Bonnie Ora Sherk, "Crossroads Community (The Farm)," 1974-1980
"Crossroads Community (The Farm)-Original Drawing," 1974,
"Crossroads Community (The Farm)-Transformation," Before (1974)/After(1980)
Crossroads Community (The Farm)-The Farm is the Alternative to the Alternative Art Space," 1979/2012
One of the hallmarks of Bonnie Ora Sherk’s farm as art was that it truly was open to anybody. With the Black Panthers headquartered since 1966 across the bay in Oakland, and controversies over racial discrimination and integration boiling over, Crossroads Community (aka the farm) offered a “living” model for social change and implementing justice. Located in San Francisco under US101 at 16th and Potrero Streets, it fast became a hotbed for diversity. As the video depicts, the farm’s activities were numerous: farming-related performance art, farming activities for the public, art classes, etc. Although the original farm was absorbed by the City as a park, it became the model for what Sherk terms Life Frames, her system for educational gardens that have sprouted around San Francisco since the mid-90s. The farm taught Sherk to appreciate the interconnectedness of everything, such as political, cultural, historical and biological systems, and most important, human beings’ relationship to other species.
Copyright 2017 Sue Spaid