‘InvasIve’ arT,‘InvasIve’ p16 p5 showdown, TenanT-landlord p4 need cops? More do we #206: May 2015 evolvIng cuba, p12 lIfe In apolyrhyThMIc, InsurgenTly underground noTes froM The le forum

2015 back see information, page more for May 29 Confronting Capitalism of the Crises & Democracy No Peace Justice No The Indy The TH –31 ST pendenT a free paper for free people ROB LAQUINTA p20 dIleMMas, parenTIng p8 The rIoTs, balTIMore afTer p6 all, for sporTs 2 #205: april 2015 a FrEE papEr FOr FrEE pEOplE

THEpalEsTiNE caN’T brEa THEi, pNDY14 | vi ETNam rEmEpmbErEDENDENT, p15 | W HEN puNk Was THaT GOOD, p17 The IndypendenT reader’s sTaNDarDizED TEsTiNG’s HiDDEN aGENDa, p10 bEacH TOWN vs. biG ENErGY, p12 a vErY sTraNGE miND, p16 THE INDYPENDENT, INC. voIce 388 Atlantic Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 212-904-1282 www.indypendent.org Twitter: @TheIndypendent facebook.com/TheIndypendent Rob LaQuinta

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, a TalE OF TWO Alina Mogilyanskaya, Ann Schneider, brbrONxEsxEs John Tarleton THE mamaYOr WaWaNTs TO rErEmakE NYc’sNYc’s pOOrEsTrEsT bOrOubOrOuGH. A COMMUNIST FRONT GROUP? importantly, do asbuT,bu we’reT, WHO WillWtoldill b ENEFin theiT?iT? p6pfuture.6 Anyone who opposes Since Veterans for Peace is a communist front organization, it’s such madness and stands with humanity deserves and gets my EXECUTIVE EDITOR: not surprising to fi nd a died-in-the-wool Marxist spouting commu- thanks. John Tarleton nist rhetoric about the Vietnam War (April Indypendent, “Don’t — Mike Ferner Thank Me For My Service”). At least he told the truth about one MANAGING EDITOR: thing — he does not speak for the 3 million Vietnam vets, 80 per- cent of whom say they would go again, even knowing the outcome. UKRAINE’S MISUNDERSTOOD CIVIL WAR Alina Mogilyanskaya He’s some advice from another vet. If you don’t want to celebrate We believe that readers of The Indypendent would be interested to the sacrifi ces of others, then don’t. But don’t piss in other people’s know that recently visitors from the Ukraine spoke in NYC about CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: porridge. You are a small minority. Most vets are proud of their the dire state of Eastern and working-class Ukrainians under at- Ellen Davidson, service and what they did in Vietnam and believe in American free- tack by the Kiev government, installed by the Maidan uprising Nicholas Powers dom, not communist tyranny. in 2014. They were commemorating the massacre of at least 48 — Paul Schmehl people when a fascist mob burned down a trade union building in the city of Odessa. They wanted to provide an alternative to STAFF REPORTER: what is reported in the U.S. media, which uniformly misrepresents Alex Ellefson VETS RETURN FIRE the Ukrainian confl ict as a Russian incursion, and their movement Paul, I am so sorry you are hurting so bad you’d go back to Viet supports neither Ukrainian nor Russian nationalism but primarily Nam to have your ass kicked again. You are a tool and a fool to wants to live in peace. ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: believe Veterans For Peace is any kind of united front about any- These visiting speakers insisted that Easterners took up arms to Frank Reynoso thing except our disdain for war and desire to use our experiences resist the imposition of the Kiev government on them through a to work for peace. We lost because you can’t conquer a nation with bloody military assault, which reduced their cities to rubble, killed DESIGN DIRECTOR: invaders and the Vietnamese fought back. thousands of civilians and forced many more into exile. They as- Mikael Tarkela — Imavettoo serted that pro-Europe demonstrations were taken over by extreme rightist elements. Moreover, they charged that fascists had been in- tegrated into the Kiev government and army. They also denounced DESIGNERS: I joined the U.S. Air Force in July 1970, four days before my 18th U.S. support for the Kiev government, evidenced in the tape where Steven Arnerich, Anna Gold birthday, and volunteered for Vietnam. It was my intention to be- U.S. representative Victoria Nuland boasts of its longstanding come a “lifer,” a career soldier. My father was in the CIA, and in fi nancial contributions to the opposition and the Pentagon’s an- Saigon. My brother Charlie, two years older, was in Cam Ranh nouncement that it is now training the Kiev army. These emissar- CALENDAR EDITOR: Bay. My father signed death warrants on Vietnamese civilians with ies, politicized by their oppression, risked considerable danger to Seamus Creighton (in his words) “the full weight of the law behind him.” Charlie re- spread their message and plead for us to show solidarity with suf- turned with his Vietnamese wife, two children, and four members fering Ukrainians by challenging the U.S. government’s propagan- GENERAL INQUIRIES: of his extended family. It took him 30 years to drink himself to da and opposing its deadly intervention. [email protected] death. The war transformed me into a lifelong fi ghter for peace, — Jackie DiSalvo justice and equality. It is those decades of service of which I am Doug Ferrari SUBMISSIONS AND NEWS TIPS: proud. Manny Ness [email protected] — Patrick McCann

ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION: [email protected] Who’s been protecting our freedoms such as they are? I’d say the unnamed brave citizens and soldiers who put their own freedom VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: Sam Alcoff, and careers on the line to speak out for humanity and march against the tide of militarism: the Chelsea Mannings, Dan Ells- Bennett Baumer, Devika Bilimoria, José bergs, Ann Wrights, Kathy Kellys, Cindy Shee- Carmona, Shawn Carrié, Hye Jin Chung, hans, Jane Fondas and Ed Snowdens of the world Annette Elizabeth, Renée Feltz, Ersellia who have the strength of conscience few possess Ferron, Daniel Fishel, Lynne Foster, and acted when it would’ve been easier not to; the Robert Gonyo, Michael Grant, Michael ACLU; a handful in Congress; the laborers who went out on their feet and not on their knees; Hirsch, David Hollenbach, Rebeca the teachers and preachers who stood up to the Ibarra, Dondi J, Mamoudou Keita, small-minded prejudices of those around them — The IndypendenT Margarita Kruchinskaya, Rob LaQuinta, these and many more unsung are the real heroes Gary Martin, AnnMary Mathew, David of freedom. These are the people whose likenesses Meadow, Mike Newton, Maya Peraza- should stand in town squares, whom we should celebrate in football stadiums and on a dozen days conTInue followIng Baker, Robert Pluma, Anna Polonyi, during the year when we are looking for heroes

May 2015 Andy Pugh, Conor Tomás Reed, Jim to honor. Secula, Andrew Stern, Gabriella Szpunt, Instead, we have another $65,000,000 tax dol- lars going to “commemorate” the Vietnam War Lisa Taylor, Cindy Trinh, Solange The news aT and heighten the grip militarism has on our cul- Uwimana, Maria Vassileva, Matthew ture so we can feel better about the past, but more Wasserman, Beth Whitney, and Amy The IndypendenT Wolf. IndypendenT.org. Table of 3 conTenTs 4 how Many cops do we need? by Nick Malinowski New York City has the largest police force in the United States. Now, the City Council wants to add 1,000 more cops at the cost of at least $1 billion over the next decade.

5 TenanTs vs. landlords by Steven Wishnia With landlords making record profits, tenant groups are urging the Rent Guidelines Board to approve a first-ever rent rollback for the city’s 900,000-plus rent-stabi- lized apartments.

6 foul play by Alex Ellefson Student activists say the city’s Department of Education is undermining a sports league for small high schools with predominantly youth of color and immigrant student bodies.

8 balTIMore burnIng by Shawn Carrié What will be the legacy of the riots sparked by the police killing of Freddie Gray?

10 Terror In The polIce van by Gan Golan A first-person account of what it’s like to be handcuffed in the back of a police van when the cops decide to administer a “rough ride.”

12 defyIng sTereoTypes by Conor Tomás Reed Traditional perspectives on Cuba fail to see what’s burbling just beneath the surface among young Cubans, who want change that advances the direction of the 1959 revolution while loosening the power of the state.

15 peace InITIaTIve by Lisa Taylor An embattled neighborhood in the port city of Buenaventura, Colombia, adopts a novel strategy for resisting the paramilitary gangs that have terrorized it.

16 arT & prIvacy by Mike Newton Arne Svenson’s photography peers into daily life and raises questions about the concept of “home” and its connotations of privacy and security.

17 bosTon MaraThon boMbers by Maria Vassileva A new book about the Tsarnaev brothers rejects standard FBI assumptions about how disenchanted individuals come to engage in acts of terrorism.

18 broThers on The block by Matt Wasserman Historian Dan Berger looks back at a time when Black prisoners played a key role in inspiring and organizing the Black Power movement.

19 a hoMe of hIs own by Michael Steven Smith During his record-setting 41 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace shared his dreams of what kind of house he would like to live in with an artist named Jackie Sumell.

20 To parenT, or noT? by Bennett Baumer Two new books provide thoughtful but divergent views on the choice to become a parent. May 2015May Indypenden The

21 Major barbara by David Meadow The staging of George Bernard Shaw’s classic play Major Barbara raises anew ques- tions of what to do when receiving gifts that come with strings attached. 22 evenTs calendar Listings of book launches, movie festivals, musical performances, walking tours, mermaid parades and more that you don’t want to miss! T 4 PoLICINg

cITy councIl, de blasIo clash over plan for 1,000 More cops

By Nick Malinowski policing, bristling at most calls for reform while ingly confl icts with the body’s reform agenda of HOW ABOUT A

backing Bratton’s “broken windows” style of a reduced role for the NYPD, while the justifi ca- CINDY TRINH HIRING FREEZE?: he New York City Council’s con- high-energy enforcement of low-level crimes tions for the additional expense change on a reg- A woman protests troversial push to add 1,000 new and violations. ular basis. During a recent roundtable hosted by outside NYPD head- offi cers to the New York Police Reductions in stop and frisk activities — the NY1, analysts described the council’s position quarters at 1 Police Department hit a major snag on result of a federal ruling castigating the practice on the new cops as “incoherent” and “fake.” Plaza on April 3. May 7, when Mayor Bill de Blasio as illegal — and decreases in misdemeanor ar- Recently, a group of mainstream nonprof- Tdid not include the $100-million measure in his rests and summonses have freed up time for the its, many aligned closely with the speaker and $78.3-billion preliminary executive budget. cops already on the force to pursue other objec- other members of the City Council, also came The announcement could lead to a public tives, de Blasio said. out against the proposal. So far, councilmem- showdown between de Blasio and his police Mark-Viverito has been the loudest voice in bers have not been able to produce a single com- commissioner, William Bratton, who is left in support of hiring new offi cers. She, along with munity group that supports their plan, leading a potentially humiliating position after mak- other council progressives, requested 1,000 some to suggest the whole thing is simply a ing the media rounds to say the new cops were new offi cers last year, in response to an uptick political gift to the NYPD, which is otherwise pretty much a done deal. in shootings in public housing in the Bronx. At frustrated with council’s reform agenda. The mayor has left the back door open for a the time, that plan was swiftly swatted down by Mark-Viverito is in another highly publicized compromise on the issue, though any movement Bratton, who said it was both fi scally impossible dispute with Bratton about moving a small would indicate purely political motivations now and unnecessary from a tactical perspective. number of criminal violations, such as drinking that he has laid out his own budget priorities. This year, Mark-Viverito pivoted on her jus- alcohol in public or being in a park after dark, “We will certainly have a thorough process tifi cation for the new offi cers, saying more cops into civil court, where they would be adjudicat- with the council, and you know, we’ll be very were needed to keep crime down while taking ed in a manner similar to traffi c tickets. open to fi nding a compromise — which is what a more proactive role in “community policing.” The apparent rift between de Blasio and his we do in the legislative process,” De Blasio said Perhaps seeking an opportunity to resolve the commissioner is surprising. Despite a few un- during a press conference with reporters follow- confl ict between de Blasio and the police unions substantiated news reports of behind-the-scenes ing his budget presentation. catalyzed by the shooting deaths of two offi cers disagreements, the two have generally put on a Over the past several months, community this winter, Bratton reversed his position and united public front, seeming at times to bend activists have blasted the council’s plan with came along. over backwards to support one another as cri- disruptions in City Council chambers, online What community policing actually means, tiques have come in, predictably, from both the petitions and social media campaigns targeting however, remains a question of debate. At a re- left and the right. De Blasio has granted Bratton the proposal, which would cost the city at least cent public event Mark-Viverito declined to give almost unfettered control over policing. $1 billion over the next decade, based on cost her own defi nition of the term when asked on At a hearing before the New York State As- estimates provided by City Council Speaker Me- camera by a constituent. NYPD Deputy Susan sembly on May 7, Elizabeth Glazer, who runs lissa Mark-Viverti. The activists argue that the Herman has described a pilot program for a the Mayor’s Offi ce of Criminal Justice — the money should be put toward community needs small cadre of offi cers to roam around commu- wing of his administration that oversees the po- such as a youth jobs program, mental health nities talking to people and charting their con- lice department — acknowledged that Bratton care and schools. Put on the defensive, the City cerns; Assistant Chief Terrence Monahan told has complete control over the NYPD and that Council added a sentence on youth jobs to its the City Council in March that “community po- her offi ce, tasked with departmental oversight, offi cial budget request for the new cops. licing” is what the NYPD has always done. Re- has an insignifi cant role. The fi nal budget is due at the end of June and gardless, Bratton, not the City Council, will de- it will be interesting to see which social service termine how any new offi cers will be deployed. Nick Malinowski is a social worker and activist cuts the generally progressive City Council puts Given his track record, it’s unlikely they would based in Brooklyn. on the chopping block in its efforts to secure the be ordered to spend their time getting cats out additional offi cers. of trees and helping senior citizens cross busy Bratton is scheduled to testify before the streets. council on May 21 to defend his budget request; Following the budget announcement, Brat- his last visit induced fi reworks from the public ton explained that new offi cers were required and editorials detailing how a historically com- for heightened counterterrorism details to ward bative City Council seemed to be making efforts off attacks from the Islamic State (ISIS). Coun- to defend, praise and placate both Bratton and cilmember Rory Lancman, of Queens, who just the NYPD. last month said the new police were essential for

