Galileo 2.0, p.
17
Volume 1, Number 26 FREE
Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Theatre, was at City Hall in September 2004 for the announcement of the Fourth
Arts Block deal with the city. Seven properties on E. Fourth St. between Bowery and Second Ave., plus several
vacant lots, were sold for $1 each to Fourth Arts Block, a.k.a. FAB. Under the deal, the properties were permanently
dedicated for use by cultural, nonprofit organizations, assuring that the theaters, dance studios and other artistic
uses on the block would not disappear.
Ellen: The Mama of them all
BY JERRY TALLMER
It must be at least 30 years ago that
I went to visit Ellen Stewart at N.Y.U.
Hospital. She was all dolled up in
bed in a fancy pink and yellow ruffled
nightgown. “Hello, honey,” she said
in that wonderful, inimitable, sharp-
edged, soft-core Geechee English that
now none of us will ever hear again. “I
died twice since you saw me last.”
Well, three strikes is out — or
maybe 53 strikes of terminating illness,
all told, since then. Ellen Stewart,
the creator and lifelong prime mover
of Off Off Broadway’s world-embrac-
ing La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental
Theatre Club), departed this earth late
Wednesday night or early Thursday
morning, January 13, 2011.
She may have been 91. She may
have been more. Ellen wasn’t going
to tell you. The New York Times gives
her birth date as November 7, 1919,
East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown
her place of birth as Chicago, her place
of death as Beth Israel Hospital in this
city, and says she “spent her childhood
years” between Chicago and the rather
smaller Alexandria, Louisiana, though
I always thought it was the other way
round, Louisiana first — Geechee ter-
rain — then Chicago.
It was all a sort of mystery, an
unwritten — never-to-be-written —
Faulkner novel. But once — just once
— when she was letting drop a little
bit about her days in Chicago before
coming to New York, she hit me with
a sunny little s--t-eating Shirley Temple
smile, and then: “Some people used to
think me pretty, you know.”
Pretty? As my mother would have
said, Cleopatra isn’t in it. Sheer café-
au-lait gorgeous is what Ellen was,
and ever more so as the years went by
and the fragility burned ever brighter.
Fragile — but oh my! Henry James
145 SIXTH AVENUE • NYC 10 013 • COPYRIGHT © 2011 COMMUNITY M E D I A , L L C
File photo
would have had a field day word-
painting it for us, Ellen Stewart’s ever-
increasing incandescence.
This farewell is being written sev-
eral days before a Mass for Ellen was to
be held Monday morning January 17,
at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue
and 50th Street — a most appropriate
locale in the light of what Ellen, in a
profile by me in Thrive, had recalled a
few years ago about her arrival in New
York in 1950 as an unknown would-be
fashion designer.
A cab driver had charged her
50 bucks to take her from Grand
Central Station to the Hotel Theresa
in Harlem, but Fidel Castro, as it hap-
pens, had taken over the whole Hotel
Theresa. Somehow she found another
hotel.
“Monday morning the man on the
Continued on page 4
Ellen Stewart, 91,
doyenne of La MaMa
and all avant drama
BY WICKHAM BOYLE
Ellen Stewart, the mercu-
rial, magical, inventive, pre-
scient founder and longtime
artistic director of the famed
La MaMa Theatre, died in
New York City on Jan. 13.
Stewart was my mentor, my
boss, my partner, the grand-
mother to my children —
and to generations of us
who worked in New York
City or American or world
theater, she was our mother.
Everything about Ellen
Stewart is swathed in mys-
tery and wonder. Even The
Parents see red
after Black makes
abortion remark
BY ALINE REYNOLDS
Cathie Black, the city’s
new schools chancellor, had
little to say at last Thursday’s
School Overcrowding Task
Force meeting organized by
Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver. But the little that she
did say made headlines and
sparked outrage around the
city.
Task force member Eric
Greenleaf, a business profes-
sor at New York University’s
Stern School of Business,
has done extensive research
on the population boom in
January 20 - 26, 2011
New York Times, bastion of
fact, attributes three possi-
ble dates for her birth, from
1917 to 1919. Her birth-
place was Chicago, but her
accent morphed. It was dif-
ferent when she spoke to the
press, her adoring audiences
or to her bad “babies,” and
it could range from Geechee
Louisianan, to across the
world or become the grit-
tiest street-corner banter.
Like the theatrical form she
spawned, global, multicul-
Continued on page 5
Lower Manhattan and the
resulting overcrowding in
its public schools. When he
presented his latest data to
Black on Thursday, showing
an estimated need for 1,000
additional seats by 2015,
Black made a verbal gaffe
that riled up the entire edu-
cation community.
“Could we just have some
birth control for a while? It
would really help us all out,”
joked Black.
The comment was
Continued on page 8
EDITORIAL,
LETTERS
PAGE 12
MENDEZ GETS
TOUGH ON ASTHMA
PAGE 22
2 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

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A family member cried as she was taken in for questioning by police after a shoot-
ing on E. Second St. near Avenue C on Jan. 12.

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POLICE BLOTTER
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accomplice, described as a black woman,
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coat with a hood, a dark hat and carrying
¶WT A family dispute in an apartment at 225
E. Second St. around 9 a.m. Wed., Jan. 12,
a purse, was acting as lookout, police said.
Anyone with information should call Crime
:<5  <UPVU:X\HYL7HYR5VY[O7SHaH·4HUOH[[HU ended with gunfire and a 33-year-old man Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or make
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in critical but stable condition at Bellevue a report online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.
,HZ[YK:[)[^U:V\[OLYU
)Y\JRULY·)YVU_ Hospital with a gunshot wound in the abdo- com or text to CRIMES (274637) and enter
:(;  )V^SPUN.YLLU7HYR)LH]LY:[·4HUOH[[HU men, police said. TIPS577. All calls are confidential.
The shooter, also male — identified in a
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:(;  ;LRZLY]L >LZ[YK:[YLL[·4HUOH[[HU — fled, police said. The victim, reportedly a
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ative in the second-floor apartment between
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 Avenues A and B when the shooting occurred, Firefighters found a man, 63, dead of
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:(;  /HIHUH6\[WVZ[-\S[VU:[·)YVVRS`U were no arrests as of Tues., Jan. 18. room of his fourth-floor apartment at 362
E. 10th St. on the afternoon of Wed., Jan.
:<5  3LUV_/PSS5LPNOIVYOVVK/V\ZL,[O:[· 12. The alarm came in at 2:49 p.m. and
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Woman thrown, mugged
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the Fire Department. The blaze was under
4HUOH[[HU Police are seeking public assistance in investigation but was believed to have
locating a man and a woman wanted in started in the victim’s apartment. Police
=PZP[[LRZLY]LJVTYLJ`JSPUNMVYTVYLPUMVYTH[PVU connection with a Sat., Jan. 8, mugging of said a .32-caliber revolver was recovered
HUKSVJH[PVUKL[HPSZ a woman at 5:26 a.m. in front of 608 E. in the bathroom where the victim, Mike
Ninth St. between Avenues A and B. The Zecchino, was found. The victim, a resident
-69(33;/05.:(773, man grabbed the victim, 26, from behind, of the apartment for 30 years, is believed
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ment and fled with the bag, police said. be a hoarder whose disorderly apartment
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(FRORJ\&HQWHU The mugger was described as a black man was crammed with various articles. The
HUK[OL.YHWOPJ(Y[Z between ages 35 and 45, wearing a dark Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was
knit cap with white trim, a gray hooded
 >9+:;9,,;  ;,2:,9=,*64
jacket and a long coat with fur trim. His Continued on page 6

SCOOPY’S
NOTEBOOK
GO DOGS GO — ALL NIGHT LONG! New York famous-
ly has 24-hour diners and delis, overnight pharmacies and
numerous other round-the-clock spots. Now, for the New
York dog that has everything, there will also be a 24-hour
dog run — at Washington Square Park. We were tipped
off by Margie Rubin, a disabled activist from Westbeth,
who sent us a letter last week complaining that while an
alcove she used to enjoy sitting in in her wheelchair is being
reduced in size in the park’s renovation, the new dog run
for large dogs is going to be going, in the words of Lionel
Ritchie, “all night long” from now on. Philip Abramson,
a Parks Department spokesperson, confirmed to us in an
e-mail: “There will be an entrance to the large dog run on
Washington Square South which will allow the dog run
to be open overnight while the rest of the park is closed.
It was requested by the local dog owners who would use
the run. This is part of the renovation’s Phase III, which
includes the park house/comfort station. We hope to start
construction in late spring/early summer and finish one year
later.” Asked if it was the first all-hours dog run in one of
the city’s public parks, Abramson said, “I believe so.” Many
questions remain unanswered, though, about “Club Canine.”
Will small dogs from the nearby small dog run try to crash
the pooch party? Will there be a V.I.P. area for the hot dogs
(and we’re not talking dachshunds)? Will a pit bull be the
bouncer at the gate?
KOCH CONSISTENT: Ed Koch said that his former
Greenwich Village co-district leader from the 1960’s, Carol
Greitzer, recently sent him an old newspaper clipping from

