{{short description|American utopian community since 1967 - (Friends of Perfection)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use American English|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox organization/Wikidata |caption=Commune residents in 1972 |fetchwikidata=ALL |suppressfields=url |noicon=on}} The '''Friends of Perfection Commune''' is an American Utopian community in San Francisco, California.<ref name=":1" /> The commune was founded in 1967 on principles of a common treasury, group marriage, free anonymous art, gay liberation, and selfless service.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosenthal, Irving, 1930-.... |url=http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w62v57s5 |access-date=2017-03-23 |website=socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVLu4F1aOgcC&q=kaliflower|title=The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond|last=Miller|first=Timothy|date=1999-01-01|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-0601-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite periodical |last1=Anonymous |title=Deep Tried Frees |periodical=Kaliflower |date=1978 |series=N.S. |number=3 |page=12}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PcXQ4V49WQ4C&q=rosenthal|title=Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978|last1=Carlsson|first1=Chris|last2=Elliott|first2=Lisa Ruth|date=2011-06-01|publisher=City Lights Books|isbn=978-1-931404-12-9|language=en}}</ref> Many members of The Angels of Light, a free psychedelic drag theater group, originally lived in the ''Kaliflower'' commune.<ref>Kaliflower, vol. I, no. 38, Jan. 8, 1970</ref> The name ''Kaliflower'' referenced the Hindu name for the last and most violent age of humankind, the Kali Yuga.<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971">{{Cite web |url=http://www.diggers.org/kaliflower/kf.htm |title=Kaliflower: the Intercommunal [Free] Newspaper, A Publication of The Free Print Shop |website=The Digger Archives Home Page |access-date=2018-07-16}}</ref>
== Background == Communes played an integral part of the 1960s American hippie movement.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Haight-Ashbury: A History|last1=Perry|first1=Charles|last2=Weir|first2=Bob|date=2005-09-01|publisher=Wenner|isbn=978-1-932958-55-3|edition=1st|location=New York; London|language=en}}</ref>
The ''Kaliflower'' commune was founded on the spiritual and economic principles of the SF Diggers: shared resources, free labor, fun, and the liberation of culture from commercialism.<ref name=":0" /> 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,''<ref name=":0" /> to embrace practices of group marriage, mutual criticism, and selfless service.<ref name=":0" />
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.<ref name="calhist.org 1998">{{cite web |first=Patricia L. |last=Keats |title=Kaliflower and The Free Print Shop |website=California Chronicle / calhist.org |date=1998-08-08 |url=http://www.calhist.org:80/frost1/calchron-v9no4/kaliflower.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981206153131/http://www.calhist.org/frost1/calchron-v9no4/kaliflower.html |archive-date=1998-12-06 |access-date=2020-02-12 }}</ref>
== Origins == Irving Rosenthal (1930{{endash}}2022) was a writer and editor from San Francisco.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="The Beat Museum 2022">{{cite web |title=Irving Rosenthal dies at 91 |website=The Beat Museum |date=2022-04-25 |url=https://www.kerouac.com/irving-rosenthal-dies-at-91/ |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref> He studied at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s where he was an editor of the ''Chicago Review.''<ref name="The Beat Museum 2022"/><ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w62v57s5|title=Rosenthal, Irving, 1930-....|website=socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref> 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 because it included material from William Burroughs′ then-unpublished novel ''Naked Lunch'' .<ref name="The Beat Museum 2022"/><ref name=":5" /> 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.<ref name="Brennan 1995a">{{cite journal |last=Brennan |first=Gerald E. |title=Naked Censorship: The True Story of the University of Chicago and William S. Burroughs, Part 1 |date=1995-09-27 |volume=24 |number=52 |journal=Chicago Reader |location=Chicago |publisher=Chicago Reader, Inc. |oclc=758113682 |page=1 ff}}</ref><ref name="Brennan 1995b">{{cite journal |last=Brennan |first=Gerald E. |title=Naked Censorship: The True Story of the University of Chicago and William S. Burroughs, Part 2 |date=1995-10-06 |journal=Chicago Reader |location=Chicago |publisher=Chicago Reader, Inc. |volume=21 |number=1 |oclc=758113682 |pages=8 ff}}</ref> However, Rosenthal eventually won the case,<ref name="Justia Law 1960">{{cite web |title=Big Table, Inc. v. Schroeder, 186 F. Supp. 254 (N.D. Ill. 1960) |website=Justia Law |date=1960-06-30 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/186/254/2374051/ |access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> which Judge Julius Hoffman adjudicated.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /> He was joined by Hibiscus (a founder of psychedelic free theater groups The Cockettes and the Angels of Light<ref name="The Cockettes 2012">{{cite web |date=2012-10-10 |title=A Brief History... |url=https://www.cockettes.com/history/ |access-date=2019-01-14 |website=The Cockettes}}</ref>) in starting the commune.<ref name="The Beat Museum 2022"/> Members of the SF Diggers helped transport his printing press from New York to start the Free Print Shop.<ref name=":5" />
== Commune culture == The ''Kaliflower'' spirit was one of communalism and cooperation. Many members saw their commune as their family.<ref name=":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".<ref name=":1" /> It was common for commune members to limit relationships with non-communalist friends.<ref name=":1" /> Members gave their savings to the group and were encouraged to quit outside jobs and work inside the community instead.<ref name=":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.<ref name=":1" />
The community supported a culture of polyamory, resisting attachments to a single sexual partner.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Communalism_in_San_Francisco|title=Communalism in San Francisco - FoundSF|website=www.foundsf.org|language=en|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref> Many members slept in a group bedroom and regularly shared sexual partners, participating in what they considered to be a group marriage.<ref name=":1" />
Major decisions were made by consensus within the daily meeting of committed community members.<ref name=":1" /> The commune also held voluntary mutual criticism sessions where members could express issues with each other in a neutral setting.<ref name=":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.<ref name=":1" />
=== Publication === thumb|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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="calhist.org 1998" /> 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."<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> 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.<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971"/><ref name="calhist.org 1998" />
