THE INDY NEEDS YOUR HELP! SEE P2 & BACK PAGE The IndypendenT #220: JAnUARy 2017 • IndypendenT.ORG

FAR RIGhT FReAK ShOW, p8 IMMIGRAnTS AT SeA, p12 RAdICAL ReCIpeS, p18 hOW TO WIn In The AGe OF TRUMp WhAT We CAn LeARn FROM The BATTLe AT STAndInG ROCK, p4

By peTeR RUGh A water protector stands her ground near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. AVERY WHITE/FLICKR 2 SPECIAL The IndypendenT MESSAGE

THE INDYPENDENT, INC. ShUT IT dOWn! 388 Atlantic Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 212-904-1282 www.indypendent.org The Indypendent is a terrible, terrible newspaper, way worse than the fail- Twitter: @TheIndypendent ing New York Times. It not only says mean things about me all the time, facebook.com/TheIndypendent but every month it writes about greedy unions, lazy tenant groups, Black Lives Matter, and professional protesters. They can’t write a kind word for BOARD OF DIRECTORS: America’s hardworking CEOs? Its beautiful oil and gas companies, impec- cable police and gorgeous landlords like me? Sad! Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, I could put this paper out of business on Day One, but why should I both- Alina Mogilyanskaya, er? I’ve declared bankruptcy four times, so I know if you don’t have the Ann Schneider, John Tarleton money to pay your bills, you’re in serious trouble.

The Indy doesn’t have millions of dollars like my friends at Breitbart and GAGE SKIDMORE/FLICKR EDITOR: Fox who are telling the world how great I am. It relies on contributions from readers like you to cover their budget just like Bernie trying to run for presi- John Tarleton dent on $27 donations — Pathetic!! They’ve crawled along for 16 years, but not anymore. ASSOCIATE EDITOR: This year, readers like you who are in shock over my awesome victory Peter Rugh won’t send them money. Then, they will be gone. Poof! No more Indy. Won’t be able to pay its rent or keep the lights on or pay its measly staff. No more dough to say terrible, terrible things about me. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Now I’m not one to gloat. In fact, people tell me all the time how humble Ellen Davidson, I am. But if The Indy is severely hobbled by lack of reader support or even Alina Mogilyanskaya, went out of business, I say that’s a wonderful thing. Nicholas Powers, Steven Wishnia Who needs their “facts”? Facts are stupid. And what the hell is social justice? Solidarity? Why should anyone want to write about that? ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: “THE INDYPENDENT IS Here’s a real news story: My steaks are deli- Frank Reynoso cious! The most succulent cuts of fl ash frozen Angus Beef you’ll fi nd anywhere. Why don’t A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DESIGN DIRECTOR: they write an article about that? Mikael Tarkela If you want real news, follow me on Twitter! NEWSPAPER, WAY Don’t waste your time with these losers. Think about it this way: WORSE THAN THE DESIGNERS: For $100 you can help The Indy print 1000 Steven Arnerich, Anna Gold copies. For the same amount you can buy a FAILING NEW YORK brass Make America Great Again Christmas SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: Ornament fi nished in 24-karat gold. Give $50 and you’ll sponsor 500 editions of The Indy. Or TIMES.” Elia Gran else, you can purchase a gift set of my cologne, Success By Trump. So what do you say folks? Inhale my musky essence, gaze GENERAL INQUIRIES: upon my shiny holiday bric-a-brac or support an independent newspaper? I [email protected] trust your decision will be in line with the winning spirit of Christmas.

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The IndypendenT Whitney, and Amy Wolf. TABLE OF 3 CONTENTS

4 The STAndInG ROCK VISIOn by Peter Rugh At the dawn of the Trump-era, there are many lessons to be learned from the Standing Rock water protectors and the veterans who came to their defense.

6 SeLLInG OUT OUR ChILdRen by Leonie Haimson Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education is a billionaire who wants to do for America what she did for Michigan — dismantle its public schools.

7 heRe COMeS TRUMp by Indypendent Staff From the richest cabinet in presidential history to Seattle’s neighborhood action councils, catch up on the latest news of Trump’s transition to power. 8 The RISe OF The FAR RIGhT by Linda Martín Alcoff & José Martín In the United States and around the globe the politics of hate are becoming hipsterized and respectable. Time to organize and fi ght back. 10 In IMMIGRAnT COMMUnITIeS, KnOWLedGe IS pOWeR by Renée Feltz Advocates are holding teach-ins across New York City to help undocumented immigrants know their rights and prepare for the threat of Trump.

11 TROUBLe On CAMpUS by Astha Rajvanshi Long-time African American studies professor, Mark Naison, ran afoul of administrators at Fordham University for his anti-racist Facebook posts.

12 IMMIGRAnTS AT SeA by Leanne Tory-Murphy West African migrants are fl eeing war and dictatorship in droves, but when they reach European cities like Palermo, Italy their struggles are far from over.

14 BRICK-By-BRICK by Nicholas Powers Trump was elected on the promise of a wall but walls already abound all around us as well as inside ourselves. Time to tear them down. 16 The LIFe And COnTRAdICTIOnS OF eL COMAndAnTe by Steven Wishnia A look at the life and legacy of the man who founded a socialist state on a tiny island in the backyard of the most powerful capitalist country on earth.

18 COOK’S ReBeLLIOn by Peter Rugh In today’s busy-busy culture there are few things more radical than cooking a simple meal for friends and loved ones. Indy readers share their recipes.

20 CeLeBRATInG LGBTQ CULTURe by Gena Hymowech A new exhibition presents a sweeping assemblage of contributions to fi lm, art and theater from gay gothamites throughout modern history.

21 BLUe In The MOOnLIGhT by Mark Read Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is an unfl inching look at young black men whose lives are profoundly shaped by external forces that brutally limit their agency.

22 ReVeRend BILLy’S ReVeLATIOnS 2017 January This month the good reverend tackle’s reader’s questions regarding holiday shopping, seasonal affective disorder, and false prophets.

23 BUILdInG FROM The GROUnd Up by Indypendent Staff IndypendenT The The Indypendent is in the process of doubling its print circulation with the help of volunteers like these. 24 We’Re AppeALInG TO yOU Free people need a free press, help keep us going. 4 RESISTANCE

STAndInG ROCK nATIOn

By Peter Rugh face of the earth. It was as if the results of the presidential election were manifesting themselves even before Donald t was approaching midnight on Friday, Dec. 2, when Trump took offi ce. Halim Nurdin decided to take a break from his po- “We took an oath to defend America from foreign and do- litical science paper. The subject of his essay: democ- mestic threats,” Nurdin said. “People have a right to peaceful racy and inequality. The 24-year-old former Marine assembly and freedom of speech, and they were being bru- corporal, three years into a history degree at Long Is- talized, being told to shut up. Shooting water at people in landI University, began scanning social media to see what his freezing temperatures, throwing stun-grenades and tear gas friends were up to when an item in his Facebook newsfeed canisters at them — that’s a domestic threat.” caught his eye. On Sunday, Dec. 4, as more veterans streamed into Stand- Less than 24 hours later Nurdin stepped off an airplane ing Rock, word came down that the Army Corps of Engi- in Fargo, N.D. The following evening, his rented Chevrolet neers had denied Energy Transfer a permit to drill beneath Cruiser rolled into the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The the Missouri. Celebrations erupted in the camps. fi rst snowfl akes of a blizzard were beginning to fall, but fi re- “What happened at Standing Rock was to me one of the works lit up the sky. most profound manifestations of people struggling for their Members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their support- rights, for sovereignty and for the earth that I have ever seen,” ers have worked to prevent a multibillion-dollar consor- said Tarak Kauff, who served in the Army’s airborne infantry tium, Energy Transfer Partners, from installing an oil pipe- from 1959 to 1962. DAWN OF A NEW DAY: The sun rises over line on their land. Part of a 1,172-mile project intended to Yet throughout the rest of the nation, a different story has the main protest encampment near the Standing carry oil from the Great Plains to Mississippi River ports unfolded in recent months, perhaps the greatest victory the Rock Sioux Reservation. in Illinois, the Dakota Access Pipeline was slated to travel forces of ignorance, bigotry, fear, misogyny and violence in through burial grounds the Sioux hold sacred. It would also America have scored in decades. The rise of barbarism from have passed beneath the Missouri River — the reservation’s beyond Standing Rock could nullify its accomplishments, if only source of drinking water. What began over the summer the lessons learned within the encampments go unheeded. as a small protest camp established by the tribe to impede construction blossomed over the fall into a tent city with 15,000 inhabitants. VALUES “Visually, it was just astounding how enormous it was,” recalled longtime activist Nancy Romer, a retired professor The good news, you might say, is that Donald Trump has of psychology at Brooklyn College who visited the encamp- fi nally stripped away the last vestiges of respectability from ments in November. “There were all these teepees and yurts American politics. America is the champion high-school and tents and RVs and school buses.” A half-dozen camps quarterback who can’t read; its presumed sense of predes- sprouted up, dozens of kitchens and schools, supply and tined glory and “exceptionalism” all hollow posturing. medical tents. Tens of thousands of people travelled through Trump demonstrates unequivocally that there is no inherent Standing Rock. dignity in any offi ce, including the highest in the land. “It was a liberated zone built by people who shared poli- Contrast Trump’s celebrity feuds, his shameless self-pro- tics,” said Romer. motion, his talk of “grabbing pussy” and his racial incite- Nurdin was part of a deployment of veterans to the reser- ment with the displays of resolve witnessed at Standing Rock. vation that weekend. About 2,000 were expected to turn up; A people pushed to the brink of extinction by “Manifest