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PMsWWWVILLAMOSCONICOM 'XQHV3URSHUWLHVRI&KDUOHVWRQ
File photo
Maria Skouras, made up as a mermaid, helped sell
raffle tickets at the P.S. 41 “Atlantis” fundraiser in
April 2008.
March 11, 1965, reporting on his talk at a meeting of the
Greenwich Village Association. The article, by Mary Nichols,
quoted Koch as saying that all legislative reapportionment —
i.e. redistricting — at the city, state and federal levels, should
be done by a bipartisan commission. Ironically, it’s the same
cause Koch is still pushing today — nearly 45 years later! — as
part of his New York Uprising initiative. “She said, ‘Because
it’s what you’re currently involved with, I thought you’d be
interested,’ ” Koch said Greitzer wrote in a note she enclosed
with the old paper. “It’s flaky, you have to be careful when
you handle it. It falls apart,” he said of the aged article, which
ran in another Village paper. “Regrettably, it was the Village
Voice,” Koch said, “I was hoping it would be The Villager.”
MALAYSIAN MISSION: Maria Skouras left her job
earlier this month as senior policy analyst in N.Y.U.’s Office
of Government and Community Affairs, and is now in Kuala
IN THE HEART OF GREENWICH VILLAGE
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Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 3
Lumpur, Malaysia. She’s volunteering there with a group
called eHomemakers — urban women who make baskets out
of discarded newspapers and magazines and sell them to sup-
port their families. Skouras, who is also an N.Y.U. graduate,
will be in Malaysia from Jan. 15 to June to record the women’s
stories and help find U.S. markets to sell their baskets. When
she wasn’t analyzing policy, Skouras was pitching in to help
at community events. Lois Rakoff, community director of
the Poe Room at N.Y.U. School of Law, said, “Maria was my
‘go-to person’ and liaison for the Poe Room events. When
the Poe Room was celebrating Edgar’s birthday, I wanted a
birthday cake for him. Maria got a bakery to put Edgar’s face
on the birthday cake. Maria helped the Washington Square
Music Festival on behalf of N.Y.U. Maria coordinated N.Y.U.’s
Children’s Halloween Parade. She dressed as a princess. Maria
is a fascinating, beautiful person inside and out. She is known
for brain, charm and glamour, hairstyles and high stylish
dress, silks, satins and velvets. She told me she will be wearing
long sleeves and a headcovering because the females she will
be working with in Malaysia are Muslim.”
FREEDOM TO LEAK: L.E.S. Slacktivist John Penley
has reserved the City Hall steps for April 7 at 3 p.m. for a
press conference in support of Private Bradley Manning and
WikiLeaks. Manning is currently being held in “maximum
custody” in a Marine Corps brig, facing court martial for
passing classified U.S. military documents to WikiLeaks’
Julian Assange. Assange is on bail and under house arrest
in England pending an extradition hearing on two rapes
he allegedly committed in Sweden — though he claims the
charges are politically motivated. U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder is also trying to build a case against him. While the
press conference is three months away, Penley said excite-
ment is already building and it’s generating lots of interest.
… Penley also tipped us off that N.Y.U.’s Tamiment Library
recently acquired the papers of the late radical attorney and
Greenwich Village resident William Kunstler.
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4 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011
Remembering Ellen Stewart: The Mama of them all
Continued from page 1
elevator told me I could ride all the way
downtown on a bus. Went downtown,
looking for a job, didn’t get it, saw this
big church across the street from a big
store. Went into the church, which was St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, said a prayer, came out
and went into the store, which was Saks
Fifth Avenue. I didn’t know what Saks Fifth
Avenue was.”
She soon learned. This was in the days
when Negro employees at such big emporia
were called “coloreds” and, at Saks, were
required to wear blue smocks.
“Sophie Gimbel, who owned the store,
said: ‘No niggers in my department’ — yes,”
Ellen had declared, “she really said that.”
But in the face of such open bigotry at
the top and the envy verging on hatred by
many at the bottom, black as well as white,
black even more than white, slim, stunning
“Miss Ellen” did become one of Saks Fifth
Avenue’s top dress designers of that era.
And not in a blue smock.
Cut to a cold night on MacDougal Street
in the early 1960’s. It is intermission time
at some play or other, and Ellen Stewart,
somebody I barely then know, is chatting
on the sidewalk with a tall, skinny, coatless,
not-bad-looking young guy who is hugging
himself for warmth as he hops up and down
on one foot and the other.
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“This is one of my chicks,” she says
to me with a laugh. “His name is Sam
Shepard.”
It was to provide a nest for all her
chicks that Ellen Stewart had in 1962
opened a tiny Off Off Off coffeehouse
theater in a $50-a-month basement at 321
East Ninth Street, mostly for the benefit of
two fledgling playwrights, Paul Foster and
Fredrick Lights (the foster brother who’d
lived across the hall from her in Chicago).
The first plays ever done on Ninth
Street were Leonard Melfi’s “Lazy Baby
Susan,” Michael Locascio’s “A Corner of
the Morning” and Andy Milligan’s adapta-
tion of the spooky Tennessee Williams
short story “One Arm.” Even though the
audiences usually ran to no more than 10
or a dozen hardy souls, Ellen had to shake
a miniature cowbell and quiet them down
at the start of every show with the mantra:
“This is La MaMa E.T.C., dedicated to the
playwright and all aspects of the theater.”
I still have one of those bells.
Harvey Fierstein’s much-quoted “Eighty
percent of what is now considered American
theater originated at La MaMa” may not
be altogether true, but it is true enough.
Nobody knows just how many thousands of
playwrights, composers, directors, design-
ers, techies and, oh yes, actors, have been
hatched at La MaMa over the past half
century, or how many countries around
the globe have in one way or another been
Photo courtesy of La MaMa E.T.C.
Ellen Stewart
enriched by La MaMa and vice versa. (The
next thing I have to write about in these
pages is an angry new play coming to La
MaMa from Estonia.)
But Ellen was pursued by bigotry even
unto 321 East Ninth Street, a building
dedicated to, in Ellen’s words, “no Jews,
no Hispanics, no niggers.” The word was
spread around the block that she was
running a whorehouse. Finally, to save
her landlord from having his property
wrecked, La MaMa moved out, in the
middle of the night, to 82 Second Avenue,
and subsequently to a larger space one
flight up over a dry cleaner’s at 122
Second Avenue.
It was there that I caught up with La
MaMa E.T.C. and the wielder of that cow-
bell.
Her troubles were not over. It was a
time when Ed Koch, the mayor, and Robert
Moses, the commissioner of everything,
were cleaning up the Village and East
Village.
“They cleaned up on us,” Ellen had dryly
remarked during that profile interview, but
in the end, La MaMa outlasted and outma-
neuvered them by obtaining an impossible-
to-obtain coffeehouse license.
A couple of other hops along St.
Mark’s Place finally led to 74-A East
Fourth Street, thanks to a $25,000 Ford
Foundation grant arranged by a good
man named McNeil Lowry. Most of the
new roof and rear wall, but 74-A East
Fourth Street remains La MaMa’s home
base from that day to this.
Oh yes, Ellen had her faults, as who does
not? To her, theater was movement and
feeling before all else; she had all too little
respect for the written and printed word.
You never found much Shakespeare going
on at La MaMa; she left that to Joe Papp.
But you could always find a superfluity of
those Old Greeks and their wailing Trojan
Women. Plus everything else.
If Ellen was totally loving she could
also be very angry, and could maintain that
anger a long time, as she did with me after
an Israeli actress/director I’d befriended
turned out to have used a La MaMa book-
ing to lie her way through Immigration.
I rather think Ellen increasingly liked
being treated, toward the end, as a princess
— no, loved it. But again, who would not?
There’s an incident I wrote about some
years ago, and now I’m never going to have
the opportunity to write about it again, so
here goes:
In the winter of 1998 there was an exhib-
it at Cooper Union of posters of La MaMa
productions from here, there, everywhere
around the world. I had the bright idea
of walking through the gallery with Ellen
while she told me about this place, that
place, this audience, that audience, what-
ever… . She said: “Fine, I’ll meet you at the
exhibit.” But then her son Larry Hovell, out
in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was about to die,
and she had to go be with him.
He took a turn for the better, she
returned to New York, we made a second
date to go through the exhibit; then Larry
really did die. Now, upon her return, we
made a third date to view those posters,
this time on the Saturday afternoon before
a Broadway show I had to cover.
When I got to Cooper Union at the
appointed hour, no Ellen in sight, but a La
MaMa aide was there to apologize and tell
me Ellen was ill.
What kind of ill?
“She’s sitting on that wooden bench just
inside the front door. She’s shivering all
over. She can’t talk.”
Cooper Union is only two blocks from
La MaMa. I covered the ground as fast as
I could. Sure enough, Ellen was sitting, all
huddled up, on that small wooden bench
just to the left of La MaMa’s front door. She
was shivering uncontrollably.
I sat down, put my arm around her, and
suggested we go to a hospital. She shook
her head, No. We sat like that for a long
time, and she never stopped shivering. Of
course there was no way to get her to her
apartment, five flights of stairs over where
we were sitting.
Finally, I said: “Look, I’ll cancel the
thing I have to see tonight.”
“No,” Ellen said — found the strength
to say — “You go do your job. I’ll be all
right.”
So I went.
Before the uptown show I called La
MaMa. The woman in the La MaMa box
office said Ellen was still sitting there, still
shivering, just a few feet away. No, Ellen
couldn’t physically get to her feet.
At intermission I phoned again. Same
story. And at close to midnight I called once
more. Nothing had changed.
Around 10 a.m. Sunday I called La
MaMa anew. Was Ellen Stewart still there
on that bench? Could she now get to the
phone?
“Oh no,” said the box-office person,
“Ellen’s over in the Annex, moving the fur-
niture around.”
Dear Old Greeks and Trojan Ladies up
there, please lend Ellen Stewart a hand with
those chairs.

