Talking about homeless. And Palestine. And Antigona.

7/29

The police hosted a meeting at Community Board 7 with all the local faith leaders to discuss homelessness. Of course they had the DA’s office there to tell us what kind of papers to file so that we could close our steps and arrest anyone who trespassed. Sorry. Not going there. Our friends and partners from Project Reach Out who help us find housing and who know everyone who hangs out in the neighborhood were there too. And representatives from the local politicians. We shared common concerns. Like the twin sisters on my steps. And then my friend Father Duffel asked the question When is our progressive mayor going to do something about affordable housing? Bloomberg’s 55000  record homeless are now Di Blasio’s 60,000. Things kind of went silent then.

I had to leave then to go to Advent for our Palestine group. Our last meeting with my friend Elise who said farewell to Advent last Sunday. The situation among local clergy is getting harder. A new pastor at one church is working hard to bring balance where there has been a strong advocacy group. There’s an increasing emphasis on what it means to live in this neighborhood. Meaning of course a neighborhood with a large Jewish population. Our neighbor rabbis can more easily identify with the Palestinian experience than some of our more anxious clergy colleagues. We begin to plan our fall program.  Elise will be missed.

Tonight at Antigona, I’ve got a number of friends. Like my old colleague Katherine. And our old friend Feygele. And again, they are amazed. The great reviews continue to come in.

I join Martin for a beer after. He doesn’t want to stop. Doesn’t want to take a break. Soli most wants it to continue. Each day, she’s finding Antigona more. There’s a whole host of neighborhood people who will be coming back right after Labor Day who will want to see what the event of the summer of 2015 has been. I don’t have to be convinced.

7/30

There’s a service to prepare.

Tonight Katherine and I are going to see the latest play by the Representatives who most recently ran their  Lynchian pilot project Beddy Tear at West-Park.  And tomorrow I’m off to the national Presbyterian Big Tent event in Knoxville. To do a workshop on community organizing.

West-Park: mixing and sampling

8/23

Last night, after the screening, Marc puts on first a video of the erstwhile journeyman guitarist Carl Perkins with Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton sitting in. Followed by a Roy Orbison Austin City Limits performance. Roy of course with that aching romantic operatic voice.  Somewhere I have a picture  of h9m singing at the 1983 New Orleans jazz festival. All in black. Barely moving. And that voice. Soaring.

Out on the steps. Oh no. Edward and Charlotte. Stephen is with me. Edward, you have to go. 

Alright, alright I’m goin.

Charlotte breaks in, No,no you fuckin go. Go the fuck away.

Edward says, Hush, hush now. 

And then Charlotte starts coughing uncontrollably. Gasping for breath.

Do I need to call you an ambulance?

She got the asthma attack says Edward.

Don’t need no fucking doctor. Doctor give me this motherfucker, and she waves he inhaler. 

Stephen tells me, that's the wrong medication.

Edward says, You don’t need to be lookin at me. I’m a fuckin 55 year old man. Dob’t need no father. You quit lookin at me. Hope cone you let these other motherfuckers stay here? 

That’s nighttime, Edward.

But they bad motherfuckrs. 

It’s not about them, it’s about you, I say.

Charlotte says, Alright then. We goin then. They gather stuff up. And as they begin to leave, she looks over  her shoulder and leaves me with an emphatic fuck you.

Stephen and I watching  as they set up across Amsterdam at the CVS. He challenges my theology of hope. I tell Stephen.  He’s been through every rehab program. Knows how they work backwards and forwards. Says he gave his life to Jesus three times  and nothing works. Kills me. We look t gem across the treet. And the thing is, strange as it is, what you see there is love,..

AS neighbor from next door comes in to talk about Marc’s continued concert last night. We talk. All ends up well.

Nancy stops i just t see how things are going. 

R and his attorney Michael, a decent singer/payer in his own rite, fe in to work together to preserve a future for RL here no matter what else happens.  While we’re talking, the man who wants ot kno what its to be holy drops in again. I point that i”m buy. he’ll have to come back later. her smiles and ambles off.