May 2015 De Blasio said he’s happy with the NYPD’s community policing, tweeted on May 12 that current performance and does not see a need to now the need was in counterterrorism and crime increase the department’s headcount — current- prevention. ly 49,000, with 34,500 uniformed offi cers, and While Bratton’s support for more cops makes the largest in the United States at roughly four sense (de Blasio has said that every one of his times the size of the Los Angeles Police Depart- commissioners asks for more resources), the

The IndypendenT ment. He generally supports the status quo in council’s position is hard to understand. It seem- hoUSINg 5 renT hIke fIghT

By Steven Wishnia apartments in the city. Rents are rela- tively low, but still high when compared he South Bronx met the to people’s incomes — $1,100 a month liberal policy wonks of the isn’t cheap when you make $520 a week. de Blasio administration Landlords there also commonly use ma- April 29, and the Bronx jor capital improvements to raise rents lost. on apartments where people aren’t mov- TAs more than 200 people chanting ing. “Rent Rollback” fi lled an auditorium at Tenant groups had pushed for a rent City University Graduate Center, most rollback on the grounds that under the in community-group contingents from Bloomberg administration, the RGB the Bronx and upper Manhattan, the had regularly granted increases far larg- city Rent Guidelines Board rejected a er than were needed to keep landlords proposal to recommend that rents be re- solvent. Last year, according to board duced by up to 4 percent for the city’s 1 fi gures, the “projected increase of own- million rent-stabilized apartments next ers’ costs,” its index to predict prices for year, by a 7-2 vote. Instead, it voted 5-4 running a building, went up by only 0.5 to recommend allowing increases of zero percent, the lowest in the last decade. to 2 percent for a one-year lease and 0.5 “While last year’s rent increase was to 3.5 percent for two years. For hotels, one of the smallest in New York’s his- it recommended a rent freeze. tory, it wasn’t enough to stop the loss of The vote indicates that the RGB is rent-stabilized housing that is truly af- leaning toward setting a small increase fordable,” the Metropolitan Council on when it votes on the fi nal guidelines for Housing said in a statement before the next year on June 24, rather than the meeting. “A rent rollback is the only ac- rent freeze Bill de Blasio promised while tion that is strong enough to bring relief running for mayor in 2013. The guide- to the over 1 million families that rely on lines will cover leases for apartments or strong rent regulations.” lofts renewed on or after October 1. Godsil told the crowd that she voted “De Blasio said he was going to do against the rent rollback because sta- something. I don’t see it,” Bronx resident bility “is crucial for the housing stock Joseph Cepeda, 52, told board chair Ra- of New York,” and that it is “just not chel Godsil after the vote. “My parents the case” that “all owners are rolling in got hit with three MCIs last year. You money.” The fi ve public members then think that’s right? It’s a $200 increase. all voted for her proposal without saying They’re 90 and 86, they live on a fi xed a word. The board’s two tenant repre- income.” sentatives voted no because they thought “I know that’s real money,” Godsil it was too high. The two landlord repre- answered softly before leaving. sentatives also voted no, after the board The vote was “extremely disappoint- nixed their proposal for higher increas- ing,” said Fitzroy Christian of Com- es. (Owner representative Sara Williams munity Action for Safe Apartments, an Willard had argued that the board’s cost organization based in the working-class projections weren’t reliable because they neighborhoods north of Yankee Stadi- had been diminished by a dramatic drop um. “Even though we did not expect the in fuel prices last year). public members to vote for a rollback, That lockstep vote was uncomfort- we thought their numbers would have ably reminiscent of the Bloomberg era been a lot more realistic about the eco- for tenant member Sheila Garcia, also nomic conditions New Yorkers face.” a Bronx resident, who called the vote The South Bronx has among the high- est concentrations of rent-stabilized Continued on page 14 Educate! Strategize! Organize! Resist! Create! Your source for movement news in

the U.S. and around the world 2015May IndypendenT The Tools and campaigns to build

TENANTS FIRST: More than 1,500 a movement that transforms the system. tenants marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on May 14 calling on the Rent Guidelines Board and the State Legis- lature to take action on behalf of NYC’s rent-stabilized tenants. CINDY TRINH 6 PUBLIC EDUCatIoN

a league of TheIr own

By Alex Ellefson

teams were denied by the PSAL, Garcia- liam Paterson College in New Jersey, where he led his ne of the fi rst things 17-year-old Rosen founded the Small School Athlet- school to three straight conference championships. ics League (SSAL), so that students at “As a high schooler, I enjoyed playing sports,” King Abiboulaye Diagne shows friends his school, which has fewer than 400 told The Indypendent. “And it taught me so many who visit his home is the collection students, could play sports and compete things, especially a value system that young people O with other teams. He found principals at need growing up.” of gleaming championship medals hanging on seven other schools to contribute money And with college education becoming increasingly the hat rack in his room. Diagne immigrated from their budgets to pay for equip- unaffordable, especially for students from low-income ment and jerseys. Within three years, the families, King said it was important to provide stu- to New York from Senegal two years ago and league’s membership exploded to include dents with opportunities, like sports, that could en- played as midfi elder on his school soccer team. 90 teams from 42 small high schools. courage them to seek scholarships and consider going Garcia-Rosen said he witnessed an to college. “When I show them all the medals they are like, extraordinary transformation in some of the students “We ask people to take higher levels of education. ‘Wow, you’re here only two years and you have all who participated in the SSAL. Kids who had dropped But not everyone can afford higher education, espe- these medals?’” he said. “Winning made me proud.” out of school suddenly appeared in his offi ce asking cially as it has become so expensive,” said King. “So But this year, Diagne’s championship-winning soc- if they could join the new baseball team. He pointed how do you say we want people to be smarter and get cer team is gone. It was eliminated along with the out that the PSAL would never have allowed those more education but then we chop down the roads that baseball and softball teams at his South Bronx high students to play baseball because the league had strict can get them there?” school, where almost all the students are immigrants behavior and attendance polices. New York City has one of the most segregated from Africa or South America. “The SSAL had such a profound affect on the most school systems in the country, according to a study Diagne and his teammates at International Com- at-risk students who the PSAL continues to slam the done last year by the University of California at Los munity High School (ICHS) want their sports teams door on,” he said. “We didn’t care if you’d been absent Angeles’s Civil Rights Project. And the disparities in back. They are holding the New York City Depart- for the past three weeks, we didn’t care if you’d been race and class are not limited to sports. Last year, New ment of Education responsible and argue that the suspended, we didn’t care if you’d been arrested and York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report branch of the DOE that oversees interscholastic we didn’t care if you dropped out.” that found school districts with the least access to art sports, the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL), Instead, all students were eligible to sign up for education were concentrated in low-income, minority has violated civil rights laws by not giving students of sports. But once they joined a team, they were expect- neighborhoods. color the same opportunities to play sports as their ed to turn in signatures from all their teachers to prove white peers. they were completing their schoolwork, passing their In March, Diagne and nearly 100 other ICHS stu- tests and showing up for class. THE PROBLEM WITH SMALL SCHOOLS dents staged a protest directed at Schools Chancel- Eighteen-year-old Guitti Muhammed, a junior Garcia-Rosen attributes some of the disparities in lor Carmen Fariña just as she was about to speak at at ICHS, said that before he joined the soccer team, sports and art programs to the small schools move- a City Council budget hearing. From the balcony of he would sleep late and miss his morning classes. He ment that began almost 20 years ago and was accel- the council chamber, they raised black-gloved fi sts in wasn’t keeping up with his homework and he would erated under the Bloomberg administration. The city the air, referencing the Black Power salute at the 1968 fi ght with other students. has dismantled many of its large, comprehensive high Olympics, and unfurled a large white banner that de- “I was a troublemaker,” he said. “But playing was schools that were once located in low-income, minor- clared: “#civilrightsmatter.” really important to me. Everybody has a passion. My ity neighborhoods. The comprehensive schools, like For the students and the three educators who helped passion is playing sports.” Evander Childs, which closed in 2008, were deemed organize the protest, this was an act of civil disobedi- The SSAL’s success got noticed. In 2012, the PSAL’s to be too big and impersonal to meet students’ in- ence: They had defi ed an order from the DOE warn- executive director, Donald Douglas, called Garcia- dividual needs. Yet, these high schools also had the ing them to not hold the demonstration. The students Rosen to discuss the new league. Douglas asked for large student bodies and economies of scale that made were told if they missed school to attend the hearing, a study to assess the need for interscholastic sports at it possible to offer a wide array of extracurricular ac- they might receive an unexcused absence and a call small high schools. Eight months later, Garcia-Rosen tivities. home, even though their parents had all signed per- produced a 17-page report for the PSAL that com- The small schools have fi lled the void often with mission slips allowing them to go. The three educators pared data from the DOE about student enrollment fewer than 100 students per grade. International who helped organize and supervise the protest, the with information from the PSAL about the distribu- Community High School, which is co-located with a DOE warned, risked “disciplinary action which may tion of sports teams. middle school, has fewer than 400 students. Garcia- include dismissal from employment.” Rosen said that the PSAL, which has existed for more David Garcia-Rosen, the dean at ICHS, said he and than a century, is structured to award sports teams to his colleagues were aware that they were putting their STARTLING DISPARITIES large schools with a traditional campus. careers on the line. His report revealed startling disparities in the way the “What clearly wasn’t taken into account was that “The three of us said: if we lose our jobs, we lose PSAL awards sports teams: Neighborhoods with the you can’t really have a high school if you don’t have a our jobs. But we’re not going to continue to cash DOE highest concentrations of poverty and students of col- high school facility,” said Garcia-Rosen. “And when paychecks every two weeks knowing that it’s a pay- or had the least number of PSAL-funded sports teams. you concentrate these small schools in segregated ar- check doused in civil rights violations,” Garcia-Rosen In Staten Island, where almost half of public school eas, now you’ve created a separate, segregated school told The Indypendent. students are white, 95 percent of students go to a pub- system. And you wind up with separate and unequal.” The day after the protest, Garcia-Rosen and the lic high school with at least 20 sports teams. Mean- Garcia-Rosen said that the PSAL responded to his school’s counselor, Maria Damato, were called into while, only 32 percent of students in the Bronx, where report on inequality by offering to give his school the principal’s offi ce, where they were told they had white students account for barely 3 percent of total sports teams, even though they had denied his request been relieved of their positions while the DOE con- enrollment, go to a high school with that many sports for sports teams almost two years earlier. They also ducted an investigation. The media arts teacher, Ralph programs. Across the city, almost one-third of the offered him a job at the PSAL. Figaro, who was hired through an outside agency students who attended the most segregated schools, “It was infuriating. I never wanted a job at the without any union protection, was fi red. where they had no white classmates, had no opportu- PSAL,” said Garcia-Rosen. “It seems like if you make For Garcia-Rosen, this is one of many clashes with nities to play sports. enough noise or if you have a politician behind you,

May 2015 the DOE. He has fi led a civil rights complaint against City Councilmember Andy King, who represents then you get teams. Otherwise, you can’t even get [the the New York City school system. His school-related a district in the northeast Bronx, said that students PSAL] to call you back.” expenditures have been subjected to an audit, and of color were being deprived of important opportuni- Garcia-Rosen rejected the PSAL’s job offer and he says a high-ranking DOE executive called him a ties by not having access to sports. After excelling in instead began lobbying the City Council to fund the “Marxist” for suggesting that sports funding be dis- sports at Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, SSAL. Teams in the SSAL had been supported with tributed more equitably. King attended Midwestern State University in Texas money from their principal’s budgets, but that model

The IndypendenT In 2011, after his requests for baseball and cricket on a basketball scholarship before transferring to Wil- wasn’t sustainable or fair. That money could have 7 a league of TheIr own

gone to hiring new teachers or buying supplies. dents participated a walkout and traveled down

In June 2014, his effort appeared to bear to the DOE offi ces in Lower Manhattan, where SOLANGE UWIMANA fruit. The City Council had agreed to provide they stood for hours in the rain. No one from $825,000 in the fi nal city budget agreement to the DOE came out to speak with the protesting go toward sustaining the SSAL. And the non- students. profi t A PLUS Youth Program had promised to Since then, they have gathered outside City provide matching funds. However, just as the Hall every Wednesday after school. The sound new school year was about to begin, the DOE of their plastic bucket drums thunders across unexpectedly announced that the City Council’s City Hall Park while the students hold up their money had been given to the PSAL, in order to big white banner for city offi cials who walk by. create its own small schools athletic league. “If it’s raining, it’s snowing, whatever is hap- After it became clear last fall that the SSAL pening, even if there’s a hurricane, we’re going would not receive any money from the city, A to head out here and protest because I believe PLUS Youth Program also walked away, and the in civil disobedience,” said ICHS student Fatou SSAL was forced to cancel its upcoming season. Boye. “I’m not fi ghting for myself, I’m fi ghting The students at ICHS lost their treasured soccer, for those people who are going to come next. baseball and softball teams. Because Martin Luther King and Malcolm X The PSAL used the City Council’s $825,000 and Nelson Mandela, they fought for the next to rebrand two of its existing leagues, which generation” have served as a transitional stage for new teams When City Councilman Jumaane Williams entering the PSAL. The PSAL’s developmen- (D-East Flatbush) stopped and chatted with the tal league became SSAL Developmental and its demonstrators, he told The Indypendent he ex- Transfer League was renamed the Multiple Path- pected the City Council’s $825,000 was going

ways League and given modifi ed academic eligi- directly to the SSAL. ALEX ELLEFSON bility requirements in order to give more students “We’re being told that somehow the funding a chance to play. went to the PSAL and never trickled back down According to a DOE spokesperson, SSAL De- to the kids we wanted it to get to. If that’s the velopmental has added 109 new teams this year case, it’s pretty troubling,” he said. and is focused on “catering to the unique needs Williams noted that at the same time the stu- of small schools.” dents were demonstrating outside City Hall, But the teams awarded to ICHS were not thousands of New Yorkers were assembling in nearly as popular. Instead of baseball and soft- Union Square to protest the death of Freddie ball, they received volleyball and track and fi eld. Gray, who suffered a fatal spine injury while in Instead of soccer, the PSAL gave them table ten- the custody of Baltimore police. nis. And the new sports teams were all sched- “This is not just an education or a sports is- uled to compete in the fall, which meant that the sue, this is about inequitable resources in many students at ICHS had no sports to play for half things,” Williams said. “Probably the only thing