Ellen Stewart, 91, the doyenne
of La MaMa and avant drama
Continued from page 1
tural, cross-disciplinary and just damn unde-
niably La MaMa, Ellen Stewart herself was
a hybrid before anyone else envisioned that
possibility.
Stewart came to New York City with a car-
petbag jammed full of dreams to be a fashion
designer. She was going to study at Parsons, but
lack of funding saw her land as a porter in Saks
Fifth Avenue. Stewart so often told this story:
“The coloreds, for back then that is what we
were, coloreds, wore blue smocks and carted
the goods everywhere in the store. One day
as I was leaving for lunch, wearing one of my
own creations, sewn in my little garret, a fancy
patron stopped me and inquired where I had
bought my dress. When I told her honestly that
I myself had made it, she marched me to my
boss to be dressed down for insubordination.”
Instead, the wise head of Saks gave Stewart
her own line of dresses, Miss Ellen. “And that,
baby, is how Mama made good on a promise to
my brother Freddy [Lights] and his friend Paul
[Foster] to make a little playhouse for them,”
she said.
In the early years the police constantly
raided Stewart and La MaMa because, as she
said, “The police saw a Negress in a basement
and lots of white men traipsing down the stairs
and they thought — Ahhhhh, brothel. Well,
baby, it was only theater.”
And yes, theater it was, but never only
theater. The theatrical style that was developed
and championed by Ellen Stewart and La
MaMa literally changed the face of every piece
of live performance, video and film that modern
viewers take for granted. La MaMa pioneered
shows that crossed over and married swirling
stages, bespoke films, live music, electronic
accoutrements, words and not just in English;
all wrapped around a directorial style where the
audience was immersed in, surrounded by or
an actual part of the show. The world stage is
now chockablock full of these techniques; you
see them in commercials, in Broadway shows,
in circus and in school plays. But when La
MaMa began in 1961 all of this was uncharted
territory.
Ellen Stewart prided herself on never read-
ing scripts and picking plays, opera or art shows
by a series of reactions she called her “beeps.”
“Baby, if it beeps to me, Mama will know,
and if it doesn’t, I don’t care what the words
say and who your real mama is, it is not for
La MaMa!” I would see her on the phone to
Bogotá or Brooklyn or Belgium with artists and
she giving notes via her beeps: “Look at Pages
5, 23 and 91, that is where the trouble lies.”
And time after time, artists told me that infor-
mation was salient to redoing the work.
If it all sounds magical, voodoo crazy, woo-
woo incomprehensible, then so does the fairy
tale Stewart spun in the East Village and
around the world. La MaMa will celebrate its
50th anniversary this October and it boasts two
buildings on East Fourth Street alone. In fact
the La MaMa Theatre really was the linchpin
on which the East 4th Street Cultural District
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 5
was anchored. In these two buildings are three
theaters, an office, Stewart’s private residence
and an amazing archives, containing every
script, mask, piece of Mylar, check stub, video
and photograph ever to emanate from the halls
of La MaMa. On East First Street is La MaMa’s
La Galleria, which holds down the funky distaff
side of an East Village now resembling nothing
of its gritty roots.
The roll call of legends who began, returned
or graced La MaMa include (but beware this list
could never be exhaustive, or it would encom-
pass pages): Harvey Keitel, Liz Swados, Andrei
Serban, Diane Lane, Harvey Fierstein, Al
Pacino, Bette Midler, Bob Wilson, Philip Glass,
Sam Shepard, Adrienne Rich, Tom O’Horgan,
Peter Brook, Robert De Niro and even Joe Papp
Please join us for the
himself before he founded the Public Theater.
As a wonderful, and deserved tribute, the
Public sent out a press release saying that their
season would be dedicated to Ellen Stewart. Informed
She would pick plays,
opera or art shows by a
Neighbor
series of reactions she
called her ‘beeps.’
Discussion
And the list of awards bestowed upon her is
equally august. Stewart won a Tony in 2006 for Informed Neighbor
theatrical excellence, countless OBIE awards,
the Human Rights Award from the government This Month’s Topic: The Mews
of the Philippines, the Sacred Treasure Award
from the emperor of Japan and the Les Kurbas Informed Neighbor brings together organizations, local
Award from Ukraine, and she was an officer in officials, and community members at NYU for meetings to
the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. provide information on projects and initiatives at the Uni-
Ellen Stewart was a MacArthur Genius
(MacArthur Fellowship) grantee in 1985 and versity, including updates on construction, upcoming events,
she took her subvention and purchased a for- sustainability, and other happenings that are pertinent for
mer monastery in Umbria, Italy, in the shadows the community. This month we will have a discussion about
of the renowned Spoleto Festival. Here, Stewart
and La MaMa created a summer institute the upcoming renovations and repairs at 14A Mews and
for international artists of stature and aco- Buildings 7 & 8. Additionally, the contractor will discuss the
lytes. When Stewart first proposed this idea scope and impact of the work to the streetscape.
to the then business manager, James Moore,
he exclaimed, “Oh, my God, what will she do
with that pile of rocks?” As with everything she
touched, Stewart’s alchemy spun it into artistic Wednesday, January 26, 2011
gold. 6:30 pm • NYU School of Social Work
Even with all these honors, Ellen Stewart
could still be seen sweeping the sidewalk in 1 Washington Square North • Hopper Studio, Room 415A
front of the theaters. When I interviewed with
her to be the executive director back in the
1980’s she asked me, “Well, Miss Wicki [we Refreshments will be served.
were all Miss or Mr. and our first name], you
have gotten a fancy education since first work- RSVP TO NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs
ing here at Mama’s when you were 19. Are you at 212.998.2400 or community.affairs@nyu.edu
too big to clean a toilet or sweep with me?” I
wasn’t then and it was always an honor to do
whatever it took to light up the stages and watch
Mama’s silver locks shake as she rang her bell
and sang out in that complicated lilt, “Welcome
to La MaMa, dedicated to the playwright and
ALLLLLLLLL aspects of the theater.”
6 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

“The events of the past weekend remind p.m., pulled a gun and said, “If you don’t come
us that gun violence continues to plague our upstairs with me, I’m going to put two in your

Continued from page 2

POLICE BLOTTER
investigating the cause of death.
Weapons arraignment
Jonathan Shaw, 57, an East Village tattoo
Bistro bash artist, pleaded not guilty at his Jan. 11 State
Supreme Court arraignment on charges of
Four men who had a meal at Manatus, illegal possession of assault rifles, hand-
340 Bleecker St., around 3:15 a.m. Thurs., guns, ammunition and knives found in his
Jan. 6, walked out without paying, police said. rented South St. storage locker. Shaw, son
When the manager, 48, confronted them, of famed big band leader Artie Shaw, was
they punched him, but police were called arrested Nov. 6, 2010, after an employee of
and arrested Kendell Cook, Darius Shepard, a shipping company notified police about
Dominique Allen, all 20 years old, and Lee a cache of weapons in Shaw’s Manhattan
Treashay, 21, and charged them with assault Mini Storage locker at 220 South St.
and larceny. Shaw has been free on $250,000 bond
pending a March 22 court appearance on
the 89-count indictment for unlicensed
possession of weapons, including an assault
Wagon heel rifle, a .30-caliber semiautomatic rifle, a
12-gauge pump-action pistol-grip shotgun,
Two patrons of Off The Wagon bar, at 109 a British Army rifle, more than 2,000
MacDougal St., spotted a man taking the bag rounds of ammunition, five pairs of brass
of a woman patron who was talking to her knuckles, and 68 illegal knives and daggers,
friend at 3:35 a.m. Sat., Jan. 15. They alerted including a bayonet.
the bouncer, who held Lisandro Amezquita, Shaw was arranging to move the weap-
23, for police, who charged him with larceny. ons to Los Angeles when he was arrested.
The bag and its contents — a camera, credit Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
cards, wallet and $8 cash — were found on referred to the Jan. 8 fatal shooting in
the suspect and returned to the victim, police Tucson, Ariz., at Shaw’s Jan. 11 arraign-
said. ment.
nation,” Vance said, pledging to prosecute
illegal weapons owners and dealers and to
get stockpiles of illegal guns off the streets.
Holiday-eves robber
Police arrested Enrique Cova, 43, Thurs.,
Jan. 6, and charged him with two robberies of
the Bank of America branch on Bayard St. near
Bowery, one on Christmas Eve and the other
on New Year’s Eve. The suspect, who finished
serving a seven-year prison term for robbery a
year ago, walked into the bank at 12:30 p.m. on
Dec. 24, and passed a teller a note saying, “Give
me 100 $100 bills or we will take hostages and
move in.” He fled with an undetermined sum
of cash, according to charges filed with D.A.
Vance. The defendant returned to the same
branch at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 and passed
another note to a teller, but fled without any-
thing, according to the charges. He is being held
pending a Feb. 1 court appearance.
Fulton Houses rape
Police arrested Christopher Grant, 25, on
Sat., Jan. 15, and charged him with raping a
woman at gunpoint on Dec. 3, 2010, in the
Fulton Houses on W. 17th St. at Ninth Ave.
Police said the suspect encountered the victim,
an acquaintance, in an elevator around 8:30
chest.” He forced her to the roof of the build-
ing, raped her and threatened to kill her if she
reported the attack, police said. The suspect
was arrested after an unrelated assault and also
charged with rape in the Jan. 15 attack.
Take cash register
Two robbers walked into the Green Apple
Grocery, on First Ave. near E. 12th St.,
around 1:30 a.m. Thurs., Jan. 13, punched
and threatened an employee, 54, then shoved
the cash register with more than $600 into a
black plastic trash bag and fled, police said.
Wrangler gets rustled
A Bayonne, N.J., woman parked her 2010
Jeep Wrangler at the corner of West Broadway
and Grand St. around 11 p.m. Sun., Jan. 16,
while she went to a movie and had some
supper, but when she returned a couple of
hours later, discovered that it had been stolen,
police said. Her bag — with an iPod, another
cell phone and a ring and bracelet, with a
total value of $1,900 — were in the car, police
said. The victim’s E-ZPass showed it had been
used around 8:30 p.m. the following day at
the Queens Midtown Tunnel, police said.
Alber t Amateau

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From left, Cathie Black; Judy Rapfogel, Assembly Speaker Silver’s chief of staff; and
C.B. 1’s Julie Menin at last week’s School Overcrowding Task Force meeting.

‘Sophie’s choice’ analogy also

bombs with Downtown parents
Julie Menin, chairperson of Community
Continued from page 1 Board 1, said she was “troubled” by Black’s
overall feedback, which she considered to

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Greenwich and Chambers Sts., who was
opposed to Black’s appointment as chancel-
lor, said she was not surprised by Black’s
joke.
“It just kind of reiterates the lightness
in which the D.O.E. takes our plight,” she
said.
Others, like Tom Moore, P.T.A. co-pres-
ident at Millennium High School, at 75
Broad St., merely took it as the Department
of Education chief’s poor attempt at humor.
“I don’t think she meant anything by it,”
he said, though adding, “it was probably in
retrospect not a good idea.”
People elsewhere around the city also
took offense at Black’s comment.
City Councilmember Julissa Ferreras of
Queens, chairperson of the City Council’s
Women’s Issues Committee, said she was
“appalled and offended” by Black’s state-
ment.
“The job of a chancellor,” said Ferreras,
“is to ensure that our city’s children are
being educated and have the tools to learn —
not judge the reproductive choices of women
in our city.”
Overcrowding, Ferreras continued, is not
a joke to the children and parents in her dis-
trict who are also dealing with the issue.
Natalie Ravitz, D.O.E. communications
director, said in a statement that the chan-
cellor takes the issue of overcrowding “very
seriously, which is why she was engaged in
a discussion with Lower Manhattan parents
on the subject.”
“She regrets if she left a different impres-
sion by making an offhanded joke in the
course of that conversation,” Ravitz said of
Black.
The chancellor made another verbal slip
in describing D.O.E.’s rough financial terrain
that she’s trying to navigate as chancellor.
“I don’t mean this in any flip way, but it is
many Sophie’s choices,” she said of the hard
decisions that must be made.
Her comment was an allusion to “Sophie’s
Choice, the William Styron novel and film in
which the character Sophie Zawistowski, a
survivor of the Nazi concentration camps,
was forced to choose which of her two chil-
dren lived or died.
Moore and others deemed it a poor anal-
ogy. There are a number of other parallels she
could have drawn, Moore said; the one that
Black went with was, in his opinion, “overly
dramatic, and probably a little distasteful.”
Menin was upset with the chancellor’s
quip.
“Cracking jokes and telling Downtown
parents, even in jest, to use more birth con-
trol, and referring to [D.O.E.’s] choices as a
‘Sophie’s choice’ did not demonstrate a real
and concrete, on-the-ground understanding of
what parents face,” Menin wrote in an e-mail.
“The Dept. of Ed. has already made
Sophie’s choices,” Schiller said in an e-mail.
“They’ve already made clear we’re going to
have a segregated system,” in terms of sepa-
rating students by performance level.
In contrast, Speaker Silver, who led the
task force meeting, was satisfied with Black’s
performance. In a written statement, he said
he was pleased that the chancellor attended
the meeting and was able to hear firsthand
from parents.
“Jokes aside,” said Silver, “I think she real-
Continued on page 10

