Mat Callahan: The Explosion of Deferred Dreams
San Francisco historian and musician Mat Callahan will discuss his new book The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Musical Renaissance and Social Revolution in San Francisco, 1965-1975.
As the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love floods the media with debates and celebrations of music, political movements, “flower power,” “acid rock,” and “hippies,” the book offers a critical re-examination of the interwoven political and musical happenings in San Francisco in the sixties. Author, musician, and native San Franciscan Mat Callahan explores the dynamic links between the Black Panthers and Sly and the Family Stone, the United Farm Workers and Santana, the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the New Left and the counterculture. Callahan’s meticulous, impassioned arguments both expose and reframe the political and social context for the San Francisco Sound and the vibrant subcultural uprisings with which it is associated. Using dozens of original interviews, primary sources, and personal experiences, the author shows how the intense interplay of artistic and political movements put San Francisco, briefly, in the forefront of a worldwide revolutionary upsurge. Mat Callahan is a musician and author originally from San Francisco, where he founded Komotion International.