A German couple comes in. Asking about a play. The had been here to see the Tenant two summers ago. What’s going on now? i tel them about the Representatives. And talk about my s who lives in Berlin.

Two representatives of the Gottbaum campaign come in. Just to leave literature. Originally he was to have an event here, but it git cancelled. Even though he presents himself as the farthest left of the candidates,  wan to see where he stands on West-Park and unfulfilled promises as an issue. 

Late in the day, an old man  walks in. Clearly educated. Turns out he’s a retired professor. From Ethiopia. He shows us his campus ID. We google him. My God, you’ve written books, I say. And articles...expert on the horn of Africa...A divorce bankrupt him. He’s lost his green card. Has been sleeping in the subways. Something terribly wrong here. I use the Intefaith Assembly street sheets and give him the number and location of a safe haven as a last resort. Direct him to WSSFSH. He’s a perfect candidate. And Goddard -Riverside. Give him my card to carry with him. Stephen says it breaks his heart. Word.  Just not right.

Berik's painting

Berik and Leila setting up for tonght’s art opening in Mc Alpin.

I meet Katherine at Popovers for dinner. Just back rm Sri Lanka. She’s brought me a small creche and figures. She’s seeing Bazaorv with me tonight. But jet lag brings her down at intermission. Stephen and Cara watching tonight as well.

At intermission, after saying good night to Katherine, and seing her out  I check in on the Open Mic. Glen and Kim and Damarius have been working with RL all day. Damrius tending bar in a shirt and tie looks very classy.RL tells Damarius he’s glad he’s made parole. Damarius cocks an eye and laughs.  He  has a story with the punchline, will the defendant please rise, but we’ll let it go at that. 

I decide to stick with the open mic. Leila and Berik have  come in too. I do two emotional songs. things ar ebreaking up.

Berik

Stephen, Cara and I stand a longtime fetafter talking with Roger about the whole story of West-Park, especially the #OWS days. The craziness and richness of those days. Other listeners want all the details.

It’s been one of those times that                                                                                                           makes sampling me happy we’re here. Open Mic downstairs. Art show in Mc Alpin. Good play in the gym. Crowds moving back and forth through the building, Mixing and sampling in addition to who they came for.  Teddy loved these nights. He understood whawhat theythey mean to me. It's why we are here.

checking out the exhibit

Counting Cars

8/6

Milica Paranosic

The day begins with a visit from Milica and her partner Dan from the Composers Concordance.  The connection to Milica (say milichcia,she says, easier to say if you nod your head while you say it...) from Zoran. Fresh back from Shangahi.  She has a similar passion for life. And art. Knows the Ethel folk and also Carman Moore and the Sky Orchestra. She’s looking for a place for the final night of her festival in December. I’m hoping this will be the perfect place. (composerconcordance.com) (milicaparanosic.com)

RL, David and crew continue clearing out junk, making the chapel a usable space. 

Outside, there are two people on the steps. A youngish white guy, laid out reading his e-mail on an iPhone. When I speak to him, all he does is look at me, eventually raise his thumb. As he still doesn’t move, later I’ll send Danielle out to talk with him.

And then a man is asleep the south doorway. I rouse him. Tell him he can’t sleep here during the day. He looks at me intently. Why? 

We need to keep the steps open. 

Sanctuary? Church? That’s what this is? He reaches inside his shirt. I wear a St. Joseph scapula, I was an altar boy...

I’m sorry. His looks, his distinctive accent, I’m thinking northern New Mexico. His thin angularity. Color. Tied back hair. Headband.

He gets up. Walks a few steps down the street, turns throws a penny at me. Here’s a donation for your church, he says.

And as he’s gone, I wonder. Think I should have invited him inside to sleep on the pews. Asked his name. Realize I’m getting very worn. Losing my equilibrium. He haunts me.

Stephen is in for a conference call continuing our negotiations. Maybe this time we make it... Cara has come along. Takes her turn sweeping again. And playing the piano.

