Poems by Beverly

Memories of Mitsu Suzuki

(She hurt a hand and couldn't type caps)

read your pieces about civil rights movement; they're great. i was in east river core in east harlem; we were the river rats; bayard rustin was our mentor; i was the 2nd e in freedom now chained to the federal building in nyc. we were supposed to be arrested and then go on hunger strike in jail, but my boyfriend turned out to be an undercover cop! he didn't want me to fast because i was so skinny and apparently he had enough clout to keep arrests from happening (longer story my brother thinks i should write). but his undercover copness notwithstanding, he was a great guy. i had a group of street kids--mostly 8-10-year-old boys--that hung around the core office on 123rd st. ray coached them to become a baseball team and even got 125th st. merchants to donate uniforms. i made a library of kids' books in the core office and took them to ball games, natural history museum, and to the world's fair in queens--many adventures and actions involving kids. worked at that time at macmillan company. alan rinzler was an editor there and he belonged to sncc. he helped me get books for the library. we decided to integrate macmillan so i asked around my core chapter and someone's sister had just graduated from ccny and was looking for a job. she was happy to be hired as alan's secretary. it was like the scene in tv show mad men.

12-18-08 - Holliday Gifts and Food for Wounded Knee