![]() To understand Coyote, one should read his writing. Understanding Peter Coyote could be the key to understanding the ‘60s, and hence ourselves – the heirs to that complex cultural earthquake. But more rarely, and importantly, he reticently found personal success while integrating into political appointment and the fame of Hollywood. His was an endangered species, and Coyote is one of the fortunate few who survived. Coyote became the ultimate Haight Street hippie before “hippie” was even a term. Coyote pursued ultimate freedom in the exhilarations and the despairs of a drug centric culture. Other than Vietnam War opposition, musicians such as Dylan, Dead, the Airplane, ingestible therapy from men like Leary, Owsley, and Kesey – Coyote, the Diggers, and similar “edge dwelling” activists in the wake of Beat energy, did the most to rock the foundations of society. Using street theater and printing thought provoking slogans and flyers to break mindsets and boundaries the Diggers became a unifying force in the nebulous and factious “movement.” The Digger philosophy was not only “free everything,” but the underground organization provided exactly that, feeding, housing, providing medical, protecting local poor and the innumerable naïve runaways who had flocked to psychedelic epicenter San Francisco in the late 60s. Why theater when social theater could be a round-the-clock cabaret? Coyote metamorphosed into a co-founder of the seminal, benevolent anarchists, the Diggers. When he cosmically converged with the Svengali-esque (but probably nuts) Emmett Grogan, Grogan convinced Coyote to be a “life actor” rather than a stage actor. Soon he was drawn into the outrageous guerilla theatre company, The San Francisco Mime Troupe. ![]() Well before fame and fortune, he arrived in San Francisco from New Jersey to pursue a master’s in creative writing at SFS. He has also held a long time passion for the literary. (Former) Mill Valley resident Peter Coyote is known for many accomplishments: actor, narrator, activist. The Coyote Cycle: Answers from Peter Coyote Peter Coyote: Not just a pretty face and a golden voice, but once a street charmer. ![]()
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