I'm Kenny Toglia, a long-time radical activist on New York's historic Lower East Side. As a high school student in the 1980s, like many idealistic young people eager to change the world for the better, I felt powerless and ignored.

One day, I read 1960s radical Abbie Hoffman’s memoir Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, and I laughed aloud when I learned about a Yippie anti-Vietnam War protest on Wall Street where, instead of picketing outside with signs, the protesters snuck into the stock exchange and dropped dollar bills from the balcony. In a vivid representation of the senselessness and greed behind the war, the stockbrokers stopped buying and selling to chase dollar bills around the room. As Abbie later said, “If you don’t like the news, why not go out and make your own?”

That’s how I fell in love with guerilla theater and political activism, and that's why I am organizing the Yippie Cannabis Museum and School of Activism and the Archive of the NY Underground: Young people need real alternative centers, resources, and media to find ways to make their voices heard in a creative, positive fashion.

I'm honored to be working with Ed Rosenthal, the father of indoor cannabis growing, and his charity, Green Aid, to raise funds to buy the Yippie house at Number 9 Bleecker Street and create the Yippie Cannabis Museum and the Archive of the NY Underground.

Number 9 has the distinction of being the birthplace of 3 historic radical movements:

● Marijuana Legalization, which has conquered the mainstream.

● The movement to legalize Ibogaine, an African rainforest psychedelic now being used to treat Parkinson's patients, US veterans with severe PTSD and brain injuries, and people addicted to opiates and other drugs.

● The American headquarters of Rock Against Racism (of the infamous Ward v. Rock Against Racism US Supreme Court case which gave volume control of public protests and musical concerts to local governments).

The Yippie Cannabis Museum’s mission is to preserve NYC’s radical underground history, particularly the struggle for cannabis and ibogaine legalization, and to educate and inspire future generations to stand up for their rights with the humorous and irreverent political street-theater tactics of The Youth International Party. The Archive of the NY Underground's mission is to discover and preserve the buried and censored history of New York City's diverse rebellious bohemian underground communities and the impact of this cultural dissent on music, art, comics, fashion, food, politics, literature, and lifestyles worldwide.

Won't you help us preserve NYC's history of rebellion, resistance, and radicalism as an inspiration to future generations? Please remember your donation is completely tax-deductible. Why not give us your money instead of handing it over to "the man"?

"We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right."

--Abbie Hoffman

Youth International Party