Dorchester-Roxbury participation was evident
throughout the two months
of encampment across from the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston’s
Financial District.
Known as Occupy Boston, it was reminiscent of
a movement in which Mel King took part - a very effective,
long-impacting protest in the
South End in the 1970s. That became known as Tent City.
Occupy Boston
was the seed of a second Tent City, this time at Dewey Square with
comparable aims:
Correcting a greed-driven economy and society.
The first “Tent City” protest near Copley Square became concretized and
memorialized into apartments for low-income folks in what was a
litter-strewn lot at Dartmouth Street and Columbus Ave.
What will Tent
City #2 at Dewey Square do for us months and years from now especially
in the wake of its dissolution?
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In early October, transitions were giving meaning and history to the
group’s efforts. Roxbury handyman James Woods was there on an early
October Tuesday morning, smiling but worried. The shock was just
wearing off from the recent brutal police action while clearing the
next block of the Greenway.
More activists wanted to join their new-found comrades in the blocks of City real estate for
which permission to camp out had been obtained. But so many people
came there were spillovers into the next block of the Greenway.
Who welcomed them? Who welcomed them with smiles and who with batons?
Tent City #2, the Tent City of 2011, was full of vibrant life,
spontaneously blossoming from the people whose lives had been nourished
by heightened meaning and hope and the proximity of protesters with
common cause. 40-50 tents created housing and function: group
kitchen, info desk, media desk, sacred space and scores of signs.
Reporters relished the chaos and photographers captured expectations of
what was to come.
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A wide range of people served as the beating heart of the movement –
New Hampshire students, older vets and many with the spark of the ‘60s
in their souls. The mood was calm and hopeful that the unfolding Occupy
Movement - now spread in cities across the US and spouting in many
countries throughout the world - might carry the peoples of all nations
forward into the spiritual, social and political transformations
foretold for the year 2012.
Paul of Savin Hill was there and Mark from Newton and Shantae from
Roxbury and hundreds of others.
What about you? Were you there?
No
Tent City is left to call "home", no neighbors or comrades are close by to
share the day and no people’s mic is spontaneously uprising to engage us in unison voice. What
remain are shadows and memories, yet a strong sense that the Occupy
Movement is still alive.
Visit Occupy Boston on the Web. http://www.occupyboston.org
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