Louis Abolafia

His candidacy for president of the United States under the Nudist Party[1] on the hippie Love Ticket at various times in the 1960s and onward was a form of political theater or performance art.

In this capacity, he organized love-ins and happenings that combined music, poetry and audience participation, inspiring the New York press to crown him "The Love King".

He befriended a number of notable 1960s artists, including musician Bob Dylan,[3] artist Yayoi Kusama,[4] Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol (and Factory hangers-on), Canadian socialite Margaret Trudeau, and Satsvarūpa Dāsa Gosvāmī, a senior disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement.

[citation needed] Abolafia inspired the creation of the Exotic Erotic Ball in 1979 in San Francisco, held annually for more than three decades until it was canceled in 2010.

In press materials for the first Ball, which was held as a campaign fundraiser for Abolafia, he was said to have coined the phrase "Make love, not war", though the attribution is disputed.