I learned belatedly that the wonderful and brilliant woman on the left of this photo, Joan S. Livingston, died last month, at the age of 70. This photo is from December 1st, 2024, last time I was in Boston, playing at the Community Church of Boston, where I had seen her so many times before.
Many people knew Joan far better than me, and for much longer. Her involvement with antiwar organizing and other such pursuits goes way back.
I hesitate to even write this because it seems a bit self-indulgent. I did know Joan in three dimensions, and saw her in person on most of my annual pilgrimages to Boston over the past more than a decade. But Joan was probably my biggest fan on Facebook. She was very active on the platform, and that is really mainly how I knew her.
It was through this medium that I had by far the most contact with her, through this medium that I received the most praise, and on this medium that I was regularly quoted, in reference to news of the day.
It was also on this medium that Joan engaged in the most arguments with those who didn't share her positions on US imperialism, Jill Stein's presidential campaigns, or programming decisions at the church.
Somewhere along the line I learned that when someone tags you on Facebook, you have control over whether their post shows up on your page and might theoretically be more likely to be seen by your friends and followers. I found that function to come in handy in relation to Joan's tags; although she was often sharing interesting insights, history, as well as praise, it regularly came together with digs at people I didn't necessarily want to be associated with publicly insulting.
Particularly in these latter days of this platform you can see that the links Joan was sharing on Facebook were getting no engagement -- hardly anyone was seeing them, by all appearances. But just following the timeline of posts Joan made where she tagged me is a fascinating and poignant walk down memory lane. The first was in the fall of 2011, when she appears to have discovered my music via the song I wrote for Occupy Wall Street. The last was the morning of the day she died, commenting about peace in Gaza on January 15th, 2025.
Joan and I shared almost 300 friends in common on Facebook, including many of the most impressive organizers, whistleblowers, writers, musicians -- the usual suspects, in other words. But one of the most impressive cross-sections of them of anyone on the platform that I've known. One of the few where there are even more friends in common is with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of Counterpunch, which Joan appears to have read regularly.
The past ten years have featured a lot of time spent on social media for a lot of people around the world, and Joan was most definitely one of them. I'm sure in her case being in and out of the hospital with a chronic illness much of that time, unable to get around easily, made sure she'd spend a lot of time online.
Just from the occasions when she tagged me over these years I can confidently tell you some things about Joan's interests and passions.
She had a lot to say about Syria and all the various global powers involved with the civil war there. The song of mine that she posted most often in relation to Syria was probably "Good Kurds, Bad Kurds."
She was very critical of both Democrats and Republicans and denounced them all frequently as war criminals. She loved my songs denouncing the Democrats, and she shared my critique of our corrupt pseudo-democracy completely. The song she pointed to most often regarding this conversation was probably "Jill Stein," who she supported with vigor and eloquence.
She was horrified by Israeli apartheid and Israel's wars on Gaza, and frequently shared songs about that over the years. She supported Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and all the other whistle-blowers.
She knew a lot about a lot of history. She didn't believe the official story about the JFK assassination, nor did she believe that Dag Hammarskjold's death was accidental.
She loved music, for music's sake, but also as a vehicle for communicating the messages she desperately wanted the world to hear, and to internalize, and act upon, about the bipartisan American empire of death and destruction that she spoke out against daily online, as well as in the real world on regular occasions, particularly before she got sick.
She had a deep affection for so many of the same contemporaries I admire, all Facebook friends of both of ours, who received Joan's praise in some of the same posts where she shared my songs -- people like Ray McGovern, Margaret Flowers, the late Glen Ford, the late Kevin Zeese.
When I first met Joan she mentioned something about brain cancer and how she didn't expect to live very long. So I was always extra happy to see her turn up at the next show, whenever I was in Boston again.
There were at least a couple of occasions when I got word from her or from someone else that she wasn't well, and had to stay home or in the hospital on the night of my show. (You can find these posts in her timeline as well, where she's apologizing to her comrades for not going to my show, but encouraging them to go anyway.) Then the next time I'd come to Boston, she'd be there, looking a bit more frail than the last time, but still standing.
Until she's not -- following in the same footsteps the rest of us will be walking in, with far too many of us meeting our ends well before we reach the average age for this eventuality. And on that cheery note, here's to Joan.
As for Facebook, the one person on the platform who could be relied on to point out if there's a Rovics song related to a current news event will no longer be posting, and what was already a moribund platform will now be a bit more so -- though it will also be a nominally calmer one, with slightly fewer arguments about Syrian politics getting certain people riled up.
Tour plans…
For those of you in the PNW, on February 22nd I’m doing a show in Hood River, Oregon.
After playing in Mexico on St. Patrick’s Day (specifics on that still TBA), Kamala and I will be in southern California for several days. So far no plans! Anyone in So Cal want to host a house concert or something?
Late March and the first half of April we’re in England. We have 2 gigs in London and 1 in Portsmouth. We’re looking forward to the visit, whether it’s a busy one or a restful one, but so far it’s looking decidedly on the restful side. If anyone in northern England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland might be inclined to organize something, I’d love to hear from you!
July in Australia involves confirmed gigs so far in Katoomba and Canberra. If you’re anywhere between Brisbane and Ballarat, in particular, but potentially anywhere else in Australia, we’d also love to hear from you about other gigs on that little continent.
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