page_title: Kaliflower Commune
section_title: Publication
hierarchical_section_title: Kaliflower Commune / Commune culture / Publication
caption_attribution_description: English: The Chief 15 offset press in the Free Print Shop
context_page_description: The Friends of Perfection Commune is an American Utopian community in San Francisco, CA. The San-Francisco-based commune was founded in 1967 on principles of a common treasury, group marriage, free art, gay liberation, and selfless service. They were originally called the Sutter/Scott Street commune, and commonly referred to by non-members as the Kaliflower commune after their newsletter of the same name. Because of their publishing activities, which allowed them to spread their philosophy, they became a significant influence on Bay Area culture. Many members of The Angels of Light, a free psychedelic drag theater group, originally lived in the Kaliflower commune. The name Kaliflower came from their publication of the same name, titled after the Hindu name for the last and most violent age of humankind, the Kali Yuga.
context_section_description: Rosenthal brought his printing press to the basement of Kaliflower, and the space became known as the Free Print Shop, a free, underground publishing venue for Bay Area communes.  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." 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. 
  Starting in April 1969, members of the group worked in the print shop to create Kaliflower, the free, inter-communal newsletter. The newsletter was published weekly between April 1969 and December 1971, & at longer intervals through the present.  The name was a play on Kaliyuga, 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." The publication's audience grew quickly. 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. Every Thursday became known as "Kaliflower Day," the day in which Kaliflower was bound and distributed. Each issue of Kaliflower was printed and bound by hand using the Japanese method of overstitching yarn on either the top or side.
  The newsletter began as a "inter-communal bulletin board" and became a vital mode of communication amongst the communes. It listed items that one commune needed or had to offer; upcoming free events; announcements, free ads, and how-to and skill sharing articles.  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. One from December 10, 1970 had an article titled "Yoga Nazal Cleaning" and information on herbal hair care. 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.
caption: The Chief 15 offset located in the Free Print Shop in the basement of the Kaliflower Commune
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