars. He also joined the staff of WWOZ radio, winning Offbeat Magazine's reader's poll as the city's most popular DJ five years in a row (1999-2003).

The Blues Scholars have on occasion been joined on stage and in the recording studio by former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. Alive Records released the Blues Scholars recordings.

In 2004, John Sinclair moved to Amsterdam. He continues to tour and record with the Blues Scholars, and hosts a weekly radio show, The John Sinclair Show, which is streamed live and is also available as a podcast.

In 2005 and 2006 John opened the Grass-a-matazz, an event related to the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam

[edit] External links

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