UC Berkeley Library

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” 🌝🫶🐻🌻
Poet and counterculture icon Allen Ginsberg — a Cal alum — was born 100 years ago today.

Ginsberg is best known for his wild and groundbreaking collection “Howl and Other Poems,” a defining work of LGBTQ+ and Beat literature.

Ginsberg finished “Howl” while living in Berkeley, where he had enrolled as a graduate student at UC Berkeley.

Upon its release, the book, written from the perspective of a gay man, courted controversy for its frank portrayal of homosexuality. City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti and bookstore manager Shigeyoshi “Shig” Murao were arrested, and “Howl” became the subject of an obscenity trial.

In 1957, in a landmark victory for free speech, a judge deemed the masterpiece not obscene. “An author should be … allowed to express his thoughts and ideas in his own words,” he wrote.

The poet was a lifelong supporter of free expression. He was also an advocate for peaceful protest, coining the term “flower power” to describe the hopeful strain of nonviolent resistance that blossomed in the 1960s. In the photo below, Ginsberg is pictured in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the 1967 Human Be-In, a prologue to the Summer of Love.

Despite his outsized literary stature, he lived a modest and spiritual life, buying clothing secondhand and practicing Buddhism.

His radical individualism has inspired poets, artists, and admirers everywhere to live their truths. 🏳️‍🌈🌎💙

The Bancroft Library holds copies from the first and second printings of “Howl,” transcripts of the obscenity trial, and letters from — and photos of — Ginsberg.
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📸: The Bancroft Library’s Michelle Vignes Photograph Archive, BANC PIC 2003.108--NEG, Box 5, Roll 411, Frame 26. © The Regents of the University of California. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

🏳️‍⚧️🐻 ”Pride is the art of being yourself.” 🫶🏳️‍🌈
UC Berkeley is home to many LGBTQ+ landmarks, including:

🪩 The site of Cal’s first gay dance

⚧️ A center supporting trans + nonbinary students

🕊️ A serene AIDS memorial (a perfect place to study or reflect)

🦖 Museums founded by a trailblazer

Discover more places of pride. 🔍🗺️
🔗 ucberk.li/lgbtq-landmarks

P.S. Happy Pride Month. Thank you for being exactly who you are! 🌈🫶

🐻🎶 You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life! 🎶🏳️‍🌈
UC Berkeley’s first openly gay dance took place on this day in 1970. 🪩

The event was billed as the “Peoples’ Dance” and drew more than a thousand people to Pauley Ballroom. The dress code? Anything from “dirty Levis to full suits or drag.” 👖💅

Among the invited guests? Ronald Reagan.

Leading up to the dance, thrown by the Gay Student Union, a KQED reporter asked the governor about the gathering.

“I haven’t been invited yet,” Reagan quipped.

In response, the group printed 100 invitation letters, to be circulated on Sproul Plaza for people to sign and send to the governor and first lady in Sacramento.

In the end, the Reagans were no-shows. (Perhaps their invites got lost in the mail.)

Today, a spirit of inclusion lives on at UC Berkeley, home to a vibrant LGBTQ+ community of students, staff, and scholars. 🏳️‍🌈🐻🏳️‍⚧️

Want to explore more LGBTQ+ landmarks on campus? 🦖🔍
🔗 ucberk.li/lgbtq-landmarks

You light up our lives! 🐻🏛☀️🫶

This year, you filled our spaces, found knowledge in our stacks, and grew with us.

Thank you for making this year unforgettable — and for letting the Library be part of your story.

Here’s to the chapters that lie ahead! 📖

What’s your favorite Library memory? 💙⤵️

P.S. Moffitt Library returns in the fall. We can't wait to welcome you! 🎉