‘It had been empty…I just decided to take it over’
CLAYTON’S
PAGE
Nowadays, this wall at Bowery and East
Houston St. is one of the city’s more high-
profile showcases for street art — though to
purists, it’s completely commercialized. Last
spring, amid much hoopla, Shepard Fairey
of Obama “HOPE” poster fame, threw up a
wheat-paste work at the site, only to see graffiti
heads savagely mutilate it.
But back in 1990, when Clayton Patterson
created the mural at right, the wall had sat qui-
etly, painted all white, for several years.
“Keith Haring kind of turned it on in the
early 1980’s, when he did that big orange
day-glo that just lit that corner up,” Patterson
recalled. There were a few other murals after
Haring’s, but then the concrete was cordoned
off behind a chain-link fence.
“It had been empty for quite a long time,”
Patterson said. “I just decided to take it over.”
They did it on a weekend, the best time in
Patterson’s view. “It was during the day,” he
recalled. “I was up on the ladder. We just made
it look like we were painting the wall.”
The key to the undertaking, as he tells it,
was Chris, who worked in the antiques tent
next door and had a key to a side door to the
fence and let them in. The Lower East Side
documentarian said he wasn’t into clamber-
ing over the fence, plus Chris’s letting them
During summer 1990, the wall at Bowery and East Houston St. sported a guerrilla
street-art mural by Clayton Patterson.
in gave them a level of legitimacy. Chris
got a thank you on the mural, along with
Patterson’s wife, Elsa Rensaa, who helped
paint the white background with a roller.
Patterson painted the black parts.
The artist said a lot of the piece’s quotes are
actually engraved on the outside of the courts
Downtown, where he saw them when he was
at court proceedings for the Tompkins Square
Photo by Clayton Patterson
Park riots and East Village squatter evictions.
The mural is about “the whole idea of struggle,”
he said, “the police riots, evictions.”
His piece stayed up most of the summer and
wasn’t tagged by other graffitists, as inevitably
happens; but it probably would have been if it
was up much longer, Patterson conceded.
“Once I activated the site again and made it
energized, people got the wall,” Patterson said.
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 9
“It was like taking back the wall.” Apparently,
Antonio Garcia, a.k.a. Chico, the Lower East
Side graffiti legend, or a client of his got the
wall, too, because one day Chico promptly
painted over Patterson’s piece with a commis-
sioned graffiti mural for a Soho wine bar.
Patterson’s response? “I went over and
threw buckets of brown paint all over his
mural.” (There was no symbolism in the paint’s
color, the documentarian assured.) “Then Chico
came over to my place and said, ‘Yo, what’s up?
You gotta pay me for that paint,’” Patterson
recalled. “I said, ‘No — you should have come
over and told me you were doing it. I’ve got
no problem with your getting paid, just tell me
about it.’” Patterson didn’t pay Chico for the
marred mural, but just meant to say he under-
stood that Chico had a right to make money on
commissioned work. A potentially tense situa-
tion was defused, and the two became friends
after that, according to Patterson.
Asked to interpret his mural’s symbols,
Patterson said there is an “N” on the left, an
upside-down “Y” in the middle and a “C”
on the right in the crescent moon. On the
right are the scales of justice, which can be
influenced by money. The large central image
is also apparently a face. Earth, wind and
fire are all represented. Asked what style the
mural is in, Patterson said, “Clayton original.
There’s no art historical reference. I don’t
know — outsider, probably.”
Lincoln Anderson
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Black talks: Parents see red
Continued from page 8
ly heard the message that Lower Manhattan
schools are in the midst of an overcrowd-
ing crisis, and I am hopeful we can work
together to find a solution.”
Tamara Rowe, a Millennium High School
parent and a task force member, felt cau-
tiously optimistic about Black’s attempt to
forge ties with the Downtown education
community.
Rowe, like many task force members,
appreciated Black’s appearance at the meet-
ing, pointing out that Joel Klein never even
attended one of Silver’s task force meetings
in the two-and-a-half years of its existence
while he was schools chancellor. But Rowe
doubts Black’s willingness to change things.
“I think she’s trying to listen,” said Rowe.
“I think I won’t know what it really means
until I see the results.”
During the meeting, Menin and other
task force members disparaged D.O.E. for
not implementing a long-term strategy to
relieve overcrowding.
“Everything is done piecemeal,” Menin
told Black.
Members of the task force — mostly com-
prised of Downtown public school parents
and school principals — discussed the lack
of foresight D.O.E. has recently exhibited in
accommodating Downtown schoolchildren,
which, they say, led to the neighborhood’s
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current overcrowding crisis. Several mem-
bers voiced concerns about designating 26
Broadway for an unscreened high school
— meaning applicants aren’t evaluated by
any performance criteria — as well as giving
over empty classroom space in the Tweed
Courthouse, on Chambers St. by City Hall,
to an untested charter school.
In her second week, Black said she had
“no gigantic new vision,” but that she and
her team are “looking at things that are
working.” She said she anticipated there
would be “tough sledding” in deciding how
to allocate the limited funding D.O.E. will
receive in the coming fiscal year.
“Trying to balance all the competing
forces is not easy at all,” Black said, noting
upper Manhattan school districts are dealing
with overcrowding issues similar to those
Downtown.
“It’s clear that your needs are great, and
we’ll try to deal with them as well as we pos-
sibly can,” said Black.
Task force member Shino Tanikawa, who
is also a member of Community Education
Council District 2 and a parent at P.S. 3, at
Hudson and Christopher Sts., said the new
chancellor doesn’t seem to have a vision
for public schools, either Downtown or
citywide.
“It’s time for her to think about what her
priorities are for the city,” said Tanikawa.
“You have to do planning. There’s no excuse
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Olindo Bruno, 88; Worked in the garment industry

OBITUARY
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Olindo Bruno, who worked for many years in the garment
industry and lived in the South Village most of his life, died
Tues., Jan. 4, in Mercy Medical Center in Lynbrook, L.I., at the
age of 88.
Known simply as Bruno to his many friends and Sullivan St.
neighbors, Olindo Giovanni Antonio Bruno was born on a farm
in Avellino Province, Italy, to Michele and Elvira Iannone Bruno.
Michele Bruno, who had been born on Mulberry St. while his
parents were visiting relatives, returned to New York in 1928.
Two years later, Olindo, who was then 8 years old, and the rest
of the family, joined him.
In an affecting tribute to Olindo, his son, Russell Bruno,
wrote about the family history. Olindo, his mother and maternal
grandfather sailed from the port of Naples for New York in 1930
to join his father, who had been wounded by mustard gas during
World War I as a soldier in the Italian Army. His father died in
1932 when Olindo was 10 years old.
In 1949, Olindo married Jeanette Barbera in Old St. Patrick’s
Cathedral on Mott St. and the couple began raising their family
in Little Italy. Olindo supported the family by selling and trans-
porting textiles in the Garment District. He would occasionally
bring material home to Jeanette, who made tablecloths, drapery
and even the gown that she wore to their eldest son’s wedding,
Russell wrote.
The family moved from Little Italy to Sullivan St. in the South
Village in 1963 around the corner from St. Anthony’s School.
Olindo’s talent for making close friends in the neighborhood
and the Garment District never ceased to amaze his children,
Russell wrote.
“In Coney Island he knew the guys that served franks at
Olindo Bruno
Nathan’s and the guys who operated the carousel. Back at Katz’s
on Houston St. he knew the guys who made the sandwiches,”
Russell wrote.
At the end of 1974, Jeanette Bruno became ill with cancer
and died in September 1975 shortly before her 44th birthday.
The loss was devastating for Olindo but family and friends
helped heal his grief. His nephew Vincent Valerio and Vincent’s
wife, Louise, became especially close and helped him cope with
a heart problem that developed 10 years ago. Olindo continued
making friends with new people who were moving into the
neighborhood, Russell wrote.
“My dad loved Greenwich Village,” Russell said.
Olindo lived in an assisted-living residence in Lynbrook, L.I.,
for the past three years.
In addition to Russell, of Bayport, L.I., two other sons,
Michael, of Staten Island, and Emanuele, of Merrick, L.I., and a
daughter, Elvira Urgo, of Staten Island, survive. Nine grandchil-
dren and eight great-grandchildren also survive. The wake was at
Perazzo Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker St., on Fri., Jan. 7, and the
funeral was Sat., Jan. 8, at St. Anthony’s Church on Sullivan St.
Hope for Humanities H.S.
FLASHBACK
On Jan. 20, 1983, The Villager reported on high hopes for
High School for the Humanities, due to open in the former
Charles Evans Hughes High School space, on 17th St. between
Eighth and Ninth Aves. Carol Reichman, active on the issue,
objected to a proposed admission test, stating, “We’ve fought
long and hard for a school where all the neighborhood children
— the very bright, the average, and the not so bright — can go.”
Hughes had a “checkered history,” noted Ed Gold, a member
of the startup school’s Advisory Commission. In 2009, after a
Regents Test scandal and persistent low graduation rate, the
Department of Education decided to close Humanities and
replace it with smaller schools. Last July, in his final column for
The Villager (“Humanities H.S.: How a dream quickly turned
into a nightmare”), Gold blamed the failure on a weakened
admission process that no longer required applicants to list
Humanities among their top choices.

