Chelsea Now by Schneps Media

YOUR WEEKLY community newspaper SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

Hell’s Kitchen Groups Gather to Snack and Strategize

THE BRILLIANT TENURE OF STANELY BARD

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC The wind whipped and wreaked cold havoc upon Hell’s Kitchen throughout Monday evening, but it did not deter neighbors from coming together for their annual winter gathering.

1883, the Chelsea was purchased by Stanley’s father, David, together with two other investors, in 1940. Upon his father’s death in 1957, Stanley took over as manager of the hotel, continuing in that post for 50 years, up until his departure in 2007. Though Stanley inherited a building that was already known as a haven for the arts, he presided over the greatest artistic flowering in the history of the hotel, playing host to the Beats of the ’50s, the Warhol superstars of the ’60s, and the punks of the ’70s. A list of Stanley’s guests, most of whom he came to know personally, reads like a Who’s Who of the New York art world: Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Virgil Thomson, Charles James, Leonard Cohen, Christo, Larry Rivers, Dee Dee Ramone, Dennis Hopper, Brendan Behan, Shirley Clarke, Derek Walcott, Madonna, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Warhol Superstars Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Nico, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling, and on and on and on. A stay at the Chelsea has long been regarded as a rite of passage for almost everyone who was anyone in the world of art, music, literature, and the theater during the 50 years of Stanley’s brilliant tenure. Born in 1934 to David and Fanny Bard, Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Stanley was just a boy when his family took over management of the hotel. He immediately fell in love with the old building, and soon knew it inside and out, crawling around in the crawl spaces and secret nooks and crannies as he worked as an assistant for Julius Krauss, the plumber and part owner of the Chelsea. In college, Stanley studied psychology, which he always claimed, half-jokingly, helped

Former Chelsea Hotel Owner and Manager Dies at 82

Winter Gathering continued on p. 7

Not Every School Aces the Lead Level Test BY DENNIS LYNCH The Department of Education (DOE) has released the results of ongoing water tests at schools across the city, including from schools in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen that, in some cases, show elevated levels of lead in drinking water. LEAD continued on p. 5

HARMONY, UNITY, RADIANCE

Photo by Linda Troeller courtesy Schiffer Publishing

“Stanley Bard, Hotel Chelsea, 2008” — from Linda Troeller’s “Living in the Chelsea Hotel.”

Marvel at the extraordinary career of Chelsea studio artist Lorrie Goulet. See page 17.

BY ED HAMILTON Famed hotelier Stanley Bard, the guiding spirit of the greatest experiment in bohemian living in the history of New York, if not the world, passed away this morning in Boca Raton, Florida, surrounded by his loved ones. Bard, 82, who

had been ill for the last few years, succumbed to a massive stroke. Known affectionately to all by his first name, Stanley was the majority owner and managing director of New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel (222 W. 23rd St., btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). Built in

BARD continued on p. 2

VOLUME 09, ISSUE 7 | February 16 - 22, 2017

Obituary

Stanley Bard Gave Iconic Chelsea Hotel His, and Its, Heart and Soul BARD continued from p. 1

him to understand and deal with the odd and unusual collection of bohemians who passed through the hotel. Stanley’s final years brought new challenges. Despite the supercharged climate of gentrification and the pressure of investors to cash in on the hotel’s good name, he did his best to keep the rents affordable for the hundreds of artists, musicians, writers, and actors who called the hotel their home in the new millennium. Over the years, Stanley was well known for helping artists in any way he could — financially, emotionally, and by providing a nurturing environment that fostered creativity — and he would continue to fight for their well-being up until the very end of his tenure. Stanley himself said it best: “Over the years people here have created some really beautiful, meaningful things, and they just needed that little bit of help to be able to do it. This hotel has heart and soul, and it’s not all about the bottom line!” Stanley was a genuine New York character, one of the people who make the city the great place it is. A tireless cheerleader for the Chelsea, Stanley’s love for the venerable hotel was such that he often said that the Chelsea was the most famous hotel in the world — sometimes going even further to claim that it was the most famous building in the world. And while he was understandably reluctant to discuss a certain notorious slaying in 1979, it was also quite difficult to get him to admit that anything bad had ever happened at the Chelsea. In Abel Ferrara’s documentary, “Chelsea on the Rocks,” director Milos Forman jokingly attempts to get Stanley to admit that the hotel has suffered its share of misfortunes by asking him if anyone has ever died at the Chelsea. Well yes, Stanley admits, in a building this old, certainly a few people have died. He then goes on to cite exactly one, the painter Alphaeus Cole, who lived to be 112! Stanley is survived by his wife Phyllis, by his two children, David Bard and Michele Bard Grabell, by their spouses, Debbie Bard and Mathew Grabell, and by five grandchildren. Stanley’s first wife, Alice, the mother of David and Michele, predeceased him, as did his older brother, Milton. Stanley is survived as well as by thousands of people in the arts who have called the Chelsea Hotel their home — for a night, a week, a month, a year, or for several decades — and who will

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Photo by Rita Barros

L to R: Arthur Miller, Arnold Weinstein and Stanley Bard outside of the Chelsea Hotel in the early 1990s.

Photo by Ed Hamilton

Stanley Bard, who first rented a room to Ed Hamilton in 1995, talked to reporters in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel shortly after he was ousted by the minority shareholders in 2007.

continue to honor his memory in their lives and their art for many years to come. And even beyond that, as long as the Chelsea Hotel stands, the spirit of Stanley and his undying dedication to the arts he so loved will live on.

Longtime Hotel resident Ed Hamilton is author of “Legends of the Chelsea Hotel” and “The Chintz Age: Tales of Love and Loss for a New New York” as well as the forthcoming “Lords of the School Yard” (Summer 2017). Social

media: @chintzage, #chintzage and edhamilton.nyc. This obituary is reprinted with permission from Hamilton, having first appeared on his Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog (chelseahotelblog.com). .com

The Oblique Genius of Stanley Bard BY GERALD BUSBY Stanley Bard, who passed away earlier this week, created the Chelsea Hotel as a place where artists felt welcome, had privacy, and could behave almost any way they chose. He managed the hotel like a casting director, and his choice of residents reflected an uncanny sensitivity to artists of all kinds: young and old, successful and struggling, sane and insane. There were also rich dilettantes and black sheep children from rich families who paid Stanley a lot to babysit them. The crazier the children were, the more he charged their parents. After World War II, the Chelsea Hotel was a mecca for lost souls — a flophouse. Stanley’s father, with two other Hungarian Jews, bought it with money borrowed from the Emigrant Bank next door. Like everything else in the neighborhood back then, the hotel was rundown, and one way of restoring respectability, without remodeling, was to turn the hotel into a refuge for artists, aspiring and real. It was Stanley’s ambition and oblique artistic sensibility that actualized that idea. It took time for him to gain total control of the operations, but he did, and it succeeded wildly. Virgil Thomson, the composer and writer, was one of the first celebrities to reside in the Chelsea Hotel. He had half of an original 11-room apartment on the southwest corner of the ninth floor, and many details of interior design from the 19th century were still there. When the hotel was built in 1883, certain apartments were meant for people with money. There were brass door knobs, cabinets with beveled glass, beautiful walnut floors, and elegant fireplaces in every room. As Virgil’s protégé and sous-chef, I frequently visited him. To make me more available, Virgil got me an apartment in the hotel with one brief phone call to Stanley: “This is the kind of person you’re supposed to have here.” I moved in the next day with my new boyfriend, Sam Byers. I loved the atmosphere of the building, inside and out, especially the alluring and slightly sinister stairwell. Several people got stoned and committed suicide down that stairwell during my residency. The lobby and the walls of the staircase were filled with wonderful and weird paintings and a plaster of Paris fat girl sitting on a swing that hung from the ceiling. It was an only-inNew-York fantasy come to life. My apartment had been a painter’s studio, and it had a low ceiling and a great view of the Twin Towers. I was reminded that the Chelsea Hotel was the tallest building in New York when it was built. Stanley knew everything that was going on — if a relationship was temporary or more lasting, and what kind of people were knocking on your door at 3 a.m. He handled suicides, murders, wild drug-and-sex parties, fires, and public nudity with acceptance and authority. In fact, he really came to life at moments of crisis, and .com

