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REPLACING BRAD LANDER by Toby Burns
S
ix candidates have their eye on the city council seat once held by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the 39th district, spanning Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.
Judas and the Black Messiah is now streaming online at HBO Max and is also in theatrical release.
The killing of a Black revolutionary by Roderick Thomas
“War is politics with bloodshed, politics is war without bloodshed.” Fred Hampton’s words are profound and captured perfectly in the new movie about the real Black Panthers, produced by Ryan Coogler, who brought forth 2018's Black Panther hit movie, based upon the Marvel character. Judas and The Black Messiah follows the life of the dynamic teen activist Fred Hampton, who rose to become
the Chicago Black Panther Chairman. Hampton was assassinated in his bed by the FBI and police at the age of 21, with the help of Black FBI informants, notably William O’Neal. The Black Messiah exposes the realities of police tactics and government sponsored assassination attempts on the revolutionary Black Panther party of the 1960's. The film stars actor Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, best known for his role in Jordan Peele’s genre resurrecting thriller Get Out (2017). Kaluuya portrays Chairman Fred with an eerie exactness, a marker of his gift as an actor. FBI informant William O’Neal is played by Kaluuya’s Get Out co-star
Lakieth Stanfield. While Kaluuya’s portrayal of Hampton’s self-sacrificing nature and dedication to Black liberation was spot on and moving. It is perhaps Stanfield’s embodiment of O’Neal that is most jolting. Lakieth Stanfield’s portrayal of is undeniably gut wrenching. He shows us a man dancing with maddening ambivalence, in between worlds as both an FBI informant and a faux Black Panther. Visually, the film is stunning to watch. Judas and the Black Messiah features cinematography by seasoned cinematographer Sean Bobbit (Twelve
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It’s the first time in more than a decade that the 39th will be represented by somebody other than Progressive Caucus co-founder Brad Lander, who has reached his term limit and is now running for city comptroller. Lander’s endorsement would be a major distinction for any of the contenders, but so far he’s kept quiet about who he thinks should replace him. In terms of money, it’s the second richest race in Brooklyn, with each hopeful having raised more than $30,000 and total fundraising exceeding $350,000. Donors have made it the fourth richest council race in the city overall, behind only the 7th district in Manhattan, the 13th in the Bronx, and the adjacent 40th district in Brooklyn. Ideologically, the candidates are kindreds, each touting their own community-focused brand of progressivism that’s very much in the tradition of their predecessor. Lander is held in high regard by candidates across the board, especially for his work on participatory budgeting, which aims to involve communities more directly in how their tax dollars get spent. But on a personal level, the candidates have a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, sure to resonate with voters in different ways. Brandon West, whose campaign posters are already a fixture in shop windows along Court and Smith Streets, is quick to sloganize himself as someone who knows both the “streets and the spreadsheets.” West worked for the Office of Management and Budget and for the City Council itself as a financial analyst before becoming a voting rights advocate and activist in the Occupy City Hall Movement. West credits his time as a financial analyst on the council’s transportation and education committees with
Fred Hampton (left) was a Black leader in the late 1960's. He is portrayed in the new movie by Daniel Kaluuya (right),
(continued on page 5)
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World Arts brings a celebration by Nathan Weiser
W
orld Arts East Red Hook, which opened last fall, celebrated the Lunar New Year on February 20 with a free community T'ai Chi class. There were five participants. The focus was on creating more vitality as we move through the year of the ox. There was no experience necessary, everyone had their own mats and during the class everyone wore masks. T'ai Chi is an internal Chinese martial art that is practiced for defense training, health benefits and mediation. Erica Olivares Bowen, who is the owner of the studio, originally planned on having the class outside near Valentino Pier but the cold and snow on the ground led her to have the class in the new studio on King Street. “It is always nice to do a class outside where you can feel the elements, feel the breath within you, feel the air and the wind around you,” Bowen said. She intends on having an outdoor class in the future so the students can get the full experience. Bowen first learned T'ai Chi at Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in California, where she did a master’s program. “I was always really attracted to the Yuan style of martial arts but I had a really amazing professor who was teaching us T'ai Chi. He was a doctor of acupuncture who was originally from China," she said. “T'ai Chi helps with balance, not just mental balance but actual physical balance,” Bowen said. “A lot of times as we get older many times people have difficulty with balancing, standing one one leg. T'ai Chi can help with flexibility, mobility, range of movement, breathing and one's mental focus.” “T'ai Chi’s philosophy really focuses on yin and yang,” Bowen said. “If you have too much yin or something is too yang that is also off balance. We try to
bring the individual and the body into balance.
Bowen has a few goals for participants when they take a class or workshop.
Shaolin Kung Fu and Jiu Jitsu have their own forms and styles and T'ai Chi does as well. Some martial artists study/practice something like capoeira about three days a week and then might supplement that training with T'ai Chi.
“What I want for someone is whatever it is that they came for, number one, that they receive that on some level,” Bowen said. “Going back to what we talked about the benefits of T'ai Chi are, for them to get some element of that, that is most important.”
Four of the five people in the workshop were completely new to T'ai Chi. One woman who attended said she had watched T'ai Chi in parks multiple times before but was never able to get the hang of it after being a little intimidated. She thought she was able to really learn the basics through practicing the sequences during the 45 minute class.
She also wants to make sure that everyone remembers to focus on their breath since that is a basic element of T'ai Chi. She knows they will not be perfect after an initial class but she wants them to get some of the benefits. World Arts East Red Hook is located at 127 King Street, second floor. (929) 295-0605
They did warm-up movements like circling feet in both directions, lifting each leg and then lunging, punching the space in front of them, circling arms in both directions, inhaling and exhaling and moving wrists in a circular motion. After the long warm-up, they did the forms where they did full body movements and there was music the whole time.
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March 2021
we get letters Last issue a winner!
researching a piece on St Patrick’s Day Wow. I read it cover to cover (well I Parades in ol’ Brooklyn when I came sort of skimmed the Italian wine coun- across a more interesting story about try piece, being a scotch guy myself ). an Italian theatre at 55 Union Street Graubard’s “inside baseball” stroll (at the corner of Van Brunt St), which down the memory lane of Brooklyn was constantly getting busted (and politics was one of the few long pieces gagsters drilled outside it). It was torn I’ve read lately that I did not want to down as near as I can tell circa 1920 end. Maybe we tend to see the past and replaced by a garage. (Today it with too much sepia-tinged nostal- looks like another site ripe for a highgia but there was something about rise Model Block!) It got me thinkthe old bosses that was more likeable ing how Irish cops hounded Italian than today’s collection of focus group businesses because they didn’t play vetted happy faces. I remember my ball while 60,000 Irishmen marched old boss Bob Morgenthau telling me down Columbia Street. When DeSapover an adult beverage soon after Car- io became Tammany Boss in 1949, mine DeSapio’s death, “I sent him to Wikipedia gushed, “DeSapio’s Italian federal prison for two years for brib- heritage signaled the end of Tamery and afterwards I was in the Village many’s longtime dominance by Irishand I see him, with his dark glasses, American politicians, and he became walking toward me on Bleecker Street. the first nationally prominent ItalianThe son of a bitch gave me this big American political leader.” Huh? What smile, offered his hand and said, ‘No about Fiorello LaGuardia! As ol’ Abe hard feelings, Bob. I knew it was just Lincoln once told us, “Don’t believe business. You got me fair and square.’ everything you read on the Internet.” He was such a likeable guy.” Anyway, - Joe Enright a great read. MTA money politics I also marveled at your reporting on It is a sure that Governor Andrew Cuothe “Model Block” and the piece on mo will not hold a press conference Gowanus, especially the Public Place to announce that as part of his propart of it, was excellent. Also liked the posed state budget, he will be reallonod to The Record Store, and the re- cating $160 million dedicated for our view of the book on ‘70s rock. I gotta public mass transit agencies into the admit the profile of the Cobble Hill state’s general fund. This includes the Cinema owner actually got me a lit- Metropolitan Transportation Authortle depressed thinking about the last ity receiving $145 million less than wasted year of all our lives thanks to anticipated from Albany as part of the Clownstick Von Fuckface, aka And next April 1, 2021 - March 30, 2022 Now Let’s Storm the Capitol, My Pa- state budget. triots. Comparing his cowardly dema- At the same time, MTA Chairman Pat goguery to Bernie’s gentler ways was Foye, Senator Charles Schumer, Mayor much appreciated as well. I shared Bill de Blasio and other elected officials your views on him - more a thinker of are lobbying Washington for a third big thoughts than somebody able to CARE COVID-19 bailout of $8 billion accomplish anything ever. Joe Enright or more. The Federal Transit AdminisWell, sorry to go on. Anyway, in a tration already provided the MTA with weird synchronicity, considering the a total of $8 billion under two previous two Italian stories in this issue, I was CARE COVID19 bailouts. This is all on
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top of $1.4 in 2020 and $1.5 billion in other formula and discretionary funding provided by the Federal Transit Administration to the MTA. The receipt of federal funding was never meant to be used by Governor Cuomo to back out previous committed state funding to the MTA as a means to balance his own budget. Will Senator Schumer hold one of his Sunday news conferences to hold Cuomo accountable? Don’t be on it, He is too busy with plans to run for another term in 2022! MTA Chairman Foye has no problems blaming Washington for his multi billion dollar shortfalls. He will never publicly disagree with his benefactor Cuomo who appointed him to his position. Reduction in previously promised financial support from Albany by Cuomo is a box of Valentine’s Day candy already partially eaten to riders. - Larry Penner
Public Place the shit!