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12 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011
EDITORIAL
La MaMa’s Mama
The theater world and the East Village lost a true lumi-
nary last week in Ellen Stewart. She may have been 91, for
like much of her early life, her exact date of birth was a bit
of a mystery. But what’s clear is that she was an extraor-
dinary individual who revolutionized modern theater and
the performing arts, in general, through her pioneering La
MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental Theatre Club).
Stewart’s is a true New York story. She arrived in the
Big Apple in 1950, dreaming of becoming a fashion design-
er. She overcame prejudice, first working at tony Saks Fifth
Avenue, then later on gritty E. Ninth St. at La MaMa’s first
location. Incredulously, initially, the venue was even beset
by police raids after it was mistaken for a brothel.
But there was no holding back Stewart and her passion
for cultivating great theater. She started La MaMa to help
two fledgling playwrights — one, her foster brother. Along
the way, La MaMa aided the early careers of such stars as
Sam Shepard, Harvey Keitel, Diane Lane, Robert De Niro,
Philip Glass and Liz Swados.
Productions incubated Off Off Broadway at La MaMa
have gone worldwide. Among her many honors, Stewart
received a Tony for theatrical excellence, many OBIE’s and
awards from governments around the globe.
She was a true original, an inspirational figure who
forever enriched the arts and culture of Downtown
Manhattan — and the world. May her beautiful spirit live
on in the Fourth Arts Block that she helped found, in the
many performers and playwrights who were mentored by
her and flourished under her guidance and, of course, in La
MaMa itself. For all Ellen Stewart did to nurture the arts,
and for a life lived with purpose that made a difference, we
say — Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
Black must now lead
Much was made of new Schools Chancellor Cathie
Black’s offhand birth control joke at last week’s School
Overcrowding Task Force meeting, and for good rea-
son. Lower Manhattan’s school-overcrowding crisis is
no laughing matter.
That being said, we don’t wish to further elaborate
on Black’s poor choice of words. Who hasn’t said
something they regret?
It must not go unnoticed, however, that she showed
up to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s task force
meeting unprepared. That it was her second week on
the job is no excuse. When someone starts at a new
position it should be a no-brainer to bone up on all
issues and concerns related to it.
When we heard Black had never even seen Eric
Greenleaf’s data on Lower Manhattan’s overcrowding
crisis, we were surprised, and disappointed. Greenleaf
has spent countless hours, voluntarily, preparing data
on the neighborhood’s population boom and obvious
need for more school seats. His projections show a
need for 1,000 more seats by 2015.
Black said she had Greenleaf’s data — under a stack
of papers on her desk.
While her performance at the meeting did not bode
well, it’s still early. Her words and actions up to this
date are not irreversible.
Lower Manhattan’s population boom is a great
post-9/11 success story. Black must recognize this and
mobilize D.O.E. to support this growth. For starters,
she can press to ensure we see a new school built atop
the Peck Slip Post Office.
We do commend the new chancellor for at least
attending the task force’s meeting. Her predecessor
declined numerous invitations from the task force during
his tenure. We’ll give Black a pass, at this early juncture,
on her words. Her actions in quickly addressing Lower
Manhattan’s dire school situation will be what count.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The bicycle thief
To The Editor:
A couple of weeks ago I was riding my bicycle down Ridge
St., and to my left I saw somebody walking a bike that looked
just like my gray, European, adult tricycle — which I refer to
as my mini-pedicab — that I had parked on my street corner. I
looked right to the spot where it’s usually chained up and it was
missing. I ran after the man and asked him what he was doing
with my pedicab. He was startled and told me that someone just
sold it to him, claiming it was his bike to give away.
I told him that didn’t sound like a feasible story since he
was a holding a hacksaw in one hand and the metal tube of
the bicycle around which the lock had been fastened was
sawed in half. We went back and forth, he insisting that he
did not steal it and I insisting that he did. Going nowhere
with this, I asked him to return the pedicab, and luckily he
did not resist and gave it right back to me.
Then he shocked me again, now offering to buy the bike
from me for $100, which he supposedly had paid the other
guy, “the real culprit of the crime.” It felt absurd to even
contemplate his offer, but I had been torn on what to do with
the pedicab for a while.
It was too small to be used as a full-size pedicab but too
large to fit in my apartment. I didn’t feel right to leave it on
the corner and take up a parking space for another bicycle,
but I felt sad thinking of it being given away.
I took one more look at the guy and started to soften. He
was an older man, telling me he wanted to fix it up to drive
his family around the neighborhood. I suspected he could be
lying again, but I told him I would consider it and get back
to him. He helped me get the mini-pedicab chained up again,
advising me where to place the locks to stop the next person
from sawing them off again. He gave me his cell phone num-
ber, and I thought that wasn’t the greatest move since he just
gave me a way to contact him if I decided to press charges
later. So I assumed it was a fake number.
A couple of weeks later I decided it was time to give up
the bike and if the guy was willing to take $150 I was ready
to give it to him. Yes, it was crazy to even contemplate selling
it to the thief. But I didn’t see any really positive outcome to
calling the police to report the incident, and I had nowhere
to store it and didn’t have the skills to fix it — where the
tube had been sawed through — to sell it for a higher price.
So I gave him a call and the deal was done. He agreed to
pay $150 and was going to give me another bike he doesn’t
use anymore, which I was going to give away to somebody in
need of a bike. I hoped that I would one day see my pedicab
all spiffed up, with a family in tow, cycling through my neigh-
borhood. That would make it all worthwhile to me. One
EVAN FORSCH
more cyclist on the road is never a bad thing in my world.
Barbara Ross
Bike lanes: Use and abuse
To The Editor:
Re “Critics can’t roll back the progress on bike lanes”
(talking point, by Barbara Ross, Jan. 6):
I believe Barbara Ross makes sane, balanced, measured
points. It isn’t bike lanes that are the problem regarding
traffic safety. It’s the way people — pedestrians and cyclists
— use or misuse the lanes.
I really don’t feel very safe when cycling in these bike
lanes. Some of my fear is from my fellow cyclists who abuse
their privileges. Same with pedestrians and dog walkers who
abuse the bike lanes. The other fear is at intersections where
motorists turn from my blind side.
As long as motorists, cyclists, pedestrians et al. act self-
ishly, aggressively, abusively, New York City will remain a
very, very dangerous place.
Michael Gottlieb
Doherty was snow scapegoat
To The Editor:
I cannot believe what I heard and saw on the television
about Commissioner Doherty of the Sanitation Department.
This man gave up years of his retirement to come back and
help his department and us New Yorkers. In other snow-
storms he and his Sanitation workers were lauded for their
good work.
Mr. Doherty, us true-blue New Yorkers would like to
thank you and your department for the great hard work that
you have done for New York for many years.
George Marmo
E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to
news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to the
East Villager, Letters to the Editor, 145 Sixth Ave., ground
floor, NY, NY 10013. Please include phone number for
confirmation purposes. The East Villager reserves the right
to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. The East
Villager does not publish anonymous letters.

Time for justice at Seward Park Urban Renewal Area
TALKING POINT
BY JOEL FEINGOLD
On Monday, a Community Board 3 com-
mittee may vote on guidelines for the redevel-
opment of the Seward Park Urban Renewal
Area (SPURA) — the long-derelict blocks
along Delancey, Broome and Grand Sts. at
the lip of the Williamsburg Bridge. In shap-
ing the final language of these guidelines, this
committee can choose to close the chapter on
a 43-year aberration in the Lower East Side’s
history: The notion that a racially integrated,
working-class district is harmful to society in
general and property values in particular. This
notion allowed the crime of urban renewal to
occur in the first place; this false notion must
not be allowed to taint prospects for the just
redevelopment of the site.
Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), a
membership-based housing and economic
justice organization founded in 1977, has
been deeply involved in Community Board
3’s deliberations since they began in late
2008. Today, we announce our position on
the crucial questions the community board
will decide — regardless of whether the final
vote on these questions is indeed Monday, or
whether it is held later this spring.
When SPURA was razed in 1967, the city
evicted 1,852 families, the majority people
of color. No one who lived there was rich. At
most, 1,244 units were built on the site: 360
apartments in the Seward Park Extension
(New York City Housing Authority); 600
in the Grand Street Guild (Section 8 with
Church backing); 156 in Hong Ning Plaza
(Chinese-American Planning Council); and
128 in the senior development at 15-17
Willett St. (U.J.C. Bialystoker).
Even in the hard numbers, insufficient
replacement housing for the 1,852 displaced
families left a gap of 608 units in the afford-
able housing stock on the site. The current
guidelines project 800 to roughly 1,000 new
units could be built. To replace the 608 low-
rent units lost to urban renewal alone, between
61 percent and 76 percent of these new units
must be affordable. This threshold of afford-
ability must increase in light of gentrification:
the wholesale displacement of the working-
class Lower East Side and the privatization of
the Grand St. co-operatives, in particular.
For these reasons, GOLES members —
including several tenants evicted from the
urban renewal area in 1967 — propose
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that 70 percent of the new units be afford-
able to low-, moderate- and middle-income
families, in addition to seniors.
GOLES members further hold that the
city must honor its 1967 promise, a verbal
and written pledge: that all former site ten-
ants must have the right to return. As the
city put it in a letter to site tenants in the
For us, 70 percent
affordable housing
is already a compromise.
late ’60’s: “All present and former residen-
tial tenants of Seward Park Extension [i.e.
SPURA] will be given first priority to return
to any housing built with this urban renewal
area provided they meet certain [i.e. income]
qualifications.” This was an unequivocal
promise to the displaced, one without an
expiration date, and we at GOLES believe
the city must honor it.
Finally, because it has been 43 years since
the crime of urban renewal, we hold that all
children of site tenants — people who might
have been eligible for succession to their par-
ents’ leases if sufficient replacement housing
had been built in the ’60’s and ’70’s — must
also have the right to return.
Our hope and our belief is that the city
and the historic opponents of housing on the
site will be willing to negotiate in good faith
on Monday and in the future, just as we have
in the years leading up to Monday’s momen-
tous meeting. We do not insist on having our
way, so long as the result is just.
The historic opponents to low- and mod-
erate-income housing on SPURA have one
chief argument against building 70 percent
affordable housing on the site. This faction
has argued that the return of an integrated,
working-class community to subsidized,
low- and moderate-income housing on these
blocks will destabilize the neighborhood and
depress property values on Grand St.
The argument is frivolous and distorts
the co-operatives’ own proud history. The
Seward Park Co-operative itself was built as
a limited-equity co-operative, a form of mod-
erate-income housing, subsidized by the State
of New York through the Mitchell-Lama pro-
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PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR
The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or
typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an
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omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly
limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent
issue.
Part of the SPURA site, viewed from Clinton and Delancey Sts., looking toward the
southeast. Most of the undeveloped site is currently used as a gigantic open-air
parking lot. Visible in this photo, from left to right, are the NYCHA Seward Park
Extension, one of three tenements on the site that were saved from being razed,
two Grand St. Guild towers and the market-rate Seward Park Co-op, situated on a
diagonal to the other buildings.
gram. By the logic of this faction, the co-ops
themselves should never have been built —
too subsidized, too working class, too many
dangerous people in too high a concentration:
100 percent of the development, in fact.
Federal subsidy continues at the Seward
Park Co-operative even after the sad privati-
zation of every affordable unit in Co-operative
Village. Since the privatization, a few of the
old co-operative shareholders have found it
difficult to keep pace with hikes in mainte-
nance fees. Assemblymember Sheldon Silver
found Section 8 vouchers for these co-
operators, and as a housing justice organi-
zation, GOLES applauds him for doing so.
The vouchers are administered by the city’s
public housing authority, NYCHA. If the co-
ops could be built as 100 percent affordable
housing, and if federal subsidy administered
directly by NYCHA continues to be neces-
sary to maintain affordability on Grand St.,
the argument that subsidized housing on
SPURA would undermine property values
becomes absurd. The case of the Seward
Park Co-operative serves only to demon-
strate that the people of this neighborhood
cannot afford market-rate housing, which on
SPURA would cost $6,000 a month.
Built as a state-subsidized housing project,
scattered with Section 8 vouchers to this day,
PUBLISHER & EDITOR PUBLISHER EMERITUS
John W. Sutter Elizabeth Butson
ASSOCIATE EDITOR SR. V.P. OF SALES AND MARKETING
Lincoln Anderson Francesco Regini
ARTS EDITOR SR. MARKETING CONSULTANT
Jason Sherwood
Scott Stiffler
REPORTER ADVERTISING SALES
Albert Amateau Allison Greaker
Michael Slagle
Julio Tumbaco
BUSINESS MANAGER/
CONTROLLER
RETAIL AD MANAGER
Vera Musa Colin Gregory
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 13
File photo
neighbored by several public housing develop-
ments and a vast, barren parking lot, units in
the Seward Park Co-operative presently sell for
$600,000 or more. The property-values argu-
ment is frivolous, and at worst, it is a smoke-
screen for the old “pocket-ghetto” argument
advanced in the ’70’s to promote the racial seg-
regation of the housing that was built on the site
— and to prevent the further redevelopment of
SPURA from that time forward. The Second
Circuit Court of Appeals resolutely dismissed
this argument in Otero v. NYCHA in 1973, and
no version of this argument should be allowed
to prevent justice on the site today.
The working families of the Lower East
Side, and many of the tenants displaced from
the urban renewal area in 1967, are doubled
and tripled up in various forms of housing —
units we are losing every day. Of course, the
old Grand St. shareholders remember what
an amazing day it was when they paid $500
down per room to live forever on the Lower
East Side. Why deny an experience like this
to other Lower East Siders? Does it really
matter that much to you if your neighbor
happens to make a few thousand dollars less
a year than you do?
The city advances a different argument
Continued on page 21
ART / PRODUCTION DIRECTOR CIRCULATION SALES MNGR.
Troy Masters Marvin Rock
ART DIRECTOR
CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Hassleberger
Ira Blutreich
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Doris Diether
Jamie Paakkonen
Patricia Fieldsteel
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bonnie Rosenstock
J.B. Nicholas
Jefferson Siegel Jefferson Siegel
Clayton Patterson Jerry Tallmer
14 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

