Live at SubRosa culled from IG

A selection of live snippets at SubRosa 2022-2024 - culled from IG (a work in progress!)

SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now. @subrosa_space

And SubRosa is part of the Hub Community Center at 703 Pacific Ave in downtown Santa Cruz - a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities - since 1994! More about the Hub is at linktree in bio @santacruzhub

Important things to know about having an event at SubRosa

PLEASE THOROUGHLY READ


SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space - a place to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now. We love hosting special events like music and speakers, but not every event is going to work in our space or with our goals (we aren’t a commercial venue). So here are some of our expectations and things you should know about our space:

-Since SubRosa is an anarchist, anti-authoritarian community space (NOT a commercial venue), we want to host events that are not in conflict with these principles and practices. We will not host events that we think seem racist, sexist, queer&homophobic, ableist, disrespectful to the earth and to living creatures, pro-capitalist or upholding hierarchy or the “power over” mentality that dominates mainstream society. 

We strive to create an environment where people are empowered to have interactions based on self-responsibility, mutual respect and free association. And we want to create a welcoming space for others who share the goals of diverse community, respect for all forms of life, and freedom from coercive relationships. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now.

-Our space is really, really intimate. It holds maybe 40 seats (of course more without seats!). So this isn’t the best choice for an event that you want hundreds of people to come to. And being a smaller space has its advantages too!


-We do have a PA system (with mics and stands etc) and beyond that you are responsible for bringing whatever equipment you need to make your event successful. And we have some equipment for film screenings (courtesy of the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In).


-Amplified shows must be over by 10pm (really!). Again, our space is cozy, so the sound doesn’t really need to be turned up super high. There’s more flexibility with timing of acoustic shows and generally not much past 10pm. NOTE:  And for shows/events in the courtyard the sound volume needs to be at a level that is respectful of the neighborhood (so that usually means being quieter than inside) - this is crucially important as complaints from neighbors and/or visits from cops could impact future events and other projects we at SubRosa share the space with - courtyard events need to be done by 9:45pm.


-SubRosa is an anti-capitalist space and events are notaflof (no one turned away for lack of funds) and events typically have a suggested door amount (acknowledging $ helpful when touring etc).


-For most events, we take a 30% cut of the door. This money enables us to stay open and have more events. We do not take money from benefits, and we are open to negotiation if there isn’t very much money to split.


-SubRosa is an all-ages space. 


-SubRosa also a “dry” space, and we discourage drinking in the space and courtyard.


-If you are a band from out of town, we would really appreciate it if you contact local bands to try to put together your own line up. We can give you some leads, but we likely don’t have capacity to put together a whole show. 


-Please plan your event ahead of time. If you contact us a week before the event, it is unlikely we will be able to accommodate you. Give us enough time to plan and publicize and the event will be more successful. Also, on the day of your event, please arrive early to help set up and to communicate with the event bottomliner.


-You are responsible for having merchandise person, and fliers (social media posts). However, we can help you with these things, just be in contact with us and have good communication. We will try to always promote the event on our instagram, website, facebook and email. Let us know well ahead of time if you do not want us to do that.


-We desire for SubRosa to be a “safer space” for folk, and that involves active engagement with people that are crossing boundaries and/or somehow causing harm - we are reworking our process regarding unwelcoming people and how they can be rewelcomed- if you have input on this please let us know. Thanks! We’re doing this together!


***note re: pandemic protocols- as a community space we encourage individual and community care both being important and inter-related. So, balancing accessibility and folks desire to come together while acknowledging ebb and flow of Covid is tricky. Event hosts have been determining Covid protocols in a case by case (event by event) way. Sometimes masks at all times. Sometimes masks just inside and optional in courtyard. Sometimes masks entirely optional. And protocols being adjusted depending on how much virus is spreading at a particular time. 


If you made it through this whole list and still want to book an event, please contact us at: https://instagram.com/subrosa_space (quicker for a response) or subrosa-events@riseup.net (slower response time) - we’re looking forward to hearing from you! 


Requests are forwarded to the SubRosa collective, and if no one gets back to you in 2 weeks, then it likely means that no one was available to bottomline a show. We are an entirely volunteer-run anarchist community space (NOT a commercial venue) and often receive more requests than we have capacity to host.



SubRosa is part of the Hub Community Center, in downtown Santa Cruz, CA which is the unceded homelands of the Awaswas-speaking Ohlone people known as the Uypi, who stewarded these lands since time immemorial. Centuries of colonial violence led to the removal and displacement of the Uypi. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.  

