Occupy Chicago

Occupy Cleveland

Occupy Boston (photos by Lysa Leland)

Occupy Manchester

Occupy Maine (Portland)

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Buffalo

Occupy Rochester

Occupy Albany

Occupy Baltimore

Occupy DC

Regrettably, there was just one day, Sunday, allotted for book events in Western Mass, but we made the most of it. First of all, Brian and I caught up our sleep, walking up just in time for a 10 o’clock Sunday brunch, certainly in the top ten of all the potlucks I’ve ever attended! Then Deb and Ricky delivered us to the New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett, Massachusetts. The New England Peace Pagoda (the first of its kind in North America) was established as “a visible form of prayer for inseparable peace in the world and within the minds of all humanity” by monks and nuns of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order. Brian was deeply honored by being the second speaker whose words would grace the new temple after its recent dedication on October 2 (the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi) which had featured an address by the Christian pacifist John Dear. This was a momentous occasion, because of the new temple’s long history. The New England Peace Pagoda was inaugurated in 1985 but the accompanying temple was burnt to the ground by arsenists immediately after being built and its resurrection has taken many years. Brian was introduced by Sister Clare, whom I remembered from a ceremony I attended at the pagoda with him in 1997. The energy in this venue was quite incredible, to say the least, and led to an inspired address and Q&A, followed by many book sales. I wandered the grounds to capture some images of the pagoda, temple and gardens.

That evening, Brian had a second speaking event at the Second Congregational Church UCC of Greenfield, preceded by a vegetarian potluck. Folksinger and political satirist Tom Neilson warmed up the crowd, accompanied by vocalist Lynn Waldron. Introductory remarks were delivered by Louis Battalen, one of 27 librarians honored with a 2003 New York Times Library Award when he was director of the Arms Library Association in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Among the other luminaries in attendance were long-time activist Frances Crowe, writers Wesley Blix and Rob Riggan, nonviolent communication trainer Karen Fogliatti and social-change artist Josh “Waffles the Clown” Dostis. Unfortunately, since so many books were sold earlier in the day, only six were available for the Greenfield talk and it was only due to the nonviolent nature of the persons in attendance that fistfights did not break out. A few people signed up to obtain books later through the Solar Store in Greenfield. Special thanks to Karen Fogliatti for helping arrange this event.

Brian and I woke up to rain, feeling well rested after sleeping in (still on Pacific Time), but a little out of sorts because the power was out. We were we determinedly traveling without cell phones and there was no working clock to be found anywhere. Our own little travel clock had apparently been knocked off track by being squished into my overloaded backpack (no way it was 5:30, AM or PM!). It took a walk in the rain to find out from neighbors why the power was out (trees being trimmed) and what time it was (close to 1:00). After updating Brian I ventured out again for coffee and to rent a car for two days so we could at least get out to do some computing during the morning hours, as our host’s router had broken down just before our arrival.

Brian’s premiere East Coast book talk was held that evening (Wednesday, Oct. 12th) at Revolution Books in Cleveland Heights, located at the corner of Mayfield at the lower end of the Coventry Road business district. As we approached the figures milling out front of the store, a tall thin man wearing a ball cap and spectacles greeted us. “Do you remember me?” he asked Brian. Turns out it was Brian’s ex-brother-in-law from West Virginia, the ex-husband of one of the sisters of his first wife. They hadn’t seen each other for 32 years; he had learned about the event through one of Brian’s facebook friends. The small space was filled by starting time and Evie Morris warmed up the crowd with a song as volunteers squeezed in a few more folding chairs. I counted 25 people and about half that many book were sold—not a bad kickoff. We met a few of Cleveland’s stalwart activists that evening, including MJ Muser, a wonderful organizer who was integral in setting up his three Cleveland events, all of which she would attend. This C-Town leg wouldn’t have happened without her!

OCT 13 – Early the next afternoon, MJ picked us up with Mike Fagan, our volunteer driver for the day. The first destination was the Amtrak station, where we hoped to pick up our tickets for an early morning departure on Saturday. We wound our way from Cleveland Heights through Little Italy, around museum row, and made a quick stop at the lakefront (Lake Erie that is) on our way downtown. All along the way MJ pointed out historical landmarks, festival locations and other cultural attractions, and entertained us with stories about local political actions and Cleveland activists. Mike’s valiant effort to get us to the Amtrak station turned out to be a wild goose chase, as the station is only open from 9:30PM to 1:00PM. So we moved on to Occupy Cleveland, where we spent a lovely hour hanging out and chatting with fellow 99ers. We learned that the occupation was small but stable, with numbers fluctuating every day. It was a fairly diverse group. Some people were working during the day and sleeping there at night. General assemblies and small marches were happening every day at regular times. Plentiful donations of food and drink were evident and there was even a roll-your-own tobacco station. The Cleveland occupation was receiving regular media attention, from independent videographers as well as professional journalists. One young spokeswoman, who told me she quit her day job to help organize, flashed the BBC t-shirt she got when Occupy Cleveland was featured on the international network’s “Have Your Say” call-in radio show.

