demonstration prior to president obama said demonstration, when we were in the room thing about the calamity in haiti, thel in the upheaval and the government and to speak to then a numbe president bush and the number of emissaries came in the room to if you will, congressmen dellums commit to human rights, to compress, gzip just the day with the ones that would make the ultimate decision. ..icated we wanted to see the president of the united states of america. we did not move. it was finally recognized that we had to meet with the president of the united states on this vital issue. stories not run up, stories that

are not, if you will, crafted in history. finally, some years ago, students of a and m denied their rights to vote, and went to the supreme court, and we marched down a country road with 7,000 people for 20 miles. the country town had never seen the likes of to ensure that students could vote where they pent to school. i would say in the great state of florida, under another governor, when someone raised their head about affirmative action and the call came out from congressman brown and meeks

and hastings that we needed a few of you down here, and that great state recognized that with the coming together, the national black caucus, just the presence of being able to say we were in the house, 25,000 people, marched to the state capitol, and as i recall, congresswoman, we won. these storied are not chronicled. we know the historic life of congressman and john lewis, but in the mind, unwritten books are stories where the congressional black caucus, members far and wide are to be touted. i'll close on this one with two dear sisters no longer with us. wanet mcdonald, chaired the

committee in congress and put in congress the first african-american picture of a congressperson which you'll find as we enter into the united states chambers there with jones, who after the 2004 election rose to the floor of the house and said, i, too, am american. this election was unfair. as many members also came and did something that had not been done for'ons where you -- ions where you accept the electoral college and members arrived in washington, went on the floor and respectfully objected one after another. you can see that it is a place where much may not be written, but we are grateful for the work they have done. i encourage you in the last

lawyer's closing to visit so sojourner truth who we hope to move in the rightful place, the only african-american in the united states congress in legislation that i introduced, and we placed her in the united states capitol just a few years ago with the support of all the members of the congressional black caucus, and certainly, at that time, senator hillary clinton. we can do things, together, collaborate, but never leave who we are outside the door for the history is too precious to leave behind. thank you congressman and congresswoman. [applause] with that note, another round of applause for our sponsor, congresswoman wilson. [applause] thank you, all, for this wonderful program and have a

wonderful black history month. [applause] >> you're watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. >> coming up next, the history of the occupy wall street movement written by 60 activists who were central to its creation. seven of the contributors of the book to read selections from it and answer audience questions. this is just under an hour. >> thanks to kgb for hosting this evening. and i just wanted to say a little bit about the first experience that we had when we were putting this book together. and i suppose really we had the idea for doing the book a couple

of weeks after occupy wall street started. and we thought well, we better try and get some kind of commission for doing the book, because we wanted to write an instant history. but the difficulty was that getting permission from a movement without any identifiable leadership was actually quite difficult. so we talked to a few of the facilitators in zuccotti park, and they said that they thought the best thing to do would be to go to a general assembly in the park, and in the announcements of the general assembly just announced we were doing the book, and asked for volunteers.

so around about the beginning of october, a few of us went down and i was scheduled to speak. i was feeling a little nervous about it. first of all, because i had never spoken to the people's microphone before, and it's a particular skill. you have to speak very concisely and to the point. and secondly, i was anxious because the points i was trying to get over to the general a summit were actually quite complicated. i wanted to say that we're going to do a book that was an instant history, that was not analytical but really descriptive. that didn't claim to be the official voice of the occupy wall street. but that was going to try as were putting it together to mirror the principles of occupy

wall street and that it was going to be participatory and horizontally organized. anyone who wanted to be a part of putting the book together could be. but it was going to be democratic. and that is going to be written by a collective. i was sitting on the steps in zuccotti thinking this is going to be quite difficult to get over to this crowd through the people's microphone. but i sort of reassured myself by the fact that actually it was actually a very small general assuming that night. there were probably no more than maybe 100, 150 people at the most of the g.a..net. but just before the section of the agenda the item was to come up on, occurred, michael moore who speaking on the other side of the park finished speaking,

