Bill Graham was a legendary music promoter behind many Bay Area bands for several decades, starting amid the 1960’s counterculture movement of San Francisco. His work affected not only acts like, Jefferson Airplane, the Fugs, Santana, Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead, but he also promoted the distinctive style of that era with art by Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin. He organized music festivals and benefit events to support community fund raising for after school programs, human rights, Amnesty International and Live Aid. The current exhibition at Skirball Culture Center in Los Angeles, California celebrates his lifetime of wide-ranging achievements, from being a Holocaust survivor to receiving a Purple Heart as an American soldier in the Korean War.
urban iconic 