Together we'll find a way....

9/8

Gathered to talk about a future for West-Park

The day was spent in focused preparation for a meeting with our closest community neighbors.  Ever since the landmarking struggle of 2010, there has been an ongoing awkward dance. West-Park has always believed that once our building was declared  a significant piece of the community’s shared cultural heritage, there was an implied obligation of the community to share in the restoration and preservation of the building. And that is an important distinction.

There has always been a need on the community’s part to know that West-Park could be/would be responsible for its own operating experiences. The neighborhood had no obligation to save the church. This of course quickly leads into a conversation involving chickens and eggs, oranges and apples and carts and horses and other assorted metaphors and analogies mixed and not. The issues always have been interrelated.

At the heat of the battle, there was of course (then) Councilmember Brewer’s promise of $10 million, which she believed passionately she could raise. She did succeed in helping raise the $80000 that brought a new boiler. There have been approaches and avoidances  and uncertainties.

But we are at a new day. West-Park can now reasonably say that it will support itself, one way or another. The partnerships with Noche, Shen Wei and Town Square are  all for 5 years. There is a new city council member, Helen Rosenthal, who explicitly campaigned with West-Park as an issue. The Center at West-Park s waiting to (finally) become a reality. And so the day is spent getting ready. And we meet at 6 to go over roles and responsibilities and who will speak to what. Pat has brought the graphic reports on reconstruction and priorities he previously prepared. Mim has brought refreshments. We’re nearly ready.

Our visitors begin to arrive. Mitch from north, who’s always expressed interest and openness. Jen from next door who when she learned about the history of the Goodman family who had been there joined their work. Melissa who handles communication for our neighborhood association, who saw Antigona and was completely blown away, she got it. Martin’s mom from across the street.  Martin. Session members and center board members. And of course, Helen.

I welcome everyone. Pat shares his overview of what has been accomplished, what had to be done to achieve that, and what needs to happen next. Martin spoke of how Antigona came to happen here because of a particular vision, that both inspired him and sustained him and encouraged him to step out and make it happen.

Martin makes a point

Which Luli spoke to as well, as one who lives right across the street. Helen spoke of the limitations of government but her willingness to walk with us. Laurie of what we have coming up. And we asked what kind of structure was needed so that the community would feel comfortable committing to the process. For a moment, there was one of those  step back moments to which I said, No, we need to keep moving forward….

Which out on the steps, Helen told me was the right way to go.  The community has to see us ready to keep walking forward with them. (Of course there is more  than enough rational reason on our side to be less than completely trustful.) This is a new day.  Time to keep moving.

Freedom Summer: The next generation (not about nostalgia)

6/9

This summer marks the 50^th anniversary of Freedom Summer, 1964, the summer white and black college students from the north bussed to Mississippi to work for voter registration and voting rights of African-Americans. On June 21^st, their first day in Mississippi, three young men, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner were arrested and released. And then disappeared. During the days of searching for them, eight other bodies of local young black men were found. And eventually, Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. Murdered. (A movie, Mississippi Burning, was made about this case.)The anger over these murders would eventually lead on July 2^nd to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

One of the three, Andy Goodman, grew up right next door to West-Park. He grew up in a neighborhood with a progressive ethos, home to long time union people who had moved up town, old school Jewish communists, civil rights activists. A neighborhood that understood and affirmed his choice to go. A neighborhood that gave birth to people like Andy. It’s a very different Upper West Side now. His mother Caroline established  a foundation to keep his work and legacy alive. And his brother David has worked to encourage the next generation of workers for justice.

Since most of the events around the actual date, June 21^st, would be in Philadelphia, Mississippi, we felt it important to lift up Andy’s life and witness here in his own neighborhood. And so worked with the Andrew Goodman Foundation to put together our commemoration. Our main commitment was that it would not be about nostalgia.

jeremy and musicians

West-Park’s Jeremy Mage curated the music with support from  Andre Solomon-Glover, Marcelle D. Lashley and Monica Hope. They began with the old Freedom Songs, done with their own soul and gospel style. 

Our city council member Helen Rosenthal brought a commendation to the Andrew Goodman Foundation. As she read the proclamation from council, I looked and noticed that she was crying.

