Well, I finally have a little time to write this up (between working full time, being a distance-ed library student at the University of Washington's iSchool, and being a parent).

I was invited to be a part of an event organized by the Peace Resource Center and the Associated Student's Social Issues group here at Western Washington University called "Beyond the Ballot", an evening of stories and discussion about experiences at the Republican National Convention in NY. I spoke along with photographer Orin Langelle (who works for the Global Justice Ecology Project)
, representatives of the National Lawyer's Guild and a group called the Long Haul Collective from Seattle.

There were about thirty people in attendance, most of them students from campus. They were very enthusiastic and interested in what everyone had to say. I was kind of nervous, but had my notes about NY - however, when I looked down at those notes it was as if someone had switched them with gibberish. I couldn't focus on the words at all. So I put them down and just spoke off the top of my head.

I described doing street reference with Jenna in Times Square, watching the cops go after protestors, marching in the huge UFPJ march, hanging out in Central Park after that, getting lost on the subway system (this was my first time in NY), being at the NY Public Library when mass arrests were being made, almost getting arrested three times, doing lots of walking (many times in the wrong direction), using home support reference, and doing a lot of street reference on my own.

The response was really positive. People were excited by the idea of activist librarians. I handed out a bunch of flyers and made some contacts with the Long Haulers. I see that Orin has already submitted several questions to RR.

It felt good to share my experiences, hear those of others, and do outreach for Radical Reference.

-Miguel Ramos