Michele in the 60s and the Early 70s

Michele in the 60s, a gallery on Flickr.

I just wanted to pull together the images I could find of myself as part of Jan Van Raay's magnum opus on 60s and 70s protest in the art world and elsewhere. I was 19 in 1971. And I have very few pictures of myself at this age, and even fewer of me engaged in this very important moment in my life when atttendance at protest marches was an every day occurence for me. It was indeed my idea of a social life.

161-2-050270001rc
400-12-0118721
305-37-013171001R
312-26-021671001R Poppy Johnson
371-16-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
371-14-092371001R Yvonne Rainer, Alice Neel -- AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
371-13-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
371-10-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
374-16-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
374-14-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA
414-24-020472 Judson 3 Lottery Benefit for NYCLU at Leo Castelli Gallery--Kate Millett & Jon Hendricks
415-25-020472 Judson 3 Lottery Benefit for NYCLU at Leo Castelli Gallery

374-16-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA

374-16-092371001R AWC-Attica protest at MOMA, a photo by Jan van Raay on Flickr.

Everyone of the pictures i can find of myself in this extraordinary archive of photos of artists protests in the early 70s, I am in the background except this one. This is 1971 and my mother and I are locked in mutual gazes with Yvonne Rainier in front of the Museum of Modern Art protesting Rockefeller's involvement with the massacre at Attica Prison. He is also on the Board of MOMA. Thus the protest. My gaze is focused on my mother's gaze. She is trying to tell me something, something I perfectly understood at the time but can no longer remember. In front of other people, we always communicated with such looks. What made Jan Van Raay take this picture of me, I am not sure, but I think it had more to do with the presence of Faith and Yvonne, both of whom are in a lot of her pictures, and nothing to do with me at 19 years of age standing between them. I think it is very funny and telling that I am holding an umbrella. With my mother doing this impractical thing of calling for Rockefeller's impeachment in front of the citadel of high culture and modernism, and yet I have my umbrella because no doubt rain is predicted or threatens and I am a cautious practical person at heart, not at all the flaming radical my spirited mother has compelled me to be. Nonetheless I loved her so. The innocence of that look.