Kaliflower Commune

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Kaliflower Commune
Established1967 (57 years ago)
Location San Francisco
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The Friends of Perfection Commune is an American Utopian community in San Francisco, California. [1] The commune was founded in 1967 on principles of a common treasury, group marriage, free anonymous art, gay liberation, and selfless service. [1] [2] [3] [4] They were originally called the Sutter/Scott Street commune, and commonly referred to as the Kaliflower commune, after their newsletter of the same name. Because the commune's publishing activities helped spread their philosophy, they became a significant influence on Bay Area culture. [1] Many members of The Angels of Light, a free psychedelic drag theater group, originally lived in the Kaliflower commune. [5] The name Kaliflower referenced the Hindu name for the last and most violent age of humankind, the Kali Yuga. [6]

Contents

Background

Communes played an integral part of the 1960s American hippie movement. [3] Members of the 1960s counterculture movement created communes as a way to survive outside the hegemonic system and to resist the boredom of enforced heterosexuality, the Vietnam War, capitalism, racism, mass media, and the government. [7]

The Kaliflower commune was founded on the spiritual and economic principles of the Diggers: shared resources, free labor, fun, and the liberation of culture from commercialism. [3] The commune's members were also inspired by John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community (a perfectionist religious communal society that existed in New York in the 1840s) and his book, History of American Socialisms, [3] to embrace practices of group marriage, mutual criticism, and selfless service. [3]

Cofounder Irving Rosenthal created the Free Print Shop, a print shop in the commune basement, as a platform for uncensored, radical, free publishing in the Bay Area. [8]

Origins

Irving Rosenthal (1930-2022) was a writer and editor from San Francisco. [1] [9] He studied at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s where he was an editor of the Chicago Review. [9] [10] There he edited and published many Beat writers including Jack Kerouac, Edward Dahlberg, and William Burroughs; but Rosenthal and most of the staff quit the Chicago Review in 1959 after the University attempted to censor an issue of the Review. [9] [10] To publish the disputed material they cofounded a literary review called Big Table, which was immediately charged with obscenity by the U.S. Postal Department. [11] [12] However, Rosenthal eventually won the case, [13] which Judge Julius Hoffman adjudicated. [1] [10] Rosenthal then moved to New York City, where he continued to edit and publish Beat writers before moving to San Francisco in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own commune free of censorship. [1] He was joined by Hibiscus (a founder of psychedelic free theater groups The Cockettes and the Angels of Light), [14] starting the commune. [9] Members of the SF Diggers helped transport his printing press from New York to start the Free Print Shop. [10]

Commune culture

The Kaliflower spirit was one of communalism and cooperation. Many members saw their commune as their family. [1] In one issue of Kaliflower, commune members wrote, "Nuclear family members don't usually buy and sell to each other, are in fact communistic, and we wanted nuclear family intimacy among the communes". [1] It was common for commune members to limit relationships with non-communalist friends. [1] Members gave their savings to the group and were encouraged to quit outside jobs and work inside the community instead. [1] Commune tasks included research, gardening, cleaning, cooking, running the Free Print Shop, maintaining a free store, or delivering the newsletter or food to other communes. [1]

The community supported a culture of polyamory, resisting attachments to a single sexual partner. [1] [15] Many members slept in a group bedroom and regularly shared sexual partners, participating in what they considered to be a group marriage. [1]

Major decisions were made by consensus within the daily meeting of committed community members. [1] The commune also held voluntary mutual criticism sessions where members could express issues with each other in a neutral setting. [1] During such a session, the member requesting criticism would invite other members to participate, and then listen in silence while concerns & criticisms were aired. Customarily the member did not respond for three days. This system of self-governance was borrowed from the 19th-century American Utopian community at Oneida, NY. [1]

Publication

The Chief 15 offset located in the Free Print Shop in the basement of the Kaliflower Commune Chief 15 offset press in the free print shop.jpg
The Chief 15 offset located in the Free Print Shop in the basement of the Kaliflower Commune

Rosenthal brought his printing press to the commune basement, and the space became known as the Free Print Shop, a free, underground publishing venue for Bay Area communes. [1] [8] The flyer for the opening of the Free Print Shop announced, "The Sutter Street Commune invites you to submit manuscripts, drawings, manifestos to our Free Print Shop. Free distribution guaranteed for whatever we print." [6] From then on, the Free Print Shop produced hundreds of publication including books, pamphlets, and flyers (for free services, ecology groups, political protests, announcements for free events), Food Conspiracy order sheets, and Free Medical Clinic prescription forms. [6] [8]

