the red hook
Brian & George's Ukrainian Odyssey, page 10
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ALBERT KING COMES TO RED HOOK'S MICCIO CENTER
“We have been working with the Miccio Center for ten years now,” said Mandy Gutmann, the executive vice president of community relations for BSE Global, which is the parent company for the Nets. “Ever since the Nets came to Brooklyn in 2012, we’ve done all types of events together. We’ve done free basketball clinics and hosted youth games and when we learned that the Miccio Center was damaged during Hurricane Ida, we knew that we needed to help.” Roland Knight Sr, the Program Director of the Miccio Community Center, spoke about the importance of the work and the new equipment in the fitness room. “We’ve had to go through a lot of devastating things, whether it was flooding, having to close our program, not having enough heat, or not having enough air conditioning to keep the program going,” Knight said. “Then the pandemic happened and we had to figure out how to keep our door open in some kind of capacity for the community, so we gave out food and PPE (personal protective equipment.) “Then we had a visit from the Brooklyn Nets with players here and it was announced that our room was being renovated. I was very emotional about it because I knew this is what we needed. Our weight room was completely lost and our equipment was old and dilapidated. These renovations are a great honor and they present a great opportunity for our youth.”
King grew up in Fort Greene (along with his brother Bernard) and played for Fort Hamilton High School. He then spent four dominant seasons with the Terrapins at the University of Maryland and his number 55 jersey was retired by the school. “The Brooklyn Nets are a big part of the commu- Nydia Velazquez helps open the Red Hook ballfields as kids and nity and being from Fort Greene, I’m always proud others look on. A masked former BP sits with Nydia. See page 6. to represent what the Brooklyn Nets are doing,” King said. “I grew up playing in the playground, and you’d play in the morning, you’d play in the afternoon, you’d play when it was raining. You played because you loved it and it was he Red Hook Star-Revue, just the thing to do. And it founded in 2010, was ackept you out of trouble! And if cepted as a member of the I had to pick one memory that New York State Press Association stands out, it was being draftin 2012. The Press Association is ed to the NBA back in 1981, the statewide trade organization but it was always great to just for NY's community newspapers. play basketball at any level. In addition for lobbying for the in-
Star-Revue honored for Best News Story
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“Exercise is so important, not just physically, but mentally too. Having an organization like the Nets that gives back with a facility like this is something that I think the younger people here will remember forever. Now they have a great place to come and exercise. The Nets do a lot of great things and whenever they call me, I’m available. It’s always nice to see organizations give back because they want to, not because they have to.”
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dustry, it nurtures young journalists, facilitates advertising, both legal and classified/display for member papers, provides legal and journalistic help and every year holds a Better Newspaper Contest at its spring convention. We just got back from the convention, held in person this year at the GOTTSCHALK ON NEW MELVINS, PAGE 17 Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, where we snagged a fancy FREE First Place award for Best News IS THIS RED Story, written by Jorge Bello. the red hook
The work was done as part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary celebration and included providing treadmills, a bike machine, weights and racks, benches, and installing three murals.
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Some of the kids who come to the Miccio Center were at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and were the first ones to get to try out the new equipment. They also got to meet Albert King, who spent the first six seasons of his NBA career with the Nets.
STAR REVUE
FEBRUARY 2021 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
HOOK'S Here's what the judge said about a story we ran about the Gowanus FUTURE? rezoning: "Amazingly thorough. Found I had questions that were A permanent change to the Red Hook skyline may be on the horizon. This is a rendering of a proposed Red Hook high-rise. The plans have just been submitted for approval to the Board of Standards and Appeals, bypassing the City Council. The Community Board is also part of the decision process. Local input is still important. The Star-Revue encourages every Red Hook resident to let the BSA and the Community Board know what you think about this. DETAILS ON PAGE 7
GOWANUS NEIGHBORS TRY TO SLOW DOWN INEVITABLE CONSTRUCTION ONSLAUGHT
W
hen the city unleashes a rezoning and its accompanying host of contentious public review meetings on a neighborhood, seldom does anything stop it. A coalition of local grassroot organizations led by Voice of Gowanus managed to do so temporarily by suing the city and preventing it from triggering the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven month path leading to approval in the City Council.
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FREE
Grella on JAZZ Quinn on BOOKS Gottschalk on MUSIC Dante on FILM
by Brian Abate
he Brooklyn Nets held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Red Hook's Miccio Community Center on May 4th to celebrate renovations, including new gym equipment they donated, after the center’s fitness room was damaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021. The Nets worked together with Good Shepherd Services, which runs the Miccio Center.
MAY 2022
On January 15, they were able to get a temporary restraining order stopping the clock, pending a final decision. At a subsequent hearing on February 4, Judge Katherine Levine unsuccessfuly tried to get the City to modify their virtual meeting format to include an in-person aspect to the virtual format made necessary by the pandemic. The City refused, claiming that a telephone option satisfied any inequities caused the need for a good computer connection.
by Jorge Bello Judge Levine tabled the hearing, announcing she would think it over and probably come to a decision the second week of February. In the claims Voice of Gowanus is bringing in, it argues that the city lacks transparency and did not abide by ULURP protocols set out in the City Charter, such as providing proper notice before certifying the rezoning. The lawsuit also addresses a lack of public participation as a result of the city holding ULURP meetings only virtually, which it has been doing since September. Even when there isn’t a global pandemic, community activism is something not everyone has the time or resources to do, and organizers think that a virtual ULURP would exclude even more Gowanus residents from a process specifically designed to give them a say in the rezoning of their neighborhood.
Fool me once Then again, even when people in a community targeted for rezoning are able to expend the time and energy
The Voices of Gowanus held an in-person press conference by the Canal last month announcing the filing of their lawsuit. (photo by George Fiala)
to attend ULURP meetings, their efforts are unlikely to be reflected in the version of the rezoning that gets implemented. In Gowanus, this has been true of the city’s past attempts at community planning, said Katia Kelly, who signed her name on the Voice of Gowanus lawsuit and has lived in the neighborhood for 36 years. From
2013 to 2015, Councilman Brad Lander presided over Bridging Gowanus, a series of public meetings he created with the goal of assuaging residents’ misgivings about the rezoning by giving them a chance to shape the agenda. Yet, when Lander presented the neighborhood plan at the final meet-
(continued on page 5)
Gus Semon, owner of Trumbull Printing, who prints this paper, stands with George Fiala, Star-Revue Publisher, with the first place plaque.
subsequently answered, which speaks to the flow and structure of the article. Sourcing is solid, coherent voices on both sides help paint a more vivid picture of the issue at hand. Love it. Use of graphics, photos, and clever and unique formatting of the story just added to the completeness of it all. Lede, no, the first paragraph alone does something fantastic for me. It tells you the subject of the article, sure, but in just two sentences, also allows you to understand the issue at hand as well. With a little imagination, you can even see what the possible stances of stakeholders will be during the ensuing story. Great piece, thank you for submitting. Was a joy to read!"
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Bi-coastal artists receive funding to discuss food topics using dance
Editor & Publisher George Fiala News
Nathan Weiser Brian Abate
Features
by Erin DeGregorio
Erin DeGregorio
Culture
Roderick Thomas
Overseas man Rock
Dario Muccilli Kurt Gottschalk
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George Grella
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Books
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Design
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Marie Heuston
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The Red Hook Star-Revue is published every month.
I
n mid-March, Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) announced that it would allocate over $1.32 million to 238 Brooklyn based-artists and cultural organizations through its 2022 Community Arts Grants and Creative Equations Fund. It marks the highest number of grantees and awardees, as well as the largest amount of funding BAC has ever distributed. The council launched the fund last year. One of this year’s recipients is Dancers Unlimited (DU), a bi-coastal nonprofit based in Honolulu and New York City that creates authentic moveMEANT narratives for community advancement through creative collaborations, public programming, and social justice work. BAC’s funding will allow DU to engage with communities through its Community Engagement Program. Company members, like so many others, lost their gigs and jobs overnight in mid-March 2020 for at least a year before restrictions began to lax and were lifted. “It became financially and emotionally heavy where we were witnessing a lot of people losing family members, going through anxiety, and dealing with isolation. A lot of our dancers also never got their unemployment until four months into the pandemic shutdown,” said Linda Kuo, DU’s co-founder and co-director. “But because we were also home more, we started cooking a lot more … and a conversation started from that craving for nourishment and healing during the pandemic.” Virtual
conversations
centering
around food scarcity and how food availability can be impacted by income, racism, systemic designs, and even natural disasters eventually became dubbed as “Edible Tales.” It has since evolved into a food movement that examines and explores cultural heritage, social justice, and sustainability with how, what, and why they eat. Edible Tales will premiere in November 2022 on Oahu and in January 2023 in New York City. “Because Edible Tales is community driven, the conversation and performance pieces are localized. So, when people come, they understand immediately—like ‘Yes, this has been impacting me too and has been on my mind.’ Then a bigger conversation takes shape asking how can we come together, using dance as a platform, to come up with creative solutions?” Kuo said. “I love that we can combine physical movement with food stories.”
Food's effect on feeling “It’s very much a collaborative experience where we’re gathering food stories from different people in the community, of different cultural backgrounds,” added Candice Taylor, DU’s co-artistic director who began dancing with the company three years ago. “We talk about the way food makes us feel, the memories that are attached to food, and how connected it is with culture and our experiences.” For example, Kuo, who grew up in Hawaii, began talking about taro—a staple of the Native Hawaiian diet and
at the core of Hawaiian culture—with people from Africa, Central America, South America, Asia, and Polynesia. “I never realized a simple root vegetable like taro—which at some point in human history traveled all around the world—can be such an engaging and exciting topic for everybody,” she said. With the funds, Kuo intends to transform DU’s discussions into multimedia dance installations that can be shared with the larger community. “Something we realized during the pandemic is that ‘community’ is bigger than just the dance community for us. The grant can really help us invite the local community to come and watch what we have created based on our discussions with them,” Kuo said. She explained how she envisions a showcase being held in a gallery with a dance company or community member taking groups of people around the gallery to watch different dance pieces. Both Kuo and Taylor are excited to reach more people through their work this summer. “I feel like we’ve been trying to gather all the good energy we can at Dancers Unlimited these past couple of years, so that we can come out of this pandemic stronger and heal our community,” Taylor said. “I think this funding will definitely allow us to create and share awesome work that speaks to the people and their concerns.” Dancer Unlimited is on Instragram dunyc.h
Founded June 2010 by George Fiala and Frank Galeano with thanks to these guys
Page 2 Red Hook Star-Revue
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May 2022
LETTER
Try walking
Let us celebrate Earth Day April 22nd all year long. Besides recycling newspapers, magazines, glass, plastics, old medicines, paints and cleaning materials, there are other actions you can take which will also contribute to a cleaner environment. Leave your car at home. For local trips in the neighborhood, walk or ride a bike. As more fellow New Yorkers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, it is now safer to use mass transit. For longer travels, consider many public transportation alternatives already available. MTA NYC Transit subway, bus, Long Island Rail Road, Staten Island Ferry, NYC Economic Development Corporation private ferries along with other private transportation owners offer various options, such as local and express bus, ferry, jitney, subway
send yours to george@redhookstar.com or post on our website, www.star-revue.com
and commuter rail services. Most of these systems are funded with your tax dollars. They use less fuel and move far more people than cars. In many cases, your employer can offer transit checks to help subsidize a portion of the costs. Utilize your investments and reap the benefits. You’ll be supporting a cleaner environment and be less stressed upon arrival at your final destination. Many employers continue to allow employees to telecommute and work from home full and part time during our COVID-19 times. Others use alternative work schedules, which afford staff the ability to avoid rush hour gridlock. This saves travel time and can improve mileage per gallon. You could join a car or van pool to share the costs of commuting. Use a hand powered lawn mower instead of a gasoline or electric one. Rake
your leaves instead of using gasoline powered leaf blowers. The amount of pollution created by gasoline powered lawn mowers or leaf blowers will surprise you. A cleaner environment starts with everyone. —Larry Penner
What a Granny (a story) Brooklyn 3pm
A white guy about 30 is sprinting down 9th street, desperately trying to catch the B61 bus. The bus stops on Third Avenue, two people get off and three get on. The driver closes the door, the bus pulls off; but then a jarring thump pounds the bus and it jerks to a stop. The door opens and the guy rushes in without paying. He stops at the first three seat section and looks at the two empty seats. Then he glares at a little old Spanish lady seated in the first seat. Her tiny feet don’t even touch the floor. She is hugging a big floppy
tote bag on her lap. She holds his gaze, then calmly turns her head. He looks ready to explode. He snatches her bag, frantically ruffles through it, and pulls out a phone. His panic turns to relief, and he sticks it in her face with a look of triumph, then disrespectfully throws the bag on her lap. A quick skip to the door….it opens, he vanishes, the door closes, the light turns green……..and off we go. People’s eyes and mouths are open wide in amazement, staring at this old lady. Then their expressions turn to disgust. Her head high, she ignores everyone; showing zero emotion, all the way home. This little old lady is still an outlaw. With nerves of steel. And no regrets. When she slides off her seat and turns to exit, I surprise myself and salute her. Adiós Bandito —Gene Bray
Opinion: Words by George Inflation and the Elections
I
t's true that in our country, issues are generally dumbed down for voters. Nuanced issues, in order to get voters to the polls, are made simple. Often, the reason is get people to vote against their interests. Otherwise, how could the same person say that they are both pro-life and pro death penalty. Or for politicians who favor private real estate developmers and tax cuts but against extreme income disparity. In that case the slogan is social justice. Dumbing down to slogans does good governance a disservice.
In any case, as I happen to like both Democrats and Progressives, it's worrisome that after such a terrible experience with Republicans in charge (by terrible I mean regarding the environment and international affairs), Republicans are seen to have a strong advantage again this November. Even Democrats are blaming Biden for inflation, which is an economic situation that is happening all over the world. Food and fuel are two very noticable areas of price increases that people complain about. What follows are some arguments showing that in-
Red Hook Star-Revue
flation is not political. Fuel: It's quite obvious to everyone who drives a car or truck or pays a home heating bill that it costs more to do all those things - pretty much a lot more. The Republicans all point to the fact that the Democrats care more for the environment than the cost of gas, and point to the Keystone pipeline as the obvious example. The following is taken from Kiplingers Magazine: "First, blame the COVID-19 pandemic, which threw oil markets severely out of whack two years ago. When COVID first hit, it put a deep dent in global oil demand as many normal activities shut down and millions of people who usually drive to work stayed home. As a result, crude oil prices plunged. With oil demand so weak, places to store unwanted crude filled up, and traders in oil futures scrambled to unload their positions. Eventually, some had to pay buyers to take future oil deliveries off their hands. Negative prices didn’t last long, but oil stayed very cheap for much of 2020. That led energy companies and major oil exporting countries in OPEC to slash their production because no one wanted to give away barrels of oil at such rock-bottom prices. Since then, oil demand has come roaring back, especially in the U.S. Unsur-
prisingly, consumers who missed out on travel and other normal activities in 2020 and 2021 are making up for lost time now. U.S. oil demand is about back to where it was pre-COVID. But oil production takes a lot longer to restart than oil consumption. That mismatch between supply and demand helped push oil higher throughout 2021. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Among oil-producing nations, Russia ranks behind only the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, supplying roughly 10% of the world’s oil needs. Western sanctions have cut off some of that supply, more sanctions targeting Moscow’s oil sales may be coming, and many western energy companies are voluntarily shunning Russian oil." Unless you believe that capitalism is evil, then you should see that the price of oil is pretty much a market thing, not political. Food: Next, lets take a look at food prices. This is from an article that appeared last year on Conservation. com "From droughts that are withering wheat in North America to frosts damaging coffee in Brazil, climatedriven extreme weather is wreaking havoc on farmers’ crops — and consumers’ wallets, reported Matt Egan for CNN Business. World food prices are up 31 percent over the past year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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"Climate change is coming right into our dining room tables," Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, told CNN Business. And a recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that extreme weather events are getting worse because of human-induced global warming. For example, droughts that used to only occur once in a decade are now 70 percent more frequent than in the preindustrial era." This is from a recent CBS News article: Rising energy and transportation costs impact many things, food included. Trucking is the primary mode of transportation for food products, and the industry was already dealing with a shortage of drivers before the pandemic. Trucking costs have spiked during the pandemic. Another factor driving up food prices: avian flu. It's also already pushing egg prices higher. The resulting expansion drew a negative take from one watchdog group, which last week released a report contending some of the nation's biggest retailers used surging inflation as a guise to raise prices and profits." My point is that politicians don't have much control over the weather or over disease. Instead, vote my 3 C's: Competence, Corruption and Classiness.
May 2022, Page 3
PS 676 Health Fair by Nathan Weiser
PS
676 hosted a community health fair in the school yard on April 29 and many different organizations came to the event. There was an obstacle course for the kids, a raffle with kids and adult prizes, the PS 676 dance team performed and Cora Dance taught a dance routine that the kids learned in 10 minutes. They had a board where people at the health fair and students thought of ideas on how to re design the schoolyard. Sarah Ocul from NY Project Hope Coping with Covid had a table. She is a crisis counselor. They have counselors that can provide free help in times of stress. They have an emotional support helpline and an online wellness group. Project Hope has been at PS 676 before. Carina Vizhnay from Empire Blue Cross was at the event. Her office is in Sunset Park. They have helped give school supplies to PS 676. NYU Langone Family Health Centers was at the event as well. They are going to open an office on Van Brunt St. next year. They are a general health practice for kids through adults. Dr. Paola Pino and Dr. Tony Li-Geng were at the event. They had masks, measured blood pressure and had hand sanitizer
PRESENTS
Ammara Shafqat from Cora Dance was at the event. She is a dance educator. She taught a 10 minute dance workshop for the kids who were interested. Many kids participated and
Destiny finds personal growth through her work with the Red Hook Justice Center. (photo by Weiser)
then they performed to music in front of everyone. The Alex House Project offers “a holistic approach to parenting.” They want to partner with South Brooklyn High School. They help young mothers transition into parenthood with access to parenting training and employment. They are based out of 76 Lorraine Street. Destiny is an AmeriCorps member who is with the Red Hook Justice Center’s Red Hook Community Resilience Corps. She said being involved has helped her be less shy and less timid. Pioneer Works, RHI and the NYPD also had a table at the event.
Returns
Lineup:
MMMMMM RRRRRRR RRRRR PPPPPPP TT T I I I I I I I I I I I B B B B B B MMMMM WWWWWWWWW | BBBBBBB DDDDD CC BBBBBá NNN YYYY | EEEEE JJJJ PPPPPP
FREE
Music + Dance Perfomances BBQ | Face Painting | Arts + Craas Kayaking | Scavenger Hunt | Games
Let us know you’re coming!
SAT JUNE Photo Credit: Bombazo Dance Co, 2018 by Steven Pisano
FRI JUNE 2:00 PM EDT @HookArtsMedia
at 5:00 PM EDT
at
PS 15
VVVVVVVVV
PPPP + PPPP
RedHookFest.com
The 2022 annual Red Hook Fest is made possible, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Carlos Menchaca and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The O'Connell Family Foundation, News12, DoNYC, ConEdison, GBX-Gowanus Bay Terminal, Food Bazaar, Ridgewood Savings Bank, and Apple Bank.
Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue
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May 2022
Progress on the last mile warehouse front
O
ver the past few years, numerous last-mile warehouses have been planned for Red Hook. This has caused concerns about pollution and truck traffic.
The facilities are being built "as-ofright" which means companies like UPS and Amazon are able to move into the neighborhood without having to worry about having their property rezoned. Their facilities are built according to existing zoning rules. Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes has just sponsored a bill that could help limit the environmental impacts of last-mile warehouses by forcing them to come up with air pollution reduction plans, despite the zoning. It would create a point system in which warehouses would have to take part in a carbon based point system. The incentive would be to reduce their impact by doing things like using a waterway to transport materials and using electric vehicles or bikes rather than large trucks. “This is about the future of our community and ensuring that we’re as healthy as possible,” Mitaynes said in an interview with THE CITY. “I think we can be a driving force to really show how we can be proactive on some of the stuff that’s happening, particularly because these things are happening so fast.”
by Brian Abate
According to THE CITY, Mitaynes’ proposed bill would require a reduction in emissions and mitigation plans for e-commerce facilities over 50,000 square feet that are already in the neighborhood. The bill would give residents some say in what happens in their neighborhood and could help limit the number of last-mile warehouses coming to Red Hook. Jim Tampakis of Richards Street's Tamco Mechanical, has repeatedly called for legislature like the bill Mitaynes proposed. He has worked with city and state administrators for many years to get them to figure out a way to force last-mile warehouses take advantage of the waterfront in Red Hook, using barges to transport materials rather than relying solely on trucks. He has suggested a possible tax of five or ten cents per delivery to raise money needed to pay for the necessary infrasture upgrades, such as cranes and loading docks. “One concern for me is that bill would help limit big trucks owned by companies like Amazon and UPS but that private ones would be exempt,” Tampakis said. “So many of the deliveries made for last-mile warehouses like Amazon Flex are done by these private ones so that would still cause a lot of pollution.” In addition to the bill proposed by Mi-
atynes, UPS is beginning to take part in a trial program to transport five trailers by barge from Red Hook to Bayonne, New Jersey, which is a 4.5mile trip. UPS said on LinkedIn that the trial will be done in partnership with Red Hook Terminals, Hughes Marine, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “It’s great to see them starting a trial run and it’s a good start,” Tampakis said. “My question right now is where do the trailers go after they get to Red Hook terminal? I also know that the Department of Sanitation can fit about 150 40-foot containers on barges so they’re able to transport so much more which means way fewer trips are needed. The Ro-Ro barges [being used in the trial] allow cargo to be rolled on and off quickly so they both have benefits and it would be great to take advantage of both ways to move cargo.” This is especially important because the UPS facility is expected to be 1.2 million square feet, which is even larger than most of the other last-mile warehouses in the neighborhood. Using the waterfront for transportation would significantly reduce the number of trucks that have to be used, and having a trial run is certainly a step in
Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes is working to limit pollution from last mile warehouses.
the right direction.
“I’m really passionate about this because I have three grandkids and don’t want them to have to deal with this,” Tampakis said. “We were supposed to have an environmental study two or three years ago and it still hasn’t happened yet. We need to come up with a comprehensive plan with the Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Design, and the Department of Transportation. The UPS trial run and Mitaynes’ proposal are both very good news and this is the time to step up and make changes instead of waiting for the things to get worse.”
BP Reynoso hosts “Brooklyn is Africa” Exhibit
B
rooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso spoke at the opening of the “Brooklyn is Africa” exhibit at Borough Hall on March 8th. The exhibit had a selection of pieces from renowned collector Eric Edwards’ collection of rare and historical African artifacts. The event also marked significant progress for Brooklyn, as Borough Hall opened its doors to the public after approximately two years without any big gatherings due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. “We wanted to make sure we did something for Black History Month that was meaningful,” Reynoso said. “Because of the pandemic, at first it didn’t look like that would be possible but with the numbers going down, we were able to rush and make this happen. It’s been great working with
by Brian Abate
"I want everyone to know that Brooklyn is the center of the world,” Reynoso said. Eric and seeing this come together. We also wanted to do something for Women’s History Month and a lot of these pieces are maternal pieces. “Black women die at nine times the rate of their white counterparts during birthing. And one of my goals is to make Brooklyn the safest place for black women to have babies.” Reynoso also said that we should expect to see a lot of him and that he has big plans for Brooklyn.
An authentic African Drum group entertains.
Red Hook Star-Revue
“I’m a big fan of promoting everything Brooklyn and I want everyone to know that Brooklyn is the center of the world,” Reynoso said. There are also
a lot of important things I’m going to work on that need to get done including making sure we raise money and NYCHA gets its money, making sure our parks are taken care of, making sure our not-for-profits are taken care of, and of course taking a big role in the fun department by promoting Brooklyn and throwing events.” I also had the opportunity to speak to Edwards who told me the three themes of the pieces in the art exhibit (awareness, music, and maternity) and talked about his collection. The opening also featured a performance by an authentic African drum group. “This is just a small sample of the collection that has taken me more than 50 years to amass and has more than 3,000 pieces in it,” Edwards said. “It’s the largest collection of its kind in the United States, if not the world with pieces dating back as far as 4,000 years, and pieces from all 54 countries in Africa. “We’re planning to open a museum of the contributions of people of African descent to the world and we’re looking to open it up in Brooklyn. The first installation will open at the BedfordStuyvesant Restoration Plaza in July of this year. We were fortunate enough to receive a $1 million grant, allowing us to do this and it’s the first step on the road to developing something that is tremendously important for all people.”
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Borough President Reynoso at the exhibit.
While the exhibit ran from March 8th through March 21st, Edwards plans on continuing to share pieces from his collection in Brooklyn. “I believe very strongly that everyone should know who you are, and where you come from,” Edwards said. “You should believe in what you can do, and have no excuses to not accomplish your goals, whatever they are, as long as you put in the work and are honest and forthright with all of the people you encounter along the way.”
May 2022, Page 5
TONY SAYS IT'S PIZZA TIME!