more than 5,000 arrived. Many, including Nurdin, had never Destiny” held their heads high and refused to back down as ERIK MCGREGOR attended a protest in their lives, but decided to take part as all manner of state-sanctioned violence bore down on them. word spread on social media that they were needed. They demonstrated that persistent, collective acts of peace- “The road leading into the reservation was backed up for ful dissent can overcome concussion grenades, rubber bullets, miles,” Nurdin said. “My expectation was that on Monday schutzhund packs, tear gas, mace and the wealthiest corpora- we would form a line in front of the protesters, but it turned tions in history. out our presence alone did more than enough.” For decades the political right billed itself as the party of The vets’ arrival at Standing Rock proved to be the fi nal patriotism, family and faith. The left recoiled from these no- push needed in the protracted battle for public trust between tions given how they manifested themselves — endless wars, Energy Transfer and its opponents. bombed abortion clinics, scandal-tarred evangelists like Jim In September, video shot by Democracy Now! of security Bakker. Now, the “party of values” has elected an Ameri- guards siccing German shepherds on peaceful demonstrators can Père Ubu (French playwright Alfred Jarry’s embodiment — water protectors, as the Sioux called themselves — went of all that is gross, greedy, and piggish) as an instrument of viral. Later, when Americans by the million were traveling for Thanks- giving — a holiday intended to com- NY’S PIPELINE BATTLE climate change, compelled them commit the offense. They also cited a memorate the relationship between lack of oversight on the part of the federal nuclear and energy regulatory our continent’s original inhabitants Spectra Energy continued with the installation of its Algonquin Incremen- commissions, which have dismissed safety concerns surrounding AIM. and its colonizers — news of Native tal Market (AIM) pipeline this month. Critics warn the 42-inch-diameter Stolar said he is confi dent Judge McCarthy’s decision will be overruled Americans being blasted by water natural gas pipeline, which will stretch from Pennsylvania to New upon appeal. Meanwhile, workers continue to install the pipeline and hoses in subfreezing weather ema- England, poses a safety risk to surrounding communities, noting that it efforts are under way by Sane Energy Project and allied environmental nated from airport televisions and will pass within 105 feet of the aging Indian Point nuclear facility on the groups to raise $60,000 in bail funds needed to secure the release of all 12 car radios. A young woman from the Hudson River just outside New York City. activists arrested on Dec. 9. Bronx, Sophia Wilansky, was forced The pipeline was originally expected to be fully operational by Nov. 1, The contest over AIM is part of a broader effort on the part of environ- to undergo multiple surgeries after lo- but construction has been halted on numerous occasions due to a series mentalists nationally to stop a new generation of pipelines from perpetu- cal law enforcement unleashed a tor- of acts of civil disobedience by pipeline opponents. ating America’s reliance on fossil fuels. In an email to supporters, Sane rent of rubber bullets and concussion On Dec. 9, 12 people arrested at a pipeline site in Cortlandt, N.Y., were Energy’s Kim Fraczek (pictured above) described such infrastructure as grenades at the protectors, destroying charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest for impeding the part of a “multi-pronged war on our democracy, health and safety.”

January 2017 Pipeline opponents, drawing inspiration from successful efforts to bones in her arm. pipeline’s installation. The charges follow a guilty verdict handed down by halt the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock, N.D., have pledge to Such acts of brutality harkened Cortlandt Judge Daniel McCarthy on Dec. 2 to nine activists who blocked continue impeding AIM. back the 1960s, with its images of access to an AIM site in Montrose, N.Y., last year. — INDYPENDENT STAFF Alabama police attacking civil rights The “Montrose 9,” as they called themselves, together with attorney demonstrators with clubs, dogs, and Martin Stolar, used the necessity defense against charges of disorderly fi re hoses: uniformed men treating conduct. The immediate risk the pipeline poses of a “Fukushima on the Hudson,” the activists asserted, as well as the threat posed by global

The IndypendenT people like dirt to be washed from the Indypendent Ad 5x7 06-23-15.pdf 1 6/23/15 1:56 PM

BROADCAST ON MORE THAN 1,300 PUBLIC TV AND RADIO STATIONS WORLDWIDE 5 A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan González

DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG its evangelical god. In so doing, Tune In Live Every Weekday 8-9am ET it has presented an opening for progressives to conquer and re- ALL PHOTOS LUCAS ZHAO/ FLICKR • Audio, Video, Transcripts, Podcasts plenish moral high ground long ago ceded to the Republicans • Los titulares de Hoy (headlines in Spanish) who have desecrated it. Veterans for years have been • Find your local broadcast station and schedule frequent pawns in the GOP’s pa- triot games. “Hearing the word • Subscribe to the Daily News Digest ‘veteran,’ the fi rst thing that comes to my mind, and I think a lot of Follow Us @ DEMOCRACYNOW people’s minds, is sacrifi ce, self- lessness, giving to your country, fi ghting for freedom,” says Halim Nurdin. But at Standing Rock, taking a cue from the camp’s in- digenous leadership, a new van- guard fl ipped the script. Veterans demonstrated a way in which the left can answer the GOP’s “val- ues” by reinterpreting them. “Resistance at Standing Rock was primarily nonviolent and done in the spirit of prayer be- cause they recognize that every- thing is sacred,” says Tarak Kauff. Kauff was arrested for block- ing pipeline construction at Standing Rock in October and traveled there again for the mass veterans mobilization. In the wee hours of Dec. 5, the tent where he and around 30 other veter- ans were sleeping caved in dur- ing a snowstorm, exposing them to snow and gale-force winds. They sought shelter in a nearby medical tent. Later in the day, they were among the droves of protectors who took refuge from the storm in the nearby Standing Rock casino. There, a ceremony took place involving 500 former military personnel. “At one point, all the Native veterans, there were about 80 to BIG CHILL: Temperatures 100, they came around and were plummeted below zero at Standing Rock 2017 January shaking our hands and hugging by early December. us in the spirit of oneness and brotherhood and sisterhood,” Kauff said. “They realized that RALLYING POINT: As many as going forward, if they don’t for- 15,000 people have gathered at Standing IndypendenT The give, then bitterness and hatred Rock to demand that construction of the will poison them. They’re not Dakota Access Pipeline be halted. going to forget the theft, the bro- ken treaties, the genocide. They

Continued on page 16 6 SCHOOLS

MeeT TRUMp’S pUBLIC ed WReCKInG BALL

By Leonie Haimson recent report from the American Federation for Children, own money to vouchers.

they gave nearly $5 million in 2016 to pro-privatization With both houses in Congress in Republican hands, we GINO BARZIZZA onald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos candidates in 12 states will have a fi erce battle on our hands to withstand the de- as Secretary of Education could be a dev- Last spring, she and her husband used the infl uence structive impulses of Trump and DeVos. Aiding them will astating blow for American public schools. of their money to bully Michigan legislators into voting be a fl ood of money poured into lobbying campaigns by “DeVos’s agenda is to break the public against on a bill proposed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder billionaires, Wall Street fi nanciers, edu-entrepreneurs, and education system, not educate kids, and re- that would have provided modest government oversight religious institutions, all eager to divert taxpayer funds placeD it with a for-profi t model,” John Austin, president of for the explosion of unregulated, poor-quality and often into private hands and dismantle our public schools. Pub- the Michigan State Board of Education, told the Detroit corrupt for-profi t charter schools in that state. Michigan lic school parents, teachers, and advocates must be smart Free Press after her appointment was announced Nov. 23. gives nearly $1 billion a year in aid to charters, many of and work together to withstand this assault. 23. “It’s like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, and which refuse to disclose their fi nances and channel con- hand-feeding it schoolchildren.” tracts to their own offi cials. According to a Detroit Free Leonie Haimson is executive director of Class Size Mat- DeVos is the daughter of a wealthy auto-parts manufac- Press investigation, 38 percent rank in the bottom quarter ters and cochair of the Parent Coalition for Student turer who funded Christian-right causes, and her brother of Michigan schools academically. Privacy. Erik Prince founded the mercenary company Blackwater. Public-school supporters had some successes in some She married Dick DeVos, the billionaire heir to the Am- states in the November election. In Georgia and Mas- way fortune. The two, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., sachusetts, multiracial coalitions of unions, parents and have used their personal wealth to encourage the expan- school-board members overwhelmingly defeated well- sion of charter schools, to prevent any government over- funded privatization efforts. In sight of their use of public funds or regulation of the qual- Washington state, Bill Gates ity of education they provide and to aggressively promote and other technology magnates the use of vouchers to let taxpayer funds pay for private lost in their effort to unseat and parochial schools. judges who had concluded that She would be the fi rst Secretary of Education who never the public funding of charter attended a public school or sent her own children to one. schools was unconstitutional in She has never worked as a teacher, served on a school that state board, or held any position in government. In New York, though, the DeVos is an even more radical privatizer than either Republicans who control the Arne Duncan or John King, President Barack Obama’s state Senate support expanding education secretaries. Both Duncan and King favored ex- charter schools and giving par- panding the charter sector, offering these publicly funded, ents tax credits for private and privately run schools more than $1.5 billion in federal parochial-school tuition. Gov- grants between 2010 and 2015. The Department of Edu- ernor Andrew Cuomo has also cation’s Race to the Top program offered states the chance promoted the expansion of the of winning millions more if they let the number of charter charter sector at the expense of schools expand. Many states, including New York, then public schools. The New York raised their charter caps. State United Teachers did not The DeVos family is among the leading donors to the Re- endorse Democratic challengers publican Party. According to an analysis by OpenSecrets. in several extremely close Sen- org, they have given at least $20.2 million to GOP candi- ate races on Long Island, and dates, party committees, PACs, and super PACs. They also parents and rank-and-fi le teach- fi nance far-right groups that promote climate-change de- ers who volunteered on their nial, oppose marriage equality, and want to cripple labor campaigns were disappointed. unions, such as Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public At the same time, pro-charter Policy. Another group they support, the Acton Institute, PACs such as StudentsFirstNY’s argues for the abolition of child-labor laws. New Yorkers for a Balanced “I have decided to stop taking offense at the sugges- Albany spent millions to keep tion that we are buying infl uence,” Betsy DeVos said in the state Senate in GOP hands. 1998. “Now I simply concede the point. They are right. These funds paid for attack ads We do expect something in return. We expect to foster against the challengers that nev- a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited er mentioned the words “char- government and respect for traditional American virtues. ter schools”—because most We expect a return on our investment.” Long Island voters do not favor The couple’s primary education organization is the charter schools. American Federation for Children, which PR Watch de- Trump has proposed a $20 scribes as a conservative 501(c)(4) dark-money group. Her billion federal voucher pro- 501(c)(3), which is not allowed to support political can- gram that would most likely didates, is the Alliance for School Choice. In 2006, the be fi nanced with Title I funds, January 2017

