A victory for the workers. For the people, For organizing

2/10-12

Carlos and I get ready for the press conference

The cold frozen world continues. Keeps us inside. Kind of claustrophobic. So what’s been going on?

Monday.  Martin comes in to talk. It has been a very frustrating stretch for him. There are things that need attending  to. Issues to be  resolved. He brings passion to everything he does. And he takes pride in his company and its work. And things that get in  the way of his doing the kind of work he wishes to create,in every aspect, become very frustrating. He needs to feel we’re in this with him. And I want to do the best we can to make it work.

RL looks in and I let him know we’re finishing a conversation. And that we’ll pick up later.

Pat O comes in for another look at the bottom line and another discussion hopefully leading to a strategic plan to enlist  the community in raising the money necessary to fixing the façade.

Tuesday

John H and I go across the street to the Bean. We need to review the activity that’s been going on here. The Workcenter.  Dzieci. Bread and Puppet. How can we bring  together all those who  have been drawn to these explorations of archetype, ritual, mystery. And service.  They are common themes.  They are/can be the basis of an ongoing community.   What is the nature of that community? How does it relate to something called church?          

My son Dan is arriving from Philadelphia to help with my unpacking.        

And later, off to Newark to teach.

Wednesday 

7:30 AM is a time that normally doesn’t exist for me. From my new place, to get there on time I need to be up by 6.   And if I’m up that early, I should be on a trip somewhere.  But it’s just to City Diner. Center folks. West-Park folks. Community folks. Working on building a plan to make a major capital campaign to support the work we need to do.  We continue to believe that   the community has  special responsibility when it comes to the  landmarked exterior. That part of our building that has been declared essential to the community’s  cultural heritage. Pat O has some good ideas about resources at Columbia grad school.

Mim and I stay longer to discuss plans for another seminary intern to start next fall. Exciting to think of creating what Ted refers to as a teaching campus. That would fulfill a dream of mine.

After my conversation with Mim, I walk up the street to the new coffee shop where Tracy works. I want to talk to her about the victory of the anti-sweatshop campaign over Dominos pizza, a campaign she helped launch. With me. Almost two years ago on a cold wet day. Now she’s running a coffee shop while taking her first courses to be a nurse.  From organizing to serving. In the coffee shop, she enjoys the conversations with the ever shifting cast if characters who come in for coffee. And a word.

Soon enough I’m on my way down to the Lower Eastside for the press conference with the National Movement Against Sweatshops(NMASS) , our neighborhood Sweatshop Free Upper WestSide and Justice Will be Served.  Just like the earlier victories over Saigon Grill and more briefly over V&T’s, this is a milestone victory. It’s the first against a corporation, not just a local establishment. It came with a city wide boycott, not just our neighborhood. It validated the workers’ complaints against their employers.

Cut off the evasive bankruptcy strategy. It was a victory for organizing. And one of the signs of good organizing is that the organizers and workers keep discerning clearly definable and winnable issues. They haven’t lost yet. And each victory builds workers strength. This latest victory is a 1.3 million dollar judgment against Dominos, to be paid to the workers.

We’re in a worker center on the edge of the ever expanding Chinatown even as the core of Chinatown begins to fall to gentrification. The press conference will be conducted in Spanish, Mandarin and English. I look at the array of microphones in front of me. 41, or canal quarenta y uno, and Telemundo, the big Spanish language stations, msnbc, a  Chinese language station and New York 1, the most watched local news. One more small victory.  One more small step forward.

Vespers

2/1

I am America

Dealing with the last man standing, one man band,  here alone reality. Three things happening at once. One: the plumber called in to deal with non-flushing toilets. We’ve got a performance tonight.

Two: Martin sees the plumber and needs to tell me that if the gas is being turned back on, he’s getting out. Yesterday was truly serious. The carbon monoxide got to Soli. His friend with the FDNY said it was very dangerous. I get defensive. The plumber is staring at us. He leaves. I go outside and apologize for getting defensive. Affirm that I find carbon monoxide scary too and we’re doing our best. And the guy fixing toilets is not turning any gas back on. Not until Monday. Well, just let me know, OK? He insists. And I agree.

Three: While all this is going on, the Workcenter is now rehearsing in the dark in the balcony theatre because the lighting they put in has popped a breaker. So I call Danielle to find the breaker box and head upstairs with flashlight. Find the box. Flip the switch. Lights back on.

Yesterday, John H was telling Danielle he used to fantasize being a pastor. Reading in the morning. Theological discussions with parishioners in the afternoon. Finishing the day with evening prayer. Nothing about boilers, fuse boxes, crazy people with shopping carts and toilets. What intro to ministry really needs to have. Basic economics. And building maintenance. Like basic flushometer. That’s ministry. Well not all, but more than you ever thought or anyone ever told you.

Finally it’s evening. Time for The Workcenter’s performance of I am America. A dramatic performance of poetry by Alan Ginsburg. A look at America through the eyes of a beat poet through the eyes of a European artist in the tradition of Grotowski.

