I had a chance to catch up with Dan Bailey, who wanted to discuss his C.I.R.C.L.E. Project and he might connect to Camden in deeper ways. He also sent me this piece about one of his interactions here: 

Where I live… 

I do not know when I moved there. I left “Why” and arrived in “Why Not” and have lived here ever since. I visit “Why” less than I used to, it just doesn’t have the same attraction it did when I felt like it was the only place I could be happy, even though I never was completely at home there. 

“Why” is a great place still, and the stuff that comes from there is great and I use some of it a lot but “Why” is sort of a lonely place for me these days. “Why Not” has a different feel I guess. 

There is a sense of adventure here, and because of that I get out and meet folks. Such beautiful people live here – and I am not judging. There are great folks in “Why”, too. I think this is something really important I have learned in “Why Not”. Here I don’t feel any limits and I can let go of my vanity, thinking what I imagine has something deeper or broader or just more than someone else. 

There is still hardship in “Why Not” don’t misunderstand, in fact it is part of the energy of where I live. I don’t see that tension being resolved ever. It is in fact what pumps up the wonder of “Why Not”. Those joys, that pain, it is everywhere, but in “Why Not” people just look at it differently. And it is not just staring, like a gaper delay on the freeway that slows down the flow of life. 

No. In “Why Not” people see with magic vision almost. Like the ones who live in the “Emerald City” in Baum’s story. They had green glasses put on by the Wizard, fixed to their heads permanently. After a while they just believed the place was made of emeralds and not the same old plain sort of place they had literally lost sight of. It was, but then again it wasn’t. This is the curiosity of “Why Not” – things just are not what they seem to be here. 

What I means is this, some friends have been doing poetry. Sometimes their own, mostly other poets get to be honored in this special crowd who call themselves “The Poetry Liberation Front”. They have been doing their “poetry actions” for years in “Why Not” before I met them. In a simple, subtle heart way I like to think we were always together, but I didn’t pick up arms with them like I did that day. 

To be clear our weapons are paint brushes and our ammunition is unused paint from jobs our friend Mark has left over. He is a professional human being and he paints people’s houses for a living. He is a real blessing in “Why Not”. 

Anyway, it was the 4th of July and a grand plan was being put on the table in the war room of joy, which is also called Brigid’s House. The scouting party had come back with critical logistics and final strategy was being prepared. I was so excited because in “Why Not” anything can happen. 

There is more to the story but time is short and you have to get home soon so I will jump to my point about the way people who live in “Why Not” see. 

The part of “Why Not” where the troops of PLF did our action is a really rough part of town. There are harder places no doubt but here is the thing, when all that is known for a generation or more is pain and fear the brain has a real difficult time computing. It needs something different to make sense of the world, even in “Why Not”. Especially in “Why Not”. The PLF excels at this, thrives on it, gets life from it, and lives for it, but never succumbs to it. 

So we were done!! The poem “Let America Be America, Again!” was artfully sprawling, crawling, and shouting out from across a 60 foot long and 14 foot high wall supporting the overpass of 676 under which runs Ferry Ave. in the heart of Camden’s Waterfront South neighborhood. 

What a glorious feeling I had looking at our “Why Not” legacy. Then Father Doyle appeared like a Celtic Shaman out of nowhere – but his old Honda Civic was parked at the curb so I knew it was the magic of “Why Not” that brought him. He liked it. I turned to him and said “We will make this an urban paradise!” 

He smiled and said, “Why Not.”