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TitleGENTLENESS | a play in infinite sets by the people
Authorthe diggers
PublisherCommunication Company
PlaceSan Francisco
Year1967
Date 14/2/1967
Date 2N.d. ca.
Publication
Volume
Issue
Page(s)
MediumBroadside
DimensionLetter
Extent
Imprintcom co (ups)
CollationGr. ink for bold letters, blue ink text.
CatalogCC-233
CollectionSOLA-o; x(CSL)
Cit. No.
Keywords
Trans. TitleGENTLENESS | a play in infinite sets by the people
Section
GroupDigger Writings
Sub-Group
SeriesCommunication Company
Folder
CC-233
click image to enlarge
Notes
See CC-266.
Abstract
Frames the street as a living commons and invites the people of Haight Street to repossess it through play, costume, ritual, and mutual restraint rather than confrontation. Its central gesture is quintessentially Digger: the transformation of ordinary urban space into a theater of free social being, where “cowboys, indians, monks, troubadors, minstrels, poets” and every other variety of citizen are called to become players in “a play in infinite acts by the people.” The sheet insists that those on the street are not nuisances or intruders but its rightful tenants, and that the occupation of Haight Street should unfold not as a showdown with authority but as an extension of life itself. At the same time, the text reveals a disciplined ethic beneath its celebratory surface. Each participant is charged with the responsibility to keep hostility absent and to exercise that responsibility “beautifully,” making gentleness itself into a radical social practice. In this way, the broadside proposes a form of collective street action rooted not in aggression but in presence, improvisation, and shared imagination. It stands as both an invitation and a manifesto for the Digger ideal of public life: a spontaneous, open-ended social theater in which the street becomes a stage for free persons learning to inhabit the world otherwise.
Full Text
[Catalog No.: CC-233, CC-266]
Gentleness .. is No Vice
[April 2, 1967]

GENTLENESS in the Pursuit of Extremity is No Vice
a play in infinite acts by the people

Setting. Haight Street Sunday April 2nd 1pm

The streets belong to those who live in them
Those who live on Haight Street are neither loiterers, vagrants, nuisances nor undesirables. They are the tenants of the street; angels of the corners, minor saints of the intersection..

PLAY YOUR PARTS: cowboys, indians, monks, troubadors, minstrels, poets, super-nova lovers, keristas, sexual buddhas, kalis, matreyas, soldiers of fortune beggars* starstuddedmessengers teeny-boppers
PLAY YOUR PARTS
The acting out of various life styles & social art forms --- replete with bells, symbols, flutes, incenses and all various sundry props OF OUR LIVES on (REPEAT:ON) hhhhaight sssttreeet. To take possession of the street NOT AS AN ACT OF CHALLENGE, HOSTILITY, SHOWDOWN, WAR, BUT AS AN EXTENSION OF OUR OWN LIVES

WE NEED IT TO PLAY ON.

Each player carries the responsibility to keep aggression and/or hostility absent. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
YOUR OWN LIVES
EXERCISE THAT RESPONSIBILITY BEAUTIFULLY

there will be toys & props other than those you bring
digger angels spread their wings over the world toy-shop
children thrive in kindergartens especially when they run them
become your own teach
play play play your part

cast of charaters
hippies, provos, diggers, anarchists, beatniks, spades, shop keepers, loiterers, panhandlers, pimps, hookers, Hell's Angels, Old Europeans, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, onlookers, tourists, existentialists, Protestants, civilrights groups, musicians, clergymen, and other interested parties.

SUN
DAY
Spring
April 2nd
one o'clock

the diggers

communication company (ups) printed this

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