On Thursday, June 6, 6:30 pm, at the Sausalito Library, and June 9, 4 pm at the Tam Valley Cabin, I’ll be giving a talk called “Sausalito Houseboat Wars: What Really Happened.”
In the late 1970s, the “houseboat wars” erupted in Sausalito on the site of Marinship, the abandoned World War II shipyard. Hippies and squatters were living free and easy on houseboats in a ramshackle shantytown, but public officials and developers set out to evict them and build new docks to attract more affluent residents. The counterculture was in full flower, and the houseboaters resisted eviction with street theater, civil disobedience, monkeywrenching, and more. All in front of TV cameras.
Join me on June 6 or June 9 for a colorful retelling of those turbulent times, including excerpts from houseboat residents and journalists, photographs by Bruce Forrester and Pirkle Jones, and video clips of TV news reports from the waterfront. I’ll also read from my new novel, Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, which is not true, but inspired by those true events. The book captures the spirit of the times, and tells the truth in its own way. (As Neil Gaiman said, “Fiction is the lie that tells the truth.”)
Pirates of Sausalito started as a play I wrote and directed at the Tam Valley Community Center in 2023, and have since adapted into a novel.
The two upcoming talks will be a rerun of a May 1 talk at the Mill Valley Library. Both events are free, but registration is required.
- June 6, 6:30 pm at the Sausalito Library, 420 Litho Street
- June 9, 4 pm at the Tam Valley Cabin, 60 Tennessee Valley Road
P.S. You can learn more about the novel here and the history here.
