On the road in Illinois

This article is a reflection of that time on the road. Though I wrote notes from my trip on my blog, I wanted to organize a piece that told the best stories of this adventure, described the reception and discussion among the audiences and looked at the highs and lows of doing a book tour on an independent bookstore/activist circuit. As you’ll see in this article, travel fatigue melted into a kind of awe at the diversity and hope in bookstores, colleges, bars, coffee shops, parks and diners across the United States. Though a citizen of the US, I found myself a stranger in a strange land, and for the first time understood the vastness of the country. 

The book, The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, was published by AK Press. It looks at protest movements over access to resources such as land, gas, water and coca leaves. Though focusing on the last six years of social movements and political change in Bolivia, the book goes beyond Bolivia’s borders to make connections with other struggles and governments around Latin America. For more information on the book, check out The Price of Fire’s introduction and website. 

Why, where and how to go on a book tour?

My friend Matt Dineen offered his expertise, enthusiasm and contacts to organize much of the tour. (See his myspace page and his writing/interview project: Passions and Survival). He is a good friend of mine from our days together as students at Bard College. He urged me to go on tour. Other friends, authors, the publisher, and bookstore owners said “you’ve written the book, now you need to go on tour to publicize it, spread the word about Bolivia and agitate for action and awareness.” Book reviews, radio interviews and ads in magazines could only do so much for a first time author’s book. I needed to put a box of the book on my shoulder and head out. So I did. 

The next question was - what kind of places should we go? I pushed for a mixture of independent and corporate bookstores (commercial stores, big universities) – to reach to a wider crowd. I envisioned a tour that hit the lefty/activist scene as well as the liberal/right wing crowd. Our first challenge was that the right wing/establishment folks didn’t return our calls or didn’t believe a book on Bolivia would generate an audience. The left/activist/anarchist crowd, on the other hand, was much more receptive, excited, and consequently returned our calls, did more publicity and psyched people up to attend the events. Instead of banging our heads against the wall with people that weren’t interested in social movements in Latin America, we went to more independent bookstores, infoshops and activist conferences. This turned out to be great because the audiences were very receptive, engaged and interested in knowing more and taking action. We found focusing on the activist/independent bookstore scene more effective, efficient and inspiring.

The other major issue was publicity. In each city we did some online research for radio shows, newspapers and magazines that could be interested in covering the reading or interviewing me on the book and politics in Bolivia. We also asked the organizers of each event if they had any media contacts, or suggestions for publicity. This usually meant putting announcements on Indymedia and Craigslist sites for that city, as well as newspaper and online events listings. Speaking in front of crowds, and doing radio interviews, became much easier as time went on. I realized that the more I relaxed, the better I could articulate my thoughts and responses, but in talks and interviews. Most of the radio interviews, reviews and articles on the book are gathered at www.boliviabook.com 

Packing the car

I planned a variety of approaches for the talks, choosing more engaging sections of the book to read. It was always a help if a projector was around so we could show photo slides and maps. I had a short music video of a young hip-hop group in El Alto that I showed regularly. These visual aids helped the audiences connect with the material. I tried to mix up my own talks, sometimes focusing on the drug war in Bolivia, water issues or current events. In the end, I felt the best topic for a public discussion was around the neighborhood councils in El Alto and their role in the 2003 Gas War. This led into another presentation on the hip-hop groups in the city. Many people were also interested in hearing about developments in Venezuela as well. In most events, about half the time was taken up by me talking and reading and the rest was a discussion with questions and answers. 

On The Road

(The following are adapted excerpts from the tour blog and my notebook from the road. It jumps around in tense and location, like the trip itself)

We leave one road and step onto another. The buses give way to rumbling cars, the hostels to friends’ couches, the Spanish to English. I am now sometimes on the other side of the interviewer’s tape recorder. I had been working on the book in a solitary manner, like any writing activity, (outside of interviews and research). Now it is out in the real world. The book has been born with legs and is now learning to walk on its own.

Just hours after stepping off the plane from Argentina onto a cold subway we picked up the book, seeing it in print for the first time. It’s jarring to see the book in print. Instead of a computer screen, it has pages and a cover. The first event was at Bluestockings book store. A lot of friends from Bard College showed up. Many of them have gone down the Hudson River after graduation, and now live in Brooklyn, making art and music. See the websites and music of Bjorn, and Tucker.

At the Left Forum, Stanley Aronowitz’s opening speech ended in an argument to start a party (a political one). I initially misheard him and thought he said, “we need to party.” I agreed. Some music and dancing could probably do wonders to that encounter. The panel I participated in was organized in a circle so the crowd could participate easily. We had presentations on neighborhood councils in Venezuela, Zapatistas in Chiapas, worker cooperatives in Argentina and I spoke of neighborhood councils in El Alto, Bolivia and their role in the 2003 Gas War. Marina Sitrin, author of another great AK Press book, Horizontalism, was the organizer of the event. Her book is a collection of interviews with members of the recuperated business/factory movement in Argentina.

I ran into some people from Egypt and Iraq at the forum that spoke of the hopeful women’s movements and labor unions in Iraq. According to these men, these movements are very working toward self-determination in the country outside corporate and Washington interests. They also lamented the fact that the US based anti-war movement hasn’t linked with these Iraqi groups in solidarity.

Vox Pop café in Brooklyn is a great new bookstore and coffee shop. I did a reading and slideshow there. There were a lot of great questions, many revolving around water privatization in Cochabamba, and the legal uses of the coca leaf in Bolivia, the war on drugs and Venezuela’s new role in the region.

In Philadelphia, we walked through the rain to Robin’s Bookstore, a downtown institution with a ton of books on diverse topics. In the crowd were two authors of excellent books (Dan Berger Outlaws of America and Benjamin Kohl, who co-authored a book with Linda Farthing called Impasse in Bolivia) After a night of cheap pabst blue ribbon beers and listening to the cats fight in the hallway at a friend’s house, we trudged through the snow and sleet back toward NYC.

In Burlington, VT, members of the community from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Guatemala gave presentations on new developments in each of those countries. I talked about what was going on in Bolivia, and presented and read from the book. It was a well-attended event with a lot of interesting discussions, some of it touching on how we can bring the kind of social change that is happening in Latin America to the US.

In Boston, we stayed a friend’s house who works at an amazing bookstore called Lame Duck Books. It has an incredible collection of used and rare books. I saw some of Eduardo Galeano’s first editions of his many books, along with a vast collection of Latin American and Spanish literature.  At Bard College we ran into many friends and former teachers. A lot had changed on campus (many new buildings) and the turnout and discussion at the event was very good. (Read Matt’s description of the Bard visit.)

As we head down this road, the book takes on a life of its own. I feel like it is a third passenger in the car, rattling around in its box in the back seat. Putting up flyers in the rain, calling people to invite them to the event, getting to know each city’s bookstores, parks and bars, getting lost on the highway, meeting new people and couches to sleep on – this all makes me think I am in the backseat, and maybe the book is in the front, with its hands on the wheel, driving the car.

Wolves and Fireworks

While driving through the Adirondack Mountains at night in a snow blizzard my headlights were a tunnel in a dark wilderness. Here are some observations from the Price of Fire book tour, in which so far I have only seen one wolf.

Ben Dangl takes a break with a hot dog

In Pittsburgh, we climb the stairs up this building which was in the Batman the movie, and looks like it, especially at night. We recommend The Hot Dog Shop near the University of Pittsburgh’s library. The portions of fries are huge, the hot dogs are worthy of their fame, but watch out when navigating the bathroom below. The pages are turning fast on “Memoir from Antproof Case” by Mark Helprin, a highly recommended, hilarious book I am reading about one man’s unsuccessful crusade against coffee. We are now drinking coffee in a place on our way to Cleveland with a sign says “no smoking by order of the goat.” In spite of the goat’s warning, people in the back smoke and smoke. Their laugh sounds like a car starting up in the winter.

In Cleveland, there was an attempted stabbing outside where we parked our car for an event at the C Space. The cops slowed past while the assailants ran off, the victim stood on the street, screaming swear words into the air. The popcorn shop owned by our host outside Cleveland had a picture of a smiling George W. Bush in it. The plasma high definition TV screen was so powerful that all the Hollywood stars had blemishes, beads of sweat and marks on their faces/bodies one never knew existed after normal television viewing.  

Dispatch from the “Middle East”

The Price of Fire book tour continues and we are now located in a place which many refer to as the Middle East of the US. I picked up a few books on pirates, as well as a strong cold, somewhere between Cleveland and Chicago. When I am on the radio for interviews, my voice sounds like it is being protected for my own safety, like some ex-FBI agent on “60 Minutes”.

Factories and smoke stacks bordered both sides of the road as we entered Detroit. A cold rain fell. People walked in the streets, pushing their ragged umbrellas into the pounding rain. The emptiness of the streets was accentuated by the vastness of the city. Old crumbling, vacant buildings seemed more common than buildings in use. Windows were gutted eyes, glass shards and howling wind. The whole time we drove around the city, I only saw one cop car. Apparently, the police stations, along with schools and fire departments have been shut down by the local government.

The Price of Fire book reading took place along with presentations from local activists on water issues in Detroit. I spoke of the water revolt in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The similarities between the two cities were incredible. Water issues are huge in this great lakes region with tons of fresh water. In spite of this, a lot of people can’t afford the water hook ups and fees. The city and local governments keep jacking the prices up. When people can’t pay fees their water is shut off. 40,000 people in one part of the city had their water shut off. Corporations have worked with governments to put water under corporate control, but they don’t use “privatization” they call it “streamlining” to avoid protest. Locals who couldn’t afford fees connected to existing water lines, pirating water.

Graffiti on one bathroom on the way out of town said, “If you don’t think Detroit is number one now, wait three years.”

We rolled into Chicago just in time for the start of the Latin America Solidarity ConferenceCentral America, fumigation in Colombia. I also got the book into the hands of many interested folks. (LASC) in Chicago. In many ways, for me, this conference was an extension of connections made online through the LASC email list. It was a conglomerate of socialists, anarchists, democrats, activists, NGO workers, and journalists. At the conference, I made valuable connections with like-minded people and learned a lot about pirate radios in 

Madison, Wisconsin reminded me of Burlington, Vermont because of its culture, politics, organic food and bicycles. The reading at collectively-run Rainbow Books went well. The crowd was very informed about Bolivian politics, particularly on issues relating to the country’s constitutional assembly. It’s another great bookstore, wonderful selection, highly recommended.

Urbana Bike coop

From Ohio to Amherst

On a quick visit to relatives outside Dayton, Ohio, we heard about local kids raising money for aid work to assist Iraqi children that were impacted by the war. They were selling candy for their cause. They had done so in various public spaces, but had been chased out of a number of places because local citizens would say “how could you raise money for them – this is subversive.” Their fundraising was shut down as it was viewed as supporting the enemy in some way – in spite of the fact that official reasons for invading Iraq included helping Iraqis.

One street in Morgantown, West Virginia was so steep that the car seemed like it would flip backward as we drove up it. “Is Fidel Castro alive?” - that question came up more than once among audiences at the book tour. One coffee shop had a map of South America on a table. The map didn’t have any countries on it, just the names of indigenous groups around the region. I used it to point out where Bolivia is located.

After West Virginia, we unwillingly entered the web of highways and road into Washington DC. It was a labyrinth of roads and directions at rush hour, which was a bit traumatizing after the open road through the West Virginia mountains. We met my brothers (very cool!) rushed into the city on the metro, got some food at the supermarket across the street and started the talk. The event at the Brian Macenzie Infoshop went well. A great documentary on what the French water company Suez has done in El Alto was played, then I presented on organizing in El Alto, and hip-hop in the city. 

We rushed off to Baltimore, arriving just in time for the event, after slogging through rush hour traffic between DC and Baltimore. Rush hour was so slow it could have been a time warp. There was something refreshing about the Red Emma’s Infoshop. It was very well organized, inviting and interested. It was a great space, had an excellent selection of books and a friendly attitude among collective members. I decided to do an overview of resource conflicts discussed in the book, then read from current events sections on Evo Morales and autonomy in Santa Cruz. At a nearby bar the owner gave me a free shot of whiskey. We later parked the car in a wrong spot. The car was towed and I had to pay a lot of money to get it back from the city of Baltimore.

