Come celebrate the publication of
Karl's book on creating commons

In this beautiful hardcover book, lavishly illustrated with 379 photos, Karl shares experience and practical wisdom to help people use the resources they find in their own surroundings to create welcoming shared spaces. As Karl observed, when people work together to build commons, they also grow community.

The book begins with a foreword by Joanna Macy and Karl's introduction, relating the thoughts and experiences that led him to the work of commons building. It goes on to cover the cluster of commons projects in the Westbrae neighborhood in North Berkeley, key examples of his neighborhood commons work on the East Coast during the 1960s through 1980s, a sampling of the temporary commons he coordinated at conferences and other special events, strategies for creating instant commons, and a how-to chapter on the foundations of commons building. The book closes with Carl Anthony's epilogue and an afterword by Karl's wife, Nicole Milner.

Thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation's Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative, which subsidized the cost of the color printing, this 224-page, 10 x 8.5 inch, full-color book is affordably priced at $29.95

Copies can be purchased at the event, ordered at
http://www.newvillagepress.net,
or purchased at the New Village office in north Oakland by appointment--(510) 420-1361
Copies won't be in bookstores until 2008.
You can support New Village Press by purchasing directly from them.

Please visit http://www.KarlLinn.org for a wealth of information about Karl's life and work, including a description of the book, table of contents, and sample text. We are in the process of creating a forum on the site where people can share stories and information about their projects related to creating commons.

Endorsements for the book:

"Karl Linn's compassion, humanity and insight into what makes good community design--and what, in fact, makes community itself--is exactly what much of the world needs to develop if we are to evolve beyond our current frightful state of affairs. He saw the need for space and safety, beauty and joy in people's lives--especially the lives of poor children--and he filled it by the truckload. His was a quietly heroic life, lived close to the root of what really matters: an understanding that the happiness and peace we create for others is, delightfully, our own."

--Alice Walker, author, The Color Purple

"Seeing latent beauty and potentials in blighted urban spaces, Karl Linn took actions to realize his vision through gardening, farming and restoring environment. Through the process, he inspired people, built communities, and transformed many public spaces. He made us feel our heart."

- Lily Yeh, founder, Village of Arts and Humanities, Barefoot Artists

"We stand on the shoulders of Karl Linn, each of us who acts to creatively reclaim the commons for each and all communities. Karl Linn understood the greatest revolutionary secrets of all: not to fight but to create, not to be alone but to be together, and to recreate our common life beginning with the very ground under our feet!"

-- Mark Lakeman, founder, City Repair