Ohio Elections Commission fi ned a DeVos-founded group which since the mid-1960s have called All Children Matter $5.2 million — the largest provided additional aid to pub- election-violation fi ne in state history — for laundering lic schools with large numbers $870,000 through its national offi ce to avoid the state’s of poor children. He has said $10,000 limit on individual contributions. The group did that he would use these funds to this even after the commission told them that was illegal give state incentives to contrib-

The IndypendenT — and then never paid the fi ne. According to the most ute another $110 billion of their 7 FIGHTING BACK pOST-eLeCTIOn BRIeFS

By Indypendent Staff est households. In 2013, Senate Democrats lowered the Seattle residents have formed a citywide network of number of votes needed to overcome a fi libuster for neighborhood action councils in anticipation of Trump’s ELECTORAL COLLEGE REVOLT cabinet-level appointees from 60 to 51. Republicans cur- presidency. The councils “are autonomous communities A Change.org petition that called on “conscientious” rently hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. of resistance, formed to provide immediate services and members of the Electoral College to reject Donald Trump protection for politically targeted communities,” accord- had collected 4.7 million signatures as The Indy went to ELLISON’S DNC BID GAINS SUPPORT ing to the Neighborhood Action Coalition. The groups press this month. At least 20 red-state electors were re- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), co-chair of the Congres- plan to be a line of defense against Trump’s plans for portedly considering ignoring their state’s support for sional Progressive Caucus and the fi rst Muslim elected mass deportations. Trump — more than half the 37 votes needed to force the to Congress, continued his drive this month to head the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to de- Democratic National Committee (DNC). Ellison, an ear- MIKE PENCE: THE GIFT

cide the election (For more on the history of the electoral ly supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid, ad- THAT KEEPS GIVING EFF THIS: ELVERT BARNES/FLICKR college, see page 9). vocates a grassroots-based approach to party organ izing. The women’s health care provider Demonstrators at an He has backing from the AFL-CIO, the nation’s larg- Planned Parenthood has received anti-Trump speakout in MASS PROTESTS SLATED FOR est labor federation, as well as Senate Minority Leader more than 315,000 donations since Baltimore, Nov. 10. INAUGURAL WEEKEND Chuck Schumer. The White House is lobbying for Labor election day, 82,000 under the Organizers expect 200,000 people to attend a Jan. 21 Secretary Tom Perez to receive the post. The choice will name Mike Pence. While in Congress in 2011, the vice march for women’s rights in Washington, D.C., during be made in late February by 447 party insiders who serve president-elect led efforts to defund Planned Parenthood inaugural weekend. March organizers are urging “any on the DNC. for providing abortions. person, regardless of gender or gender identity, who be- lieves women’s rights are human rights” to join them. DSA MEMBERSHIPS SURGE SIGNAL SIGN-UPS SOAR WomensMarch.com offers further information. The Democrats aren’t the only game in town. The Downloads of the encrypted instant messaging service Democratic Socialists of America report registering Signal have shot up 400 percent in the wake of the elec- AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES 3,000 new dues-paying members since Nov. 8, six tion, according to the San Francisco-based nonprofi t. Sig- President-elect Trump is assembling a cabinet composed times more than in any previous one-month-period in nal does not store users’ messages online and scrambles of retired generals and business executives. With $9.5 the organization’s history. transmissions on the web in order to safeguard users’ billion in fi nancial assets among them, the total wealth privacy. For further information, see whispersystems.org. of the 13 men and four women Trump has nominated SEATTLEITES FORM NEIGHBORHOOD thus far surpasses that of 43 million of America’s poor- ACTION COUNCILS TO OPPOSE TRUMP January 2017 January The IndypendenT The 8 RACISM

The FUTURe OF WhITe SUpReMACy CAn TRUMp UnITe The ALT-RIGhT, The KLAn, The ChRISTIAn nATIOnALISTS, The AnARChO-TRIBALISTS And The SUIT nAZIS?