Starting in April 1969, members of the group worked in the print shop to create Kaliflower, the free, inter-communal newsletter. [1] [6] [8] The newsletter was published weekly between April 1969 and December 1971, & at longer intervals through the present. [1] [6] The name was a play on Kali Yuga , the Hindu name for the last and most violent age of humankind, the idea being that the publication was "a step toward a seed of positivity growing out of the age of destruction." [6] The publication's readership grew quickly. [8] After three years, it was delivered to more than 300 communes in the Bay Area, eventually becoming so well known that the commune itself became known as Kaliflower. [1] [6] Every Thursday became known as "Kaliflower Day," the day on which Kaliflower was bound and distributed. Each issue of Kaliflower was printed in-house and bound by hand using the Japanese method of overstitching yarn on either the top or side. [8]

The newsletter began as a "inter-communal bulletin board" and became a vital mode of communication amongst the communes. [1] [6] It listed items that one commune needed or had to offer; upcoming free events; announcements, free ads, and how-to and skill sharing articles. [6] [8] For instance, one article from November 20, 1970 contained articles on how to build cold boxes to grow food and a recipe for squash soup. [6] One from December 10, 1970 had an article titled "Yoga Nazal Cleaning" and information on herbal hair care. [6] Over time, it came to offer a broader range of information about collective living including historical context for communalism and utopianism, often citing information from the Revivalist communes in the 1820s and 1840s, most notably the Oneida Commune of John Humphrey Noyes. [1]

Free Food Conspiracy

The Free Food Conspiracy (later named the Free Food Family) was organized in 1968, in part by Kaliflower members. [1] The organization was one of the original food conspiracies, groups that pooled food stamps and other resources from participating communes and bought food in bulk which they distributed to participants on the basis of need. [16] [17] By pooling resources, early food co-ops like the Free Food Conspiracy saved shopping time and provided high quality food for low bulk prices. [17] By 1973, the organization reached over 150 communes, saving money and increasing cooperation between the communes. [16] Kaliflower expressed hope that one day local communes would eventually pool enough resources to buy property and land; however the Free Food Conspiracy disbanded in 1973 due to resistance against giving up "imported cheeses and health food extravagances" in exchange for a more basic diet. [1]

Free Food Conspiracy legacy

Congress saw the Free Food Conspiracy and other resource-sharing plans like it as abuses of welfare. [1] Nixon attempted to restrict organizations like the Free Food Conspiracy from receiving food stamps by changing eligibility requirements to limit households of unrelated people (ie. Communes). This new eligibility requirement was struck down by the US Supreme Court under the equal protection provision of the 5th Amendment in USDA v. Moreno.

Although the Free Food Conspiracy disbanded in 1973, the organization spurred the creation of many food co-ops as people saw the benefits of organizing wholesale buying operations. [17] The Free Food Conspiracy was a predecessor of many anti-capitalist resource sharing programs including other cooperative food systems, bicycle repair workshops, community gardens, and farmers' markets. [1] [18] It inspired the Food Not Bombs program, an all-volunteer-run global movement that shares free vegan meals as a protest to war and poverty. [19] The Free Food Conspiracy also gave rise to the Really Really Free Market, a movement of temporary markets based on the gift economy where participants bring unneeded items, food, and skills like haircuts to a community space to share with other participants with the principle of countering capitalism. [18]

Impact

Rebirth and Development, 2019 Rebirth and Development - houses.jpg
Rebirth and Development, 2019
All in Common Garden, 2019 Rebirth and Development - All in Common Garden.jpg
All in Common Garden, 2019

Kaliflower helped create the culture of Haight-Ashbury and the San Francisco hippie movement during the 1970s. The commune that produced the newsletter influenced the formation, structure, and principles of many other communes including The House of Love and Prayer [20] and the One Mind Temple (which became the St. John Coltrane Church). [21] Its existence continues to inspire the creation of other utopian, anti-capitalist communes and resource-sharing groups with similar values.

