User:Sfcurean/Adrian Brooks

Adrian Brooks is Adrian Brooks (b.1947) is an American writer, spiritual teacher and activist who has been involved in the artistic, social and political vanguard since the 1960s. He is an international traveler, a poet, performer, novelist and non-fiction writer.

Born Craig Welsh Makler to a family of doctors and Olympic fencers also prominent in the Arts, Brooks was raised Quaker in Philadelphia's Main Line- Rittenhouse Square Society. He graduated from Episcopal Academy in 1966 before attending the Friends World Institute, a radical, international (Quaker) college dedicated to producing non-violent revolutionaries. He was a volunteer for Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968; did field work in Mexico, Africa, Nepal and India until 1970; and was part of the nascent, then-alternative SOHO art movement in New York from 1970-1972. There, he knew Andy Warhol and appeared in one of his films.

In 1972, Brooks moved to California. Here, he became prominent in the gay liberation movement as a poet- publishing in Gay Sunshine, Bastard Angel and Manroot- and, also, became a star and writer for the legendary free theater collective, 'The Angels of Light'. Among other shows, he scripted their two smash hits, 'Paris Sites Under the Bourgeois Sea' (1975); and "Holy Cow!" (1979-1980). In 1980, he retired from the company after publishing his first novel, The Glass Arcade.

In 1985, Brooks left North America to divide his time between (Goa) India, and Europe. In India and Holland, he often appeared with "The Amsterdam Balloon Company," expanding performances to include live-action painting, story-telling and improvisation. He designed rugs and interiors in London and spent years studying Siddha Yoga and The Path of Inquiry in India. After meeting H.W.L. Poonja and receiving his Grace in 1995, Brooks returned to live in San Francisco.

His novels- Roulette (2007); Black White and Red all over (2009)- were published by Suspect Thoughts Press. His non-fiction- Flights of Angels (2008) is a memoir of his years in the 1970s avant-garde. Currently, Brooks is finishing an autobiographical trilogy- The Sea Horse- drawn from fifty-one volumes of journals that date to 1967, and has plans to appear in the forthcoming documentary film on the Angels of Light, directed by Mary Jordan.

In 1998, Brooks awakened into the direct spiritual lineage of Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950). And while continuing to write, Brooks offers free counseling in private session, men's groups, AIDS hospices, and prisons such as Death Row on San Quentin.