AAH Public Talks: Learning from San Francisco – From Sexual Freedom to Free Art
Friday, February 6, 2026 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
- In-person event
- 412, St. Patrick’s Building, Carleton University
- 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
- Cost: Free
Speaker: Dr. Jon Davies, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Carleton University
Abstract: My dissertation “The Fountain: Art, Sex and Queer Pedagogy in San Francisco, 1945–95” examined how artists advanced the cause of sexual liberation through their work and argued that the libidinal dynamics that lay behind artistic production were key to its aesthetic impact. As I continue my research on San Francisco cultural history as a Postdoctoral Fellow in History at Carleton, I have turned to the countercultural, inter-communal newsletter Kaliflower (1969–72) and the passionate arguments over art’s value, role and audiences in its pages. For the editors of Kaliflower, art—like everything else—must be completely free.