I was late for the G-20 Resistance Project march “The People’s Uprising!“, but early, as it turned out, for the “Battle of Lawrenceville”. I arrived at 40th and Butler while wave after wave of those heavily armed and armored to protect the assembled archons from the forces of anarchy marched down 40th, across the 40th St. Bridge and down Butler St. I spoke with the Thomas Merton Center‘s Miles Dinnen about the march
9-24-09 miles dinnen, thomas merton center 1
and about the Merton Center’s G-20 activities, walking up 40th to Arsenal Park.
9-24-09 miles dinnen, thomas merton center 2
via G-Infinity
I spent the next few hours biking and walking around the liminal zone between Lawrenceville and the beginning of the Strip proper, blocks clogged by shifting clusters of corporate national/international media, rubberneckers/instant local media, legal observers, Starship Troopers and their vehicles orthogonally arrayed at every intersection between the river and Liberty Avenue, and a steady trickle of, in the main, individual marchers.
9-24-09 people’s uprising participant
Between the sonic and microwave weapons and old-school teargas and rubber bullets, the march didn’t even make it into what many locals would consider the Strip, let alone Downtown, although individual participants and subgroups may well have, after the main body of marchers went elsewhere and the clouds of Troopers lifted for other parts of the city, if they felt like taking a detour.
Biking to the August Wilson Center from Lawrenceville required crossing the 16th St. Bridge, the North Side and heading back over the 7th St. Bridge. Among those manning the various barricades I encountered out-of-towners clueless about Pittsburgh geography, but was given helpful directions by other cyclists and by one barricade-manning local who, to his credit, apologized for the inconvenience. At the Wilson Center, I met up with G20 Voice‘s Julie Roth and Karina Brisby, who were extremely nice and helpful, as was everyone I talked with there.
Biked through Downtown’s militarized labyrinth to Oakland after that, where hundreds of college students were goofing off in front of a line of mounted police and armored vehicles blocking the bridge from the Library to Phipps. I also stopped to chat with a fellow at the Craig St. Kiva Han who gave me his cockeyed account of the goings-down in Oakland and how the G-20 stacks up against other unfortunate occurrences.
9-24-09 armchair anarchist, kiva han
Thereafter, I biked through Bloomfield, delighted to see the Little Italy Days festivities proceeding apace despite the invasion, to Fe Gallery in Lawrenceville for the opening of “G-Spot“, which runs until Saturday. There, I talked with local artist and musician Dean Cercone,
who was en route to play a benefit show for the Library at Remedy, and Visionary Arts Festival mastermind and sacred geometrician Alberto Almarza,
9-24-09 alberto almarza, g-spot
both of whom have rad pieces in the show.
More tomorrow. Have fun and cuídate.
UPDATE, 9-26-09
Added photos and blip videos of the march recorded by Jessica Silver.