Saturday, October 25th, in Dolores Park... FREE.

The Really Really Free Market is happening from 10:30 AM on...

This one will be a special celebration in remembrance of Kirsten Brydum... one of the greatest people in our little world.  

A soundsystem is already provided by Million Fishes...

But bring things to give away, food to share, music to play, anything that will make a beautiful day in the park even better... and it's all really really FREE!

 For more info, check www.reallyreallyfree.org 

 Also, a letter appealing for support from my friend John:

Dear Friends and Family:

Most of you know, Kirsten Brydum a beautiful woman, powerful immediatist,
and recent mad love of my life was brutally killed while she was traveling
in New Orleans. All the world suffers for this horrible loss. In
particular, all people close to Kirsten and the many people who love her
dearly, including me, are suffering intensely.

I am more grateful than words can express for the support, comfort, and
help you all have provided. I wish I could express my gratitude for each
act of kindness individually, however, as you are all so wonderful that
would be more than a full time job. At the bottom of this letter is a very
partial, very precious, yet somewhat random list of gestures for which I
am eternally grateful. Every act and gesture of kindness no matter how
simple has been profoundly meaningful and necessary.

Many people have asked and are deeply concerned about what else they can
do to help in this tragedy. I know that many people have wanted to reach
out but been unsure how. Below are some suggestions of things people can
do to express their grief and condolences and to help in this time. I also
hope (and scheme) that these suggestions will create a process for
transforming bereavement into a life affirming, beneficial, and positive
force.

If you send me a card or a message about your gesture it will help me
immensely, I will treasure it forever, and I will share it with those who
also need comforting. Feel free to send any gestures to my home address
(221 Precita Ave. San Francisco, CA 94110), by email (viola@unsealed.net),
follow instructions under number three below, or however else is
convenient for you.

1. Get to know Kirsten. If you have not had the great fortune of knowing
Kirsten please take time to read about her and her incredible life. I
suspect you will find that she has been an overwhelmingly powerful force
for good in this world. May she forever continue to amaze people and
inspire people.

2. Please visit Kirsten?s memorial website. It is a good place to start to
learn more about her. You can also find information there about the
foundation the family has started in her name. www.virtualmemorials.com.

3. Dedicate a selfless act to Kirsten. I invite people to perform at least
one positive act dedicated to her. Kirsten took it upon herself to
participate in changing the world. She also did so without ego. In my
experience, she saw herself not as an individual out to change society but
as member of a community being the change they wish to see. In that
spirit, I invite you to perform your dedicated act without taking credit.
For example, place something delicious and nutritious next to a sleeping
person, fix someone?s bike and don?t tell them, leave an anonymous gift on
your neighbor?s doorstep, the possibilities are endless.

(I realize it is a bit of a contradiction to ask you to tell me about
these acts for which you are not supposed to get credit, but I leave it to
your own devices to figure a way out of that paradox- one thought is to do
two such acts, one you share and one you keep secret- another is to report
it anonymously).

These gestures can be shared at
http://www.collectiveautonomy.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.

You can find and update a direct link to a list of these kind acts at:
http://www.collectiveautonomy.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Random_Acts_of_Kindness_in_Kirsten%27s_Honor.
If you select the ?edit? tab at the top of the page you can type in your
addition and select ?save page? at the bottom to add your comment.

4. In the same spirit, I would also like to ask people to take action in
their community against violence and towards gender equality. I am
compiling a list of organizations and resources on community based
responses to violence against women. In particular I would like to ask
people to consider supporting organizations combating violence in New
Orleans. I have not completed this list but felt it was time for me to
reach out to you now. I will provide more information soon.

5. Recognize each other for all the good we are putting into the world
already. Kirsten has been more than a movement builder she has also been a
movement recognizer. Her Collective Autonomy tour is a tribute to that
notion.

6. Ask me about Kirsten. I particularly enjoy telling the story of our
romance turned to true love, so please ask. (Although, I have never been
one to kiss and tell so don?t get your hopes up for too many details).

Finally, please be aware the investigation concerning her death still
continues. I and others will need support until there is closure in that
aspect and until the world is just that much safer. It is also necessary
to draw the links between this act and systemic forms of violence and
inequality. Kirsten?s vision has always been the biggest of big picture
visions. Closure means more than accountability of whoever is responsible
it means visualizing a world of safety and equality for all people and
choosing to live in that world. That is the transformative spirit in which
I intend to respond.

Please keep all the goodness coming.

With all of my heart,
John Viola

Post Script- A very partial, very precious, and somewhat random list of
acts of kindness that people have extended for which I am eternally
grateful:

My sister?s promise that she would raise her children to know Kirsten.

A friend?s sharing of the profoundly beautiful sentiments of her four year
old daughter: ?To have a happy world we pet dogs, let plants grow by
themselves, and we hug.? Thank you Maya, you are a genius.

Che Cookies! Please send more, please send recipe. The original recipe by
the original baker who probably did not know that Kirsten also used to
hang out at the Che Cafe only about ten years after our crowd. I am not
sure if she sampled the legendary Che Cookie during her time there but I
put one on her alter and shared the rest with her friends and housemates.

Vegan Banana Bread. Dropped off at my house by someone I have never met.
It fed a car load of us all the way down to Kirsten?s memorial service in
L.A. and then some.

The constant companionship and sturdiest of shoulders that I have had the
honor to lean on.

Text message hugs from around the world.

Offers to stay and visit in all of those locations. If I wanted to start a
life of travel and leisure now it would be possible. However, for the
foreseeable future my healing is here.

The card from my grandparents.

The tearful voice message from my construction worker friend.

Posting Jack Reimer?s prayer as well as all the other beautiful comments
on her memorial web page.

Conversation about how to fight back.

Too many more to be named, but thank you all from the bottom for each and
every one of them.