In Chicago, seven defendants—including antiwar leaders Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden—were tried on conspiracy and incitement charges stemming from violent clashes between protesters and police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The trial became a theater of political confrontation, with defendants openly mocking the judge, Julius Hoffman, who responded by binding and gagging defendant Bobby Seale in the courtroom. Five convictions were eventually overturned on appeal.

The Chicago Seven trial was a defining event for the New Left poetry movement, with Allen Ginsberg testifying as a defense witness and chanting mantras in the courtroom. The trial's absurdist quality—theatrical defendants, a furious judge, chaotic proceedings—embodied the spirit of countercultural poetry that blurred the line between art and political action, and it influenced the performance poetry and spoken word traditions that emerged from the 1960s, where the courtroom itself became a stage for poetic protest.