John Sinclair (poet)
| John Sinclair | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
October 2, 1941 Flint, Michigan, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, political activist |
John Sinclair (born October 2, 1941) is an American poet, writer, and political activist from Flint, Michigan. Sinclair's defining style is jazz poetry, and he has released most of his works in audio formats. Most of his pieces include musical accompaniment, usually by a varying group of collaborators dubbed Blues Scholars.
As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair's own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panthers.
Arrested for possession of marijuana in 1969, Sinclair was given ten years in prison. The sentence was criticized by many as unduly harsh, and it galvanized a noisy protest movement led by prominent figures of the 1960s counterculture. Sinclair was eventually freed in December 1971, but he remained in litigation – his case against the government for illegal domestic surveillance was successfully pleaded to the US Supreme Court in United States v. U.S. District Court (1972).
Sinclair eventually left the US and took up residency in Amsterdam. He continues to write and record and, since 2005, hosts a regular broadcast and podcast, The John Sinclair Radio Show.
Sinclair was a member of the Class of 1960 at Albion College in Albion, Michigan, but he dropped out after his first year. Sinclair attended the Flint College of the University of Michigan, now the University of Michigan-Flint. During his time at UM-Flint he served on the university's Publications Board, school newspaper "the word", and was the president of the Cinema Guild. He graduated in 1964. He currently lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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