and about 2000 people turned around and came and sat in the square in front of us. [laughter] so it was very, very nerve-wracking. fortunately, the fact that 2000 people came and joined the transept meant they never got to the item that we were supposed to be talking about. we waited three hours, and actually still hadn't gotten to the item. so we abandoned it, we abandoned the attempt to talk to the general assembly about the book and they said actually, the facilitator said, don't worry about it, just go to an education empowerment committee meeting. working group meeting. these were taking place in 60 wall street in the deutsche bank building. and ask for volunteers there. so we did a few. we went to the next empowerment

subcommittee meeting, and that was a little bit of a fraud experience because there was a lot of support for the book, the idea of the book in a meeting, but there was also quite a lot of feeling that it was too early, and analysis of what was happening. and that people were worried. i think i'm a reasonably that we might be seen as official spokespeople for occupy wall street. and actually at that meeting we got blocked. it's the only time i've ever actually had the block, and it's not an experience i want ever to go through again. we couldn't get it through. so we were feeling a bit downcast, and wondering whether

we were just have to abandon the project. but then we noticed that quite a lot of people from the education empowerment committee came to us afterward and said you know what? just go ahead and do it anyway, and we will help, we will find volunteers for you. so that's a we get. we started meeting at 60 wall street of we, and if we do we met more and more people came along. and from that point on it was the most wonderful express because i think this book, which i'm terribly proud of publishing, does actually wrecked in the of occupy wall street. it was written by, between 50 and 60 people collectively. it was a pleasure of going to meetings every week to discuss how we're going to do it. we went out and interviewed dozens, maybe even hundreds of people, around the occupation. we divided those interviews up chapter by chapter. we allocated two, three, four

riders to each chapter. the chapters came in, they were delivered on time but i can tell you how unusual that is, if you're a publisher. [laughter] amazingly, they came in on time. and on to become in our time but they were actually usually written. the thing about this book is it's actually a tremendous read. it really is a great read. and it's an indication that that kind of participatory passionate participatory work which occupy wall street represents really does produce wonderful results. and i think it was because people viewed the spirit and was going going on in zuccotti, that the book was possible. it really is, i think it's just a tremendous achievement. i've never done a book like it before, and it really is just a marvelous piece of instant

history. about the wonderful time in new york city, when, you know, revolution was in the air. so we've got a bunch of people there who are going to read some bits from it, and the first person who's going to read about the beginnings of occupy wall street is lisa montanarelli. [applause] >> occupy wall street is part of a global movement that reach nearly every continent in the last year. although the protests of rows in different nations under different forms of government, and buried in their demands, all have voiced outrage at the inequities of unfettered global capitalism. unrest in tunisia broke out on december 17, 2010, after 26 year-old street vendor,

mohammed, let himself ablaze. photos and videos of him went viral on facebook, igniting a rage of a generation of tunisian youth and our street demonstrations that led to the january 14 the ouster of tunisian president, ben ali. next, protests erupted now jerry, lebanon, jordan, martina, oman, and saudi arabia. the first egyptian street protester place on january 25. by january 31, more than 250,000 had swarmed cairo's square. in the mild winter weather, tens of thousands pitched large open air cannons, kansas or plastic sheets draped over beans. visitors donated food, and inhabitants every sages ideology and fashion formed committees such as volunteer security service, trash collection, medical services.

