Unpaginated (28 pp.) collection of promotional visual material for the Internationalist Arts Festival held in San Francisco in 1982, photomechanical reproductions to rectos only. Quarto (10 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches). Original cardstock wrappers, front cover illustrated, with plastic comb binding. Some toning along bottom edge of front cover and spine, interior clean and bright, overall very good. [San Francisco]: [San Francisco Poster Brigade], 1982.

The Anti-WW3 Internationalist Arts Festival was held in San Francisco in May 1982, as the final stop of a traveling exhibition of approximately 200 political works of contemporary art and poetry submitted from around the world, dealing with themes of peace and social justice. The exhibition began in San Francisco, and before ending its tour back in San Francisco, made stops in Los Angeles, Tucson, and New York. The festival was organized primarily as a mail art event, with accompanying performance art, dance, film, video, music, theatre, and poetry readings. Contributions came from 46 countries around the world. The month-long festival in San Francisco also featured paintings, sculpture, and installations from Bay Area artists. According to one of the flyers in this volume, "This Festival ignites the spirit of hope in a people numbed by the fear of nuclear war. It reaffirms our common dream to reclaim the world and make the future ours."

The exhibition was organized by the San Francisco Poster Brigade, formerly known as the Wilfred Owen Brigade, named after a radical poet killed in World War I. The SFPB was begun by Rachel Romero and Leon Klayman in 1974, and by 1983 they had produced over 400 posters for community and international causes, printing many of their designs from linoleum blocks before reprinting them in offset editions. SFPB was "the pre-eminent non-ethnic poster workshop" in the Bay Area and placed a strong emphasis on "hand-printed craft", organizing group exhibitions which "worked to unify the entire Bay Area postermaking community." ("Evolution of the Social Serigraphy Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1966-1986", Michael Rossman, FoundSF, November 1986).

This volume contains a collection of posters, flyers, press releases, and other material for the exhibition and its related events from May 1982, including a press release advertising the exhibition's return to San Francisco and its contributions from countries around the world; calls for proposal submissions for dance performances, cassette tapes, installations, and poetry; a flyer for a benefit on May 1 at the Theatre Nightclub on Broadway; a flyer for an event called "At the Heart: Solidarity with all Peoples" featuring Caribbean music, Nigerian folk tales, videos from Wounded Knee, video-art from El Salvador, Egyptian cane dancing, and others; flyer for poetry readings; an advertisement from a performance from the Music at Large Liberation Orchestra; a flyer for the premiere of the film "John Heartfield: Photomontagist"; and other events.

Scarce institutionally; as of March 2026, OCLC locates two holdings in North American libraries.

Book ID: 53660

Price: $650.00