Olive Morris Memorial Breakfast in London this Sunday

ROC.gifThe Remembering Olive Morris Collective is organising a breakfast in Brixton this Sunday, on the anniversary of the activist’s death in 1979:

On the anniversary of Olive Morris death we will convene for breakfast in a public space at the heart of Brixton, the area formerly known as The Triangle or The Frontline, a space emblematic of the struggle and resistance of Brixon Black community. ROC members will set up a breakfast table to remember Olive, who lived most of her adult life just steps away, at 121 Railton Road and 2 Talma Road squats. This area is now part of a Dispersal Zone that actually extends to almost all of the town centre and enables police officers and Police Community Support Officers to disperse groups of two or more people, who might be perceived to be causing intimidation and committing anti-social behaviour.

The Olive Morris memorial breakfast borrows the model of the permanent breakfast, a open source project launched in 1996 in Austria and since then it has been appropriated and recreated all over the world, from Chile to Papua New Guinea, from Norway to Chechnia, as a way of reclaiming public space, and to bring people together for a variety of reasons: rememberance, activism or purely for the pleasure of sharing some time together in an open space without paying money for it.

The ROC has also recently succeeded in getting Lambeth council to reinstate the plaque and photo of Olive at Olive Morris House, after the building was renovated, although there’s still not been a rededication ceremony or any official announcement (photo above is of the new sign).

See their blog for listing of other events: the collective is currently planning a walk called Radical Brixton: Following in Olive’s steps, which sounds great.