Photo by Linda Troeller courtesy Schiffer Publishing

“Hot Chelsea, 2000.” from Linda Troeller’s “Living in the Chelsea Hotel.”

he sometimes made surprising, inappropriate remarks. When a body bag was being carried out of the hotel by the FDNY, Stanley called after them, “Maybe it’s my fault he’s dead since I gave him a kitchen.” He responded similarly to a temporary hotel guest who complained about roaches (“Never mind, I’ll give you a room without a kitchen.”). Stanley was like an awkward but smart relative who insisted on a personal, almost intimate relationship with everyone. No tenant got a lease after the first year. From that point on, it was your job to stay on Stanley’s good side. The less money and fame you had, the more games he played with you. He was penny-pinching in practical matters, but also generous if you couldn’t pay your rent for a few months. One way he reminded me of past-due rent was to suddenly leap in the elevator as the door closed. There I was, face to face with Stanley, just him and me. “You need to pay your rent,” he said to me with anxious intensity. He didn’t mind embarrassing you. When I once walked past the front desk, he yelled, “Where’s your rent? ” He did the same to Viva one morning as she stepped off the elevator. She stopped, slowly turned around and shouted back, “F**k you. You don’t deserve any rent for the hellhole you’ve given me and my daughter to live in.” Some longtime residents had running battles with Stanley about the plumbing, the house phones, or a broken window that needed repair.

Everything was done or not done on the basis of how he felt about you at the moment, and his employees acted the same way. They never made dates with residents to fix things. You had to catch them at the right time, when they were in the mood. The housemaids and Doris, who was the overlord of the basement and did the laundry, knew all Stanley’s ploys and schemes. They would disappear in the caverns beneath the Chelsea when he came looking for them. They also liked to embarrass Stanley when he was giving distinguished guests a tour of the hotel. “Where’s Doris? ” he asked a maid who got on the elevator during one of these tours. “I don’t know. Maybe she went to the bathroom.” Arthur Miller wrote a charming essay called “The Chelsea Affect” that described some of Stanley’s midnight maneuvers, like hiring nonunion workers to install carpeting in unoccupied rooms. Stanley had lots of secrets, and they frequently involved the tenants. We all encountered the need to get something fixed or replaced. Our complaints often were met with hazy, uncertain responses. Stanley was a double-talker, and most of us never really understood exactly what he was saying. Jerry Weinstein, who was the principal desk clerk, was in on most secrets and made jokes about them. “Where’s Denise? ” I once asked him, looking for the maid. “Maybe she’s with de nephew,” he snapped back. Stanley’s manner of dealing with his business partners, some of whom were relatives, was apparently no less vague. The Chelsea Hotel was his baby, and he wanted to control everything — and to make deals he didn’t tell them about. His partners finally got the upper hand, and sold the hotel. Stanley and his son David, designated to take over the management, were summarily removed from the building the day the deal was consummated. Stanley’s fantasy was over, and the spirit that Stanley had created dissipated. The art hanging on the walls in the lobby, and along the famous stairwell, mysteriously began to disappear. Most famous among them was Larry Rivers’ “Dutch Masters,” and considerable litigation instigated by the Larry Rivers Foundation quickly ensued. In spirit, Stanley died when he was forced out. He once attended one of our tenant association meetings at El Quijote, but his eyes showed him not to be totally present. We all greeted him warmly and told him we missed him. “I’ve got plans,” he told me when I asked how he was. I hope he died happy. Gerald Busby is a longtime resident of the Chelsea Hotel and protégé of Virgil Thomson. He is best known for his film score for Robert Altman’s “3 Women” and his dance score for Paul Taylor’s “Runes.” With Craig Lucas, Busby is currently writing an opera based on “3 Women.” Visit geraldbusby.com. Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

What’s In While School’s Out BY SCOTT STIFFLER Midwinter Recess Week is almost upon us — and although the classrooms will be empty from February 20 through 24, there are still plenty of lessons to be learned. These activities at local theaters, museums, and libraries will keep cabin fever at bay while hammering home the point that there’s a whole wide world of fun beyond what Netflix has to offer.

“THE HISTORY MYSTERTY” AT TADA! YOUTH THEATER Closing, appropriately, on President’s Day, this musical — originally written in 1995 and updated just after the 2016 election — uses the women’s and civil rights movements to ask tough questions about how well we’ve lived up to the principles our country was founded upon. The power of good citizenship to challenge injustice is explored by taking a time travel adventure back to the childhood years of Benjamin Franklin, the Wright brothers, suffragettes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. Performed by a troupe of actors ages 8-18, “The History Mystery” is rooted in the notion that, through hard work and strong convictions, kids who dream of a better world gain the power to make it happen. As the lyric says, “It’s up to you and me to make history.” After Feb. 18’s 4 p.m. performance, stay for a Community Talk, during which audience and cast members will explore the show’s themes. Sat., Feb. 18 and Sun., Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. & 4 p.m.; Mon., Feb. 20 at 12 p.m. & 2p.m. At TADA! Youth Theater (15 W. 28th St., btw. Fifth Ave. & Broadway, 2nd Floor). Tickets start at $15. For reservations, visit tadatheater.com or call 212-252-1619. Find them on Facebook at facebook.com/TADAyouththeater and on Twitter at @TadaTheater.

FREE ACTIVITIES AT THE MUHLENBERG LIBRARY This branch of the New York Public Library is located at 209 W. 23rd St., btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves. Every Friday at 3:30 p.m., the Teen Tech Lounge (for ages 13-18) provides laptops and a place to do homework, check email, or just surf the net. Are you 13 to

Photo by Kaila MacKenzie

Photo by Crystal Chen

TADA! Youth Theater’s “The History Mystery” takes you back in time to the childhood years of American heroes.

It’s not just for Midwinter Recess: Chelsea’s Muhlenberg branch of the NYPL has youth activities week in and week out.

Photo by Erika Kapin

Interact with real-life scientists at “Meet the Scientist,” which takes place every day of Kids Week at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

18 years of age? Got gaming moves? “Game On!” is a drop-in activity that invites you to take part in Wii tournaments: Tues., Feb. 21 and 28 at 3:30 p.m. As part of their Mid-Winter Break Special series, Wed., Feb. 22’s 10:30 a.m. Movie for Families is a bit of a mystery; the selection has yet to be announced — but the programmers at Muhlenberg promise it will be feature-length, and fun (eating snacks is permitted, so bring some!). On Wed., Feb. 22 at 3:30 p.m., the Teen Silkscreen allows ages 13-18 to design T-shirts by cutting out paper stencils and learning a basic screen printing technique. Materials are provided. There’s a limit of 10 participants, so register in advance by calling 212-924-1585. The Kids Can Play series, every Wed. at 4 p.m., is for ages 3-12. The structured play activity, which changes week to week, includes games, puzzles, crafts, Play-Doh, and other special surprises.

KIDS WEEK AT THE INTREPID SEA, AIR & SPACE MUSEUM From Mon., Feb. 20 through Sat., Feb. 25, the consistently kid-friendly Intrepid Museum amps up its enduring appeal (ships, planes, and other giant stuff!) by presenting dozens of workshops, live

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shows, and demonstrations. With “The Science and Art of Games” as its theme, the schedule features tour guide talks, “Meet the Scientist” and “Meet the Author” opportunities, hands-on fun at an arcade-style gaming center, experiments at the STEAMKids Lab, a Rube Goldberg speed building challenge, and an LED maze activity that kids can take home. Among the meet and greets: Alexandra Siy will do readings and signings of her book, “Footprints on the Moon,” and astrophysicist Steven Mohammed will teach you about constellations (both on Tues., Feb. 21). On Thurs., Feb. 23, astrophysicist Tjitske Starkenburg talks about how galaxies grow; and on Fri., Feb. 24, spacewalk flight controller and lead trainer Allison Bolinger along with her colleague, NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, lead a conversation about what happens when things do not go according to plan during a spacewalk. At Pier 86 (W. 46th St. & 12th Ave. at Hudson River Park). Admission is $26 for adults, $24 for seniors/students, $19 for ages 5-12, and free for those under 5. All programming is free with Museum admission. For the full schedule of events and hours of operation, visit intrepidmuseum.org. .com

Get The Lead Out: See What’s Lurking in Your School’s Water LEAD continued from p. 1

Visit schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/schools/watersafety. htm to access the data. In the search box toward the bottom of the page, type in a specific location to see how many tests the department took at the school that came back with levels of lead above the federal government’s 15 parts per billion (ppb) threshold for remediation. That DOE website only says how many tests exceeded that federal limit, not what the actual results of the test were, or from which particular water outlet (sinks, fountains, hoses, etc.) those samples came. Parents with children in the public school system will receive a letter with detailed information about test results at their school directly from their school when testing is completed, which will include the exact levels of lead found in samples taken at each water outlet in the school. The letter will be posted on the school’s individual website as well. The DOE expects to finish testing and release those school-by-school letters in the coming weeks. The department will release a citywide summary sometime after that. The department said there has never been a known case of lead poisoning due to drinking the water in New York City. When workers find samples with elevated levels of lead in drinking or cooking water fixture outlets, they will remove the fixtures, flush all or part of the system to eliminate water sitting in pipes overnight, replace the equipment, and re-test for lead. Any of those fixtures will remain out of service until testing shows that the water does not have levels of lead above 15 ppb.

