POWER TO THE PEOPLE - POSTER II

18" x 24" Screenprinted Posters
on 100lb Cardstock printed by @forestcityprint
Limited Edition of 25 - Signed and numbered.

In September of 1970, Jerry Garcia and Huey Newton crossed paths on an airplane about 35,000 ft in the air, traveling between New York and California. The two cultural giants discussed politics, social issues, and direct action during the course of the flight. The two of them seemed to hit it off and when asked later about their meeting Jerry explained "We had a nice long rap. We liked the cat and were pretty impressed with him. We thought that if there was ever anything we could do for him, we'd try to do it." As it turns out, the FBI was listening to the entire conversation, as they had the Panthers under historically unparalleled levels of surveillance. Huey filed away the band's numbers for future reference, these numbers would come in handy almost a year later, when Huey and the Black Panthers were going through a turbulent time and needed to drum up support and solidarity.

On March 5th, 1971 The Revolutionary Intercommunal Day of Solidarity was hosted by the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California and was a major cross-section of the Bay Area community. The promotional posters boasted music by The Lumpen and The Grateful Dead, and keynote speeches from Huey Newton himself, as well as Kathleen Cleaver, who later dropped out of the event as she did not want to associate with "the low-life Oakland clique."

This is a lost chapter in the band's history, as photographers and anyone with a tape recording were not allowed in to the event. It remains one of less than a handful of Grateful Dead shows that went unrecorded. Cops were nowhere to be found at this event, and no one ever collected tickets for admission. At the time, The Berkeley Barb reported that "The Dead managed to get in a really good set and had everybody bobbing up and down with good vibes up until the time they were forced to stop by the 11 o'clock closing deadline." 3/5/71 in Oakland remains a legendary and lost Grateful Dead show with no live recording in circulation.