Mario actually has a rootsy rationale for the use of southern American and black work song music to accompany Ginsburg. Ginsburg was rooted in beat which was rooted in jazz which was rooted in the African-American music tradition so take it back beyond jazz to the roots and there you are.

It’s cold. The performance is in the balcony theatre. The old Papp theatre. Last used by Jeremy G and his Alivewire theatre group. And Jeremy G is here working with Mario. Yes it’s cold.  But there’s a full house. Katherine and Mim are here. And several Noche folks. We’re packed in tight. That will help keep us warm.

I give a welcome and the performance begins. It unfolds. Like the American flag. Immigrants. Slaves. All who wound  up on this shore. Translated through Ginsburg’s incantatory poetry. Venturing into Bread & Puppet territory prophetic critique but never losing the beat throughline. The audience transfixed. Not always clear. But present. So this was our evening prayer. Our vespers.

The applause is long and sustained.

In the tradition of West-Park we carry on heat or no. Back to our first rebirth beginnings in the freezing cold of winter three years ago. Wanting to be on the verge of a real rebirth. Now.

Chim, chimney Chim, chimney Chim, chim, cher-ee…

1/30

It’s been a long, cold, slow week. The continued frigid weather slows things down. Keeps us inside. Hunkered down, so to speak. Desiring hibernation. My own fatigue and virus doesn’t help as I just want to stay under the covers.

Tuesday there’s little time spent in the office on the way  to the Presbytery meeting in Harlem. Good to go to a meeting for once where West-Park is not at risk. Our business this time involves presenting an overture to our national General Assembly this summer on a study of  current US drug policy and how it impacts people of color and those of low income.  We also have an action on Marriage Equality. A lot of congregations have endorsed the right of a clergy person to perform marriages as their conscience allows in states where the law permits it. West-Park wanted to go further, and strike those words, where the law permits …Civil law should not determine our ecclesiastical law. It’s either right or not. My colleagues should not remain vulnerable to charges while I can perform any marriage I feel called to perform.

The ensuing debate was a bit odd. Many speakers began by saying of course they agreed, but…. Our version attracted some conservatives who liked it’s either/or and separation of church/state character. One African-American pastor reminded us of how marriage had been stolen from their historic community. Finally liberal gradualism and political expedience won out and our offering was defeated. The qualified motion passed by a large margin. (Like West-Park’s last victory…)

RL and I spend a frustrating hour trying to figure out why the boiler isn’t working. It keeps looking  like something simple.

Noche is hard at work when the boiler clearly is no longer working. Danielle puts out the call for help and boiler people soon arrive. Pat O has come by to continue work on developing a critical analysis of current options and an alternative plan. Excel spreadsheets, color coded and all.

A long and frustrating boiler day.  It’s on and off three times. Danielle reports a scary early morning flaming blow back. When it’s  working, it’s like a mechanical system on crack. Manic and hyper. Ready to do harm. New radiator leaks. Steaming pipes. The boiler people seem befuddled and each further complicated effort seems to take us further from solution. The want us to invest in a new radiator. Bring in a chimney sweep. I tell Danielle to google Chim, chimney Chim, chimney Chim, chim, cher-ee…

Session is working in seriously evaluating  options while I’m running around with boiler people. It’s like on Apple care when you start with a simple enough problem and 45 minutes later they want you uninstall everything on your computer…Something wrong here….all of this taking me back to the winter of no heat, back when we first began...the 

Meanwhile in the sanctuary, the voices of Mario’s singers conjure fields and late night gatherings down south….even as I notice so many different global accents… I notice some Dzieci have joined in. I see this emerging community and wonder again how we can interrelate, collaborate…plant something that can grow…

The mass is ended

1/23

The frozen world continues. Achingly cold. Spend time with the man RL refers to as Lawman Michael at the Gate discussing a wide variety of legal matter before he is joined by his two beautiful children  and wife and soon to arrive next child.

Back at the church, Jeremy G and a productions guy are going over things for the Workcenter’s upcoming  performances.

Matt from Dzieci wants to schedule time for upcoming Dzieci explorations of Sacred Harp. A page from Bread & Puppet. What is it about these old southern and Appalachian music forms that so connects with these European Grotowski children? We talk about plans for this years’ Passion Play as well..

RL interrupts to make sure that Matt knows and will relay to the other  Dzieci the importance of keeping water  taps open during this cold...

Noche is hard at work on their studio, the sounds of pounding feet.

The rest of the Dzieci arrive. Bundled against the cold, they begin a rehearsal of the Fool’s Mass. They’ve got a performance this weekend in Kingston. Even out of costume,they begin to assume their characters. The asylum’s inmates emerge. And I get drawn in. Until the last moment when Ryan walks unsteadily but determinedly down the aisle. Looks at us and says The mass    is    ended.  And then, Go   in    peace. And then as an afterthought, raises his fingers to his mouth in a shhhhhh sound. And even in this form, still profoundly transformational. 

I see Teresita and give her a hug. She says I still look out and see my Sanctuary friends sitting there. We really had something for awhile. I had to go….lots of reasons…but…it’s sad…we had something…Tell Jeremy I miss him. I’m going to come hear him perform some day. And I hug he ronce more.