these committee served as the template for later movements in europe and the u.s. by summer, the uprisings had spread sub-saharan africa, latin america, asia and europe. all these protests influence a people who later participate in occupy wall street. from the press working group noted, for example, that latino occupiers got a really big inspiration from less publicized movements in chile, colombia, argentina, brazil, mexico and venezuela. but of all the protests in 2011, the massive spanish in canada most -- the indignant, had perhaps the largest impact on the form and strategies of occupy wall street. coordinated through facebook and twitter, the spanish may 15 movement marched in roughly 50 spanish cities and set up camps in highly visible public squares getting occupiers another name,

campouts. willie, an activist involved in some of the earliest planning sessions for ows, described the spanish encampments he visited in june. these camps became centers of information, protests and revolutionary lives, and distribute free food, council booth focus on individual issues. the environ, the military, women's rights come and held meetings, teach-ins in public discussions. they covered the camps with placards displaying revolutionary slogans, and everywhere they went they left behind cloth banner, cardboard signs and graffiti. form in general assembly and working groups that reached decisions are consensus-based process, they created structures that occupy wall street would recycle and repurpose. the spanish occupation electrified willie. in spain, he said, i gained renewed urgency, and actually

recognize the nature of the historical moment and the possibility of able t. was here in the u.s. the camp feels magical, but it's also totally jerryrigged. improvisation built upon an improvisation. holding up a sagging canvas roof, a truly massive storm could take the whole thing down, but can the same be said of the status quo? is can't be joined right enough around the world could be that storm. during his visit, willie build contacts, and later conferred as he and other activists plan the occupation to new york city. so organizers a different continents communicate with each other, sharing ideas and tactics. among other commonalities, the protesters across the world occupied space build communities that took care of all their members needs for food,

clothing, shelter. in came and gave them a sense of community and family, his was a set location to dialogue with each other and the press. and while facebook and twitter and evenly censored, in some of these countries, many of the protesters carried smart phones a lot of highly organized movements to quickly mobilize massive numbers of people. this could in the wildfire spread of the 2011 protests, and the prophets were nonhierarchical organizing and and horizontal decision-making. which resembled online social networking, rather than traditional governing structures. thank you. [applause] >> thanks, lisa. so next up, all of these people are reading tonight were involved in writing the book. olivia rosane is going to read

from a section about the general assembly, the first general assembly in zuccotti. [applause] >> as the time for the first general assembly approached, a group of 40 or 50 gathered to figure out how to run it. finally, marina, marissa, and a few others had been in the general assemblies, which is where they plan the occupy wall street action, agreed to facilitate it. marina recalls, it was beautiful and powerful. we started with megaphones and they didn't work very well. we were standing in the center up on one of the benches, and everyone was standing around the mass circle. so we have to in two directions. after 10 or 15 minutes we put

the megaphones down, and i spoke to the people in front of me using the people's mic, which is something we practiced in training tonight's previously. i have participated in it and see me use in seattle in 1999 wto protest. but i thought of it as something useful on the streets for communicate information. i hadn't thought of as a way of conducting an assembly. but we are standing in the center of a group of 2000 people, and megaphones were not working. she spoke a few words to the people closest to buy, then ask them to repeat it in unison to the others. that first night using the people's my, people haven't done it before, but immediately picked up on it. it creates an atmosphere of active listening and participation, and since we started the people's mic, the vibrant energy totally changed. the transeventy cited the group would occupied zuccotti park

overnight, and hold a general assembly at 10 a.m. the next morning. about 300 people settle down in sleeping bags for the night, while the police waited nearby. match remembers feeling pleasantly surprised to still on edge about what would happen next in thinking, how long did the police tolerate this? the probably break us up in the evening, or on monday. [applause] >> so, next up, travis holloway is going to read a bit from the chapter that we've got in the book on art in the square. >> so the art and the square begins with a quote. we believe we are at the brink of a new art movement, a new

school of thought. hopefully you will join us. that was an e-mail that was sent to me as a poet in late september. i will just read a couple of paragraphs about what we did as poets. another one of the early artist groups was a poetry guild, which emerged in this organic fashion to the first many of poets at occupy wall street happened in late september when over 50 poets gathered for a reading. there was no headliner, no unifying stuff, no interest the, and it's fair to say, no ordinary poetry reading. their initial event a weekly reading that came to be called the poetry center was organize and perform less like a poetry reading and more like a democratic assembly. each voice was presumed to be equal in each of the prerogative to speak before the assembly. if the occupation was horizontal and leaderless movement, poetry would be no different. poets were chosen at random by

lot and given no more than three minutes to read you. lines of poetry were repeated back to the public using the same response method used by ocular walter. writers president or not there simply to demand for democracy, but to perform it. other events like this one soon led to calls for new art is selected, to form at occupy wall street. as an enough from the arts and collection subcommittee stated, we believe we are on the brink of a new art movement, a new school of thought, to catalyze that we're creating collectives inside our arts culture to advance her move and society to the new paradigm. we have already caught collected on performance art, one in music, no plea will join us for poetry. the poets joined, as did a multitude of others. today the list of kids associate with arts and culture consistently of musicians, poets, puppeteers, but also other photographers, actors, writers, architects, film

makers, sculptors, dance, painters. the list seems endless and comprises every creative field imaginable. [applause] >> and next up we will take a little break after this one, but christine utz is going to read a little bit about the meditation space in the park. >> so, first i actually want to read something about writing this book. because i think that that's relevant for all of you to hear about. you have heard colin version meeting of two but this was the writers actually working on it. because it got a little stressful. so i worked on a section in

living in the square, on the sacred space and the meditation space. so this is on writing back. the tree of life is one of the first things a nose upon entering zuccotti park in the middle of october. so when there's a section of the living in the square chapter had been dedicated to the subject, i volunteered to write about it. ..

were soon collaborating with bike accidents. 14 a week and yesterday we pulled out 75-gallon buckets of food waste and we figured away anything from 30 to 35 pounds each so seven back it is over 200 pounds a day.

the groups to bring freedom ways to community gardens and will reset including the cougar community gardens and any number of others. pedal power was also used to provide electricity for the kitchen as well as for the rest of the park. one of the first things we realized we had to do was to get everybody here are fossil fuels and made in energy by kennan noted keegan that good-looking men across the room. she now we can tell to peddle the power of the deep cycle battery. we started parrying some of the things this occupation needs like laptops, cell phones and cameras. as soon as we put into all of the other committees and approached us and said we need one, too. so that they move over to another section about bikes, which is my passion right now.

depending on the time of day, we are constantly in the early weeks of the occupation. the closer one guy to trinity place working along the southern sidebar, the latter became the polls come in the occupied drummers who claimed the face and the steps in the park with a picketer merce location combined with good community altar piled for candles during the northwest corner keep the park's western edge the more spiritual but that didn't stop the occasional dance party from breaking out. one evening in there that the basic lives from time's up in new york city based environmental east advocating direct action descended on the park's western edge of the special sound by pumping gz company worker james brown public enemy tunes as an occupier lead off a little steam and chanted all day, all week, occupied it beats and brandon

cavanaugh and activists helped organize the impromptu after all the barricades up all around the park and you could go and can't easily. there was still noble and people just started writing out and running along the side pumping fists in the adventure the police pushed dancers on the block and within a matter ease the barricades of the trinity were sad. i read a final sentence or two. what are the others i've no idea who wrote so much of what is lovely in it. so is repeated again and found a lighter load. from the earliest days of the movement, personal storytelling helped to build solidarity and to put faces on both ws and better ask amy to the outside world for many a desire to exercise associated frustration stores deeply motivating. thank you. [applause]

>> so next step, amadeus going to read from the chat drunk people of color [applause] >> my first reading i've ever done. [cheers and applause] >> the movement was beautiful. his desk and away, lay in lay in the form of somerville peeping sun flickered in as the crowd for then float above them, blocking their movements, the lone black woman in a black dress but cautiously down the stairs on september 23rd to 1st days and surveyed the

scene. she looked left and right and not that the big racing and seemed interested in the conversations about your company recognition and personally or by association she waited, operating sentence of the general assembly began. she was lost in the crowd. jamie, a member of the people of color, working group describes itself as the 99% any person of color first went down to occupy wall street on october 15, national day of action. i went by me so she explained because no one else wanted to go with me. none of my friends were interested and i was just a well, i am going to go out and check it out on my own. i love the energy of holiday, but when some people started to notice this pga was majority white male, which is the highest privilege you can have in a society that constructed like our own. there were a lot of people who are the 99%, to look at these issues, issues that are most prevalent to time, issues that

directly affect them every single day, that they are not they are at the part because they feel alienated or they feel their voices won't be heard, or the experience racism that some point. so, on october 1st, as tensions surrounding this feeling of alienation built, one woman stood at the general assembly and propose to the people of color working group. asking that anyone interested meet me at the red state now. though she had discussed the idea with many of her white allies and people of color, this earliest number of puc has nevertheless had to fend off to white men in order to get her proposal on the agenda and the first race. occupy while stupas and the diverse state they profess to be. i didn't expect it to be a movement. i didn't expect it to be she said.

the movement was created in a racially hostile society by individuals who brought -- he brought into dangerously flawed logic of color blindness that they are ready at. about five people, people of color and white people showed up at the initial meeting and exchanged e-mails. by the next meeting coming to grip the track to 20 members and by a third meaning, 100 people of all colors set in a circle beneath the big red thing after consensus became a close base for any person identified as a person of color. finally i'm not over one, the call to people of color from a ws working group was released. so i leave that for you guys. [cheers and applause] >> our last reader this evening as jon b. cooke and he is going

to read a section from the chapter about the eviction. [applause] >> howdy. so, i heard about the eviction as many, many people and activists and supporters of occupy wall street read about it being woken up in my bed in brooklyn. and then i responded immediately the way many others did and said i'm not going to go and i went back to sleep. about 80 seconds later i got up and i went. and you know, this is the eviction chapter, but this is not about the ending. it's a new beginning and they hear so many amazing things happening beyond the eviction. and so i hope that spirit comes

through. meanwhile, at three and a come hundreds of protesters are still holding ground of broadway and pine, blocked by derek craves and police they watched in silence as cops and sanitation workers told dump trucks and drove off into the night. my house is not dump truck yelled one man. they are stealing our stuff quite another well over the barricades played on the guitar and sang bob dylan's when the ship came in. elsewhere chants rang up measure six feet from your cucumber take off up their rights to. [laughter] and some of what democracy looks like. this is what democracy looks like. under the dump truck and jan scarano and the crowd thinned, journalist and a view view to display campers will protesters try to reconcile themselves with what happened and speculated about the future. occupiers chatted in between text and phone calls reassuring

friends and loved ones who wanted to know where they were and if they were safe. they also exchanged with fellow protesters to scattered throughout the streets of lower manhattan. still others claim is scribbled on police cars and from the days when along the line of police vehicles and use their site here to let the air out of the tires in landfill search. their 5:00 a.m. on the dump trucks that carried up the bulk of the part content can police made their push to reopen broadway. to see her in a police line commit three hawklike protesters who did and whistled at a young blonde female officer. she gritted her teeth. blinking her to mail upstairs a head taller than she stared down the cat collars and discussed. a nearby male activists that the blonde officers that is to say i'm sorry. i should call my walk tonight at the street the two chatted to

achieve better usual deeds in manhattan mini about the eviction call from brooklyn. meanwhile, as scores of officers pressed the reckless cloud, and muddled enough and caution if you don't get this straight, you will be arrested. several protesters hummed the imperial march. which gave way to the chance of holiday, all week, occupy wall street. the chance started out slowly, almost pastime, but weakened as the n.y.p.d. sophistry. altercations arose, pushing everyone out of the street and onto the sidewalk outside trinity churchyard you some protesters pushed back into a sort of officers overpowered them. others hurled bottles and larger objects from afar. one young man onto a police cruiser and threw himself onto the crowded police and cries rang out fascists, here you protect demand chain. other protesters called the police to join them. they are stealing your pensions