Emperor Norton Trust Opens New “Office” in Boston
PRESS RELEASE
Founder Sees Opportunity to Build and Deepen Awareness of Emperor Norton Outside California and the American West — And to Position the Emperor as An “American Eccentric,” A Figure Whose Life and Significance Best Come Into Focus When Viewed Through a Larger-Than-Local Lens
Signature Events Will Continue to Be Held in San Francisco
Trust Seeks to Nurture Its Roots and Preserve California Ties With Expanded Circle of California-Based Advisors
Contact
John Lumea
john@EmperorNortonTrust.org
BOSTON — On this 202nd birthday of Emperor Norton — who was born on this date in 1818 — The Emperor Norton Trust announces that its “office” has moved from San Francisco to Boston.
The move is occasioned by founder John Lumea’s relocation to Boston in connection with his wife Alisha’s taking a new job position there.
Lumea lived in San Francisco from August 2010 to January 2020.
The Trust carries forward the broad-based program of research, education and advocacy to advance the legacy of Emperor Norton that previously was done under the auspices of The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign, the nonprofit founded by John Lumea and based in San Francisco from 2013 through 2019.
Reflecting a new approach to this work, The Emperor Norton Trust has adopted the following description, which will appear on the Trust’s website and in other venues:
The Emperor Norton Trust is organized as a “sole proprietorship in the public interest.” Nonprofit in spirit and in practice, the Trust is led by John Lumea and supported by a select group of Advisors. The Emperor Norton Trust is the evolutionary “next phase” of the larger enterprise that began with — and was expressed as — The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign from August 2013 to December 2019.
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John Lumea will continue to make regular visits to San Francisco
to conduct biographical and cultural research for The Emperor Norton Trust — building on the 90-plus articles on Emperor Norton he has written and published since 2013;
to cultivate support for the Trust and its projects; and
to help the Trust host signature events that were pioneered by The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign — and that now will be produced by the Trust. These events include
Empire Day — the anniversary of Joshua Norton’s original Proclamation declaring himself Emperor of the United States on 17 September 1859
The Tannenbaum Toast — the Trust’s annual holiday party at The House of Shields on the second Sunday afternoon of December
Emperor Norton’s Birthday Party on his historical birthday of February 4th — held 2015 to 2019 and returning in 2021!
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Continuing in his role as Advisor to The Emperor Norton Trust is John Law, co-founder of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man and the Billboard Liberation Front. John, who lives in San Francisco, served as Advisor to The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign from 2015 through 2019.
To preserve and strengthen the ties between The Emperor Norton Trust and the Emperor’s orbit of San Francisco, the East Bay and Northern California, the Trust has added several new “local” Advisors:
Danny Macchiarini (San Francisco)
Sculptor & Metal Artist; Owner of Macchiarini Creative Design
Taryn Edwards (San Leandro)
Librarian & Strategic Partnerships Manager at the Mechanics’ Institute
C. Steven Short (San Francisco)
Former feature producer/reporter for KALW Radio in San Francisco; Former office manager, editor and researcher for Leo Buscaglia, and founding board member of the Felice Foundation
Richard Everett (San Francisco)
Former Curator of Exhibits at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
David Martin (Davis)
Writer, filmmaker and educator
Dave Schweisguth (San Francisco)
Amateur genealogist, geographer, musician and archivist
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Reflecting on his move from San Francisco to Boston, John Lumea notes:
I am extraordinarily proud of what The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign was able to accomplish the last six-and-a-half years in advancing the case for Emperor Norton as an early champion of the values of fairness, tolerance, self-determination and the common good that came to be associated with San Francisco, Oakland and the Bay Area; and in documenting the cultural and artistic legacy that the Emperor’s example continues to inspire.
I am equally gratified by how well received the Campaign’s work has been by so many who orient themselves to the Emperor’s story.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of San Francisco itself — and California more broadly — as an inspiration and a resource for this work. This is a big reason why, in the new, “Boston-based” phase of the enterprise, The Emperor Norton Trust has added six Advisors who live in San Francisco, the East Bay and Northern California.
Indeed, the Trust’s Boston “move” is as much an expansion as it is a relocation — in the following sense:
Even those who consider themselves careful students and followers of Emperor Norton often render the Emperor as primarily a “San Francisco” figure. But, Norton I was the Emperor not only of San Francisco or even of California; he was the Emperor of the United States (and sometime Protector of Mexico).
While the ongoing project of authenticating and fleshing out the “local history” of Emperor’s Norton’s life and legacy in and around San Francisco must continue, the Trust's new setting in Boston affords a wonderful opportunity to cultivate new "audiences of appreciation" outside the Emperor's traditional geographical "zone of influence" — and to build face-to-face relationships with “east of the Mississippi” scholars and institutions, better enabling the Trust to build out a “community of research” interested in the potential for understanding Emperor Norton as something more than a parochial symbol of a single city but, rather, as an American eccentric who is properly situated in the larger pantheon of American eccentrics and visionaries.
I look forward to helping to create this larger cultural space for Emperor Norton — and to seeing how his reputation flourishes within it.
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The new mailing address is:
The Emperor Norton Trust
250 Poplar Street, #3
Boston, MA 02131
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