Allen Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940. Moving to San Francisco in the early 60s, he founded and edited the legendary San Francisco Oracle, the psychedelic, rainbow hued underground newspaper published in the Haight-Ashbury. He also helped originate rites of passage like the Human-Be-In in the Haight. He has published two books of poetry, Childbirth Is Ecstasy and The Reagan Poems. In 1991 he worked with Regent Press in Oakland, Ca. to publish a commemorative Facsimile Edition of the complete San Francisco Oracle in order to preserve it for posterity.

Since the early 80s he has been presenting his multi-image slide show The Rise and Fall of the Haight-Ashbury in the 60s in theaters and universities. In 1995 he authored a CD-ROM, The Haight Ashbury in the 60s. He has performed his poetry at music concerts, colleges, museums and coffeehouses.

Now he is working on a political book that takes a shot at reconstructing American politics. In 2001 he consulted with the San Diego Museum of Art on High Societies, a sixties rock poster show, and produced a symposium on the Sixties for the show. He recently edited Peace News, an emergency newspaper exploring alternatives to war.

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