the year. that’s not inequitable, is the distribution of po- CINDY TRINH

Out of the 90 teams that played last year in lice. I think, if we were more equitable with other SIDELINED: Students from International Community High School look out on a South Bronx athletic fi eld where the SSAL, only 27 are still active after being ab- resources, we wouldn’t need the police resources their school’s soccer team used to play. sorbed by the PSAL. as much.” Even some of the students who wanted to play on the new teams said they were not happy the TEAMWORK: Using plastic bucket drums, International PSAL had eliminated sports their peers wanted Community High School students protest outside City

to play. Hall each Wednesday after school. They say the DOE has 2015May IndypendenT The “The sport I like to do is track,” said 18-year- misappropriated $825,000 in funds that the City Council old IHCS student Shaffi ou Assoumanou, who allocated last year to support the Small School Athletics participated in the March protest at City Hall. League. From left to right: Abiboulaye Diagne, 17, junior; “But most people in our school, the sports that Alseny Sow, 18, senior; Fatou Boye, 17, junior; John Bole they like are baseball and basketball and soccer. Kailsa, 19, junior; Alhassane Sow, 18, senior; Sory Konate, Track really does not matter to them. So even 20, senior. though I have track, I’m not just standing up for myself, there are still some students who don’t have any sports.” PRINCIPLED: David Garcia-Rosen, dean of students at After the students learned that the DOE had International Community High School, was suspended pulled their teachers out of school for helping by the Department of Education for backing his students’ them organize their demonstration, scores of stu- protests to save their sports program. 8 raCE

balTIMore, afTer The rIoTs

By Shawn Carrié

BALTIMORE — Before the riots hit, Baltimore was already a troubled place. It is one of the most segregated cities in America, where board- ed-up buildings line entire blocks. It was here

that Freddie Gray lived for 25 years before he have also been shuttered for lack of funds. Mean- One of these efforts is a coalition of both new and old died in the custody of Baltimore police and the while, in 2011, the state of Maryland allocated $26 community-based organizations called Baltimore United million to build two new prisons outside Baltimore. For Change (BUC). A partnership of old guard black lead- city erupted in protest this April. The last time The mayor of Baltimore and other civic and busi- ers, radical faith leaders and seasoned police brutality ac- riots broke out on the streets of Baltimore was in ness leaders have started a “One Baltimore” cam- tivists, BUC tells newcomers that they are in for a long paign to reunify the city — but residents tell a dif- fi ght. One of the groups in BUC, the Tyrone West Coali- April 1968, in the days following the assassina- ferent story of two very different Baltimores. “There tion, has been pushing for transparency from Baltimore tion of Martin Luther King. are nice neighborhoods on the other side of town. police since the summer of 2013, when unarmed Tyrone We have our own little Hollywood Hills over there. West was severely beaten and died in police custody. Two A riot is an ugly thing. Its violence is too unfocused, But the ghetto is the ghetto,” said Michael Lowery. Work- years later, his family says it still has not received a full au- too turbulent to be political, even if its origins are. The ing as a bail bondsman, he understands the environment topsy report, and an investigation led by a Virginia-based explosion in Baltimore’s streets started as an expression many of his clients live in and came out to support the law enforcement consultant cleared the involved offi cers of the collective rage of black teenagers smashing cop cars protests. “A lot of the younger men, they have to do what of any wrongdoing. and defi antly stepping up to lines of riot police, heaving they have to do to make money and survive, because a lot “Everyone is part of the equation. No one is left out, bricks into their fl imsy plastic shields from only yards of them don’t know anything better. They have to take not old, young, gangs — everyone’s affected. We’re gonna away. Then it devolved into something else. Glass shat- it to the streets because they don’t know anything else,” do this with everybody,” said Reverend Jamal Bryant. tered and crowds poured out of the storefronts, turning Lowery added. Speaking at Freddie Gray’s funeral at New Shiloh Baptist their attention to what they could take for themselves. The A study by Johns Hopkins University backs up what he Church, he and other preachers gave impassioned speech- rioters’ fury, however, didn’t come out of nowhere. is feeling: it ranked Baltimore the seventh most segregated es, declaring that the protests calling for justice were a On April 19, Freddie Gray became the seventh person city in America. Just six miles separate well-to-do Roland righteous cause. He said that on the weekend after the to have a fatal encounter with Baltimore police in the past Park and Hollins Market, and there is a 20-year difference riots he saw more people in church than he had in years, year. He had been arrested and suffered a severe spinal in- in the average life expectancy of their residents. and many familiar faces had returned seeking fellowship. jury while in police custody on April 12 before falling into Baltimore was one of the cities hardest hit by the 2008 a coma from which he did not recover. The demands for crash of the housing market, and thousands of homes answers would rise as those outraged over his death joined stand abandoned, primarily in the city’s majority-black A BOOST FOR THE GRASSROOTS a chorus of communities engaging in a similar struggle west end. Far from the downtown job center and under- Existing grassroots organizations are also getting a much- around the nation. With this continuing unrest, Baltimore served by public transportation, work and educational op- needed boost in attention to the work they have been do- has joined the growing list of cities synonymous with an portunities are thin. In some neighborhoods, as many as ing in Baltimore communites as a result of the media pres- increasingly vocal national conversation around police one in four residents are unemployed. ence around the riots. Chris Goodman, now a community brutality and a broken criminal justice system. Simultane- For some, there isn’t much to do but stand around on leader and a hip-hop artist, started working with the ous protests in a dozen major cities around the time of the the corner, and crime and drugs are the biggest job cre- Baltimore Algebra Project while he was in eighth grade, upheaval in Baltimore signaled that the issue isn’t going to ators. People speak openly about how on the day after the tutoring students a year younger than him. He saw the disappear, and that a long summer lies ahead. fi rst riots, a black market of new low-cost merchandise ap- new wave of young people coming out in the streets as Justice in cases of police killings is hard to come by. Of peared the streets. They are unabashedly pragmatic about an opportunity to gain visibility, recruit new people and the hundreds of offi cer-involved shootings every year, few this informal economy: the prices are a steal, there’s no bring them into something meaningful. make national or even local headlines. There are scarcely shortage of customers and it’s pure profi t for the brazen When support started pouring in from around the charges, much less convictions, for cops who kill unarmed vendors that are looking for any possible way to “come country, the Algebra Project managed to raise $80,000 civilians, frustrating community activists who see these up.” from crowdfunded donations to expand its tutoring pro- incidents repeating themselves far too often. Sandtown-Winchester is the city’s poorest neighbor- grams and work toward improving the quality of life in Gray’s death has catalyzed calls for justice from a sys- hood, with an alarming rate of incarceration and an un- West Baltimore. Following their motto of “No education, tem that for years has favored police offi cers who kill in employment rate double that of the rest of the city. There, no life,” activists like Goodman hope to empower young the line of duty in a city where the issue is painfully fa- Gray grew up in a house with chipping lead paint, in a people and keep them out of trouble by arming them with miliar. Comparisons to Ferguson abound, and a common neighborhood where the unemployment rate is almost knowledge. thread connects the stories of unarmed black men killed four times the national average. Almost one in four house- “In any community that’s dealing with poverty, there’s by police. “This is a reminder that there’s a Mike Brown in holds have an incarcerated family member. Indeed, many a natural fear of the police. It’s real,” Goodman described. every town,” said Deray McKesson, an activist, educator people belong to gangs — but those gangs are also part of “It feels like a constant pressure, knowing that, and feeling and Baltimore native. the community. that the world is against you — and just trying to fi gure “What happened around the corner with Freddie Gray In the days after the riots broke out, gang members who out that puzzle, how to break through, how to survive.” was the epitome of something that’s happened to almost normally vie for control of the streets worked together to The violent tactics of the Baltimore Police Department everybody out here in this neighborhood,” said Perry Hop- maintain order. “We don’t need the police, we can protect have left city taxpayers to pick up the tab — about $5.7 kins, a community activist in West Baltimore. “We have our own community,” said a man calling himself Legacy. million in legal settlements involving more than 100 cases accepted that behavior for so long, and when that young “Probably the majority of people out here got kids. They against the department since 2011. With this in mind, ac- man lost his life, it re-opened those wounds to everybody don’t want to see their kids end up another dead victim of tivists are skeptical of authorities’ promises of justice for in this community, because just about everybody has been the police. We’re tired of it. We had to come together to Freddie Gray and meaningful changes in their communi- a victim, been beaten or accosted by the police,” Hopkins prove that we’re tired of it.” ties. “The mayor has not attempted to enact policies that added. “The overriding sentiment is, ‘enough is enough.’” Communal moments that brought a human warmth to dramatically improved the quality of life for black people streets that have seen so much violence helped to soothe here in Baltimore,” said Dayvon Love, research direc-

May 2015 the stunned feelings hanging over Baltimore after the ri- tor at the grassroots organization Leaders of a Beautiful TWO BALTIMORES ots. Meanwhile, an inspired generation of newly politi- Struggle. Living in Sandtown-Winchester, where Freddie Gray cized activists debated strategy and how to build organi- While the fault lines in Ferguson became notorious for called home, many of the people describe the feeling as zational capacity with community leaders, clergyman and the city’s predominantly white city government and police “boxed in.” Budget cuts have closed down two schools organizers. New coalitions have formed, hoping to turn force in a majority-black township, Baltimore is different. here, and 23 across the city, in recent years. Recreation Baltimore’s crisis moment into a new movement to effect Its mayor and police commissioner are black, as is a large

The IndypendenT centers where young people could go to be off the street change. part of the police force and even the state attorney who 9 balTIMore, afTer The rIoTs

has decided to charge the offi cers involved in Gray’s death. But activists still forms of protest and breaking, burning and tearing into places of business. SHAWN CARRIÉ BLACK LIVES see work to be done in combatting racial oppression in their city’s political Few on the protesters’ side rushed to condone, but it was just as hard for them MATTER: In landscape. to condemn what happened without looking at the bigger picture. West Balti- “Our mayor is someone who has capitulated to the corporate structure “What we’re saying,” argued McKesson, “is ‘you’re killing us, and we will more, a protest of the Democratic Party and the corporate interests in our city,” Love said. continue to disrupt until we get to live,’ and I think that’s only fair.” against the ”What happens in our society is often times individual black people are put For now, an uneasy calm holds in Baltimore. The public mourning, spon- institutionalized in positions of power within white-dominated institutions, which brings more taneous riots and daily marches have subsided, and the television cameras violence that black people into those institutional arrangements, undermining our ability to packed up and left. Old problems haven’t dissipated — the poverty, the lack of Black develop communal, independent black institutions.” opportunity, the seemingly inescapable struggle to survive in a city with one of children face When prosecutors announced there would be charges for the six offi cers the country’s highest murder rates. But the feeling of community gathering lin- when they who arrested Gray, ranging from offi cial misconduct to depraved heart mur- gers, and the people of Baltimore continue to discuss and debate recent events come into the der, the protests became a celebration, at least for a moment. Still, protesters and whether the inspired words of protest will prove to be fl eeting rhetoric world. remain skeptical about whether the system can produce justice in the court- or if the city can move forward and resolve its long-standing problems. What room or in their embattled communities. Deray McKesson expressed his view remained to be cleaned up after the riots subsided was more than two days’ of it bluntly: “Justice is a living Mike Brown. Justice is a smiling Tamir Rice. worth of destruction — but that pales in comparison to the injuries that need Justice is no more death.” healing after years of violence. After the fi rst night of riots, authorities including President Obama and the mayor of Baltimore hurried to draw a line between acceptable, legitimate

ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG 2015 LEFT FORUM PANELS

www.rosalux-nyc.org

Greece vs. Germany: Black Cooperatives and the Fight for The Battle for Europe’s Future Economic Democracy

Konstantinos Tsoukalas (MP, SYRIZA) Jessica Gordon Nembhard (CUNY, John Jay College) Natassa Romanou (SYRIZA New York) Kali Akuno (Cooperation Jackson) Christina Kaindl (Head of Strategy Dept., DIE LINKE) Ed Whitfield (Fund 4 Democratic Communities) Dominic Heilig (DIE LINKE’s Forum Democratic Socialism) CHAIR: Ethan Earle (RLS–NYC) CHAIR: Eduardo Maura (PODEMOS, Political Secretariat)

This panel is co-hosted by The Nation Magazine.

Whose City? Our City! Fighting Low-Wage Worker Movements May 2015May IndypendenT The Gentrification in the U.S. & Europe in South Korea, Germany & the U.S.