Helen Rosenthal delivers the proclamtion

Later in the night, our Borough President Gale Brewer would bring her own proclamation. David, Andy’s brother, had been looking for Gale all night long because of their years of friendship and her support his work. Gale also spoke of her love and respect for Caroline Goodman, an activist into her 90’s. I am happy to have met her in support of the church. In 1965, she sad of her decision, I still feel that I would let Andy go to Mississippi again ... [E]ven after this terrible thing happened to Andy, I couldn’t make a turnabout of everything I believe in.

It’s that spirit we were here to honor.

Dr. Forbes preached

Our keynote was Dr. Jim Forbes, of the Riverside Church and Union Seminary. He spoke of his days as a young man at lunch counter sit ins. And then drew on the Bible story of Cain and Abel fro his thoughts. And went after the whole issue of violence, including the insanity of gun violence in our American culture.

He was my brother

Before our panel, we had another music break and this time Jeremy had me take the lead on Paul Simon’s He Was my Brother, a song written to honor civil rights workers, dedicated to his Queens College classmate Andy after the murders. 

He was my brother

Our responders were carefully chosen to show the more broadly interfaith reality of our culture today and the expanding circles of hate and prejudice and their effects. Stosh Cotler came from Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. (Named fro Martin Luther King Jr’s quote: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.)

  She chided her own community for moving away from the movement as they became more comfortable and challenged them to reengage. She has helped establish a truly progressive organization focused entirely on national and local issues.  And called on u sot join them in a candlelight vigil to stop the roll back of voter rights currently underway in the American south, aided and abetted buy the courts.

Our good friend Simran Jeet Singh was to come and speak of his experiences as a Sikh after 911, but got stuck in an airport after a valiant day long effort to make it back in time for the event. (for a video of Simran’s previous visit to West-Park go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idTriW2IjPw)

City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Linda Sarsour

Linda Sarsour, Exdcutive Director of the Arab American Association of New york came to us through her friend Helen Rosenthal. She was direct and o the point, going straight to issues like stop and frisk and the NYPD’s focused harassment of Muslims.  A Palestinian – American from Brooklyn, and a mother—Linda brought the word strong and true.

Our three speakers spoke of what they appreciated most about each other speaker.  In his wrap up, Dr. Forbes, quoting Father Divine, called me a tangibilitator which felt pretty good.

Stosh Cotler, Dr. Brashear, Dr. Forbes, Linda Sarsour

More stirring music. Then it was over.  A beautiful and powerful night. It’s hard to leave. Circles of people standing around, talking. What was. What is. What is to come.

David Goodman interviewed by WBAI. They carried the event live then filed a story. To hear the story go to :http://www.wbai.org/articles.php?article=2031       

Thanks David, for keeping the flame burning...

A cold day and a conversation with Helen

2/27

Westside Clergy meets with Helen Rosenthal

The weather has turned cold again. I wake up Joe and La Toya and ask him to stop in my office before he leaves. I’ve been talking with contacts at the Interfaith Assembly. Even though the latest life skills program started last week, Joe could still get in if he shows up today. The program involves what you might call employment readiness plus the kind of basic planning and organizing skills it takes to manage a life. Everyone in the program gets a mentor to walk with them usually there’s an employment internship at the end of the program. And there’s a tie in with housing with Valley Lodge, one of our Westside Federation for Supportive and Senior Housing facilities. We were going to host the program but it wound up at our friend the West End church instead due to some unresolved building issues.  Joe promises to check it out. Later in the day, he tells Danielle there’s a conflict with his GED program and he may not make it.  OK then.

Two guys, one  with Otis on his shirt, are in to look at the elevator. After five years, we’re ready to get it going again. I show them the engine room in the basement and they prepare to open it up and check it out.

Karen comes in to play the piano and Cara is happy for the music as she works.

John H comes by to return  the keys from his Dark Lady Players rehearsal, talk about his upcoming immersive event in Brooklyn and a four day festival he’s planning. As radical as his Shakespeare authorship theories are (http://www.darkladyplayers.com/), John is getting better and better at presenting his ideas in ways that entertain and engage and not just weigh you down with academic argument. He’s still got a long way to go pushing that dramaturgical stone up hill, but it’s a start.

Outside, Marty is sitting in the freezing cold, hand outstretched.

Marty its freezing cold.

It’s cold every winter.

