Easter 40 and 41: The joy of collaboration

5/29

Katie, Joe, RL and Pat: Stay Awhile

Steven S in again. Dividing up jobs with David S.

Pat has arrived for our weekly check in session. Update that to do list. We finish just in time for me to go meet Katherine and head to Williamsburg to see if I actually made it into the film part of the Representatives performance piece Tell. Took five hours to film one line.

5/30

I did. One line, 18 very dramatic seconds….

Outside on the steps, Keith approached me. All smiles. Tells me he’s in love. Needs to buy some roses. Some yellow roses of Texas  for his lady. He’s doing the This isn’t the marine, this is Keith routine. The marine was a warrior. But Keith just needs to love and be loved…

Well, all right then…

I am working real hard to finish my work promoting the Goodman 50^th anniversary event. I’m anxious about this. Jeremy M walks in. He wants to know what I’m working on, so I mention Rider... and Jeremy walks to the piano and starts knocking out a rolling piano version of I know you Rider gonna miss me when I’m gone..and soon I’m singing and I just know I’m going to do that song tonight. I knew it all day. Like there’s a song and I’m afraid to try it and also know that I ultimately have no choice.

Jeremy’s  hungry. I’ve got a long night ahead, so we walk to the Gate together for burgers.  While we’re there, RL walks by the open window where we’re sitting and interrupts to say Hi. ( Actually he asks if he can buy two for the balcony…) And Jeremy and I spend an hour talking about Jesus and empire and East German author  Stefan Heym and his King David Report and Wes Howard-Brooks’ Come Out my People and how they’re making  the same point  about how much of the Hebrew Scripture began as a mythic apology for Solomon’s empire and Jose Saramago and all of  sudden it’s late and I’ve only got a little time to practice before Esther shows up to rehearse. But that’s part of why I love Jeremy.

Esther arrives and it’s my job to get us over our mutual shyness and start us singing together. I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I learned my soccer mom friend was a rock’n’roll back up singer. In a band with Katie R, from the old P&G music gang, now relocated to West-Park. We get through one of mine. And then Pat O arrives and we start working on Hank Williams. Then  David S tells us he’s not feeling well and that he’s not feeling well and Pat will have to cover for him on sound.  And perform. Whoa.

Pat goes to check that out and Esther starts playing a Bonnie Raitt Song. And then People Get Ready…she’s really good. But really shy. And then Katie’s there and we’re into Down to the River to Pray…And when we’ve got the 3 part gospel harmony down on  that, I go get Pat. And now we go to work on Rider and soon enough Pat is roiling and the harmonies are coming. And I get then into the a capella break., OK, we’ll do this thing. We go over my original one time. Katie says, You’re not looking t each other, you’ve got to make like it’s about you two…I know what she means. Someone long ago told that to me. Well I’m not making  googly eyes, says Esther. Nonono, I say, just watch me….

Open Mic is underway. There ‘s a young woman from the UK, Anastasia, who pretty much rocks.

Anastasia rocks

A young R&B guy who get lost until RL tells him, sing a sing you sing walking down the street, pretend we’re not here…

Rashawn

Dion and his inimitable stylings. (Congratulations Dion on your scholarship for continuing ed, by the way…) Soon enough, there’s no more avoiding it…we’re up.

There's only one Dion

Esther, Katie, Pat, Bob: So Lonesome I Could Cry

Esther and I open with my Well… song. Then we bring Katie up with her violin and Pat and his guitar and are ready to start So Lonesome…And the lyrics are not there. Katie and Pat riff while I do a quick search. Ah, no…So I say to Esther, just watch me…and we just kill it…She does the country serious. And Katie gets an surprise round of applause for her violin break before the final verse.

I describe how Rider goes back to the 30’s and the Lomax field recordings. Used to be woman blues. Or black woman blues. And there’s the sweet high voice Joan Baez preDylan acoustic version. The Byrds jinglyjangly psychedelic version. And of course the Dead. And Hot Tuna. String Cheese Incident. And this is ours. How I was in a folks duo in college and my partner Linda went away to San Francisco for the summer and came back and said we had to change. She’s been exposed to the Dead. And so she led me into Rider. And a band. And I was never the same again. Musically speaking. Yeah, lots of versions. This one’s ours. 

i Know You Rider....

Esther’s not ready to take the lead yet, so we do an a capella Down to the River to pray, following Katie’s lead. And one again, the harmonies are all there. I’d forgotten the joy of working ensemble. Two-three voices dancing around each other in harmony. Seeing what goes, what stays. Working to get it right. Having to watch each other. Move in rhythm and spirit together. I’d forgotten how good that makes me feel. And also forgotten to turn in the zoom recorder.  OK, another time, I guess.

It takes awhile to come down. I’m settling down to listen to Joel when Keith comes in and sits beside me. A few faces askance, remembering his banishment. So I take him outside. His woman has disappeared.Since last night. He keeps going over This isn’t the marine, pastor, this is Keith, he had to come out again…

OK, we’ve been down this road before. By the time he gets to the yellow roses, I’m wondering why so many time he sounds like a script from a TV show. An afternoon TV show. But that’s not my concern. I need to respond objectively to where he is. She’s been gone since last night.So why didn't you tell me that this afternoon?, I ask.

He looks at me.

I just didn't want to  believe it. Pastor, this is Keith, not…

Yeah, look you’ve got two things to do. Go home. Wait. If she doesn't show by midnight, call 911 and file a missing person;s report. There’s nothing else you can do.

But pastor…

There’s nothing else you can do. He nods. Keep me posted. He nods again. Walks down the street.