Thank you for posting this article! It is by far the best overview of an environmental disaster in the making. There is no way any housing or a school should be built on Public Place since it has been identified as the most polluted site in the State of New York. Why isn’t Public Place part of EPA’s Superfund work since it is obviously polluting the Canal and the surrounding neighborhood? My wife and I want to thank all of my neighbors – Dan
Hewing to developers
Good to see an opening for real discussion on this. The problem with the city zoning proposal, like most, planners never start with an assessment of what kind and amount of development a particular landscape is capable of supporting, instead they start with years of meetings with developers laying out demands, followed by
the public reaction to the city meeting those demands. The elected representatives are on for the task of framing these bad plans with some noble public purpose so no one sees the reality of what they are giving away to corporate developers. But in Gowanus this “planning-by-developers-demands” and ignoring the environmental realities, the city planning and corporate developer alliance has finally going to far, proposing too much harm at a time when a pandemic and new concerns of climate impacts are baring down on this city. It is time to call for decency in reasoning behind these rezonings – Farris
EPA is punished
Great article. It is a monstrous cruel plan that wants to place low income families on extremely toxic land that can not be remediated and when Tsiamis told the truth he was punished. On top of that, they want to build a school on the toxic land so children can have even more exposure to the poisonous land. When those children have cancer later where will those electeds be who pushed this project? Long gone having collected their donations from developers years ago. And as pointed out, why would any person of means chose this location to live in when there are 1000s of empty apartments throughout the city to chose. – Lucy Koteen
Just plain stupid
This is a good piece, but I wish it mentioned the remediation happening at Public Place isn’t and can never be a full cleanup. It’s the nature of the toxicity and something that must be considered for any future uses. Putting any roofed structures on that site is irresponsible and unjust for whomever would end up living or studying there. – Bonnie
POLITICAL INDIFFERENCE COSTS LIVES
What people forget is that six years ago, a couple of hardworking researchers from the Department of City Planning spent almost a year in Red Hook to study our transportation situation. You can read about it by going here http://www.star-revue.com/city-planningstudies-red-hook-streets-george-fiala/ One of the great ideas they had was to create a pedestrian mall under the Gowanus to make it a friendlier crossing - see sketch ->.
When I asked a local politician about it at the time, I was told that it couldn't happen right away because it would have to be done by the City, and the State was using that area while they were working on the highway upstairs. Well, I've been checking and the State seems to have been done for a couple of years already. But this hard work and idea has been long forgotten by politicians and everyone else except for me, I think, and the report just gathers dust along with countless other studies that get done and then get forgotten. And regluar citizens have to pay the price, for some, the final price. - George Fiala
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March 2021
CM MENCHACA DENOUNCES DEVELOPER PLAN TO REZONE PROPERTY WITHOUT OFFICIAL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT On February 25, Council Member Carlos Menchaca blasted a Red Hook developer’s decision to avoid the City’s public review process to pursue a major rezoning. The following statement was delivered during a Brooklyn Community Board 6 meeting on the proposal: “The developer first approached my office about their ‘Model Block’ concept over two years ago. At the time, the concept was pitched as a rezoning that would go through the City’s public review process. “To my knowledge, the concept and rezoning proposal have not changed. The developer still hopes to double the allowed density on the site and add residential into an Industrial Business Zone. “What has changed is the developer’s willingness to go through a public, transparent process. Instead of ULURP, the developer now seeks these monumental changes through a variance application, which requires only the judgement of the Board of Standards and Appeals. “ULURP is flawed and should be replaced. But it at least requires community participation and community oversight through each step of the process. It also allows the City Council to negotiate affordability in housing or make changes to the application. “Going through the BSA deliberately circumvents that participation and oversight. “Choosing a process that deliberately avoids community input is inconsistent with the developer’s claims to care about the commu-
COUNCIL RACE (continued from page 1) showing him the nuts and bolts of the city’s bureaucracy. “I saw how difficult it is from the legislative vantage point to work with the agencies,” West told the Star Revue. “That’s the real challenge of legislating. You’re fighting to get the information to be able to make incremental changes.” Candidates Mamnun Haq and Briget Rein both count their labor organizing among their most noteworthy bona fides. Haq, a veteran cab driver, co-founded the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union that has sought to amp wages and working conditions for drivers while fighting against the encroachments of the gig economy. It’s impossible not to mention Haq’s harrowing personal tale of being stabbed by a passenger with a hunting knife in 2005, an attack that nearly cost him
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“What has changed is the developer’s willingness to go through a public, transparent process." nity at this meeting. “But beyond the failed prcess, I have other concerns about the BSA application itself: “First, the application contradicts City policy without City oversight. The site sits in the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone. The EDC says that IBZ’s are zones “under which the City guarantees not to support the rezoning of properties to allow residential uses.” Yet despite wanting a variance to build housing in the IBZ, the applicant doesn’t mention this contradiction, instead claiming their proposal “support[s] the goals of the IBZ” because it will have some manufacturing. This omission raises concerns about their motives for seeking a variance rather than using ULURP. “Second, despite its scale, this application is not subject to a rigorous environmental review. The application only includes a short Environmental Assessment, rather than a full his life and that has inspired his advocacy ever since. Longtime teacher’s union worker Briget Rein describes her mentor Randi Weingarten, who is now president of the country’s second largest teacher’s union, as “one of the greatest women I’ve ever met in my life.” Rein served as Weingarten’s deputy political director and dealt with city hall on behalf of the United Federation of Teachers, where she helped to organize the relocation and upgrade of PS 109. But union organizing isn’t the only type of advocacy work practiced by district 39 hopefuls. Justin Krebs, a former operative for the progressive nonprofit MoveOn. org, coordinated several national legislative lobbying campaigns, including efforts to thwart a potential Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and another to get the US into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, aimed at limiting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
Environmental Impact Statement. This limited assessment provides meager analysis of the impacts of this project on the health, safety, and livability of the surrounding neighborhood, and on the future of the Industrial Business Zone. Proposing a project of this scale in one of the most flood prone neighborhoods in New York City should involve a much more rigorous and transparent environmental review by the community. “Third, is around accountability and enforcement. The proposal includes a promise to build deeply affordable housing. But if granted a variance, the BSA will not impose a requirement to build it. It is in effect a blank check to build housing, period. A rezoning through ULURP, by contrast, would at least impose MIH requirements and create a potential path for a Community Benefits Agreement. Why should the community trust the applicant on their word alone?
Councilmember Menchaca giving the thumbs up after a previous community win, when the Ferry terminal was placed in a location the neighborhood wanted, rather than Valentino park, where the city's EDC wanted. He is with the late Buddy Scotto, beloved Carroll Gardens activist.
process. And with no way for the community to approve or challenge the proposal if affordable housing is not built.
“Fourth, I am skeptical of the application’s financial analysis. The developer claims that to de-pollute the site without losing money it needs to build housing. But from what I read, there is no explanation for why it would cost the same to remediate for manufacturing as opposed to residential use. One would assume that cleaning the site enough for people to live in would cost more, which would affect their profit margins. Perhaps there is a good reason for this, so I would like to know. “In sum, this is an inappropriate use of the variance regulations. Variances are tools to provide limited relief. But this application asks the BSA to turn a low-density manufacturing zone into a high-density residential/mixed use zone in an IBZ that was expressly created to prohibit residential uses. With a less rigorous environmental review
Why does the applicant think any of this is appropriate, or should reassure their neighbors that their input matters?»
The Iran deal “was clearly important, but not what you’d think of as the most motivating grassroots issue,” Krebs told the Star Revue. “We were holding accountable people like Schumer who came out against the deal, and celebrating those who came out for it, until we got the 41 votes we needed.”
spoken critic of the NYPD, Schneider says he’s caught beat cops in lies on the stand, and believes the NYPD should stop using military-grade equipment to police peaceful protests.
Disability and women’s rights activist Shahana Hanif was incumbent Brad Lander’s director of organizing and community engagement, playing a role in the participatory budgeting process. Out of the office’s $5 million capital budget, Hanif was tasked to make sure that $1.5 million was decided upon directly by the community. “We’d collect ideas,” Hanif explained. “Then neighbors volunteered to develop proposals, and then work with city agencies to make sure that they were eligible projects and meeting the needs of community members.” Former Democratic party district leader Doug Schneider points to his work as a defense attorney to showcase his record on civil rights. An out-
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While this initial public hearing, a committee meeting of CB6, defeated this proposal by 12-0, the developer is still pursuing his plan. If you agree with the above sentiments, you could send a copy of this article to Jela Prenga at the Board of Standards and Appeals, 22 Reade Street, New York, NY 10007, or call them at (212) 386-0009. Or you could send your own thoughts either pro or con. The public hearing at the BSA is not yet scheduled, but will be soon. As soon as we know we will post it on our website, www.star-revue.com
“I have a deep understanding of the issues that plague the NYPD and the perspective of somebody who’s been in this fight for a long time,” Schneider told the Star Revue. Schneider wants to “focus on reducing the power that Ed Mullins and Pat Lynch […] have over our city,” calling the police union chiefs “the two most destructive forces in New York City politics.” City Council elections will be held on Nov. 2 this year, with primaries on June 22. A new ranked-choice voting system will allow voters to list their top five candidates in order of preference, a scheme that proponents say discourages negative campaigning and allows voters to pick their true favorite without fear that they’re wasting a vote.
March 2021, Page 5
Red Hook schools mark Black History month by immersion in Black culture by Nathan Weiser
B
oth the private BASIS school, and the public PS 676 are Red Hook schools that helped celebrate Black History Month this past February. Jo Goldfarb of BASIS tells us that many of their teachers taught specific lessons on famous black Americans. The 5th grade read "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson, an excerpt from Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid and poems like “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes and “At the Cemetery, Walnut Grove Plantation, South Carolina, 1989” by Lucillie Clifton. BASIS’s 7th grade read poetry from notable black authors like Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. The 8th grade analyzed the work of Amanda Gorman, whose poem was read at Biden's inauguration. Gorman, who is only 22, is on her way to becoming one of our great poets. The 9th grade Honors Literature class viewed a production of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing with an all-Black cast. This was a modern production directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. The play was set in contemporary Georgia with an election race underway. Rivals battle out and revenge is sought in this comedy of romantic retribution and miscommunication. In AP English Language, students read “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
by Martin Luther King, Jr. and "Narrative of Olaudah Equiano." In AP English Literature, the students read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston, who was an author and filmmaker who portrayed racial struggles in the early 1900s in the south.
recite it, and she just really stood out as a powerful person,” Kertis said. “The fact that she is so young started to make me feel like she could be really directly inspiring to eighth grade students. I also think her style of writing and speaking is really accessible to eighth grade students.”
BASIS has incorporated live performance as well to add to their cultural experience. On February 12, there was a West African dance performance by the Hayiya Dance Theater.
Kertis knew that she was going to include the TED Talk by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as part of the introduction to the reading of the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." After hearing Gorman’s poem during Biden’s inauguration, she thought it would be a great companion to Adichie’s TED Talk.
Hayiya is based in Macon, Georgia and their mission is to educate, entertain and engage the community by providing opportunities for cultural arts, enrichment and exposure. Samantha De Leon, a 4th grade teacher, led a project during the National School Week of Action. “We had discussions around racism, its history and its present manifestations,” De Leon said. “We then developed our ideas about truth, justice, activism and healing. Our project was creating rock paintings that bring awareness to an injustice or inspire others to be change-makers.” Polly Kertis is the eighth grade teacher who made the decision to incorporate Gorman’s remarkable poem from the inauguration into her class in honor of Black History Month. When Kertis was listening to Gorman’s poem, she knew that it was special and could relate to her students. “I felt really excited when I heard her
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She has included that TED Talk in her instruction the last few years. Adichie’s TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," is about stereotypes. Adichie warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. “I think her poem is so hopeful that it feels productive to include it in the midst of a lot of the challenges and difficulties,” Kertis said. “I wanted to make sure that I was including a voice of hope alongside the more challenging and potentially depressing material that we were discussing. My students are really aware of BLM and the activism around Black Lives Matter. Kertis was pleased with how much her students enjoyed Gorman’s poem and how much it resonated with them. “They usually do not like poetry, honestly, but they were really excited about this poem and many of them got chills at that last line, and it was so powerful,” Kertis said. “That is a great moment for a teacher because I could be like ‘you really felt something there, let’s unpack why. ‘Let’s unpack show she did that.” Kertis got the inspiration for how she would bring the 22-year-old’s poem into the classroom from Carol Jago. She writes an education column for the Los Angeles Times, and Kertis used many of her suggestions that she wrote in her column when she had her students analyze the poem. One aspect that really appealed to the eighth grade teacher about including this poem was that they were
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going to start a persuasive writing unit soon, so "The Hill We Climb" had extra relevance. The TED Talk that Gorman gave, “Using Your Voice As A Political Choice” was included as well as her poem. The eighth grade students were able to notice and realize what a powerful speaker she is. “We have been learning about rhetorical devices that add rhythm to what you are saying, and they were able to find those in not just her TED Talk but also in her poem,” Kertis said. She added that when approaching poetry they start with lines or words that stand out and then they delve deeper into what the poem is doing. There were a few questions she asked the students when they analyzed the poem. They included: What is so effective about this poem? What stands out to you and why does it stand out? What are ways you could incorporate this into your own writing? She wanted them to think about how they could incorporate themes, devices and what they learned from Gorman’s poem into their persuasive writing, academic writing or when they are just talking to others. The ending point of the lesson and conversation around the youngest poet laureate was thinking about how her language tools could help empower them to communicate their own ideas. Gorman’s Super Bowl poem about pandemic heroes was not discussed in class, but it was a coincidence that this poem was recited right before The Hill We Climb was discussed. After the students discussed and analyzed Adichie’s TED Talk, Gorman’s TED Talk and her inspirational poem, they moved onto reading the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Kertis teaches this memoir every year as part of her persuasive writing unit. “We look at it in the context of an empowered, marginalized author,” Kertis said. “We have {previously} read To Kill A Mockingbird and it feels important to be reading something from the
(continued on next page) March 2021
At PS 676, The Red Hook Neighborhood School the programming has been different from BASIS but like them there has been a wide array of activities and instruction during the month. Each grade has done projects and drawn pictures in various forms related to what they were learning about, and these projects have been displayed in the classrooms and hallways for the school to see. “The students are very proud of their work and we are very proud of them,” parent coordinator Marie Hueston said. The school, which shares its building with Summit Academy, has a bulletin board that changes themes depending on the month. In November it was Thanksgiving. In December and Janu-
ary there was a gingerbread man. The kids are now welcomed into school with a Black Lives Matter sign. Projects for the PS 676 students have been hands-on and they have been able to use their imagination when reflecting on the black heroes. The youngest kids studied black heroes like Garrett Morgan and Benjamin Banneker, and they created projects based on their inventions. Morgan is known for inventing the gas mask, the three-position traffic signal and the first hair straightener. Banneker is credited for building the first wooden clock, and due to the attention he received for this he started his own clock repair business. The kindergarteners learned about various black heroes from the past and created art projects about them.
Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, is a civil rights icon is portrayed on the opposite page. The first grade is learning about the Black Lives Matter movement. They have each received a copy of the book "I Am Every Good Thing" by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James. They have gotten to read this book thanks to a donation from DonorsChoose. The second grade discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. This speech, which was delivered during the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, called for the end of racism and civil rights. The second graders at PS. 676 did a project about their own personal dreams for the future and one of their
dreams was to be a doctor. Their finished projects are displayed in the hallway of the school. Third graders wrote papers on President Barack Obama, four-time track and field gold medalist Jesse Owens and civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou. On February 11, adding to the Black History Month experience, Hueston and others gave out winter break activity packets including a Black History coloring book and crayons. Expanding beyond the overall theme of the month, they were also given Lunar New Year coloring sheets and a Valentine’s Day activity. New projects and art work has been posted on the Friends of PS 676 Facebook page for the community to see.
VACCINE MIGRANTS
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s all the world knows Italy was the first western country to be harshly hit by the pandemic. It is now facing a challenge that could soon affect other nations: the vaccination of migrants. In the Boot that we call Italy there are roughly six million transient workers. As of yet there is no plan in pace to vaccinate this poorer social strata coming mainly from Africa and Eastern Europe. “No one directly tells them ‘you are excluded,’ but at the same time no one does anything to prove otherwise” explains Dr Salvatore Geraci, a member of the Immigration Health Bureau, who at the beginning of February sent a letter to the Government pointing out that migrants should not be forgotten by the vaccination campaign, which is now mainly focused on native citizens. “The risk is to repeat last April’s attitude towards them. At that time the government said ‘stay home’, but many migrants did not have a house or the resources to survive without going out. No one cared except solidarity associations like ours, but it was not enough to avoid a social disaster” stresses Geraci, who believes “that forgetting migrants might undermine the campaign’s efficacy”. Indeed, current data reveals how the immunity coming from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and so on is not permanent, as it may last less than one year. Hence
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by DARIO PIO MUCCILLI there’s the need to have the largest possible percentage of society immunized to save the whole “herd”. As soon as the first categories—health care workers and the elderly get vaccinated, this issue will break out and then we will see how much the claims of certain government officials of solidarity with migrants are real or simply propaganda. Walking through the migrants populated areas of Barriera or Falchera in Turin there’s few will to talk about the vaccine and the virus amidst the foreigners living there. Some believe it is fake news and simply refuse to talk. But however the feelings, most do not expect to be helped,, based on past experiences. “For the Government we’re not part of this state so we should have expected that our health wouldn’t have been a priority in the agenda” states Aziz, an itinerant merchant who came to Italy 30 years ago from Nigeria, and agreed to talk to the Star-Revue “I would love that after a life in this country serving local people in Porta Palazzo (an open market in Barriera) someone would have recognized the right for me to be freed from this plague”. Instead he will probably have to wait longer than his Italian neighbors and colleagues, due to a tacit political will to vaccinate Italians first, “because migrants don’t vote,” comments Aziz. This political will is evident in the
publicity of the vaccination campaign, that puts native Italians ahead of other residents . Such an awful paradigm should be smashed, according to progressive politicians such as Marco Grimaldi, a regional councilman in Piedmont for the Free Equal Green Party. “Everyone agrees that big pharmas like Biontech made incredible efforts to produce the vaccine in a brief time, but above all we should avoid a wild privatization of a common good like the vaccine. Hence we must abolish any sort of patent or earning as regards vaccines, because otherwise our cities, nations and even our world will be divided into two halves: the richer immunized and the poorer not.
