Bar Crawl Radio

TALKING ABOUT "THE AMERICANS": BURYING GAZA BABIESOn December 9, 2024 -- I talked with several of the nearly 50 protestors holding a mock funeral on a plot of grass at the front of the Syracuse Federal Building. It was a rainy and cold morning as several peacemakers neatly ripped away the grass and created a shallow oblong hole into which a half dozen babies in the form of bloodied pillows were placed. An oversized tombstone stood at one end of the "grave." Homeland Security officers arrested three of the "grave diggers" who were given citations and released. The action was organized by John Amidon a leader of Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi Upstate, New York.Amongst others, I spoke with Clare Grady of the Kings Bay Plowshare 7 and Yana Uones who was born in Egypt and now is a Philosophy student at Binghamton University. Throughout the event, Yana read the names of Gazan children killed. Also, I spoke with Jade Ebanks who jhad ust returned from Gaza where she volunteered as a wound care nurse. Jade described the horror she witnessed.CONTACT -- Alan Winson - barcrawlradio@gmail.com

For this BCR recording we were at the Hollow Nickel Bar in Brooklyn NY.  Why a hollow nickel -- check out their website.  We had a wild, funny and crucially important conversation about the work of the Church of Stop Shopping with Rev. Billy and Vera Anderson, They had just finished their Saturday morning "Earth Riot" radio show at WBAI.Rev. Billy is an enactment of activist actor and writer Billy Talen; he leads the Church of Stop Shopping -- a New York City performance community preaching the imminent 'shopocalypse' when the world ends due to rampant and unholy consumerism. And Vera Anderson was on Bar Crawl Radio when we were out West with the Nevada Desert Experience’s 60 mile Peace Walk to the entrance of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site -- See BCR #219. Vera is a musician and a mental health advocate in NYC and Las Vegas and she is on the board of the Nevada Desert Experience and Pace e Bene advocating for nuclear abolition.

Once again -- recording on the porch of Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar located in Manhattan's Upper West Side -- BCR hosts Rebecca McKean and Alan Winson talk with the four composers and performers and leaders of Composer's Concordance about "contemporary [classic] music." This music movement has been described by the New York Times as “unpredictable … irreverent …and ingenious.” For over four decades Composer's Concordance has presented concerts in all sorts of New York City area venues of inventive experimental music.Gene Pritsker -- Milica Paranosic – Peter Jarvis – and Seth Boustead -- talk about the history of the organization, their compositions and the ongoing joy of breaking contemporary boundaries of what is considered artful music in an unstable era.For our regular listeners if you would like a link to complete versions of the music played in this program -- make a request to email barcrawlradio.comHINT: This program is best heard with a set of good headphones.

July, 2024. BCR visited the Hot Air Brewing in Creston, Iowa this summer. It is a bastion of liberality and acceptance. We were in Iowa to visit our friends Brian Terrell and Betsy Kennan of the "Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm," in Malloy, IA -- about 30 miles south of Creston; Betsy and Brian introduced us to Iowan's Katie Davidson and Ryan Fuller. When we talked with her, Katie owned the Hot Air Brewery and Ryan is a farmer with his husband and performs drag as "Cherry Peaks."We wanted to get a sense of what life is like in a small Iowan town -- in a state that supports Donald Trump for President. It was a most revealing conversation.Contact: Alan Winson -- barcrawlradio@gmail.com

The 26th Kateri Peace Conference held in Fonda, NY in mid-September, 2024 was entitled “What’s Love Got to do with it?”  The outcome of peace activism is the end of always-war. If, indeed, we are all connected on this minuscule green spot in a vast universe – if we are sisters and brothers who care for each other – why do we choose to kill each other in horrific and massive ways?  Bar Crawl Radio hosts -- Rebecca McKean and Alan Winson -- moderated the Friday evening panel with Ann Wright, Brian Terrell, Brad Wolf, and Vera Anderson. The panel focused on three basic questions:Why do we consistently choose war? How do wars start? Are the causes really that complex? Are the causes of war knowable?If we know the root causes of war -- Can we come up with policies that would end war-making?

Mid-September. BCR moderated the 26th Kateri Peace Conference panel with anti-war and anti-nuclear deterrence activists. We took that opportunity to talk with Melissa Bramble the Director of Operations of the St. Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda NY.Rebecca McKean asked Melissa about the history of St. Kateri and the Shrine.

Back in early Spring 2024 -- we net Bronx Public Defender Eli Northrup as he was beginning his run for NY State Assembly representative for the UWS. We were recording outside the Goddard Riverside Community Center at West 88th St and Columbus Avenue, talking to neighbors celebrating “Love Your Street Tree Day” – and Eli came up to our open mic.Eli placed second in the election for State Assembly. We invited Eli to talk about his experience of running for state office and his work as the “Policy Director for the Criminal Defense Practice at the Bronx Defenders” office.  We began the conversation asking Eli about his NYU law school hip hop band “Pants Velour” and their quick hit “Charlie Sheen: Always Winning.” Eli shared his deep disappointment with losing the election and how his work as the policy director at the Bronx Public Defenders formed his political platform. At the midpoint of the conversation we talked about American citizens' looking for openness and honesty in a political scene rife with dishonesty.

BCR podcast traveled to Mexico and Scotland in August and asked what citizens of the world were feeling about the U.S. Presidential election. Nearly everyone I met was aware of the election and had significant and personal feelings about "Americans" and their limited choice for leadership. I talked with people from Puerta Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, Edinburgh, and Aberfeldy -- tourists, a waiter, a van driver, teens from Belfast, couple of cooks, a photographer and painter, a teacher, an airline worker, Cambridge students, tour guides, Edinburgh Fringe Festival workers and artists, and the Fringe Financial Manager. Let me know what you think of this mix of human voices on the eve of a most important US Presidential election.Alan Winsonbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

Mid July, this year -- 2024 – Rebecca McKean and I flew into Chicago and then drove to Maloy Iowa – a few miles north of the Missouri border.We passed Joliet – Dekalk – Moline – Iowa City – Cedar Rapids - Ottunwa - Mt Ayr – then – Maloy, Iowa.At one time – not so long ago – Maloy had a small population. Its buildings remain:  A medium sized Catholic Church – small Post Office – General Store – Dance Hall – City Hall. Now it is mostly empty – a husk of a town surrounded by massive corn fields.Becky and I were visiting two Catholic Worker friends who had been cultivating a small vegetable – goat and chicken farm since 1986. Their two children grew up in Maloy on the “Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Community Farm.”Over those years -- besides working the farm -- Betsy Kenan perfected the crafts of weaving and looming – and Brian Terrell travelled protesting war and the spread of U.S. military and nuclear bombs throughout the world._____________________________For the next three BCR programs – we talked with Brian – Betsy and their friends in Maloy and Creston IA to get a feel for life in this American state which overwhelmingly supports Donald Trump for president, bans abortions after six weeks --  and which -- we learned – might be considering alternative – diverse -- ways of being in mid-America.The opening sound was recorded on Betsy’s and Brian’s porch.  Nate Jarrell on the violin – Nate is a young peace activist and musician and builder who was visiting Brian and Betsy on their Catholic Worker Farm – and Don Ray – a neighbor up the road was playing the guitar –