Anna has com In with questions about Keith. He’s back from treatment in Rochester. With an uncerain future. 

A man in an orange vest has been sitting in the south doorway all day long, a strange keyboard device in his lap. I ask him what he’s doing. Counting cars he says and keeps pushing keys.

Late in the day representatives of another new Jewish congregation come by for a visit. Taken aback by all that needs to be done. I get it. Three years ago, I liked the romance. The Berlin/Brooklyn/Havana vibe. Now, I’m tired of it. Not cool anymore. Fix it.

Glen and Evan and Jean and others involved with Glen’s upcoming night of new readings are in for a walk through, check out of the space and putting up posters outside. 

The Representatives like things  just the way they are. I’ve loved their  plays for years. They’ve completely captured the apartment play genre. Happy as I am for the plays they’ve prepared here, I’m excited that they’re finally doing a performance here. Their adaptation of Turgenev’s Fathers  and Sons  opens  this weekend. Of all the theater groups we work with, Stan and Matt are completely professional and rational and easy to work with. The confine the dama to their productions. I love seeing  their cast, hanging out in front of the 86th street door. Just hanging. I'm remembering the Tenant summer. Good.(http://brooklynbrewery.com/blog/event/bazarov-west-park-church/)

Nowhere to run...

11/3

The San Francisco Marathon Runners

Barney Greengrass is filled to overflowing with what feels like a larger than usual Saturday morning crunch. The woman ahead of me is lean and rangy, black hair, pierced lip. Seems a little old for that.

Later outside on the steps, I see group of people, including the woman, all eating lunch. Lots of Barney Greengrass bags. I walk over, half afraid they’re a visiting church group, but I have to know. So are you guys a group? 

A guy answers, yes we are, we are a group. 

So, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing here? 

The guy smiles. The question is, he says, is not what we are doing but what we are not doing. 

And what we are not doing is running the New York City Marathon tomorrow. 

Don’t hate us, says a woman. 

I am so sorry, I say.  Don’t be, a woman says, we get it. 

Up until yesterday afternoon at 5:30 PM, the mayor had kept insisting the race would go on. Spirit of the city. Need the  money. It may have been the photos on the front on the New York Post that did him in . The eight generators along Central Park West to keep tents in Central Park heated and lit while all over the city, people are in fearful darkness. So, too late for all those runners who had already arrived, he cancelled the race. 

No. I’ve done the marathon myself. Many times. It’s really special. I know you’ve got to be disappointed. Just wasn't the right time...So we do a round of trading cameras and picture taking.Then I invite them in for the architectural/social history tour. I ask them what they’re doing tonight. Drinking says one. Hey, it’s a church says another. Don’t worry,I said, we’ve been sponsored by Brooklyn Brewing and Lagunitas. 

And one responds, Wow, like California, he says.  I smile. Yeah, we’ll take that. (l I have learned they’re from the Bay Area. )

As we’re having this conversation, Jeremy G arrives to get ready for tonight’s performance of You Will Make a Differecne...His fiddle player is in the front of the sanctuary, warming up with some scales...Jeremy offers them free tickets to tonight’s performance...They’re very thankful. Say again that they have decided to drink tonight, do volunteer work tomorrow. 

I explain that they’re part of a long tradition. Their spirit goes into the walls. Becomes part of the spirit of the place.

Stan and Matt of the theater group who does plays in apartments, the Representatives, are here checking out rehearsal space. So we do the all over tour and Matt and Stan are reminded of how many different performing spaces we have.   They are the most serious and professional of any of the groups we work with. We had wanted to do a retrospective of their plays in December, but that looks as if that will have to wait awhile. 

Noche is having classes so I track down Martin. We sit down to talk. Nayelli has found shelter. It will take months to restore her ruined house.. At least. But she should be back to me before the end of the day. We want to wrap this up no later than Monday. I share this  information with Danielle.

Time to go home and get ready for the house concert with Shannon Beck from Seattle. Details from our organizing for hurricane relief are starting to  fall into place. Danielle still hard at work as I head out.