The train ride from New York to Philadelphia is short and filled with regular commuters and a smattering of tourists. I probably looked somewhere in between, tapping away on my laptop purposefully, but given away by my giant backpack and general state of wear. The soles on my only shoes–my black work Keds–had cracked slightly and I now had to hope that it wouldn’t rain again for the rest of the journey. I arrived at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and was wowed by its architecture and echo-y spaces left during its renovation. After my whirlwind days in New York, I was again unprepared in the details of my stay and spent the afternoon browsing through Couchsurfing and texting friends in the area, hoping to find the ideal crash pad for a couple of nights.
Without waiting too long, I received a message back from Couchsurfing–that Sam would not only like to host me but could pick me up at the station. I found out when he picked me up that he was in the final four days of preparation before opening his first restaurant, Stargazy. He had been hesitant about hosting during such a frantic week, but had agreed and I ended up pitching in on small restaurant projects through my few days there to make up for the inconvenience. We hit it off right away, a reminder that sites like Couchsurfing really can lead to lasting friendships and connections. He and his restaurant were both delightfully British and his cat, Mister Charles, warmed up to me right away. I spent the first evening in Philly hanging out in the still mostly empty restaurant, drinking beers with the guys from the comic shop next door, sampling pie.
Early into my handful of Philly days, I visited the Friends Center in downtown Philadelphia at the suggestion of, quite literally, every social justice-minded person that I know familiar with the city. I talked with the woman at the front desk about this project and within a few minutes had engaged in a helpful conversation with the director of the center about the wealth of projects housed there and who might be best for me to talk to given my goals for the trip. It reminded me of a larger version of the Community Building in Spokane and the collaboration that’s possible when organizations share physical space. I also found that the following night there would be a town hall meeting of the Philly Coalition for R.E.A.L. (Racial, Economic and Legal) Justice, the group organizing much of the Black Lives Matter affiliated activism in the city.
I spent much of the next day with Sam, my host, eating incredible food and helping out around the restaurant. We took apart a commercial freezer in the August heat and put it back together in the cold basement, rewarding ourselves with beers and homemade pie. In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Clarissa later on; we met originally on our 2013 trip to Israel and the Occupied West Bank with Interfaith Peace-Builders. She currently lives and studies in Philadelphia and has recently completed further study in the West Bank. I really loved hearing her take on campus politics, the BDS movement, and the politics of solidarity, colonialism, and race. Having met Clarissa as the youngest member of our delegation (other than 4 year old Viola), I remembered her unreserved passion for justice as she expressed it there and in the years since and was glad to see it hadn’t dimmed in the last two years. She also introduced me to lemon ice, a big time Philly food staple.
When I returned the following day for the R.E.A.L. Justice town hall, I met Lucy, director of Friends Relations for the American Friends Service Committee, who agreed to an interview in which we discussed her work as a co-conspirator (her preferred term to ally) in the Black Lives Matter movement and in the movement for Palestinian self-determination and how those two relate. The ties between Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and African Americans living in a violent system of white supremacy here in the U.S. have deepened over the past few years and the symbols of both struggles hung together in the sanctuary during the town hall meeting. Our interview is featured in part in Praxis 145 and will be posted here in full soon.
About sixty people of all ages attended the town hall meeting that night, which covered an extensive agenda in a short amount of time with updates on recent actions and specific cases the group has taken up in seeking justice for victims of the criminal justice system, procedural and interpersonal conduct being ironed out (as the coalition is fairly new), and announcements from around the region. I was listening up to see who might be the best people to interview, and there was no shortage of inspirational and intriguing speakers there. One person Lucy recommended I speak with was Tony Monteiro, a former professor at Temple University who is believed to have been targeted by the university, which did not renew his contract, due to his political activism. This is part of a broader targeting of the African-American Studies department in general, according to Monteiro. That interview will be available in full here soon and this Facebook page has more information about his case.
Among the others present was Pam Africa, part of the original MOVE collective that was bombed by Philadelphia police in 1985. One place I had intended to visit while in the city was the site of that compound and I hadn’t expected to so quickly meet someone with firsthand and ongoing experience there. She gave an update on Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has fallen severely ill after finally being moved off of death row and into the general population. It was bizarre, but also inspiring, to be in such close proximity to people I have read about and whose stories I have followed and to find that they are accessible to speak to in person and learn from as well.
For me, the most impressive aspect of this coalition was (and is) its ability to get shit done. In a few short hours, the entire agenda was covered and the last thirty minutes were dedicated to future planning. This process was smooth and allowed for participants to choose from three aspects of planning they were most interested. These sub-groups, each with at least a dozen people, were facilitated by people who seemed to be consistent leaders within each section, and very well. In thirty minutes, the group I sat in with had gone from a short list of ideas for actions to bring attention to the case of Brandon Tate-Brown (more on him shortly) to a concrete plan to shut down traffic outside of the local Fox affiliate’s station in two days time, complete with commitments from specific people in specific roles. This is the type of organizing I was looking for on this trip: fluid, collectively-driven, direct, bold, and participatory.
The only unfortunate aspect of my time in Philly was the fact that this coalition meeting happened the night before my last day in town. Thankfully, one of the most involved young activists, Asa, made time to talk with me before I left town, the day before the action that had been planned at the meeting. We discussed the case of Brandon Tate-Brown, one of an unacceptably long list of people executed by police in this country, who was Asa’s cousin and is now one of the driving factors in his work for justice. We talked about his organization, Racial Unity USA, and ideas for breaking down racial divides in the U.S. while pursuing just outcomes. That interview appears in part on Praxis 145 and will be posted here in full soon.
As with many other stops on this trip, there was still much unseen as I headed back to the station to move further south to Baltimore. I was slightly envious of the robust and historically rich network of radical activists here, but encouraged to continue working back at home. I had made new friends, human and feline, and reconnected with old ones and while exhausted from this frantic schedule, felt pretty excellent about life. The next day, after I had arrived in Baltimore, I read the news that the action at Fox, planned less than 48 hours before, had been pulled off and that Brandon Tate-Brown and the officer who killed him were back in the news.
The quote that was mentioned the most at that meeting and in many of the demonstrations I’ve seen in Philly is from Assata Shakur and seems like a fitting way to close this post:
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
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