Bar Crawl Radio

"How rich we are, we who profess voluntary poverty as a foundation for our work as agitators, to be able to take a ferry ride and be, within an hour, in [Staten Island] a rural area which is still part of New York City ... my conversion took place here." Dorothy Day's journal - Summer 1977. November 4, 2022 the newest Staten Island Ferry was commissioned "Dorothy Day." I traveled out to the event...

James Baldwin argued that unlike Europeans, Americans do not know who they are.  In "Stranger in Paris," Baldwin argued that the French know who they are—ethnically, historically. But Americans are confused. He writes -- we know one when we see one, but cannot name what we have in common. The idea of “America” is formed in our precollege American History classes.&nbsp...

BCR hosts Rebecca and Alan spoke with actor Ronald Guttman after his one-actor performance in the play based on Camus' The Fall" at the Soho Playhouse bar. Matt -- the bartender -- talks about The Huron Club Bar [THC] -- which was also the set for the play and former speakeasy and brothel for Tammany Hall. THC Bar is an appropriate setting for Camus' final work -- "The Fall" (1956) -- which takes...

August 2, 2022. Outside the United States Consulate to the United Nations. Second day of the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Several dozen people--mostly in their 70s or more--marched and chanted and practiced civil disobedience in a call to end the build-up of nuclear arms. Here is a reflection of what some of them believed -- Hosted on Ac...

Father Philip Gbao is a Salesian Catholic Priest who works with the poor and children in West Africa. At one time he was the principal of a school in Uganda. As a young student he escaped the civil wars in Sierra Leone and now works to empower young women, to train teens in practical skills that will earn them a living wage, and to encourages his students to change behaviors that will make their c...

A few months ago, Rebecca McKean and I spoke with India Thusi about her study of the interaction of sex workers and the police in Johannesburg, South Africa. That conversation explored the current state of prostitution – and -- our attitudes and feelings about sexual intercourse as work . For this BCR conversation, we sat down at one of favorite bars with Dr. Samantha Majic – a professor in P...

Douglas Hostetter – Mennonite and Conscientious Objector -- served in the middle of a hot zone during the VietNam War supporting the people who lived there. His is an amazing story. Rebecca McKean and I spoke with Mr Hostetter at Gebhard’s Beer Culture Bar in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Juneteenth and Father’s day, 2022. We will post our conversation with Douglas in two parts. In the...

Douglas Hostetter – Mennonite and Conscientious Objector [CO] -- served in the middle of a hot zone during the VietNam War supporting the people who lived there. His is an amazing story. Rebecca McKean and I spoke with Mr Hostetter at Gebhard’s Beer Culture Bar in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Juneteenth and Father’s day, 2022. We will post our conversation with Douglas in two parts. Th...

Rebecca McKean and I were out on a delightfully comfortable summer eve in the West Side Community Garden to listen to the jazz compositions of Scott Munson -- vibraphonist -- performed by his quintet: Dmitri Kolesnik on bass / Scott Neumann on drums / Joe Magnarelli on trumpet / Emma Larsson singing. Before the concert we talked about informal T-shirt wear and straight thighs, messed-up signs, Yan...

Rebecca McKean and I – Alan Winson – were out on a late Sunday summer afternoon at the West Side Community Garden on the UWS of Manhattan -- waiting to take a musical tour through Argentina with guitarist Frederico Diaz and vocalist Juana Luna. And we will talked to these two amazing artists after the concert. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca Mckean and I were out on a late Sunday afternoon in June at the West Side Community Garden on the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- waiting to listen to Sweet Plantain – a string quartet -- with occasional trombone and mandalino – playing “a complex mix of Latin American music that artfully fuses western classical traditions” – according to the program.  The mic was open to ta...

BCR is talking about Sex Work. We spoke with a knowledgeable scholar whose recently published book “Policing Bodies” details her ethnographic study of the interaction of sex workers – the police – and the justice system of Johannesburg, South Africa.  Prof. Thusi teaches in Bloomington at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and at the Kinsey Institute.  India has worked with...

Back at the West Side Community Garden -- between W. 89 th and 90 th Streets – Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues -- and we opened this Bar Crawl Radio podcast with the sounds of "Inti and the Moon" – an Andean / Latin / World Fusion band. It was the second concert of the 2022 summer series in the Garden – organized by Randa Kirschbaum.  Rebecca McKean and I were out on a beautiful late spring af...

