Bar Crawl Radio

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 -- [email protected]

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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:

1. Why do we consistently choose war? 
2. How do wars start? Are the causes really that complex? Are the causes of war knowable?
3. If we know the root causes of war -- Can we come up with policies that would end war-making?

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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.

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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.

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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 Winson

[email protected]

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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.

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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 –

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For the past three years BCR podcast has recorded on Sundays in June from the West Side Community Garden, As usual, we talked with neighbors doing amazing work for their community and featured the music of local artists performing in the Garden during the month. For this BCR program we invited three leaders of the WSCG to talk about its history. By a miraculous convergence of urban decay and sheer will, this former trash heap abides as a garden oasis on the Upper West Sider – all thanks to dedicated gardners and volunteers. This place exemplifies the strength of local communities.

Ensconced in a corner of the garden we talked with three women who nurture and are nurtured by a garden: Judy Robinson is a gardener and the President of the WSCG’s Board of Directors. Until this summer, Randa Kirshbaum organized the Garden’s Summer Music concerts. And joining us on our bench was Jackie Bukowski -- an early organizer of the WSCG.

Later in the program we featured the music of the Scott Munson Jazz Quintet. The complete performance can be heard at BCR #233.

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Complete performance of the Scott Munson Jazz Quintet at the West Side Community Garden on June 16, 2024.

CONTACT: [email protected]

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A full length presentation of a performance by La Manga in the West Side Community Garden in June 2024. For a conversation with La Manga founder, Daniela Serna, go to BCR #230.

Alan Winson

[email protected]

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For the fourth time this summer Bar Crawl Radio podcast is not at a bar.  But we are continuing to have conversations with neighbors doing positive work for their community.  We will be talking with a citizen journalists who works in the field of peace activism and whose writing is published in Pressenza – an international news agency pushing ideas of peace, non-violence, and human rights

For this BCR recording we were ensconced in our mobile studio in the southeast corner of the West Side Community Garden observing Upper West Siders choose their favorite spots to listen to La Manga, who perform Bullerengue, music from the Caribbean coast of Colombia.  Later in the program, I will be talking with Daniela Serna about La Manga and we’ll listen to selections from tonight’s performance.

But first Rebecca McKean and I talked with David Andersson, a citizen journalist, photographer and publisher. In the 80’s Mr. Andersson published a neighborhood newspaper in Paris. Today, David is the coordinator of the NYC bureau for Pressenza and the host of Face 2 Face, a podcast talking with activists for peace from all over the world.

Alan Winson

[email protected]

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