Lily Carlisle-Reske and two other Smith College students did their capstone project this year creating a new program to divert food from being thrown away and instead get it to people to eat.  The project as it is, is, Pedal People is picking up produce from Big Y on Saturday afternoons and taking it to Hampshire Hts, where Casa Latina coordinates distribution,   There’s a fun rap song, ” We Be Dumpsta Diving.”

Also Alex gives a talk at our regular (12 yrs going) Monday night potluck, about trying to create welcoming spaces.

Jose is a live guest in the studio today. He shares about his 7 years in the Marines, mostly as a photographer documenting sites of Past War Dead, including an interview with a man imprisoned at Guantanamo after 9-11. After the Marines and photography school, he photographed and stayed in Occupy Wall Street camp and farm. Check out his pictures on flickr.com/photos/joseomediavilla/. We met via Couchsurfing.org.

Also on today’s show, Duane and I talk about last weekend’s tree planting with volunteers from tree Northampton and the N’ton DPW. Hear clips from Virginia Rechtschaffen, Jim Clark (DPW) and Rob Postel.

Brad Lyttle is an old friend of mine from my Chicago Catholic Worker days. He has driven to MA to get his book, The Flaw in Deterrence, to universities in the area. The book is about the increasing probability of nuclear disaster as time goes on . Brad also shares stories, like about the peace walk he coordinated in 1963-64, Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace and Freedom, and how when they were imprisoned in segregationist GA as an interracial walk, they resisted with a hunger strike that lasted 2 months.

Today is also bike commute day in Northampton. Brad and I have been riding around town on the bike trailer.

Ruth Tirado, president of the board of directors of Casa Latina, joins me in the studio.  (http://Casalatinainc.org) Casa Latina is the only Latino-led and Latino-focused organization in Hampshire County. They promote self-sufficiency and a sense of community among local Latinos.  Ruth talks about some of Casa Latina’s different projects, and how she got involved over the years.  Ruth and I met last week doing the Northampton Food Rescue project at Hampshire Heights.

Tuesday night at the Iron Horse is Latin dance night!  Ruth says it was great, a fun way to share local latinidad.

Also, at the beginning of the show, I share a little story about how earlier in the day, biking through Easthampton hauling compost, I passed a young man, an EHS student, walking down the path with a basketball under one arm and a confederate flag wrapped around him.  So we played basketball together for a bit and I asked him about the flag.

And, this is fund drive week, so feel free to contribute to Valley Free Radio, now or at any time.   You can donate online at Valleyfreeradio.org.  Thanks!  And thanks to all the contributors and volunteers who keep the station going, and give me this platform.

May Day – international workers day – Over 18 businesses in the Valley closed today as part of national strikes to show the economic power of immigrant workers.  Since we had the day off,  hundreds of people  (including Smith College students who walked out) went downtown to the Pioneer Valley Worker’s Center, where we listened to speeches, and then filled Main St, marching to City Hall for more speeches and stories, in Spanish and English, about the contributions and struggles of immigrant workers in our community.

Later in the evening, there was a rally in Springfield and a march to City Hall.  My housemate, co-worker, and friend Clarissa Lyons talks about her experience sitting through the City Council meeting where they discussed a resolution to make Springfield a Sanctuary City.  She noticed that, with one exception, it appeared that all the white councilors voted against it, and all the councilors of color voted for it.

Yes, there are so many reasons I am passionate about utilizing my physical abilities to move myself around.  The bicycle -(Wheels!)-  is a vehicle that weighs less than half of what the cargo weighs,  as compared to a car, which weighs easily 10 times what the cargo weighs.   Carrying 2-3000 extra pounds around with me wherever I want to go is not how I want to spend precious energy.

Okay, okay, “it’s the infrastructure” you say.  Yes, that too.  And I recognize that we all have different abilities and situations.  But for me, the bottom line is, Using my own power to go places – it makes me feel alive!

Alex Jarrett joins me in the studio for this conversation.

Myk and his family are visiting my household for  a few days from Brooklyn.  He’s a jazz musician passionate about social justice.  He brought his slide guitar into the studio.