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Comments (0) By Tara Jepsen Wednesday, Feb 11 2009

If you’ve been deep in Hannah Montana and visit the Bay Area for the chowder at the Cliff House and a dash of Fleet Week, you may be interested to know that we also have a rich history in countercultural newspapers. The opening reception for "An Exhibit of Radical Underground Newspapers from the Sixties & Seventies in the U.S." includes a discussion and slide show by Billy X Jennings, a former assistant to Huey Newton and the current archivist of the Black Panther Party. Following is a talk by Emory Douglas on the role of art in underground publications: Douglas was the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture from 1967 until the early 1980s, contributing artwork as well as supervising layout and publication of The Black Panther newspaper. Another Bay Area paper covered by the exhibit, the Berkeley Barb, focused much of its political coverage on the Vietnam/American War and the activities of the UC system. Founder Max Scherr is credited with stirring up the hubbub around dried banana skins and their hallucinogenic properties. It was a complete fabrication intended as comedy, but it ultimately forced the FDA to launch an investigation. The report, of course, proved that the only comedy in bananas is slipping on a peel, unless you count the song "Mellow Yellow."