This is my first cover story for the Boston Phoenix, on street medics: self-trained radical activists who have been providing free first aid at demonstrations since civil rights protests in the 1960s. Four months of conversations about direct action and radical activism, punk politics and pepper spray, our country’s fucked up medical industry, Occupy medic tents, and more. I talked to medics all over the country, including one of the ladies who created the concept of street medicine in the ’60s, plus authors, doctors, EMTs, lawyers, the cops (sort of), and a whole bunch of people who wouldn’t let me use their real names. Talking about street medicine brings together intersection of so many different interesting stories, ideas, conversations — this 2-page article really only skims the surface of what I gathered during my interviews. Hopefully I can convince some publisher that they want a book on this because I basically have one written. Online now, on newsstands tomorrow.