 

https://www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org and http://amahmutsun.org and http://www.protectjuristac.org/ and https://instagram.com


 

Really Really Free Market! Info & history… here & elsewhere!

Every 2nd Sunday of the month! ¡Tianguis Realmente Gratuito! Todo es gratis - Really Really Free Market (RRFM) - 11am-2pm. No money. No trades. Everything is free. At SubRosa / the Hub - 703 Pacific Ave- Santa Cruz, CA 

This gathering is not about the "stuff" we give and take, but more about how we can freely give and receive from each other.

¡Todo gratis! No intercambio de dinero, no negocios, no trueques. Trae lo que gustes, toma lo que necesites. Este mercado gratuito es basado en una economía de regalar. 

More info about the Santa Cruz RRFM  - https://instagram.com/rrfm_sc 

This page is intended to give a wide range of information about Really Really Free Markets - with specific focus on the Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market. Here’s a list of contents on this page for what follows (With a scattering of graphics mixed in!):

-The Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market - notes on “how” (with some “why” baked in) // a work in progress 

-A selection of articles written by others about the Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market 

-An article from Crimethinc about RRFM where they are located and some general information and perspectives 

@@@@@@@@@

The Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market - notes on “how” (with some “why” baked in) // a work in progress 

So how do we do it? Other questions like when-did-we-start? Well, that’s a longer story which will be elaborated upon another time … but in short, one of us was stuck in the mid-west in a legal battle with “the-state” and became a part of the radical community there - who put on Really Really Free Markets (RRFM)! And when friend came back home to Santa Cruz around 2010, they proposed hosting a RRFM at SubRosa (anarchist community space where a number of us are collective members and where RRFM still takes place!). RRFM was a part of the Free Skool Santa Cruz project (and RRFM still listed and ongoing over 10 years later- FSSC did have a 6 year break though). Great example of sharing inspiring ideas-and-practices across communities and regions.

Back to our current process (early 2023) - note: this has changed over time depending on who is involved and circumstances. Usually a week or so before scheduled RRFM (now, every 2nd Sunday of the month) one of us will send a text on our signal group (which is a text group that those of us regularly involved in putting on RRFM are in - 10 of us are in the group, and we reach out to 3 other people that don’t want to be in RRFM signal group but who are part of crew each month). The text goes something like this… “Hi all! Next free market coming up! Who is around? And when available to staff? Who would like to make a flyer?” 


To elaborate: who is around and when available to staff? - RRFM goes 11am-2pm. Set up around an hour before (sometimes little more time if we have lots of collected items to put out - generally we don’t have space to store stuff for RRFM and people bring things day-of). Set up involves cleaning courtyard (sweeping etc) / setting out tables / preparing welcoming table (more on that later!). We divide “shifts” into fluid time frames (but we all choose when we can come and go and there’s no set schedule so we overlap each other and there’s no one “manager” of the RRFM crew - we’re all working together! Usually time frames are set-up & beginning / middle / latter portion & clean up (and couple of us taking left-over items away). And we all do what we can, when we can. Sometimes we’ll reach out to other friends for special staffing support if not a lot of us are available.  And often one of us will make a graphic to publicize the RRFM on social media (on various IG pages in particular - like SubRosa / Free Skool Santa Cruz / the Santa Cruz Hub / and RRFM’s IG) - or we adapt and reuse an old graphic. 

We’ve had ambitions to send public service announcements to local radio or local weeklies - although we haven’t done that lots of folk show up! Social media and word of mouth for a regularly scheduled event helps. We’ve been joined by local college radio station KZSC where they bring records and c.d.s to give away, and they bring a Dj to play music (which adds a nice festive energy!). KZSC will help with publicity and the RRFM has been listed in the weekly paper even though we didn’t submit the info (mysterious!). The RRFM has continued to be part of the Free Skool Santa Cruz project (which has it’s own reach for spreading the word).

Here is our current description of the RRFM: “¡Tianguis Realmente Gratuito! Todo es gratis. Really Really Free Market - 11am-2pm. No money. No trades. Everything is free. This gathering is not about the "stuff" we give and take, but more about how we can freely give and receive from each other. ¡Todo gratis! No intercambio de dinero, no negocios, no trueques. Trae lo que gustes, toma lo que necesites. Este mercado gratuito es basado en una economía de regalar.” - we have had discussions amongst about how to make the event more accessible to members of our community where Spanish is their first (or primary) language - having bilingual publicity is part of achieving that. And usually someone is staffing that has at least a rudimentary ability to speak Spanish. We also reach out to friends each month that are more connected to Latinx communities here in Santa Cruz to also share information about the RRFM (and those friends also regularly attend and participate in the RRFM - bringing and taking things is an important part in the event! And these few efforts have had positive results (and there’s more we want to do).

