The Emperor's Bridge Campaign's 5th Anniversary Absinthe, Gin & Cake Party
Poster by Tami Twarog, at the Inaugural Tweet-Up of The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign, held at Emperor Norton’s Boozeland, San Francisco, 28 September 2013.
Forty subjects of the Emperor Norton walked into a bar.
That was September 2013. Over the course of six weeks, John Lumea’s Change dot org petition calling on the California state legislature to name the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton — launched in early August — had sparked a Twitter-fueled mini-movement, resulting in 4,000 signatures and loads of local and state media coverage.
Alas, it wasn’t enough to get state lawmakers to do the right thing — at least, not in 2013.
And, yet: The effort had galvanized an awful lot of goodwill and good energy around the Emperor.
What next?
The fiercest tweeter of them all, Tami Twarog — aka supertam — and John got their heads together. John already, in late August, had set up a Facebook group for what he called “The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign.” Very shortly, in mid September, word went out that, on Saturday 28 September 2013, a new Tenderloin bar called Emperor Norton’s Boozeland would be the site of “The Inaugural Tweet-Up of The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign.”
Forty people showed up — and the rest, as they say, is history-in-the-making. The Campaign* became a nonprofit, with a mission to advance the legacy of Emperor Norton through research, education and advocacy. The bridge-naming project remains a “campaign within the Campaign.”
And — most important — we are still here!
Please join us, in this year of Emperor Norton’s 200th birthday, as we return to the scene of the crime — exactly five years after our first gathering — to toast the Campaign and the Emperor!
And bring all of your Emperor-saluting friends!
THE EMPEROR’S BRIDGE CAMPAIGN’S 5th ANNIVERSARY
ABSINTHE, GIN & CAKE PARTY
Friday 28 September 2018 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Emperor Norton’s Boozeland
510 Larkin Street (at Turk)
San Francisco (map)
TOAST at 7:30 p.m.
Cake (lots of cake!)
Complementary tastings of handcrafted spirits
from Treasure Island-based Raff Distillerie
Emperor Norton Absinthe Dieu
Bummer & Lazarus Dry Gin
and
One dollar off all drinks made with Raff spirits!
* In December 2019, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign adopted a new name: The Emperor Norton Trust.