 We'd like to welcome Martine Algier to the Haydash Oral Video History Project. Welcome, Martine. There's so much in so many places I can go with your life and your contributions to this era as well as to many other issues in the world, including peace. I want to start from your very beginnings. Where were you born? Michigan. I was in Michigan. And what were your parents' names? Mary Louise and Richard. What kind of work did they do? My father was a journalist and photographer and my mother, a homemaker, very much involved in being a mother and her church work, healing work. What brought you to California? When did this happen? Well, the first time I had my parents had moved to Salt Lake City and when I knew I was going to visit them in Salt Lake City, I thought, I don't know anybody there. What am I going to do and be stuck with my parents the whole time? So I was involved in Detroit with the artist's workshop and a lot of poets. And someone said, oh, well there's a magazine called Wild Dog Poetry Magazine and a couple of guys in Salt Lake that published that. Here's their address and when you get to Salt Lake you can look them up. So they didn't have a phone. I sent them a card and they right away showed up and I proceeded to spend a lot of time with them. And at one point they said, hey, we're going to San Francisco. This was winter vacations. It was a school break. I'd come and see my parents. And so I said, sure, go to San Francisco. That sounds exciting. Well, drove over the mountain to San Francisco. And what was happening was some amazing convergence of poets and I very soon found myself sitting with my heroes. Because as a high school girl, about 16, I had discovered Alan Ginsberg and Ferlin Getty and Jack Kerouac. And suddenly Kerouac wasn't there but all the rest of them. I was in a milieu, I mean sitting with these people who were my heroes. And this was just a little three-day trip but it was a very big change in my life because I made connections at that point. I went back to my parents and then I went back to Detroit to finish the term at school. And in June, John Sinclair, well there were six of us and there was a move to go to Berkeley to the big poetry conference. And so I said, okay, I'm on board and we all just jumped in the car. And I knew I was never going back. Approximately what year was this? 64. And we just had one of those wild cross country rides that a lot of people had in those days. Sure, sure. And arrived on the campus of Berkeley and one of the first people that I saw came walking up to me. It was Gary Snyder who I had met and fallen in love with on that trip during the winter. And so we reconnected. And the next thing I knew, I was in a Volkswagen bus with Alan Ginsberg and Gary Snyder going on this long trip. Things just unfolded very, very carefully. The way they did in those days. You have a photo of yourself. Well, this was just before we left for San Francisco. This was my partner at the time, Robin Eichle, George Tish, somewhere over here. It was a prominent poet here in Detroit. And yourself right there. Totally mad. Beautiful. So there you are in Berkeley and you're not coming back home anymore. I knew I didn't want to go back to Michigan. I was staying in the Haydashbury. The place that I landed was the Haydashbury. We had gone over to the campus for the poetry meeting. Do you know where that was in the Haydashbury? Yes, it was on Downey Street. Right. Right above, two blocks above Haydashbury. So this is about what year in the Haydashbury? 64, 65. 65, by the time I came back, was very quiet. It wasn't a lot happening. It was a nice family neighborhood. And then it started building, you are known for some of your artwork. Were you already painting? What is your medium? I haven't been painting very much lately. When I was painting, I did oils and pencils. At that time, I wasn't doing much art. I had come to California really to be an actress. I was in acting. I was in theater. I had done film and theater. And that's why I came out. And that was my intention in coming out. Then I got hooked up with all these poetry people and went off. Did you write yourself? I've always written. And I've had a couple things published. But that's never been a main part of my expression. But then I began painting more intensely later. When you were in the Haydashbury, and things started changing, they started to more flexible people coming from all over. Did you also cast this feeling that everybody seemed to have as a mass? It was an incredibly exhilarating feeling. But before that happened, I was swept off to Big Sur. There was a whole confluence of energy. There was a lot going on in Big Sur at that time. When I arrived there for the weekend, I had this experience of going to a party. It was like the ugly duckling meets the swans. I suddenly looked around and said, I'm one of these. I belong with these people. It was the first time I had ever, and they were in long dresses and long hair and babies at the breasts and men in beards. There was a sense of, oh yes, I'm with the people that are my tribe. I went back to San Francisco, quit my job, and went back and lived there. And so, while Haydashbury was just starting to foment, so to speak, it was down there mostly at Esalen. At Esalen quite a bit, which was the beginning of the human potential movement. Pearls was there, Viginus satir, all the luminaries of the human potential movement were coming and going from there. So it was a really exciting time. It was a connection between Esalen and the connecting to Panukanyan. Because there are