Project+Description

__Uni High Oral History Project 2010-2011__

The 2010-11 Uni High-WILL radio documentary will focus on **counterculture movements in Champaign-Urbana** **from the** **1950****s to the present** **day**, with a concentration on the 1960s and 1970s. The history of counterculture is a broad and multi-dimensional topic. Therefore, the project will have a two-part structure, exploring both the political and cultural aspects of counterculture movements. **Political aspects** include organized protests against laws, policies, and cultural practices, teach-ins, the activities of student and community organizations (for example, Students for a Democratic Society), and programmatic changes (such as Project 500 at the University of Illinois). **Cultural** **aspects** concern how people worked to change their daily lives through decisions about food and shelter, work and leisure, relationships with people and the environment, clothing, music, and other lifestyle choices. To explore both the political and the cultural dimensions of counterculture movements, we will take into account events occurring on the University of Illinois campus, as well as in the Champaign-Urbana community.

We recognize that counterculture movements in 20th century American society have taken many forms. During the 1960s and 1970s, communities across the United States including Champaign-Urbana were erupting with organized movements seeking to expand the rights of many groups, including women, people with disabilities, and people of many races. In addition, there were protests against the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Environmentalism was gaining momentum with the publication of Rachel Carson's book //Silent Spring// in 1962, and the first earth day in 1970. People were contesting established lifestyles, by working and living in coops and communes, eating local and organic foods, and experimenting with drugs and free love. Music and clothing changed dramatically; this was the era of the Beatles, Woodstock, psychadelic colors, unisex clothing styles and long hair. Previous Uni High-WILL radio documentaries have examined the movements for civil rights, women's rights and disability rights at the local and national levels. This year, we intend to widen our perspective to encompass the broader counterculture movement and to examine more closely aspects of political and cultural change we have not delved into before.

Today, the 1960s and 1970s are firmly rooted in our national and local memories as a time of great countercultural activity. We want to examine the political and cultural aspects of what was happening locally during those memorable years. However, a number of organizations and businesses from the 1960s and 1970s still exist and appeal to many people in the local community. For example, the Common Ground Food Coop, founded in 1974, has been able to grow and adapt, and continues to thrive. In examining the impact that these organizations have had, we want to understand how their objectives and ways of functioning may have evolved (or not) over time. We are also interested in exploring organizations and businesses that have emerged in recent years in response to issues in today's world.

With these goals in mind, we are seeking to learn more about local counterculture and to identify resources that could be useful to our understanding of this history as it unfolded both locally and nationally. We would like to learn more about the history of some prominent local businesses such as the Record Service, Earthworks food coop and the Art Coop. In addition, we want to identify people who were active in any aspect of counterculture from the 1960s to the present. In this search, we invite and would appreciate suggestions of any books, articles, films, archives, organizations or people that you might recommend to us.

Specifically, we are moving to identify potential interviewees for our documentary. To most fully capture the complexity of the history of counterculture, we are looking for a diverse group of interviewees. Ideally, our set of interviewees would include a balance of...


 * **people affiliated with the University and people connected to different parts of the broader community**
 * Champaign-Urbana has a unique blend of University atmosphere and community. To discuss counterculture in the local area, a balance between interviewees affiliated with the University of Illinois and people with other kinds of community connections is important to getting the full story.
 * **people of different ages, who have been active in counterculture movements at different times**
 * The 1960s and 70s are not the only decades in which counterculture movements have existed. Covering the local history of counterculture requires us to look for people involved in countercultural activities during different periods, from the 1950s forward, including the present.
 * **men and women**
 * The political and cultural changes that came about as a result of countercultural initiatives affected men and women differently. Feminism changed women's position and roles in society, the push for free love changed perspectives on sexual relations and the Vietnam war and its drafts affected especially men, but women as well. Therefore, it will be important to hear from both men and women about these changes.
 * **people who identify with different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic categories**
 * The civil rights movement was significant in many ways to people who subsequently became involved in other forms of political and cultural opposition to mainstream society. However, the perceived value of countercultural actions or lifestyles may have varied widely across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic categories. We thus need to ensure that our set of interviewees is diverse in these respects as well.
 * **people who were involved in political initiatives as well as those who embraced cultural changes in daily life**
 * Counterculture takes many forms. We want to interview people who sought to change the nature of their everyday lives, as well as people who were politically engaged in efforts to change policies, laws and government on a larger scale.
 * **people from various movements**
 * In trying to broaden our perspective on counterculture, it is critical that we interview people involved in different movements or issues, such as civil rights, the anti-war movement, student activism on campus, environmentalism, the local/organic food movement, etc.