Florian Kasiske (Recht auf Stadt, Germany) Sarah Jaffe (Labor Journalist) Santi Mas de Xaxas (PAH, Spain) Oliver Nachtwey (University of Darmstadt, Germany) Dawn Phillips (Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Bay Area) Sukjong Hong (Korea Policy Institute) CHAIR: Rachel LaForest (Right to the City Alliance) CHAIR: Albert Scharenberg (RLS–NYC) 10 PoLICE BrUtaLIty Terror In The back of The polIce van My ‘rough rIde’ eXperIence

By Gan Golan Then we heard it: the sound of the “It is an absolute outrage that Chelsea two offi cers driving the van whoop- he “rough ride” is a ing and hollering like bandits. What Manning is currently languishing behind common tactic used by was happening was not just inten- U.S. police. It is real, in- tional. For them, this was a joy ride. bars whilst those she helped to expose, credibly dangerous and Now, to be clear, what happened totally illegal. It has re- to us is nothing compared to what who are potentially guilty of human Tceived more scrutiny since the death the police did to Freddie Gray. Be- of Freddie Gray from injuries he re- forehand, they didn’t just beat and rights violations, enjoy impunity.” ceived while being driven around in cuff him, they crippled him. He was the back of a Baltimore police van. then left alone on his half of the van Erika Guevara Rosas But since most members of the media with nothing to secure or cushion Americas Director who write about “rough rides” have his body from impacts. He was pos- Amnesty International not been in such a position, I’ll share sibly even unconscious at the time. 30 July 2014 a personal story. The “rough ride” was so severe they Several years ago when I was a broke the man’s spine. His fucking graduate student at MIT on a re- spine! search trip to Miami, I attended I share my own experience simply Learn more about heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower former a jail solidarity vigil the day after to underscore how pervasive this US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning at major protests outside a gathering practice is. It was clear to me even of hemispheric leaders who were at the time that if the police felt they www.chelseamanning.org discussing the Free Trade Area of could do this to a bunch of privi- the Americas. Jail solidarity is a tra- leged, college-educated students — ditional tactic from the Civil Rights and be fully confi dent they would get Movement meant to safely secure the away with it — it was inconceivable War release of arrested protesters. It is completely nonviolent. or To our surprise, the entire THEN WE HEARD Peace? group I was with was surround- IRAN ed by riot police and unlawfully IT: THE SOUND The U.S. and five other countries are about to arrested (as a judge later con- conclude an agreement with Iran that will settle fi rmed). The arrestees (after be- OF THE TWO differences over Iran’s nuclear energy programs. ing beaten and pepper-sprayed while in custody — another vio- OFFICERS The agreement will go a long way toward lation of the law) were loaded normalizing relations with Iran and establish up into police vans. There were DRIVING THE a regimen of inspection that will guarantee Iran about a dozen of us in the van. cannot build nuclear weapons. Hands cuffed behind our backs. No seat belts. VAN WHOOPING If successful, the agreement will help calm the Once moving, to our surprise, Middle East, a region that is boiling with crisis. the van immediately shot off like AND HOLLERING a bullet, to the point that we all The Republicans want to kill the began sliding toward the back LIKE BANDITS. of the vehicle, sending some of agreement with Iran, but they can’t do it us into a panic. Then we came to a what they were doing to others. without help from Democrats! sudden, screeching halt. Bodies went I remember one Miami offi cer sliding across the van as we smacked stating at the time, “You can beat the We need to give up against the steel walls of the en- rap, but you can’t beat the ride.” It closure, as well as each other. Our was a cute way of saying: “A court of diplomacy & peace in the Mid-East hands were cuffed behind our backs, law may fi nd that you were not guilty a chance! so we were defenseless from the im- of anything, but it doesn’t matter be- pacts, which is a terrifying feeling. cause we are delivering punishment Stand up to efforts in Congress We actually cushioned each others’ right here, right now…and there’s impact, like human airbags. I was nothing you can do about it.” to scuttle the agreements! lucky. I was near the back. That’s not just illegal. It defi es the Unable to see out from the van, we very concept of a justice system. If Call Senators Gillibrand & Schumer actually assumed the van had just you ever fi nd yourself confused as been been in some sort of car acci- to why people are out in the streets, and your reps at 877-762-8762! dent. and so angry, understand that this is Then it happened again. Speeeeeed a reason why. Ask them to support the President up — BRAKES!!! Speeeeeed up — One of a thousand reasons. and diplomacy, not war! BRAKES!!! Over and over. By that

May 2015 point, I was on the fl oor on my back. brooklynforpeace We quickly fi gured out a way brace Celebrating 30 years ourselves by intertwining all of our brooklyn4peace bodies. The guy closest to the front Founded 1984 Brooklyn For Peace brooklynpeace.org | 718-624-5921 wall screamed at the drivers through brooklynforpeace the steel barrier separating us:

The IndypendenT “What the fuck is going on?!!!” 11 May 2015May Indypenden The T 12 SOCIETY & THE STATE 13

CUBA EVOLVING

By Conor Tomás Reed

HAVANA, CUBA — In El Callejón de Hamel, a dazzling alleyway in Central Havana, rumba musicians have performed every Sunday for more than two decades. When I approached it one afternoon in early March, the walls were festooned with Salvador Gonzáles Escalona’s intricate paintings and phrases inspired by the spiritual traditions of pendent social power from below that critiques hard drives and thumb drives, the paquete, circulates most media on analyses, resulting in a kind of self-imposed “embargo of the mind.”

the government while furthering the 1959 rev- the island. Many queer Havanans are still discreet — strategically self-protec- YU PONG/FLICKR Santería and Abakuá, whose African roots predate slavery. Rusty olution’s directions. tive — about their lives. LGBT parties are announced by word of mouth During my fi rst few weeks in Havana, I be- • • • and guerrilla fl yering, while some lovers maintain secret relationships steampunk sculptures hung from various ledges. At the center, about came immersed in the whirlwind of cultural by not publicly acknowledging each other on the street or by referring 10 women churned like an engine of sound and motion — drums, activities: dozens of museums, cultural and In mid-February, the Feria Internacional del Libro (International to each other as “cousins.” Exchanges of nuanced glances texture the historical centers, festivals, park shenanigans, Book Fair) animated the city for a week and a half. Mainly situated famed Malecón shoreline, public transportation and food markets. dancing, singing — encircled by an audience of 100 people. Half movie theaters, underground events shared at the Cabaña — an old colonial military outpost that used to house Meanwhile, language play enacts the in-between “e” instead of the those present were tourists — many of whom stood eerily frozen by word-of-mouth. At Casa de las Americas, prisoners under both Batista and Fidel — the fair gathered thousands feminine “a” or masculine “o” to defamiliarize and reassign gendered Havana’s premier cultural center, rooms were of participants. In a country with an almost 100 percent literacy rate words (amiges, novies, Habaneres, compañeres), and loving self-select- in place — while the other half were Afro-Cubans, mostly younger packed with people listening to discussions on achieved through a post-revolution campaign that brought waves of ed nicknames like pajaritas for gay men, transformades and curioses folks, but also families and couples, who sang along, bobbed shoul- a wide variety of topics. young teachers from cities into rural areas across the island, books and replace the once-ubiquitous catch-all slur maricón. At an evening LGBT-of-color poetry slam popular education are considered as crucial as bread. Therefore, book ders and waists and at times even dove inside to perform. and party hosted by Proyecto Arcoiris, an anti- publishing is a big deal in Cuba, although book circulation is a different • • • capitalist queer collective, I met cultural activ- story — some titles are intentionally under-printed because of “ideolog- At one point, an old man in an aquamarine suit announced that one ists, popular educators, multilingual translators and a sizeable crew of ical concerns.” Leonardo Padura’s El hombre que amaba a los perros Cuba is undergoing a lively, hotly contested public debate about race of the event’s founders had recently died, and so in 10 minutes every- South African students who are studying medicine for free in Cuba. (The Man Who Loved Dogs), an epic novel about the life and assassina- and racism, with an intricate cultural tapestry that interweaves Afri- one needed to go out to the street to pay their respects. As we exited While the government keeps a wary eye on religious institutions and tion of Leon Trotsky, was conspicuously diffi cult to fi nd soon after its can, Spanish and Taino histories, as well as Chinese, English, Irish and the alleyway, a hearse drove up and parked in the middle of the road, practices, Santería customs are woven into daily life — people lay out 2012 publication. Even so, people buy multiple copies at book launches Welsh encounters. On March 21, UNESCO’s International Day Against at which point most of the tourists left. The drummers and singers re- such offerings as stones, fl owers, food, liquors and headless chickens at for fear of small print runs — or, perhaps, with the hope of reselling Racial Discrimination, a wide array of cultural centers, mainstream TV sumed playing, we made an oval shape around the hearse and some the base of ceiba and banyan trees, and wrapped candies are scattered them later at higher prices — and seek certain tomes like holy grails. shows and community groups drew public attention to what is always tossed small offerings on top of its roof, already covered in wreaths of at street intersections for the child orisha Elegguá. Men and women under the surface of daily life. While the Jim Crow-style racism that ex- fl owers. Santería initiates wear all white. Music and politics are infused with • • • isted before the Revolution has been offi cially abolished, schools, neigh-

A young man in chic green clothes and sunglasses suddenly appeared multiple layers of cosmological empowerment, and people regularly borhoods and municipal resources are separate and unequal. Black Cu- JAUME ESCOFET/FLICKR with two woven palm fronds, and proceeded to ease them over his head refer to orishas in their interpretations of events and decisions. Mean- Almost a month into my stay, I became more attuned to Habana’s bans make up 34 to 68 percent of the country’s population (based on and shoulders and down his side in languid swoops, and then more while, male revolutionary heroes — foremost Fidel and Che — are ubiq- various armarios (closets), which is tricky because youth culture ini- divergent ways that Cubans identify their heritages), but are 75 percent quickly whip them outwards and away. The heat crackled, voices and uitously present in statues, billboards, murals, tourist wares, bookstall tially appears to be super queer — snug, colorful, punk witchy clothing, of the prison population, according to the Afro-Cuban advocacy group drums merged, and the hearse began to move forward in a procession selections and street and plaza names. Monuments can also be found fl uid presentations of sexualities and genders, with well-known Cuban Cofradía de la Negritud. There exist no racial discrimination laws, af- that stopped traffi c for several blocks. It was a vibrant, polyrhythmic, around Havana honoring fallen Irish hunger strikers, Ethel and Julius fi lms like Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate) from 1993 fi rmative action policies or “diversity” scholarships because racism is insurgently evolving Cuba that exists outside the conventional images Rosenberg, Ho Chi Minh, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, while and this year’s Vestido de Novia (Wedding Dress) animating public said to no longer exist. U.S. writings in English on colorblind racism are of the Right and the Left. While this was the only unsanctioned street a general awareness of past Third World liberation movements resides dialogue. The National Center for Sex Education, led by Mariela Cas- not yet translated for Cubans to consider how we confront discursive demonstration I witnessed during my two-month stay in Cuba, it was on the surface of the cityscape. tro, daughter of President Raul Castro, focuses on LGBT issues and silencing. At the same time, left-of-state Afro-Cuban critiques on the the spirit of moments like these that I repeatedly sought out. Since the mid-1990s Cuba has had two currencies, the regular Cuban implicitly aims to redress the past wrongdoings of homosexual “re-edu- limits of “inclusion” and quota policies offer useful lessons for U.S. peso and the Cuban convertible peso (CUC), which is pegged to the dol- cation” camps that briefl y appeared in the Revolution’s early days. Yet, racial justice movements to measure how institutionalized solutions can • • • lar and worth 25 times as much as the local currency. A meal that costs queer Cuban activists of color who engage with U.S. scholarship and 5 CUC may be affordable for tourists and Cubans who receive remit- movements are occasionally derided for sympathizing with “Yankee” Continued on page 14 In late January 2015, fueled by mass street actions for Black lives tances from relatives abroad,

that shut down almost every bridge, highway, and commercial center but it is a sizeable chunk of JORGE LUIS BAÑOS in New York City, I traveled to Cuba with my partner to learn where a working-class Cuban’s QUEER VOICES creativity and desire for autonomy. ecology, open source computer advocacy, mutual aid I would love for relations between Cuba and the its own revolution stood. My partner led her college’s Cuban academic 20-30CUC monthly salary, Organizing from below and to the left of the state is I view the rapprochement between the governments in mental health, transformative childhood education, United States to take place in an atmosphere of respect STREET CHATTER: Cuban youths exchange program, while I studied the country’s system of popular edu- which is supplemented by ra- not easy in present-day Cuba. However, some young of Cuba and the United States with great suspicion. The self-managed socialism and building Cuba’s future primarily for the self-determination of Cubans. Also I hang out at El Callejon de Hamel in central cation and researched a 1930 visit to the island by the Spanish writer tion books. The scarcity of people are doing it, including a couple of LGBT activ- current change in the diplomatic arena is, among other from an anarchist perspective. have the hope that our people don’t see the “arrival of Havana. Federico García Lorca. About a month beforehand, the United States basic items is an intractable ists who shared their thoughts with The Indypendent. things, the United States rewarding the Cuban govern- the Americans,” as we say here, as the solution to our and Cuba had announced they would re-establish diplomatic and eco- reality. For instance, pota- ment for its uncritical integration into the world order, BY LOGBONA OLUKONEE internal problems and run toward the neoliberal poli-

nomic relations for the fi rst time in more than half a century. toes had been absent for sev- BY ISBEL DÍAZ TORRES revealing the similarity of interests between the two The Motivito (“Get together”) project arose due to the cies proposed to poor countries by the United States. WHERE IT’S STILL 1959: Some clas- 2015May INDYPENDENT THE The impressions that Cubans craft for tourists who visit the island for eral weeks, and thousands of Developing activism on behalf of LGBT people from an countries and their elites. I hope that this abandonment lack of independent nonprofi t LGBT public space in If they do, they might not understand the serious risks sic Detroit steel drives by a mural extolling a week or two represent a familiar Cubanidad: mid-century automo- people lined up around the anti-capitalist stance has been the biggest challenge of utopia, now explicit, will at least serve to reunify Cu- the Havana community. We have tried to create op- involved in negotiating with the United States under early heroes of of the Cuban Revolution, biles, cigars, rum, rice and beans, revolutionary billboards, endless Che city to buy them upon their of my work within the Arcoiris (Rainbow) project. In an ban families, the true victims of this confl ict between portunities for enjoyment and critical refl ection on “Yanqui” terms. However, I feel it will be diffi cult any- including Che Guevara (center) and Camilo and Fidel souvenirs. If visitors go via a Cuban state-sponsored “educa- return. Internet access is very extremely depoliticized society whose members are states, and that people and truly anti-capitalist groups the intersections between racism, heteronormativity, way, since hunger and apathy can be incredible allies Cienfuegos (right). tional tour,” their destinations are carefully vetted to ensure a favorable limited, slow and expensive, disillusioned by the failings of a top-down socialism in Cuba and the United States can build stronger links classism and other forms of oppression that affect our in attracting American investors. I very much hope that

