Something of them will remain

1/9

Teddy tells me that Sean reported from the hospital that both feet were amputated at the ankles....

We put our St. Agnes boys to work today counting all our light bulbs so that we might switch to energy saving long life bulbs. And then we have them count the old chapel pews spread out around the building in case we might want to put a few up for sale...

Jamie brings another arts group and their real estate broker for a tour of the building. We  need to find the partner who can make the whole project work.

Then we sit down with Nayelli to try and finish this long delayed contract with Noche. There are still some sticking points. There is always something new that seems to get added. The bottom line is that they are relocating here from Madrid and want this to truly be their  home. But we’re now over to next Monday...a lot is hanging on putting this piece in place.

Turns out Matt’s Dzieici partner Isis is from Tulsa where I spent 10 years. Went to the magnet Booker T. Washington in North Tulsa. At several points in our conversation, she seemed very moved...mainly at the convergence of ideas. My frustration is knowing so deeply that they are right and still being unclear as to how to bring them into reality in community. 

I come back to the building late. The Alivewire post party is still going on. In a talk with Scott about West-Park’s experience with Occupy, I tell him that I had gone to the United Photo Industries Gallery in DUMBO to see Elizabeth Herman’s opening of her A Woman’s War exhibit. Her haunting portraits from Bangladesh, Egypt, Bosnia Vietnam and Northern Ireland tell their own tale without didactic commentary. (see www.Awomanswar.com). I recall her series of portraits made at West-Park at the peak of the Occupy experience. In the best journalistic tradition, she lets her portraits speak for themselves without overt ideology yet with a depth of humanity that tells its own story. I want her to bring her Occupy portraits to West-Park for an exhibit.

Nearing the end, it’s been another good night for Alivewire. I share the varied descriptions of West-Park members of their experience of their production, each certain that their interpretation was definitive.  John R had developed an intriguing birth to life narrative that seemed to work. I’ll try to get to their last performance Sunday night. We’re talking about their move out, what will go, what will stay....Something of them will remain....