Alice Lovelace at YES! reception

Alice Lovelace at YES! reception
Originally uploaded by Fran on island

Alice Lovelace, the coordinator of the first-ever US Social Forum. arrived at our YES! reception on Thursday evening as relaxed as if she’d just come in from a swim. Yet Alice has been coordinating thousands of volunteers to pull off one of the best-organized large-scale meetings I have ever experienced anywhere!

The scale of the U.S. Social Forum is hard to comprehend, even if you’re here. Imagine over 700 workshops squeezed into just three days spread out across Atlanta’s downtown; evening plenary sessions; tents organized for issues such as Democracy, the Solidarity Economy, Indigenous People and Africa; plenty of food stalls, hundreds of exhibitors, music, ceremony – and everything unfolding just as planned without a major hitch. Incredible.

I asked Alice if the Forum had hired an event organizing company to tack down the details and make sure everything came together so well. Heavens no, she replied. She never knew for sure whether they’d get money, so she always had to operate on the assumption that there would be no money. So she, with one assistant, and lots and lots of volunteers and capable organizations simply worked it all out themselves. Alice shared with me that she had long ago learned to organize on the cheap. The first conference she had organized brought together 200 representatives from nine states – for a total cost of $125.

Alice is far more than an organizer. She’s a passionate poet of cosmic vision and grounded wisdom. At our YES! reception, Alice read some of her poetry with a fiery delivery that helped us understand the power within this remarkable woman who has put such an indelible stamp on history of U.S. movements for social justice.