May 2015 trip that features little interaction with the majority of Cubans who are so information is exchanged based on the Soviet model, and now focused on their for the fi ght against authoritarianism of all kinds. community today, in response to the strong develop- we can maintain our autonomy in these relations in the not involved in the tourist economy. My intention was quite different. mostly by word of mouth, desire for irrational consumption, it is very diffi cult to ment of a culture of gay consumption in Havana. Our long term. FOR TOLERANCE: LGBT activists I came to assess how left-of-state Cuban activists — especially queer, phone, radio and TV. An off- promote alternative thinking. Proclaiming ourselves Isbel Díaz Torres is a member of Arcoiris, a queer fi rst Motivito was a queer occupation conducted by a participate in a march against homophobia trans* and feminist Afro-Cubans of various radical stripes build inde- line data-sharing system via anti-capitalist sounds old-fashioned here in Cuba in anti-capitalist collective, and Observatorio Critico, group of friends at the Pabellón Cuba on February 28, Logbona Olukonee is a Cuban history professor and a backed by the Cuban government. The 2015. Furthermore, to attempt independent work for the a network of autonomous anti-capitalists who coor- 2014. Since then, we have had several cultural actions/ queer feminist activist. Cuban state has strongly embraced gay rights of LGBT people, where state institutions have de- dinate various projects for nonviolence, antiracism, parties for lesbians, queer women and trans* people, rights in the past decade but remains leery

THE INDYPENDENT veloped a certain hegemony, is also a challenge to our LGBT rights, indigenous and Black heritage recovery, and poetry readings, among other events. of LGBT groups that act autonomously of it. 14

mental approval — planting trees for environmental TenanTs cuba justice, cleaning up the Malecón shoreline, holding a Continued from page 5 Continued from page 12 kiss-in or otherwise independently creating solutions — can garner years in prison, which keeps these activists “completely insane.” absorb and neutralize political demands for much isolated from the general population. Nevertheless, it’s “It’s business as usual continued,” she said. “We saw deeper changes. inspiring to see necessity bring together anarchists and the public members vote together for really unwarranted The government-sponsored Cuban press paid Trotskyists inside/against/beyond a Stalinist-oriented increases.” close attention to the Ferguson uprising and our Caribbean state. Informal dialogues between these small “Owners have been overcompensated, based on actu- nationwide actions against police brutality, but but vibrant networks weave together concrete responses al income and expense numbers, for the past 25 years,” only to decry injustice in the U.S., not to make to concrete realities, and in doing so they have taken Harvey Epstein, the board’s other tenant representative, parallels with racially motivated stop-and-frisks, on a life independent of familiar political discourses. said earlier, in arguing for a rent rollback. He rattled off a incarceration and repression in Cuba. Only a few string of statistics. Board figures show landlords’ net oper- comparative writings appeared, such as Roberto Conor Tomás Reed has been a student, teacher, archivist ating income went up 3.4 percent last year, the ninth year Zurbano’s call for internationalist antiracism in and activist in the City University of New York since in a row it increased, and it’s risen by 34 percent in the last “Contra Ferguson.” Meanwhile, even though the 2006, a co-founding member of the Free University of 20 years. “Not one property owner has applied for a hard- Cuban government unequivocally supports the New York City since 2012 and on the research council of ship increase,” he said. Palestinian struggle, Afro-Cubans who move from Lost and Found: A CUNY Poetics Document Initiative Meanwhile, he continued, tenants’ median rent burden the eastern part of the island — what used to be since 2013. Michele Hardesty contributed to this article. was the highest ever recorded, at 33.8 percent of income, called El Oriente — to Havana are derogatorily re- according to the Census Bureau’s Housing and Vacancy ferred to as “Palestinos” because they’ve relocated Survey from last year. That means that more than half of with few resources, families in need and cultural New York City’s rent-stabilized tenants are spending more modes intact. Moreover, the long history between than one-third of their income on rent. There are 60,000 Cuba and such Black and brown radicals as Amiri people living in homeless shelters, a post-Depression re- Baraka, Stokely Carmichael, C.L.R. James, Betita cord, and 23,000 households were evicted last year. The Martinez, Angela Davis, Assata ultimate issue, he said, is “who is this New York going to Shakur, Alice Walker and Rob- be for?” ert F. Williams has long served LESSONS LEARNED across communities. Our Mayor de Blasio based much of his 2013 campaign internationally as a screen for the BY Conor Tomás reed imaginative horizon should on that question, and tenant advocates believed that the government’s treatment of Afro- never be the end of the RGB would be willing to at least freeze rents once the Cubans on the island. Upon returning to new York City and month, let alone the end of new mayor had replaced all the Bloomberg holdovers on Since the Cuban Revolution becoming immersed in a new round of the action. it. That so far hasn’t happened. Why? Helen Schaub, a swept to power in 1959 — a ma- street actions, citywide campaigns and new public member many tenant advocates expected to be jor anti-colonial victory by stu- popular education events, I’ve been re- • The digital divide is a real strongly sympathetic because of her affiliation with Local dents, urban clandestine support- flecting on how interactions across revo- local/transnational issue. 1199SEIU — the health care workers union that has put its ers (many of them young women) lutionary traditions can be further devel- Don’t equate political com- organizational muscle behind the campaign to strengthen and guerrilla fighters via boat and oped in new York City, and with Cuba. In mitment with up-to-date the state’s rent laws before they expire in June — said she mountain who all overthrew a the process, endless squabbles between knowledge or Facebook wouldn’t comment. “Real estate has a lot of money, a lot U.S.-backed dictatorship — it has radicals up north can be converted into post counts when for some of pressure,” Garcia said. “I don’t think [the vote] was been deeply bruised by the boot of more amply utilizing our organizing liber- it takes a day to download based on the data at all.” the U.S. embargo; the fall of the So- ties. I recognize that my critical views are an article and for others The mayor may have won election with the votes of New viet Union, which provided billions from only two months of experiences in news is instantaneous. Yorkers irate and frustrated that “the rent is too damn of dollars per year in aid; mass Cuba, and that they could easily be sub- Keep this in mind when high,” but he would also like to govern without having to economic crises and social disloca- sumed within a much larger momentum making website platforms, fight the wrath of the city’s power elite, and his plans to tions; and enduring racism, sexism of critiques that intend to overturn the data-heavy action an- build 80,000 new units of “affordable” housing depend and heterosexism. As a result, the revolutionary achievements that have nouncements and compli- on the real-estate industry building enough luxury apart- control of a closely guarded gov- been made in Cuba. I also worry about cated networks. ments for the city to negotiate or mandate that lower-cost ernment machine can feel as anach- how “normalization between Cuba and units trickle down. ronistic as the faded billboards and the United states” may be manipulated in • Beware the seduction of freshly painted murals extolling its already imbalanced negotiations under state power from above. This article originally appeared in Tenant/Inquilino. virtues. However, Cubans do have the shadow of a shared colonial history, Those who marvel at the access to free and excellent health as small autonomous Cuban movements possibilities of Greece’s care and education, as well as in- struggle to assert their own visions and Syriza and Spain’s expensive food, housing, public demands. I hope we can push beyond Podemos should consider transit and telephones. Cuba’s past “normal” to something much more hu- how leftist movements support for Third World liberation manizing and revolutionary. In this pro- that won state power in struggles and its present-day policy cess, here are some lasting lessons I’ve Chile, Congo, Cuba, Ghana, of sending legions of its medical profes- nurtured back here at home: Nicaragua, South Africa, sionals to serve in some of the poorest Angola, Mozambique, Viet- corners of the planet have helped to forge • In-person extended nam, Zimbabwe and many deep relationships with African, Carib- dialogues, preferably with other countries struggled bean and Latin American nations for food and drinks, create to realize their goals in which Cuba is still a beacon of hope. more clarity and trust than the face of opposition Meanwhile, a still-evolving revolu- words on a page or screen. from U.S.-led imperialism, tion from below has been nurtured by Social change is neither were brutally ousted from relationships between people hustling solely linguistics nor a power or slowly ossified by all means necessary to survive and hasty sprint. into a version their earlier thrive — word of mouth about where revolutionary selves would to find this or that item, sudden delight • More often than not we have abhorred. Movements in a chance meeting on the street, deli- inhabit multilingual spaces that feature electoral or cious meals from few ingredients, rum- — exercise this strength or state-from-above seizure ba dance parties with ecstatic children, it will wither. strategies will always hushed lucid dialogues, metaphor-laden come up against these con- songs about how to make changes in • Quantity is not quality. tradictions. The master’s “mi casa.” Still, left-of-state activists Organizing 30 actions in tools will not dismantle the T May 2015 in such groups as Observatorio Critico, 30 days doesn’t necessar- master’s house, nor is the Proyecto Arcoiris and Motivitos con- ily bring more people into master’s house where we front a reality in which organizing a movement(s), map strate- should demand to reside. protest about anything without govern- gic escalations, intersect struggles or build long-

The Indypenden term sustainable power LatIN aMErICa 15 resIsTIng genTrIfIcaTIon aT gunpoInT

By Lisa Taylor threats in order to defend my territory. I am a found- signaling the growing social and geographical gen- LISA TAYLOR OVER er of this process,” says Caicedo. trifi cation of the city. TROUBLED BUENAVENTURA, COLUMBIA — A gentle In the face of so much violence, why did Puente The port of Buenaventura currently moves more WATERS: A breeze wafts through the wooden stilt house rocked Nayero decide to form a Humanitarian Space and than 600,000 shipping containers each year, repre- wooden stilt by the ocean’s waves in the seaside neighborhood of resist nonviolently? Living in constant fear and anxi- senting approximately 60 percent of Colombia’s im- house in the Puente Nayero, providing a welcome respite from ety, community members decided to take action in ports and exports. Various port expansion projects violence-torn city the wake of two events that happened in their neigh- the stifl ing Pacifi c Coast heat. Children’s shouts and endorsed by the Colombian government will require of Buenaventura, laughter and popular salsa music fi lter in through borhood. One was the brutal murder of seafood the displacement — whether voluntary or invol- Colombia. the door as Miguel Caicedo,* an Afro-Colombian vendor Marisol Rodríguez, who was assassinated untary — of communities in Buenaventura. These community leader and small-scale fi sherman, dem- in March 2014 for protesting the disappearance of projects will almost exclusively benefi t the estimated onstrates the fi shing techniques he has been practic- her husband and son. Paramilitaries brought her 12 owners of Buenaventura’s port business, further ing for 47 years and refl ects on the changes he has to a “chop-up house” — the name given to houses increasing inequality in a city with a 90 percent pov- seen in his community. used to dismember victims — and began to torture erty rate. Leaving for eight to 10 days at a time in a small her. Bleeding, she escaped from her attackers and As the Colombian government continues to im- boat, groups of fi shermen — usually composed of fell into the ocean, where the men pursued her, tied plement neoliberal economic policies, signing on to several family members — journey up to 90 miles rocks to her body and drowned her. This event was agreements such as the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade along the coast to catch at least the ton of fi sh needed followed one month later by the assassination of Agreement, the Pacifi c Alliance regional free trade to make a living. The route has progressively grown 16-year-old Carlos Angarita. After fi nishing a day bloc, and free trade agreements with the European longer as nearby fi sh have become scarce. Demon- of work selling coconut water, Angarita was dis- Union, Israel and South Korea, communities have strating the use of a specifi c fi shing hook while easily membered by paramilitaries. Community members noticed increased presence of armed actors, es- reciting at least 10 different species of fi sh and sea- discovered his body the next morning less than 50 pecially paramilitaries, in strategic territories for food, Caicedo takes pride in his community’s fi shing yards from Puente Nayero. foreign investment. Various cases of alleged links tradition. Witnessing such bloodshed so close to their between paramilitaries and multinational corpora- “For us, small-scale fi shing is incredibly impor- homes, community members made the decision to tions have been documented in other areas of Co- tant to sustain ourselves,” he affi rms. create the Humanitarian Space in April of last year. lombia as well, with well-known examples involving But dwindling fi sh populations are not the only They formed a leadership committee and petitioned companies such as Chiquita Brands International, threat to Caicedo’s livelihood. The port city of Bue- for help from the Interchurch Commission for Jus- Coca-Cola and Nestle. naventura, of which Puente Nayero is a part, has be- tice and Peace, a Colombian NGO that documents In the case of Puente Nayero, the construction of come infamous for extreme rates of disappearance, and defends human rights. They also became the an oceanfront boardwalk tourist project has been assassination, displacement and dismemberment fi rst urban area to join CONPAZ, a network of 120 most directly responsible for displacement. carried out by paramilitary groups vying for con- communities in Colombia that strive to defend their “It is the Bahía de la Cruz Boardwalk [project] trol of lucrative drug smuggling routes that extend territorial, cultural and human rights from the coun- that wants to kick us out, to exterminate the com- north to Central America and ultimately the United try’s many armed actors. Committing to a practice munities that are here, mostly in the oceanfront States. Buenaventura’s strategic location as Colom- of nonviolence and aided by the presence of national neighborhoods,” affi rmed Puente Nayero leader bia’s largest port, as well as its network of rivers and and international peace observers, the residents of Nhora Isabel Castillo. “Ever since they began to estuaries, has made it sought after by both illicit Puente Nayero succeeded in driving out the paramil- plan the boardwalk, we’ve seen violence in Bue- and licit business interests. Such interests have dis- itaries, a process that has been fraught with constant naventura like never before. ... That’s why we feel proportionately affected the city’s Afro-Colombian death threats over the last year. there’s a connection between the violence and the communities: the descendants of Africans enslaved “The Humanitarian Space was formed,” said one projects.” by the Spanish crown who settled in the Pacifi c re- resident, “because there was too much violence and Castillo added that the proposed relocation of the gion and today make up nearly 90 percent of Bue- the community began to refl ect. We did not want to families of Puente Nayero to the inland neighbor- naventura’s half-million-person population. remain quiet.” hood of San Antonio will bring about the cultural Despite the special deployment of thousands of Although the Humanitarian Space is geographi- and economic demise of the community, as San military troops to the city by Colombian president cally a very small area of Buenaventura, perhaps Antonio has no access to the ocean and 60 percent Juan Manuel Santos in 2014, residents argue that the equivalent of two square blocks, Puente Nayero of the Afro-Colombian families in Puente Nayero, the militarization of the city and the presence of community members hope that their grassroots ini- including Miguel Caicedo’s family, survive through state security forces have had little effect. Witness- tiative will continue to grow and expand to neigh- small-scale fi shing. ing police inaction as well as some cases of abuse — boring communities. In fact, residents on the neigh- “Without this process [the Humanitarian Space], one Puente Nayero youth was tortured with electric boring street of Punta Icaco have recently began our street would have been abandoned because of shocks by police in June 2014 — local residents sus- organizing to create their own Humanitarian Space, the violence,” says Caicedo, affi rming his hope that pect indifference and even collusion of state security indicating the growth of a grassroots initiative that continued organizing will help his community de- forces with paramilitary groups. seeks to build long-term security in Buenaventura fend itself — rejecting paramilitary control and the In addition to paramilitary control of his neigh- street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. corporate makeover of Buenaventura that it heralds. borhood, Caicedo also has to contend with Bue- naventura port expansion projects that push out Lisa Taylor is a member of the Witness for Peace small-scale fi shing operations. Despite being ap- CORPORATE MAKEOVER Colombia Team. This article is adapted from a ver-