We caught an early dinner on our way to Visible Voice Books in the Tremont neighborhood. The cozy space was filled with about a dozen people. At least half of those bought a copy of Blood on the Tracks, and a quarter (including me) enjoyed the wine-tasting that was offered, a benefit for Veterans For Peace (VFP). I also enjoyed browsing the great selection of other books on display, collecting ideas for future reading. In the audience were Art Dorland and Mike Ludwig from the local VFP chapter. Art was one of our unofficial hosts, having received and delivered a box of books for this evening’s gig and volunteered to take us to the Amtrak upon our departure. The two vets lingered afterward to drink coffee and visit with Brian and I before giving us a lift back to Cleveland Heights.

OCT 14 – We started our day with hot cereal, coffee and computing before hooking up with Cleveland rockstar activist Leatrice Bard Tolls, who was basically at our beck and call for the afternoon and charged with getting us to the evening gig on time. We returned our rental car around 2 o’clock, and then Lea took us to Tommy’s, a local institution with an extensive menu listing 101 different combinations of a few basic ingredients, i.e. baba gannoush, hummus, veggies, cheese and bread, and a few different kinds of meat. There we met up with Charlie Mosbrook, local folksinger extraordinaire. I’d been noticing Charlie’s CDs and open mic advertisement over at Phoenix coffee for the past three mornings and knew he would be singing at Brian’s book talk that night. Charlie was an Ironman triathlete and marathoner until a debilitating spinal cord injury changed his life in 2010. Despite this devastating physical setback, Charlie managed to channel his adversity into a burst of creativity when he found that his singing and songwriting abilities remained very much in tact. It was interesting to watch Charlie and Brian (whose pinched nerve pain had made a nasty comeback after he overdid in Chicago) slowly making their way to Lea’s van together, both walking slowly and painfully with the help of their canes. The two enjoyed getting to know each other during a relaxing couple of hours at Lea’s place while she and cooked up a few dishes for the evening’s potluck before heading over to Paul’s Community Church in Ohio City for Brian’s third and last Cleveland gig.

Charlie Mosbrook

The St. Paul’s event was good but strangely emotional. By that time I was feeling, as I told someone later, “like these were my people and Cleveland was my town.” I felt a wave of sadness during my intro as I expressed my appreciation for the people we’d met during the past three days, and then, as Brian unfolded his story, he seemed to want to speak about the heaviest of his experiences, and choked up several times in doing so. It is interesting how the energy of a place seems to impact Brian’s talk on any particular night. Although he always relates the same story, he doesn’t have a formula and doesn’t read from notes but rather speaks from his heart, so it’s always a little different. On this particular night, factors such as an empty stomach (since he declined to partake in the potluck) and the deeply soulful singing offered up by Charlie Mosbrook just beforehand undoubtedly affected his mood as well. All in all, it was another successful event with a turnout of about 30, strong responses from the diverse audience, and 12 to 15 books sold. (I thought it was going to be a simple matter to get exact numbers, but others have been in charge of ordering and selling books, so it hasn’t been so easy.)

Parting shot at the Barking Spider: Becky, Lea, Brian & MJ

We ate each of our six meals in the dining car, invariably paired with others at a table where we could almost be assured of enjoying an interesting conversation, along the scenery along the rails, ranging from politics of the USA and/or the world, to work/hobby interests, to vacation plans or experiences, to the varied quality, price and taste of Amtrak food, actually not so bad. Because we had a sleeper, all meals are included in the price of our ticket, a great feature of going by train in style. Here’s a small gallery of that leg of our journey. [photos by Becky]

Our lovely friend Marcia Meyers gave us a ride to Union Station and saw us off.

It was a rushed beginning. Despite my promise to pack light, my suitcase is stuffed to the max. Happily, Brian’s painful pinched nerve, which a week ago had threatened to cause us to cancel the whole East Coast tour, is finally easing up somewhat, enough that he decided not to bring a wheelchair along. This is a great relief and makes us both feel a little lighter as we embark on our trip.

Endless details had to be taken care of in getting ready for our house/dogsitter, Shawn. Not unexpected since we were preparing to be gone for seven weeks (’til Thanksgiving!), but finally, as Marcia and Brian moved to the car, I had to leave the dirty dishes in the sink. At the last minute, Shawn experienced a breakdown on the way to our place, delaying his arrival until after we left home. He arrived just soon enough to be able to touch base with him briefly, via pay phone, just before boarding the train.

A glorious, sunny day after a week of rain, it was an auspicious beginning for our long journey. We start out skirting the Columbia River, on the Washington side, with spectacular views of the gorge on our way to Spokane where our train hooked up with its sister from Seattle, forming the Empire Builder. Our car is the last one on the train. Destination: Chicago.