One of the many wonderful aspects of the RRFM is the eclectic mix of people that come! Kids and elders and people in between! People driving up in nice cars to drop off material for the free market and then browse about, and people that have all their earthly possessions in a shopping cart. All are welcome. During winter months we’ve collected “survival gear” for houseless members of our community, and a local mutual aid group has helped distribute. 


Part of nurturing a welcoming atmosphere at the RRFM involves having folk that greet people when they arrive. The courtyard space at SubRosa has a main gate and just inside that we set up a welcoming table. This serves various purposes: when people come to a RRFM for the first time we give them a brief introduction (or more elaborate if they have questions). This can vary but here’s one example of an intro: “Welcome to the Really Really Free Market. No money. No trades. Everything is free. This gathering is not about the "stuff" we give and take, but more about how we can freely give and receive from each other. This is a form of anti-capitalist mutual aid where everyone is invited to participate and share care.” At the welcoming table we also receive people’s contributions and help them distribute around the free market (and for large items we get people’s contact info and ask them to take away at end of RRFM if item still present). We also require people wear masks and have masks available (we’re still in pandemic-to-endemic times and thinking about “community care”). We also have info available about the Santa Cruz Hub Community Center (where RRFM takes place) - which is a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities. And the Santa Cruz Hub, among other things, is where the free market magic happens.

What is free market magic? When someone at the free market exclaims “This is EXACTLY what I was looking for!” So often folk find items that they would have otherwise spent money on (sometimes money they didn’t have) or things that make their lives easier or more enjoyable or that make a great gift for someone they care about. And this can be such a lovely experience for the person who contributed the item - to know what they brought is being appreciated. This is the “care” aspect of the RRFM - with the awareness that we don’t intend this event to be just another consumer feeding frenzy… and so we nurture the space with a collaborative approach that includes all that participate - and we try to communicate that in how we relate and sometimes with graphics and text posted around the courtyard.


And more to come!!!

Here is a selection of articles written by others about the Santa Cruz Really Really Free Market 

-Article from City on a Hill press, student run news source at UCSC from 2016 

https://www.cityonahillpress.com/2016/01/21/sharing-trinkets-and-fighting-capitalism/

-Article in local paper about the Really Really Free Market from 2018

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2018/01/06/visitors-rally-at-really-really-free-market-in-downtown-santa-cruz/

-And another brief article from local news from 2018

 https://kion546.com/news/2018/01/11/really-free-market-held-each-month-in-santa-cruz/ 


@@@@@@@@@

There’s no such thing as a free lunch under capitalism—for anarchists, there’s no other kind.” - lots of great information about hosting your own RRFM - at link to article below from Crimethinc.

Disambiguation: According to the capitalist lexicon, the “Free Market” is the economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses. Any sensible person can recognize immediately that neither human beings nor resources are free in such a system; hence, a “Really Really Free Market” is a market that operates according to gift economics, in which nothing is for sale and the only rule is share and share alike. 

https://crimethinc.com/2007/10/27/the-really-really-free-market-instituting-the-gift-economy  

***The Really Really Free Market happens at SubRosa: a community space, 703 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, Ca. - which is a part of the Hub Community Center. SubRosa is a space to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. Let’s create together the world(s) we want to live in now! http://www.subrosaproject.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/subrosaproject and https://instagram.com/subrosa_space

The Santa Cruz Hub for Sustainable Living includes a constellation of projects that support skill-sharing, appropriate re/use of resources, and interconnected, creative communities - since 1994! More about The Hub at http://www.santacruzhub.org/  and https://www.instagram.com/santacruzhub/ 


Located in downtown Santa Cruz, CA, which is the ancestral territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma. More information http://amahmutsun.org/foundation //  

https://www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org // http://www.protectjuristac.org  


a story of SubRosa & some radical history in Santa Cruz

September and October 2008 we worked on the inside and courtyard at a space at 703 Pacific Avenue that was soon to be named SubRosa (check out the entry about this at this website Name Suggestions 4 Infoshop).  Lots of folks and lots of hours.  On Halloween we were still working on the inside, painting.  People would drift in and out in costume to help until late into the night. 


The next evening, November 1st was our opening with an art show and music!  It poured rain that night and the courtyard flooded.  We called the outside area the info-swamp and set down blocks of cement as stepping stone islands.  Inside the space was packed and humid.  The paint started dripping down the walls and quite a few people went home wearing the paint on their clothes as they unwittingly leaned against the wet walls...hopefully a nice reminder of a great opening night. 


