Bar Crawl Radio

I am talking with peace activist and Nobel Peace nominee Kathy Kelly as she fasts for 40 days in solidarity with the Palestinian people starving in Gaza. This is the sixth day of her fast. I first spoke with Catholic Worker Martha Hennessy -- granddaughter of Dorothy Day -- about the portrait of the U.S. President glowering behind the streetside glass wall of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.I then found Ms. Kelly who was accompanied by about 15 other supporters of the Veterans for Peace protest of the Israeli food blockade to Gaza. Kathy shared her approach to a long fast and the work that she continues to end war. She also commented on the recent -- suspect -- efforts by the Israeli government to bring food to the Palestinians in Gaza.I will talk to Kathy again on Friday -- Day 9 of the "Fast for Gaza."Alan Winson -- barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Joseph Darcourt is an American-born Peruvian-Taiwanese cellist who has been honored by three US presidents. When he was 12 -- he debut at Carnegie Hall. And at 16 he began researching the power of music at Columbia University.This program features Mr. Darcourt performing Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G Major at the West Side Community Garden in May 2025. A longer interview with excerpts from this concertI will add be added to this program in a few weeks.SCG on May 25, 2025 –We are Bar Crawl Radio Podcast – let us know what you think of our programming at barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Bar Crawl Radio is back at the West Side Community Garden talking with UWSers helping those in need on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.Wendy Straus and BCR producer Alina Larson talked about their work for Open Hearts Initiatives and Pastor K [Karpan] told us about his Church on W. 86th Street. These two UWS organizations are doing in many programs to help our recent migrants from around the world looking for a safe place to be free and complete their dreams and homeless.

A NEW BCR SERIES:Starting on May 22, 2025, several peace activist will fast for 40 days -- vigiling in front of the United States Mission to the UN. They demand an end to US support of Israel's military and urge the American government to pressure Israel to open the Gazan borders to humanitarian aid. For this BCR series I will meet with one of these fasters -- Kathy Kelly -- periodically, and ask her to share her thoughts and concerns. Share your thoughts about this action at barcrawlradio@gmail.com or mike@veteransforpeace.orgAlan Winson -- BCR Producer and Co-Host

Ross Barkan’s newest novel “Glass Century” is a panoramic story of New York City from our crime-ridden 70s. through the tragedy of 9/11 to the COVID lockdowns. The story focuses on Mona Glass a photojournalist in love with tennis and a married man. For this BCR podcast, we are not so interested in Mona Glass as the character in a novel but as a lens into the experiences of an American journalist and novelist and the author of “Glass Century” – Ross Barkan.For Bar Crawl Radio podcast. we talk to people doing positive work for their community, recording in neighborhood bars. Today at Gebhard’s Beer Culture Bar on the fun side of West 72nd Street – because facing us is the mortuary across the street. We are alive and sitting on the porch with New York Times writer Ross Barkan.

A conversation with two veterans of American wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan – about their work with “We Are Not Your Soldiers” – informing high school and college students about the morally unpleasant truths of the US military.In 2008 the anti-war organization – “World Can’t Wait” -- invited American war veterans to share their military experiences with high school and college students – challenging the American culture’s overly positive patriotic narratives.Joe Urgo grew up in a white conservative, middle-class NYC neighborhood. He tells young Americans about his experiences in Vietnam in the US Air Force. In 1971 -- Mr. Urgo helped organize the Winter Soldier Investigation detailing the war crimes of American soldiers in Vietnam and Cambodia. Shaniyat Turani-Chowdhury is a freelance investigative journalist living in Queens, NY. He writes about Middle East politics, war and climate change – and most recently reported on the effect of Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese people. In 2020 Shanityat ran for Congress on a Free Palestine platform.CONTACT: barcrawlradio@gmail.com

For this BCR series I have been asking American peacemakers: “What are we talking about when we talk about ‘The American’?”This program looks to a Jesuit priest and peacemaker Thomas Merton. At the end of “The Root of War” published in The Catholic Worker in 1962 – Thomas Merton wrote – “The first job of all is to understand the psychological forces at work in ourselves and in society.”  That in a nutshell is the purpose of my conversations with American peacemakers.Merton’s autobiography -- “The Seven Storey Mountain” -- is about “a young man who led a full and worldly life and then, at the age of 26, entered a Trappist monastery.”  In Kentucky, Merton focused his thoughts and prayers on nonviolence and influenced all the major peacemakers of the second half of the 20th Century -- Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tuto, the Berrigans, Dorothy Day and on and on -- Father John Dear will help us delve into Merton’s non-violence. Dear was born in North Carolina – graduated with top honors from Duke University – received two masters degrees in theology – and was ordained a Catholic Jesuit priest in Baltimore in 1993. John has worked with people scheduled to executed  – served at a community center for low-income African-American women and children in Virginia – worked as pastor to parishes in the high desert of New Mexico and founded Pax Christi New Mexico. Worked at a Jesuit Refugee camp in El Salvador. On and on –In a recent email, John described himself as follows:Just so you know, like Merton, Dorothy Day, and Dan Berrigan, I consider myself a Christian anarchist. I'm done with America.It helps to be arrested 85 times and spend time in jail and have several felony convictions. I don't believe in America; I think it's all a lie.If anything, we're global citizens, or citizens of God's reign of universal love and peace. We're all one.That's where I'm at; and I get that from those three --  very few hold it. If this sounds like something you want to ask me about, then ok, let's talk,All the best, peace,JohnIn January 2014 Dear left the Jesuits for reasons that become obvious in this conversation.Alan WInsonbarcrawlradio@gmail.com

This is the third in the BCR series "Talking About The American" -- We are asking American peacemakers to try to explain how they see the qualities of our countrymen. This episode – How’d we do with AIDS?I was in Syracuse for a Veterans for Peace pro-Palestine rally at the James M. Hanley Federal Building. Before the rally I had breakfast with Christian Caurla – an Italian journalist – at the home of Michael Desalvo -- where he and his partner Nick Orth – have provided home-based care for people with AIDS since October 1992. That morning -- Michael served Chris and me a delicious frittata with brussels sprouts. While we ate – I asked Michael about the Syracuse Friends of Dorothy Catholic Worker House which he and his partner renovated – and about their early hospice work with people with AIDS.Michael supports the Dorothy House with his work as a hairdresser.CONTACT Alan Winson barcrawlradio@gmail.com

Rob Fersh talks about collaborative problem solving and his new book, co-authored with Mariah Levison “From Conflict to Convergence: Coming Together to Solve Tough Problems” –As our country divides up its wealth between a few gazillionairs and the rest of us – coming together seems a worthwhile goal.Rob Fersh is the Founder and Senior Advisor of the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Before that he worked on international conflict resolution and directed U.S. national policy consensus projects on health care coverage for the uninsured -- and U.S.-Muslim relations. Before that -- Rob headed up a major NGO working to alleviate hunger in the United States. He has worked for Republican and Democratic representatives -- Leon Panetta and Patrick Leahy and Edmund Muskie. In 1994, Rob received the Prudential Foundation Prize for Non-Profit Leadership. He is married, has four children, and three grandchildren. And is a good friend of my sister Barbara Zweig.