Photo by Oregon Department of Transportation via Flickr

January tests found that water from a fountain at PS 11 had a concentration of lead particles almost nine times as high as the federal government’s “action level.”

A DOE water testing fact sheet said, “Elevated samples in schools are most likely due to water sitting in fixtures/ pipes for extended periods, and, in most cases, when you run the water for 30 seconds, results from those samples are not elevated.” Spokesperson Toya Holness said there was “no reason for alarm” about the quality of water in schools. “Parents can rest assured that water in New York City is of the highest quality in the world, and we have stringent protocols and robust procedures in place to ensure that water in school buildings is safe for students and

staff,” she said. “This is standard protocol and there is no reason for alarm: We are continuing to provide students and staff with safe drinking water.” Upon request, the DOE shared detailed results with Chelsea Now for PS 11, which had the highest number of samples showing elevated levels in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton. Testers found 17 instances of elevated levels out of the 101 samples it took there (320 W. 21st St., btw. Eighth & Ninth Ave.) in January. LEAD continued on p. 12

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Pending Work at Mathews-Palmer Playground Includes Mural Restoration

Courtesy NYC Parks Department

Work is expected to begin in the spring on upgrades to Mathews-Palmer Playground.

Winter Gathering continued from p. 1

On Feb. 13, members of the Hell’s Kitchen Commons — a loose alliance of area block and park associations — met at the Landmark Tavern (626 11th Ave., at W. 46th St.) to celebrate, connect with their neighbors, and warm themselves by imbibing spirits and snacking on appetizers. The gathering attracted longtime members of the individual community groups as well as people looking to get involved. Christine Mower has lived on W. 45th St. for 23 years, and was prevented from participating in community work due to working nights, she said. Now that she is retired, she is eager to take part and meet more neighbors. “I’ve always wanted to come here [for the gathering],” she said. “I’m anxious for meetings to begin.” Mower told Chelsea Now that when she sees graffiti in the area, she paints over it. She would also like to see work begin on the Mathews-Palmer Playground (W. 45th & W. 46th Sts., btw. Ninth & 10th Aves.), which she said “looks toxic for children.” Another newcomer was Kyle Struck, who has been living for seven years on W. 45th St. Struck said a good friend in her building told her about the gathering. “It seemed like a good opportunity to check it out,” she said. “It’s a natural step to become more involved.” Mower and Struck were welcomed by longtime members like Janet Restino, an artist who has lived in the neighbor.com

hood at W. 45th St. and Eighth Ave. since 1992, and has been working on local issues for more than 15 years. “I really like my neighbors,” Restino said. “It’s a great way to feel connected.” Restino, a spoken word artist and singer who also writes, has performed at Mathews-Palmer Playground, and at various street festivals. For Restino, the main issue the community faces moving forward is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s controversial plan to replace their aging bus terminal at 625 Eighth Ave. (btw. W. 40th & 42nd Sts.). “What they are going to do? Who are they going to displace?” Restino asked. Restino is also concerned that the “overwhelming number of high-rises [is] choking us.” Timothy Tanner, co-chair of the West 45th Block Association (which covers the area between Eighth and Ninth Aves.) agreed, saying, “It’s luxury towers coming in and dominating the neighborhood.” Tanner moved to the neighborhood in 1998, and remembers a different landscape of local businesses that included a shoe repair shop, and stores that specialized in cheese and ravioli. Now, “every new business that comes in is a bar. We need the political will to oppose liquor licenses,” said Tanner, calling the State Liquor Authority a rubber stamp. Tanner said Hell’s Kitchen is becoming less of a family neighborhood, a concern for him as he has four- and

two-year-old kids, and another child on the way. Tanner’s co-chair, David Stuart, told Chelsea Now that he has been a part of the block association for about six years, and making sure that the tree beds on his block are maintained is a goal of theirs. “We’ve expanded all the tree beds,” Stuart said. “Every year we plant flowers in the spring — just a way to keep the block looking nice.” Stuart said it is great to work with the surrounding block associations, and that he pitched in on the effort to redesign the park to make it modern and safer. NYC Parks Department Manhattan

Borough Commissioner William T. Castro cited in an email statement to Chelsea Now the support and advocacy of former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilmember Corey Johnson, Community Board 4, and the W. 45th/W. 46th block associations for the groundbreaking that is expected to start in April. The project received $1.8 million from Quinn and $760,000 from Johnson. Hell’s Kitchen Commons, via its associated groups, organizes events and programming at the park that has included screening of films and documentaries, exercise classes, and play readings with the Irish Arts Center. Chana Widawski of Hell’s Kitchen Commons said she looks forward to the programming in the park starting again when the weather warms up. Widawski said a new website is in the works that she hopes will encourage the community to come up with ideas about public spaces. “The idea is to activate all our parks and public space,” she said. “This neighborhood is so rich in characters and talent and good ideas.” Amanda Talarico, who does marketing for the Irish Arts Center, said she came to the event to get to know the community better. “Sometimes I feel like in Hell’s Kitchen we don’t talk to one another,” Talarico said. Allison Tupper, a longtime Hell’s Kitchen resident, found the packed Landmark Tavern — people were watching the Westminster Dog Show — an Winter Gathering continued on p. 12

Photo by Sean Egan

Fundraising efforts continue for the restoration of Arnold Belkin’s mural “Against Domestic Colonialism” at Mathews-Palmer Playground. Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

What Is the Right Age for Braces? VIA METROCREATIVECONNECTION.COM Dental braces have been used for decades to correct various alignment and spacing issues in the teeth. Braces can be crucial to the future of one’s oral health and prevent serious issues down the line. Roughly 25 percent of the people in North America who get braces are adults. But braces still are geared toward young people and getting them on the road to straight and properly aligned teeth early on. Braces correct a number of problems, including realigning the jaw and alleviating overcrowding of teeth. Crooked teeth can trap food and debris between them, making it harder to floss and brush. Wearing braces also corrects the bite. If teeth or jaws are not aligned correctly, it can lead to difficulty chewing food or create jaw muscle pain. Braces also may boost self-confidence because they can remedy appearance issues that may prove embarrassing. Parents eager to get their children on the road to straighter teeth may wonder when is the right time to get their kids braces. Many kids are getting braces earlier and earlier, but when to get braces typically depends on the child and the shape of his or her teeth. The American Association of Orthodontists (aaoinfo.org) recommends that children see an orthodon-

tist for an evaluation by the age of seven. The best time for braces will be when the orthodontist and parents collectively decide it’s time to correct the misalignment of a child’s teeth. Some orthodontists prefer a two-stage approach to orthodontic treatment. They may use a dental appliance or a preliminary amount of braces to begin moving the teeth while a child still has most of his primary teeth. The second stage begins when all the permanent teeth are in. The thought is to shorten the overall duration of treatment. Other orthodontists follow the traditional approach of putting on braces once all the primary teeth have fallen out. This occurs between ages nine and 14. This is often a less expensive approach because braces need only be applied and removed once. A number of studies have shown that, for common problems alleviated with orthodontic work, youngsters are better off waiting until all of their permanent teeth have come in. Antonio Secchi, a professor of orthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania, notes that if parents choose to treat crooked teeth too early, the child may need another phase of intervention a few years down the road. Some problems, like crossbites, overbites, or severe

Parents should speak to a dentist or make an appointment with an orthodontist to evaluate their children’s dental needs.

overcrowding, warrant early intervention. Scheduling an orthodontic visit early on means children can get the care they need when they need it. The orthodontist will be able to monitor how teeth are growing in, and map out the best treatment plan for all. Braces can help fix an imperfect smile and alleviate oral health concerns. Parents should speak to a dentist or make an appointment with an orthodontist to evaluate their children’s treatment needs. Severity of overcrowding as well as bite issues will dictate when a child should get braces.