And now over 14 years later we are still going... doing-it-together. Although during the pandemic we had some tough times (acknowledging we all did in various ways). It was challenging to have a community space when people were not gathering - so we used the space in different ways… for instance as a place to store and distribute mutual aid resources. Now folk are gathering again, and we're doing-it-together differently - with community care and pandemic protocols (which can vary depending on the event and who is bottomlining). Go to our events page at this website for more info at SubRosa Events.  The space is what we make of it, and this includes you as well.  There are many ways to contribute to SubRosa.  Get involved with the space... join the collective... host an event... show your art... and so on. Another world is possible.  We can create it now, and at the same time counter the coercive and destructive impact of mainstream. So, how can SubRosa be relevant to those endeavors?  Let's figure that out together and do it.


Much appreciation to all those who have contributed to SubRosa over the past many years...so many people in so many different ways.  And may we continue to thrive for years to come.


—@@@@@—


Below from indybay post from early November 2008:  https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/28/18547019.php


SubRosa, a new community space in downtown Santa Cruz, hosted its grand opening event on November 1st. The event included an
art show, spoken word, live music, food, and a first look inside this vibrant new social space.

Music poured out into the rainy night, as people cramped tightly together to share in the musical performances at the grand opening of SubRosa. The small, but cozy space was filled with a vibrant youthful crowd. Event goers snacked on piles of free bread, and coffee from reusable ceramic mugs. Artwork from local artists covered the freshly painted walls, as well as a colorful display of ‘zines, and a lending library. The set had almost everyone jumping and singing along. The space will be a home to future performances, open mics, and Free Skool workshops. Stop in for a steaming cup of coffee and check out the extensive library.

SubRosa: A Community Space is a non-profit, donation-funded space for art and radical projects run by a collective of volunteers from the Santa Cruz anarchist community. Located at 703 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, SubRosa is open 7 days a week, 8am-1pm and 3pm-8pm.

—@@@@@—

-about the Anarchist Convergence organized by some SubRosa collective members and held in 2009 https://modes.io/anarchist-convergence/

-regarding the Demystifying Anarchy event some SubRosa collective members (and others) were also involved with in 2010 https://modes.io/demystifying-anarchy/

—@@@@@—

More Santa Cruz Radical History

-The Rhizone - in early 2000s there was a radical/anarchist community space/ infoshop located on walnut ave. that shared space with bike church and hub called the rhizone.  It had a library and meeting space.  I went there for free radio santa cruz meetings and other groups had meetings there too.  and some groups had desks and work spaces there.  It ended in part due to complaints from upstairs neighbors (things came to a head after a particularly raucous show there) and money was also a stress.  Santa cruz radicals and anarchist went to seattle in the late 1990s and this was inspirational for folks. I was not intimately involved with this project so I can’t comment on it mush.  In the same building was the hub at which an anarchist discussion group that met (this was after the rhizome closed).  There was also a dumpster collective that used the fridge in the backroom of the hub.  So much food abounded and was shared!

-What Is Art? was a radical performance and art space located at the other end of Pacific Ave. past the town clock.  Not explicitly anarchist, it was run as a collective and was around in the late-ish 1990s.  I was also involved with this space, as was another initial member of the SubRosa collective core: http://www.santacruzart.net/2007/04/now-what-what-is-art-collective-is.html

-Santa Cruz Anarchist Infoshop 2004: http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9970/index.php and http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/8412/index.php  and http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/9991/index.php  and http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/10070/index.php and http://santacruz.indymedia.org/mod/otherpress/display/233 (this article originally in good times…one sided view and take with a grain of salt…it does point out some of the tensions involved in the group)

-@ Library - after the above infoshop closed the @ library moved to the sacred grove and i tended it for some years.  This was meant to be temporary as we thought we would find another space but that didn’t happen.  Sacred grove folks were very supportive and even gave me a key to the space: http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/11122/index.php // some books in the @ Library go back years and years when some version of the @ Library was housed in various collective houses.