proached last year by three paramilitaries who Community leaders argue that relentless paramili- sion that appeared on upsidedownworld.org. 2015May IndypendenT The threatened to assassinate him, he remains fi rm in tary presence indicates a larger, more insidious phe- his support of the year-old nonviolent initiative in nomenon: the corporate and tourist makeover of *Name has been changed to protect the his community known as the Puente Nayero Hu- Buenaventura that relies on violent actors to effect identity of the individual. manitarian Space. Made up of one street and two mass displacements of Afro-Colombian communi- adjoining bridges lined with houses built over the ties living in oceanfront or otherwise strategic areas, ocean, Puente Nayero is a residential community freeing up that land for port expansion and “devel- of approximately 300 families. Caicedo insists that opment” projects, a strategy tacitly supported by the the Humanitarian Space — an area free of illegal Colombian state eager to boost foreign investment, armed actors — is a crucial tool for defending Pu- trade and tourism. As implementation of these proj- ente Nayero’s families, physical territory, ancestral ects moves forward, the construction of expensive fi shing livelihood and cultural practices. hotels, business centers and port infrastructure “I’m threatened here, but I put up with these steadily pushes out Afro-Colombian communities, 16 PhotograPhy

when a peepIng ToM Makes arT

Arne Svenson: The Workers it has a neo-classical vibe, with dirty ernment surveillance. But even if the Julie Saul Gallery window glass giving these freshly government curtails its surveillance Through May 30 printed images an aged, dappled pa- powers, the possibility of it will still tina. “The Workers” doesn’t carry the hang over every online interaction for same voyeuristic thrill as “The Neigh- what may be a long time to come. Like By Mike Newton bors” — construction workers, it is the ever-shinier New York, the land- understood, spend much of their time scape of the Internet has been deeply n photographer Arne Svenson’s in public view. changed. New homes keep being built, 2011 series “The Neighbors,” Notably, while the concept of but it’s becoming increasingly clear people lounge around, sit in re- “home” brings with it connotations of that we can never go home again. pose or otherwise find moments privacy and security, for these work- of simple ease: lying on a couch, ers, the home they’re laboring on is say,I or sprawling against a plate-glass not their own. In this light, “The window. The images are spare and re- Workers” becomes a commentary on strained, made with a sense of stillness the transitory or unstable lives that so Arne Svenson, Arne Svenson, and quiet. These images — placid as many manual laborers are forced to Workers #10 Workers #9 they are — made a big clatter when lead. ©2014 ©2014 they were first exhibited in 2013. Sven- But then, in 2015, does this idea son made “The Neighbors” by secretly of home as a safe, private place re- photographing his neighbors across ally hold up? Love them or hate them, Arne Svenson, the street in Tribeca’s Zinc Building, Svenson’s photos make for a tasty and Neighbors #11 one of those new, glass-and-steel cita- relatively low-tech interrogation of the ©2012 dels with high ceilings, high rents and concerns Americans face in this post- — of course — nice, big windows. Snowden age. The subjects of “The Unsurprisingly, a pair of the neigh- Neighbors” were in their homes, sure, All images bors sued. The courts twice upheld but more and more, it seems naïve to courtesy Svenson’s right to display the images, assume that “home” is private, just Julie Saul Gallery even while calling his conduct “inva- like it’d be silly to assume that a “pri- sive” and “disturbing” in the most re- vate” email is private. cent decision, handed down in April. An emergent common wisdom The New York Post was arguably more tells us that virtually all information blunt, denouncing him as “creepy.” online — even the so-called private But what’s interesting is what Sven- stuff — should be considered more son did not do — he didn’t install spy or less public, that if you really want cameras in the hallway, for example, your information to stay private, well, or hack someone’s laptop camera. He you’d better keep it off the internet or simply shot what he could see from dedicate your life to learning about en- the perfectly-legal vantage point of his cryption technology. Or, even better, own apartment, albeit with the aid of don’t put anything personal on any a powerful telephoto lens. internet-enabled device whatsoever. Svenson’s new series “The Work- In this context, privacy starts to seem ers,” on view at the Julie Saul Gallery, like an oil painting or a quill pen: a functions as a sort of sequel to “The decadent luxury from a pre-digital Neighbors.” As in “The Neighbors,” time. the people appear more as sociologi- Svenson’s compositions have an old- cal types than as individuals — their world allure, but they’re very much faces tend to be turned away, partially products of the present day, reflecting obscured or out of the frame entirely, this new American reality. On June keeping their personal identities hid- 1, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT T May 2015 den. Both series involve subjects un- Act — the section that, in the Obama knowingly photographed in shiny administration's view, grants massive New York buildings, but the focus powers to the NSA — is set to be re- of “The Workers” is on construction newed, and as The Indypendent goes workers rather than hapless apart- to press, Congress is debating ways

The Indypenden ment-dwellers. Like “The Neighbors,” to limit this seemingly unbridled gov- BooKS 17

New DAVE LIPPMAN CD: how The Tsarnaev broThers becaMe The bosTon MaraThon BOYCOTT & boMbers DIVESTMENT fered loss and trauma because of the ANNETTE ELIZABETH SONGS The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy bombings]. It is about something that, By Masha Gessen whatever evidence is unearthed, will Riverhead Books, 2015 never be entirely certain: it is about the tragedy that preceded the bomb- http://tinyurl.com/ ing, the reasons that led to it, and its By Maria Vassileva invisible victims.” The invisible vic- pmoa83z/ tims are named: Ibragim Todashev, a his winter, just months before The Brothers: friend of Tamerlan who was killed during an interroga- The Road to an American Tragedy was re- tion by the FBI; Dzhokhar’s friends Robel Phillipos, Dias 19 songs, leased, Russian-American journalist Masha Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, young men who Gessen published several dispatches from face decades in prison because their bad, uninformed de- $6 the jury selection process for the Dzhokhar cisions amounted to obstructing the investigation; and TTsarnaev trial in Boston. As an elaborate questionnaire the members of the Chechen community who were im- helped both the defense and the prosecution dismiss juror mediately seen as suspect by association. after potential juror, Gessen observed how diffi cult it was These stories serve as evidence for Gessen’s larger ar- for the justice system to fulfi ll its promise that Tsarnaev, guments about the inadequate and harmful methods of who with his brother Tamerlan detonated two bombs at the ill-defi ned “war on terror,” which is quick to equate the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring at being a Muslim with being a threat and treats families least 264, would be tried by a jury of his peers. What and support systems as if they were made up of potential would such a jury look like? Do we even know enough accomplices. Gessen cites terrorism scholars who reject bluestockings radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be able to imagine it? the FBI’s assumptions that terrorism is the end stage of 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 The Brothers looks at the ways 21-year-old Tsarnaev a gradual process of radicalization, a theory that has bluestockings.com and his family never quite fi t in: They were Chechen, but shaped policy and media coverage of terrorist acts. Spe- had never lived in Chechnya; the family spoke Russian, cialists agree that most people who hold radical views do but could not assimilate into Boston’s large Russian- not commit violence, and that most terrorists are other- speaking community; they were Muslim in two coun- wise “normal” people — the Tsarnaevs fi t this profi le, tries, Russia and the United States, where their religion is and there is no evidence that they were “radicalized” a source of military confl icts. Dzhokhar seemed to be no by a close friend or a large terrorist network. The FBI’s different from his American friends, though he changed idea of terrorism does not explain what happened to the the spelling of his name to Jahar to make it easier for Tsarnaev brothers or what they did, and the bureau’s in- them to pronounce and they never learned much about vestigation wrought havoc on innocent families and com- his background or family. His older brother Tamerlan munities in its pursuit of a radicalized network. Gessen’s SUN MAY 31 • 7PM • $5 SUGGESTED was too foreign to compete in U.S. wrestling tourna- own investigation ends with a conclusion that inverts the BOOK DISCUSSION: CONTESTED ments that only citizens could enter, too American for the logic of the FBI radicalization theory: “The people in key TERRAIN: REFLECTIONS WITH AFGHAN friends he made when he traveled to Dagestan, the Rus- roles in this story are few, the ideas they hold are uncom- WOMEN LEADERS. sian republic that had been the family’s last home before plicated, and the plans they conjure are anything but far With author Sally Kitch. they moved to Massachusetts. Gessen navigates the mix reaching. It was the hardest and most frightening kind of of the very American and very foreign in the Tsarnaevs’ story to believe.” story with skill, explaining cultural differences without Gessen’s previous two books were remarkable for their SUN JUNE 14 • 12:30PM mystifying them or using them as shorthand for char- smooth translations of events in contemporary Russia — RADICAL EDUCATORS MEETUP. acter. She understands that immigrants have to refi gure Putin’s rise to power and the efforts of his opposition, Collaborative discussion of pedagogical their identities on the go in their new lives, and one of and the trial and imprisonment of the members of dis- values and practices; contact the book’s many strengths is its focus on the emotional sident punk band Pussy Riot — that provided the context [email protected] for upheaval that comes with moving to a new country and necessary for a wider audience not fl uent in the language more info. learning its unspoken rules — an experience common to of these news items. The Brothers follows in their lin- the many immigrants whose stories intersect with those eage. The book ends before Tsarnaev’s trial began; the TUES JUNE 16 • 7PM • $5 of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan. jury has since found him guilty on all 30 counts stem- SUGGESTED Unlike other journalists, who limited their coverage ming from the bombings and chose the death sentence BOOK LAUNCH & LGBTQ PRIDE to the American half of the Tsarnaevs’ lives, Gessen fol- over life in prison as his punishment. It is all but certain CELEBRATION: $PREAD: THE BEST OF

lows the family across the map. The book includes a that his lawyers will appeal, and while the story spins to 2015May IndypendenT The THE MAGAZINE THAT ILLUMINATED short history of the Chechen nation, which is often left account for Tsarnaev’s Americanness or otherness and THE SEX INDUSTRY AND STARTED A out of Russia-centric accounts of that region’s violent his relatives comment on the Boston trial from Dagestan past. Here, The Brothers overlaps with Gessen’s book on or Kazakhstan, Gessen fi lls in the missing links and ex- MEDIA REVOLUTION. Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face, in which she plains what it is like to know, or come from, all of these outlines how Chechens are perceived — and presented places at the same time. — as a threat that requires the president’s fi rm hand and constant military presence in the North Caucasus. The trauma of the Chechen wars has shaped the experience of both expats and people still living in the region, and the Tsarnaevs’ story is one of its unexpected aftershocks. The Brothers begins with a disclaimer of sorts: “This book, however, is not about that pain [of those who suf- 18 BooKS

revoluTIon froM behInd The walls

Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil

Rights Era movement, when going to Power movement, continued to circu- FRANKREYNOSO.COM By Dan Berger jail became a central rite late widely. On the other side of the University of North Carolina Press, 2014 of passage for those agitat- country, the short-lived rebellion of ing for freedom. From the inmates at New York’s Attica Prison revival of slavery under against the conditions of their con- By Matt Wasserman another name with convict fi nement was an inspiration to other leasing to the massive ar- prisoners as well as movement mili- ith over 2 million rests of protesters, jails and prisons tants on the outside. people in jail and served as citadels of white supremacy The story has a tragic coda. As prison and nearly in the Jim Crow South. Martin Luther Black Power groups on the outside fell 5 million more un- King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham prey to organizational splits, power der some form of Jail” exemplifi es how a stint in jail struggles and predatory behavior, so Wcriminal justice supervision, the Unit- lost its stigmatizing power and in fact did those on the inside. The Black ed States has been called the world’s became a badge of moral courage. Guerilla Family, for example, which fi rst prison society. While the major- The heart of Berger’s story, how- was formed as a black nationalist pris- ity of Americans may never be locked ever, is the role that black convicts on outfi t by veterans of the Panthers, up, the “peculiar institution” of the played in organizing and inspiring is now more of a prison gang with prison — and the attendant collateral the Black Power movement. Prisoners ideological trappings. And as organi- consequences of conviction, such as played a leading role in 1960s orga- zations crumbled, there was a revan- the loss of access to public housing, nizations such as the Black Panthers, chist backlash. Instead of responding ineligibility for student loans, diffi cul- whose references to “brothers on the to prison unrest with improved condi- ties fi nding employment and deporta- block” encompassed the cellblock as tions, prison systems revived solitary tion — have come to structure social well as the corner. confi nement, abandoned rehabilita- relations, much as slavery did in the Black prisoners played a powerful tion as a goal and built new supermax antebellum South. Prisons have be- role in building a critique of “AmeriK- prisons. Prisoners vanished from the The come central sites in reproducing and KKa,” articulating the continuity national conversation even as incar- reinforcing the contemporary racial from slavery to the present day on the ceration rates soared. hierarchy and domination that civil one hand and a continuum between Captive Nation reminds us of the rights advocate Michelle Alexander the maximum-security confi nement oft-obscured role of those who were calls the “new Jim Crow.” of prison and the “minimum-securi- literally in the belly of the beast in The #blacklivesmatter movement ty” confi nement of black ghettos on fi ghting for freedom during the 1960s Indy has focused its still-inchoate ener- the other. With few outlets for their and ’70s. The exclusion of prisoners gies on the racialized presumptions time, inmates who often came to from the public eye since then likely of guilt and dangerousness that have prison illiterate became autodidactic has to do with their role as a sort of played a central role in the endemic intellectuals, feverishly studying the bogeyman in the politics of fear and police violence against communities roots of their oppression and dis- retribution — or “law and order” — adverTIse wITh of color. This violence recently mani- cussing radical ideas and literature. that have been dominant since Nixon pend fested in the killings of Eric Garner, Indeed, the black nationalist impulse started bloviating about the “silent The Indy Michael Brown and Walter Scott, found few adherents as loyal as those majority.” But there now appears among others, although the problem serving time, who managed to spread to be an opening for a new kind of goes back to the days of slave patrols. this ideology in radical newspapers conversation around criminal justice ¬ affordable raTes Protesters have largely focused their despite being locked up. reform. There is an emerging consen- ¬ unIQue readershIp energies on creating a narrative in Radical prisoners carved out a sus that mass incarceration is unten- enT which these men are viewed as vic- prominent position in the Black Pow- able — riddled with racial disparities, tims rather than predators or perps. er movement, laying claim to a van- unnecessarily punitive and far too ¬ IndIvIdualIZed But left out of the picture have been guard role by dint of their position as expensive. It is telling that while Bill those prisoners sentenced to a living the wretched of the earth. Eldridge Clinton interrupted his presidential aTTenTIon death in the nation’s penitentiaries, Cleaver, the Panthers’ Minister of campaign in 1992 to preside over the out of sight and seemingly out of Information, wrote his best-known execution of an intellectually disabled mind. This is understandable, if un- book, Soul on Ice, while in Folsom prisoner, candidate Hillary Clinton To fInd ouT fortunate. Given the massive dragnet State Prison. And George Jackson recently gave a speech about the need operated by the police in poor com- became a leading fi gure in the Pan- to end mass incarceration. Captive More, call munities of color, criminal suspects thers while serving a sentence of one Nation is a powerful reminder of how are a far larger and more sympathetic year to life — intended to symbolize compelling the voices of those most group than prisoners. Many people California’s commitment to the reha- affected by the prison-industrial com- 212-904-1282 have been pulled over for a traffi c in- bilitative ideal, in practice such “inde- plex can be in making the radical case fraction and been stopped and frisked terminate” sentences meant that obei- for mass decarceration.