But this is the coldest in years.

Listen, if you’re going to play Broadway, you have to play Fargo, North Dakota first. Without an overcoat. JFK walked down Pennsylvania Avenue without an overcoat. Harry Truman walked down Pennslvania Avenue without an overcoat. Where’s Oral Roberts from? Iowa? Kansas?

No, Tulsa, Oklahoma, I lived there ten years.

He took all the money he made from broadcasts and built a hospital. Who else is from Tulsa, Joel Osteen?

I don’t think so. He’s somewhere else.

I listen to him every week. He knows that if you want to get people to listen to your sermon, you have to start with a good story. Just like my father. Remember that, Reverend.

Marty, stay warm.

                                                      * * * *

Cara, Danielle and I have been scrambling around getting ready for our meeting with our new City Council member Helen Rosenthal. Our neighborhood clergy are gathering to meet with her. She’s been held up by a budget committee meeting. Her first. So we have time to review our agenda before she arrives. Which she does, soon enough, breathless and in need of a little food after a day of no breaks since breakfast.

Here are the issues we raise:

Helen makes a point

* Food justice. Especially the Lunch4Learning campaign to secure universal free school lunch in the city.  Also support for the ongoing work to create a sweatshop free Upper Westside.  We talk about ways to visibly identify the small businesses who have pledged to obey the law and honor fair labor practices. Still strikes us as strange that simply obeying the law is still a fight…She wants to work with us on this and take part in our worker solidarity day in May. And we talk about the overwhelming demand on our food pantries and programs since the draconian cuts last November.

* Homelessness. We’re all experiencing the effects of the doubling of homeless people during the Bloomberg years. And the warehousing of people . And the inefficiency and irrationality of the privatization of homeless services. She writes down those phrases, warehousing, privatization of homelessness. Father Duffel points out that as chair of the contracts committee, Helen has power over who gets these contracts. It’s time to get them away from slumlords and work with successful community based programs like WSSFSH. Helen takes careful notes.

* Finally, landmarking. There are a variety of issues here. It affects many of our congregations. There is the basic church state issue: our buildings were left to us not as ends in themselves but as means to mission. That needs to be primary with no imposition from outside. On the other hand, we are aware of the work done in the UK (sadly not US) in the area of theology of built environment. That is what we build, where we build and how we build, and conversely, what we preserve or tear down, has profound theological and spiritual consequences for the communities we live in. We do believe, however, that if a community deems a particular building as an integral part of its cultural heritage, there is an accompanying responsibility to help preserve that building as part of our common shared legacy. You can’t impose state restrictions on the one hand and then use separation theory to avoid support. Helen admits as to not having known what to do when the West-Park designation came before Community Board 7 while she was chair. And that the community and politicians had left promises unfulfilled. We agree to have one meeting focusing just on this.

Pastors Elise and Bob, Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Marc Greenberg of the Interfaith Assembly

We’ve reached the end of our agreed upon time.  The Dzieci folks are anxious to begin their  Sacred Harp singing. Elise is anxious to get to Advent and prepare for tonight’s Palestine Film Series movie. Mark G of the Interfaith Assembly, Helen and I retreat to my office to wrap up. She is interested in a regular meeting with our clergy group as a sounding board, values check. I encourage to continue to create her own office, that is be herself and not try and live up to any other images of what a Councilmember is. She is already doing that. An engaging combination of policy wonk, numbers cruncher and boundless enthusiasm for political engagement.  This should be good.

                                                      * * * *

While I’m meeting with Helen and Marc, a friend of my friend Jack, Mark P, drops by a DVD of Jack’s living memorial. When I’m alone later, I watch it and am happy to see that I was there. And that I too was a reader and part of this living tribute. I study the pictures. Remember the day. He left a collection  of 10 poems as well.

Dzieci enters the sanctuary. Lloyd and the Workcenter contingent are in the gym for Open Choir. Martin and Noche still in rehearsal. I’m on my way to join Elise at Advent for the Attack, another in our Palestine series. Raises questions about the complexity of relationships under occupation. And we struggle with insights into what pushes people into terrorism, the limits of liberal tolerance without attention to power dynamics.  Elise asks me to lead the discussion. As always, it’s hard. Very hard. Emotions run deep. We stay at it. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787442/)