I make the end of Joel’s set. The there’s Joe. And Joe recites a poem. Jose Saramago. Damn. Second appearance today.  And Pat. Usual fine stuff.  And then  RL calls up Katie.

Katie and RL

She told me outside how when she’s there helping RL with Harvey, in the late afternoon, when the sun’s going down, she loves to listen to RL sing.He’s called her up for Rustling winds…a very romantic song. I loved you once….her violin weeps. And before he finishes, RL is choking up.

We’re outside talking when RL calls us back in. We have to hear this new guy. Sam. A tall drink of water folksinger who does these talking buses style early Dylan/ArloGuthrie style intros. He’s halfway through a song. RL walking up cane in hand. Startles Sam. Has him start over, so we

Sam

can hear the whole song. The last folksinger in New York…Once again, the weekly surprise.

The last act is the old cowboy, Country Joe. Who calls Pat, tonight’s go to guy, to accompany him for King of the Road and Kansas City. An then RL and Katie and Joe and Pat take us out with Stay Awhile. Like always.

We invite Sam to meet us at the Gate and e agrees. It’s been a  night of collaboration. And I feel very happy. Very happy. 

Pat...with Country Joe

It's about family

5/17

Jen from next door has come with her daughter to look at some spaces. For her alumni group. She’s one  of the women who planned and helped a successful candidates’ forum to happen. But more than that, she’s on the board of the Goodman Foundation. As in Goodman, Schwerner and Cheyney. In 1964, three Freedom Riders were murdered in Mississippi. One of them, Andrew Goodman, lived next door to West-Park. Next summer is the 50th anniversary of this watershed event during the American Civil Rights journey. We need to have an event here, next door to where he lived, to reflect on that experience and what it meant, what it means today. We agree to work on that together.

Jeremy is in to finally take down his set up from the candidates’ forum. We want to take in another Knicks game together, if they manage to survive.  

Marc is hard a work setting up for Carman Moore’s rehearsal later today.

Stephen and Mitchell are hard at work going over figures to make something work.

Carman Moore’s Sky Orchestra has arrived for their rehearsal. The sounds of their music swell and fill the walls of the church. It feels loose and free flowing but he is exacting and knows precisely what he wants us to hear. I watch Kiori’s body against Catarina’s projections and the sound of Beppe’s bowls. Later, we’ll stand on the steps and talk over the events of the week. My strangely rising sense of hope.  I am so thankful for Beppe’s bringing this event our way. And that after having experienced so many performances here he’s  now a performer himself. Beppe has brought this gift to this place. While talking with him, I feel the warmth of the sun, things are feeling better. 

(Why do mice always look so sneaky running across a floor?)

RL drops in for a visit. Asks how it’s going. I tell him. He invites me to visit him at his office. 

About 3 PM Stephen tells me the numbers work. It seems we have a plan.  At 6 PM  Martin tells me the don’t. OK, enough for now. marina and Sol from Noche are dancing with another flamenco group tonight in the East Village. I’m on my way. 

I remember my first experience of flamenco in New Mexico. The sound of the feet pounding, I could almost see sparks, the tension, the passion, the sense of pride and power that shines through the eyes of the women, the ululating wail of the male singers in their cantes, their gritos. I could follow that anywhere. Lose myself in it. Marina is moved that I’m coming. It’s about family, I say. 

That was then

3/14

The West 80’s Neighborhood Association has come with a three part agenda. First: make all arrangements for a May candidates forum at West-Park. Our Council member Gale Brewer is being term-limited out of office. After many long years of it’s being Gale’s office, someone else must now be elected and that relationship will be important to us. Gale’s aide Jesse is with us.

Next they want to look at Bill’s proposal for a tower light installation. Reflecting both a new dawn, a new birth, and referencing  our role as the birthplace of the More Light Movement for lgbtq inclusion at every level. We’re surprised that our neighbors are favorably impressed and see the lights as a new beacon, a sign of hope, a plus for the neighborhood. 

Third: they want to know about our plans. We tell them things are still in negotiation. They are supportive. Want to see life here. Vitality. Egress may be an issue. They agree to help work on easements.

One of the members of the group visiting us is on the board of the Andrew Goodman Foundation. Andrew was one of the three Freedom Riders murdered by the Ku Klux Klan outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi in the summer of 1964. He grew up next door to West-Park. I met his mother once at a community meeting. They were classic examples of what the Upper West Side once was. Our new neighbor moved into the Goodman home. learned the history. Felt she had an obligation to carry it on. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Goodman)  It is important these stories not be lost.

Andrew Goodman

As we finish, Cara and Nicole are at the piano. Trying to recapture some of what Amanda and Cara had created. It takes awhile to get the synergy. Nicole is one of Jeremy’s back up singers but has a voice worth following on her own.

I see the door open and in  from the cold comes Isis, back from Oklahoma. El Borracho is in the back of the church, cell phone in hand. I speak to him and he leaves. Soon, I am watching as Dzieci works methodically through the Passion Play they will be performing at West-Park on Palm Sunday. I’ve seen their finished products, but never their process. Kimberley is observing, enthralled to see Grotowski/ Brook  theatre theory embodied and carried out. I’m watching the Yeshua character, with tallis, entoning the Hebrew blessings. 

Jamie comes in and sits down beside me. Soon will be time for the Public Hearing. We learned to treat them with caution seven years ago in another life when we brought a proposal for housing their way. And the night I was accused of being responsible for the death of Arthur Cafiero while the committee chair said nothing. That was then. Tonight should be different.