Liz Galvin and Jaimie Walker Present
Basin Gallery & Studios Gallery & Studios
Red Hook, brooklyn Red Hook, Brooklyn 344 Van Brunt St, brooklyn, ny 11231
344 Van Brunt St
Grand Opening &
Inaugural Art Show Friday, June 3rd
6-9 pm
@Basin_Gallery_Brooklyn BASINGALLERYSTUDIOS@gmail.com
Starting September PS 15 will be the Red Hook’s only It’s not too late!for SeatsPre-K are available atKindergarten Public School choice and It’s not too late! Seats are available at It’s not too late! Seats are available at PS 15, The Patrick F. Daly Magnet
The Patrick F. The DalyPatrick MagnetF.School of the Arts is now for the fall term. PS taking 15, Theapplications Patrick F. Daly Magnet PS 15, Daly Magnet th School of the Arts for grades 3K to 5 th DOE website or call (718) 935-2009. You can getArts one for at Myschools School of the Arts for grades 3K to 5th School of the grades 3K on to 5the
please contact the Parent Coordinator We Coordinator promote wellness throughplease numerous on-site We the encourage strong parent participation as contact Parent Coordinator please contact the Parent servicesMs. and community partners such as an inwell as a collaborative and professional partnerCampbell at at organizations that Ms. Campbellhouse at occupational, physical, dental and speech Ms. shipCampbell with community-based therapists from Lutheran/ Langone Health. PSor call address the physical, intellectual, emotional, Mcampbell50@schools.nyc.gov Mcampbell50@schools.nyc.gov or call Mcampbell50@schools.nyc.gov or call 15 thrives on active partnerships with many moral and social needs of our children. Our community organizations including: The Stuinstructional programs enable all children to ensure aCrew, seat for the 347-930-2746 to ensure a performance seat forthat the 347-930-2746 to347-930-2746 ensuredio a inseat for theKids and School, Extreme Young to reach high levels of will Audiences of NY, Brooklyn Chorus, Marquis prepare them to be successful people in the 21st school year!2022-2023 school year! 2022-2023 school2022-2023 year! Studios and Cafeteria Culture among others. Century.
We take a holistic approach to education that nurtures the child by offering a safe and stimulating education for all our students, including students with Disabilities (SWDs), English Language Learners (ELL) and high achieving students; our teachers participate in professional development to offer continuous improvement and ongoing staff development.
We have afterschool opportunities for We have afterschool opportunities for opportunities We have afterschool for grades 3K through 5th! 3K through 5th!grades 3K through 5th! grades Please reach out to Ms. Campbell if you need further assistance. Call 917-669-0508 or mcampbell50@schools.nyc.gov Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue
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May 2022
Ribbon-cutting ceremony at long shuttered Red Hook ballfields bring the former BP to town by Brian Abate
M
embers of the Red Hook community, children on little league teams (including some who play baseball for the Bonnies) and some who play soccer, and politicians (including Mayor Adams) gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Red Hook Ball Fields on April 20th. Ball Fields 5-8 and Soccer Field 7 are now open to the public and leagues will be playing there this year. The fields have been closed for seven years after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found toxins in the soil. After numerous setbacks and delays, the work to rid the fields of toxins has now been completed. The fields are now using synthetic turf rather than grass (as they had before.) “It’s great to see the fields and the kids actually had their first game here this month,” said Jerry Katzke, the athletic director and treasurer of the Bonnies. “Most of the games are at the Parade Grounds and we play in the Parade Ground Fields but one of the other teams in the league is the Sayo Grays and they play here a lot.”
Katzke also told me more about the Bonnies and their program. “Al Bonnie founded the program in 1949 and after starting out with just a few kids we now have more than 300,” Katzke. said. It’s for ages 5-21 and it’s always great to start working with them at a young age and see them grow both as people and as players. Our mission is to produce very good citizens for the community and we’ve had more than 150 of our members graduate from college in the last 20 years with many earning scholarships to play baseball or academic scholarships.” Along with the Bonnies, dozens of other people gathered on the cool but sunny day with Representative Nydia Velázquez, Council Member Alexa Avilés, and EPA Regional Administrator Lisa Garcia, all of whom wore Parks Department baseball jerseys. “From the senior members of our community to the youngest, everyone enjoys going to ball fields to play or watch a free game,” Velázquez said. “With the Red Hook Ball Fields finally cleaned up from the former polluted industrial sites of the past, families can enjoy an upgraded and safe field once again. I will continue to fight for environmental justice in this community! And now, let’s play ball!” In addition to these ballfields, there are more phases of the project to reopen fields in Red Hook that are expected to be completed soon. Phase
Velazquez and Adams spoke at the ribbon-cutting (photo by Fiala)
Street Soccer USA Takes Over Red Hook by Brian Abate Soccer players and fans gathered in Red Hook for a Street Soccer USA event on a beautiful day in the park on April 16th. Street Soccer USA’s mission is “to fight poverty and empower underserved communities through soccer,” and its goal is “to provide an alternative to the pay-to-play model of youth sports with a focus on social impact across the United States and beyond.” “Borussia Dortmund [a German soc-
cer team] sponsors the event and is also a neighborhood sponsor,” said Viridiana Vidales Coyt, partnerships manager at Street Soccer USA. “Because of that sponsorship that they provide us with, we’re able to provide free soccer programs for the year.” Despite the pandemic, Vidales Coyt said that Street Soccer USA was able to remain pretty active over the past two years. “We kept working with our kids and had some virtual training which a lot of kids attended during the pandemic,” Vidales Coyt said. “Some of our coaches even delivered groceries to their homes and gave them gift cards,
2 is expected to be completed later this year and includes opening Ball Field 9 and Soccer Field 2. Phase 3 and Phase 4 are expected to be completed in 2023 and include re-opening four more baseball fields and five more soccer fields. “The Red Hook Ball Fields are a Brooklyn treasure known not Jerry Katzke leads the Bonnies, who are looking forward to only for sports and playing in Red Hook once again. (photo by Abate) soccer leagues but for their vibrant street vendors too,” Avilés are necessities that help New Yorksaid. “For far too long our communities ers stay healthy and build communihave had to endure exposure to dan- ty,” Adams said. “Thanks to this $130 gerous pollutants that negatively im- million investment in the Red Hook pact our families and children. Today Ball Fields, New Yorkers will be able we oversee the completion of clean-up to play ball safely for generations to at ballfields 5-8 and we commend this come. I’m grateful to the EPA for their milestone. However, more work needs partnership in restoring areas that to be done, including cleaning up the have needed help for too long. I know Red Hook Houses, many of which have that there are more parks in Brooklead and aren’t safe to live in. These lyn than just those in Park Slope and people deserve to be treated with dig- I look forward to working together to nity, to live in safe conditions and I will ensure every New Yorker, regardless of zip code, has access to a clean and continue to fight for them!” safe park.” Lastly, Mayor Adams spoke as media crews filmed him and cameras After Adams spoke, the children inflashed. One of his goals as Brooklyn cluding players from the Bonnies as Borough President, and now as mayor well as politicians joined together to of New York City is to promote healthy cut the ribbon. After seven long years, children will once again play baseball diets and active lifestyles. in Red Hook this spring. “We know parks aren’t luxuries, they and made sure we gave a soccer ball to any of the kids that needed one. “It’s great to have the kids playing here now and the fields at Bush Clinton Playground are open to the community so anyone is welcome to play.” Vidales Coyt who played soccer started as a volunteer and met a lot of people whose lives were changed for the better by Street Soccer USA. Despite initially wanting to become a psychologist, she changed her mind because she wanted to be a part of Street Soccer USA long-term. “Growing up I was always able to lean on my own coaches whenever I was going through a tough time and now
I want to do the same thing for kids who are in that position,” said Vidales Coyt. “We’ve also had a lot of support from local people and politicians, like Council Member Alexa Aviles and Carlos Menchaca. I really just hope that support continues and that everyone can get involved.” Aviles came to the event, watched some of the soccer games, and spoke about the event and also about the community. “I’m happy to support Street Soccer USA as soccer is a really big sport in the community,” Aviles said. “It’s great
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May 2022, Page 7
It's not just Gowanus that gets rezoned by Nathan Weiser
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istrict 15 elementary schools will be rezoned for kindergarten starting in the 2022-2023 school year. All Red Hook families will be zoned for PS 15 (The Patrick Daly School) kindergarten. PS 676 will not have its kindergarten anymore due to its transitioning into the Harbor Middle School. 676 will add a sixth grade in 2022-2023, which means it will serve students in grades one through six. NYCHA residents, students in temporary housing, English Language Learners and low income families will have priority access to all of the rezoned schools. These changes were made due to the time and effort that was put in by the parents on the Participatory Action Research (PAR) team. “The Department of Education hired a professor from Brooklyn College, Maddy Fox, to become the head of a PAR team,” Randall said. “Maddy put together a group of parents from Red Hook, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill to become the research
BIKE PROGRAM AT PS 15 by Nathan Weiser PS 15 isa recipient of a 3-year grant from Cycle Kids, an organization that donates bikes to schools to help kids learn how to ride. There are only a handful of schools in New York City that received grants. Cycle Kids donated 10 bikes as well as helmets. Joshua Fox and Ms. Jimenez will be implementing the bike instruction program for the fourth and fifth graders. They teach physical education classes together. “It is a great opportunity for students who do not own a bike and have never ridden,” Fox said. "For 10 weeks, they
Fox has had experience with Participatory Action Research for many years. She had also previously done a PAR process in Red Hook with Red Hook Initiative, so the DOE thought that based on her experience in Red Hook, she would be a good person to lead this. Randall initially joined the PAR team since she was a mom of two kids who were going to elementary school in the D15 sub zone. She then joined the Community Education Council. The DOE defines sub zone three as the areas that encompass the seven schools that are being rezoned, which includes Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, parts of Gowanus, parts of Boerum Hill, parts of Downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill. Starting in February of 2020 up until the summer of 2021, the PAR team did research and asked questions to their neighbors about what they wanted the rezoning to look like.
will be practicing.” Cycle Kids gave the school lesson plans for the instruction and how to teach it. The instruction begins after a bike building event in the schoolyard. An instruction booklet taught how to put the pedals, the handlebars and the seats on the bikes. The bike build event took place on April 25. There were 10 groups with about 10-12 kids per group assembling the bikes. The popular Waffles and Dinges food truck provided a dessert with a chocolate or caramel topping for each kid to enjoy afterwards. When the bike instruction begins, there will be two kids assigned per bike. “Right now we are working on a hockey unit,” Fox said. “Our next unit is volleyball. Instead
SNEAKER DONATION by Nathan Weiser Heeling Soles recently partnered with PS 15 and made a much appreciated donation of brand new sneakers to 23 students. The recipients are part of an after school program called Boys Run Sports and Fashion Club, which was started by phys-ed teacher Joshua Fox. “I wanted to do more than just running, we did running and sports,” Fox said. “Our theme so far this year has been kindness, compassion and empathy. I want to build up character and get my students to see the world through a different lens.” He tries to instill in them that letting someone else win can make you the real winner. Fox has always been into sneakers and has collected them since he was a kid.
Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue
team on the ground talking to other families about what it is they would want for the rezoning.”
The pandemic started one month later in March of 2020, which made it a difficult time to be going out and interviewing people. They had to pivot a little since a lot of what they did was by Zoom, and they also got 800 responses from a survey that was given. “It felt like we got a good amount of responses,” Randall said. “We got the same percentage of responses from parents at all of the seven schools that were affected by the rezoning.” The survey was either sent out by email or the PAR team members who were Red Hook residents went with an iPAD or paper and would often go to the park or food giveaway lines to get the questions answered. Questions included what they thought the purpose of education was and what does community mean. There were questions where parents could put options in order of preference for them, and some options were proximity to home and diversity of the school. The overwhelming response was that the community wanted kindergarten-
of having two PE classes a week inside, the other day will be a bike riding day.” The experienced bike riders will take on a leadership role and support their classmates who need it. “I think it is a memory that will last them for their lifetime,” Fox said. “A lot of my kids do not know how to ride a bike so not only will it be their first time, but they will learn how to ride, so they will be able to ride for the rest of their life.” Dr. Hassan Tetteh is the donor who chose two schools in Brooklyn for Cycle Kids and PS 15 is one of them because of Awilda Montes’s recommendation. He ran the Boston Marathon in October to raise funds for Cycle Kids. Montes went up to Boston in October to cheer for Tetteh
He was going sneaker shopping with his wife and daughter four years ago and walked into Susan Boyle’s store called RIME at Atlantic and Smith Street. He saw a going out of business sign and wanted to know what was done with the unsold sneakers. Boyle first thought he wanted discounted sneakers but then Fox told her who he was. “I said I am a teacher in a title one school in a low income community and have a lot of families in need,” Fox said. “A lot of my kids will come to school and walk funny because their shoes are too small. Or they do not feel comfortable running because their shoe has a hole.”
“It came back over and over again that people wanted proximity to home for their kindergartner,” Randall said. “They did not want to travel far from home to take their kindergartner to school. This was across different neighborhoods and across different schools.” They spoke to parents from the seven rezoned schools but also parents who had children in 3k or pre kindergarten, a DOE preK or not, since they might send their child to a DOE kindergarten. This was a community-powered, community-accountable process that trained and paid local community members to conduct community research and develop recommendations for the DOE. The PAR team included the vice president and president of the PTA at PS 676 and a long time resident of the Red Hook Houses. Of the eight mothers on the PAR team, three were from Red Hook.
and met Julie Idlet, who is the founder and CEO of Cycle Kids. Montes wanted the program at PS 15 since she grew up here and knew that the community is still underserved. Montes spoke about former PS 15 Principal Patrick Daly who was shot in crossfire. “That was a traumatic moment in my childhood growing up,” Montes said. “Patrick Cycle Day in the PS 15 schoolyard. Daly was a nice guy with a warm demeanor. All my cous- bikers will help the less expeins went here, and one now rienced ones. works here.” They have about 4,000 kids Idlet believes that every a year in programs and have school should have a bike reached 40,000 kids since program. starting. CYCLE Kids is acAnother story of a positive tive in 11 states, in 2019 they outcome is that it has re- launched a line of bikes and duced bullying. This program helmets. Their goal is to be can lead peers to interact in a active in communities in all beneficial way as experienced 50 states.
shoes in size order, and then in 15 minutes the entire school community had the opportunity to look for their size and get a brand new shoe. Boyle’s mother was a teacher for 30 years and she loves giving back to children. She started a fashion line with someone who won Project Runway a few years ago and they donated all of the proceeds from a new line within that fashion line to the PS 15 PTA. Fox spoke about Boyle. “She has been in the sneaker industry for 20 plus years. We went back and forth a couple of times and then she connected me with Heeling Soles.”
Boyle decided that she wanted to make an impact.
When each of the kids initially saw their sneakers from Heeling Soles, they were happy.
She donated 150 pairs of unsold Northface sneakers. They put up two folding chairs in the yard with the
“You would think they were in the best party they have ever had,” Fox said. “They were screaming in excitement,
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ers to be able to attend the elementary school closest to where they live.
jumping up and down. They were appreciative and nobody was jealous over somebody else’s pair. Everybody appreciated what they got and were happy with what they got, which was beautiful.” The shoes were delivered March 31. Initially, the idea was to take the finish off of the sneakers, then customize it with actual leather and sneaker paint and apply the finish back to protect the paint. However, that process of customizing it to make it factory standard would be a long one and would involve chemicals that the kids could not touch. This option was scrapped since it would have taken up too much of the one hour and 15 minutes twice a week that the group meets.
(continued on page12) May 2022
It’s complicated: Dirty Development in Gowanus by Sean Gurl
D
espite the strong opposition of New York City, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and local Councilman Bill deBlasio, the Gowanus Canal, called one of the most polluted waterways in the world, was finally declared an EPA Federal Superfund site in 2010. This meant that the canal would be subject to federal jurisdiction when it came both to cleanup as well the prevention of future pollution. Adjacent properties were not under federal control, except insofar as they might contribuute to future pollution into the canal. Some of the poisons that are a legacy of past industrialization around the canal are deep in the ground, and can travel into the canal if untended. This is why the EPA is demanding that the Thomas Greene pool be dug up and toxins underneath be purged, a job to be done by National Grid, the British utility who bought the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, that site's polluter. Public Place is another notable adjacent property. Located west of the canal between it and Smith Street, between the two train stops, it too was the location of a gas company that left heavy toxins in its wake. The land, which is really in Carroll Gardens, but adjacent to the Canal, is owned by NYC, hence the name. It is also called Gowanus Green, and an proposal to develop it back in 2007 was won by a group that included both non-profit and for profit developers. The non-profit developer is the Fifth Avenue Committee, which has been a major player in Gowanus. That proposal was put on hold as the canal remediation went forward, but is now officially back in action as part of the recent Gowanus rezoning, which is a plan pushed through by DeBlasio's successor at the City Council, Brad Lander, who had previously headed the very same Fifth Avenue Committee. While the Public Place site has been under remediation by the National Grid company, many locals are afraid that this remediation, under the supervision of the state and city environmental agencies, is inadequate, as the standards of these local agencies are not as rigorous as the EPA's.
As a result there have been calls to make Public Place its own Superfund. The Voice of Gowanus (VOG), a group opposed to the rezoning, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG), a longtime voice of the Gowanus community, and independent community activist, some of whom are members of the Gowanus Canal Local Advisory Group (CAG), are advocating this second Superfund site. Public Place is still a major source of pollution in Gowanus, and the extent to which it has to be remediated before the City goes ahead with a plan to develop is the issue.
Red Hook Star-Revue
The City has plans to build 900 units of affordable housing and a school there. The project is called “Gowanus Green” and is a joint venture of Fifth Avenue Committee, the Bluestone Organization, the Hudson Companies and the Jonathan Rose Companies. A letter from the EPA to the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) explained some of their concerns with development on the Public Place site, and large scale Gowanus development in general. In a recent CAG meeting Christos Tsiamis, the EPA senior project manager for the Gowanus cleanup, said he expects a response soon. Whether that response will lead to Public Place’s inclusion in the cleanup is doubtful. As of yet, nothing is official but that the Public Place is undergoing Brownfield treatment. A Brownfield remediation is a capping of the contaminants with concrete, soil, or other sealants. Responding to claims in that meeting that letting the DEC clean some sites, like Public Place and Thomas Greene park is not adequate, Tsiamis said that “it’s not a bad thing to have a combination of resources.” He did not cast doubts on the effectiveness of DEC Brownfield remediation, saying instead that EPA guidelines are being followed even when city guidelines are less thorough. As mentioned, Thomas Greene playground which is on the east side of the canal near Wyckoff Gardens public housing, will also undergo remediation. Of concerns about the cleanup in both places, Tsiamos said “we brought issues to the fore, released a letter to the DEC… nobody’s looking
"The sewer system is, as it stands, insufficient. City-wide flooding from Hurricane Ida was just a recent extreme example." away. The work is being done. Maybe not in the way we like it, but the work is being done.” DEC and city planners have cited Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan as an example of safe development on top
Christos Tsiamis, Chief Engineer of the groundbreaking Gowanus Superfund project, seen at one of the monthly CAG meetings back in pre-Zoom days. (photo by George Fiala)
of an old gas company facility. This, however, may not be true. Just recently, coal tar was found at depths of 2 feet there, according to community advocate and blogger Katia Kelly. She says of Public Place, “the only thing that you can possibly do to keep people safe is to leave it open space.” EPA counsel Brian Carr said of the proposed development: “while the community might not like what the developers are building, they (developers) aren’t fighting the EPA and DEC on the cleanup.” Yet, the fight goes on. Among the most alarming concerns with new development at Public Place and the entire rezoning of Gowanus is wastewater. A lawsuit filed by Voice of Gowanus, FROGG and others, claims that the Gowanus rezoning fails to abide by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA”) and the National Historic Preservation Act. It also asserts that the rezoning's environmental impact statement violated the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA”), Environmental Conservation Law and the New York State Historic Protection Act. Specifically, that wastewater generation is expected to increase almost eleven fold once the proposed neighborhood development is completed. That much sewage will drastically affect the Canal, which is already used by the city as an open sewer when significant rain overwhelms the city sewer system. The sewer system is, as it stands, insufficient. City-wide flooding from Hurricane Ida was just a recent extreme example. In the lawsuit, a claim is made that the EPA hasn’t followed precedent in the Gowanus Superfund. That precedent is that the EPA should have taken under their tutelage every site that is responsible for pollution so that their project is actively stopping further pollution. To these allegations, Tsiamos said: “It’s complicated.” “Have you considered that everybody knew the Canal was this polluted? Did
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it ever occur why it took until 2010 for it to become a Superfund? It’s complicated. It’s a good thing the community recognizes these things and brings them to the fore.” Linda LaViolette, another advocate for the Canal and a longtime resident of Gowanus said that developments like this can be a Trojan horse. “The developers clean the site, include some City money for NYCHA, get tax breaks, and put in some affordable housing. Their ignorance of environmental concerns is let slide.” LaViolette called the developers out on this, saying “they know pollution is there, and yet they still plan to put affordable housing on those sites… while you let massive 30 story highend apartments be built in the rest of the area, and say this is all about rectifying environmental injustice.” The EPA is working to prevent setbacks to the work they have done, including those threats posed by development in dubious settings. Because of work done by Voice of Gowanus, FROGG, and others, the city should be aware of the risks that development poses. The City still favors development, as mainstream opinion is that housing has not kept up with population growth. Speaking of Public Place, longtime Gowanus resident and activist Rita Miller said, “If they could reassure us that they got most of the coal tar out, who am I to say you can’t put houses there?” She went on to add, “I would prefer a park, though.” With real estate, housing, environmental groups and community activists all vocal about this situation, and with a lot of construction and real estate money on the line, Tsiamos’ words: “it’s complicated,” are resoundingly true. The politics of development are often clandestine and confusing to outsiders, and their motivations are seldom clear. Katia Kelley, speaking for the Voice of Gowanus, made hers crystal clar: “Do no harm. That’s motto number one.”
May 2022, Page 9
George and Brian's Ukrainian Odyssey What is Ukraine?
George: The theme for this month is education, culture, art… not just food, although we did have a few good meals. Brian: Yup! George: We started our journey with a fundraiser at the Bulgarian Embassy at the beginning of April, then a movie at the Ukrainian Institute at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, then the next week a trip to the Varyneyk House in Ridgewood Queens, which is a Ukrainian deli with good take-out food and a slew of Ukrainian food imports as well as stuff they make there; then a great Ukrainian gift shop called Arka, on 2nd Street in the East Village. After that we walked over to 6th Street and saw more art and painted eggs at the Ukrainian Museum. That day topped off with a great meal at a place called Streetcha, a block away on 7th. Brian: You have to know about Streetcha, they don’t really have a sign. George: We ended our adventure where it began, back up to the Ukrainian Institute, this time to see it’s great art collection. It’s really like a museum.
Classical Music Fundraiser
George: OK, that first day, on our way to the Bulgarian Embassy, we stopped for dinner at Veselka, and it was quite delicious. Brian: Always! Great Pierogies. George: Ok – here we are at the Bulgarian Embassy. Want to explain? Brian: The concert was packed. I asked the guy downstairs who checked us in, and he said it wasn’t usually this crowded, they have other concerts and other events, but he said this one was for Ukraine, and
more people showed up than usual. As you can see, it was a packed house and we were kind of in the back, actually in the next room, so we couldn’t see the musicians, but we could hear them. George: It was classical music, I would say it was a string quartet. The music was nice, but I think I spotted a few people in the audience who fell asleep. Brian: Actually, the audience was all that we could see. George: It was piano, violin, cello and the players were either from Bulgaria or the Ukraine. Brian: They had some ethnic food afterwards. George: Yes, pierogis, sauerkraut and sausages, a big bowl of applesauce – kind of made me upset that we stopped for dinner beforehand. Brian: It all looked really good.
The Recovery Room
George: Two nights later we went to a movie at the Ukrainian Institute. The Institute is way uptown, we rarely go that far uptown as after all, this is a Red Hook newspaper… Brian: The movie was a documentary called Recovery Room. It was about Canadian doctors and nurses who went to help victims who were injured in the initial attack of Ukraine, in 2014. George: Yes, the movie was made in 2017, but you would think it was made today. Brian: tough to watch. George: The doctors specialized in facial and hand reconstruction. It was quite fascinating, quite tragic. If you think that what’s going on this year is new, well, they were doing exactly the same things – bombing the piss out of places, including a billion dollar airport that was just built. There were a lot of chil-
dren, also, who needed the surgeries. This was all news that most Americans didn’t know or care about, at least this American, but I think most of us. Brian: at the end of it, the Director talked to us and spoke to us at the end. She said it was tough to make the documentary because of the heart wrenching stories.
Ukrainian deli
George: On April 25 we went to the Varenyk House in Ridgewood. I read that there are around 100,000 Ukrainians who live in and around NYC. Brian: They said though that this was in Ridgewood and one of the few Ukrainian places there. George: There was everything there! This was on Fresh Pond Road, kind of near where my dad had his medical office. He had many European-based patients back then, including Italians, Irish, Polish and Hungarians, as I remember. Brian: The lady behind the counter said she was Polish, but everybody who worked in the back was Ukrainian, and worried about their families back home. George: It wasn’t exactly a restaurant, but they had lots of hot food dishes which you could take out. Brian: They said we could eat next door at the outside tables of the Chinese restaurant, they were friendly and didn’t mind. George: I had borscht, sauerkraut and ground up chicken patties over kasha. Brian: I had beef stew over the kasha which was pretty good. George: Maybe not the best food we’ve sampled but not bad. I also bought a lot of stuff to take home, including very good Ukrai-
nian chocolates and home-made pierogies. Brian: Edita was behind the counter and very nice. She told us to take some chicken livers, which she gave us for free. George: I bought some compote, both cherry and dried fruits, but I gotta say, my mother, who was from Czechoslovakia, made better compote. And so does Veselka. But anyway….
Arka, the beautiful store
George: A few days later we went to Arka International. Brian: As you can see in the picture, they have Ukrainian flags hanging from the shelves just like we have! George: I have to say this, ARKA is a very nice story, and a very interesting situation. The owner, Mykola told me he used to be an owner of Leshko’s, the Ukrainian diner on the corner of 7th Street and Avenue A that was close to the other Ukrainian place on the block, the Odessa. I went to both of them back when I lived on St. Marks back in the 1970’s. We spoke about Ray, who had the newsstand shop between the restaurants, and made great egg creams. He told me that Ray is still there. Maybe after the war is over we’ll have to do an egg cream odyssey. Brian: Both of the owners were very nice. Ukraine is known for the eggs, they have all sort of painted ones, very beautiful. George: Later on we met someone who makes Pysanka, Ukrainian Easter eggs, and she explained to us that this custom goes back to very primitive times, and they were meant as offerings to the gods in hope of a renewed spring and good harvest.
Note from the Editor: This conversation goes on for another 30 minutes, and we are out of room. But you can watch the whole thing for yourself on George Fiala's YouTube page - https://www.youtube.com/c/GeorgeFiala
Shevchenko Expertise-a-thon for Ukraine
T
he Shevchenko Expertise-athon for Ukraine took place via Zoom on April 29th as Russia continued its attack on Ukraine. According to Halyna Hryn, who hosted the event, the Shevchenko Scientific Society has more than 400 members in different scientific fields and all money donated during the event will go towards an emergency fund for Ukraine.
by Brian Abate The Shevchenko Expertise-a-thon featured more than 30 different speakers who each gave a short presentation and then answered a few questions. The first speakers talked about volunteering and humanitarian aid. “If something needs to be done and you are capable of doing that thing, you should do it,” said Emily Channell-Justice, the Director of the Temer-
ty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. “A lot of the response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was self-organized. A lot of ordinary people volunteered to fight. Western media was surprised by the strong response in 2022 by Ukraine but I think this goes back to Euromaidan.”
tests and demonstrations in Ukraine, which began after the Ukrainian government’s decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement. The Ukrainian government decided to strengthen its ties with Russia rather than the rest of Europe which angered its citizens.
Euromaidan was a series of civil pro-
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These are all screenshots taken from the all-day Shevchenko Expertise-a-thon for Ukraine that featured panels on a variety of scientific subjects dealing with Ukraine.
Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue
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May 2022
SLAVA UKRAINI!
The first photo is from the classical music fundraiser we went to at the Bulgarian Embassy. It drew an overflow crowd. The second photo shows the documentary we saw at the Ukrainian Institute. It was about a Canadian group that went to eastern Ukraine in 2014, after the Russians came in and killed and injured thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. If you didn't know it, you would think the movie was filmed today. Then we went to Fresh Pond Road in Queens to the Varenyk House, which is a Ukrainian deli and grocery. That's Edita behind the counter, who steered us to a lot of goodies.
Next we went to Arka International, home of lots of Ukrainian crafts and products. We took a photo of the owner, Mykola Drobenko, after we gave him a copy of the latest StarRevue to hold. You can see some of the crafts they sell in the next photo. They sell many Ukrainian blouses that are hand made and which he buys on trips to the Ukraine. He told us that every one is unique. The last two photos are from the Ukrainian Museum on 6th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Brian is checking out some pottery.
The first two photos are of artwork on display on the second floor of the museum. The War of the Mushrooms is a series of nine original illustrations by Ukrainian artist Nikita Kravtsov, the long table is Putin's, and he is at the head of it. After the museum, we walked over a block to Streetcha Restaurant. You would never find it on your own, we read about it in New York Magazine. Everybody there spoke Ukrainian except for us. We had a great meal of borscht, sausage and sauerkraut , pierogies and a stuffed cabbage. Heaven.
The next two photos are of artwork on display at the Ukrainian Institute, uptown at 79th Street on the Museum Mile. They had great exhibits, and we pretty much had all the four floors to ourselves as it was a quiet afternoon. The first painting is of Ivan Franko, who is currently the only Ukrainian poet to have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. We met Sofika Zielyk, a scholar and pysanky artist, who makes the eggs and will send them to Ukraine after the war. The other two paintings are also Ukrainian.
SLAVA UKRAINI!
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May 2022, Page 11
UKRAINE
(continued from page 10)
They turned on the pro-Putin thenpresident of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, which resulted in his removal on the grounds that he was unable to fulfill his duties. Shortly thereafter he fled to Russia where he has lived in exile since 2014. John Vsetecka, a Ph.D. candidate, in the Department of history at Michigan State University spoke about his time spent in Ukraine on a Fulbright Scholarship. “I started going to every protest, even before the war, about what Putin was trying to say about Ukraine,” Vsetecka said. “I went from an academic to an activist. I had to be evacuated to Poland and I pretty much had three days to pack up and go. Since then I’ve just been trying to help all of the refugees get to Poland, find places to live, and find work.” Panel members also explained the complex relationship between Ukrainians and Russians, both before and after the invasion. “There are a few possibilities for the way Ukrainians will see Russians after the war,” said Oxana Shevel, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. “One is doubling down on the approach that was taken before the war, which is that Ukrainians are the good guys and the Russians are the bad guys and there can be no questioning or doubt about it. “Another possibility is that the discussions of WWII and past history more generally might become less prominent because there are going to be new heroes. And I think that could create more of an open space for discussion on Ukraine’s own complicated past and role in the Holocaust." Shevel went on to say, “I believe that regardless of the decommunization laws, Russia would have attacked anyway. They were looking for excuses and citing all types of crazy things, from how language is taught in school, to what municipal government reform looks like to the school for indigenous people that for whatever reason Putin was very incensed about.” Scholars also spoke about the importance of cultural heritage preservation in Ukraine, as Russians have been destroying Ukrainian artifacts during their invasion. Additionally, they spoke about the use of propaganda
in Russia and the importance of real journalism and reporting what’s actually happening in Ukraine.
SNEAKERS
(continued from page 8)
for Mother’s or Father’s Day.
“The world is looking, and the world is interested, and the world is deeply impressed by the Ukrainian response to Russia’s war,” said Askold Melnyczuk, writer, editor, and professor of English at the University of Massachusetts. “This is a very important time and I’ve been moved and excited by the willingness of so many American writers to cover events that I’ve collaborated on, including speaking to Ukrainian poets and writers.”
Fox also did not want the original sneakers to be ruined since they kids already loved the sneakers as they were delivered. The kids would have had to wait for him to finish applying chemicals, so a speedier customization process was chosen.
“The deal I made with them was these are your shoes, your name is on the bag,” Fox told the students. “I am going to hold them until we do the customizing day and after we do our customizing, they are yours.”
An important response to the war is making sure Ukrainian voices reach the rest of the world, both through writing and through videos.
For the next tie-dye event, Fox bought the kids shirts so the kids will be able to have that to tie-dye and the plan is to get another piece of clothing for them to tie-dye so they can have that to give to a parent
Scientists also spoke during the event, including Melania Nynka, an astrophysicist at MIT, who has spent time working in Poland. ““If there’s a Polish flag on a building, chances are there’s a Ukrainian flag right next to it. One of the first things we did was send about 500 pounds of tactical first aid kits to Ukraine. They were transported by the great organization, Sunflowers for Peace.” Laada Bilaniuk, a professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Washington, spoke about language in wartime. “In some ways language doesn’t matter and despite Russians repeatedly saying they need to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine, some of the areas where people primarily speak Russian have been the most heavily attacked,” Bilaniuk said. “In other ways language has become more and more politicized and areas that used to primarily speak Russian, have more and more people speaking Ukrainian. It’s another form of expression and proof of their differences from Russians.”
Health Other speakers at the "Shevchenko Expertise-a-thon for Ukraine" talked about medicine and biology. “My fear is that because of the pandemic and now the war, people aren’t able to get checked for regular screenings which would catch health issues like cancer,” said Bohdan Pichurko, a critical care physician at Cleveland Clinic. Iryna Vashchuk Discipio, the president of Revived Soldiers Ukraine, an organization that has helped get severely wounded soldiers to the United
“We came up with the idea where we are going to customize the laces,” Fox said. “We are going to customize our laces so they can make the shoe their own.”
States for medical treatment talked about the importance of the organization as well as some of its successes. “The spirit of the Ukrainian people is incredible and right now we have six people that have returned to fight using American prosthetics,” said Vashchuk Discipio. “It’s something I’m very proud of, especially because they used to live at home with me while they were getting treatment. We are also opening up a facility for anyone who has suffered either partial or full paralysis in the war.” I can’t include everything that was covered during the event because of the large number of speakers there were but I learned a great deal about Ukrainian history, culture, and science from the event today. The event can be viewed in its entirety by searching “Shevchenko Expertise-a-thon for Ukraine” on YouTube. The one common theme noted by all of the speakers is the courage of the Ukrainian people. They have so many of the same values and ideals as Americans and now we as Americans have the opportunity help Ukrainians fight for those values. Any donations,
“This is something that these kids will remember the rest of their lives. Some of these kids have never had anything like that happen.” This PS 15 teacher has taught the kids to show gratitude and give back. His students are working on a thank you initiative so they can repay Heeling Soles for what they have been given. “This is so we can pay it forward and other people in need can receive the joy that my kids got,” Fox said. even small ones (whether it’s time or money) will add up and make a difference as Ukrainians fight for their independence and freedom.
Red Hook Fest Returns June 3rd
Hook Arts Media is thrilled to announce that they will celebrate the 29th Annual Red Hook Fest with a return to the waterfront this year. Due to the pandemic, in 2020 the festival was entirely virtual. In 2021, Hook Arts Media produced a smaller-scale festival with limited attendance. The opening ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 3rd at PS 15 with DJ-curated music, a neighborhood dance party, a free community barbecue, and family-friendly activities. Festivities will continue at 2 pm on Saturday, June 4th at Valentino Park and Pier. The event will feature The Illustrious Blacks and Martha Redbone as well as other NYC-based dancers and bands. Red Hook Fest will welcome thousands of attendees to enjoy resources, activities, and stunning performances for free! Attendees do not have to RSVP but they are welcome to do so at redhookfest.com.
STREET SOCCER (continued from page 7)
to see how excited all of the kids are to play and how excited the parents are too! I think it’s really important to be here for our mental health and sanity as well as our physical health after a really tough week here.” I asked Aviles about the community’s response to the subway shooting in Sunset Park on April 12th.
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“I think through and through, what we see is that our community is strong and resilient, and they always come together to support each other through any challenges,” Aviles said. “We’re also having a day of Unity in Sunset Park with mental health practitioners and faith leaders trying to help the families cope and giving them some strategies.
nity and I’m really proud to be a part of it.”
“At the same time, it’s also been really nice to come out here and just enjoy this great weather and see all of these kids having fun and playing soccer. This is an amazing commu-
Those interested in joining Street Soccer USA’s programs can email their NY Program Manager, Fernand at fernand@streetsoccerusa. org in English or Spanish.
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Councilmember Aviles and Viridiana Vidales Coyt celebrate the day.
May 2022
Papi’s Home: Mark Borino’s Music With Drake by Roderick Thomas
How do you go from delivering pizzas to working with the biggest musicians on the planet? Mark Borino, a talented producer, and singer-songwriter did exactly that. His career transformed dramatically after one of the world’s most popular musicians recorded a song to his production. Here’s what you should know about Mark Borino and his life changing work with Drake, and their collaboration on the song “Papi’s Home.” Roderick Thomas: Hey Mark, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. Mark Borino: No, thank you.
Roderick: So let’s jump right in. Where are you from originally? Mark Borino: I’m from Nutley, New Jersey, not too far from the Shore actually. I was the kid with spiked hair, not as bad as the Jersey Shore show on MTV, but close [laughs].
Roderick: Ok, a Jersey boy. So, when did you get your start in music? Mark Borino: In middle school. I tried out for the choir to get an easy A, and ended up making it. Joining the choir introduced me to the world of music. Roderick Thomas: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
Mark Borino: Everything, a lot of punk pop stuff like Yellow Card and Sum 41. I also loved hip hop, r&b, and country music. Roderick Thomas: I’m guessing you come from a background of musicians and artists then?
Mark Borino: Honestly, no. I didn’t really grow up in an artsy home, but my family was supportive.
Roderick Thomas: How did you get your start in the music business? Mark Borino: That didn’t happen until I was 18. I went to William Paterson University and dropped out to pursue music.That was risky, but after hearing my music, my mom would help me find studios. Roderick: Wow! You followed your gut. When was your first big break? ’ Mark Borino: I had started working with some EDM DJ’s, but I got my first big placement with Fetty Wap and PNB Rock, for a song called “Fine Line,” it was part of a mixtape. I was actually delivering pizza when I got the phone call about that placement. Roderick Thomas: You must’ve been so excited.
Mark Borino: I was, but it was also really difficult to get credited for it. Here I am delivering pizza, and one of the biggest artists at the time (Fetty Wap) is rapping on your song. I got my credit eventually, but even today there are still some platforms that need to credit me properly as a producer.
Roderick: 2014 - 2016 was Fetty Wap’s season. I’m glad you were able to get some of your credit though. Would you say you’re more of a songwriter, singer, or producer? Mark Borino: All of the above. I produce, sing, and write.
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Roderick Thomas: What about genre, are you more hip hop, r&b, or pop?
couldn’t believe it happened so smoothly.
Roderick Thomas: You recently won an ASCAP award, that’s a big deal, congrats! What was it like winning an ASCAP award as a songwriter?
Mark Borino: That was so unexpected and exciting! I wished Nicki had a rapping verse, but just to have someone of her caliber on a track I produced is insane––Nicki and Drake–––mindblowing.
Mark Borino: [laughs] All of that. Of course, my roots are hip hop and r&b, but a lot of my early successes in music were with EDM.
Mark Borino: It felt affirming really. Like, ok, I can really be recognized for my writing too. I produced and co-wrote the record, and collaborated with other talented people. Funny enough, I think I was actually denied by ASCAP in the past [laughs]––full circle moment. Roderick Thomas: Let’s talk about the moment that truly changed your career, “Papi’s Home.” Drake rapped on a beat you produced that made it on his latest album, Certified Lover Boy.
Mark Borino: Isn’t that crazy? I knew a guy named Skip, and for years I’d send him songs––he knew I sampled records. One day, he asked me to put something together for a project. So, I drove around listening to old school records, and came across Montel Jordan’s song, “Daddy’s Home.” I was like, I have to go home and sample this record! Mark Borino: Skip knows Drake personally, and he let me know Drake was recording. I knew they were looking for something uptempo, but I also thought Drake would sound great on the beat I’d just made, which sampled Montel Jordan–––it just wasn’t uptempo.
I don’t think Skip thought my record was all that great actually when I sent it to him [laughs]. Then, seven months later I got a call from Skip and he says,
“Mark, we just made history! I was in the studio and they added drums to that beat you sent me. I sent it to Drake, and he loved it!” Roderick Thomas: That’s amazing! Drake titled the song “Papi’s Home,” and is talking his shit the whole way through saying, he’s the father to all these other rappers––the don. When did you hear the full song?
Mark Borino: Yeah, he was talking that talk. I heard “Papi’s Home” when everyone else heard it–––once Certified Loverboy was released. Of course, I was told it had been recorded, but I didn’t believe it until I heard it for myself–––the industry can be fickle.
Mark Borino: I was in my backyard with friends and family. Everyone knew I’d been at this for eleven years, so this was a big moment. When the song came on we all went crazy! I thought, I can’t believe I produced for my idol. I used to say, “imagine if I produced for Drake.” I also
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Roderick Thomas: I remember listening to “Papi’s Home” and hearing Nicki Minaj smack talk everyone [laughs]. What was it like hearing Nicki Minaj on your track?
Roderick: It seems at times, you’ve had to go through teams, and friends of artists to get your music heard. What are your thoughts on industry gatekeepers and middlemen? Mark Borino: There are so many loose connections, and it’s a different story when you’re speaking to the artist themselves. In some ways, it’s kind of unfortunate that you have to deal with the gatekeepers, but you also have to show your worth. I built a relationship with Skip for years before anything ever happened.
Roderick Thomas: What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for newer artists? Mark Borino: The biggest piece of advice I have is to be of service. The bar has been changed for new artists. You can blow up on Tik tok, without being really talented. A lot of artists aren’t able to repeat their success––I want longevity. I think some labels are figuring that out though. Roderick Thomas: Sound advice. Let’s talk about your new single, “Headlights.” Talk to me about the concept behind it.
Mark Borino: “Headlights” is about having faith that things are going to work out. The concept really came from my experiences, my challenges.
Roderick Thomas: It sounds great by the way. I loved the heavy synths, smooth vocals and the hook is very catchy. It’s something I could hear blasting at a festival. It sounds different from “Papi’s Home.” Can listeners expect some more hip hop from you soon? Mark Borino: Thank you, for sure. You can definitely expect some more hip hop, r&b, pop and EDM from me in the future. I love music, so expect variety. Roderick Thomas: Ok, last question, what three artists you’d like to work with right now?
Mark Borino: That’s tough, ok: Drake again…Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran. Roderick Thomas: Great picks! Mark, congrats again on all your success, and thanks so much for doing this interview. Mark Borino: Thank you.
Learn more about Mark Borino and listen to his single,”Headlights” today.
May 2022, Page 13
The Erasmus program furthers Europe's integration by Dario Pio Muccilli, Foreign Correspondent
"Moreover, sex plays a major role in such an experience."
T
here’s one thing in Europe that has been able to unite people across the countries in the old continent in a much more effective way than the political union has ever done. That’s Erasmus, a student exchange program that allows university students to spend a long period in a foreign country’s Athenaeum, partially financed by the European Union.
The most popular are Spain, France, Italy, and Germany. Generally, 300,000 students take part, although that number was impacted negatively during COVID. However, once again, in 2021-2022, Erasmus has regained it's popularity. The strength of the program is the mythology that surrounds the exchange experience. This has been crystallized in movies like L’Auberge Espagnole (the Spanish Apartment). L’Auberge narrates the lives of a group of Erasmus students in Barcelona, where
However, Erasmus’ main focus is still undergraduate and Master's students. Usually for them the range of possible destinations is really broad and it allows them to discover many different nations.
Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue
This may be an exaggeration, but it shows how the Erasmus has not been simply meant as an academic exchange but also a tool to make people discover new cultures and new friends across Europe. This is in harmony with the whole European Union experiment, a chance to feel part of a broader community. Moreover, sex plays a major role in such an experience, because people in Erasmus, according to the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco, tend to know partners of other nations, which makes possible a future generation of children of the Erasmus with dual national origin and a stronger link to the concept of the modernEurope. Therefore, Erasmus is in a way political, because it has been a tool to create that European identity useful to legitimize the process of creation of the European Union and its institutions, which donate the money to every applicant, creating a sort of debt of gratitude towards an authority that, especially in the recent years, has been often regarded as distant and impersonal.
Born in 1987, the program has seen over 10 million students travelling across Europe under the Erasmus umbrella, a staggering number when compared to the just 3,244 students who managed to apply in 1987. Since then, much has been added to the program, including a peer-topeer support network. In addition, the program has been extended to add PhDs as well as secondary school teachers.
“I haven’t studied anything, I only had fun”.
love, ambitions and dreams are intertwined in a way that has portrayed the Erasmus way of life which almost every applicant wishes to experience. Indeed one thing that is common to hear when talking about Erasmus with someone who has done it is
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Of course Erasmus is not enough by itself to glue together the citizens of Europe–the United Kingdom decided Brexit and contextually renounced the program–but all the same it has been an important step to reach that goal. Erasmus changes forever the life of those who enter. They become the so-called Erasmus generation, an avant garde of the European spirit.
May 2022
Résistance and futility. Ultravox! is remembered, and rightly so, as a progenitor of synthpop, but what gets missed out in that compact musicological truism is their remarkable 1977 debut. The band’s early incarnation—with singer and principal songwriter John Foxx and with the exclamation point in the name—was a remarkable amalgam of glam and bits of Brit blues revivalism with punk energy and Krautrock post-humanism. Using the money from that self-titled album, the band bought a synthesizer and a drum machine and set a course for greater success. Some 45 years later, a fellow named Moses Brown seems to be picking up on their abandoned promise. Brown played in punk in Texas before relocating to Brooklyn and rebranding himself as Peace De Résistance. He released Hedgemakers, a rather raw cassette in an edition of 100, on Glue Records in 2020 and has followed up on that now with the full-length Bits and Pieces. The album came out April 13 (vinyl and download) on his own Peace de Records and a glorious thing it is. Brown plays all the instruments and sings with a dry resignation to the modern world, managing to build a full band sound and a healthy discontent. Where Foxx wanted to be a machine, Peace De Résistance lives in a world full of them: The police use robot dogs, television sets and cash machine record conversations and thoughts are data mined while laborers wear the corporate logos of bosses who don’t pay them enough to survive. Retaining bits of glam and punk, Bits and Pieces puts riffs and beats to a dystopian present.
This machine kills fascia. I’m willing to admit in all my American public school ignorance that I thought the name of the new album by Kurws was a reference to fascism, maybe just the word in their native Polish. I had only recently discovered them, through a benefit comp for Ukrainian relief, so an anti-Putin slant seemed natural. Turns out I just wasn’t paying attention in biology class. The title’s in English, and refers to the tissue that connects muscles and skin, suggesting something about how they’re able to achieve the remarkable unity of motion that they display on their fourth album. Powięź / Fascia, properly, in Polish and English, was jointly released April 29 by Gustaff Records, Red Wig, Dur et Deux and Korobushka and brings to mind Baltimore’s Horse Lords and Kyoto’s Kukangendia, suggesting a movement I’m hoping we might call stammercore: long, mostly instrumental tunes, with punk energy and clean, organic glitches. Kurws has leaned a bit jazzier in the past, with reed and keys in the configuration, but on the new album they’re a lean power trio with enough restraint to avoid prog wonkery, crafting anthems for the finest bunker discotheque.
Retro soul, Chicago style. “I’ve been here since 1963” sings a small chorus of voices, including the great jazz singer Dee Alexander, on the opening track of the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective’s new On the Way to be Free (out May 13 on JMarq Records). The tune sets a clear tone: They aren’t playing kids’ games. “Mama, Are We There Yet?” has the sing-along melody and interlaced backing of mid-70s Funkadelic. The rest of the album goes for a jazzier throwback, like some lost CTI Records sides or Earth, Wind & Fire deep cut ballads. Such comparisons might be a bit of high praise for the compositions, but Alexander makes good songs great again and again across the nine tracks. The groove got me scrambling the digital stacks for Chicago-based Soul Message Band’s People (via Know You Know Records) from February for their take on the Barbra Streisand song that
gave the album its title, as delivered by guest vocalist Hinda Hoffman. Both bands are driven by strong organs and keyboards (Amr Fahmy for the Collective and the Band’s Chris Foreman). Add to the mix “Somebody Save Me” by the Staples Jr. Singers (the relation to Pops Staples and his musical family is purely spiritual)—one of the two advance singles from the new Luaka Bop reissue of their sole album, 1975’s When Do We Get Paid—and you’ve got a solid start on an old-school summer mixtape.
Gospel and the rock of ages. Many paths converged with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the rock revolution, and many of them, it should never be forgotten, trace back to the African diaspora in America. The documentary How They Got Over: Gospel Quartets and the Road to Rock & Roll traces one such path. Directed by Robert Clem (whose 2020 Alabama Black Belt Blues followed the progression of slave songs into popular music), the film maps the rise of gospel singing groups in the south as they became touring acts, added amplified instruments, and eventually saw such breakout stars as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin. The 90-minute feature includes contemporary interviews and plenty of performance footage (including the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Soul Stirrers and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and moves at just the right pace to enjoy the music without losing the thread of the story. The film opened in theaters last October and moved to DVD and streaming platforms on May 3. It’s an important part of American history and an enjoyable watch, even for those who think they know it all.
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The Cactus Blossoms at The Bowery Ballroom by Mike Cobb
Modern Vintage aptly describes the sound of The Cactus Blossoms, an indie band based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Led by brothers Jack Torry and Page Burkham, both siblings play guitar and sing tightly knit harmonies that range from the tenderness of The Everly Brothers to the powerful crescendos of Roy Orbison. They’re backed by other brother Tyler on lead guitar, cousin Philip Hicks on bass, and Jeremy Hanson on drums. The band’s third studio album, One Day, was released on Walkie Talkie Records on February 11, 2022. Though the group has been active since 2011, it was only in the last three years that brother Tyler came onboard. Their first album was produced by Americana rocker J.D.McPherson, and they have co-written with Black Keys singersongwriter-guitarist Dan Auerbach. “We worked with Dan in Nashville and used a few of those tunes on our record,” Page says. The group charmed an attractive, hip, young crowd at the Bowery Ballroom Wednesday, March 30. It helps that the band itself is handsome and draws a good looking audience. The show was nearly sold out, and the mostly maskless crowd was entranced by the band’s lush, retro sound. Inspired by country and early rock and roll, The Cactus Blossoms swing in an understated way. Tory and Burkham play vintage Guilds and Fender Jazzmasters giving off a classic vibe. Hanson plays drums with a light touch, at times employing mallets
for dramatic effect rather than crash or thrash. Cousin Hicks thunks his Hofner violin shaped Beatle bass sounding more upright than electric, and Tyler achieves throbbing tremolo textures and pedal steel like swells that cast a 1950’s dreamlike gauze over everything. The net effect is akin to being transported to a wholesome vision of Americana where you might find yourself standing next to Buddy Holly in the audience. Their new video for the single “Hey Baby” shows brothers Jack and Page playing over a slideshow of American national parks and captures the group’s vintage twang. “Everybody” is their other recent video and features fellow Americana artist (and former Rilo Kiley singer) Jenny Lewis. Tunes like “Desperado” could have been hits in the early 60s and should be now. Their success in the Americana charts and nearly 20k followers on Facebook show the band doing quite well. They’ve also appeared on David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and were recently performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Perhaps most interesting is how the group simultaneously sounds retro yet fresh, most notably on their track “Boomerang” which pulls at heartstrings bitter, sweet and tender. With a George Harrison-like lead line, the band builds the bridge from past to present and shows how artists like Buddy Holly and The Everlys were so fundamental to the roots of rock and roll.
About their uncanny, seamless harmonies, Page says “We started singing together when I was about 25 and Jack was 20. To us, it’s not as big a deal as it is to others.” “We dig old country duets like Oasis and the Bee Gees,” Jack jokes. “When I first heard the Louvin Brothers, it was exciting. It’s been fun to learn from tradition, but we also like new groups like Radiohead.” When asked about their plans for the future, Jack says, “We’ll just keep on growing and changing however the wind blows us.” For more information on the band, see their website: www.thecactusblossoms.com
Reason #5 to join the Rotary Club
Get out of your bubble! Get to know a variety of people different from the ones you usually talk to.
Rotarians are from every background, culture and country you can imagine. In today’s silo-ed world, meeting and doing service projects with a wide blend of people is meaningful and fulfilling—and achieves one of Rotary’s aims: PEACE and TOLERANCE. (Extra bonus, Rotarians are the nicest and most helpful people you’ll ever meet!)
The Brooklyn Bridge Rotary Club meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month, over dinner in Downtown Brooklyn, from 6-7:15 pm.
COME TO A MEETING, CHECK US OUT, BECOME A MEMBER. CONTACT US AT
Admin@BrooklynBridgeRotaryClub.org
Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue
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May 2022
James Wong Howe Gets a 19-Film Salute in Queens
T
he opening credit sequence is now a kind of lost cinematic art. But there was a time when this overture, designed to ease viewers into a film’s world and tone, was ubiquitous. And even then, the first minutes of Alexander Mackendrick’s 1957 masterpiece Sweet Smell of Success pulsed with a rare energy and artistry. An overhead shot of Times Square at dusk; followed by workers hurriedly loading delivery trucks with the evening edition of the New York Globe; then a montage of one truck snaking its way through the theater district, now illuminated by countless marquees and advertisements, until a guy on the truck tosses a bundle of papers out to a newsstand in front of a hot dog joint, where reptilian press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) anxiously grasps for a copy. The sequence, set to Elmer Bernstein’s indelible “crime jazz” score, is postwar Broadway seen from the streets, gorgeous, sexy, and slightly-menacing, its dazzling black-andwhite images an homage to Weegee and anticipation of the French New Wave in equal measure.
Nearly 70 years later, the first minutes of Success are more time machine than time capsule, propelling us back to one of the most evocative moments in New York City. It’s a testament to Mackendrick’s willingness to be daring — Hollywood didn’t make movies this way, with such grit and unpredictable verisimilitude. But the real master at work is James Wong Howe. By Success, Wong Howe had been a cinematographer for more than three decades and had a well earned reputation for creative lighting and technical ingenuity. Both talents are on wild display in the film. In one shot during the opening, we’re on the back of the truck, the delivery guy silhouetted against the incandescent hubbub behind him, as Howe uses the vehicle as a dolly to capture silky smooth documentary-style footage of the urban scene gliding by. Elsewhere, “I used varnish to give the look of the film a glitter, in the bars, many of them real in New York,” Wong Howe said in 1963. “I used very small bulbs; photoflood effects worked well because we had so much polish on the walls it made everything shine. The whole film shimmered.” “I enjoy odd results,” he added. “Off-beat things, unpredictable things. I believe they increase realism. And realism comes first with me, always.” That dynamic tension between artist and technician is at the heart of Howe’s 50-plus-year career, which gets a long overdue reconsideration — or, perhaps, rediscovery — at the Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, this month. The 19-film series “How It’s Done: The Cinema of James Wong Howe” opens May 13 and surveys the cinematographer’s vast filmography, from silent films (Peter Pan, Mantrap) to groundbreaking early talkies (Transatlantic, The Power and the Glory) to mainstream classics (Hud, Seconds). It’s a celebration of an oft-overlooked cinematic genius and a Hollywood pioneer, both behind the camera and in the industry.
“James Wong Howe was always widely respected in his time, but I don’t know that he’s had his due in this era, when we’re actually paying attention to people of color, who are the great artists of the last century in terms of Hollywood,” Eric Hynes, the museum’s curator of film, tells the Star-Revue. “He’s definitely not a household name when it comes to the greater public.” James Wong Howe was born Wong Tung Jim on August 28, 1899, in Guangdong, China. (A teacher an-
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by Dante A. Ciampaglia glicized his name to James Wong Howe.) His family immigrated to Pasco, Washington, when he was five, and for his first 25 years he believed he was a Pasco native. (He learned the truth of his origins during an interview with a federal official in 1924 required by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1884 for anyone of Chinese ancestry who tried to leave and re-enter the U.S. to work.) When he was 12 or 13, he bought his first camera, a Brownie, from a local drugstore and began taking photos of his family. After his father’s death in 1914, Wong Howe moved in with an Irish family in Oregon before living with his uncle. He trained as a boxer, “fought around a while,” he said in 1963, then, after a stint in San Francisco, arrived in Los Angeles. While watching a Mack Sennett comedy being shot in Chinatown, Wong Howe met the film’s cinematographer who encouraged him to get into the movies. It took a few months, but he did just that. He “dropped by” Lasky/Famous Players, where the 5’2’’ Wong Howe was told he was too small to carry film equipment. So he was hired to pick up nitrate stock scraps from the editing room. He graduated to slate boy, enthusiastically operating the clapboard before a take, eventually catching Cecil B. DeMille’s eye. The director made him a fourth assistant to his cameraman. But Wong Howe’s real break was actress Mary Miles Minter. He met her on set and asked to take her photograph. She agreed, and when she saw the results — using a black velvet sheet around the camera, Wong Howe made it seem like the fair-blue-eyed star had dark eyes, which was better for her screen presence — Minter hired him to be her cinematographer. “After that, I was never out of work,” he said in 1970.
That work put him on sets with generations of Hollywood royalty: Howard Hawks (Air Force), John Frankenheimer (Seconds), Frank Borzage (After Tomorrow), Fritz Lang (Hangmen Also Die!), Busby Berkley (They Made Me a Criminal), and Raoul Walsh (Pursued) behind the camera; Lon Chaney (Laugh, Clown, Laugh), Joan Crawford (Four Walls), William Powell and Myrna Loy (The Thin Man), Laurence Olivier (The Yellow Ticket), Humphrey Bogart (Passage to Marseille), Barbara Stanwyck (My Reputation), Spencer Tracy (The Old Man and the Sea), and Barbra Streisand (Funny Lady) in front of it. “There’s no doubt about the fact that he’s the best cameraman I ever worked with,” Frankenheimer told the Los Angeles Times in 2001.
When Wong Howe died, at 76, in 1976, he had more than 130 credits to his name, working at MGM and Warner Bros. in the 1930s and ’40s before going freelance for the rest of his career. He was nominated for nine Oscars, winning two (for The Rose Tattoo in 1956 and Hud in 1964), among numerous other awards and recognitions. And through his innovative use of wide angles and deep focus, years before Orson Welles and Greg Toland popularized them in Citizen Kane, and outside-the-box solutions to tricky problems — like wearing roller skates and using a hand-held camera to shoot a boxing match in Body and Soul — Wong Howe transformed how films were photographed. “Once or twice, people would interview him and say you are a real artist. You are a poet of the camera, and he was just kind of embarrassed by it,” Wong Howe’s wife, the novelist Sanora Babb, told the Los Angeles Times in 2001. “But secretly he knew he was a lot more than a technician.”
That attitude is born out in the 19 films chosen for the Museum of the Moving Image series. Hynes says
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it’s a program the museum had thought about for at least a couple of years. Besides a global pandemic that shut museums, theaters, and distribution services, “How It’s Done” was delayed by Hynes and his colleagues trying to track down films. Wong Howe’s independent directorial effort Go Man Go, a 1954 film about the origins of the Harlem Globetrotters, for example, was one they desperately wanted to include and were able to thanks to a late discovery of a 16mm print loaned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Others, though, like Wong Howe’s first film, the silent Drums of Fate (1923), is considered lost; The Rough Riders (1927) only exists as a fragment at the Library of Congress. What was out there, though, required Hynes and team to make some hard choices. They couldn’t include everything, so the guiding principle became, “What’s the story we’re telling here? And what of his career do we want to represent?” Hynes says. That led to their including silents like Mantrap and Peter Pan, which could run with live accompaniment and overlap with the museum’s Silents, Please! series, as well as benchmarks from across Wong Howe’s career: Prisoner of Zenda, Sweet Smell of Success, Bell, Book and Candle, Hud, Seconds. But left on the cutting room floor were films he made with good friend James Cagney because, as classic as Yankee Doodle Dandy is, it didn’t fit into the series narrative.
“There seems to be a guiding sense that he was not interested in comedies and musicals that much. In terms of visuals, both are flat when it comes to lighting and a bit sort of uninteresting in terms of how he shot,” Hynes says. “But, then again, we’re showing The Thin Man, categorically a comedy, that looks incredible because he’s playing with our expectations and how it’s supposed to be shot. I was drawn to things like that.” Wong Howe’s films are monuments to creativity and confidence. He may have leaned into his humility, but he knew his choices were right, his “gimmicks” would work, his craftsmanship was rock solid. He stretched the limits of what the camera could do — how a film looked — to set new boundaries, only to break through those, as well. But his career is also a testament to perseverance. He overcame grinding racism as a child and institutional bigotry as an adult. Wong Howe and Babb, who was white, married in Paris in 1937; because of miscegenation laws, the marriage wasn’t legally recognized in the U.S. until 1949. And cultural stereotypes dogged him his entire life — even in Hollywood, a film colony teeming with striving newcomers, he was labeled “the Chinaman,” according to Haskell Wexler, by crews unaccustomed to people who looked like him. “There’s an element here of his being such a significant artist, and such an anomaly at a time when there are a lot of immigrants working in Hollywood but not a lot of Asian Americans,” Hynes says.
Regardless of what’s included in the series or not, though, “How It’s Done” is a necessary spotlight on an Asian American artist, a da Vinci of Hollywood filmmaking who — save a Google Doodle in 2018 — hasn’t received the attention his life and work deserve. “If you really care about how cinema is made,” Hynes says, “James Wong Howe is as good as it gets.”
“How It’s Done: The Cinema of James Wong Howe” runs from May 13-June 26 at the Museum of the Moving Image, 26-01 35 Avenue in Astoria. For more information, including the full screening schedule, visit movingimage.us/james-wong-howe.
May 2022, Page 17
Books Quinn on Books: Stumbling Onto Wildness Review of Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, by Cookie Mueller
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mong the arty crowd, there might be two kinds of people: those who never heard of Cookie Mueller and those who are obsessed with her. She was the ultimate free spirit. Born in Baltimore in 1949, she was, by her own account, an advice columnist, art critic, playwright, actress, drug dealer, go-go dancer, clothing designer, sailor, and “unwed welfare mother,” among many other things. Like many artists of her generation, she lost her life to AIDS. She’s most often remembered as a smoky-eyed, tousled-haired muse to filmmaker John Waters and photographer Nan Goldin. Whatever she did, she did well, because she put her unique stamp on it. But writing seems to be where her most consistent focus lay.
“I started writing when I was six and have never stopped completely,” Mueller confesses in Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, a new collection edited by Hedi El Kholti, Chris Kraus, and Amy Scholder that rounds up both previously published work and things never before seen. The day before her eleventh birthday, Mueller finished her first magnum opus, a 321-page book on Clara Barton (“the American version of Florence Nightingale”), which she bound in cardboard and shelved in the appropriate section of her local library… never to see it again. Perhaps it’s for this reason she turned to writing short stories, which Mueller calls “novels for people with short attention spans.”
Whether you’re new to the Cookie oeuvre or a longtime fan, Walking through Clear Water holds something for you: either an introduction to this singular talent or a reminder of why she’s so great. Seeing all of her work together in one place doesn’t just give you a sense of her as a writer, but as a person: many of the stories contain autobiographical threads.
Hers is a messy, memorable life informed by an absurdist sense of humor, a love of adventure, and a deep attraction to unusual people. Authenticity like Mueller’s is both rare and irresistible. The work is divided into sections (anchored by where Mueller’s living at any given time) and presented chronologically. Baltimore (1964-1969) draws from Mueller’s formative years. Teenage rebellion is marked by big hair, tight skirts, and high heels. Parents are squares. The typical adult is “an asshole, a rude bigot stomping through life squashing everything to his level.” Romantic relationships, from the get go, are unconventional. While her boyfriend’s hospitalized with hepatitis, Mueller’s narrator spends the night at a friend’s house. The girl begins to feel her up: “‘Just pretend I’m Jack. Just pretend I’m Jack,’” she pleads. After a few weeks, there’s no longer a need to pretend.
Several of the stories recount Mueller’s start as an actress in Waters’ underground films: at a screening, she wins a raffle, scoring dinner with Waters and a screen test. “He was the writer, producer, director, cameraman, soundman, lighting expert, editor, even the distributor,” Mueller explains. In her first role in Multiple Maniacs, Mueller has trouble remembering her lines, but remembers that everyone had to shout, partly because of the crappy sound equipment, partly as “a matter of style.”
She soon develops a close friendship with the actor Divine and other Waters luminaries. They live on welfare and share a poorly-insulated house in Provincetown in the winter, scavenging the dump for things to sell. Come Christmas, they chop down a neighbor’s tree and decorate it with jewelry and fabric flowers fashioned from a cut-up bedspread. Shortly after her son Max is born, he’s given a part in Pink Flamingos, Waters’
The Modern Caravan: Stories of Love, Beauty, and Adventure on the Open Road by Marie Hueston
S
ummer is around the corner, and for many people the thought of traveling cross country in a motor home seems like an ideal vacation. Then there are those for whom a vacation is not enough: The lure of the open road inspires some to refurbish vintage Airstreams, camper vans, and even school buses into full-time residences. In the new book The Modern Caravan, out this spring from Chronicle Books, author Kate Oliver profiles more than 35 solo travelers, couples and families who heeded that call.
Oliver herself has renovated numerous Airstreams, for herself and for others through her company The Modern Caravan, and she spent years traversing the countryside with her wife and daughter. “Looking out my Airstream’s window, I’ve watched dust storms push through a dry lake bed outside of Joshua Tree and gazed into a rain forest so lush and mossy and green it felt as if I were living in a dreamscape,” Oliver describes. As the landscape outside the window shifted, she adds, “our kitchen table remained the same.”
Of the mobile homes featured in the book, the major-
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Yet Mueller resists this reputation of wildness herself. “I happen to stumble onto wildness,” she explains. “It gets in my path”—this from the woman who accidently burns down a friend’s house in British Columbia.
In her defense, Mueller is a go-with-theflow Pisces (she was a serious practitioner of astrology), the kind of person who randomly opens an atlas and travels to whatever far flung place her finger happens to land on (this brings her to Rome, and eventually, to her husband, the artist Vittorio Scarpati). Whatever happens— hanging out with Charles Manson’s groupies in San Francisco, attending an LSD party, unwittingly participating in a Satanic ritual, evading multiple rapists—Mueller just seems to roll with it. Only occasionally do her sometimes very dire circumstances seem to hit her with the full weight of hopelessness. With a young son to care for and no place to live, “I didn’t have any money, and there really wasn’t anybody to ask for some to borrow,” she writes. There isn’t a trace of self-pity anywhere in here. In “Ask Dr. Mueller,” her highly entertaining advice column from the magazine East Village Eye, she answers readersubmitted questions about skin problems, aphrodisiacs, leg cramps, quitting smoking, psychic surgery, and impotence (“I make house calls for this one”) with both levity and a refreshing matter-offactness. Her reputation as a druggie (pot makes her paranoid so she sticks with “the harder stuff ”) seems well-known; elsewhere she calls this assignment her “‘health in the face of drug use’ column.” Mueller advocates for a holistic approach and espouses the benefits of herbal supplements and dietary adjustments—no matter what you’re snorting, shooting, or
smoking. Worried about AIDS? “Keep your body very strong and don’t forget your sense of humor,” she advises.
Some of Mueller’s writing seems eerily prescient. In her December/January 1987 “Art and About” column for Details magazine, she reflects on “the age of fleeting media stars”: “Never have so many with so little become so big for a duration of time so short. Never before has such a shiftless bunch of life’s lightweights hewn such formidable nests for themselves in so many people’s minds.” She also touches on deforestation, the destruction of the ozone layer, and “new environmental diseases [which] are a byproduct of toxic water, poisoned air, and nuclear fallout. Mutated viruses, weird pollution, and cell degeneration have finally weakened the race.” Uhm, what year was this written?
In “A Last Letter,” Mueller mourns the friends she’s lost to AIDS, the “kinds of people who lifted the quality of all our lives, their war was against ignorance, the bankruptcy of beauty, and the truancy of culture. They were people who hated and scorned pettiness, intolerance, bigotry, mediocrity, ugliness, and spiritual myopia; the blindness that makes life hollow and insipid was unacceptable. They tried to make us see.” Mueller doesn’t disclose her own condition here or elsewhere; it’s unclear if she ever found words for that experience. But Walking through Clear Water puts her squarely in the company of those she most admired: a fitting legacy for this one-of-a-kind visionary.
ity are vintage Airstreams, and while they all share the same basic interior shape, Oliver’s descriptions of how each one was individualized makes the book as much about small-space decorating as it is about wanderlust. Ideas for compact seating and storage abound, along with color palettes that visually expand tiny rooms. Many of the ideas can be easily translated into New York City apartments and homes. For readers who might be considering creating their own caravan, each of Oliver’s profiles includes the budget and duration of the project, as well as hardearned tips from the people who did the work. A common thread among the stories are of challenges overcome along the way. One featured couple describes their experience this way: “Sure, we argued, had disagreements, messed things up. But we also high-fived every day, and felt such huge pride in ourselves when we hit the road for the first time. We built our perfect space together.” Marie Heuston is the Parent Coordinator at PS 676
Advertise in our award winning newspaper! Write to
george@redhookstar.com www.star-revue.com
the red hook
Review by Michael Quinn
legendary film in which Divine eats dog shit and Mueller is penetrated by a headless chicken. Mueller describes Waters’ films as “cagey, fast-paced…scored with wild music and wilder action.”
STAR REVUE May 2022
Jazz by Grella
Henry Threadgill’s Modern World
J
azz is not just modern, but modernist; not just part of the last 100 years of cultural history, but a music that took old and existing language and made it new. Bebop was an explicit modernist, even avant-garde, movement that took existing popular material, like “How High The Moon,” and gave it a new voice from the inside out, breaking down the old melodies and rhythms and rebuilding them with an entirely new vocabulary.
Bebop has been the main foundation of all the jazz that his followed, though older styles like swing have maintained a parallel life. And even swing and what might be called “trad” were modernist as well. The whole point of jazz, when it first appeared shortly after World War One, was that it was a new music, avant-garde, hot, even—as was a common reaction— a menace to society (a consistent reaction by the bourgeoisie to anything new that might involve young people and even bring together other races). And don’t overlook how revolutionary the pre-swing musicians were, with Louis Armstrong singlehandedly inventing modern popular singing,Jelly Roll Morton pioneering a compositional style that brought together 19th and 20th century music and improvisation, Bix Beiderbecke’s all-too brief experiments in impressionism, even Benny Goodman commissioning a new classical work from Bela Bartók (Contrasts, 1938). Since Miles Davis’ ongoing and permanent revolution came to a halt with his retirement (prior to his comeback), the great jazz modernist has been saxophonist/flutist, composer, and bandleader Henry Threadgill. Threadgill is one of the many exceptional musicians who came up during the founding era of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)—not as a member but as an associate of AACM figures like Muhal Richard Abrams and Fred Hopkins. The AACM was essentially a Mt. Olympus of jazz, from which descended some of the most important figures in jazz of the last 60 years.
The standard bearers of the AACM were the Art Ensemble of Chicago; the ensemble’s motto was “Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future,” a description less of style than a philosophy that there is a seamless continuum between things like ragtime, the blues, rock, reggae, and free improvisation, that they were all just variations on the same concept and with shared aesthetic and social functions. Threadgill’s career is like this too. His early trio Air, and his Sextet (with seven musicians) were avant-garde on the surface, breaking out of standard forms and harmonies, but with roots in 19th century music like ragtime and marches.
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by George Grella Those earlier styles aren’t just essential components to the origin of jazz, but music that Threadgill himself found pleasure in and recreated in modern terms.
That continuum of great Black music is in him, it was his own experience as a musician, from playing gospel, blues, rock, and after hitting New York City playing with no wave musician James Chance, in David Murray’s important Octet, and in some of Bill Laswell’s Material projects. Threadgill had his Bitches Brew type leap into the future with his 1990 album Spirit of Nuff…Nuff (Black Saint), with his band Very Very Circus, which had Threadgill, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, drummer Gene Lake, and two guitarists (Brandon Ross and Masujaa) and two tuba players, Marcus Rojas and Edwin Rodriguez. As jagged and contemporary, and rocking, as the sound was, the music still reach back 100 years, with plenty of marches and the tubas recalling how the instruments (and the bass saxophone) are all over early acoustic and electric recordings, because the string bass didn’t carry well through the ensembles. Like with Davis’ electric period, Threadgill’s music since that album has been built on a groove that anchors flights of abstraction above. Different from Davis, Threadgill’s grooves are lighter, sharper, and his abstraction is contrapuntal and based around harmony, rather than the hypnotic, dense sound of albums like Agharta and Pangea.
The main vehicle for this in the 21st century is band Zooid, which debuted on Pi Recordings in 2001 with Up Popped the Two Lips and can be heard on several more recordings on the label, including last year’s Poof. Zooid has had varying personnel but is formed around the leader, guitarist Liberty Ellman, and tuba player Jose Davila—cellist Christopher Hoffman has been a newer, but consistent, presence. With Zooid, Threadgill has been developing a new way of organizing jazz, one that is very much jazz, very much modern, and very much a sophisticated way to compose in the long tradition of counterpoint heard through the lens of traditional jazz’ improvisational polyphony. This music is tonal but shifting, the musicians work with a set of intervals that keep the harmonies together while allowing movement to other chords. It’s like a labyrinth with multiple ways both to get to the center and out again, with the soloist in the lead and the band at his heels, following every turn and switch. Each room the ensemble enters is new, but has an architectural style that fits with all the other rooms, and the labyrinth itself. Playing this takes ultra-quick thinking, and in a ways listening to it does as well. It’s something of an accli-
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mation process, like listening to music in older tuning systems—it takes a minute to get used to, but then it all makes so much sense that everything you heard before sounds a little stale. For musicians, it’s an exciting challenge, and one can listen through the Zooid discography, and remember catching the band live at different times, and hear all the players, get more and more comfortable with what they’re doing, going from spitting out short phrase to putting together longer lines that fit with the incredible sinuousness of Threadgill’s thinking. The albums are hard to differentiate, but this isn’t a knock on them, as each one is an installment in the development of a practice. I honestly can’t remember a single one of Threadgill’s track titles, because each album sounds like a continuous journey with brief stops for rest. In this way, Poof fits in with the others, and doesn’t make sense without the others. Don’t just add that to your collection, and them all, you’ll find it more fulfilling.
The exception to this is In for a Penny, In for a Pound, which premiered live in 2014 as a work in progress, was released by Pi in 2015, and won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for music. Large-scale, passing through many moods and eschewing rhythm and groove for long stretches, it’s composed in a way that is more acceptable to award committees who value the paper tradition of notation, and see it as more sophisticated, than the oral tradition of a lot of jazz. It’s a remarkable record, you just won’t tap your foot and bob your head to it as much as the other Zooid releases. On its own, or as an emblem of Threadgill’s great career, it more than deserves the award. There’s a creative restlessness at the core of all of Threadgill’s music, and that’s going to be realized on stage at Roulette later this month. May 20 and 21, there’s two concerts going on, One and The Other One. Dedicated to Milford Graves, and in memory of the sorely missed Greg Tate, the music—notated and improvised—is not for the Zooid band but for a larger ensemble of horns and strings. And more than music, there will also be film, paintings, photographs, electronics, and voice loops. This is going to be yet another new thing from Threadgill, and count on it being spectacular.
George Grella is a musician, composer, and independent scholar. He is an important voice in music criticism, serving as music editor at the Brooklyn Rail, critic at the New York Classical Review, and the author of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, the first jazz title in the 33 1/3 series from Bloomsbury.
May 2022, Page 19
Marie's Craft Corner
Turn clear cups into pretty containers for Mother’s Day gifts by Marie Heuston
The shape of clear plastic cups makes them perfect receptacles for numerous things: fresh flowers, candies, or colored pencils to name a few. Using simple decorations like fabric, ribbon, and paint, you can turn these cups into gift holders for any special occasion FABRIC FLOWERPOT
What you’ll need: Two different fabrics that you feel look nice together, coordinating ribbon, scissors, a hotglue gun, and a small plant.
SPA DAY SURPRISE
What you’ll need: Paint and brushes, ribbon, scissors, and beauty supplies. How to make your spa day container:
Continue pulling the fabric up and around the edge of the cup, gluing each section in place, until the entire cup is covered. Next cut a narrow length of your second fabric about one to two inches wide and long enough to span the center of the cup. Glue in place. Tie ribbon around the cup, positioning it in the middle of your narrow strip of fabric as a finishing touch and set a small plant inside.
Start by painting your cup. Place small amounts of paint colors on a paper plate. There are endless possibilities for colors and patterns that can be painted on your cup. I chose to make yellow and purple stripes inspired by the packaging of a honey and lavender sheet mask that was part of my gift, but you might choose polka dots, hearts, letters to spell MOM, even all the colors of the rainbow. (Note: If you use acrylic paint, cover surfaces and wear a smock or clothes you don’t mind getting paint on before you begin.) Apply your first color and let it dry completely before adding the next one. Rinse brushes in water between each color and when you are all done with painting.
June preview: Save a shoebox for a summer craft!
How to make your flowerpot: Cut a square of fabric large enough to cover the sides of your cup. Lay the fabric on a surface with the pattern facing down and place the cup in the center. Pull up one edge of the fabric and tuck it inside the cup, using a dab of hot glue to keep it in place.
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When your pattern is finished and the paint is completely dry, add ribbon around the top of the cup and fill it with small spa-day items like sheet masks, emery boards, nail polish, lip balm or whatever Mom likes best!
Share your designs with us! Send photos to the editor: george@redhookstar.com www.star-revue.com
May 2022