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EASTVILLAGERARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
Living Theatre’s ‘quasi-biblical hymn’ to anarchy fights fair
Judith Malina: Horrifying with her politics since age 11
THEATER
KORACH
Written and directed by Judith Malina
Running Time: 55 minutes, no intermission
Through February 28
At the Living Theatre (21 Clinton St. btw.
Houston & Stanton Sts.)
Tickets: $20 (Students/Seniors: $15. Seniors.
Wed, pay what you can)
For reservations, call 978-273-5443
BY JERRY TALLMER
Let us do a little triangulation.
Here, at one point, is 21 Clinton Street
on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in
New York City.
This is where The Living Theatre, found-
ed by Judith Malina and Julian Beck in
1947, lives and breathes these days, 64
years later, as does Judith herself, with a
new play by her called “Korach” — a quasi-
biblical hymn to anarchy (though Julian is
long gone, as is, more recently, second hus-
band Hanon Reznikov, who left behind him
an early draft of the present work).
Far, far away, at the apex of an immense-
ly long thin triangle, is Mount Sinai — not
the New York City medical center, but the
desert heights from which Moses, the lone,
imperious, infuriated climber, brought back
down the Ten Commandments only to
smash them in the face of rebellious, anar-
chic challenges to his authority.
And here is the third peg of that extreme-
ly extended triangle, is a restaurant called
Viand Cafe (at Broadway and 75th Street
on the Upper West Side of Manhattan)
where Judith Malina has come uptown to
talk about “Korach” and theater and girl-
hood and anarchy — and her father, Max
Malina (the rabbi who got himself and his
family out of Germany and to New York
just in time when Judith was three).
“When I was 12 years old,” Malina is
saying, “I saw a movie called ‘Nurse Edith
Cavell’ “ — released 1939, so Malina must
really have been 13 years old — “in which
a beautiful English actress named Anna
Neagle, just before she’s shot as a spy by a
German firing squad in World War I, says:
‘Standing as I am between God and eternity,
I realize that patriotism is not enough.’
“That’s when I realized we must have
no hatred or bitterness against anyone. I
saw this movie,” says Judith,” at the Beacon
Theater.”
What??? an interviewer all but shouts.
Judith, the Beacon Theater is right over
Photo courtesy of kennedyyankoart.com
L to R: Andrew Greer, Jay Dobkin and Tom Walker.
there, two doors away from where we’re must beware of the ruthlessness of the
sitting. It’s a rock palace nowadays. great opposing camp. They are afraid
“I know, “she says calmly. “So I ran home of freedom because they believe that
from the Beacon Theater — we used to live freedom will lead to chaos. We must
around here; we lived everywhere — and show them the sense of consensus
said to my father, the German-Jewish rabbi and collective decision-making that
who was trying to rouse opinion against Anarchism offers. We must reassure the
Hitler: ‘Papa, I’ve just seen this movie! We people that Anarchism doesn’t mean
must not hate the Nazis!’ “ disorder, but a higher form of human
And what did your Papa say? organization. Comrade Alexander
‘”He was horrified by my politics since Berkman said, “Anarchism is organi-
I was 11.” zation; organization, and nothing but
Max Malina, were he alive today, would organization.”
be doubly horrified by “Korach,” in which If the people are not convinced of
the pace is set by Comrade Emma Goldman this — if they are afraid that anarchism
(all 4 foot 11 inches of actress Judith means chaos and violence — they will
Malina, on film) preaching anarchy — the wipe us out. They will eliminate us
real pure stuff — first, last, and always. without mercy — as they have done
in the Ukraine, in Spain, wherever
EMMA: We are now in the midst the burgeoning Anarchist Movement
of a profound social upheaval. We threatened the maintenance of the
Anarchists can take heart that the state. Wherever Anarchism has been
young generation has lost its faith tried, it has succeeded in exemplify-
in government — not in any specific ing a harmonious society. But it has
regime or government — but in the very frightened the people in power, and
notion of government itself. The time the Anarchists have always been wiped
is ripe for us to organize the Anarchist out — all the way back to Korach, in
Movement. If all the young people Biblical History.
that are drawing the ‘A’ in a circle on We will lose every battle — except
the wall…really understood what that the last one.
‘Circle A’ means, we could really have
a splendid revolution now — and in the This, from the woman who in May
deepest sense they do understand that of 1963 (with her husband/co-artist/co-
the ‘Circle A’ means the yearning to be anarchist Julian Beck, along with actors
free of the unnecessary restrictions that and audience) burst in over the roof of
our social system demands — and of the their padlocked 14th Street theater to foil
abuses of punitive law…. the feds and stage one last performance of
We will rally that energy, but we Kenneth Brown’s “The Brig” — a Malina-
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 15
directed portrait of hell as a U.S. Marine
Corps disciplinary center.
This, also, from the woman who even
earlier (1959) had brought forth at that
temple the artistically even more revolu-
tionary “The Connection” — a “jazz play”
by young Jack Gelber about a roomful of
druggies sitting around waiting for their
fix to arrive. Or who placed before New
York eyes and ears the rarely hazarded
works of Bertolt Brecht and William Carlos
Williams.
“I have always considered my theater,”
says the Judith of here and now, “to be
an adjunct of my father’s German-Jewish
synagogue. Wherever we lived, East Side,
West Side, my father’s study is where he
conducted services, did bar mitzvahs, did
circumcisions. On Saturdays you didn’t ride
in a vehicle, didn’t turn on a light.
“In those days I considered myself a
heretical Jew. I had to make a decision: Am
I going to be an actress or am I going to be
observant?”
One of the places where the Malina lived
for several years was the old Broadway
Central Hotel — the one that later fell down
and killed a few people. “Six seventy-three
Broadway,” says Judith, “between Bleecker
and Third.”
Brad Burgess, the young assistant direc-
tor of “Korach,” who has come uptown
with her to sit in on the interview, shoots
Judith a look.
“I can’t believe you remember that,”
Burgess says, “when you can’t remember
your current address.”
Judith Malina was born June 4, 1926, in
Kiel, Germany. Three years later she arrived
in America.
Brad Burgess was born March 1, 1985,
in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in
Lowell, went to Catholic schools, and is a
nice kid sporting a 1960s Abbie Hoffman
head of hair. His roots are French, Irish,
Austrian. These (and nights), he is over-
seeing 25 anarchy-minded actors — some
of whom, the Korachites, pop up on stage
from 10,000 years punishment under the
earth.
The Broadway Central Hotel — to be
exact, the third floor of the Broadway
Central Hotel — was where 11-year-old
Judith Malina and her girlfriends first start-
ed putting on plays.
Judith, says her interviewer, it’s all well
and good to preach and practice anarchy —
but surely you didn’t create that company
and put on all those extraordinary shows
and hold everything together all those
years and are still doing it without some
measure of discipline. Maybe good strong
discipline.
“Discipline, yes,” says Malina, “but not
punitive law. Punitive law, no.”
16 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

‘Men Go Down’ worth going Downtown for

Retelling of classic feels purposeful and relevant
THEATER
MEN GO DOWN, PART 3:
BLACK RECOLLECTIONS
Written & Directed By: John Jahnke
Produced by Producer: Hotel Savant
Through January 23
At 3LD Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich St. (btw. Rector & Edgar)
Running Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes;
no intermission
For tickets ($25), call 212-352-3101

BY MARTIN DENTON ( NYTHEATRE.COM )

“Men Go Down, Part 3: Black
Recollections” is the newest work by John
Jahnke and Hotel Savant. I’ve been a fan of
Jahnke’s work for a decade or more, but I
must admit that this latest piece is so oblique
that it’s hard to recommend wholeheartedly.
Like all of Jahnke’s theatre, this is a
feast for the senses: painterly stage pic-
tures parade before us along with beautiful
(often unclothed) bodies of both genders;

There are moments in

this piece that will stay
with me due to their
unexpectedness and
beauty. But I did not feel
Photo by Dixie Sheridan
much transformed or Hillary Spector as Diana, Goddess of the Moon and Alexander Borinsky as Endymion, former King of Elis.

moved by the proceedings.
meanwhile our eyes and ears are overloaded
with surprising, startling imagery — a door-
bell that sounds like a miniature symphony,
human-size frames that house ever-morphing
“oil paintings” depicting the main characters
in various costumes and poses, a view out a
window into a black night filled with swirling
stars and clouds and, at one point, fireworks.
Where “Men Go Down” proves prob-
lematic is in its meaning. The visual and
aural components are endlessly striking,
but the text and script they support are ellipti-
cal in the extreme — even to the point where
characters frequently leave out key words from
their sentences (usually, but not always, the
nouns). This makes for challenging parsing,
especially when there’s such a stupendous sen-
sual feast unfolding from every direction.
The play takes place in a hotel room in
Turkey in the year 1895. Here, a long-ago
king named Endymion, who has recently been
awakened after sleeping for a thousand years,
is visited by the goddess Diana and by a nymph
named Dryope who has been carrying his
unborn child, also for a millennium. Dryope
says she wants Endymion dead, so that she
can finally birth his offspring. Endymion is also
pursued, or haunted, in waking dreams, by a
trio of gods who manifest themselves as hotel
cleaning staff, and by his ancient love Hylas,
who was Heracles’s lover in Greek myth, who
appears momentarily as a hotel chef.
Now, this is all based in obscure Greek
myth — but the tale is not at all well-known
to contemporary American audiences. In fact,
without a full page of program notes, I would
have had trouble coming up with as specific a
summary of the play as I’ve provided.
Jahnke’s direction and design concept
are stunning, and the realization of that
design — by Peter Ksander (set), Kristin
Worrall (sound), Bruce Steinberg (light-
ing), Ramona Ponce (costumes), Taili Wu,
Andrew Schneider, and Rebecca Adomo
(video) — is utterly breathtaking. The cast
of eight is led by Alexander Borinsky as
Endymion (who makes a wondrously sur-
prising entrance near the start of the show)
and Hillary Spector and Tanisha Thompson
as his antagonists Diana and Dryope; Tim
Eliot, Liz Santoro, Michael Ingle, Melody
Bates, and Mikeah Jennings complete the
ensemble in smaller roles that require them
to dance, move, and serve as various forms

Can’t get enough In any event, though “Men Go Down”

on the surface is a kind of retelling of this
classic tale, the play’s raison d’etre feels more
of chorus.
There are moments in this piece that will
stay with me due to their unexpectedness and

of The East VIllager?