In 1974, the commune moved to the Mission District. [22] As of 2024, it continues to produce free art and host services such as a free food pantry, referrals to free services, and a free community garden. [22] The community garden (All in Common Garden) supports the Free Farm Stand on Sundays at Parque Niños Unidos at 23rd and Treat Streets, [23] which was started by a person who was part of the commune. [24]

Representation in media

The commune is referenced in The Cockettes, a film by David Weissman and Bill Weber about a psychedelic, San Francisco based, gender-bending theater group founded by Hibiscus, one of the first members of the commune. [14]

The commune is mentioned in The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco, a biography by Joshua Gamson about the life of Sylvester, a queer, American singer and performer popular for his disco music. [25] Sylvester did not live in the commune, but another cofounder of the Cockettes, Hibiscus, was a member. [26]

Related Research Articles

A utopia typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, which describes a fictional island society in the New World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippie</span> Person associated with 1960-1975 counterculture

A Hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during or around 1964 and spread to different countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City's Greenwich Village, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago's Old Town community. The term hippie was used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularize use of the term in the media, although the tag was seen elsewhere earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diggers</span> Group of Protestant agrarian socialists in 17th-century England

The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with what would later be called agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from the Levellers, and later became known as Diggers because of their attempts to farm on common land. Due to this and to their beliefs, the Diggers were driven from one county after another by the authorities.

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and street theatre actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics have been categorized as "left-wing;" more accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived. The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and capitalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvester (singer)</span> American singer-songwriter (1947–1988)

Sylvester James Jr., known simply as Sylvester, was an American singer-songwriter. Primarily active in the genres of disco, rhythm and blues, and soul, he was known for his flamboyant and androgynous appearance, falsetto singing voice, and hit disco singles in the late 1970s and 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intentional community</span> Planned, socially-cohesive, residential community

An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Members typically unite around shared values, beliefs, or a common vision, which may be political, religious, spiritual, or simply focused on the practical benefits of cooperation and mutual support. While some groups emphasise shared ideologies, others are centred on enhancing social connections, sharing resources, and creating meaningful relationships.

Kerista was a utopian community that was started in New York City in 1956 by John Peltz "Bro Jud" Presmont. Throughout much of its history, Kerista was centered on the ideals of polyfidelity, as well as the creation of intentional communities. Kerista underwent several incarnations that later became known as the "Old Tribe", which was associated with a fairly large but fluid membership.

The Koreshan Unity was a communal utopia formed by Cyrus Teed, a distant relative of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Koreshans followed Teed's beliefs, called Koreshanity, and he was regarded by his adherents as "the new Messiah now in the World". After moving from New York to Illinois, the group eventually settled in Estero, Florida. The last person to officially admit membership to the Koreshans died in 1982.

The Cockettes were an avant-garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus in the fall of 1969 when Hibiscus lived in Kaliflower. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Haight-Ashbury, a neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Hibiscus came to live with them because of their preference for dressing outrageously and proposed the idea of putting their lifestyle on the stage. Later in the storefront at 992 Valencia Street, now Artists' Television Access.

Timothy A. Miller is a professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He has been involved in the Communal Studies Association (US) and Utopian Studies Society (Europe), and is past president of the International Communal Studies Association (Israel). He has a particular interest in intentional communities and new religious movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hibiscus (entertainer)</span> American actor, performance artist (1949–1982)

Hibiscus was an American actor and performance artist. Starting his career in New York City, he moved to San Francisco, where in the early 1970s he founded the psychedelic gay liberation theater collective known as the Cockettes.

The Life and Labor Commune was a Tolstoyan agricultural commune founded in 1921 and disbanded as a state run collective farm on 1 January 1939. The commune was founded near Moscow but was later resettled in central Siberia, not far from Novokuznetsk. At its peak, it reportedly had as many as 1,000 participants. Throughout its existence the members of the commune were persecuted by the Bolsheviks, both for refusing to enlist or support their war efforts as well as for organizing themselves communally outside of the approved state structure.

Food Conspiracy is a term applied to a movement begun in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 in which households pooled their resources to buy food in bulk from farmers and small wholesalers and distribute it cheaply. The name came to describe a loose network of autonomous collectives which shared common values and, in many cases, suppliers. Many participants were seeking an alternative to supermarkets and became involved to obtain direct control of the quality and type of food they were sourcing, with a strong focus on wholefoods and organic produce.

Morningstar Commune was an active open land counterculture commune in rural Sonoma County, California, located at 12542 Graton Road near Occidental.

The hippie subculture began its development as a youth movement in the United States during the early 1960s and then developed around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Nicoletta</span> Italian-American photographer

Daniel Nicoletta is an Italian-American photographer, photojournalist and gay rights activist.

The Spirit Fruit Society was a communitarian group in the United States that was organized after a period of repeated business depressions during the 1890s. The society had its beginnings in Lisbon, Ohio, and over the years of its existence moved to Ingleside, Illinois, and finally to California. Plagued by rumor, suspicion, and attacks in the press during its early years, the group remained active until 1930. Although it never numbered more than a handful of adherents, the Spirit Fruit Society existed longer and more successfully than any other American utopian group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Union of Associationists</span> Political party in United States

The American Union of Associationists (AUA) was a national organization of supporters of the economic ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837) in the United States of America. Organized in 1846 in New York City as a federation of independent local Fourierist groups, the AUA published a weekly magazine called The Harbinger and published more than 70 books and pamphlets, which helped it to enjoy a brief moment of influence spreading the ideas of communitarianism to a circle of leading intellectuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irving Street Kitchen</span> Defunct restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Irving Street Kitchen was a restaurant serving American cuisine in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District, in the United States. Conceived by Doug Washington, Mitch Rosenthal and Steve Rosenthal as their interpretation on American cuisine with a Southern influence, it opened on May 6, 2010. With executive chef Sarah Schafer, Irving Street Kitchen added to their serving hours over the years, opening up for lunch and brunch. The restaurant also shifted towards casual dining in 2019, revamping its menu and ambiance. Irving Street Kitchen ultimately closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Carlsson, Chris; Elliott, Lisa Ruth (June 1, 2011). Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978. City Lights Books. ISBN   978-1-931404-12-9.
  2. ↑ "Rosenthal, Irving, 1930-..." socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Timothy (January 1, 1999). The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond. Syracuse University Press. ISBN   978-0-8156-0601-7.
  4. ↑ Anonymous (1978). "Deep Tried Frees". Kaliflower. N.S. No. 3. p. 12.
  5. ↑ Kaliflower, vol. I, no. 38, Jan. 8, 1970
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Kaliflower: the Intercommunal [Free] Newspaper, A Publication of The Free Print Shop". The Digger Archives Home Page. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ Perry, Charles; Weir, Bob (September 1, 2005). The Haight-Ashbury: A History (1st ed.). New York; London: Wenner. ISBN   978-1-932958-55-3.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Keats, Patricia L. (August 8, 1998). "Kaliflower and The Free Print Shop". California Chronicle / calhist.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 1998. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Irving Rosenthal dies at 91". The Beat Museum. April 25, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Rosenthal, Irving, 1930-..." socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  11. ↑ Brennan, Gerald E. (September 27, 1995). "Naked Censorship: The True Story of the University of Chicago and William S. Burroughs, Part 1". Chicago Reader. 24 (52). Chicago: Chicago Reader, Inc.: 1 ff. OCLC   758113682.
  12. ↑ Brennan, Gerald E. (October 6, 1995). "Naked Censorship: The True Story of the University of Chicago and William S. Burroughs, Part 2". Chicago Reader. 21 (1). Chicago: Chicago Reader, Inc.: 8 ff. OCLC   758113682.
  13. ↑ "Big Table, Inc. v. Schroeder, 186 F. Supp. 254 (N.D. Ill. 1960)". Justia Law. June 30, 1960. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  14. 1 2 "A Brief History..." The Cockettes. October 10, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Communalism in San Francisco - FoundSF". www.foundsf.org. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  16. 1 2 Curl, John (September 1, 2009). For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America (1 ed.). Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN   978-1-60486-072-6.
  17. 1 2 3 "A Personal History of the Peoples Food System - FoundSF". www.foundsf.org. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  18. 1 2 "San Francisco Bay Area Flea Markets (top 10) - San Francisco Really Really Free Market (RRFM), San Francisco - Flea Market InsidersFlea Market Insiders | Page 9". www.fleamarketinsiders.com. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  19. ↑ "San Francisco Food Not Bombs". San Francisco Food Not Bombs. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  20. ↑ Kroll-Zeldin, Oren (December 9, 2017). "Everyday Life at the House of Love and Prayer". The House of Love and Prayer: A Radical Jewish Experiment in San Francisco. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  21. ↑ "Digger Bread & The Free Bakery (ies)". The Digger Archives. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  22. 1 2 Goldberg, Jamie (December 29, 2011). "Odd Buildings: A Hidden Charity on 23rd Street". Mission Local. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  23. ↑ Rustrum, Chelsea (February 3, 2015). "How to Create a Free Farm Stand in Your Community". Shareable. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  24. ↑ Whittaker, Richard (April 16, 2012). "Conversations.org: A Conversation with Tree (Dennis Rubenstein), by Richard Whittaker". Works and Conversations. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  25. ↑ Gamson, Joshua (January 24, 2006). The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco (Reprint ed.). New York: Picador. ISBN   978-0-312-42569-2.
  26. ↑ Gamson, Joshua (January 24, 2006). The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco. Macmillan. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-312-42569-2.
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