A Living Library = A. L. L.

Enjoy short video on Crossroads Community (the farm), a pioneering, urban agriculture, environmental education, multi-arts, community gathering place that began in 1974 and incorporated a major freeway interchange.  The open space is now site of Potrero del Sol Park, which was originally inspired by The Farm.

Also see below Original Proposal For The Farm, Drawing/Collage © 1974 by Bonnie Ora Sherk, Founding Director and President of Crossroads Community (the farm) from 1974-1980, and picture of Model of The Farm: View South To Freeway ©1977 Bonnie Ora Sherk.

Affectionately known as The Farm to the thousands of participants from all walks of life - locally and globally - The Farm also led directly to the development of  A Living Library, which began right after Bonnie Ora Sherk left The Farm at the end of 1980.

The Farm, was located in San Francisco in the crossroads of four, low-income, multicultural communities (Mission, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Bayview) on 7+ acres adjacent to, and including the intersection of a major freeway interchange (101 at Chavez & Potrero). The Farm, was an early Life Frame*, and involved extensive land transformation including the integration of disparate, derelict, land parcels into a new city culture-ecology park at the convergence of three hidden Creeks - Islais, Precita, Serpentine, now called Potrero Del Sol Park.  (*The Life Frame literally engages and frames life, so we can see it and experience it more profoundly- Bonnie Ora Sherk.)

[caption id="attachment_9271" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Crossroads Community (the farm): First Garden on State Land - AFTER © 1980 Bonnie Ora Sherk[/caption]

  [caption id="attachment_9243" align="aligncenter" width="550"]                      Scene From Crossroads Community (the farm): Boys Mowing The Lawn Next To The Freeway    ©1976 Bonnie Ora Sherk[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5030" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Scene From The Raw Egg Animal Theatre [TREAT] At The Farm: Buck Meets The Cat © 1976 Bonnie Ora Sherk[/caption]

Read this short original text below on The Farm written by Bonnie Ora Sherk in 1977 on Crossroads Community (the farm) official stationary, for the Center For Critical Inquiry, 1^st International Symposium, San Francisco Art Institute.

CrossroadsCommunity(the-farm)CenterForCriticalInquiry©1977BonnieOraSherk

• Politiques de la Végétation, Marco Scotini, Editor, Eterotopie, France 2017
• Vegetation As Political Art, Marco Scotini, Editor, Parco Arte Vivente, 2014
• NATURE: Documents of Centemporary Art, Edited by Jeffrey Kastner, Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press, Extract from Crossroads Community (the farm),     Center for Critical Inquiry Position Paper, 1^st International Symposium, San Francisco Art Institute, 2012
• ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE:  A CRITICAL READER, Edited by Will Bradley And Charles Esche, Tate Publishing, 2007
• Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, A Sourcebook of Artists’ Writings, Edited by Peter Selz And Kristine Stiles, UC Press, Berkeley, 1996

Additionally, Art Installations on The Farm have been exhibited nationally and internationally in addition to being published in books and journals worldwide.

Selection Of Exhibition Venues on The Farm Listed Below: