It was 4:30 a.m. when Nocturnalist awoke to a kneecap hitting our shin. Mired in sleep, we were disoriented — where were we? The necrotic chill of the slab of pavement we lay on suddenly registered and we snapped awake: It was Monday at Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street’s de facto headquarters. With hundreds of people flocking to the park, a half-acre plaza in the financial district where the protest movement has made its encampment for the past month, it seemed incumbent upon Nocturnalist to check out what has arguably become a hot new nightspot.

(It was a decision we regretted somewhat as the knee socked us again, and then again, in the dark. The couple in the doublewide sleeping bag next to us, we realized with a jolt, may not have been sleeping.)

After dark on Sunday, the fluttering blue tarpaulins were reminiscent of “Mad Max.” But the tone was largely civil, and could be inspiring: the place reverberated through the night with heated ideological conversations not usually heard outside of freshman dorm hallways. At daybreak they began anew.