Starting in April 1969, members of the group worked in the print shop to create ''Kaliflower,'' the free, inter-communal newsletter.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /><ref name="calhist.org 1998" /> The newsletter was published weekly between April 1969 and December 1971, & at longer intervals through the present.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> 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."<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> The publication's readership grew quickly.<ref name="calhist.org 1998" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> 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.<ref name="calhist.org 1998" />
The newsletter began as a "inter-communal bulletin board" and became a vital mode of communication amongst the communes.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> It listed items that one commune needed or had to offer; upcoming free events; announcements, free ads, and how-to and skill sharing articles.<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /><ref name="calhist.org 1998" /> 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.<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> One from December 10, 1970 had an article titled "Yoga Nazal Cleaning" and information on herbal hair care.<ref name="The Digger Archives Home Page 1971" /> 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.<ref name=":1" />
== Free Food Conspiracy == The Free Food Conspiracy (later named the Free Food Family) was organized in 1968, in part by Kaliflower members.<ref name=":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.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America|last=Curl|first=John|date=2009-09-01|publisher=PM Press|isbn=978-1-60486-072-6|edition=1|location=Oakland, CA|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=A_Personal_History_of_the_Peoples_Food_System|title=A Personal History of the Peoples Food System - FoundSF|website=www.foundsf.org|language=en|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref> By pooling resources, early food co-ops like the Free Food Conspiracy saved shopping time and provided high quality food for low bulk prices.<ref name=":7" /> By 1973, the organization reached over 150 communes, saving money and increasing cooperation between the communes.<ref name=":3" /> ''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.<ref name=":1" />
=== Free Food Conspiracy legacy === Congress saw the Free Food Conspiracy and other resource-sharing plans like it as abuses of welfare.<ref name=":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).<ref>{{Cite news |date=1971-01-15 |title=Hippie Communes May Lose Their Food Stamps, 15 January 1971 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-capital-times-hippie-communes-may-lo/118736193/ |access-date= |work=The Capital Times |pages=4}}</ref> 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.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=United States Dept. of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528 (1973) |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/413/528/ |access-date= |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref name=":7" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=https://www.fleamarketinsiders.com/san-francisco-bay-area-flea-markets/9/|title=San Francisco Bay Area Flea Markets (top 10) - San Francisco Really Really Free Market (RRFM), San Francisco - Flea Market InsidersFlea Market Insiders {{!}} Page 9|website=www.fleamarketinsiders.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=https://sffnb.org/|title=San Francisco Food Not Bombs|website=San Francisco Food Not Bombs|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":8" />
== Impact == thumb|Rebirth and Development, 2019 thumb|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<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-house-of-love-and-prayer/everyday-life-at-the-house-of-love-and-prayer|title=Everyday Life at the House of Love and Prayer|last=Kroll-Zeldin|first=Oren|date=2017-12-09|website=The House of Love and Prayer: A Radical Jewish Experiment in San Francisco|language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref> and the One Mind Temple (which became the St. John Coltrane Church).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.diggers.org/diggers/digbread.html|title=Digger Bread & The Free Bakery (ies)|website=The Digger Archives|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://missionlocal.org/2011/12/odd-buildings-a-hidden-charity-on-23rd-street/|title=Odd Buildings: A Hidden Charity on 23rd Street|last=Goldberg|first=Jamie|date=2011-12-29|website=Mission Local|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref> {{As of|2025}}, it continues to publish ''Kaliflower,''<ref>Kaliflower, vol. I0, no. 1, Apr. 22, 2024</ref> produce free art, and host services such as a free food pantry, referrals to free services, and a free community garden.<ref name=":2" /> The community garden (All in Common Garden) supports the Free Farm Stand on Sundays at Parque Niños Unidos at 23rd and Treat Streets,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-create-a-free-farm-stand-in-your-community|title=How to Create a Free Farm Stand in Your Community|last=Rustrum|first=Chelsea|website=Shareable|date=February 3, 2015 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref> which was started by a person who was part of the commune.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=299|title=Conversations.org: A Conversation with Tree (Dennis Rubenstein), by Richard Whittaker|last=Whittaker|first=Richard|date=2012-04-16|website=Works and Conversations|access-date=2019-02-17}}</ref>
== 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.<ref name="The Cockettes 2012" />
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.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/fabuloussylveste00josh|title=The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco|last=Gamson|first=Joshua|date=2006-01-24|publisher=Picador|isbn=978-0-312-42569-2|edition=Reprint|location=New York|language=en|url-access=registration}}</ref> Sylvester did not live in the commune, but another cofounder of the Cockettes, Hibiscus, was a member.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J8g3vG8yn6cC&q=%22Kaliflower%22+%22haight-ashbury%22&pg=PA50|title=The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco|last=Gamson|first=Joshua|date=2006-01-24|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-42569-2|page=75|language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Official website||name=Free Print Shop home page}} *{{cite web |title=Conversations.org: A Conversation with Tree (Dennis Rubenstein), by Richard Whittaker |website=Conversations.org |date=2012-04-16 |url=http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=299 |ref={{sfnref |Conversations.org |2012}} |access-date=2018-07-17}}
Category:1967 establishments in California Category:20th century in San Francisco Category:Anti-capitalism Category:Anti-war movement Category:Communes Category:Food cooperatives in the United States Category:Free market Category:Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco Category:Hippie movement Category:Intentional communities in California Category:Underground press Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:Cooperatives based in California