Sign up for email blasts at thevillager.com!
purposeful and relevant. What I got from the
piece was the story of a man who feels entitle-
ment without responsibility; someone who
beauty. But I did not feel much transformed or
moved by the proceedings — which surprised
me, because with the work of John Jahnke
sleeps or retreats or blames rather than ever and Hotel Savant, that’s almost always what
behaves accountably for his actions. happens.
 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 17

Just Do Art!
KIDS FAIR
If you’ve got kids who have cabin fever,
here’s an event that gets them out the cave
and, well, back into the great indoors. They
won’t mind it, though — because there’s
more going on at Peridance Capezio Center
than board games and blank stares. This
“Kids Fair” lets kids take sample dance
classes in African, Salsa, Gymnastics for
Dancers, Samurai Sword and more. Do the
meet and greet thing with PeriChild teachers
while enjoying refreshments, digging into a
free goodie bag, or creating some grooves of
your own courtesy of the live DJ (from 14th
Street’s own Dubspot DJ School). FREE, for
kids from the toddler stage to high school
age. Sun., Jan. 23, 11am-3pm. At Peridance
Capezio Center (126 E. 13th St. btw. 3rd &
4th Aves.). Call 212-505-0886 or vist perid-
ance.com.

STARRY MESSENGERS
Galileo had his share of trouble when
he announced his Copernican theory of
the earth’s rotation just as the Inquisition
was making mincemeat of those with rad-
ical beliefs. In this modern retelling of
that ill-timed theory’s debut, playwright Ira
Hauptman makes a connection between the
price paid by Galileo and the tizzy caused
by scientists sounding the global warming
alarm. Jan. 27 through Feb. 12 (run time, Photo courtesy of Peridance Capezio Center
90 minutes). Wed. through Sat., 8pm. Sun, You’re never too young to learn how to fight nice. See “Kids Fair.”
3pm and 8pm. Added performance Sun.,
Jan. 30, 8pm. At Theater for the New City to be penned into that nifty 2011 calen-
(155 First Ave., at E. 10th St.). For tickets dar you recently purchased. Feb. 2-4 (7pm
($15 general, $12 for students/seniors), call each night), the “Silent Films/Live Music”
212) 254-1109. Visit theaterforthenewcity. series features some of Hollywood’s greatest
net and jsnyc.com/season/starrymessenger. physical comedians — backed by the sounds
of found percussion and state-of-the-art elec-
tronics (courtesy of the three-man ensemble,
EVENTS AT WFC WINTER GARDEN
Arts World Financial Center has an
impressive roster of cultural events ready
Alloy Orchestra).

Continued on page 18
PAINTINGS:
1950 – 2010
Eva Deutsch Costabel solo exhibition

Opening Reception
January 20, 2010
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
307 Seventh Ave. Suite 1401

, a program of the
Carter Burden Center for the Aging, focuses on
work by older, self-taught artists, and
“The colors I use those with special needs.
are instinctive
and expressive. Gallery hours:
Anyone can learn Tuesday - Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
how to draw, but January 20th - February 17th
understanding color
is a sense that is 646.400.5254
Photo by Lee Wexler inherent.” www.burdencenter.org
L-R: Elisa Matula, David Little, Marnye Young. See “Starry Messengers.”
18 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

Just Do Art!
Continued from page 17

Wed., Feb. 2, 1920’s “One Week” stars Buster Keaton;

1919’s “Back Stage” stars Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle; and
1917’s “Easy Street” stars Charlie Chaplin. Thurs., Feb. 3,
1928’s “Speedy” features Harold Lloyd as the eponymous
hero who attempts to save the last horse-drawn trolley
bus from greedy railway magnates. It was shot on location
in NYC and features several landmarks including Yankee
Stadium, Luna Park, Columbus Circle and the Brooklyn
Bridge. Fri., Feb. 4, 1926’s “The Black Pirate” has Douglas
Fairbanks as a man who, bound by honor, vows to avenges
the death of his father at the hands of a pirate gang.
FREE. At World Financial Center (220 Vesey St.). For
info on these and other events, call 212-945-0505 or visit
artsworldfinancialcenter.com.

SAMURAI SWORD SOUL PRESENTS: GEKIRYU

It seems like a very long time indeed since the gleaming
blades wielded by Samurai Sword Soul’s precise and intense
cast graced the stage in a full-length production. When last
we saw them — in 2009’s “Scattered Lives” — Samurai
Sword was slicing and dicing their way through an epic tale,
well-served by their trademark minimalist technique (lots of
blood and gore and death and mayhem, all done without the
use of actual buckets of red stuff). Primal screams let loose
in the heat of battle — and shiny blades that generated a furi-
ous sound even though they weren’t made of metal — gave
a literal kick to the proceedings.
Now, writer, director and fight choreographer Yoshihisa
Kuwayama has cooked up what promises to be another
relentless, imaginative series of violent encounters punctu-
ated by moments of somber reflection. That reflection takes
Poised to strike: The nimble warriors of Samurai Sword Soul.
place 400 years ago in Japan, and comes in the form of a
Samurai family baffled by rapidly changing times.
This epic tale of transition won’t rely on intricately
choreographed fight scenes alone to hammer home its
examination of Samurai culture. As was the case with
“Scattered Lives,” the troupe’s live musicians are poised
to establish mood, heighten tension and punctuate the
physical violence with charismatic bursts of sound and
fury. Traditional Japanese instruments are, traditionally,
the soundmakers of choice for Samurai Soul. This time
around, however, trumpet player Carol Mogan and trom-
bonist Dr. Sean Reed (Director of Brass Studies at NYU)
are part of the ensemble.
“Gekiryu: When the torrent takes their lives” happens
Photo by Motoyaki Ishibashi
Thurs.-Sat., Jan. 20-22, at 7:30pm — and Sun., Jan. 23 at
3pm. At Dance New Amsterdam (DNA); 280 Broadway,
2nd Floor (entrance on Chambers St.). Tickets are $18 in
advance, $23 at the door. For reservations, call 212-625-
8369 or visit dnadance.org. Also visit samuraiswordsoul.
com.
A PALO SECO: RASGOS FLAMENCOS
Rebeca Tomás, who made her solo debut at Theatre 80
Saint Marks this past May (with the dynamic and involv-
ing “A Palo Seco”) returns that very same venue — this
time with two additional dancers, two singers and four
musicians. “A Palo Seco: Rasgos Flamencos” re-envisions
aspects of last season’s production while introducing sev-
eral new pieces, both traditional and unconventional. The
new collection of Flamenco music and dance promises
to bring a distinct New York edge to the Argentinean art
of Flamenco. Just as last season’s show contained some
unexpected touches (such as Tomás playing Beethoven’s
“Moonlight Sonata” at the piano), this features some of
its own nontraditional elements (including a new solo
work in which the Spanish fan, el abanico, is used as a
percussive instrument). Fri., Jan. 28, Sat., Jan. 29 & Mon.,

Continued on page 19

Just Do Art!
Continued from page 18
Jan. 31 at 8pm. Sun, Jan. 30 at 3pm. At Theatre 80 Saint
Marks (80 Saint Marks Place, btw. First & Second Aves.).
Visit rebecaflamenca.com.
THE A**HOLE IN MY HEAD
After wowing them at Birdland and the Triad, Kate
Dawson brings her one-woman musical show Downtown
so Village denizens can see what’s been shocking — and
amusing — the Uptown swells. Fun, entertaining and hilari-
ous (according to her otherwise hype-free press release),
songstress Dawson performs this musical exploration of that
annoying inner voice we all combat on a daily basis. That
exploration will somehow manage to link Dawson’s internal
struggle with songs from shows including “The Light in
the Piazza,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Wicked.”
Keeping a reasonable reign on the insanity of “The A**hole
in My Head” is director Don Amendolia (a veteran actor
seen in Broadway’s “33 Variations”). Sun., Jan. 23 and 30,
7pm, at The Duplex (61 Christopher St. at 7th Ave.). $10
cover, two drink minimum. For tickets, call 212-255-5438 or
visit theduplex.com.
Photo by Laura Boyd
Kate Dawson has big problems upstairs, in “The
A**hole in My Head.”
BENEFIT: DIVAS & DANCERS
Years ago, she gave us “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
Decades later, she’d become the only reason any reason-
able person would have to ever even contemplate watch-
ing “Celebrity Apprentice.” So what have YOU done for
Lauper lately? True to form, the only thing she wants from
us is to see a show whose proceeds benefit her True Colors
Residence. It’s a project of West End Intergenerational
Residence, and partners Cyndi Lauper and her manager Lisa
Barbaris (slated to open in Central Harlem in summer 2011).
True Colors will be the first permanent, supportive housing
facility for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in
New York State. So now you have a very good reason to
enjoy an evening of some of the best of New York Burlesque,
Dance & Performance Art! Need another reason? There will
be nearly naked divas & dancers! Sat. Jan. 22, 8pm. At The
Wild Project (195 E. 3rd St. btw. Aves. A & B). For tickets,
Buster got back. From “Speedy” — starring Buster
Keaton. See “WFC Winter Garden,” page 17.
call 212-352-3101. Visit thewildproject.com and kineti-
carchitecture.org and truecolorsresidence.org.
FILM & DISUSSION: THE ECONOMICS
OF HAPPINESS
Documentary filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “The
Economics of Happiness” advocates for an altruistic strat-
egy called “localization” — the rebuilding of communities
and regional economies as the foundation for raising cultural
awareness and addressing societal woes tied to globalization.
Make the world a better place, the theory goes, and you’ll profit
from peace of mind and an overall sense of well-being. Efforts
profiled in the film include the urban gardens in Detroit, the
Transition Town movement in England and cultural preserva-
tion in Peru and Ladakh (“Little Tibet”). FREE. Thurs., Jan.
27, 6:30pm, at The Cooper Union’s Great Hall (7 E. 7th St.
btw. 3rd and 4th Aves). A screening of the film is followed by a
panel discussion with Norberg-Hodge, Judy Wicks (co-founder,
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), Gloria Steinem
and others. For info, call 212-353-4200. Visit cooper.edu.
Follow Cooper Union on Twitter at twitter.com/cooperunion
DJINN — TRADITIONAL TURKISH MUSIC
At this gig, Djinn will draw from an extensive repertoire
of traditional Turkish and Arabic music, and original com-
positions with Middle Eastern influence. The band is known
for blending ancient party music with human beatbox,
electronics, a taste of traditional flavor and a mouthful of
New York City style. Cellist Jessie Reagen Mann, a frequent
collaborator, will join Djinn. This program, by the way, is
part of “6th Street Sundays — which hosts some of NYC’s
best classical and world musicians in the unique setting of
the Sixth Street Community Synagogue’s Max D. Raiskin
Center for the Arts. Each concert includes new composi-
tions, either commissioned for or written by the artists. The
series is curated by cellist Jessie Reagen Mann. Curious?
Get more info at 6thstreetsundays.com. As for Djinn, you
can catch them Sun., Jan. 23, at the Max D. Raiskin Center
for the Arts (Sixth St. Community Synagogue, 325 E. Sixth
St.). The 3pm concert is preceded by a 2pm workshop that
will delve into the mysteries of different rhythms in different
time signatures. All djembes, doumbeks, shakers and tam-
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 19
Photo by Maly Blomberg
Rebeca Tomás returns to Theatre 80. See “A Palo
Seco,” page 18.
bourines are welcome! The $15 cover includes one beverage.
Visit djinnyc.com.
WALKING TOUR: UNION SQUARE
Getting some exercise and learning something about a
part of town you stroll through for shopping, socializing or
just being seen are two very good reasons indeed to brave the
low temperatures of January and February. “Union Square:
Crossroads of New York” is a free 90-minute walking tour
which explores the social and political history of the Union
Square neighborhood. By the end of the experience, you’ll
have racked up an impressive amount of seldom-heard facts
about the people, history, architecture, and forces that have
shaped this community. Use it to make conversation with that
spring fling when the two of you have a sit down date in or
around the Square. FREE. Every Sat., 2pm. The tour begins
at the Abraham Lincoln statue by the 16th Street transverse
in Union Square Park. Look for the guide holding a “Union
Square: Crossroads of New York sign.” Reservations are
required for groups. Call 212-517-1826.
HARLEM ON MY MIND
Xoregos Performing Company’s next production is part of
the Harlem Renaissance Festival. “Harlem on my Mind” features
four short new plays, all set during the Harlem Renaissance
period (1919-1940). The production also includes poems by
Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson — as well
as the songs of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Irving Berlin.
January 22, 27 at 7pm & January 29 at 4pm. At Metropolitan
Playhouse (220 E. 4th St. btw. Aves. A & B). For tickets ($18,
15 for students/seniors), call 212-995-5302. Visit xoregos.com.
A final performance will be held Wed., Feb. 16, 6pm, at the
Bronx Library Center (310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. Subways: B, D to
Fordham Rd.). For Info, 212-239-8405.
20 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