Help Kids Feel Comfortable at Their Dental Visits Be a positive role model. Children frequently learn by example. If they see their parents being diligent about dental care, they’re more likely to embrace proper oral hygiene. Bring children to your own dental appointments so they understand the process and become familiar with the type of equipment used. Stick to the first-tooth milestone. Take your child to the dentist around the time his or her first tooth erupts. Early dental visits will get kids used to going to the dentist and prevent minor problems that may lead to more complex dental issues.

Parents can help children be more comfortable with going to the dentist.

VIA METROCREATIVECONNECTION.COM Routine dental examinations and cleanings are an important component of oral healthcare for both children and adults. However, many children do not visit the dentist until well after the time recommended by medical and dental professionals. Parents may be unaware of the dental health timeline, or they could be reluctant to bring their children for fear of how their kids will behave — especially if parents are harboring their own apprehensions about the dentist. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (aapd.org) recommends that a child go to the dentist by their first birthday, or within six months of the eruption of his or her first tooth. Yet, according to a survey commissioned by Delta Dental Plans, the average age of a child’s first dental visit is 2.6 years. Parents worried about how their kids will respond to the dentist can take the following steps to acclimate kids to dental visits to make them more comfortable during their appointments now and down the road:

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Read books about the dentist and role play. Information can allay kids’ fears about the dentist. Read books together about dental visits and act out possible scenarios with your kids. Give kids toy dental health tools and have them practice exams on you and vice versa. Be supportive and instill trust. Avoid telling your child that everything will be okay. If a procedure is needed, this could affect his or her trust in you and make the dental office an even greater source of anxiety. Simply be supportive and offer a hand to squeeze or a hug if your child needs you. Consider using your dentist. Some parents like to take their children to a pediatric dentist, but it may not always be necessary. Many family practices cater to patients of all ages, and the familiarity of the office may help make children feel more comfortable. Speak with your dentist about the ages they see. Steer clear of negative words. Dr. Michael J. Hanna, a national spokesperson for the Academy, suggests using positive phrases like “clean, strong, healthy teeth” to make the visit seem fun and positive rather than scary and alarming. Let the office staff come up with its own words to describe processes that won’t seem too frightening. .com

FEBRUARY IS NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DENTAL HEALTH MONTH

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Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

Head Fake: The Myth of Trump’s Crafty Competence BY MAX BURBANK “My fear is that [insert insignificant outrage Trump committed that you are paying too much attention to] is a deliberate distraction from [insert much larger outrage Trump committed that I, the much smarter person, am focused on].”—Your Facebook feed, every other post. A diversion. A distraction. A smokescreen. Trump is “The Master of the Head Fake!” You’re staring at the flash paper fireball so you don’t notice he’s pulled the Jack of Diamonds out of the deck of cards he’s had stuffed up his ass the whole time. When Trump 4 a.m. tweets “Failing SNL so bad. Cancelled soon. Alec Baldwin not funny. Sad!” you think it’s because he’s a desperately insecure toddler-man with the attention span of a concussed goldfish, but that’s because he PLAYED you like a DAMN VIOLIN! You took your eye of the ball and Bannon is on the National Security Council! Except — hold your head so I don’t explode your mind here — if you focused your rage on a dedicated White Supremacist edging the Joint Chiefs out of the Situation Room, PSYCH! You got punk’d again; Bondian villain Ernst Stavro Trump just launched a weather control satellite that targets Muslims and Mexicans through their DNA, which he designed BY HIMSELF! That’s the paradigm: Trump’s a supervillain, surrounded by master tacticians of evil; always one step ahead, churning out chaos on purpose so you and the media won’t know what’s hit you until you’re waiting in line at a re-education camp, daydreaming of Katniss Everdeen saving your ass while you wait for the guard to ladle your daily half cup of potato gruel. Bear with me for a moment, though, as I propose an alternate theory that explains the administrations behavior equally well, and more succinctly: They are stupid. Their monumental arrogance is matched only by their bottomless ignorance. They are very, very bad at this. They would never stoop to ask anyone how you make a United States go. And not to body shame, but as a group? Kind of hard to look at. When Kellyanne Conway said soonto-be-unemployed Goblin Mike Flynn had Trump’s “full confidence” mere hours before he got shitcanned, that was not not a smokescreen to provide cover for the Ingenious Trump Cabal to engage in covert skulldug-

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

AP Photo by Evan Vucci

In an Oval Office meeting on Mon., Feb. 13, President Trump invites Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to touch his miniature imaginary friend and chief strategist, “Tiny Ivan.”

gery. Occam’s Razor says the pooch got screwed. Look, either Kellyanne lied, or was lied to. The only other possibility is she had no damn idea and literally couldn’t care less. None of those options equal “crack team of disciplined fascist dystopians.” Hell, I feel bad for Flynn! Nobody told him you couldn’t lie to Mike Pence! They probably told him to lie to Mike Pence. Vice Presidents are the designated patsy, you’re supposed to lie to them — especially Pence who, let’s be honest, is a complete buzzkill. Even supposing (and I don’t) that some members of Trump’s inner circle are closet geniuses capable of crafting elaborate shell games, how do you account for their “Keystone Cops”meets-“Dr. Strangelove” level of daily boobery? On Sunday, North Korea test fired an intermediate range ballistic missile. They claim to have used solid fuel, which, if true, is a first that would enable them to launch missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads from mobile platforms. Kind of serious stuff. Like, push back your Iceberg Wedge Salad, exit the PUBLIC DINING AREA of Mar-a-Largo for a secure location and get down to presidenting-type stuff.

One can forgive Trump for not knowing; he’s new to the game and also, on his best day, something of an idiot. But Flynn was there. Boy genius and cirrhosis poster boy Steve Bannon was there. None of the dozen highly placed ex-military aides there had the balls to say “Mr. President, maybe don’t discuss classified matters of state in earshot of guests, or at least ask them not to take pictures. Or barring that? Prevent them from posting on Facebook — and under the circumstances? You might want to ditch your unsecured Android phone, since it’s almost certainly been a RUSSIAN MICROPHONE FOR MONTHS NOW!” No. Trump continued eating. Waiters, who one presumes had the security clearance generally required of all food service personnel, brought the main course and then desert. Helpful aides used their flashlight apps to augment candlelight, so the President could more clearly see the complicated documents he was pretending to read. At some point a guest took a selfie with the military aide-de-camp who carries the nuclear football, because future textbooks on the fall of western civilization are going to need an iconic visual image.

Mar-a-Lago memberships, which just doubled in price, have never been in higher demand. Come on, what kind of spy wouldn’t want tickets to that dinner theater? Sure, the personal safety of our country has been compromised, but Trump just made an ass-load of money! It’s all happening; every idiocy, from silly to extinction-event serious. But if there is a strategy? Egotistical claims to the contrary, none of these boobs have any idea how to carry it out. I’m not saying don’t worry — maybe worry more. Look. Suppose you spent a great deal of effort training a troop of baboons how to use a blowtorch. Then you gave each baboon its own blowtorch, making sure that the dominant male had the largest, most shiny blowtorch. Then you locked the entire blowtorch-wielding bunch of baboons in a fireworks factory with very little food, no water and several cases of hard liquor. Would they have an intricate master plan for world domination? They would not. But you wouldn’t want to be within several miles of that factory — which is sad, because we are all, every one of us, locked inside with them. .com

POLICE BLOTTER ASSAULT: Nightmare night at Dream

PETIT LARCENY: Gardenvariety theft

The employees of the Dream Hotel (355 W. 17th St., btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.) got a double helping of knuckle sandwich on Sat., Feb. 11, as two separately reported incidents resulted in workers getting hit in the face. The first, occurring around 9pm, found a 30-year-old employee being punched in the face with a closed fist after escorting a customer out of the establishment for being combative with the staff. The employee suffered a small laceration above his left eye, but he refused medical treatment; the assailant, a 27-year-old New Jersey man, was arrested. At the exact same time and place, another employee was escorting a different customer off the premises (also for disorderly conduct), when they were punched in the face with a closed fist. The employee didn’t suffer any visible injuries, and the 26-year-old aggressor was also arrested.

A 31-year-old Australian woman was able to witness a hometown win at a Ranger’s game at Madison Square Garden (btw. W. 31st & 33rd Sts., and Seventh & Eighth Aves.) last week — though at the cost of a steep personal loss. She left the Thurs., Feb. 9 game at about 9:30pm with her cellphone in her back pocket, and made her way back to her residence on W. 23rd St. Her phone, it seems, disappeared somewhere between the stadium and her place, as it was nowhere to be found by the time she got home 30 minutes later. Tracking the device using an app, she told police that the phone had been taken to the Bronx. The iPhone 6+ was valued at $700.

LEAVING THE SCENE OF PROPERTY DAMAGE: The sedan on the other foot While attempting to cross the street at the southwest corner of W. 16th St. and Seventh Ave. at around 1:25pm on Sat., Feb. 11, a 58-year-old man was rudely cut off by a car which ran over his foot, and then just kept on driving away. The man was only able to get a partial license plate number for the vehicle — his observational skills likely not as sharp as usual, due to the, you know, car that was just on his foot. He refused medical attention at the scene of the accident; it is unknown whether there is video evidence of the incident.

CRIMINAL POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE: Man steels for dawn of justice It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a… uh, super-dim criminal. A little before midnight on Sat., Feb. 11 at the Flash Factory (229 W. 28th St., btw. Seventh and Eighth Aves.), a 42-year-old patron noticed something suspicious and illicit about a fellow club-goer, who definitely seemed to be dealing. When an officer investigated the situation, the man was indeed in possession of a large quantity of ecstasy pills emblazoned with the “Superman” symbol — despite the fact the branding synergy with the Flash’s logo was right there for the taking. Naturally, he also had a quantity of cocaine on his person. The 37-year-old New Jersey man was arrested.

—SEAN EGAN

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THE 10th PRECINCT:

MIDTOWN SOUTH PRECINCT:

Located at 230 W. 20th St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). Commander: Capt. Paul Lanot. Main number: 212741-8211. Community Affairs: 212-7418226. Crime Prevention: 212-741-8226. Domestic Violence: 212-741-8216. Youth Officer: 212-741-8211. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-924-3377. Detective Squad: 212-741-8245. The Community Council meets on the last Wed. of the month, 7pm, at the 10th Precinct or other locations to be announced.

Located at 357 W. 35th St. (btw. Eighth & Ninth Aves.). Inspector: Russel J. Green. Call 212-2399811. Community Affairs: 212239-9846. Crime Prevention: 212239-9846. Domestic Violence: 212-239-9863. Youth Officer: 212239-9817. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-239-9836. Detective Squad: 212-239-9856. The Community Council meets on the third Thurs. of the month, 7pm, at the New Yorker Hotel (481 Eighth Ave., btw. W. 34th & W. 35th St.). Visit midtownsouthcc.org.

THE 13th PRECINCT: Located at 230 E. 21st St. (btw. Second & Third Aves.). Deputy Inspector: Brendan Timoney. Call 212-477-7411. Community Affairs: 212-477-7427. Crime Prevention: 212-477-7427. Domestic Violence: 212-477-3863. Youth Officer: 212477-7411. Auxiliary Coordinator: 212-477-4380. Detective Squad: 212477-7444. The Community Council meets on the third Tues. of the month, 6:30pm, at the 13th Precinct.

CASH FOR GUNS $100 cash will be given (no questions asked) for each handgun, assault weapon or sawed-off shotgun, up to a maximum payment of $300. Guns are accepted at any Police Precinct, PSA or Transit District.

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LISTEN EVERY TUESDAY AT 2:00 PM ON BrooklynPaper.com/radio Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

Winter Gathering continued from p. 7

impediment to talking to her neighbors. “I like to see my neighbors, but the place is so crowded. Everyone is crashing our party,” she said with a laugh. Tupper, of the West 46th Street Block Association, has been working with many others to restore Arnold Belkin’s mural called “Against Domestic Colonialism” at the playground. The mural is “an important part of the neighborhood’s history,” she said. The building needs to repair the wall, she said, and then the restoration can take place. The restoration will take about two or three weeks, and

work will either happen before or after the summer so that kids can enjoy the space, Tupper said. Fundraising efforts are ongoing. According to Tupper, about $40,000 has been raised of the estimated $80,000 necessary to complete the project. For the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association, visit hknanyc.org. Also visit mathews-palmer-playgroundmural-arts-program.com. Visit crowdrise.com/mathewspalmerplaygro1/ fundraiser/allisontupper to help with the mural project. Email Hell’s Kitchen Commons at hellskitchencommons@ gmail.com.

Photo by Dusica Sue Malesevic

Hell’s Kitchen neighbors came together at the Landmark Tavern for the annual winter gathering.

LEAD continued from p. 5

Most of those samples with elevated levels came from “hose bibs,” around the schools. Hose bibs are outlets threaded to accept a hose and are typically located on the exterior of a school building and are not potable drinking sources, according to the DOE. But two samples with elevated levels were taken from water fountains. Testers found 49 ppb of lead in a sample from a cafeteria fountain and 130 ppb in a sample from a hallway fountain, just under nine times the federal action level. They found the sample with the highest concentration of lead — 2,100 ppb — at a hose bib in a boy’s bathroom. Those concentrations are all higher than what independent testers found in most homes around Flint, Michigan, during one of the most widespread lead contamination events in recent years. An independent Virginia Tech team tested lead levels from samples from 271 homes around Flint and found 90 percent of their samples had levels lower than 27 ppb. Virginia Tech’s highest reading was 158 ppb, according to the Washington Post. New York City’s recent tests are the first such to employ a new protocol the city established in September. Previously, workers would run water for two hours from all the water outlets in a school, turn them off, and eight hours later take samples. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discourages the practice because it can lower the levels of lead in samples by “[removing] water that may have been in contact with the lead service line for extended periods, which is when lead typically leaches into drinking water,” according to 2016 agency memo. The city has already replaced all lead service lines at schools. They also conducted tests during the summer. Now the city will try to conduct most tests during the school year, and will only flush the pipes if tests take place on Mondays and during school holidays when water has been sitting in pipes, according to the New York Times. Testing will cost the city between $15-20 million compared to $13 million last year. The advocacy group Environment New York (environmentnewyork.org) in a report this month found that samples from nine times as many water outlets showed levels above 15 ppb under the new protocol. A few days later in September, Governor Cuomo signed the state’s first mandatory school lead testing law that requires each school district to conduct tests consistent with the “toughest lead contamination testing standards in the nation,” according to gubernatorial officials.

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

Via NYC Department of Education

The test results that showed higher than 15 ppb of lead to water at PS 11. Entries in bold were tests taken from water fountains; red indicates the highest concentration of lead found.

Previously, only schools that drew water from a well — not schools connected to municipal systems such as city public schools — had to test water for lead. Environment New York also noted in its report that lead was detected above that threshold at 14 percent of school water outlets tested across the state under the new testing requirements. A spokesperson for the group, Heather Leibowitz said that count doesn’t cover results showing lead under 15 ppb and that the group believes “this almost certainly shows many more faucets and fountains with lead in the water.” “The way we know this is to look at the Massachusetts data showing results under 15 ppb. When you look at all those results, the percentage with lead is not 14 percent but rather almost 50 percent for Massachusetts,” Leibowitz said. The EPA’s and Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) position is that there is no “safe” level of lead in drinking water. Between 2002 and 2004, the EPA considered 40 ppb of lead warranted “immediate action,” but removed reference to that number over a decade ago, according to a USA Today report. The CDC recommended pregnant women and children drink bottled or filtered water if more than 15 ppb of lead is found in their home drinking water.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of lead poisoning. The EPA notes that “low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells.” The DOE is finding troubling amounts of lead in samples taken from public schools in all corners of the city, in many cases at much higher levels than found at PS 11. For example, samples taken at a water fountain at a Staten Island middle school in December came back with 2,260 ppb and samples from a classroom faucet contained an astounding 32,500 ppb. “The NYC Department of Education, Department of Health, and Department of Environmental Protection assure my colleagues and I that the drinking water in our schools is completely safe,” said Councilmember Corey Jonson in a Feb. 15 email statement to Chelsea Now. “However,” he added, “any discussion at all of lead in schools is of great concern to me and to the parents of my district. Therefore, I have requested that the Department of Education meet with our parent communities as soon as possible to answer questions and fully address any and all concerns. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our children.” .com

Streep Takes a Stand, and Sings, at Human Rights Campaign Dinner BY PAUL SCHINDLER In the middle of a passionate and powerful rejoinder to President Donald Trump — with whom she’s been at war since her Golden Globes speech in early January — Meryl Streep did something remarkable even for a much-decorated actor who has repeatedly proven her musical chops. Before a packed Waldorf Astoria ballroom audience attending the annual Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Greater New York dinner, she sang a cappella a musical setting of Emma Lazarus’ 1883 sonnet “The Great Colossus,” the words of which are inscribed at the base of the Statute of Liberty. Streep was recalling a 1961 school field trip she took as an 11-year-old to the Statute of Liberty from her suburban New Jersey middle school. There, her music teacher, then known as Paul Grossman, led Streep and her classmates in the song. When the actor was in graduate school, she learned that Grossman had transitioned and become one of the nation’s first out transgender women. Paula Grossman returned to the Basking Ridge school, where she was fired, losing her court challenge to her dismissal. “She was a garrulous, cantankerous, terrific teacher, but she never taught again,” Streep said of her former music teacher who died in 2003. Grossman did manage to walk away from her career with a pension, based on a disability claim, though, Streep noted, “She was disabled only by the smallmindedness of the school.” When the Oscar-winning actor finished singing “The New Colossus,” she said, “I can’t remember what I did Tuesday, but I remember that… It stirred my 11-year-old heart then, and it animates my conscience today. That’s what great teachers do.” Streep dedicated the National Ally Award HRC bestowed on her to the “gay and transgender” teachers, friends, and colleagues she’s known over the years. The earliest among them, she recalled, were “people who made me an artist and lived under duress.” In her remarks, Streep likened the struggle for LGBTQ rights to other social justice movements including those for people of color and women, and of Trump’s election, she said, “We shouldn’t be surprised that fundamentalists of all types everywhere are exercised… We shouldn’t be surprised that these profound changes come at a much deeper cost... We shouldn’t be surprised if not everyone is totally down with it.” .com

Photo by Jeffrey Holmes, courtesy Human Rights Campaign

I could be home, I want to read, and garden, and load my dishwasher. I love that. It’s embarrassing and terrifying, and it puts a target on your forehead. And it sets you up for all sorts of attacks. The armies of brownshirts and bots and worse.” And then, to thunderous applause, she continued, “You have to, you have to, you don’t have an option, you have to. And when I load my dishwasher from where I live in New York City, I look out my window and see the Statue of Liberty, and she reminds me of Mr. Grossman and my first trip there.” Referring to the threat that broad religious exemption laws could gut nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ and other people, Streep insisted, “We as Americans have the right to reject the imposition of unwanted religious practice in our lives. We have the right to live our lives with God or without her.” And she closed by pointing to all Americans’ “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and warned, “If you think people were mad when they thought the government was coming after their guns wait till you see when they try to take away our happiness.” Streep’s speech was the emotional highpoint in an evening that focused ferocious attacks on the new administration and underscored the risks to LGBTQ civil rights advances it poses. Several speakers mentioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement the day before that the Justice Department was withdrawing its motion to block a Texas federal judge’s injunction against the Obama administration policy requiring public schools to allow transgender students access to bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, vowed to resist Trump administration efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights, transgender healthcare access, and protections for trans students. “When President Trump attacks one of us, he’s going to hear from all of us,” he vowed. A sweeping anti-LGBTQ executive order that circulated in the White House, Schumer said, “never made it past the drafting table because of a massive public outcry, because of the voices of the people in this room.” Acknowledging that he had fully expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, Schumer said he was distraught, knowing that had she won and

“Late Night” host Seth Meyers with actor and friend Billy Eichner, who introduced him at the dinner.

HRC continued on p. 14

Photo by David Goodman, courtesy Human Rights Campaign

Meryl Streep speaking to the Human Rights Campaign Greater New York Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Then sounding a resilient note about how those who resist the new administration can gain strength from their struggle, she added, “If we live through this perilous moment, if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn’t lead us to a nuclear winter, we will have much to thank this president for because he will have woken us up to how fragile freedom really is.” The nation can learn, Streep said, “how the authority of the executive in the hands of a self-dealer can be wielded against the people… to intimidate,

punish, and humiliate, delegitimize the press… with pathologic regularity and easily provoked predictability.” She then assured the crowd, “Well, we’re not; we’re not going to go back to the bad old days of ignorance and oppression.” Turning specifically to the war of words between herself and the president, Streep acknowledged the “natural instinct to say, ‘F**k off.’” But that wouldn’t be her style. “I have to stand here,” Streep insisted, her voice rising. “I don’t want to be here.

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

HRC continued from p. 13

he become majority leader, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would have had more fun, and we certainly would have gotten more good things done.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; He then added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;But now as minority leader under President Donald Trump, my job is much more important.â&#x20AC;? Describing Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Supreme Court nominee, US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the second coming of John Roberts, a conservative ideologue in sheepâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clothing,â&#x20AC;? Schumer warned that if he â&#x20AC;&#x153;cannot prove his independence from the president, he will have a great deal of trouble finding the 60 votes in the United States Senate.â&#x20AC;? The senator acknowledged â&#x20AC;&#x153;the brave gay and, yes, transgender New Yorkers who nearly 50 years ago fought showed the country the power of resistance at Stonewall,â&#x20AC;? and added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I implore [you] not to despair; there is something happening in America,â&#x20AC;? a reference to the outpouring of protesters in the streets over the past three weeks and in recent days at Republican congressional town halls. Chad Griffin, HRCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s president, also took on Trump foursquare, saying the LGBTQ Americans â&#x20AC;&#x153;find ourselves at a turning point in our struggle for full equality. Everything we have accomplished together is under siege by a loud

minority and it is led by a man who seems hell-bent on undoing all our progress.â&#x20AC;? Challenging the notion among some in the mainstream media that Trump â&#x20AC;&#x201D; informed by his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, senior advisor Jared Kushner â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Â is more friendly to LGBTQ Americans than most GOP leaders, Griffin said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand by as he waves the rainbow flag while undermining equality behind closed doors.â&#x20AC;? Griffin also made specific mention of the need to protect the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood, two things he said are vital to serving the healthcare needs of people living with HIV and transgender Americans. In a sign of how little progressives won in November, Griffin focused a good portion of his remarks on the only major bright spot, the defeat of North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory, who signed and championed HB2, the law that stripped away LGBTQ protections enacted by localities in that state and specifically took aim at transgender people accessing public bathrooms appropriate to their gender identity. HRCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobilization against McCrory, Griffin said, sent a â&#x20AC;&#x153;message to politicians all across the country: If you come for us, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to come for you on election day.â&#x20AC;? Another awardee of the evening was comedian Seth Meyers, host of NBCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Photo by Jeffrey Holmes, courtesy Human Rights Campaign

Senator Chuck Schumer.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Late Night.â&#x20AC;? Meyers opened by joking about his placement at the end of the eveningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you do this again,â&#x20AC;? he said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Meryl Streep is the closerâ&#x20AC;Ś I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe a room full of gay people had no basic understanding of show business.â&#x20AC;? On a more serious note, Meyers noted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Late Nightâ&#x20AC;? has hosted a number of transgender guests, from whom heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

learned much. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It does not take courage to do my job, he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It requires a little bit of nerve, and nerve is no small thing, but it is very different than courage. Courage is what it takes for a transgender student to go to high school every day.â&#x20AC;? Meyers then added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is why it is so heartbreaking to hear that Jeff Sessions is seeking to undermine protections for transgender students.â&#x20AC;?

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She Puts Spirit in the Stone Artist Lorrie Goulet, on the power of ‘complete immersion’

Photo by Dlo Slaughter/www.faithfocusflash.net

Photo by Budd Photography

Lorrie Goulet stands in her W. 20th St. studio with 1952’s “Earth” (walnut, 36x32x30).

