The Awakening of Baxter Baley

A band of college students confronts the status quo on the streets and in the cultural and commercial centers of San Francisco. Students from rural New England throw themselves into the fight for liberation and peace, make love not war, power to the people and you are what you eat are among the cries of their marches and interventions in this novel and memoir of performance artists in San Francisco in 1970. In their late teens and early twenties, living communally, they awake, they self-realize, they learn to know themselves through yoga, zazen, psychedelics, ritual dance, and collective creation. They stretch the limits and refuse to let the "silent majority" dominate the new age, the age of Aquarius. The young people know better, they see with a clear vision and act with an open heart. With street theater, guerilla theater, infiltrative theater, off the stage and in the streets, they make innovative performances in tumultuous contexts. Their creative responses to the wave of international, racist violence unleashed by Nixon, Kissinger, and Hoover are an attempt at a full frontal, peaceful attack on the centers of power. Baxter Bagley tries all the ways — he is curious and wants to know. He takes risks, he learns about himself and his creativity. He is full of ideas and visions and faith in the future, healthy and resourceful, among friends. It seems there is nothing that can stand in the way of his knowledge and wisdom — only betrayal can interrupt the arc of his life and love.