Portland in the 1960s

In 1968, a newspaper reported an impending threat of twenty thousand hippies descending on Portland, Oregon. While the numbers were exaggerated, Portland did have a vibrant 1960s culture of disenchanted and disenfranchised individuals seeking social and political revolution. These individuals, barefoot and bell-bottomed, hung out in Portland’s bohemian underground, devising a better world. Their ideas, which started in coffee shop conversations, found their voice in the Willamette Bridge newspaper, KBOO radio station, and the Portland State University student strike. These events led to social, artistic, and political change in the Rose City. Through these stories from the counterculture, author Polina Olsen brings to life the beat-snapping Caffe Espresso, the incense and black light posters of the Psychedelic Supermarket, and the spontaneous concerts and communal soups in Lair Park.