-santa cruz anarchist distro quiver notice about info being found elsewhere:  http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18065/index.php

-Info about workshop museum (friends!):  https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/13/18152561.php and https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/16/44922.php

-From website, tabs with some useful info: http://journal.subrosaproject.org/ and http://www.subrosaproject.org/p/about.html


Other stuff:


-There was an newspaper published in santa cruz in the early 2000s called the alarm with radicals and anarchists involved:  http://www.the-alarm.com/ and http://the-alarm.com/old_site/index.html


-Serf city black banner, santa cruz anarchist paper, 1994: http://www.spunk.org/cat-us/scb.html


—@@@@@—

More reflections on the beginnings of SubRosa 

SubRosa was started by a core of 5 folks from the anarchist community in santa cruz. folks at the hub (community center at 703 pacific ave in downtown santa cruz) took a chance on us since a few of us were known for our involvement in other projects like free skool santa cruz and the santa cruz guerilla drive-in... and also three of us had been around for awhile and so we knew people on the hub board. the hub, where SubRosa is located, is run by a non-profit board, and they were in charge of making the decision about who would be in the open space. we had lots of meetings with the board in july and august 2008 about utilizing the space. 

organizationally, we were making things up as we went along. at first the 5 of us referred to ourselves as “the core” and we put the word out that we were starting this project. lots of folks came to lend a hand to set up the space, which took a lot of work. some of us lent money for the start up and we were later slowly paid back. SubRosa opened nov. 1st 2008 (see journal for entry about name). at that time since SubRosa was new, a lot of folks wanted to be involved and staff, and we were open 7 days a week from morning until night with 2 shifts of 2 people staffing each day. we in the core were still figuring out our power sharing structure. the core had separate meetings that anyone could come to few besides us 5 actually went. then there were the collective staff meetings. after awhile it felt undesirable to have the core making certain decisions without the participation of the collective. we were learning how we wanted to run the space and about letting go as the core and to trust the larger collective. at that time we didn't have a firm process as to how one became a collective member/staffer. we developed this over time. i appreciated our learning process and early on disbanding the core and having things decided in the larger collective meetings...sharing power together...having a vision and not holding on to it too tightly that this squeezes out other folks and their visions and desires.

as anarchists we also talked about the complexities of being involved with the capitalist economy, renting, money, selling stuff, the core and power...good stuff and ongoing learning. ultimately, we wanted a radical community space where anyone could come, where money is not the focus and that different things could happen. these conversations have been ongoing over the years...and i imagine still are in an ebb and flow kind of way.

a couple of years earlier some of us had been meeting and trying to find a place to open an infoshop and although we didn't find anything those conversations did come into play in 2008. also on another occasion a few friends and myself were close to opening an infoshop in the garage of someone's house...then that didn't come to pass. around that time, i made a flyer looking for a space and a friend provided the text. we had a couple meetings in the park. so between the santa cruz anarchist infoshop on broadway and SubRosa there were a few attempts to get something else going. in part finding the right space was a challenge.

this area at 703 pacific avenue has been a lot of things. early on it was an auto mechanic place. a punky cafe was here in the 1990s which i never went to. before SubRosa and people power shared the building it was vacant for some time. previous to that a business called the serpent's kiss was here (now on other end of pacific ave.). before that a store called anibus warpus (or something like that). i don't know why the space was originally built...maybe for the car business? the bike church has those big double doors that could accommodate cars. the bike church (and hub) was at 703 pacific ave almost 3 years before SubRosa. it moved from the walnut ave. location (again where the other infoshop was) to it's current location. in the late 1990s the bike church shared a wall with what is art? (the performance/art space referred to in above information about other radical projects).

and the project has changed our focus and ways of operating over time, while remaining an anarchist space and committed to collective ways of organizing ourselves and running the space. here’s a post from the journal about our shift away from the open hours ways of functioning to being more of an event space - http://journal.subrosaproject.org/2014/11/collective-dreaming-in-sierras.html - and that process continues… for us involved in the SubRosa collective now to continue that collective dreaming and making that happen together.

—@@@@@—

also, on the SubRosa website (http://www.subrosaproject.org/) under the about tab it says this about the project (which is not a mission statement but is a description that the collective did work on together a couple of years ago...)

“SubRosa is an anarchist community space run by a collective of committed people from the Santa Cruz area, freely giving of our energy and time.  

We put our energy into SubRosa to create a vibrant environment, available for events, classes and meetings, collaborations and organizing, art and creativity, as well as reading and studying.  We offer a selection of radical books and magazines, coffee and tea, and a space for art, performance, and community. 

This is a space to meet people, share resources and ideas, challenge our assumptions and act on our passions.


As anti-authoritarian space, we strive to create an environment where people are empowered to have interactions based on self-responsibility, mutual respect and free association.  We want to create a welcoming space for others who share the goals of diverse community, respect for all forms of life, and freedom from coercive relationships, to foster an environment free from sexism, homophobia, racism, and other forms of hierarchy.”


Yup, still rings true - except less of an emphasis on coffee and tea.


(Note: all of the above are just my reflections and recollections. And I could have included so much more and someone else would have shared a different variety of resources and memories. May this be part of a larger patchwork radical and community memory. -j!)