many, many writers and painters and spiritual thinkers were coming out of that area. And I think that that influence was pretty major in my life. And then it was in the fall of 66, when my little family, I lived in several places in Big Sur, but as winter started coming on, the family seeing that I lived with, we were living outside in the canyon, broke apart, and suddenly I was faced with the winter and no one was there, and what to do, and someone I had met in the Hague-Ashbury called and said, I want you to come back and be with me. And so I thought, well, nothing else planned. And so when I arrived in the Hague, that was in the fall of 66, and things were really, really cooking. In fact, the night that I arrived, there had been a big National Guard event on the street that day. Was it one of the, where the Flappett truck arrived in music playing, and streets are mobbed, and then the police come in with their billy clubs? Right. I wasn't there for that. I came right after. They had the straight theater, luckily, on Cole and Hague, and the people who survived were the ones that ran in the theater for cover. And the day began. So how did your days evolve from there on? Well, it was so magical. Our apartment was the center of a lot of what was happening. Where was that? That was at 1371 Haidt Street. Do you remember the quash streets? Right by Masonic. Right by Masonic. We used to run around the corner to the apartment where the Grateful Deadland. Right, 14 Ash Creek. Up and down the street. I'd go from our place down Haidt Street through the park to the Ninth Street health food store, which is probably the only natural food store in San Francisco at the time. Buy a bunch of brown rice and whatever I could afford. Then come back through the park, stop at the drum circle, dance for a while, come back, put the rice on, get the soup going. A lot of people coming and going and eating. Meetings. We had a little meditation room. We had a lot of meetings in the meditation room. That was the site of many interesting plans. The Pentagon demonstration was the idea for that was birthed right there in a meditation room in a little circle. You have some photos of yourself during the 60s period. I'd love to document some of those. Take a moment to find them. Well, this is an article that came out in White Boy magazine, actually. That was made down in Big Sur at the pool. It's a beautiful shack. I used to go and bathe there every morning when there was a beautiful camp. Great. Let's see. There's a lot of stuff in this article. Where is the Newsweek thing? Newsweek. Oh, this was I was very into chanting. The Hare Krishna was just starting there. We met Bhaktivedanta when he first came to the height of Heydashpuri. I used to love to chant. Alan Ginsberg taught me my first chant when we were traveling around the Volkswagen bus. Then I had my finger symbols. I used to love chanting. This is in the meditation room at the Heyd Street Place sitting chanting. All around you, all this was happening. All this was happening. In your home, there were meetings, there were beginnings, there were people who were inspired by their art, the writer or wanting to have a vision to do something new. There's Daria Garcia. Take a hand over here. That's a great shot. That's a great shot. This is a shot from the human being, this 67. Is that their dancing barefoot in the park? Exactly. At this point in your heart what was driving you? We have a CD right there. It's actually an old 45. What is it? My mother put together these albums for all of her children. This is Happy Trails to You by Roy Rogers. You have this great shot. Your mother just sent you what a room should look like from a magazine. It was a good housekeeping, but she sent it to me because there's a picture of me on the wall taken by Gina Anthony. I'd love to see that. Here it is. Let's see. I'll show you the photograph. Sure. I can find it. This is their Gina Anthony and he did this photograph of me in Stinson Beach. I was pregnant with my first child. It was just a sort of a wistful thing. My mother was looking at good housekeeping and she looked at the wall here in the picture and she suddenly said, there it is. Amazing. Amazing. What are your children's names? Ramakrishna Star and Maitreya Lalila and I have a stepson, Michael Alexander. Did you get bitten by this bug of peace everybody hoping for? We can all do it now together. We can change the world. I sincerely believe that along with a lot of other really idealistic and wide-eyed young people and I still do. I realize it's going to take a tiny bit longer than we thought. Right. It's not going to just flip over that. We'll work. Put some of the ground rules down, lay some of the beginning foundations of change. We had the basic vision and how to do it. Right. People going back to the land and trying to live in communities and we didn't know how to grow carrots and make healthy disposal systems. But all that's been worked out and now if you look at the Guide to Intentional Communities you see hundreds and hundreds of communities, thousands of them all over the world thriving communities. People say oh, too bad the 60s came and went and I say no, not at all. In fact, I brought a picture that is me in a ceremony in Bolinas, one of the annual ceremonies called the Sun Festival. To me this really shows how that energy has continued this celebrational energy that involves art and theater creating unity and ecstatic celebrational transformational energy. This is me in the center doing an opening which is called the universal greeting. Uniting everybody. We still very much believe that we can create a culture of peace and the main focus of my work right now as a trainer for the Center for Nonviolent Communication is in creating the foundation for people to be able to live together in peace. Do we still do anything in communication and understanding? Yes, a lot to do with the language what we have been inherited is a mindset a certain consciousness that's embedded in the language and what CNBC, Nonviolent Communication is doing is helping people to have alternatives to that domination based language to be able to become aware of how the domination thinking is embedded in the way we speak and have some different choices. How do people find out more information about that? Go to cnvc.org and you'll see what's going on all over the world we're in more than 30 countries so it's a very big and lively organization and locally in the Bay Area there's a baynvc.org and there's just wonderful things going on all over the world it's very exciting. It's amazing. If you could tell the young people of the future one, two, or three with things on how they can start to be called their lives in the direction of the lives and be inspired by some of what you learned through this path so somebody was watching this video 50 years from now 50 years from now I hope that they'll know a lot more than any of us do by then I hope they would be... What could someone start who's never even had the thought maybe I could help make peace on this earth I think it starts with ourselves being kind to ourselves because we must be kind to ourselves we're going to be able to be kind to others it's basic kindness basic kindness I think the Dalai Lama wraps it up pretty well in the teachings of the Buddha basic kindness and getting away from dualistic thinking and separation thinking we used to say so much about how we are all one at realization that came through and that it is one being and I think that's still the big key to recognizing as long as I can hold your needs as dearly as I hold my own needs and we can find a way to meet all of our needs that there is enough that there is enough there is a way for us to live together peacefully I'd love to see something from our work and maybe you could explain a little bit what inspired you to create it there was a period when things just it seemed that I was channeling things I never knew what what was going to come out on the paper I would just set the paper down and then start moving my hand and a series of portraits came out which I relate to as spirit guides this I call the Aquarian Guide this is oil beautiful and you can see the head is sort of exploding with planets, the third eye is lighting up up here so it's that vision of the human the new human, the being that I believe is being Earthed right now that is aware and has that single single vision to be good in himself yes this is this goes this way a person who is looking toward the the vision of the future the pyramids and the temple looking off into the distance of what might be these idealized cities came up in my paintings quite a bit and you know now they really are coming to pass a huge international eco village movement I read recently a man has now been hired to do seven cities in China they're going to house 400 million people and everything in them will be completely sustainable working on the basis that everything will be not just recycled but will the waste products from any given thing will contribute to nutrients to the full the complete cycle so this is a goddess figure you can see the little mushroom there there's been a lot of emphasis in the last few years on the reemergence of the goddess understanding more deeply what the feminine is bringing it into balance not one aspect dominating the other from having balance this is another spirit guide figure has the artwork been used anywhere yes it appeared and different things events mostly a lot of artwork helping to create transformational environments this one is kind of scary to some people it's an extraterrestrial what you don't know is scary that's beautiful I don't know where they come from they just appear on the paper oh hi who are you so your friends your family people you met while you were living on H Street any if you had a net and you could catch one, two, three memories that you would love to share maybe you can tell us some of the names of people that were around that made differences with their art and their writing or Gainesburg you mentioned and a few maybe memories that you are left with that two, three memories what would be the highest what would be the ones that you can't forget well definitely while I was sitting around the campfire in the morning when I was traveling with Alan and Gary we would all be either writing in our journals or reading Milarepa and those days were pretty amazing pretty amazing journey my time in Big Sur living outside birthing my babies the birthing at home the magnificent joy of bringing forth these children in a natural environment with people singing and flutes playing the babies coming out and being received into community very beautiful and the ceremonies the ceremonies over the years many years of rituals and ceremonies circles and drumming and singing with people ceremonial do you feel people want to be a community people are drawn together all want to give love and be loved and that is a simple completion of being here it's the greatest healing I think that we really need for this planet is the re-creation the re-weaving of community and that's really why I got