Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Really Really Free Market may need a new home


For the past four years, the Really Really Free Market has held their monthly exchanges at the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery on East 10th Street. As the the Times reports, they may need to find a new home, perhaps just temporarily.

Organizers said the Really Really Free Market has never seemed more relevant than in the current economic climate. But now the future of the market, at least at St. Mark’s, is in doubt. Elizabeth Arce, 20, a member of In Our Hearts, the network of collectives and individuals that runs the market, said that a church staff member told her this month that the market would have to move.

“He said the Really Really Free Market could not be held at the church anymore,” she said.

Ms. Arce said that if she and others could not reach an agreement with the church, they would begin looking for another site for the next gathering, scheduled for the end of February.

James Benn, the church administrator, said the free market would be suspended for the time being, while the church awaited the appointment of a new priest, but was not permanently banned.

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