Rebecca and I arrived early to The West Side Community Garden -- a verdant neighborhood oasis – to record the jazz offerings of Sabu Adeyola's Spiritual Reunion Band and to talk to its leader about his career and memories of his teacher Charles Mingus. By the end of the concert Randa Kirshbaum who produces these summer musical repasts -- renamed the band "Miracle" because halfway through the conce...

We are back recording at Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar on the UWS -- taking a deep dive into Brownsville Brooklyn and the amazing work being done by its community organizations working to establish a good life for its citizens. We talked with Genese Morgan, community organizer and Chair of Community Board 16 which advocates for Brownsville, Brooklyn in the New York City Council. And Ms. Morgan i...

Catholic Workers – students of peace activism – knowers of Father Berrigan and the  Plowshares movement  – are already aware that this week was the fourth anniversary of the Kings Bay Plowshares action protesting the U.S. military’s nuclear stockpile. It is also the week that Martin Luther King was assassinated, over three decades ago. Less than a year before he was murdered, D...

For this BCR episode, we were privileged to talk with a woman who a few days prior to the recording escaped the war in Ukraine. I teach at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and recently one of my students missed several classes. This was unusual as Mishelle is the sort of student any teacher would welcome – attentive – actively participating – interested in most topics I bring up – and always p...

BCR co-hosts Rebecca McKean and Alan Winson and producer. Alina Larson spoke with Ukrainians living, working and protesting in NYC. Andrew Fessak is the president of the Board of Trustees of the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Volodymyr located on Manhattan's Upper West Side; Sam and Natasha are owners of the Blintz Box located in the underground Turnstyle Market next to the 59th Street subway...

BCR is back podcasting at Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We talked with brave people who decided to start a new business during a pandemic – Dan Auld and David Fullner of Kekoa Foods – making forward thinking and tasty natural baby foods.  And Adam Simon – a grand master – maybe not at chess – but bread making. He recently started Sourdough Gambit supplying UW...

BCR usually records out of a favorite neighborhood bars on the UWS of Manhattan – but for this conversation we Zoomed it with a guest on the other side of this Great North American Continent. Teacher and fellow podcaster and advocator for a kinder world – Canadian – Morgane Michael. She resides and works in Victoria, British Columbia -- and this lady wears a bunch of hats. Morgane is a wife w...

This is a special edition of BCR - not in a bar but on the streets with a Catholic Worker activist. I recently talked with Brian Terrell in Union Square in NYC on a blistering, cold, sun-bright day in January 2022. He was in the city to give a talk at the recently installed, life-size, white, military drone statue by Sam Durant, above W. 30th Street on the High Line. Brian Terrell is a world-trave...

Recently, Rebecca McKean was on the scene when our second grandchild was born. She lied her way into the birthing room pretending to be a doula or obstetrician -- it is not clear. In any case it was a life-changing experience as she watched Zeva enter the world headfirst from the left leg side of our amazing daughter. Learn some little known facts about bringing out bebe as Alan and Rebecca celebr...

I visited with American actor Kathleen Chalfant back when we first hunkered down due to COVID19 for our Hunkered Down Podcast. At the time, I expressed my gratitude to Joel Bernstein for inviting Ms. Chalfant to the podcast.   A celebrated and honored stage, film and television actor, Ms Chalfont debuted on Broadway in  Dance With Me  followed by  M. Butterfly.   She...

This BCR episode was recorded at Bar Hygge in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia. Becky and Alan have a fun-filled evening talking with Catherine Price about her newest book "The Power of Fun" How to feel Alive Again." Ms. Price describes herself as a “recovering tech addict”; she is the author of How to Break Up With Your Phone (2018) which has been published in 30 countries and featu...

Sometime in the 1890s – a young, tall, deeply handsome, light-skinned African American woman, and her mother, left the Jim Crow south and settled in New York City. She quickly became a sought-after artist’s model. Her form represented -- in statuary and coins, created by the most accomplished sculptors of the time – the ideal of the American Gilded Age – victorious, perfect, strong -- the Cla...