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Time for justice at SPURA
Continued from page 13
against planning up to 70 percent afford-
able housing on the site. The Economic
Development Corporation has maintained that
the “project must pay for itself,” that the num-
ber of low- and moderate-income families able
to live on this site is hostage to what the market
can pay for. In this way, the city’s argument
and the opposition’s arguments are mutually
reinforcing, but both are disingenuous.
We at GOLES know that there is no short-
age of subsidy for this project. In fact, the
opposite is true: There is abundant subsidy and
financing available at the city level, at the state
level, at the federal level and even in private-
sector funds for the development of low- and
moderate-income housing. Just a few examples:
• There are at least $400 million in New
York City’s Housing Development Corporation’s
coffers specifically earmarked for bonds to sub-
sidize the development and maintenance of
affordable housing. The money is earmarked
through 2013.
• The city’s Housing Trust Fund
(NYCHTF) can subsidize up to $50,000 per
unit — and encourages a greater proportion
of low-income units than the bare minimum
of 20 percent to reach this level of subsidy.
• The city’s Low-Income Affordable
Marketplace Program (LAMP) has subsi-
dized thousands of units throughout the five
boroughs in recent years.
• The City Council’s general fund is fre-
quently used to finance less worthy projects
— for example, this year’s gift of $2.7 mil-
lion to the luxury gym Basketball City now
attempting to open its doors on public land
at Montgomery St. and the F.D.R. Surely, the
Council could find some funds to save the
Lower East Side.
• Governor Cuomo has just proposed a
$100 million competitive grant program for
communities developing new models in hous-
ing and transportation — SPURA above the
Essex-Delancey subway station would be an
excellent contender.
• $12 million remains in the Lower
Manhtattan Development Corporation’s
affordable housing fund.
• The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust
recently invested $90 million to maintain
the affordability of Lands End II, a Section
8 development on Cherry St. — and also
poured millions of financing into the Seward
Park Co-operative itself.
• Section 202 funds for the construction
of senior housing remain abundant at the
federal level.
• Bank of America, which owes the
American working class for plunging us into
this economic crisis, has up to $1 trillion avail-
able for the financing of low- and moderate-
income housing through 2018.
• This is not to mention the subsidy that
might be available if the project were also
conceived as a workforce program to train
unemployed Lower East Siders in the building
trades — the ideal intersection of economic
and housing justice, and a unique avenue
for subsidy. Workers employed by the Works
Progress Administration built First Houses
Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 21
(between E. Second and Third Sts. and Avenue
A and First Ave.) on just such a model in the
depths of the Great Depression. First Houses
was the first public housing built in New York
City, and the nation.
There is no shortage of subsidy — and,
indeed, justice and rational planning on this
site requires it. For the project to even qualify
for many of these funds, Community Board 3
must plan an affordable SPURA.
Because this site has languished for more
than four decades, because the Lower East
Side’s very existence as a working-class com-
munity is imperiled, because of the shameful
legacy of federally funded and city-executed
urban renewal, and because this is the heart
of the most famous immigrant neighborhood
in the world — SPURA warrants deep subsidy
from every level of government and every pri-
vately administered affordable housing trust.
It is not, as the city argues, that housing
subsidies are best spent in Brownsville because
that is where they are needed most. It is rather
that housing subsidies are needed equally on Photo by Jefferson Siegel
the Lower East Side and in Brownsville, per-
haps for different reasons, but to the same end:
to ensure that working-class people can live
decently in New York City.
It’s another wrap in Chelsea
Saturday, in front of Tekserve on W. 23rd St., the Lower East Side Ecology Center
The city’s agencies can do better on sub-
sidies, and must, because this neighborhood’s held another of its electronics recycling events. With people having received new TV’s,
housing crisis only gets worse as we continue computers and other electronics over the holidays as gifts and looking to shed their
to bleed rent-stabilized units and other forms old electronics, recycling is an ecologically friendly alternative to dumping them in the
of affordable housing. Developing SPURA to garbage. The ecology center’s Christine Datz-Romero estimated they collected 15
benefit working and moderate-income families tons of electronics in six hours on Saturday.
is a crucial first step in addressing the Lower
East Side’s housing crisis — a crisis that drags
us all down and takes too much rent money out PEOPS PORTRAIT PROJECT BY FLY - WWW.PEOPS.ORG
of all of our pockets.
On Monday, the community board’s com-
mittee must weigh these facts. But it also must
decide who needs SPURA more: those who’ve
benefited from the housing boom and the
gentrification of this neighborhood, or those
who’ve suffered from it.
GOLES members have been at every
Community Board 3 committee meeting for
the last 18 months. We’ve organized unprec-
edented community meetings, taking city-plan-
ning tools developed for C.B. 3, translating
them into Spanish and Chinese and asking the
people who live closest to or on the site what
should rise at SPURA.
The result was 93 percent affordable hous-
ing, mostly small mom-and-pop stores, schools
and living-wage jobs. The current guidelines
cut in just the opposite direction — even
threatening to relocate or demolish the Essex
St. Market.
For us, 70 percent affordable housing is
already a compromise. We are prepared to con-
sider any reasonable counteroffer, but we will
not betray our community. This is not a game.
This is about the lives of real people, and the
life of the Lower East Side.
The history since 1967 of racial and class
discrimination on the site and in the blocks
surrounding must be made an aberration. The
community board’s vote, whenever it is held,
can do just that.
Feingold is community organizer, Land- HETTIE JONES - 12/02/2K10 - LOWER EAST SIDE NYC
Use Committee of Good Old Lower East
Side (GOLES)
HETTIEJONES.COM
22 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 Your Health

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Attending New York Eye & Ear
All Insurances Welcome
A Medicare Advantage organization with a Medicare contract.
Same Day Appointments

The Health Plan for 409 E 14th St., Suite A

New Yorkers with (Near 1st Ave.)
New York, NY 10009
Medicare & Medicaid
H6264_MKM_2011_4002_v4 F&U 10/05/2010 212-677-3200
 Your Health Januar y 20 - 26, 2011 23

It’s all about

We provide access to a network of over

20,000 doctors and specialists
as well as on-staff Registered Nurses
who help coordinate your care.
These are just some of the things
Healthfirst Medicare Plan has to offer.

We are Healthfirst Medicare Plan.

Part of your community since 1993.

To learn more about Healthfirst Medicare Plan for 2011 or to enroll, call:

1-877-737-8450 | TDD/TTY 1-800-662-1220

(for the hearing or speech impaired)

Monday through Friday, 8:00am – 6:00pm www.healthfirstny.org

A Federally-Qualified HMO with a Medicare contract.
Healthfirst Medicare Plan’s service area includes the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and Nassau
and Westchester counties. Plans may vary by county.

©2010 HF Management Services, LLC. H3359_MKT10_40 File & Use 10232010

24 Januar y 20 - 26, 2011

Where Traditional and Conventional Live HEALTHily Ever After

56 7th Ave (bet.13th & 14th St) 212-255-6300 www.ElmHealth.net Follow us on Facebook!

Elm Drugs, NOW OPEN on 7th Ave & 14th St!

When you visit Elm, you enter a world where dedication to your health is evident the moment you walk through the door.
For over 35 years, our independently owned pharmacies and specialty service stores have been a valued resource for our communities.

Organic Juice Bar Our Full Service Pharmacy Specializes In:

Organic Local Produce Hormone Replacement Therapy COME IN FOR
Organic Bulk section - grains, nuts, dried fruits, mixes Diabetes A FREE
Organic Bulk Medicinal Herbs Asthma SAMPLE
Knowledgeable Nutritional Consultants Pain Management
Cruelty Free Natural and Organic Cosmetics and Personal Care Specialty Compounding
Natural and Organic Food Market HIV/AIDS

Happy & Healthy New Year From Our Family To Yours!

FREE DELIVERY WITHIN 15 BLOCKS
Limit 1 per customer Limit 1 per customer