From 1963, Lorrie Goulet at her former studio on W. 21st St., holding an unfinished piece done in alabaster.

BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN Lorrie Goulet’s New York studio, located in a townhouse in the heart of Chelsea, includes a stunning collection of work spanning seven decades. Set up on pedestals, her many sculptures tell of a life devoted to art. “I was always happy to be in the studio,” she explained, clarifying that it was, and remains, her “favorite place.” In conversation it became increasingly clear that to her, happiness was indeed always rooted in having enough time to work and in maintaining the considerable physical strength needed to tackle her challenging materials — “any kind of .com

stone I could get my hands on,” she explained. Though her oeuvre also entails painting, drawing and poetry, Goulet is primarily known as a sculptor, who carved each of her works directly by hand. Born in 1925 in Riverdale, New York, Goulet knew she was an artist early on. Considering that her formative years occurred during a time when women were discouraged from pursuing any profession, let alone art, and when the handful of working female artists could never dream of receiving the same recognition as their male peers, Goulet’s success

seems both staggering and inspiring. She did get married (to another artist), raised a daughter, and taught hundreds of art students — but she also, as she proudly noted, created more than 500 sculptures by hand. Goulet’s story is one of unwavering determination. “I wasn’t interested in any of the things traditionally expected of women like getting married and having several children,” she said. Bolstered by this conviction, she managed to find her unique path, as well as a professional support system. In 1932, at the age of seven, she met Aimee Le Prince Voorhees at The Inwood Pottery Studio, which

Voorhees had founded with her husband Harry. There, in the pastoral setting of Inwood Hill without any modern conveniences, Goulet studied with Voorhees for four crucial years, reflecting once that “It was one of my happiest experiences,” and that she had “never forgotten [her] first teacher.” Even when The Pottery Studio was forced to close by Mayor LaGuardia (protested in the press by the then-11-year-old Goulet) and her family moved to Los Angeles, Goulet still managed to find a way to supplement her regular schooling with a LORRIE GOULET continued on p. 18 Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

LORRIE GOULET continued from p. 17

Photo by Dlo Slaughter/www.faithfocusflash.net

Lorrie Goulet at her Chelsea studio in 2016. In the background: “Equinox” (1993; acrylic, 84x60). Below is the sculpture “Goddess Of The Sea in Alabaster” (2014; 20x27x12).

serious art education. In 1940, she apprenticed with local ceramicist Jean Rose. However, it was not until 1943 that Goulet entered art school full time, enrolling at the venerated Black Mountain College in North Carolina. There, she was able to study painting and drawing with Josef Albers, as well as weaving (with Albers’ wife, Annie). It was at Black Mountain that Goulet also met her future husband, the established sculptor José de Creeft, four decades her senior. A visiting instructor at the time, de Creeft is perhaps best known for his 16-foot “Alice In Wonderland” bronze sculpture in Central Park. The couple was married in the fall of 1944. Two years later, they acquired a farm in Hoosick Falls, New York. Through 1968, they worked part of each year there while raising their daughter, Donna Maria de Creeft. Goulet’s exhibition history dates back to 1948, including several Annual Exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and an installation at the New York World’s Fair of 1964/1965. From the beginning, it was Goulet’s ambition to create sculptures that would appear timeless and free of specific stylistic tastes. She never belonged to an art movement. In fact, in her sculpture, she always remained committed to one subject: the human figure. However, instead of realistically rendering its physiognomy, Goulet was interested in interpreting it. She was describing its potential, tracing

fluid shapes and movements without a sense of weight or density. “I believe that anyone in the world can understand my work,” she said, stating that she wanted to make art for all people from all cultures. “I like the idea that someone in Borneo can access my sculpture as well as someone from my background.” As a direct carver, she would take her material as-is and begin to work without making any preparatory studies or maquettes. “Direct carving is a way of life. It’s a way of seeing things,” Goulet explained. “That’s why I was always so reclusive — because I was concentrated on seeing; it was about complete immersion in my work.” Goulet’s process required an extensive contemplation of the raw material, including its details, such as the grain of the wood or the veins in the stone, as each unique feature would impact the finished work. This might explain why alabaster, which possesses a range of rich natural colors and an unusual sense of translucence, counts among one of Goulet’s favorite materials. Each unique characteristic holds an inherent promise of potential. In fact, according to Goulet, “You see the potential when you look at the stone and you start to make forms. Everything begins to take shape and then you see the whole thing and you go towards that goal.” However, rather than superimposing an idea of form onto the raw material, Goulet was always interested in searching for something already hidden inside of it. The female body — its sensuality, fertility, and embedded sense of strength — was a recurrent theme in Goulet’s work. In fact, instead of focusing on individual women or stylized goddesses, Goulet employed the female figure as an analogy for nature. “It is full, it is blossoming, it is progressive, it is giving; the female figure has all the qualities that I think are so important in sculpture. In fact, when you look at the history of sculpture, you find that artists have always used women. It carries on [in] my feelings about what sculpture should be.” A prolific writer, Goulet’s philosophical and educational writings aid in formulating her vision. One of her past statements, which best sums up her take on the creative process and role of the artist, rings truer than ever when considering the entirety of her oeuvre today: “I believe the

Courtesy the artist

“Aurora in Limestone” (1971; 20x39x10; collection of Lee Hall of Northern Michigan University).

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LORRIE GOULET continued on p. 19 .com

LORRIE GOULET continued from p. 18

YOUR WEEKLY community newspaper serving CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

source of our art lies on our inner center of being… the core of our awareness. From this center flows our power of creativity, the mystery and magic of our art. I believe that art is the realization of the dynamic energy and order of the universe… as perceived by the individual… as reflected and made whole in the visual images we create.” In addition to her work in the studio, Goulet looks back at decades of teaching. First, at the Museum of Modern Art’s Peoples Center, New York (1957), then at The New School, New York (1961-1975) and the Art Students League of New York (1981-2004). In fact, between 1964 and 1968, CBS aired 23 segments featuring Goulet’s teachings with demonstrations for children in a program entitled “Around the Corner,” which was sponsored by the New York City Board of Education. Today, Goulet continues her daily practice in the studio. Despite a stroke, which made it impossible for her to continue carving, she has not slowed down much. She now focuses primarily on painting while continuing to write poetry. When speaking with Goulet, one gets the clear

Courtesy the artist

L to R: Goulet’s acrylic paintings “Unity” (2011) and “Madonna of the Plains” (1991).

impression that for her, it was always about making work with as little distractions as possible. “Often my studio door was closed and nobody knew what was going on. It was my peaceful niche.” Luckily for the general public, examples of her work can be found in many major collections, including at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina

Sofia, Madrid. “I was making beauty: beautiful sculpture,” Goulet reflected, adding, “The French philosopher René Descartes wrote that beauty was harmony, unity, and radiance — and I work with these three words. Radiance is the life, the ‘me’ that I put into the stone, and which of course gets lost over time. But the spirit I put in stays.” For artist information, visit lorriegoulet.com.

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Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

Rhymes with Crazy THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

The Suspicious Samaritan as Model Citizen

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Jennifer Goodstein

Editor Scott Stiffler

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Art Director Michael Shirey

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shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for other errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue.

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

BY LENORE SKENAZY If you see something, say something. That campaign, launched in New York after 9/11 and rolled out nationwide in 2010, suggests that anyone and anything we see could be out to get us, so our job is to immediately alert the authorities. What a wonderful way to turn kind, caring citizens into paranoid busybodies who don’t even actually help each other. All they do is call 911 and smile smugly. “People are submitting thousands and thousands of tips a day,” says Joshua Reeves, author of “Citizen Spies: The Long Rise of America’s Surveillance Society” (NYU Press). He has examined these tips, including gems like, “Someone is standing next to a water fountain, checking their wristwatch.” And, “I saw a suspicious person watching her daughter on the playground.” As a result of being asked to err on the side of extreme caution, says Reeves, “There’s this sort of extended paranoia throughout the culture that everything is a potential signifier of terrorism or crime.” Consider this sign I saw on New Jersey Transit last week. It began with the usual, “If you see something, say something,” but added, “If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.” Ah, but what if you have been primed by years of going through airport security, being forced to ditch your four fluid ounces of Head & Shoulders in case it is a bomb? At some point, our common sense gets corrupted and even the most innocent items and activities don’t “feel right” anymore. And so we turn to the authorities. In turn, the authorities just keep getting more… authority. You see something like this happening at schools, with kids being told to

report any possible bullying to the adults in charge; and on college campuses, where the same goes for students encountering slights known as “microaggressions.” Of course, no one wants real harassment going unchecked. But our young people are being taught that they are not competent enough to examine or solve interpersonal problems on their own. To Reeves (and now me), this is the one-two punch of the problem: Not just that we overreact to innocent “triggers,” but that we are told to outsource the solution. Two examples: On the subway, there are signs that say (I’m quoting from memory): “If you see a sick passenger, do not attempt to help them yourself. Alert an MTA employee or the police.” So we’re not supposed to exercise basic compassion? Only the authorities are qualified to help another human? Example No. 2: We have also been told to dial 911 if we see a child waiting in a car. This makes us believe that a few minutes’ car wait is automatically dangerous, even though most of us remember waiting in the car when we were kids. But once again, our common sense has been curdled by constant warnings of the worst-case scenario — in this case, the rare deaths of kids forgotten in cars for hours. So now, if we’re not seeing terrorists, we’re seeing terrible parents. But here’s the thing. When parents tell me about coming out of Walgreen’s only to find someone dialing 911 and screaming at them for “abandoning” their child, the screamers don’t seem to recognize that they were watching the child. They could make sure no kidnapping occurred (an extremely unlikely crime anyway). They could hang out a few minutes, making sure the parents returned, and then say something like, “Hi! Just watching to make sure you got back soon. Your kid is so cute. Have a great day.” That is what Good Samaritans do. Opening a Child Protective Services investigation on a mom who dashed in to get some Tylenol is what Good Samaritans do not do. Yet today’s Samaritans are asked to spy on their neighbors and turn them in.

Reeves has felt this in his own life. He and his wife have four kids and the oldest, age seven, goes to karate six blocks away. “We would love to be able to send him over there by himself, but we won’t do it,” says Reeves. They fear that a citizen pumped with fear and armed with a cellphone could call 911 to report a case of child neglect. Usually, this will not happen. But if we want to create the kind of place we’d like to live, a place where onlookers wave to kids and help them cross the street, we have to dial back the culture of dialing up the cops. Asking citizens to assume the worst at all times is making us paranoid, but asking us to involve the authorities is even creepier. It is making us forget how normal and nice it is to be kind. Lenore Skenazy is a keynote speaker who authored the book, and founded the blog, Free-Range Kids (freerangekids.com).

YOUR WEEKLY community newspaper serving CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN .com

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Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

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Talking Point

Strengthening the City’s Sexual Health Clinics BY DR. MARY T. BASSETT Sexual health clinics in New York City hold a puzzling place in the public imagination. Are they places to get free condoms? Pregnancy exams? Blood tests? To give you a better picture, I want to share the story of a man from Harlem who visited the Riverside clinic, on the Upper West Side (160 W. 100th St.), last December. He wished to remain anonymous, so I will name him “John.” Days before his visit, John found a blemish on his skin. Suspecting a sexually transmitted infection, he looked for a clinic that offered free testing. The Riverside Sexual Health Clinic was not too far from his home. Staff checked him in immediately, with no hassles over health insurance. The doctor spoke to him, “like a person,” John recalled, and was empathic when delivering the news that John was HIV-positive. What unfolded perfectly illustrates the role of the city’s sexual health clinics in treating sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV. John became one of the first New Yorkers to access the health department’s new, breakthrough program, JumpstART. Through JumpstART, patients receiving a positive HIV diagnosis can begin taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) that same day in the clinic. This is a game changer. The days of waiting weeks and weeks to start HIV medications are over. John met with special clinic staff trained in navigating the healthcare system that same day. The staff member identified the most convenient appointments for John to continue his long-term treatment with an HIV specialist. He was also seen by a social worker. When John walked out of the clinic, there was no stack of paperwork to fill out, and the medicine was free of charge. Sexual health clinics like the one at Riverside are on the front lines of our healthcare system, serving people who need quality care but can’t afford it. We want to honor the trust New Yorkers have when they come to us, and we know that we can do more. That’s why we are taking a revolutionary approach. We are scaling up — adding nearly 80 staff members to provide new medications, tests, and services, such as navigating the .com

Photo by Donna Aceto

Dr. Mary Bassett, the city health commissioner, at this past December’s dedication of the NYC AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village.

healthcare system and counseling — to make a dramatic change in how clinics operate as providers. There is a reason we are taking bold steps. Our goal is to reduce the annual number of new HIV infections in New York City to no more than 600 by 2020, a level that would reduce HIV to below epidemic levels so that the number of people living with HIV would begin to decline year after year. We are making progress: In 2016, for the first time, as part of the city’s $23 million Ending the Epidemic initiative, fewer than 2,500 New Yorkers were newly diagnosed with HIV. We are working hard to meet our goal by offering low- to no-cost testing and effective treatment to meet every person’s needs and reduce transmission. For populations most at risk for exposure, we are launching the largest pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) program in the country. PrEP is one pill that, when taken daily, is more than 90 percent effective at preventing HIV infection. For patients who have been exposed to HIV, but were not taking PrEP, we also provide a full, 28-day course of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which should be started as soon as possible following the exposure. And for people like John,

who are HIV-infected, we can now start them immediately on medication. Studies show that treating HIVpositive patients as soon as possible suppresses the virus, virtually eliminating HIV transmission and preventing the disease from progressing. The clinics also play a key role in fighting other STIs. In New York City, like much of the country, syphilis continues to be a problem. Case rates have more than doubled in the last decade, from 7.7 per 100,000 people in 2005 to 17.9 per 100,000 people in 2015. Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 95 percent of

syphilis cases, and almost half have HIV when they are diagnosed. We have also seen a rise in syphilis among women. This is particularly worrisome because infections during pregnancies can cause congenital syphilis, which often results in stillbirths or serious neurological problems in infants. Many STIs do not produce any obvious symptoms — that’s why periodic screening is so important. At our clinics, anyone age 12 or older can come in for confidential syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV testing. They can also receive emergency contraception and the HPV vaccine, which provides protection from the human papillomavirus (which can lead to genital warts and cervical and other types of cancer). The expansion of these clinics represents a genuine paradigm shift in how we approach sexual health in New York City. We want to strip away the stigma, normalize testing, and help everyone who needs it. Treatment and prevention merge into one streamlined program that encourages New Yorkers to take control of their health. John said that if the Riverside clinic wasn’t there, he wasn’t sure where he would have gone. Now, he’s on the right path to recovery and taking care of himself. “They gave me hope,” he said. “I left thinking, ‘I’m so proud I am a New Yorker.’ ” Dr. Mary T. Bassett is the commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. For locations and hours of the city’s sexual health clinics, visitwww1.nyc.gov/site/ doh/services/sexual-health-clinics. page.

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

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TOP DRIVER DISTRACTIONS Using mobile phones

Leading the list of the top distractions behind the wheel are mobile phones. Phones now do more than just place calls, and drivers often cannot pull away from their phones, even when driving. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, studies have shown that driving performance is lowered and the level of distraction is higher for drivers who are heavily engaged in cell

Februar y 16 - 22, 2017

phone conversations. The use of a hands-free device does not lower distraction levels. The percentage of vehicle crashes and nearcrashes attributed to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening.

Daydreaming

Many people will admit to daydreaming behind the wheel or looking at a person or object outside of the car for too long. Per-

haps they’re checking out a house in a new neighborhood or thought they saw someone they knew on the street corner. It can be easy to veer into the direction your eyes are focused, causing an accident. In addition to trying to stay focused on the road, some drivers prefer the help of lane departure warning systems.

Eating

Those who haven’t quite mastered walking and

chewing gum at the same time may want to avoid eating while driving. The majority of foods require a person’s hands to be taken off of the wheel and their eyes to be diverted from the road. Reaching in the back seat to share some French fries with the kids is also distracting. Try to eat meals before getting in the car. For those who must snack while en route, take a moment to pull over at

a rest area and spend 10 minutes snacking there before resuming the trip.

Reading

Glancing at an advertisement, updating a Facebook status or reading a book are all activities that should be avoided when driving. Even pouring over a traffic map or consulting the digital display of a GPS system can be distracting.

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