By Linda Martín Alcoff & José Martín “PC” is most often associated with the use of names and marriage, and a style of “pro-Western culture” politics simi- terms that various denigrated groups have chosen for them- lar to that of France’s National Front. He and Trump are bout a month before the election, I (Linda) selves: disabled rather than “retarded,” women rather than busily pursuing what seems to be a two-pronged program gave a talk at Nassau Community College on “girls,” African-American rather than “colored.” To reject of dismantling regulations of every sort while arming the re- the topic of white identity. During the recep- political correctness is a way of saying that white straight pressive apparatuses aimed at domestic groups. tion afterward, I was approached by a serious- men don’t need to “beg for validation” or even listen to the The alt-right infl uence can also be seen in the way Trump faced young man, who identifi ed himself as the preferences or views of anyone else any longer, and that ig- defi ned his candidacy as more of a movement than a tradi- Apresident of the college philosophy club. He asked if I would noring the critical analyses of U.S. history and foreign policy tional electoral campaign. He has continued holding cam- consider doing a public debate with leading white nationalist that have emerged since the public airwaves became more paign-style rallies after the election was over, to keep his Jared Taylor. He turned out to be an avid consumer of so- diverse is simply a way of championing individual freedom. mass base mobilized. Bannon’s task is to frame the public called “alt-right” websites, and had formed the belief that It’s impossible to know how infl uential the alt-right re- narrative that will keep that base mobilized against any op- African-Americans and Latinos were simply less intelligent ally is, since it’s so easy to infl ate the numbers of clicks on position, whether from moderate Republicans, liberals, or than white people. a website. What we do know is that white-nationalist ultra- the left, that tries to block Trump’s appointments or poli- As an African-American student waited patiently nearby conservative movements are growing in many countries and cies. The violence and threats we saw during the election are to ask a question, I found myself in a debate with a young come in multiple forms. What some call “suit Nazis,” such likely to get much worse. white male college student about whether, as a Latina, I was as France’s National Front and Hungary’s Jobbik parties, Hence what we are up against is not only the normal state intelligent enough to be invited to give a talk at his college. overlap with the alt-right, but they are generally wealthier apparatus, but assorted non-state actors as well. This might What has come to be called the alt-right is younger and and operate in mainstream venues, holding elected offi ce in create a situation similar to that of many countries in Latin more tech-savvy than the more established ultra-conserva- many European countries, as well as running think tanks, America, where the government blames paramilitary groups tive organizations, and more focused on developing its on- publishing houses, and large transnational businesses. There for some of the worst atrocities. Non-state actors will some- line presence than on building rural militias. The term alt- are also still old-school groups, like the Klan and its spinoffs, times act under offi cial direction, sometimes not, but their right itself is controversial, but it helpfully indicates the way that focus on setting up armed militias. Many of them can be effect will undoubtedly embolden human-rights violations in which white nationalism has been hipsterized. It has inge- characterized as white Christian nationalists. by law enforcement, from the local police to immigration niously characterized blatant racism and misogyny as edgy There are more than rhetorical or stylistic differences agents, who will also enjoy diminished oversight. There are and courageous, as fi ghting the good fi ght against censor- among these groups. There are differences over strategy and already Nazi sympathizers on the inside of these organiza- ship, thought control, and “political correctness” — much tactics, over the centrality of Christianity, over support for tions, and some of them are people of color: Latinos are not like the “men’s rights” movements to which it is linked. big capital, and over which group should get the honor of be- immune from harboring an anti-Latino, anti-immigrant rac- These differences with the older far right are superfi cial. ing the most hated “other.” Most important, some of these ism. Oddly enough, it won’t be just whites, or “pure” white The alt-right is another reactive and violent backlash to ra- groups are in favor of strong states and some are not. The Anglos, who defend the forces of white nationalism. cial progress, just as the Ku Klux Klan was to Reconstruc- “anarcho-tribalists” would rather not have more repressive The best-case scenario will be if the varied far-right groups tion and the civil rights movement. Like other far-right state apparatuses, in Althusser’s sense, and many others are continue to bicker. In this case, we may “only” be up against groups since the ’60s, it cloaks white-supremacist politics as Pinochet-style fascists who promote free enterprise over state a slew of disconnected attacks, and we may be able to use “anarcho-tribalism” or “white pride” rather than race ha- intervention. Some focus more on their negative freedoms, the disagreements among right-wing forces to waylay some tred. As Taylor recently explained to comedian John Fugel- or the freedom from regulations, surveillance, censorship, reactionary legislation. The worst case scenario would be if sang, they simply “prefer homogeneity.” Today’s European and any government interference — as the slogan “don’t the alt-right, suit Nazis, old-school white nationalists, and far right similarly spins its agenda as a defense of the West’s tread on me” indicates — while others focus on their posi- other far-right forces coalesce, in which case it may no longer values and cosmopolitanism that they say are now under tive freedoms to separate and control other communities, or be hyperbole to say that we are fi ghting fascism. threat from Muslim migrants. Its anti-Semitism is veiled the power to marshal a larger and more militarized police So what is to be done? There is no question that the left by support for Israel, though its repeated suggestions that force, more draconian border patrols, and more surveillance must take up a people’s defense against both concrete ha- local Jews should migrate to Israel reveal darker motives. on potential enemies. rassment and the ideological vilifi cation of targeted groups. But these are the sort of rhetorical moves that draw in some Donald Trump’s election will test the intensity of these dif- Antifa (anti-fascist) organizing, which already exists across young people who might not otherwise be attracted to cross- ferences. The question of state capture is no longer theoreti- the country, as well as free legal services and legal defense burning rallies (such as philosophy majors). cal: It has been accomplished. It may still be unclear exactly for those facing deportation and incarceration, are going to Taylor, considered a thought leader for the alt-right, ar- how much infl uence the far right has in white working-class be more important than ever. We will also need a massive gues that only separatism can guarantee white survival. The communities, but it is crystal clear how much infl uence they effort to defend poor communities, white included, who will assumption here is that mixed children will no longer be have in the White House. Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strat- have less access to health care, education, affordable hous- white, and mixed cultures will blot out white traditions and egist and second-ranking White House staffer, has been as- ing, and a living wage. It is estimated that states that refuse beliefs, so that without separatism white identity will dis- sociated with far-right stances against Islam and same-sex to increase their Medicaid rolls are going to cause 27,000 appear. (European white nationalists make similar claims about European culture, as if it were ever “pure.”) But THE RACIST ROOTS ants were enslaved. Today. As in the House, slave-economy states Taylor’s claim reveals the white su- Any democracy, this thing that tens of thousands were given disproportionate representation in the premacy behind white nationalism. OF THE ELECTORAL of people had only just recently fought and died for, Electoral College. The reason it is so important for pure COLLEGE that relied on a popular vote alone to determine its This worked out well for Virginia as 12 of the whites to survive is always given in leaders would subordinate the interests of slave- 46 electoral votes originally needed to capture an comparative terms: Because Europe- Although the United States is a relatively new na- masters in Virginia and other southern states to electoral college majority went to the state, and its an values are superior to Muslim val- tion, it actually follows the oldest existing constitu- those of free voters in the north. Enslaved persons, plantation aristocrats, Madison among them, held ues, and because eliminating whites tion still in use today. While some take such a fact after all, were not considered human let alone the presidency for 32 of America’s fi rst 36 years. would eliminate the most intelligent as evidence of the fi rm bedrock our democracy citizens with voting privileges. Today, the Electoral College’s place in our dem- and productive race on earth. rests on, it also means we have to remind ourselves At the insistence of Virginia’s James Madison ocracy tends to be forgotten, an arcane formality Alt-right leader Richard Spencer, where certain procedures originate. a compromise was worked out among the 55 del- from the days of yore. We’ve tended not to notice head of the National Policy Institute, This is especially the case after the presidential egates in Independence Hall. Each state would be it unless it is in contradiction with the popular makes this racial comparison clear. election we just witnessed, in which a man who granted two representatives in the Senate while in vote, as was the case in 1876, 1888, 2000 and January 2017

“We were not meant to beg for moral lost the popular vote by more than 2.8 million will the lower House of Representatives, representation now. In this respect, Trump’s victory is a kind of validation from some of the most de- become president. was slotted in proportion to each state’s population. slave-masters’ revenge. spicable creatures to ever populate Way back during the hot summer of 1787, the Slaves would be counted as three-fi fths of a person. — INDYPENDENT STAFF the planet,” he recently said. The Constitutional Convention was under way in The Electoral College too, “was an integral part of alt-right’s assault on “political cor- Philadelphia and the delegates from Virginia had a the odious pro-slavery three-fi fths compromise” as problem. It was the most populous state in the new rectness” is a maneuver to ignore the Yale constitutional law professor Akhil Reed Amar nation but approximately 40 percent of its inhabit- points out in his recent offering, The Constitution

The IndypendenT viewpoints of other groups. Being 9

unnecessary deaths per year. This is a life-and-death struggle.

But we also need to go on the offensive, to build the spheres of mean- DAVID HOLLENBACH ingful political and civic engagement, from labor unions to neighborhood organizations to progressive religious communities to na- tional networks. Progressive political groups of all sorts ANTI-RACIST ORGS Here are some newly emerging radical groups doing can help build and protect broad-based organizing to check out. civil society, but they will now have to take security SHOWING UP FOR RACIAL JUSTICE (SURJ) culture very seriously in re- showingupforracialjustice.org gard to membership lists and Through community organizing, mobilizing, and educa- online activity. We should tion, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi- also work to force existing racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. mainstream organizations to take a stand, to drop their COSECHA — ACTION NETWORK apolitical alibis, and actively actionnetwork.org/groups/cosecha defend democracy. A new nonviolent movement fi ghting for the humane and We have to combat fatal- permanent protection of immigrants in this country. ism. Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter are IF NOT NOW two powerful recent social ifnotnowmovement.org movements that were cre- Fighting for a vibrant, liberated Jewish community that ated by young people who supports freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestin- rejected the idea that they ians were powerless, even in the face of the power of Wall THE PEOPLE’S INSTITUTE FOR SURVIVAL AND BEYOND Street and a racist state. Our pisab.org situation is not hopeless. Focuses on understanding what racism is, where it comes from, how it functions, why it persists and how it Linda Martín Alcoff’s can be undone. most recent book is The Future of Whiteness, Polity CATALYST PROJECT Press, 2015. Here website collectiveliberation.org Organizes, trains and mentors white people to take is www.alcoff.com. José collective action to end racism, war and empire, and to Martín is an anti fascist support efforts to build power in working-class commu- and copwatch organizer, nities of color. researcher and media com- mentator. Follow him on TORCH NETWORK twitter @sabokitty. torchantifa.org January 2017 January The Torch Network is a network of militant antifascists across (but not limited to) the United States.

Don’t forget there are also many local groups doing important work too. ROSA The IndypendenT The Recommended read: Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything by Becky Bond LUXEMBURG and Zack Exley. STIFTUNG — LMA & JM NEW YORK OFFICE 10 CIVIL SOCIETY RENÉE FELTZ