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It will be a mess” he states. Asked if this means that an abolition of private property is required as regards health he smiles, saying "We need health socialism."
"As of yet there is no plan in pace to vaccinate this poorer social strata coming mainly from Africa and Eastern Europe." March 2021, Page 7
Judas and The Black Messiah Revolutionary Love for the People continued from page 1
Years a Slave). Bobbit’s use of perfect framing and deep shadows captures the everyday-ness of the characters beautifully and dramatically—realistic enough to feel relatable, yet so masterfully constructed it is without question, fine art. The portrayal of Black Panther women in Judas and the Black Messiah highlights the delicate balance many Panther women had to keep, as mothers, girlfriends, activists and for some, armed defendants of Black neighborhoods against police violence. While actress Dominique Thorne’s performance as Judy Harmon is deserving of praise for her portrayal of a Panther heroine, the role of Deborah Johnson, played by Dominique Fishback, as a Panther and mother of Hampton’s son, adds to the general knowledge of Black femininity within the Panther Party. The film displays the diversity of Panther womanhood, and avoids dangerous portrayals of Black women as only work horses via harmful masculinization. The affection between Hampton and his then pregnant girlfriend Deborah Johnson was a bittersweet but consistent theme throughout the film. There is an endearing quality about
the loving pair amidst the chaos of FBI probes and violence. As we come to the end of Hampton’s life, the weight of Panther Party motherhood on Deborah Johnson is very palpable. Sadly, much about the film is applicable to today’s climate, current issues with police brutality, injustice and racial inequality. How much has changed really? Director Shaka King, in a New Yorker interview, discussed why he felt honoring the history of the Panthers accurately was so important. "The argument that people make on the other side is that this is a film, it’s a work of art, there’s license. I talked with one filmmaker about another period piece relating to African-Americans. And he said to me, straight up, 'It’s not my job to teach history.'" "I think that’s a subjective choice. But you’re talking about a group of people who were deeply traumatized, and to not acknowledge that trauma just to make a piece of entertainment is fucked-up to me." William O’Neal truly is the Judas of Fred Hampton’s impactful young life—if all skin folk ain’t kinfolk was a person. Themes of betrayal by various Black characters are noticeable
throughout the film. In fact, in the raid that ultimately ended Chairman Hampton’s life, 5 of the 14 police officers were Black, the other 9 white. Fred Hampton’s exceptional charisma and oratorical strengths helped him garner support from opposite and diverse racial interest groups. By 1969 Hampton had formed a rainbow coalition of anti-imperialists, poor white confederates, anti-war groups, and notably the Puerto Rican gang turned activist group, Young Lords (Jose Chacha Jimenez). Hampton was indeed feared by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover, who labeled the Black Panther Party the single greatest threat to America. Looking back just a few decades, the parallels between Black Lives Matter and The Black Panther Party are quite obvious. Then, there was a purposeful conflation of the Black Panther organization with groups like the KKK. Today, white conservatives engage in similar conflation tactics with Black Lives Matter and unrelated groups. Opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement regularly spout obtuse critiques, in an attempt to plunge the movement in a war of semantics—but all lives matter.
would regularly chant loudly, “white power to white people, brown power to brown people, yellow power to yellow people and Black power to Black people,” he was still murdered. Like Hampton’s predecessors Dr. King and Malcolm X, his murder proved how Black liberation is constantly met with violence by white supremacy, no matter the approach—a stark contrast from the consequences faced for this year’s Jan 6th assassination attempts at the US Capitol by white supremacists and far right groups. While watching the climax of the film, the sound of gunshots can be heard blasting through Hampton’s apartment. The thought of a 24 year old Breonna Taylor comes to mind, a sorrowing reminder of the ongoing fight against police brutality and racism in America. Hampton’s words live on with lasting potency as a reminder of why he believed in the people and equality. “I am high on the people, revolutionary love... I am a revolutionary, I am a revolutionary”—Chairman Fred. You can check out Judas and the Black Messiah now streaming on HBO Max.
Interestingly, though Fred Hampton
Protests against the monarchy rock Spain
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onarchy is often regarded as the old-fashioned setting of Disney stories, but where it is the current form of government there is no valiant prince or happy ending. In reality even kings fall into sin, like happened to former Spanish king Juan Carlos I, who, six years after his abdication was found guilty of bribery. He collected $78 million from a Saudi fund in order to favor a certain company in the construction of a high speed railway. Before he could be put on trial he fled to Abu Dhabi, leaving his son, King Felipe VI, alone in Madrid.
This news is not that recent, but a new event found Spain demonstrating against the monarchy: the arrest on Feb 15th in Barcelona (Catalonia, West Spain) of rapper Pablo Hasel, who through tweets and various songs, called Juan Carlos “an idiot” or a “Mafia boss”, while the rest of the royal family was defined “fascist”.
by Dario Pio Muccilli two years in prison. Despite the judges’ harshness, no one prevented the masses from demonstrating (even violently) through all Barcelona streets and Catalonian cities advocating the right of “free speech” and demanding a total amnesty for opinion crimes — especially those regarding a former King who, in their opinion and for the Spanish Judicial System—is a fugitive. Hasel’s story is only the latest clash between Catalan people and the Crown, as well as the ruling central government in Madrid. Catalonia has sought independence from Spain. In 2017 they tried to hold a referendum for secession but was blocked by the Spanish government. Police and the military were sent to shut down polling stations and disperse voters. Since then the repression has not stopped, with the democratically elected independentistas arrested and accused of “sedition”, a crime with a potential 30 year prison sentence.
The few leaders that managed to save Those insults, alongside with praises themselves are now exiled, like Carles to the GRAPO Marxist-Leninist armed Puidgemont, but the few who are not groups, brought him a sentence of in jail or abroad managed to keep the Independentist front strong, as the latest electoral results for Catalo"The Spanish Government should nia’s regional parbe really embarrassed about the liament assigned 68 out of 135 seats to Pro-indepenwhole situation." dence parties.
Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue
Catalonian protests turned violent following the arrest of a rapper.
All this stuff led to a widespread anger amidst Catalans, which was abruptly expressed in rapper Hasel’s words, which maybe were too rough and violent, but which are the consequence of the Spanish government's continual denial of the rights of Catalonians. The conflict which is taking place in Spain shows the eternal clash between the need of unity for a state and the need of democracy for a people: the solution lies in establishing whether the state is superior to people or vice versa. The state works only if it represents the “general will” as per the fabled philosopher J. J. Rousseau.
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Government should not stifle that will, especially if in the constitution it is clearly written that “national sovereignty lies in the people,” (Article 1 Spanish Constitution). That is why the Spanish Government should be really embarrassed about the whole situation, knowing how Hasel's thoughts are widely shared, perhaps even by themselves. Up to now promised not to prosecute opinion crimes like those Hasel was sentenced for, but for now, the rapper languishes in prison while the corrupt former King enjoys his ill-gotten money on the seaside of Abu Dhabi.
March 2021
Tom Delgado Giving the whole world tours of New York City during the pandemic by Brian Abate
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he coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions have halted tourism in New York City, but Tom Delgado is still giving virtual tours of it's different neighborhoods, including Red Hook. Delgado’s tours are different from most in that he shows entire neighborhoods. He devotes time to the Red Hook Houses in addition to places like Hometown BBQ and Sunny’s Bar. For Delgado, the path to becoming a tour guide has been an interesting one, and it has become a full-time job for him during the pandemic. Delgado attended the University of Florida and earned a law degree before moving to New York 13 years ago. While practicing law he got involved in acting and stand-up comedy. What began as something he enjoyed doing in his free time soon became a bigger part of his life, until he decided to stop practicing law. “It’s funny that a lot of people ask me about how I took the leap from working as a lawyer to an actor and comedian, but it wasn’t difficult for me,” Delgado said. “I became more and more involved in doing stand-up and acting until I reached the point where I didn’t have time to keep practicing law anymore. By then it didn’t feel like a leap. You can start small, devote a little bit of time each day to what you’re passionate about and see where it takes you.” After that, Delgado began to also work as a New York City tour guide. During the pandemic he hasn’t been able to do comedy so his focus has shifted to giving virtual tours of different neighborhoods, which he posts on YouTube. “I have someone film me but I do all of the editing and research,” Delgado said. “I’m trying to do them every week so I’ve actually been really busy.” While Delgado has been limited to giving tours locally during the pandemic, he plans to travel once it’s safe to do so and give tours in other states and countries.
