Processed Meats

 Nicole Walker. Processed Meats: Essays on Food, Flesh and Navigating Disaster. Torrey House Press, 2021.

When I lived in Portland, I worked at a place called Orlo -- Raising Awareness about the Environment though the Creative Arts.  We published a literary magazine, performed Word on the Street where we stood on the steps of Pioneer Square and the Library and read volubly from Cadillac Desert and Silent Spring. We had an outfit for Vinnie the Fire Boy and one for a bear-looking creature so we could compete with Oregon's other mascots -- the Beavers and the Ducks.  Vinnie and Orlo the Bear walked along the Willamette River, handing out bumper stickers that read "YouENDanger" and "Cows Kill Salmon." [p. 28-29]

COMMENT

 Activists use public space on the library steps to read from life-changing books that inspired their own activism. The hope is that the readers going in and out of the building will be drawn to read influential environmental works and be likewise inspired.  The power of books to change the world is implicit.