involved in conflict resolution I was doing holistic healing work and I was seeing people do a lot of emotional healing coming to places of new awareness and understanding in their lives and basically they would still go back to a life of great isolation and separation and they began to look at that and I could see over and over that what really needed to happen for these people was to have community in their lives to be living in community then I began to ask myself what does it take to create community and one of the main things that I saw was to be able to have ways to work through conflicts creatively to be able to come back to a place of harmony because we have such a conflict phobia we in our culture have a fear of conflict we think there's something wrong if there's conflict and it's growth and it's an opportunity to come closer so I began to focus on conflict resolution as a way to be able to contribute to a rebuilding community in our culture and how do you help people heal from the past ideas and patterns and become who they really are what I'm doing right now what advice, yes what I'm doing right now is teaching workshops and I do trainings and non-violent communication and people do incredible deep healing is there any word of advice that you can put on camera always a big challenge to sum things up it's totally short but are there any key words are there any start right now or do you see good in everything do you find the good in everything I mean that's a skill right there to be able to be open enough to be that open each other as humans take the labels of each other and see each other as human beings to get away from labeling each other whether it's role label, boss even the labeled child is dehumanizing to see each other as human beings it's a lot of sense I have one other memory I would love to remember the article were you ever around when a new cover arrived out and was printed or you know when the writers got around I remember the interview with Timothy and Alan and Gary Snyder I was there for that what part of the interview do you remember the article do you remember anything about the don't ask me anything specific about it it's been a long time you know but these are major people that infected change and people listen to them and since people listen to them it was very powerful when articles came out in the article because this was not the normal journalism and it was I think it was one of the main things that was influencing people also the dances for me going to the dances at the film war was life changing it was though we were being just burst open the old programming in the body the uptightness just to be able to have that music blasting through us and opening up so the visuals and the writing that was going on in the article and the physical experience of being with the music and the dancing another aspect of that opening our minds were being open it was a real unification of the spirit that was going on and so on all levels we were being opened up and it was pretty exciting and it still is I still see the opening happening what it looks to me like is that there was a wave that went through and there were a whole section of the populace that received certain kinds of initiations through psychedelics through experiences that were through the music and the dancing and through the writing and so on and now I see that wave spreading through the mainstream it's still going on it's certainly still going on and the flower that bloomed then cast many seeds and now those flowers are blooming that's what I see as we close that's part of what I wanted to ask you about as you see now what's going on with young people and as we see what you showed us the circle of events that happen at Bolinas and the future you're hopeful I'm very hopeful even with cell phones I'm very hopeful and there are certain things that have given me a lot for example Francis Moore Le Pays book that she wrote with her daughter they travel around the world and they documented things that are really changing in the world that are really working if anybody wants to get a sense of hope read that book what's it called again? Hope's Edge by Francis Moore Le Pays she wrote a little book you may remember, Died for a Small Planet and this is an amazing book other things that give me hope standing in a field full of young people who are tree sitters and demonstrators trying to stop the cutting of the forest trying to dedicate their lives to this and all owing together while there's a big rainbow in the sky I mean I see so many positive things going on the synoptic connection of many peace movements across the planet the connecting of the dots the awareness that we have what it takes to create a culture of peace and a culture of abundance for everyone this awakening that it is possible and it's the awakening to me it's really it's a really exciting moment just as exciting as it was back in the 60's I want to just thank you so much for being part of this and those that are watching this in the future personally you aren't just one of the thousands of players I can tell from your spirit I can tell from your focus and the work you're doing now you have such passion that is so catching your contribute contributions whether you realize it or not it's fired by your art but your vision community and peace and making change is very powerful I just want to thank you so much for being here so we could document this and we'll be asking you back later to partake some more and Martin we are so pleased you are here and thank you so much for being here