I’m in Philadelphia, having given a Nowtopia talk at A-Space today, and tomorrow I’ll be at Wooden Shoe. Last night in Baltimore I spoke at Red Emma’s. I really like Baltimore! It was fun to walk in to Red Emma’s and feel such a cozy, welcoming space. The audience wasn’t huge last night, about 23 or so, but very intelligent, and full of great questions. In fact, all the audiences so far have been quite attentive and responsive, really rewarding me for showing up. Here’s a shot of Red Emma’s:
Some years ago I came to Baltimore on the Critical Mass book tour and spoke at Black Planet, a now defunct space, and some of the refugees from that helped form Red Emma’s, which is in the city center on Mt. Vernon Hill. The collective seems rather large, 15+ people (?), and all of the folks I met were really smart, engaging, and warm. Such a pleasure to visit a place like this and receive such great hospitality. I even got to stay at a gorgeous old apartment that one of the collective members lives in, overlooking Washington Plaza from huge windows and a lovely balcony.
On my way down from Penn State to Frederick, Maryland a couple of days ago I had extra time and took the opportunity to pass through the Antietem battlefield (Civil War) and then to pay my respects to the birthplace of the U.S. military-industrial complex at Harper’s Ferry. It sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenendoah Rivers, close to the place where West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland all come together, and not far from Pennsylvania either. It is beautiful springtime here in the east, a bit chilly some days, but mostly warming up rapidly, dogwood and azaleas in full bloom everywhere. Here’s a photo of a small row of trees on the campus of Pleasant Valley elementary school not far from Harper’s Ferry. I’ve seen incredible numbers of these trees in bloom everywhere, open road and in suburbs…
Before I got to Harper’s Ferry, the first site of a U.S. arsenal (founded at the suggestion of George Washington), the place where they made the rifles and hardware that accompanied Lewis & Clark on their epic journey through across the continent in 1803, I passed quickly through the Antietem battlefield. It’s set on grassy rolling hills and is littered with signage put up by the then-aptly named War Department in 1896 as part of an effort to establish an outdoor classroom of war knowledge. I was a big Civil War freak when I was a child, so it still resonates a bit for me, though nowhere near as strongly as it did in my youth. I climbed a stone tower, also built in the 1890s, and took this photo down what was known as “Bloody Lane”… in the three-day battle in September 1862, this stretch was fought over with great intensity, leading to the trench between the two fences being filled with bodies.
A later exhibit established by the National Park service is called “I Hate Cannons” and quotes a battlefield surgeon who had to handle the thousands of casualties caused by frontal charges into the maws of full firing artillery.
Before taking off on this lengthy tour, I had a couple of experiences back in San Francisco that underscore why I live there, and that deserve to be more widely known. Firstly, Deep has been staging “Flash Dances” for the past two years, about 10 or more times now. I absolutely LOVE these. The sound system starts pumping at a pre-arranged time and 50-100 people start boogeying in a public spot, sometimes a corner or a plaza or a park. The one on April 19 was at 24th Street BART plaza and it produced its usual euphoria and magic, luring in dozens of passersby, connecting alienated drug dealers and middle-aged Latino men to a mixed-race crowd of 20- and 30-somethings, all shaking their booties to a bunch of funk and pop standards going back 30 years. The chance to dance in a crowd of strangers with such a high degree of trust and good will is just an unmatchable experience. I can’t stop smiling and laughing as I cut it loose, swirling around with friends and strangers alike”¦
Then, a week later, on Sunday April 27, a collective birthday party was thrown by Rupa (of the April Fishes) along with Mona, LisaRuth, and a bunch of others”¦ the magical treat followed a brunch on her doorstep near 25th and Castro when Brass Menazeri started playing their fantastic blend of Balkan standards and speedy dance tunes, with a full brass complement to go with a couple of really great drummers, keeping the beat throughout. We boogied down 24th street past Mona’s new mural, up Church past a previous one and down into Dolores Park where it was wall-to-wall sunbathers and convivialists”¦ what a day!
Here’s Rupa discovering herself and the April Fishes in Mona’s new mural on 24th Street:
