Luis StowellUniversity of California Register, 1954-1955, with Announcements for 1955-1956, IN TWO VOLUMES: volume II
page 69; retrieved December 11, 2016 Kemnitzer (November 13, 1928 in Pasadena, CaliforniaLuis Kemnitzer -- professor and social activist
by Marianne Costantinou, at the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

''; published February 22, 2006; retrieved April 30, 2014– February 17, 2006) was an American anthropologist known for his social and political activism. From 1967 to 1994,Campus Memo
volume 53, number 23 (item 4 - In memoriam: Luis Kemnitzer), at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

; published February 27, 2006; retrieved May 2, 2014 Kemnitzer was a professor at

, where in 1969 he taught that institution's first course in American Indian Studies.Grammy winning SF State professor dies: Lung cancer takes former anthropology professor Dr. Luis Kemnitzer
, by Paulette Bleam, at

; published February 22, 2006; retrieved April 30, 2014 In this role, Kemnitzer visited

Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pri ...

during its

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

—which had been partially planned in his classroom,The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-determination and the Rise of Indian Activism
by Troy R. Johnson; published 1996 by

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...

(via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

); page 51 and among whose participants were some of his students (including Richard Oakes) — to provide logistical advice on how to set up educational programs for Native American children on the island.

Life and work

Kemnitzer began his academic career in the 1940s, studying

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, but withdrew to become a

brakeman A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The earliest known use of the term to describe this occupation occurred in 1833. The advent of through brakes, ...

on the Southern Pacific Railroad. His experiences in the labor force led him to join the Communist Party USA. In the 1960s, he earned his doctorate in anthropology from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, after writing a dissertation based on his experiences living among the Oglala Lakota on the

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Gr ...

. He subsequently became director of the Lakota Language and Culture Center. His published research included studies of syncretism among the Lakota; railroad workers'

time perception The study of time perception or chronoception is a field within psychology, cognitive linguistics and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience, or sense, of time, which is measured by someone's own perception of the duration of the ind ...

; and

needle exchange programme A needle and syringe programme (NSP), also known as needle exchange program (NEP), is a social service that allows injecting drug users (IDUs) to obtain clean and unused hypodermic needles and associated paraphernalia at little or no cost. It ...

s. As an activist, Kemnitzer helped establish the first needle exchange programme in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

's Tenderloin district; and attempted to distribute condoms to

Bohemian Grove Bohemian Grove is a restricted 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) campground at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, United States, belonging to a private San Francisco–based gentlemen's club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, ...

attendees.The State
at the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

; published July 13, 1987; retrieved April 30, 2014 In 2005, he and his partner Moher Downing posed naked for the 2006 "Hotties of

Harm Reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to d ...

" calendar; the 2007 calendar was dedicated to his memory. In 1997, Kemnitzer, who had for many years been an avid record collector, helped create the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...

for the

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

reissue of '' Anthology of American Folk Music''Smithsonian Folkways - Anthology of American Folk Music
at

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fo ...

; retrieved April 30, 2014 (originally compiled by

Harry Everett Smith Harry Everett Smith (May 29, 1923 – November 27, 1991) was an American polymath, who was credited variously as an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic bis ...

, with whom Kemnitzer had been friends).Collecting, Collage, and Alchemy: The Harry Smith ''Anthology of American Folk Music'' as Art and Cultural Intervention
by Kevin M. Moist; in ''American Studies''; Vol. 48, No. 4 (Winter 2007), pp. 111-127; via JSTOR He subsequently shared in the 1998

Grammy Award for Best Album Notes The Grammy Award – Best Album Notes has been presented since 1964. From 1973 to 1976 (the 15th through 18th Awards), a second award was presented for Best Album Notes – Classical. Those awards are listed under those years below. The award recog ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemnitzer, Luis Grammy Award winners Members of the Communist Party USA American folk-song collectors Deaths from lung cancer 1928 births 2006 deaths San Francisco State University faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni Southern Pacific Railroad people War Resisters League activists People from Pasadena, California People from San Francisco 20th-century American musicians Activists from California UC Berkeley School of Public Health alumni 20th-century American anthropologists