KnOW yOUR RIGhTS TeACh-InS TURn IMMIGRAnT AnXIeTy InTO ACTIOn

By Renée Feltz • • • turn over his information to the “scary” part that handles enforcement and removal. n a rainy night in early December, law Back at the law school teach-in, two participants vol- students, lawyers, advocates and immi- unteer for a role-playing exercise in which “Anna,” an • • • grants pack a lecture hall at Columbia undocumented immigrant, arrives in her apartment to Law School for an immigrant-rights discover she has been robbed, then debates with her As the teach-in at the church winds down, the mood is teach-in. Next to a sign-up sheet at the friend whether to report it. both somber and defi ant, as UnLocal executive director doorO are three urns of coffee. None are decaf. “You should feel safe reporting a crime in New York Michele Lampach draws attention to the bigger picture. At the front of the room stands Professor Rose Cui- City,” advises Evelyn Garcia, a neighborhood organizer “Immigration has a big impact on people’s lives,” she son Villazor, a seasoned legal advocate for immigrants with the Mayor’s Offi ce of Immigrant Affairs. says, “but it can’t control everything.” and the fi rst of many speakers from university and She clicks to the next slide in her PowerPoint pre- She advises people who may face deportation to pre- community-based legal services agencies. sentation and reads Executive Order 41 on Confi den- pare by creating a safety plan: Gather all of your im- “Let me begin by talking about president-elect tiality, which instructs city workers — other than migration-related documents, fi nancial and medical re- Donald Trump,” she says, quieting everyone but a law-enforcement offi cers — not to disclose a person’s cords, and an emergency contact list. If you are a parent, few interpreters. immigration status unless they have been authorized make arrangements for who will care for your children. The next three hours are a crash course on who to do so by that person, they are required by law to DACA recipients who may lose their work permit are Trump’s administration will likely target fi rst for depor- do so, the information is needed to determine eligibil- encouraged to make fi nancial plans. tation, and how to protect and support their rights. ity for a public benefi t or the person is suspected of Both gatherings also feature advice on how to respond Similar gatherings have drawn crowds throughout New York City, where more than a third of residents are foreign-born. The HUNDREDS TURN OUT AT GATHERINGS week before, nearly 700 people attended a similar event at New THROUGHOUT NYC. York University School of Law. “Right now there is a lot of fear,” says Alina Das, codirector of Columbia Law’s illegal activity. when police or federal agents come to your home. You Immigrant Rights Clinic. “Our primary focus is edu- When pressed, Garcia explains that even if police have the right to refuse them entry without a warrant cate those who will be directly affected, and turn their are not covered by the order, the New York Police signed by a judge, with the correct address — including anxiety into action.” Department says it does not report immigrants to the apartment number. Ask them to slide the warrant federal authorities. under your door. If you are detained, you have the right • • • “New York is basically a sanctuary city,” someone to remain silent and can respond in several ways, such comments, while others remain skeptical. as, “I want to use my right to remain silent” or “I want On the same rainy night, another teach-in at the Com- Since Trump’s election, Mayor Bill de Blasio has to speak to a lawyer.” munity Church of New York in midtown Manhattan at- vowed not to cooperate with federal agents seeking Legal advocates say these workshops will be replicat- tracts mostly immigrant students, couples, and families, data gathered from residents who are immigrants. ed and adjusted as Trump’s immigration-enforcement who sit in scattered clumps among the pews. A young This data includes names and addresses collected policies take shape, so that people have accurate infor- Latina hands out cards on which they can write legal from those issued a municipal ID card. mation and resources. questions and pass them back to be answered from the “We are not hopeful about what is to come,” Lam- pulpit/podium, allowing them to remain anonymous. • • • pach admits, “We want to be ready in case the worst- Tania Mattos, a Bolivian immigrant and education case scenario happens.” and outreach coordinator for the immigrant legal- At any teach-in now, as well as during the Obama services group UnLocal, notes that anyone with ques- administration, when deportations reached a record A video of the NYU teach-in is on line at law.nyc.edu/ tions about their immigration status can schedule a free high, one group is always identifi ed as the most like- immigantrightsclinic/community-resources/videos. legal consultation with the city’s Action NYC program. ly to be deported: immigrants with criminal records, Then she reads the fi rst card: “If Trump revokes DACA, even if the offenses are decades old. While Trump when will deportations begin?” estimates there are 2-3 million such people, the Mi- President Barack Obama’s executive order known as gration Policy Institute counts about 820,000. DACA, or Deferred Adjudication for Childhood Arriv- In New York City, many immi- als, has given work permits and a temporary reprieve grants of color have been targeted from deportation to nearly 750,000 young undocu- by the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk IMMIGRANT THE BRONX DEFENDERS LEGAL AID SOCIETY mented immigrants who were brought to the United and broken windows policies. 347-778-1266 (legal IMMIGRATION UNIT States as children. They were arrested for minor of- RESOURCES emergency hotline) 212-577-3300 On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to repeal fenses and advised to plead guilty, Walk-ins welcome 9am–6pm 212-577-3456 (detention DACA in his fi rst 100 days. It is unclear whether ending with damning consequences. ACTION NYC at client-reception offi ce (360 hotline, Wed–Fri, 1–5pm the program would immediately revoke recipients’ legal Conor Gleason, an immigra- 800-354-0365 East 161st St., Bronx). Accepts collect calls from status, or just prevent them from renewing it when it tion attorney with the Bronx Multilingual hotline for detention.) expires. Those who have not yet submitted applications Defenders, observes another general information and THE BROOKLYN DEFENDER Represents detained and are now encouraged to hold on to them in order to avoid role-playing exercise in which referrals to free immigration SERVICES non-detained before the New submitting their name and address to the federal gov- “Bob” has been a lawful perma- legal services. 713-254-0700 York Immigration Court.

ernment, as well as paying a $465 fee to do so. nent resident for many years. At Offers free legal IMMIGRANT DEFENSE Many colleges say they will bar immigration agents age 20 he pled guilty to a crime, representation to low-income UNLOCAL PROJECT CRIMINAL- from tracking down undocumented students on campus but did not serve time in jail. New York City residents in 646-216-8210 IMMIGRATION HELPLINE without a warrant, and will refuse to turn over their Concerned about what Trump deportation proceedings via Offers free or low-cost legal 212-725-6422 information without a court-ordered subpoena. Co- will do, he is considering apply- the New York Immigration consultations for immigrants.

January 2017 Offers advice on immigration lumbia University’s provost said the school may expand ing for citizenship. Family Unity Project. consequences of criminal — RENÉE FELTZ fi nancial aid for those who lose their DACA status and “People should not apply for charges and convictions. can no longer legally work. naturalization if they have a Later, Mattos reads another card that asked how she past offense,” Gleason advises, stayed positive. “I spent most of my life without DACA,” explaining that the citizenship- she responds. “I know I will survive, and I have faith in services arm of the Department

The IndypendenT community organizing.” of Homeland Security could 11 CAMPUS LIFE SAY NO TO WAR! The voice of Brooklyn For Peace is needed now BROnX pROFeSSOR more urgently than ever. TARGeTed FOR AnTI- With your membership, your participation in our activities, and RACIST ORGAnIZInG your financial support, we are determined to resist!

By Astha Rajvanshi Leiberman, another of Dr. Naison’s former pupils. She noted that her expe- ust days after the election, rience of racial bias on campus wasn’t Visit brooklynpeace.org, Mark Naison, Professor of Af- always overt but often occurred in the rican American Studies at Ford- form of microaggressions. Frequently, check us out on Facebook, ham University and Director of events she and other minority students Jthe Bronx African American organized on campus were called “too sign up for our mailing list or call us!

History Project, met with his students political or we were asked to change VANESSA AGOVIDA/FORDHAM RAM of color on campus. the wording on fl iers.” Many of them at the predomi- She and Lambert were among the nantly-white, Jesuit university in the 15 current and former students who Bronx were traumatized, frightened came together at Dr. Naison’s resi- Founded 1984 Brooklyn For Peace and outraged by Donald Trump’s dence in November to discuss how to brooklynpeace.org // [email protected] // 718-624-5921 presidential win. set up the RRU. brooklyn4peace brooklynforpeace “It wasn’t just the fear of what However, the Fordham adminis- Trump might do, it was also people tration intervened swiftly after Dr. brooklynforpeace brooklynforpeace feeling ready to take things in their own Naison’s efforts to organize the RRU hands and take things out on minori- began. Shortly after Thanksgiving, ties,” said Dr. Naison, a rare white pro- Naison received an email from the Vice fessor in the fi eld of African American President of Student Affairs containing studies who has taught at Fordham for screenshots of Naison’s Facebook posts 30 years and authored numerous books discussing the RRUs. including an oral history of the Bronx. “The letter said, ‘We’re really dis- The number of bias attacks and hate turbed to hear that you’ve started crimes has surged nationally since the a Rapid Response Unit when there election. Within the fi rst 10 days fol- are offi cial university channels’,” lowing the Nov. 8 vote, the Southern Naison recalled. “Why is Fordham WBAI Poverty Law Center counted 867 cases telling me this when I’m trying to of hateful harassment or intimidation. protect my students? Are they using In schools and on college campuses the my personal Facebook posts across NOT JUST YOUR DAD’S growing list of incidents includes swas- professional communications? That tika signs blooming in public spaces, crosses a line that I cannot accept, (OR GRANDDAD’S) white students telling minority stu- especially at a time of left-wing RADIO STATION ANYMORE... dents to “go to the back of the bus,” watch lists,” he continued. and chants of “build a wall!”. Lambert was equally alarmed. Inside Fordham, a white supremacy “He’s not doing anything wrong so fl ier was found hanging on a wall in the I don’t see why there should be any schools economics department. input from Fordham about why he’s But incidents of bias are nothing doing something to make people feel new at the university, where just 5.3 safe,” she said. percent of the school’s 15,000 students “If they’re so concerned with our ef- are black, just 13.6 percent hispanic. forts, then they should take institution- Bias incidents have been increasing al racism on campus more seriously,” over time. In the 2015-2016 school Leiberman added. year, there were three anti-Semitic bias Naison has handed responsibility for crimes reported. One of them included the Fordham RRU over to current and a swastika carved into a door on the former students, but he continues to school’s satellite campus at Lincoln participate in their discussions. Center in Manhattan. Despite the university’s attempts to In an attempt to address the fears of stall their efforts, Lambert believes his students, Naison fl oated the idea of the RRU will equip minority students starting a ‘Rapid Response Unit’ (RRU) with the language to articulate why 2017 January with current and former students. something is problematic, and enable “Knowing the history of the campus, them to respond to incidents of bias in I thought it was important to be a re- the future. source to people who are still on cam- “These are the kind of things we’re pus so they have someone to talk to,“ going to see with Trump — what can PROGRESSIVE + INDEPENDENT IndypendenT The said Morenike Lambert, a 2008 gradu- they get away with? My view is let them ate and a former student of Naison. get away with nothing,” Naison said. NEWS, ARTS + MUSIC @ 99.5 fm “In situations like these you need to Streaming online: wbai.org be brave, problem solve and stand in solidarity with all students to create #wbai a safe space for everyone,” said Ann 12 13 CROSSING BORDERS

MIGRANT DREAMS

Text & Photos by Leanne Tory-Murphy money to make the journey quickly, Amas, an actor boats against their will. On Amas’s boat, a man from and student who helped his mother with her small busi- Senegal was driving, “They forced him. They said, ‘You PALERMO, Italy — The rescue ship is already there in ness selling telephones, worked in each country along have to take the boat or we kill you.’ He had to do it the early morning. his way, moving from Mali to Burkina Faso and north because he like his life.” So are the police, the Red Cross, the health depart- to Libya, where he worked for eight months to save the They were given phones and directed to call interna- in recent years has been seeking to make common cold.” When it’s not on, the only source is a cis- ment, Doctors Without Borders, Catholic Charities, money for the boat. Before he could leave, he was ar- tional authorities once they were out on the sea. Foday’s cause with Southerners against immigrants. That tern where the water is “putrid” and “not even the International Organization for Migration, Save the rested by immigration authorities and sent to prison. boat was picked up four hours after it left Libya, but he has not gone over well with many Sicilians, who good enough for animals.” As winter neared, Children, the European border patrol agency Frontex, says it was still a harrowing experience. have historically moved to the north to look for they said, they asked for the heat to be turned on the Italian Coast Guard and immigration authorities “We all know how the Mediterranean Sea is. Even in work and were often the target of the party’s ire. during a police check of the building, and were — in uniforms of red, blue, white or orange — milling TORTURED FOR RANSOM MONEY calm waters it isn’t safe,” he says. “It is a boat pumped Dario, a 24-year-old former hairdresser in Pal- told that they “don’t have heating in Africa.” around or walking purposefully or setting up tents. full of air, it can burst any time, it can break anytime, it ermo, says that despite high rates of youth un- Earlier this year, immigrants at a recep- A long line of hearses enters the port and parks in Amas was sent to a prison near Tripoli, Libya’s capital. can capsize anytime… it’s a kind of sacrifi ce, because you employment, he doesn’t believe immigrants are tion center in Palermo blocked the street every a row. It’s the beginning of another day in Sicily, a He estimates about 1,000 people were held there: men, are seeing death coming. You say, ‘Let me go.’ Maybe making the situation worse. month to force the police to come and deal with Mediterranean island that has been a cultural cross- women and children, from Burkina Faso, Mali, Bangla- death will catch me and maybe death won’t catch me.” “Immigrants do what inhabitants here don’t their issues. (The police in Italy are partially roads for millennia. In the last few years, hundreds desh, Ivory Coast, Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria and other On Amas’s boat, the moment they saw a Norwegian want to — cleaning windows of cars, collecting responsible for immigration matters.) After sev- of thousands of African migrants have arrived there, countries. He received water and a small piece of bread rescue ship, everyone started to stand up and yell. Water rubbish, etc.,” he says. “Young people here want eral months of such demonstrations, Amas and hoping to continue on to other destinations through- once a day. “Some people die there, every day you see started to pour in. “Some people are crying ,‘We will to fi nd a good job. They want a good contract Foday say, the immigrants are now collaborat- out a Europe that has become increasingly hostile to people die sick,” he says. He also shows his scars from die, we will die,’” he recounts. “Even me, I was crying. and good working conditions.” The immigrants ing smoothly with the police, and things have the presence of immigrants. being tortured. … In my mind I saw my mother again, I thought ‘I am “are very brave to do what they did,” he adds. started moving much faster. The fi rst person to disembark comes off in a stretcher. “They beat us!” he said. “They, even me, look at my going to die today,’ so I didn’t think my mother was go- He earned 500 euros (about $530) a month “Some people are there for 11 months, and He appears to be dead, but the stretcher rolls down to hand here, they take a knife, look here! Every morning ing to see me again.” when he was a hairdresser working 60 hours a they don’t do anything for them, just eating the line for provisions, not towards the hearses. The next they have to beat us, they take cold water and pour it The rescue ship was able to get them all in time. But week. He blames lawlessness and corruption for and sleeping, not even going to school,” Amas one is in a wheelchair and has a bright white bandage on us. … Every day they have to bring this big pipe, you the U.N. High Commission on Refugees reports that 1 the unemployment crisis. says. “So we close the street. It’s not because we around his head. A few more wheelchairs emerge, then make a queue, beating each one, each one, each one, ev- in 47 migrants die on the central Mediterranean route “Here the owners are strong, because everyone want to fi ght the people, we want to fi ght for our a long procession of barefoot women and children with ery day, they are beating you, every day, yeah, every day.” between Libya and Italy, and that as of late October, breaks the law, so they think that if you don’t rights. We wait for one month, two months, they eyes that won’t look. The fi rst stop on the provision line The prison guards have them call their families while 3,740 had died on all Mediterranean crossings this year. accept the conditions, there will be another one don’t do nothing again. Again we close the street, contains boxes of Croc knockoffs, then they move on to they are being beaten to ask for money. In 2015, almost 4,000 died. who will,” he says. He believes the European again they come. Now they are doing what we water and snacks and waiting. “They say, ‘call your people and let them send money Neither Foday nor Amas know how to swim. Amas Union should do more to help, because immigra- want, there is no problem now. Everything is In a group of fi ve teenage boys, two are from Burkina for you’,” Amas explained. “And what they ask us, we says that when they were rescued, everyone was celebrat- tion affects all of Europe and “Palermo can’t do okay now.” Faso, two from the Gambia, and the fi fth from Soma- can’t pay that. Because what they ask us is too many, ing and “they even played music, so we are dancing in anything, even for its own inhabitants.” lia. One is wearing pants that are too big that keep fall- maybe 2,000 dinar [about $1,400]. Where are we go- the boat.” The rescue ship collected people from several ing down. He has no underwear on and tries to conceal ing to get this money? They tell us, you have to pay this other boats until it reached its capacity of about 1,000 THE FUTURE himself with the orange plastic-covered blanket that money or you die here… . So I don’t even bother myself passengers. It returned to Palermo the next day. DEMANDING THEIR RIGHTS everyone had been given on the ship. Some people fi nd to call my people, because I know they don’t have it. So “I’m waiting to see my life after documents,” Fo- inventive ways to tie the blanket around them in a kind I just bear it there.” In mid-November, a group of migrants living at day says. “If there’s a way for me to do something of shift. Amas and the other prisoners often thought of escape. ARRIVAL several reception centers in the province of Paler- in Italy to earn my living, then I would stay. But if They move through registration: name, date of birth, For weeks they worked on a tunnel through the wall of mo issued an open letter, published on the online I’ve got no job, I would have to look for another nationality, answering those basic questions in a hodge- their cell, using whatever they could fi nd to chip away at Disembarking in Palermo is only the beginning of a news site Live Sicilia, that decried the conditions living.” Both young men hope to be actors and podge of handwriting, languages and accents. the concrete. One day the guard left to buy something, long immigration process. After registering, being fi n- they were enduring, from the long wait for docu- participate regularly in theater programs for mi- and the prisoners broke the cell door. About 75 people gerprinted, and receiving emergency medical assistance, ments to the lack of heat and hot water in the grant youth. DEMANDING RESPECT: A woman holds aloft a picture at a 2011 escaped, and each went their own way “to try to save the new arrivals are sent by bus to “reception centers” centers. “We have left our countries fl eeing from Amas also wants to help other arriving immi- protest in Palermo against police harassment of immigrants. ‘WE HAVE A PRESIDENT THAT IS A their lives.” throughout Italy. suffering, but in this country we have only found grants. “There must be a translator,” he says. “If DICTATOR’ He considers himself one of the lucky ones. Usually There are different centers for unaccompanied mi- it yet again,” it said. Many immigrants who want you can speak the language, then maybe I can the guards shoot anyone who tries to escape. The night nors, single adults, and families. Many young men who to move to other countries in Europe are stuck in translate between the Italian guys and the Afri- REJECTED: Anti-Northern League graffi ti. The historically anti- Foday is a young radio presenter from the Gambia who he got out, he didn’t see anyone until he got into Tripoli. are over 18 will say they are younger because they believe Italy because they have not received their docu- can guys. I want that job also.” southern political party has been trying to soften its image with Sicilians in made this journey about nine months ago. (He asked that the treatment at the youth centers is better. Some ments, it added. “I don’t think a normal human being would recent years in the hopes of uniting Italians against immigrants. that his name be changed because he has a pending asy- who are under 18 might say they are older so they can There is overwhelming frustration with Italian risk your life in the Mediterranean Sea if your lum case.) He describes the “culture of joking” that al- THE CROSSING stay with people they know or because they will have bureaucracy, which many Italian citizens also life is not in danger,” Foday says. “But most lows many different peoples to coexist peacefully in the more freedom to come and go. Very few people carry fi nd extraordinarily diffi cult to navigate. “Many don’t understand this. Africa is hard. If human THINKING OF HOME: A young man performs at the Gambian small West African nation, which is almost entirely sur- Amas went immediately to the house where he had documents during their crossing. people have not even been told what asylum is: rights are observed in Africa like in the U.S. and Assembly held in Palermo the evening before their country’s election. The rounded by Senegal, then talks about President Yahya been living to collect the money he had saved. He did People are not supposed to live in what are called That you may have been persecuted for political Europe, I think migration would be very lim- country has been ruled by dictator Yayha Jammeh for the past 22 years. Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia for 22 years. He says not want to be caught again. But he also says that when “extraordinary reception centers” for more than three or religious reasons, or for being gay, and that ited. But it’s also very important that people can this is why so many Gambians are leaving. looking for a boat, “you shouldn’t rush, you have to take months, but Amas was just recently moved to more each case will be treated with the appropriate migrate, so people can go wherever they want “We have a president that is a dictator,” Foday your time. There are people who, you pay them and they permanent housing. Foday was transferred to a regular attention,” the letter said. “The incredibly slow to go to experience new things, new lands. So I says. “Gambian keeps their mouth shut. Even if you call the police, they catch you and turn you back so they camp, but was then sent back to an extraordinary recep- pace in receiving documents leaves us extremely think it’s a fact that immigration should be, but 2017 January were to name the President, you would have to use can make more money. Some people, if you pay them, tion center. He believes it was in retaliation for his re- worried and unclear about our future. We simply with the right way. The reason people are using another name… but not the actual name, because if you are safe, you can trust them.” peatedly demanding that he receive his documents. The want to know the truth, and for someone to tell the wrong way is because they are left with no they even hear you talking about his name, you can be Both Foday and Amas crossed the Mediterranean in two were reunited at an extraordinary reception center us what’s going on, instead of avoiding us and other choice.” cautioned for that. Many people have been arrested, overcrowded rubber dinghies. Amas traveled on a boat in Palermo in July. always telling us to wait till tomorrow.” January 2017 INDYPENDENT THE

killed, tortured.” meant to hold 125 people. The smuggler had loaded it They are fortunate to be in Palermo. Many of the cen- The waiting period for asylum applications Leanne Tory-Murphy is a freelance reporter In early December, Jammeh conceded that he had lost with 145. ters are in remote areas and have become known for hu- can last up to two years, longer if the request is currently living in Palermo, Sicily, pursuing re- his bid for re-election, but then said he was “annulling They both laugh when asked if the smugglers went man traffi cking and other abuses. Northern Italy is also denied. During it, the migrants cannot legally search on migration issues as a Fulbright scholar. the election.” with them. “No!” Foday says, “They give you a com- signifi cantly more hostile to immigrants than the south. work, travel or fi nd independent housing. Foday’s friend Amas (whose name has also been pass, or sometimes they direct you with a star. They The Northern League, a virulently anti-immigrant and The letter also said that the running water in changed) arrived in Italy separately, also about nine show you how to drive, and you are going to drive to- anti-European political party, has often argued that one of the centers is only turned on for one hour

THE INDYPENDENT months ago. While Foday was able to collect enough wards that star.” The smugglers make migrants drive the Northern Italy should secede from the poorer South, but in the morning and one at night, and is “always 14 META

hOW TO TOppLe A WALL WITh A heARTBeAT

By Nicholas Powers pers by young women who wear hijabs and write about blance of order, even if it is at the price of their freedom straddling two worlds. or well, you know, other people’s freedom. We can see e won with a metaphor.” I pressed my What if a Muslim registry is instituted? What if they that today with the election of Trump.” “ hands against the air as if touching a sur- received a phone call, an email, a letter telling them to I blinked, began to say something and then just looked face. “He won with the image of a wall.” report to a station? Would we be ashamed as they were at him, as if to say what-are-you-talking about? He They looked at me, waiting for words to branded with this public mark? Would we express our smiled and bobbed his head in a happy, goofy way, then strike like a fl int on reality, to spark a regret even as we wonder, who will they come for next? looked curiously at the fl oor, reached down and handed Hfl ash and make everything briefl y visible. These questions circled me as I arrived at my depart- me back my degree. “We’re scared.” I walked to the stage’s edge. The audi- ment. The secretary motioned me over to her desk. “Did ence was sparse but a classic New York crowd. A mix of you see this?” She held out a leafl et. I took it and read everyone. A trio of Indian friends sat behind a Latino fam- on one side a Conservative manifesto. On the other side HUMAN WRITES DAY ily. On the other side, a Caribbean couple cuddled next to in big, bold letters: “Trump has won! America is Great Muslim women. Students sat side by side with tourists. Again! We are watching you, professor!” Walk. Run. Walk. Run. The Nuyorican Café was a block They came to the Nuyorican Café for a poetry slam. Its “He found it on his desk before class.” She lowered her away. Start time for the poetry slam was in a few min- high brick walls and theater lights cast us in an other- voice. “He hasn’t told anyone yet. He’s going to ask the utes. I dashed through the door into a near empty hall. worldly glow, as if we held service in a grungy art temple. dean what to do.” The staff had sheepish smiles, as if to say sorry, no one “A year ago he was a joke,” I said. “But as he rose, “Can I copy it?” I held the leafl et so tight, it nearly showed up. he upended what we took for granted as basic human ripped. She said yes. I took it to the machine, put it on The few people there smiled faintly as they looked for decency. And now this creature from the Black Lagoon the glass screen, watched the light fl ash underneath. a polite way out. I was going to cancel the event when a of Capitalism is our fucking president.” Grunting like a Walking to my offi ce, I turned it over and over in my trio of Indian friends and a Latino family came in. I told movie monster, I reached for the young man in the front hands like the script to a horror movie. I read it slowly, them, “Let’s huddle in the front like around a campfi re.” row. He laughed while ducking my hands. carefully — We are watching you! Did they want a quick poetry workshop, like quick- I stood back up and repeated, “We’re scared.” Lower- quick? They said sure. They were curious about what ing my voice, I reached for the fear coiled in their guts, could happen. I was too. So I told them, I felt lost since to pull it out into open air. “A man who told the na- THE LIBERAL ELITE the election. The world I thought existed, didn’t. And tion, we are criminals, rapists and terrorists has been how did they feel? given the power to destroy us. He was given this power My offi ce is lined with articles, my college degree and “I don’t like this talk of walls,” the Latino father said. by our neighbors. He sold them an image of a wall. A Ph.D. On the shelf are books and class hand-outs. All of “How they don’t let the refugees in.” His daughter looked wall against us.” it useless. All of it like a wall of privilege that left me cut at him as if seeing him for the fi rst time. We were all see- off from the real world. ing something. I walked away from the microphone and “We are the most incompetent, liberal elite ever,” I said, “Our new president. He won with a metaphor. He THE VANISHING GAME said to no one, said to the world, said as if to apologize. won with an image of a wall.” I had taught college for a decade and was used to the In the back, the door opened and latecomers ambled “Are you scared about Trump?” I asked Abdah. He prestige. But I was just a token minority in the academy, in. It was a group of young men, stylish hair, stylish smirked, put my coffee and egg roll in a bag, then who jumped at the chance for status and security. Now I clothes, who looked around at the hushed crowd and stopped to think. The bodega bell rang, neighbors came felt stupid, empty and small. then at me, weirded out by the intensity. in, waved hi. Everyone knew Abdah and the Yemeni crew “Liberal comedians could not stop Trump,” I plucked “We’re in a group therapy session,” I said. People in who worked the store. But did they care that he could be the degree off the wall and threw it. the rows laughed. “We’re talking about walls. You have deported? Or put on a Muslim registry? “Liberal journalists could not stop Trump,” I ripped any walls you want to break down?” I rubbed my chest. “I don’t think about him much,” he shrugged. “I know an article off the wall and tossed it. “In here, bro, in here.” I should but … politics … it’s another world. I just am “Liberal professors. . .” I heard a knock on the door. He smiled, shook his head. “I like my walls.” Everyone here.” He tapped the counter. “I work, go home, sleep, It was Vick, my student advisee doing his thesis on Or- laughed hard. maybe girlfriend, come to work, go home, sleep.” well’s novel 1984. “Yes we do,” I teased. “I have mine. I have my ideolo- “The Muslim registry?” I asked. “Deportation?” “Oh, I thought you were talking to someone.” gy. It’s like a religion for me. It protects me. I don’t know He shook his head and looked from my questions to “Just myself.” what it’s like to live without politics. It’s a good wall that the next customer. I said goodbye and walked to the “Must’ve been an intelligent conversation,” he said became bad because I’m beginning to hate people I’ve train station. If another terrorist attack happens, will a with a smile. He had shaggy hair, a long nose and deep never met because of who they voted for.” roundup begin? How deadly will Trump’s scapegoating perceptive eyes. He’d drop random Bill Maher lines in I waited a second, wondering how I could put all this become? Who will disappear from our lives? Will it be class and the other students would turn and look around back in. “Who knows someone who could get deported?” my neighbors? Will it be my students or friends? as if to say what-are-you-talking-about? We went over I asked. Nearly, half of the crowd raised their hands. Since the election, I think about the undocumented his thesis draft. I told him it was heavy on political anal- “Okay,” I blew out a long sigh. “Who knows some- workers in my life. I know their names. I trade jokes with ysis. I asked how 1984 fi t with dystopian literature, how one who’s Muslim?” More raised their hands. The door them in the morning. I see them wake up early for work. it repeated or revised the genre’s tropes. opened and again more people came in. I waved them I ask them for coffee and breakfast. I get out of their way “The elimination of critical thinking by eliminating over to the empty seats up front. as they haul concrete into construction sites, working language is one,” he said. “To force the human into a I made a stacking motion with my hands. “America themselves raw for a dream. cog role in the social machine. But the other theme is was told it needed a wall to keep itself safe. So let’s write I imagine ICE teams showing up to handcuff the men, romance, how people can express themselves outside the a poem about walls. They are a consistent theme in art January 2017

faces tight with rage and shame and fear. How would we rule of the one party state. Expression is how the self from the wall of Troy in the Iliad to Pink Floyd’s The feel as the police arrested them? Would we silently won- grows and when they express their love for each other, Wall. They play one of two roles. A good one, keeps der, who will they come for next? they grow beyond the party’s control. My main critique what’s sacred safe. It protects the family, keeps the rag- I think about the Muslims in my life. I say hi to the is that Orwell doesn’t balance it out with the party’s ap- ing fl ood at bay. A bad one imprisons us, blocks us from North African men spilling out of the mosque on Bed- peal. Like why would anyone vote for, join or support a doing something or becoming someone.” ford and Fulton. I banter with Muhammad at the inter- techno-fascist state? My thesis is that when people are More people came in and I pointed at empty seats. “So

The IndypendenT net café as he prints my poems. I teach and read the pa- scared, they turn to anyone who can offer them a sem- write about what are the walls, good and bad in your 15 PHOENIX RISING 20 17 at STARR BAR 214 Starr Street, BK

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life.” They pulled out notepads, opening them like a chain of dominoes through their laps.

