Living in coronavirusworld 164: No Kap, no justice

 9/10

Now we know

California's shaking like an angry child will
Who has asked for love and is unanswered still

Jackson Browne

A temperature of 120’ has been recorded in California.  Wildfires are in California, Washington  and Oregon. The skies above San Francisco are orange. Oregon orders 500,000 people to evacuate. The fire in Southern California began with a stray pyrotechnic at a “gender reveal party.”

The West Park Center program committee meets. Attempting to make plans to create a virtual season. Some groups will be allowed in to use the stage for making videos or streaming. We continue to work on a reimagined residency project. There are obvious concerns about expanding the diversity of our residencies, presentations, etc. It was always our intention to lead in this, but we are nowhere near that.  Even though we are perceived to be a “white” neighborhood, there is still a Black Baptist church seven blocks up the street. West Park has hosted two Black congregations. And there are still public housing projects in the neighborhood.  As the Upper West Side has gentrified, these populations have become more and more invisible. Historically, these were some of the most successful public housing projects in the country because of the neighborhood's economic integration. But as the the middle class has been forced out, we are left with the very rich and very poor, a stratified situation that gets worse every year. 

I also challenge the committee to think creatively about the hotels that continue to house homeless people in a hostile neighborhood. What is our capacity to engage the neighborhood creatively? The answers are not clear. But our original vision was to be a place of individual and social transformation through arts and culture, intergenerational education and spirits exploration. That has subtly changed into something slightly different. But that original call remains. 

I talk with an old friend in Portland.  Seemingly the epicenter of the apocalypse with raging fires and social upheaval. Ever surging homeless population. Portlandia is is being shaken to its foundations. My friend steps outside, choked  in the smoky air. The wind is dying down…maybe…. He and his wife are getting ready to move across the river to Vancouver, Washington. 

The NFL kicks off its season with playing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (the so-called Black National Anthem) as well as “The Star Spangled Banner.” Players are allowed to wear names of police violence victims or social justice slogans on the back of their helmets.  There is a pregame “show of unity” with opposing players locking arms. And the socially distanced Kansas City crowd boos. And when their Chiefs score, they do the “Arrowhead Chop” chant and gestures.  All these showy demonstrations of corporate conscience ring hollow, seem a cynical sham, as long as Colin Kaeprernick, the first to take a knee, remains a pariah.  Remains unemployed and unwelcome and unapologized to. No Kap, no justice. Its that simple.