The Worksheet was initiated as our first public written means of communication in February of 1965, after the Workshop had been in operation for three months, presenting concerts and readings every Sunday afternoon in the original building on West Forest in Detroit. We thought to create a printed context for work that was being read (and written) in the workshop situation, so the people who came to the readings could SEE what was being done as well as hear it, and so the poets and writers could present work that would supplement their readings and, hopefully, illuminate them. But to understand the context we wanted and needed so desperately to create here, some of the history of the Workshop should be given.

      When the sixteen people whose names are affixed to the “manifesto” printed in this collection got together at my apartment in the late summer of 1964 to “do something about Detroit,” we were literally on our own. Tysh, Eichele, Semark and myself had been writing “seriously” (i.e., taking ourselves seriously as poets) for only a short time, and our talks with each other had been so exciting for us that we wanted to make that activity available to other people – especially younger writers – who might have been working as we had been prior to our meeting with each other: in a vacuum. Since there was no leadership in the city, and no one had been able to find who was even aware of the existence of what we had found to be “projective verse” (reading Olson’s essay, even at that late date, had completely blown our minds, and we took it quite seriously as our single dogma to one degree or another), we wanted to get the news of what we had “discovered” to as many people as possible in what we hoped would be our community. The spirit of love and friendship that informs the “manifesto” was a very real force at that time, and happily has continued to be a force in our development, and we were very much concerned at the beginning with turning people on, making them aware of new possibility for self-expression, and sharing ourselves in whatever ways we could.

EDITORIAL BLAST

     The SUN is a communal effort by the Trans-Love tribe of Detroit and Ann Arbor. It reflects the lives and ways of the people who put it together and carries our spirit. We put out THE SUN because we have to – we’ve all got lots of other things to do but the NEWS has to get out because people NEED TO KNOW...

     This issue of THE SUN had enough material for 48 pages, and enough imagination and devotion to make every page a total delight, but we are forced to keep it to 16 letter-sized pages because we can’t afford to pay for any more. We’re lucky to get it printed at all in fact – this issue was ready for the printer, Cy Aaron, [who] refused to print it, and some 7 other printers turned it down because they can’t stand to see the word FUCK in print. The moral heavyweights of our time! After more than a week of looking we found our present printer (whose name we’ll leave out so he can do it again), but he couldn’t print on newsprint and the cost of tabloid-sized paper (even just 12 pages) was too much for us to bear so we’re here like this, and damned lucky to be here at all.

The Love-In by Sheil Salasnek

     Two thousand people had a love-in on Belle Isle...

     Unfortunately, 8,000 people were present. Whatever happened on the island that night, it shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the 6 or 7 hours of dancing, singing and sharing that preceded it...

     The feeling is now one of joy. It is a love-in! It worked! I never thought there were this many hippies around. Where did they all come from? People you haven’t seen in years come to break bread with you. Two young people who came all the way from Toronto for this smile in ecstatic disbelief...

     A stranger hands you a painted Easter egg and waits to share it with you. Someone else sets up cases of oranges and tomatoes and offers them to everyone passing by. A stranger walks by and looks in your eyes telling you you’re beautiful. Something hits you from behind and you turn around annoyed only to find that someone had thrown a carnation at you. The newsmen are out if force. Love-ins are hot copy now and their readers are anxious to find out what’s going on...

     We are living in a time of great change. The social order which has developed in the West since the Industrial Revolution is now obsolete. The conditions which have made the present mode of life necessary for the development of humanity have now changed, irrevocably, and we must address ourselves to the need for creating a whole new social order, a new economic system, a new culture, based on the new conditions now in effect on the planet: a highly-developed post-industrial cybernetic technology, the possibility of post-scarcity economy, and the need for positive human planning on all levels so that the energy and resources of the planet can best be used in service of all the people of earth now.

     We have seen the future – we ARE the future – and we know that it is not only ours, but that it likewise belongs to all the people on the planet. We know that an age of capitalism, competition, consumerism, and the class society is finished, and we demand total entrance for all people into the New Age of common wealth, cooperation, communalism, and the classless society which is now possible. We understand that modern technology has enabled us to break down the artificial barriers between classes, races, cultures and nationalities so that we can now come face to face with each other on the planet as natural brothers and sisters.