We rushed off to New Haven, CT from Philadelphia leaving my banjo in New Jersey by accident. New Haven is an interesting college town. The event theme was well intended, and well attended. Around 45 people were there. Local activists and engineers spoke of electrical fee problems in the city. I spoke of the leftist shift in Latin America with a focus on resource conflicts in Bolivia, and how neighborhood councils in El Alto had organized for electric connections. 

In Amherst, MA I gave a talk/reading at the collectively-run Food for Thought Bookstore, an awesome place, possibly my favorite store on the tour – as far as the book selections. Author Vijay Prashad (author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World) gave an uplifting introduction to my talk and the place was packed, around 50 people in attendance. This being the final event of The Price of Fire spring tour, it was a very solid ending. I gave an overview of resource conflicts in Bolivia, answered informed questions, bought an upside down map of the world, and sped to my temporary “home” in Burlington, Vermont.

Bringing it all back home 

Throughout the tour, the average number of people in the audience was around 17, with the biggest turnout being 75. In one case, we had ads and announcements out all over the city, and only 7 people showed up. In other places, basically no publicity was done and tons of people showed up. In the end, we realized that the most effective thing to do was to ask friends in the area to bring their friends to the event – word of mouth was the best method.

The audiences were very diverse. Whereas it always helped to give a contextual description of history and events, I found that many people were very informed. Some had read the book, or followed news in South America closely. Others were students or teachers in South American issues. Some were interested in current events under Morales, and how the new government is working with social movements. Many had heard of Evo Morales’ electoral victory, and the 2000 Water War in Cochabamba, but didn’t know much more than that. A large majority of audience members were very interested in the political changes in Venezuela, the longevity of the Chavez administration, and what the US government was doing to limit changes there. In general, I felt it was the relatively new interest in this current “leftist shift” in Latin America that drove people to the events. 

This spring tour was transformative for me. Though I had heard about a lot of the activist collectives and radio projects going on around the US, it was something else to see them in action.  I think of the Indymedia center in the post office in Urbana, the collectively run bookstore in Madison, the community radio stations around the country, the anarchist collective in Pittsburgh, the Lucy Parsons Center in Boston – all of these are examples of a better world that are functioning well as we speak, they are not some planned for paradise in the future. Now that I am in one place this side of the US border, these encounters on the tour have made me want to get involved in such projects.

Another tangible result of the tour was that the talks hopefully inspired many people to take action. This meant something different for each community. In Detroit, local water activists could apply the same strategies used in Bolivian water struggles. In West Virginia, people struggling against mountain top removal (for coal mining) could easily employ many of the same tactics of Bolivian protest groups. Other groups and activists – from anti-war to environmental – hopefully can take examples from Bolivian and Latin American social movements and apply them in the US. Others saw the importance of being involved in the campaign to bring former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to justice. He is currently living in the US. There is a movement to bring him to Bolivia to try him for the deaths in the 2003 Gas War. Other US citizens were inspired to get more involved in the push to close the School of the Americas, while others spoke of the importance of making connections in how free trade agreements impact workers in the north and south. Many media makers saw the importance of producing independent media which help the US public see through the lies of the corporate media, particularly in the big media’s portrayals of the Chavez and Morales administrations. 

I recommend going on a book tour to other authors. There is an inherent gap between any writer and reader. That gap can be as wide as a computer screen or national border. Book tours act as an important bridge in this relationship.

As the trip went on, my travel comrade Matt Dineen suggested using a rock and roll infused “TONIGHT!” at the end of any phrase. This would bring any comment to another, rockin’ level. For example, “I should read that book….TONIGHT!” Or “We need to make a stop in this town….TONIGHT!”

To conclude my thoughts on this tour, I’ll use the parting words from our friend, author Peter Linebaugh: “Kick the ass of the ruling class!”…..TONIGHT!

*****