Free Republic

Kirsten Brydum pedaled away from the Howlin' Wolf club into the darkness of another American city that she didn't know very well. It was 1:30 a.m. She rode a black cruiser bicycle with a basket on the back, borrowed from friends of friends. In nearly every city she had visited on her 2-month-road trip, it seemed someone was willing to lend her an old bike. The Rebirth Brass Band was on the bill that night. Brydum, 25, had danced for a while outside the club in her flip-flops. She thought that the bouncer would eventually let her in for free,...

To Kirsten Brydum, a passionate 25-year-old community activist from San Francisco, one person's junk was another's treasure. Brydum, who wanted to change the world, certainly changed Dolores Park. Because of her, there is something called the Really, Really Free Market. People bring their rummage to the park on the last Saturday of the month and give it away. Nobody gets any money and everyone walks away a little richer. That was how she liked it. -SNIP- In Manhattan, she spent a long time examining trash bins, marveling at the useable stuff that New Yorkers threw away. In St. Paul, Minn.,...

New Orleans (AP) -- New Orleans police said Thursday they are investigating the slaying of a 25-year-old San Francisco community activist found shot in the head in a hurricane-battered part of the city. Kirsten Brydum had arrived in the city two days before her body was found Saturday morning in a desolate part of the city's 9th Ward neighborhood, said Marlon Defillo, assistant superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department.