Louis Abolafia

Louis “Lou” Abolafia (February 23, 1941 – October 30, 1995) was an artist, social activist, and folk figure. His candidacy for president of the United States under the Nudist Party[1] on the hippie Love Ticket at various times in the 1960s and onward was a form of political theater or performance art. He ran against Richard Nixon in 1968 as the naked hippie love candidate with the slogan: "What Have I Got to Hide?" Abolafia previously had run in 1967 for Mayor of New York under the Cosmic Love Party, also then with the slogan "What Have I Got to Hide?"[2]

Abolafia was the youngest of four children, with two older brothers and one older sister, born to New York City florist Isaac Abolafia and his wife who were of Jewish heritage, with ancestral roots in Spain, Selânik, Patras, Smyrna (modern-day İzmir), and Gelibolu. Abolafia was part of the Greenwich Village art scene in the 1960s. In this capacity, he organized love-ins and happenings that combined music, poetry and audience participation, inspiring the New York press to crown him "The Love King". He was a long-time resident of the Lower East Side, and he sheltered wayward youths and other transients in his storefront studio in the East Village.[3] He published a pornographic and countercultural newspaper, Abolafia's Luv, and had several art exhibitions from 1967 to 1970. He befriended a number of notable 1960s artists, including musician Bob Dylan,[3] artist Yayoi Kusama,[4] Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol (and Factory hangers-on), Canadian socialite Margaret Trudeau, and Satsvarūpa Dāsa Gosvāmī, a senior disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement.

In 1980, Abolafia co-created the Exotic Erotic Ball with Perry Mann in San Francisco, held annually for more than three decades until it was canceled in 2010. The first iteration of the Ball was held in 1979 at Perry Mann’s flat in San Francisco and was billed at the time as The Nudist Ball, intended as a campaign fundraiser for Abolafia’s next political run. He was said to have coined the phrase "Make love, not war", though the attribution is disputed.[5]

He was a "descendant of the Abolafias—writers of the Kabbala".[6]

Death

Louis Abolafia died of a heart attack in 1995 in Los Angeles, California, aged 54. He was survived by his mother, two brothers, a sister, a son, a grandson, and his wife, whom he had married one year prior to his passing. [7]

References

  1. ^ Rakoff, David (September 2006). "Sex With Strangers". SPIN. SPIN Media LLC: 92. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  2. ^ Havel, James T. (1996). The elections, 1789-1992. Macmillan Library Reference USA. p. 217. ISBN 9780028646237.
  3. ^ a b Mastropolo, Frank (October 30, 2013). "Was Banksy Inspired By This East Village Nudist Who Ran For President?". Bedford + Bowery. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  4. ^ Kusama, Yayoi (2013-09-05). Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. Tate Enterprises Ltd. p. 89. ISBN 9781849760874.
  5. ^ Rakoff, Jeff (September 2006). "Sex With Strangers". Spin: 92.
  6. ^ Abolafia for President 1967-05-13 , The New Yorker p.40
  7. ^ "Louis Abolafia, 54, was on Hippie 'Love Ticket'", Boston Globe, November 3, 1995.


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