You can check out Tom Delagado's tours on his website, Tomdelgado.net
“My parents are Nicaraguan and I grew up traveling there every year,” Delgado said. “I’d love to do more traveling. I did one tour in Puerto Rico and I speak Spanish so I’d like to do some more tours in Spanish as well.” For now though, there is plenty for Delgado to do in New York City. In addition to giving tours of neighborhoods, he gives tours of landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and shares the history of various traditions like Tickertape parades and Fashion week. “One of the coolest things is seeing people experience something like the Empire State Building for the first time,” Delgado said. “It’s a beautiful thing because even though I’ve been there so many times, it’s like I’m experiencing it for the first time because they’re experiencing it for the first time.” Delgado also talked about New York City, saying “You have to have the energy to be in New York and it filters you out if you don’t.” One ‘welcome to New York’ moment came while he was giving a tour. “This lady started heckling me and when she heard that I had been a lawyer and was giving tours of the city she said ‘oh you must be doing great,’” Delgado said. “I didn’t really say anything but this lady in my group started really ripping her,” he said while laughing. “There’s no price on feeling like yourself and when I’m doing this I feel like myself.”
"When I said I hadn’t, he said that I should check it out and it should be required reading for anyone who writes and lives in New York City. While reading it last night I was struck by how much the letter still applies to New York City today, even though it was written in 1949. One particular quote stood out to me. "White talks about three types of New York cities. The first is made up of those who were born here, the second is made up of those who commute here and the third is made up of those who were born somewhere else but moved here. “Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last—the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is the third that accounts for New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical department, its dedication to the arts, and its comparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidarity and continuity; but settlers give it passion.” Of these three great cities that White describes, Tom Delgado is the third and that is just what he is giving this city: its passion.
"While we were talking about New York City and the differences between here and any other place in the world, he asked me if I had ever read “Here is New
First BWAC solo show coming up
zation and will prove to be very special. Genova has lived and worked in Brooklyn as a professional artist since his migration from Denver in 1983. He has shown his work not only locally but nationally and internationally as well.
The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition(BWAC) presents the art of Brooklyn artist Daniel Genova in an exhibition entitled “The Cumulative Weight of Existence.”
His work has merited numerous awards and is in many collections, both public and private. Over the course of his career he has also been responsible in the operation of three contemporary art spaces, one in Denver (Chroma-zone) and two in Brook-
Its the first solo exhibition of an artist in the 40 year history of the organi-
York” by E. B. White and Roger Angell.
lyn (Wisteria & Space Station). These spaces provided a grass roots alternative to more commercial galleries and helped to launch the careers of many previously unknown artists. Exhibited will be over 200 of his works in the 9000 sq. ft pre-civil war building located on the scenic Brooklyn waterfront. This exhibition will run from March 27 until April 18. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, March 27 from 12-6 pm and a closing on Sunday, April 18 from 3-6 pm. Regular
gallery hours for the show will be 12-6 weekends or by appointment (718832-6143). BWAC is located at 481 Van Brunt St, Door #7. Limited capacity admission, face masks and other CDC guidelines will be in place throughout its duration. The BWAC is a large space that has great air circulation and makes for easy social distancing. This is a is free, family friendly event that is open to the public. For further info (718) 596-2507.
An arts and play space for children with disabilities and their families. Now offering free online play-based programming for the whole family! extremekidsandcrew.org | 347-410-6050
Red Hook Star-Revue
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March 2021, Page 9
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Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue
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March 2021
El Museo del Barrio Reopens with National Survey of Latinx Art
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fter a year of closure, El Museo del Barrio reopens on March 13. To kick-off the celebration, the nation’s leading Latino and Latin American cultural institution is physically unveiling an exhibition titled “ESTAMOS BIEN – LA TRIENAL 20/21” – the museum’s first national large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art.
“ESTAMOS BIEN” debuted online in July 2020 with a series of online commissioned projects, turning into a year-long initiative. It addressed how identity and structural racism, migration, displacement, climate, and ecological justice are classified in the context of the current and ongoing global pandemic, as it relates to Latinx populations.
Iterations Across the Decades
The first iteration of “LA TRIENAL” goes back to the “(S) Files” series, which was held in seven iterations between 1999 and 2013. Originally titled the “Selection Files,” the exhibition was created as an open call to provide a platform for emerging Latino and Latin American artists in New York City. The current exhibition expands upon that legacy and extends its scope to include artists from across the United States and Puerto Rico. It also centers on an intersectional approach to the concept of Latinx – the much-contested term that departs from binary understandings of U.S.-Latino identity through the adoption of the gender-neutral suffix X, distancing itself from rigid definitions to allow a nuanced, more inclusive understanding of identity. The exhibition features the works of 42 Latinx artists and collectives, including six artists who are from or currently live in Brooklyn. The title “ESTAMOS BIEN” is adapted from a 2017 painting by Brooklyn-born artist and former member of El Museo del Barrio’s curatorial team Candida Al-
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by Erin DeGregorio varez. She is the only artist in the show with previous exhibition history with El Museo, which dates back to the 1970s. “By pluralizing the phrase, the title echoes the anthemic song by Bad Bunny [released in June 2018] and is simultaneously a declaration of defiant resilience and a provocation, conflating a sarcastic and a positive tone,” the Museum said in a statement prior to the reopening. “While the words connect with a post-Hurricane Maria framework, they also hold broader applications, particularly within the context of the contemporary moment, with the rise of proto-totalitarian regimes in democracies in the Americas and beyond; the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement which has exposed systemic racism in society and its cultural institutions; and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to BIPOC populations worldwide.” Though it took two years of research and studio visits by the museum’s curatorial team and was supposed to coincide with the 2020 U.S. Census and presidential election, the exhibition’s selected works continue to reflect the current moment. “Latinx art doesn’t rely or depend on a binary,” said guest curator and New York-based artist Elia Alba. “It mixes social histories, and spans the color ranges of race. Latinx art, call it a movement, call it a space, challenges us to question the inflexibility of language and systems.” El Museo del Barrio’s Chief Curator Rodrigo Moura added, “Presenting a major survey of Latinx art today is not only urgent, it is also a great opportunity to continue proving its relevance nationally and globally.”
A Sneak Peek
Artist Lucia Hierro, who lives and works in New York City, utilizes digital media, painting, installation art,
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sculpture, and color theory as tools to tackle ideas of class, exclusion, and privilege. Inspired by pop art and identity politics, Hierro’s sculptures and installations play with scale, proportion, and humor to both elevate and question our familiarity with commodity culture and its colonialist ties. Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Martinez explores subjects drawn from everyday life, ranging from personalized cakes and neon signs to Pee Chee school notebooks and city walls. His mixed-media landscape paintings – made up of distressed stucco, spray paint, window security bars, vinyl signage, ceramic tile, and neon sign elements – unearth sites of personal, civic, and cultural loss. Carolina Caycedo, who was raised in Colombia and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, presents “Genealogy of Resistance” – a mural in the form of a family tree that accounts for the environmental activists who have been recently killed and threatened around the world. Caycedo’s work is an ongoing project that adapts to exhibition spaces as individuals’ names (along with the place and date of their deaths or attacks) are written in the tree’s trunk and branches.
How to Attend
A free, virtual opening reception takes place on March 12, 6-7:30 pm. The event will include greetings from special guests, a walk-through of exhibition highlights by the curatorial team, and a talk with participating artists Carolina Caycedo, Yelaine Rodriguez, and Joey Terrill. El Museo del Barrio, located at 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street in New York City, is open for limited hours until further notice (Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 5 pm). For more information – including how to RSVP for the virtual opening reception and how to reserve tickets – visit elmuseo.org.
March 2021, Page 11
New Documentary is a Beautiful Film About Baseball — and Japan by Dante A. Ciampaglia
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aseball seems determined to drive away as many people as possible. After seeing the mantle of the national pastime snatched away by football, the MBAs and lawyers who run the game decided the best way to get back into fans’ good graces was through interminable games built around clown-car bullpens (one pitcher on the roster to face one batter before getting pulled) and keeping as many balls out of play as possible. Advanced metrics and front-office Moneyball tactics further pushed the game into a chase for robotic, data-driven efficiency. And to really drive the dourness home, players bully and retaliate against anyone who shows even the slightest hint of joy in hitting a towering home run or excitement when closing out a particularly tough inning. To do that is to get beaned, hard, to be reminded of their place — and how to play the game the “right way.” Which means with as much fun as filing your taxes, I guess. None of that accounts for the issues baseball has had off the field. Lack of racial diversity. A youth pipeline dominated by cost-and-time-prohibitive pay-to-play travel teams. Major League Baseball’s billionaire owners’ profitsat-all-costs tactics making smallmarket teams uncompetitive and, most recently, blowing up the minor leagues in a restructuring that eliminated 40 teams, relocated others, and upended (if not obliterated) dozens of communities’ only connection to pro baseball. It gets harder and harder to be a baseball fan each season. And the COVID-19 pandemic keeping fans out of stadiums hasn’t helped. (No, paying for a cardboard avatar to attend in your stead isn’t the same — even if it boosts owners’ bottom lines.) Yet, even if the game feels increasingly unrecognizable, its lure is strong — especially if you grew up playing it, watching it, or bonding with friends and families over games and rivalries. There’s a beauty and primacy to the sport that connects generations of fans and continues inspiring devotion to a game that steadfastly refuses to love us back. But that’s in America. In Japan, where baseball is a national obsession, the sport inspires something like religious fervor. Coaches dedicate their lives to the game like cloistered monks, while players straddle a line between seminarians and samurai; teams are akin to sects, stadiums the temples. “Even baseball was adapted into a martial art when it was imported from America,” says the narrator of the 1962 film Nine Players and Society. The stereotypical hyperefficiency and subsumption of the indi-
Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue
vidual that often colors Western views of Japanese society are also present in its baseball culture, but so are open, often intense displays of emotion: coaches screaming at players for botching a play, players bawling after a tournament loss, fans thrashing in ecstasy and pain. And like in America, Japan is wrestling with how to adapt baseball to a changing world without losing what’s at its heart. In the U.S., that spirit is money money money. In Japan, it’s more existential and metaphysical: discipline and spirituality and heritage. This struggle — and the generations of players and coaches it has informed — forms the emotional core of Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s excellent documentary Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams, available Apple TV, iTunes, and Amazon March 2. The film is framed around the annual Koshien high school baseball tournament, played every August in Osaka. It’s also one of the biggest baseball events in the nation, with one team from each prefecture competing in the tournament. (There are roughly 4,000 high school baseball clubs in Japan; only 49 make it to Koshien.) And if you think this sounds like the Little League World Series, you’d be right — if the Little League World Series was a one-and-done tournament played in front of a combined million fans at Yankee Stadium. And just getting to Koshien represents a monumental achievement: teams must compete in one-and-done prefecture tournaments to earn the right to play there. “Koshien, the colorful national high school baseball tournament that captivates Japan every summer, provided an ideal context – helmets in a perfect line, strict adherence to rules, team-first mentality – for an extreme microcosm of Japanese society itself,” Yamazaki says in her director’s statement. “As a society’s strengths may also be its weaknesses, in recent years Koshien culture had been forced to reexamine its values.” She explores that reexamination by following Tetsuya Mizutani, the coach of Yokohama Hayato High School, as he prepares his squad to compete for a spot in the 100th Koshien tournament. He’s been to Koshien once, in 2009, and is desperate to return. He drives his
teenage players hard, neglects his family, and places everything a distant second to baseball — and expects the same of his squad. “I want to remain a stubborn man of the 20th century,” he says. “So, I don’t plan to change my ways.” Mizutani is contrasted with Hiroshi Sasaki, one of his former assistant coaches who became head coach of Hanamaki Higashi High School. Sasaki is similarly demanding with his players, but as a younger man he often takes a gentler touch, speaking with his team and not at them. We see him using a smartphone to help diagnose an issue with one player’s swing, and we get an extended scene with him tending his ballpark bonsai garden. Mizutani sends his son Kosho — who is rabid for baseball but whose father has never seen play — to be part of Sasaki’s squad. And that’s likely for the best: Sasaki is progessive and 21st century in every way Mizutani is stuck in the past; he coached Shohei Ohtani, now an MLB superstar for the Angels; he has been to Koshien nine times. The ghost that haunts these men’s world is legendary coach Tsuta Fumiya, who won Koshien three times in the 1980s. “I’ve coached baseball with all of my heart at the sacrifice of my family,” he says after winning the tournament. “It’s just the way of an old-fashioned guy.” Another part of his way: punishing players who don’t hit during practice. Naturally he’s a hero to Mizutani: “Tsuta-sensei’s hardships, passion, and dedication to achieve his dreams created a model for all of us to follow.” The toll of that inspiration can be seen in Mizutani’s cold relationships with his wife, children, sister, and mother. But it’s the student-athletes — who often seem to be attending military school rather than high school — where the toll is most striking. Yes they line up their shoes, helmets, and gloves in a ritualistic act of discipline. And yes they’re expected to dedicate every waking moment to improving their skills and usefulness to the team. But the spirit of selflessness this is meant to invoke weighs heavily on the teens, emotionally and physically. One senior desperate to make the Hayato A team is seen stuffing himself with rice to gain weight in, I guess, an
"It’s a cliche to say that, in Japan, baseball is life, but that’s the reality in Koshien." www.star-revue.com
attempt to make him a better hitter. “I just want to chase the ball,” he says. “It’s all I need in life.” The pressure this puts on him — compounded by the pressure Mizutani puts on the team to make Koshien — turns the teen into a player who overplays ground balls, makes sloppy mistakes, and struggles at the plate. He doesn’t make the team and is duly crushed to see his sacrifice and determination amount to nothing. We don’t get quite the same insight into what life is like on Sasaki’s squad, though what we do see is enough to demonstrate he’s open to moving away from the worst traditions — like doing away with the mandatory-shaved-head rule — while retaining the best of the sport: the rigor and discipline that molds his students, the connection being on the team forges with community and history, the thrill of success and pain of defeat. It’s a cliche to say that, in Japan, baseball is life, but that’s the reality in Koshien. Yamazaki captures its everyday ubiquitousness, especially when the tournament begins, but it’s the access she has to the teams and players that makes undeniable how ingrained baseball is in Japanese culture — and how different that experience is from what we know in America. These teenagers’ every swing, at-bat, chore, reprimand, lap, throw, catch, and breath is in service to success on the field. They don’t dream of becoming superstars but rather, simply, successful, a quality that resonates differently in Japan than it does here. It means honor for your team, school, community, and prefecture; failure brings embarrassment, shame, and, worst of all, perhaps the end of your baseball career. It can be wrenching to see them struggle to process being crushed by defeat while maintaining a stoicism they feel is expected. What is the value — and cost — of such totality? It’s a question playing out not just in youth baseball but across Japan as it grapples with the opportunities and hazards of adapting too fast, too much, too slowly, or not enough to the 21st century. And it’s natural for baseball to be the microcosm of this existential moment. In Japan, the sport has long been the stage for the nation to reckon with its past and future, from postwar reconstruction to the midcentury economic miracle to adapting to globalism. Yamazaki doesn’t present recommendations, but she does give us the context for the conversation. Koshien is a beautiful film about baseball and its disciples. It’s also an entry point to better understand a nation and culture too often stereotyped by the West — and to look at our own priorities,
March 2021
The men who built our skyline
L
indsay LeBorgne is a fourthgeneration Local 40 ironworker and Brooklynite with roots in the Mohawk communities that stretch along the border of the United States and Canada. His grandfather worked on the first generation of skyscrapers in New York City. And Lindsay’s father worked on the original World Trade Center. After 9/11, Lindsay worked long shifts in the rubble of the site, cutting down and removing the steel, searching for victims. And their remains. Although more commonly known as Mohawk, Lindsay’s people call themselves Kahnawake, which means “People of the Flint.” Mohawk derived from “Mohowawogs” meaning, “man-eaters,” a name derived by a neighboring Indigenous tribe from New England. Early Dutch colonists heard the word as Mohawk.
by Mike Fiorito
vation on the weekends. Eventually, he moved to Brooklyn so he could take the train to work. One stop to Wall Street.” “I saw the pictures of your father on various New York City skyscrapers. He was on the crew that built the World Trade Center?” “Yes, he was. Funny thing is my father said that people didn’t want to work on that building. The company demanded too much overtime. Many out-of-towners worked on the Trade Center. We called them boomers. Quebecers, even people from other countries. You could make up to one hundred dollars a week. “This is all we knew. Don’t forget my father’s father worked on the skyscrapers. This was our thing.” “I see the pictures of you and your father high up on those rigs and I get woozy. I’ve heard that Kahnawake were hired to work on the skyscrapers because they seemed to be unperturbed by heights. Do you know why that is?” I asked.
Lindsay LeBorgne's grandfather (left) enjoying lunch above it all.
“I’m a Council Chief. There are twelve “And I grew up with rigs all of my life. of us; one is Grand Chief. The eleven I was accustomed to it. This was our other chiefs divide up segments of the “On State and Bond Street.” community. We each have three diflives,” added Lindsay. ferent portfolios, like health, archeolI told Lindsay that I’d lived only a few “Do you speak Kahnawake?” I asked. ogy, etc. We attend meetings, argue blocks away in Carroll Gardens about “I’ve heard that before too,” said Lind“No, I don’t. My grandparents spoke with the government,” said, Lindsay, twenty years ago. say. “But the truth is, I really don’t Kahnawake, but they decided at a cer“Were there a lot of Kahnawake peo- know why. I wasn’t necessarily afraid tain point not to speak the language. laughing. “We’re a microcosm of evple in Brooklyn when you were a kid?” of the heights, but I respected the There were penalties for speaking our ery other government.” situation. I was more worried about “What do you hope to see as a future “Let’s put it this way,” said Lindsay. language. It wasn’t just discouraged; dropping something and injuring or for the Kahnawake people?” “My building had twenty apartments; it was outlawed.” killing someone.” “I’d like our views on the environment eighteen of those apartments were In 1924 Congress finally granted Na“I never even thought of that,” I said. to be more embraced by all governoccupied by Kahnawake families. tive Americans the right to vote with And there were pockets of Kahnawake “And besides, I’ve fallen before. And the passing of the Indian Citizenship ments. I’d also like all Indigenous American people to be more visible to all around the neighborhood. In fact, have been injured.” Act. But since voting rights were govmany people were all related. But dis- I learned afterwards that starting in erned by states, it wasn’t until 1957 the world.” tantly. They used to call it Little Kahn- the 1850s, Canadian construction that all states were forced to comply. “What do you mean by more visible?” awake, or Downtown Kahnawake companies began building bridges. Until that time, not only were Native “Most people don’t know history. after the Kahnawake reservation in The precious stone materials that Americans denied voting rights, but Our history in the United States. Not Canada.” were needed were found on the Kahn- they were also considered wards of just the horrible stuff, but the wisdom “Why were there so many Kahnawake awake reservation. The approval of the state and were denied basic rights, that’s been handed down from generliving in Downtown Brooklyn?” I Kahnawake chiefs to quarry stone was including the right to travel. Wards of ation to generation. How to preserve asked. needed. Having paid for the stone, the state? The people who were born the soil, the air, and the waters. We’re sometimes only visible as sports “My father was born on the Kahn- the men of Kahnawake were also paid on this land. awake Reservation in Canada. Like to transport stone and materials. “But I have good news,” said Lindsay, teams.” many Kahnawake, he drove down ev- According to elder Tom Diablo, dur- “my daughter speaks Kahnawake flu- “My hope is that our history, our ery week from the reservation to work ing the building of the Victoria Bridge, ently.” knowledge, doesn’t just fade away. on the skyscrapers. This was before Canadian workers seemed very “What religion do you practice?” I My children know more about our the New York State Thruway. It took scared walking on the narrow gird- asked. history than I do.” him maybe six to eight hours to drive ers but the Kahnawake workers eas“I’m a Catholic. My wife is Catholic. I thanked Lindsay for taking the time down and back up. As you can imag- ily scaled the beams. They were then to talk to me. I have to admit that I felt We were raised as Catholics.” ine, this was painful. hired by the construction company close to his story. Listening to Lind“Do you practice the Kahnawake reli“Like most men on the Kahnawake for much more work. say repeatedly reminded me of my gion?” Reservation in those days, my father In a few generations, the Kahnawake Southern Italian American family. would be gone from Sunday night to developed a reputation for being “I don’t see our traditions as a reli- From the time they arrived in AmerFriday. He’d come back to the reser- skilled ironworkers and their services gion; it’s more of a practice. We are ica to the nineteen-sixties, they, the people of the longhouse. We have Southern Italians, all lived together ceremonies for the moon, for grow- in downtown Manhattan, sometimes ing seasons, and so on. I believe in a in the same apartment building, but creator. We have creation stories that never too far from each other. They we tell our kids. One god. One creator. were also blue-collar workers. And We were taught respect for animals, due to their darker color and the fact and for the land. I totally get it. It that they were Catholics, they were makes perfect sense to me.” excluded from certain jobs. And they “Where do you live now?” I asked. were shamed into losing their lan“I live back on the Kahnawake Reser- guage. vation in Canada. It’s our community But of course, although there were – only Kahnawake. This has been a many similarities, there were many Kahnawake settlement for over four significant differences. There may hundred years. We get up to 8,500- have been signs that read No Italians 9,500 people here in the summer. Need Apply, but there weren’t laws on People bring their families.” the books making it illegal for Italians “What’s your role in the local govern- to speak their language or practice their religion. ment?” Lindsay's grandfather, father and uncle pose at work. “Where in Brooklyn did you grow up?” I asked Lindsay.
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were in high demand.
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March 2021, Page 13
Jazz by Grella
Where Have All the Giants Gone
J
anuary 10, I stayed home and near the stereo to catch as much of WKCR’s annual Max Roach birthday broadcast as seemed reasonable. After so many fantastic records from the Charlie Parker Quintet and the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet, the DJ started spinning Max Roach Plus Four, pretty much the Roach/Brown Quintet but with Kenny Dorham replacing the at the time recently departed (and gravely missed) Clifford Brown. Brown’s death was one of the heartbreaking tragedies in jazz, but in pure, plain musical terms, hearing Dorham in this group was never a letdown. An underrated trumpeter among fans but admired by musicians, Dorham, as a young man, was a terrific partner to Parker and went on to play imaginative, deeply intelligent hard bop for decades. And here he was, in arguably the most important hard bop group of all time, holding his own with the titanic tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins. So I was digging this record, a quintet of amazing musicians (also with Ray Bryant and Bill Wallace taking turns at the piano and bassist George Morrow) playing a selection of material that includes George Russells’ hip, modernist “Ezz-thetic,” “Body and Soul,” “Woody ’n’ You,” and Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” Then it hit me—one of the reasons I’m drawn to the old records (this one was released in 1956), despite my constant advocacy for contemporary jazz and my railing against the too-respectful ancestor worship that has been a constant hindrance to the music, is that you can hear the greats on them; the great musicians, the great bands. And in the contemporary scene, there’s no great bands anymore, and though there are plenty of great musicians, there seems so few opportunities to express their possibilities. It’s not that the musicians were bigger back then, but rather, to steal a line, the jazz world is smaller. Musically, it’s just the opposite. The great revolution in jazz was planted by Parker and the beboppers, but it exploded in 1959 and has been ongoing since. That year the records included Kind of Blue, Free Jazz, Mingus Ah Um, and Time Out, the jazz equivalent of the Big Bang. We’ve been living in the music’s expanding universe for 60 years now, and jazz has incorporated free playing and the avant-garde in general, rock, funk, soul, electronics, hip hop, world musics, microtonality, and it just keeps going on. But all this music is contained within a social and economic universe that is only a tiny fraction of what it was when Max Roach went
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back into the studio and did the best thing he could do to honor Clifford Brown, which was to keep making music. Rollins is the only musician left from that Max Roach session, 90 years old as of this writing. After a year that has seen so much death, and the loss of so many jazz titans (Chick Corea and Milford Graves being the most recent), I know I’m not alone in hoping to not see his name trending on Twitter because it will likely mean one thing… And then who’s left after Rollin? Herbie Hancock? Roscoe Mitchell? It’s hard to see such figures go, even more so because of how much they’ve done for the world (I include Lawrence Ferliinghetti, who’s death at 101 was announced the day I finalized this column, he dug jazz and had great poems that expressed what he found in the music, like “Sometime During Eternity…”, from Coney Island of the Mind), and the death of jazz greats also means the final disappearance of a world that exists only in memories and history books. One where Rollins could grow up in a Harlem and New York City where jazz was a cultural lingua franca, where he could learn from and play with Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Parker, Jackie McLean, and Miles Davis. He, and other young musicians around the country, could learn the basics in high school band classes (that element is a staple of the biographies of so many of the greats). The world was a jazz world. The music is a niche now. Institutions and academic programs have stepped in to keep it alive, but institutional support in general and pedagogy in particular means a shadow conformity, if not something more explicit and pernicious—money comes in to departments and institutions, and how it is spend is a reflection of institutional values, the money becomes the way. The meanness of America has meant taking money away from public schools. If you’re not at a private school, or one in a wealthy
"The percentage of white jazz musicians has gone up drastically above the historical norm for a Black American music." www.star-revue.com
zip code with an active PTA, you’re not likely to get quality music instruction before college. That already pre-selects the kids who might have a change to go to music school, even before the cost of college. Graduate school, which has become a prerequisite in a society that sees credentials as the single most important heuristic in professional life, further narrows the field, which has already been built on those who can most afford all the training, not on those who have the most musical talent and promise. This is worthy of serious sociological study, and at the very least feels to me as a good explanation for something that has puzzled me over the past couple of decades, which is that the percentage of white jazz musicians has gone up drastically above the historical norm for a Black American music. They are fine, dedicated players, but it seems like they have the advantages of money and education that young Black men and women, who have the talent and even the interest, don’t share. Jazz is already economically impossible, taking on the economic burden of developing the skills to enter an impossible field seems insane, especially when a decent laptop and something like Reason+ ($199/ year subscription) means you can become the next Flying Lotus, who is some kind of compositional and improvisational genius. For musicians making jazz, it means hopping from gig to gig and running from session to session. No one can afford to maintain a working band except maybe Jazz at Lincoln Center (dedicated to repertory music), few have the time and money to latch onto a direction, like Rollins did, and keep driving down that road until time runs out. For every Henry Threadgill (now 77, two years younger than Chick), who has spent decades refining compositional ideas that organize explosiveness, creativity, and structure, there are ten musicians who put out one loose concept album after another. It’s hard to justify the costs of making a record these days, and starting with an extra-musical principle is a good way to argue for the sacrifice. Unfortunately, there are no musical answers for this situation. The arts exist in society, and in America the trend everywhere, from MFA programs churning out the same bland storytelling to art galleries catering to the richest patrons and concert organizations run by the wealthy and the leisured, is to what John Cage said about opera, that it is a reflection of those in society who are materially well off. To change jazz we have to change the world. If we can. - George Grella
March 2021
Books by Quinn Human Alien-ation
Review of Falling from Trees, by Michael Fiorito Review by Michael Quinn
N
ot interested in science fiction? A longtime argument holds: Look beyond the setting (say, outer space) and the characters (maybe little green men) to find what’s human at its core— and therefore relatable. On their surface, the 21 short stories in Falling from Trees by Michael Fiorito are very much concerned with things like aliens and space travel. The characters are frequently scientists—even the children are math whizzes. A kind of post-apocalyptic, environmental destruction on Earth sets most of the plots in motion. Yet there is always a promise of hope to be found, and it comes from our relationships. Fiorito, an editor at Mad Swirl magazine (and a frequent contributor to this paper), is also a husband and father to two boys. Especially well-conveyed in this collection are the dynamics between parents and small children, and husbands and wives. A recurring theme is the way strangers are forced to confront what we instinctively understand about one another. Salvation lies in the direction of embracing this, yet the enormity of the connection overpowers us, and we withdraw and separate. Suffering comes from the insistence of isolating to emotionally protect ourselves. That’s how we end up feeling alone. Isolation is on all of our minds in this time of the pandemic, and it’s eerie how Fiorito’s futuristic vision anticipates a reality we’re already living. In “Tomorrow’s Ghost,” a young boy shares with his father the rumor in school that they’ll soon be attending classes virtually. Rather than a disease, it’s the heat that threatens survival here. The characters—father Liddy, an English professor; wife Kate, a scientist; and their son, Torrin—first show up in “Pale Leviathan,” where
we learn they’re living in a punishingly-hot version of Arizona, the heat of which requires special goggles and reduces Torrin to tears. Largely confined to the house with the blinds drawn and the air conditioning cranked up, the family fantasizes about going to cold places “where the soil is still frozen,” while the heat forces its way inside, tormenting them from sleeping—a “hot vapor, like a pitiless ghost.” Smith, a homesick alien, drifts through a number of stories, looking for a place where he fits in. In “The Productions of Time,” he finds a measure of comfort driving to the coast, having discovered that “the ocean reminded him of looking out into space.” He reflects on the complexity of humans, the way they “kill for their prophets and gods,” baffled by their failure to grasp the “vastness” of existence. An outsider in his own race—he sees himself “more compelled by words and music”—he finds a kinship with a small portion of the Earth’s population, those who “had deep feelings and wrote glorified verse.” In “Earth to Earth,” Smith again expresses this preference for “earthlings because they sang and dreamt, even the murderers and thieves.” Another recurring theme, the importance of music, is introduced in the collection’s opener, “Climbing Time.” The narrator believes it to be “the basis of all complex thinking.” He has Asperger’s.“I act like a robot sometimes,” he is told, looked down upon as one of the “furious idiots, sophisticated yet savage.” When aliens start telepathically communicating “environmentally clean energy solutions, new medical technologies and practices,” only those with Asperger’s are capable of hearing at the deep level required to pick up on the transmissions. “Sometimes the message arrived as music,” the narrator says. Help for humans comes from the outside, but the solution the aliens point to has been with us all along: “It turns out that the universe is made of music. Its secrets are trapped in the melodies of ocean water, in the rushing of waterfalls.”
The stories in Falling from Trees are all very short and enigmatically moody. Each in its way conveys an experience of suffering, as well as a suggestion for what might alleviate it—usually a change in thinking. In “Twilight,” the unnamed narrator wanders a world irrevocably scarred by a terrible explosion (the ocean “like thick petroleum”), mourning the loss of his wife and children, resisting tenuous attachments to other survivors. In “Tiny Blue Oceans,” an astronaut stranded in space reflects on his relationship with his wife, their desire for a child, and how Earth from that distance “looked like a sanctuary.” In “All of the Days,” a father, not recognizing the severity of his son’s illness, casually mentions the boy’s symptoms to a colleague while preoccupied with his email. The colleague’s horrified reaction shocks him into reality—and action. The bleakness of the future Falling from Trees depicts can only be averted by making different choices today. Will we rise to the occasion? The pressure is on—for parents especially. However preoccupied with our own anxieties, fear, confusion, and distractions, we have people we’ve made who depend wholly on us for guidance and protection. To soothe a troubled child at bedtime, we’re called on to make an incomprehensible world understandable, a terrifying world feel safe. How do we do this? Falling from Trees suggests the solution is the same the world over—and beyond. We tell a story. We sing a song.
Music: Kurt Gottschalk No Waves from Ohio Stella Research Committee packs a brutal throwback punch
Next month will mark the 40th anniversary of the Exploited’s first record, on which they declared (in title and opening track) that “punk’s not dead.” Even at the time it felt a bit defensive but the song coined a slogan that has continually been graffiti’d ever since. Forty years is almost as long as the lives of Darby Crash and Sid Vicious combined, a healthy run for a movement that was supposed to be about burning fast and dying young. Setting aside the question of whether punk is really not dead or if it should or shouldn’t be, the fact that almost from the beginning a small cadre of New Yorkers were kicking punk in the ass faster than Hilly Kristal could get CBGB’s t-shirts printed needs to be preserved as part of the punk pantheon. Punk in the 2020s isn’t all bad, of course. Dutch band the Ex has kept an honest flame burning since two years before the Exploited’s debut and London’s Shame (whose members were born about 20 years after punk first didn’t die) released their second album in January, proving promise can still be found in punk if you poke it hard enough. But while punk started as a volatile reaction against the perils of the status quo (boredom being chief among them), it generally relied and relies on tried, true, tired and trite tropes. If punk was supposed to be a reaction against, it still bought into the formula. In NYC, however, such bands as the
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Stella Research Committee
Contortions, D.N.A., Mars and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks trashed the verse/chorus, I/IV/V patterns that the punks lifted off Chuck Berry and created a new kind of maelstrom. Those four bands are preserved in amber thanks to the Brian Eno–produced 1978 album No New York, but the scene was bigger than that and overlapped heavily with the film and visual art coming out of the Lower East Side at the time. All of that is ancient history, but it’s coming to the surface out in Ohio. CBGB’s has become an airport restaurant, but in the buckeye state they apparently still believe in things. A Proposed Method for Determining Sanding Fitness, the new album by Stella Research Committee is a pile driver of a record, 43 minutes of pounding noise that manages to be ridiculously catchy. The band owes more than a little to no wave legends D.N.A., the under-recorded trio of Arto Lindsay, Ikue Mori and Tim Wright. Kevin Hall’s urgent, caught-in-the-
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throat vocals recall Lindsay’s pursed poetics and Tony Squeri’s gurgling synths bring Lindsay’s 12-string guitar skronk to mind. Lauri Reponen’s solid snare cracks and sparse cymbal blasts keep the band from flying entirely off the tracks, which is good because they sometimes seem to be screaming along with the brake cables cut. Hall’s guitar is brittle with little lines between the lyrics that are almost solos and almost hilarious, but Fitness is really a synthesizer record, although it doesn’t sound like it. The mastering by James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher) ensures it explodes. Fitness is the band’s fifth album but the first under their new name. The raw power trio was previously known as Stella and adding the “Research Committee” seems to have made them get serious. It came out March 2 on vinyl, cassette and download and available through their Bandcamp page. It’ll make you a believer.
March 2021, Page 15
Holding up the building POLITICS BY HOWARD GRAUBARD
I
am, above all things, a family man; besides myself (my usual position), there is my wife, a psychotherapist who is married to a crazy person, whose life’s ambition is to sit at home all day and read Proust, and my doppelganger, a miniature schnauzer named Groucho Barx, whose favorite food is challah bread, meaning he avidly participates in every Jewish ritual but fasting. There’s also my 18-year old son. who does not leave his room, except for meals. COVID has not interfered with his emotional growth. Six foot three, phobic towards haircuts, but enamored of hair dye, last spring he got tired of being called “The Surly Green Giant,” when he wasn’t being called “Krusty,” and changed his unruly mop to a shade of magenta not found in nature. His grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, took this in her usual upbeat manner, saying “for this I spent two years living in an attic?” It may surprise some to learn that one cannot support such a family on the proceeds one acquires writing, on a monthly basis, endless screeds about
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Hiatus Hernia forgotten local political lore. This is one area where I find the Democratic Socialists of American completely compelling in their analysis of capitalism’s failings.
of local races this year, all of us have had their fill and more, and excess potential clients have been turned away like guests both uninvited and unmasked.
Thus, I am forced to labor in more lucrative vineyards, practicing in the arcane field of ballot access law.
By contrast, in the off-season, one regards even the most impoverished potential client as succulent; “so what if she only pays me the first thousand and then stiffs me. That’s a thousand I don’t have. Why should she have it instead of me?”
For most people, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a bad thing, but since I’ve become an election lawyer, I’ve been able to monetize it, spending the month of March making NYC safe from democracy. With most incumbents term-limited, and the City offering octuple matching funds, it is almost literally “The Year of the Election Lawyer,” and my colleagues in this small and collegial bar have been busily spending their days lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills while preparing a back-up plan of hari-kari if petitioning is cancelled on account of pandemic. Preparation for petitioning, reviewing and submitting petitions in proper form, and petition litigation make up most of our income, and we make it all in a very short period. With dozens
All of which is to say that I am on hiatus from writing actual political columns; my lack of time being overwhelmed only by my multiple conflicts of interest; even if I had the time, my columns would consist mostly of parenthetical disclosures. Depending upon my potential litigation load, I may or may not be back next month. Just as well; one of the great virtues of the Biden years is that those of you who don’t do it for a living can safely go back to ignoring politics, which is exactly what those of us who do do politics for a living want you to do.
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"One of the great virtues of the Biden years is that those of you who don’t do it for a living can safely go back to ignoring politics, which is exactly what those of us who do do politics for a living want you to do."
March 2021