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Book Cover for: The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972, Fayette Hauser

The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972

Fayette Hauser

The influence of the Cockettes on American underground culture is present in every glittery sequin and candy-colored coiffure gracing our daily lives. Birthed in an LSD bathed commune in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in the summer of 1969, The Cockettes were a fever dream of sexual freedom and expression. They granted themselves names and identities that reflected their inner wild selves then put it all on the stage with elaborate costumes in anarchic musical productions. Gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual-- The Cockettes were everything. The photos here are shared from museums, magazines, and the private collection of founding and long-time Cockette, Fayette Hauser. Her memories of the people, places, and outfits are the only documents from a living member of this vital art collective.

WINNER 2020 PubWest Design Award, Bronze Medal.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Process
  • Publish Date: Apr 28th, 2020
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 11.20in - 8.80in - 1.00in - 3.65lb
  • EAN: 9781934170779
  • Categories: LGBTQ+ Studies - GeneralPerformancePopular Culture

About the Author

Hauser, Fayette: - "When it comes to style, too much is never enough for Fayette Hauser. As an original member of the celebrated acid freak hippie drag queen troupe known as The Cockettes, and one of its few biological females, Fayette's flamboyant and artistic style fused drag, performance art, rock 'n' roll and psychedelia. This imaginative and theatrical approach to dress and life was the hallmark of The Cockettes, who exploded onto the counterculture scene of Haight Ashbury in San Francisco in the late Sixties. Having grown up on the East Coast, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Fayette was just coming of age when the underground of the Sixties was beginning to emerge. After graduating from Boston University, College of Fine Arts with a BFA in painting, Fayette went In search of freedom, adventure and alternatives. Like many others of her generation, Fayette headed west to California and landed in San Francisco in 1968. There she was to meet the people with whom she would form The Cockettes, a short-lived yet incredibly prolific collective and cultural phenomenon embodying the revolutionary spirit of the times through radical self-expression, alternative living, free love, psychedelia - and more glitter than you could ever imagine."

Praise for this book

To commemorate the collective's 50th anniversary, another former Cockette, Fayette Hauser, has authored a flamboyantly illustrated coffee table book, The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy (Process Media). The book is more than a paean to a wild yet touchingly poignant bygone era; it's a virtual encyclopedia of the antecedents of high drag. It's also a key to unlocking the work of John Waters, who used to hang around the Cockettes with Lady Divine in tow before Pink Flamingos--and long before Hairspray. The Cockettes also provided unacknowledged inspiration for Tommy Tune's sets in Ken Russell's 1971 film The Boy Friend. And the music critic David Masciotra once wrote that Prince should have added the disclaimer "apologies to Sylvester" to every song he released to acknowledge his debt to the late Cockette and "Queen of disco" Sylvester, whose high falsetto and channeling of Billie Holiday made him a reliable showstopper. -- Maureen Orth, Vanity Fair--Maureen Orth "Vanity Fair"
Some of the best photos provide a glimpse at everyday life inside the psychedelic Cockette House. Who doesn't love full drag in the kitchen? -- The New York Times--Betsy Horan "New York Times"