Howl of protest: Facing public pressure, Hermosa Beach Mural Project to remove poet Allen Ginsberg from work honoring counterculture
Allen Ginsberg sits at a table between Miles Davis and Linda Ronstadt in the existing version of the Hermosa Beach Mural Project’s ninth entry, on the town’s history of Bohemia and counterculture. Photos Until he began working on a commission for the Hermosa Beach Mural Project, artist Timothy Smith knew of “NAMBLA” only through its appearance in an episode of “South Park.” But over the past two weeks, as Smith painted under the eyes of passing pedestrians, and the likenesses of Miles Davis and Linda Ronstadt started to take shape on an alley wall off Pier Plaza, he began hearing the acronym again. “NAMBLA” is short for the North American Man/Boy Love Association. It is, according to its website and supporters, “the primary voice testifying to the benevolent aspects of man/boy love” and “a beacon of moral support for all individuals who feel a natural love for boys.” But, according its vastly larger body of detractors, NAMBLA is an organization devoted to pederasty and child abuse, a criminal syndicate draping itself in the rhetoric of sexual liberation. NAMBLA understandably maintains a low profile. (In the South Park episode, the character Eric Cartman, looking for more mature…
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