Michael McClure was a member of the beat generation who rose to prominence in the 1950’s and was know primarily for his poetry. He transitioned into the hippie movement much like Allen Ginsberg as he read some poetry at the Human Be-In on January 14th 1967, which was a prelude to summer of love. He later wrote playwrights and helped promote the career of Jim Morrison as a poet. The link posted below takes you to a video in which Michael McClure takes KPIX-TV through the streets of San Francisco during the summer of love. His dialogue with the narrator paints a positive picture of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods and the great creativity and openness of the youth who inhabited it. McClure acts as something of an ambassador to the movement and helps sway the tone of the documentary to one of a positive and curious light. He understood that the Summer of Love was a place of social and artistic exploration and not something that mainstream society ought to fear.
The World They Imagined 