[News] SF Chron Review and Reminder - Arm the Spirit Release Sun - 3/22

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Diana Block: Activist's memoir of life underground

Momo Chang

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

For a woman who led a double life, it must be strange to suddenly 
have her story laid bare in public view.

"I have to admit, I am nervous about putting it out to the public," 
Diana Block, 59, says about her memoir. "There are a lot of deep 
emotions and different parts of my life and a bunch of complicated 
political ideas."

The activist celebrates the release of "Arm the Spirit: A Woman's 
Journey Underground and Back" with a reading and discussion about the 
book on Sunday at the Women's Building and next Thursday at City 
Lights, both in San Francisco.

Block spent more than a decade as part of a radical underground 
group, then running from the FBI.

It was during Block's years underground that she took up creative 
writing, delving into her most personal stories, which led to many of 
the poems that punctuate her book.

"I really needed to write this memoir," says Block, who lives in San 
Francisco now. "It was really a part of my processing all the 
experiences and reflecting on my history."

In the '70s, Block, who was in her 20s and living in the Bay Area, 
became a radical feminist organizer and supporter of the Puerto Rican 
independence movement. In 1981, she and five others moved to Los 
Angeles and formed a clandestine group. Four years later, they 
discovered they were being watched by the FBI and fled.

Block and her partner, Claude Marks, toting their newborn son, lived 
in motels at times, with their son sleeping in dresser drawers. They 
spent nearly a decade working regular jobs and making friends with 
neighbors under new identities. But eventually the group's urge to do 
public activist work took over - plus, Marks and Block realized that 
living a double life meant keeping their true identities from their 
children - and the group surrendered to authorities in 1994. As part 
of the negotiations, Marks - who is now Block's husband and founder 
of the Freedom Archives, a collection of audio recordings of 
progressive history - served four years in prison, and a co-defendant 
served two, for conspiracy to transport explosives.

Since Block resurfaced in the mid-'90s, she's dedicated much time to 
the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, where she visits and 
advocates for female prisoners and is part of the editorial 
collective that publishes the newsletter the Fire Inside.

3-5 p.m. Sun. Free. Women's Building, 3543 18th St., No. 8, S.F. 
(415) 431-1180. Also 7 p.m. next Thurs. City Lights, 261 Columbus 
Ave. (415) 362-8193. <http://www.armthespirit.com>www.armthespirit.com.

- Momo Chang, <mailto:96hours at sfchronicle.com>96hours at sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/18/NSBE16EAKO.DTL

This article appeared on page F - 31 of the San Francisco Chronicle


**ARM THE SPIRIT** LAUNCH PARTY
SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 3-5 PM, Audre Lorde Room
THE WOMEN'S BUILDING, 3543 18TH ST., SAN FRANCISCO

For more information and other reading event dates see 
<http://www.armthespirit.com/>www.armthespirit.com

ARM THE SPIRIT:
A Woman's Journey Underground and Back
NOW AVAILABLE FROM AK PRESS
To order go to <http://www.akpress.org/>www.akpress.org

Emacs!











Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090318/8e2d17c2/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: d20f6.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 244643 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090318/8e2d17c2/attachment.jpg>