July 27– GERTRUDE STEIN
The Mother of Us All. American writer, lesbian, art patron.

What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current.
What is the wind, what is it.

Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it.

A Long Dress from Stein’s Tender Buttons, 1914.

JULY 27, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Cairo: Caravan of Pilgrims sets out for Mecca with the new Kiswa for the Kaaba. With cannon, kettle drums, camels dyed with henna, they proceed to the Lake of the Pilgrims, stay a few days and then set out on the long road to Mecca.

ALSO ON JULY 27 IN HISTORY…
1656 — 24-year-old Benedict Spinoza excommunicated by Jewish authorities.
1794 — Maximilien Robespierre arrested as new tyrant in French Revolution.
1946 — American poet, lesbian art collector Gertrude Stein dies, Paris, France.
1953 — Korean War ends after 575 meetings, Panmunjom, Korea.
1980 — Deposed Shah of Iran dies in exile, Cairo, Egypt.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective