July 5 to 6: Eagle Rock's 24-hour vigil

[Brian]

The folks on the corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards on Saturday, May 3.

Our friends with the long-standing vigil in Eagle Rock -- Northeast Los Angeles Radical Neighbors for Peace Through Justice -- will hold their second annual 24-hour vigil at the usual corner starting at 2 p.m. this Saturday, July 5, and ending Sunday at 2 p.m.  Plans are taking shape on a special Facebook page for the event:

www.facebook.com/events/656448171093087/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

I see that Roberta, who co-founded Montrose Peace Vigil and who has long attended the Eagle Rock vigil too, will lead yoga exercises on Sunday morning.  Anni and I will arrive there on Saturday afternoon.  Anni is importing the Imagine Peace mediation that we used to do in Montrose in 2012, where participants sit quietly for several minutes then discuss their imaginings.

Facebook is making it harder for people like me, who have refused to join for ten years, to even access their customer's pages now, so I will be talking about the 24-hour vigil on this message board -- where any guest can reply and post just by typing a CAPTCHA code.

Thanks to our NE L.A. Neighbors Nina, Ross, Norm and Pearl for registering on the Montrose Peace Vigil message board.  (One tip if you're always going to visit here on the same computer:  check the box to stay logged in when you first log in, and you probably won't have to do that again.)  If anyone has questions about the board -- if Anni and I can assist in any way -- you guys have our e-mail addresses.  We love to hear from you.

[Brian]

I can't remember ever writing about an event before it's over -- as I post this, the second annual 24-hour vigil hasn't yet reached its halfway mark -- but I can report on how much fun it was to be on the corner of Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards between 4:30 and 9 p.m.

Big kudos to Nina for organizing presentations on topics like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and rounding up pizzas from five locations for us to evaluate for a newspaper piece she's doing.  Nina also brought singer-guitarists Hector Sanchez and Rick Lawndale, who kept Anni and I dancing while we held signs for the passing cars.  Roberta was there too, only slightly jet lagged after returning from Paris the night before.  I didn't try to count everybody who participated, but at least 20 people showed up, and more were coming as we were leaving.

Many of the Eagle Rock regulars were seated on camp chairs along the sidewak and behind folding tables under the shade of a portable gazebo, with ice chests behind them, conserving their energy -- they planned to stay awake there until 2 p.m. on Sunday.  They also expected to have a sign making session and watch some documentaries on a laptop computer before Roberta returns to lead yoga exercises at 7:30.

I just learned that Nina has another Facebook page for the event with even more information than the link above offers, so I will relay follow up news from there.  And Anni will post a few photos that we took Saturday afternoon in this thread.

[anni]

What a great gathering...and we're just getting started (in these pics)

[anni]

Here's some more pictures of our 24 hour vigil, from Norm.

[Oss Rae]

It's great to see these! I took some pix, too but still have to download them from my camera. I'll post them here if I can figure out how. Here's a write-up Nina did of last year's 26-hour vigil with pix: la.indymedia.org/news/2013/10/261986.php. I like the idea of combining demonstrating with partying.