May 2015 or arrested; in comparison, relatively sance was the price of release. While or eMaIlads@ few people have served hard time. Jackson was killed in San Quentin Captive Nation captivatingly during an alleged escape attempt in IndypendenT. chronicles a moment when prisoners 1971, this only burnished his name: played a central role in the black radi- Soledad Brother, a collection of let- cal imaginary. Historian Dan Berger ters he wrote from the prison of the

The IndypendenT org starts the story with the civil rights same name and a key text of the Black EXhIBItIoN Gripping and meticulous, Nick Turse’s reporting on Africa 19 sheds much-needed light on shadowy missions the U.S. military would rather keep secret.—Glenn Greenwald

herMan’s house mell. She wrote and visited Herman over the years, "In the first book length #76759: Featuring the House That Herman Built and worked with him to Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch realize his ideas. Getting account of AFRICOM’s Through June 5 out of prison and dying a operations, Nick Turse free man was a triumph chronicles how in a very of Herman’s will to live, By Michael Steven Smith and with Sumell’s help, his short time, Africa went dream has been realized, if from the margins of US ou walk through the only in model form thus far. Sumell is foreign policy to be not just main door of the Brook- currently raising the funds to construct lyn Public Library’s Cen- the house life-size in New Orleans. the warzone of tomorrow, tral Branch and it hits Herman was self-taught, a poor kid but of today." you: a jail cell. It is a full- from New Orleans’s Ninth Ward. He —Sean Jacobs, international Yscale reconstruction of Herman Wal- came to understand, along with Amer- affairs faculty at The New lace’s 6-by-9-foot cell, right there in the ica’s most famous intellectual Albert lobby. It is part of the exhibition, “The Einstein, that socialism is humanity’s School and founder House That Herman Built,” and it gets attempt “to overcome and advance of Africa is a Country better. beyond the predatory phase of human Herman Wallace spent a U.S.-re- development.” cord-setting 41 years in solitary con- On display at the library is Herman’s fi nement in that cell in the infamous handwritten reading list, which con- Angola prison in Louisiana. stitutes a real treasure to enhance our You won’t see segments about it In 2003 Brooklyn-born visual art- understanding of the world and how on the nightly news or read about it on the front ist Jackie Sumell, then an art student to change it. It includes, among oth- page of America’s newspapers, but the Pentagon is fighting a new in California, asked Herman, a Black ers, the speeches of Malcolm X; Frantz Panther prison activist and member Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth; shadow war in Africa, helping to destabilize whole countries and preparing the of the Angola Three, “What kind of Woman’s Evolution, the great work by ground for future blowback. Behind closed doors, U.S. officers now claim that house does a man who has lived in a pioneering feminist anthropologist Ev- “Africa is the battlefield of tomorrow, today." In Tomorrow’s Battlefield, award- 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for over 30 years elyn Reed; and Democracy and Revo- dream of?” Their exchange resulted in lution, by the late philosopher and his- winning journalist and bestselling author Nick Turse exposes the shocking true a collaboration that transformed both torian George Novak. story of the U.S. military’s spreading secret wars in Africa. their lives and produced this interna- That the Brooklyn Public Library tionally renowned exhibit, as well as a would put on this show destroys the book and a documentary fi lm. notion that librarians are a timid lot. HaymarketBooks.org It gets better when you walk past the They took a risk promoting a “con- jail cell to a model of the house where victed cop killer,” and a Black Panther he wanted to live, which he designed no less. In doing so they distinguished with Jackie’s help. It’s lovely and open, themselves by taking on the racists and with views of the sky, exposed spaces, the promoters and apologists of mass vegetable and fl ower gardens and green incarceration and prolonged solitary trees. And showing Herman’s sense of confi nement, a form of torture. humor, it has a swimming pool with a The show is being used to educate black panther in tile at the bottom. people through accompanying library There are two phones attached to programs about the 80,000 prisoners, the cabinet displaying the model house. including children, who are held in sol- You can listen to Herman speaking itary confi nement today in America’s from the prison: He tells you all about prisons. The confi nement of 2.3 mil- the house, taking special pride in men- lion people has put the United States in tioning the stand-alone guest room for the lead throughout the world, where, his visiting friends and comrades. Lis- although it makes up only 6 percent of tening, you really get to like him. You the world’s population, it has managed want to learn more about him, about to lock up 25 percent of the world’s what he thought and read and how he prisoners. kept it together all those many years So go see this exhibition. Herman’s alone in a cell so confi ning that he says steadfastness and spirit is contagious. it was like being locked in a bathroom. It will be good for your soul. And inci- Herman, Albert Woodfox and Rob- dentally, while you’re there, check out ert King were framed and charged with a book or two. murdering a prison guard. Herman lived 41 years in solitary, until a brave Michael Steven Smith is a New York judge reversed his sentence and ordered City attorney and author. He is a co- a new trial based on the exclusion of host of the WBAI radio show “Law women from the jury. He was released and Disorder” and the co-editor of and died three days later. King got out Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. in 2001; Woodfox’s conviction was overturned this February, but he is still inside pending the state’s appeal. The balcony of the library has dis-

play cases containing some of his 2015May IndypendenT The 12-year-long correspondence with Su-

PAIN INTO ART: “Featuring the House That Herman Built” at the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch. MICHAEL STEVEN SMITH 20 BooKS

MakIng one of lIfe’s bIg choIces

Selfi sh, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids

Edited by Meghan Daum GARY MARTIN Picador, 2015 chance to write and promote another,” she It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised By Radicals writes. “Had this all and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood happened before Roe By Frida Berrigan v. Wade, every single O/R Books, 2014 thing about my life right now would be different.” By Bennett Baumer On the other hand, Frida Berrigan’s It arenthood is often spoken Runs in the Family, part memoir of in terms of happiness and part refl ections on motherhood, and fulfi llment, and it can is an earnest and sincere endorse- be. My wife and I planned ment of raising kids, and being able to have two children and to do it in a peacenik left-wing home Pdelightfully consummated the plan. at that. Berrigan is the daughter of Now those two children are one and legendary anti-war activists Philip two years old, and our world, like Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister, that of other parents with young and her childhood was marked both children, is consumed by the kids’ by her parents’ prison stints and the wants, needs and social calls. warm envelope of the intentional But not everyone is on the baby and nonviolent Catholic community train. Selfi sh, Shallow, and Self- they cultivated. Absorbed is a collection of 16 es- Berrigan and her husband raise says from writers who want no part three children on her husband’s WEDNESDAY // JUNE 10 // 8PM in toddlers and their trucks, never modest income. Her book addresses mind the spit-up and diapers full soccer mom issues such as video of you-know-what that don’t show games and makes salient points up in the curated albums on your about childbirth, but make no mis- Facebook feed. The deeply personal take — Berrigan’s radical lifestyle MIKA IS THE DESIGNER OF THE INDY essays in the collection document is no suburban soccer mom’s de- economic precarity, troubled home light. Berrigan brandishes her leftist lives, career passions and an emerg- creds and dumpster dives, protests X ing social trend: a greater percent- and is proudly out of the cultural age of women — almost 20 percent mainstream (her cell phone is from HE IS ALSO IN A BAND today, as opposed to 10 percent four 2003). Her leftist parenting para- decades ago — surpass their fertile digm includes values of equality, years and do not procreate. peace and respect, as well as the req- X It’s hard to make that choice, and uisite political marches — though even harder to justify it to the baby- since becoming a parent, she isn’t crazed mainstream. As Courtney out getting arrested like her parents THIS IS HIS BIRTHDAY SHOW Hodell writes, “[W]hen you talk of used to. not wanting children, it is impos- Selfi sh, Shallow, and Self-Ab- sible to avoid sounding defensive. … sorbed and It Runs in the Family It is hard to come across as anything provide insight into a growing nex- other than brittle, rigid, controlling, us of countercultural family models. against life itself.” Berrigan, for example, pushes back Married writer Geoff Dyer pens against status-seeking and material- the most humorous essay. “Okay, ist parenting, embodied most poi- if you can’t handle the emptiness gnantly in what she calls the “kids of life, fi ne: have kids, fi ll the void.” birthday party industrial complex”; COME SAY HELLO Dyer would rather fi ll his days with writers in Meghan Daum’s antholo- naps and tennis, and I admit to be- gy, meanwhile, interrogate the child ing envious. But clearly the emo- itself as a status symbol and reject it. X tional toll of not having children And a plethora of other family para- falls more squarely on women than digms — same-sex families with SPIRITOF.BANDCAMP.COM on men, and ambivalence and anxi- or without children, non-romantic ety permeate the essays. Writer Pam parenting partnerships, community Houston’s story, “The Trouble with parenting and more — are increas- X Having It All” hits all the notes. ingly making their way into public Houston became pregnant at age 29 view. Taken together, these redefi ne VIMEO.COM/TARKELA/ALBUMS and her book publisher subtly sug- what family is supposed to mean — May 2015 gested that it would be best if she and challenge us, in the face of all was available for the publicity tour our modern pressures, to create the and not laid up pregnant. “I was kind of family we actually want. so naïve about the pressures of the DON PEDRO’S // 90 MANHATTAN AVE // BROOKLYN publishing industry I might have be- lieved that if having the baby hurt

The IndypendenT this book’s sales, I’d be given the thEatEr 21

whaT should I do abouT daddy’s blood-sTaIned forTune?

Major Barbara First Unitarian Congregational Society friend of yours who has hard-to-fathom po- while the accents aren’t perfect, they’re impres-

