The Last Time I Was At People’s Park - April 21, 2018

I was randomly in town. I didn’t know it was the week of the 50th anniversary of People’s Park. Paul and I were biking around, breakfast at the Thai Temple, saw a flyer in the window of the Long Haul, and got to the Park for the Bubble Lady (Julia Vinograd) Memorial Poetry Reading & Bubble Blowing. We approached cautiously, you never know with the hippies. They were surprising, sweet and generous, and it was a fitting memorial. As we left, we ended up in front of the mural, and started talking to someone who’d also just left the memorial. They pointed out The Bubble Lady, and a bunch more of their friends.

That’s what I was thinking about when I heard Michael Delacour died (March 9, 2023).

Long story short: University of California has been trying to take this land from the people since it bulldozed the houses that were there and left the lot empty for years. The people took it over, and since then it’s been a true public square for those that need space, greenery, free food, a place to buy drugs, read poetry out loud, blow bubbles, and play chess, among other activities. Authorities have been trying to take it back since the inception, and they’ve reclaimed it for a while at times, but never for too long and never without a fight. RIP James Rector and everyone else who’s died at the park - from cops or from neglect of society.

Thanks Michael for being part of it all. Thanks Stew for being part of it then moving to Portland. Thanks to the freaks and misfits that made it their own and continue to fight for a free space for us.