Through May 30 litical beliefs but projects such courage in her sively consistent and don’t detract from the rest CONSCIENCE VS. JOE RITTER convictions that you always feel things will of the play. CALCULATION: work out if you stick by her side. I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t Grace Rao sparkles as Barbara’s foil, her father Andrew, gets an seen it. I will say this: In less than two hours, the staunchly ideal- By David Meadow unusual treatment from the slight, sly David this company forces us to confront issues that istic title character in Frutkoff. The role is often played by a burly are just as present in the second Gilded Age we the Brave New World hen the play Major Barbara alpha male, roughly shouldering the world out live in now — when it seems as if almost no Repertory Theatre’s fi rst premiered in 1905, of his way, but Frutkoff manages to pull it off publicly traded fi rm is more than a few degrees production of major it was a good time to be a with aplomb as a creepily impish, insinuating of separation from the war machine, and the Barbara. ruling-class Briton. It was cypher who looks more like Joel Grey’s emcee major nonprofi ts and civil-society organiza- more than a decade before character from Cabaret than J.P. Morgan. You tions have to go hat in hand to these corpora- theW British Empire would peak in size, and it don’t even get the sense of a Napoleon com- tions if they want to keep operating — as they seemed only to be bound for greater things. plex; this captain of industry’s cold, calculating were a century ago. Just as Barbara asks her- World War I had yet to mow down its unfath- intelligence insulates him from any sense of in- self, so too must our modern nonprofi ts: just omable numbers of young lives. How perfect, security. Indeed, Frutkoff manages to summon what strings are attached, and is it worth it? then, for socialist gadfl y and critic of milita- up a startlingly triumphant boom in his voice rism George Bernard Shaw to write a drama as he harangues his character’s son in a mono- poking and prodding at the rationalizations logue about money and politics that feels like a that the establishment offered for the buildup direct ancestor of Gordon Gekko’s “You think of ever greater and more terrible armaments. In this is a democracy?!” bit from Wall Street. this play, Shaw pitted a weapons manufacturer, To return to the ensemble acting, Andrew Undershaft, against Undershaft’s own this play contains many moments estranged daughter Barbara, a high-ranking that require the give-and-take of MAY–JUNE THEATER everydayinferno.com or 347-291-1805, $18 missionary for the Salvation Army. The prem- quick repartee, as high ideals, ex- LISTINGS THE UPPER ROOM ise is that Major Barbara has a sudden oppor- pressed methodically in an often WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY JEREMY BLOOM AND tunity to accept a huge donation to the Army essay-like structure, mix with the BLOOD RED ROSES: THE FEMALE BRIAN RADY from her father, but refuses it on principle, say- occasional glib one-liner and every- PIRATE PROJECT MUSIC COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY CATHERINE ing it’s tainted with the blood of war. thing in between. Generally, the old- WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY THE ENSEMBLE BROOKMAN Brave New World Repertory Theatre, which er and more classic the play, the more DIRECTED BY GRETCHEN VAN LENTE Inspired by the back-to-the-land movement, a darkly produces some classics and new works spe- you have to suspend your disbelief A devised immersive shadow puppetry piece humorous consideration of spirituality and the cifi cally by Brooklyn writers, has turned out a that any real person could come up examining the history of female pirates, performed dangers of our changing environment, featuring a live studied, thorough and well-paced production with lines like these on the spot, for on an actual boat with lots of live sea shanty singing. mixed score, antique scuba suits and an overhead of Major Barbara that holds the audience from so long at a clip and at such speed, THE WATERFRONT MUSEUM projector to create a brand-new music theater event. beginning to end. Working with a modest bud- and Major Barbara is no exception. 290 Conover St at Pier 44, Bklyn THE NEW OHIO THEATRE get, they make the most of their resources and, These actors, however, imbue the May 11–31: Fri–Sun; doors open at 7:45pm 154 Christopher St for this project at least, create a sense of great lines with a timeless, unforced emo- performance begins at sundown May 22–June 12: Tues–Sat at 8pm wealth in just the right places to make a play tion that makes you go right along dramaofworks.com or 866-811-4111, $20 radyandbloom.com, $18 about rich and poor convincing. with them, and no one falters in the Performances are very good overall, both rhythm of the exchange. PUNKS & PROVOCATEURS BUTTER AND EGG MAN individually and as an ensemble. Grace Rao Dialect is almost as important The Roaring Girl WRITTEN BY GEORGE S. KAUFMAN sparkles as the staunchly idealist title charac- here as it is in Shaw’s Pygmalion, WRITTEN BY THOMAS MIDDLETON & DIRECTED BY RICHARD RUST ter, drawing us in with her inexhaustible com- because Major Barbara has so much THOMAS DEKKER A 1925 satire about a seemingly simple Mid- DIRECTED BY ANAIS KOIVISTO passion and compulsion, and then taking us on to say about class — about the ner- Western boy who comes to New York to break into Punk as F*ck the roller coaster as her various assumptions vous striving to maintain proprieties theatrical producing with the misguided idea that WRITTEN BY MICHAEL K. WHITE AND DIANNA get knocked down, resurrected and turned and keep up appearances, about the he will double his money. But the young man may be STARK smarter than he seems — will he be able to turn a inside-out. We have to remember here how icky in-group-out-group rituals and 2015May IndypendenT The DIRECTED BY KATHERINE SOMMER radical a departure it would be, in 1905, for the mutual contempt that the rich, “fl op” in to a “wow”? Two plays in rotating repertory: THE GENE FRANKEL THEATRE an heiress of a wealthy, respectable, Anglican- the poor and the myriad tiers of the — Punk as F*ck, a new play with live music where establishment family to go work for the Salva- middle class all hold with varying 24 Bond Str youth, passion and ideals collide at a garage band’s May 16–30: Wed–Sat at 8pm tion Army. If any American has a strong image degrees of openness. Smart cast- rehearsal in 1991. of the Salvation Army as an organization, it’s ing choices gave the most lines to Sun, May 17 & Sat, May 30 at 2pm — The Roaring Girl, a Jacobean comedy following retroproductions.org, $18 probably an image of stolid reactionaries. To the people who could do the most a cross-dressing, ass-kicking, whip-smart heroine Barbara’s family, however, it is a downright convincing accents (including East as she deals with marriage, gender and fi delity, with Listings provided by Robert Gonyo and the Go subversive outfi t. The way Rao plays Barbara London and elevated RP English a sword fi ghts. See a Show! independent theatre podcast, in this context, she could absolutely be that la Pygmalion’s Henry Higgins), so THE ACCESS THEATRE GALLERY goseeashowpodcast.com. 380 Broadway June 4–July 21: Thurs–Mon at 8pm Sats, June 6 and 20 & Suns, June 7 and 21 at 3pm 22CaLENDar May

THROUGH JUNE 5 with a major mobilization in known for her soul grooves enUF. This Tony-nominated including Cave of Forgotten

Free Harlem. and soaring vocals in such and Obie-winning cho- dreams and encounters at DAVE BLEDSOE/FLICKR EXHIBITION: #76759: FEA- Adam Clayton Powell Blvd hits as “I’m Every Woman” reopoem was written by the end of the World. TURING THE HOUSE THAT & W 125th St and “Ain’t Nobody.” Ntozake Shange in 1974, NYPL Main Library, Celeste HERMAN BUILT. Herman freeoscarnycmay30.org Prospect Park Bandshell, and is only the second play Bartos Forum Wallace was a Black Pan- near Prospect Park West & by a black woman to open 5th Ave at 42nd St ther activist and member of SAT MAY 30 11th St entrance on Broadway. It’s now being nypl.org the Angola Three who spent 12:10–2:00pm • Free prospectpark.org revisited by the Serious more than four decades in LEFT FORUM PANEL: Play Theatre Ensemble; the WED JUNE 17 solitary confi nement. In GRASSROOTS MEDIA FRI JUNE 5 performance depicts the 7–9pm • Free 2013, three days after his IN AN INCREASINGLY 6pm • Free lives of seven women in a DISCUSSION: YOUTH release from prison, he died DIGITAL WORLD. All FIRST FRIDAYS: BLACK racist and sexist society #BHEARD: FIGHTING FOR A in his sleep. A collabora- forms of media continue GAY PRIDE EDITION. through a series of poems VOICE COMMUNITY TOWN tion between Wallace and to migrate to the Internet. Celebrate the Black LGBT choreographed to music. HALL. Join this discussion artist Jackie Sumell has So how should grassroots community and its rich Judson Memorial Church of panelists, including jour- resulted in this exhibition of media practitioners respond history as Pride month gets 55 Washington Sq S nalists, council members a life-size replica of his cell, to the opportunities and underway. There will be judson.org • 212-477-0351 and youth organizers to his belongings, and a model challenges posed by these extended viewing hours in connect with the contem- of the dream house Wallace developments? And is there the Schomburg galleries WED JUNE 10 porary issues facing urban designed while in confi ne- a potential upside to not and music to groove to by 6:30–10pm • Free youth today, especially in ment. fully embracing the digital DJ Missy B and Craig Nice BOOK DISCUSSION: A the wake of sensational- Brooklyn Public Library, age? Indypendent Executive and DJ Byrell. CONVERSATION WITH ized media coverage of the Central Branch Editor John Tarleton, WBAI Schomburg Center for Re- ROBERTA GRATZ. Author Baltimore uprising. 10 Grand Army Plaza, Bklyn Program Director Mario search in Black Culture Roberta Gratz will discuss BRIC Arts bklynlibrary.org • 718-230- Murillo, Media Mobilizing 515 Malcolm X Blvd her book, We’re still Here 647 Fulton St, Bklyn 2100 Project Communications nypl.org • 212-491-2200 Ya Bastards, examining the bricartsmedia.org • 718- Director Milena Velis and rebuilding and revitalization 683-5600 SAT MAY 23 Susan Galloway of Roches- SAT JUNE 6 of New Orleans 10 years 10am–2pm • $20–$80 sug- ter Indymedia will discuss 7:30pm • $10 suggested after Hurricane Katrina. SAT JUNE 20 gested donation these questions in conver- donation The New School 11–3pm • Free WALKING TOUR: THE sation with Todd Wolfson, SCREENING: FIndInG Theresa Lang Community FESTIVAL & DANCE MANHATTANIZATION OF author of digital rebellion: TATAnKA. With the Bay and Student Center, Arnhold WORKSHOP: LOCK, BROOKLYN. Doug Hen- The Birth of the Cyber Left. Area protest movements of Hall BRUKUP, FLEX AND JUMP wood, editor of the Left There will be time for audi- the 1960s and 1970s as the 55 W 13th St AT THE UMOJA EVENTS Business observer, leads a ence Q&A as well. setting, fi lmmaker Jacob newschool.edu • 212-229- JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL. Bob Fitch-inspired walking John Jay College New Bricca documents his father 5000 Dance workshops led by tour hitting all the hotspots Building and movement leader Kit street dance pioneers will and explaining the strategic 524 West 59th St, Room Bricca’s struggle to transi- THUR JUNE 11–SUN JUNE 21 demonstrate and teach the machinations behind the 1.108 tion from an uncompromis- Various times • Various evolution and a mix of dance transformation. A benefi t leftforum.org ing idealist to a father and FILM FESTIVAL: HU- styles born on the streets for the Marxist Education husband while his passion MAN RIGHTS WATCH. 28 of Brooklyn and infl uenced Project. SAT MAY 30 & MON JUNE 1 for social justice destroys screenings of 19 acclaimed, by the dancehall and brukup RETURNING TO THE Meet at Hungry Ghost Cafe 7pm • $10 his family. Followed by Q&A feature-length documen- style of Jamaica. No experi- SEA: This year’s Mermaid inside the BRIC Media Arts DISCUSSION: THIS with the director. taries that examine themes ence necessary! Parade is on June 20. Maysles Documentary of war and peace, social Linden Park, Bklyn Media House, Bklyn CHANGES EVERYTHING: CHRISNA HERBST/FLICKR marxedproject.org FOUNDRY DIALOGUES Center justice and how to make Vermont St btw Linden Blvd 2015. These dialogues, 343 Malcolm X Blvd change against all odds. & Stanley Ave LEGEND: Chaka Khan, the Queen of Funk, will FRI MAY 22–SAT MAY 23 inspired by Naomi Klein’s maysles.org • 212-537-6843 Movies being screened brooklynartscouncil.org perform at the Prospect 7:30pm • $15 book, This Changes every- include Cartel Land, The Yes Park Bandshell on June 3. MUSIC: AFRO DREAMFEST. thing: Capitalism vs. the SAT JUNE 6 men Are revolting and The SAT JUNE 20 Celebrate African Liberation Climate, will bring together 10pm • $15 Black Panthers: Vanguard of 1pm • Free Day (May 25) at AfroDream- an international group rang- PERFORMANCE: HYPER- the revolution. STREET PARTY: MERMAID Fest, an annual African ing from policymakers to GENDER BURLESQUE: Walter Reade Theater at PARADE. Join thousands of touring concert celebrating artists to discuss the impact MYTHICAL CREATURES. In Lincoln Center, 165 W 65th New Yorkers in journeying Afro-fusion genres, includ- of climate change and our honor of June Pride, Hyper- St to Coney Island for the 33rd ing Afro-beat, Afro-soul, solutions for sustainability Gender Burlesque presents The Times Center, 242 W annual Mermaid Parade, Afro-rnb and Afro-jazz. $10 and a lasting planet. Mythical Creatures, a cel- 41st St a celebration of ancient early bird tickets available. The Foundry Theatre ebration of queerness and IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave mythology and honky-tonk Fri: Meridian 23, 161 W 140-142 2nd Ave all things different. Things ff.hrw.org/new-york rituals of the seaside featur- 23rd St thefoundrytheatre.org • 212- will get hot, and don’t forget ing more than 1,500 creative Sat: Silvana, 300 W 116th St 777-1444 your glitter. TUES JUNE 16 performers, including this afrodreamfest.com WOW Cafe Theatre 7–9pm • $25, $15 students/ year’s Queen Mermaid and WED JUNE 3 59-61 E 4th St, 4th Fl seniors King Neptune. SAT MAY 30 8–11pm, gates open at 6:30 wowcafe.org • 917-725-1482 DISCUSSION: WITH Starts at W 21st St and Surf

May 2015 11am • Free Free LEGENDARY FILMMAKER Ave, Bklyn RALLY & MARCH: FOR OS- MUSIC: CHAKA KHAN. FRI JUNE 6–SAT JUNE 7 WERNER HERZOG. Werner coneyisland.com/pro- CAR LOPEZ RIVERA. Sup- Celebrate Brooklyn! is kick- 8pm • $20 Herzog is one of the most grams/mermaid-parade porters of the Puerto Rican ing off its 37th year at the PERFORMANCE: For infl uential fi lmmakers in nationalist political prisoner Bandshell with the Queen CoLored GIrLs WHo HAVe New German Cinema and will mark the 34th anniver- of Funk, Chaka Khan. The ConsIdered sUICIde has produced, written and

The IndypendenT sary of his incarceration former Black Panther is WHen THe rAInBoW Is directed more than 60 fi lms, 23

eWs, CommenTar for n Y an aY d an Y d morning sh al er ch The oW 6 Ys ev cat –8a is s se. m m Yo u el noW with amY on u W re aCY goo da W o e Cr dm y t l h o a hr o l W em n f o n o Y d ro ug ’T f n by m h a ed 8 f r w – ri a lo 9a d e l m ay h fo . ,

rum, tune into WBa T fo i (99 lef .5 f he m t an of d es o c n i lin vo e y a n t a W m B e spo a h edia nsor t l m of i. r ia the o a C 2 e fi 0 r h f 15 g o l o n e ) t a f be T fo to d r u u o m r u e C o m p T r m r u n u alT e r n i T o i o aT Y Y d i v a e r

For a full schedule of programs, including new Come by and visit us at our W B A I shows featuring ReveRend Billy, ReBel diaz, Ron table at the left foRuM. daniels, and GloRia J. BRown MaRshall, NEWS see wBai.oRG/schedule.php May 2015May Indypenden The T No Justice No Peace Confronting the Crises of Capitalism & Democracy

May 29TH–31ST John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York

KSHAMA SAWANT LAURA FLANDERS CHRIS HEDGES ASHLEY FRANKLIN IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE STANLEY ARONOWITZ THENJIWE MCHARRIS JULIANNA FORLANO TOM HAYDEN RICHARD D. WOLFF PAMELA BROWN M. ADAMS DAVE ZIRIN VICENTE NAVARRO KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR and 1,200 More Speakers PHIL DONAHUE

Left Forum brings together organizers, intellectuals, activists, and the public from across the globe to share ideas for understanding and transforming the world. Left Forum 2015 will feature hundreds of panels and workshops, live music performances, a festival of films, and a book fair.

Register online or at the door. leftforum.org

le 2015 forum le 212-817-2003