The two Muslim women fi nished. I pointed to them and the one BRIAN PONTO who wore the hijab touched it and said, “This is a good wall. I feel protected by it. Even when people stare, it protects me.” Her friend looked around and touched her cheek. “My makeup is a January 7 good wall. I don’t want people to see me without it.” The Caribbean lady, who sat with her boyfriend, leaned over to Reggie Harris high-fi ve, mouthing, “Neither do I.” Pat Wictor Her boyfriend said, “My bad wall is my self-image. It blocks me, I think, from being more, from growing … I don’t know what I’m say- ing.” His girlfriend put her arm around him. I let him know it was okay and pointed to the Indian man in the back. “When I go home,” January 14 he said, “I like that my language is my wall, I feel good inside it. But Windborne when I am outside of it, I speak outside myself, if that makes sense.” More people came in and felt the intense openness and quietly sat Robin Greenstein down. One after the other, the workshop group talked about the walls they needed, the walls they hated, the walls they were given as children and that seemed to grow up with them, always too high to scale. Their voices shone in the air. January 21 The girl who wore the hijab asked to read her poem. I invited her to Closed for demonstrations in Washington, D.C. the stage. She faced the audience, now a fully packed hall, mesmerized by the alchemy of art. She touched her hijab and looked at me. “It’s & other cities. about … how a good wall can become bad.”

Saturdays at 8 p.m. 2017 January Community Church of New York Unitarian-Universalist 40 E. 35th St. (Madison/Park) New York, NY 10016 The IndypendenT The doors open 7:30; wheelchair accessible 212-787-3903 www.peoplesvoicecafe.org Suggested Donation: $18, $10 PVC subscribers More if you choose; less if you can’t; no one turned away 16 REVOLUTION

¡FIdeL CASTRO, pReSenTe!

By Steven Wishnia gangsters in Jamaica in the late 1970s, and armed rebels tion had mixed results. Cuban science-fi ction writer GABRIELLA SZPUNT in Nicaragua in the 1980s. The overthrow of Guate- Yoss, speaking in Brooklyn last September, noted that mourn Fidel Castro because the Cuban revolution mala’s left-liberal government imposed more than three one of his novels, a thinly disguised allegory about the he led demonstrated that people could overthrow decades of military rule in which more than 200,000 sleazy effects of Havana’s reliance on the tourist trade the tyranny of the rich, even in a small country people were slaughtered. The coup against Chilean called A Planet for Rent, has never been published in dominated by a much more powerful one. democratic socialist Salvador Allende imposed a dicta- his country. The censors, Yoss said, were smarter than I mourn Fidel Castro, who died on Nov. 25 at torship that massacred several thousand people in its he thought. theI age of 90, despite the authoritarian side of his al- fi rst month, including Victor Jara, the singer-songwriter On the other hand, the EGREM national record la- most 50 years as Cuban leader after the revolution of who was Latin America’s parallel to Bob Dylan. bel put out hundreds of records, including the acous- 1959. He imprisoned numerous political dissidents, as “Nos imponen militares para sojuzgar los pueblos, tic “nueva trova” of Silvio Rodriguez, the Latin jazz well as gay men in the 1960s and 1970s before the laws dictadores, asesinos, gorilas, y generales,” Jara sang in of Irakere, and the African-infl ected dance grooves of liberalized. Writers were censored. memory of Che Guevara. They imposed the military Pello El Afrokan. The sad paradox of revolution is that the harsher on us to subjugate the people; dictators, murderers, A less hardline Cuba might have wound up resem- the struggle, the more hardline the government that thugs, and generals. But the Cuban revolution followed bling South Africa, where Nelson Mandela, seeking to emerges is likely to be. Castro’s authoritarian side has the path of “liberar a nuestro pueblo del dominio ex- avoid the middle-class fl ight and capitalist-world hostil- to be kept in context: Cuba was the only leftist govern- plotador.” Liberating our people from the dominion of ity that plagued Cuba after it expropriated plantations ment in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 20th the exploiter. and U.S.-owned businesses, avoided major wealth re- century that was not violently overthrown by the Unit- The revolution transformed a racially segregated distribution. Apartheid is gone, but South Africa is one ed States for daring to defy the dominion of the dollar. society where, despite one of the most solid middle of the most unequal societies in the world, with some That wasn’t for lack of trying. Aside from the 1961 classes in Latin America, fi ve-sixths of the people lived people enjoying European-level living standards while Bay of Pigs invasion and the CIA’s repeated attempts without running water or electricity and up to 40 per- half try to survive on less than $4 a day. to assassinate Castro through means like trying to slip cent were illiterate. Despite Cuba’s relative poverty, its Donald Trump’s triumph will likely make the United him poisoned cigars, the U.S. government also backed a average life expectancy, less than 60 years in 1959, is States even more ruthlessly ruled by the Mammonite terrorist campaign that murdered more than 40 student now on a par with the United States, and a higher per- gods of venal crony capitalism and wrathful free-mar- teachers in Cuba’s countryside. The reason Che Guevara centage of U.S. children die before they turn 5. Just ket fundamentalism. I mourn Fidel Castro because he looks so angry in the photograph seen on millions of T- before I visited Ecuador in 1988, my relatives’ neigh- was one of the world’s most enduring fi gures who con- shirts is that it was taken at the memorial for the more bors’ 3-year-old daughter was critically burned. If the sistently resisted the dominion of the dollar. Because he than 70 people killed when a French freighter exploded little girl had lived long enough to make the fl ight, her was the last remaining revolutionary leader from an era in Havana harbor in 1960, believed to be sabotage. parents would have sent her to Cuba: It had the best in which millions of people dreamed a different kind of Castro’s revolutionary regime survived when all of burn unit in Latin America. society was possible. the region’s elected democratic-socialist and left-liberal Cuba has also moved to develop green energy and ag- governments were deposed. The U.S. backed military riculture, with nearly 10,000 working windmills and a coups in Guatemala in 1954, Brazil in 1964, Chile in dramatic increase in organic farming since the end of 1973, and Haiti in 1991; invaded the Dominican Re- Soviet aid in 1991. public in 1965 and Grenada in 1983; funneled guns to Government control of the means of cultural produc-

for “all of the parties involved … to fi nd a tendency to see protest as an end in itself, and gas exploration. While the land held STAndInG ROCK path forward that serves the broadest public rather than a means of achieving power. by the Bureau of Indian Affairs amounts to Continued from page 5 interest.” It was a statement that signifi ed A lack of organization rendered Occupy just 2 percent of the U.S., it contains one- nothing. Now, as she put it in her concession Wall Street incapable of sustaining itself fi fth of the nation’s estimated oil reserves, don’t want anyone to forget. But they realize speech, Clinton is keeping “an open mind” against repression, notes Nancy Romer: an amount valued at $1.5 trillion. Further- if you carry animosity in your heart, it eats about a Trump presidency. Likewise, Presi- “There would be 10-hour meetings that more, Trump has vowed to put the Dakota you up. We have to do what’s necessary even dent Barack Obama, in his own words, is didn’t serve anyone except people who could Access Pipeline back on the path to comple- if it’s at the cost of our lives, but we don’t “rooting” for Trump. sit for 10-hour meetings.” tion once he’s in offi ce. need to do it with hatred. What politicians greasing the levers for At Standing Rock, by contrast, all activi- It will take a Standing Rock nation to “We’re fueled by love, compassion, com- a smooth transition of power miss is that ties were oriented toward achieving the pro- hold him back. munity. We’re not going to win this battle Trump is not just another politician. When tectors’ political goals. “The camps were intellectually. We’re going to win it on we talk about Trump, we’re discussing a highly structured,” Romer says. “There heart-power.” man who incites racism and xeno phobia were very clear orders when you entered for political gain; who surrounds himself the camps. Security told you, ‘No drugs, with segregationists, Nazi sympathizers, no alcohol, no violence.’” Infi ltrators were HOW LOVE ACTUALLY TRUMPS HATE climate deniers and vulture capitalists; a surrounded by security and forced to leave man who, in one month, will be the most the camp. Remember “love trumps hate”? The slogan powerful person in the most powerful Amid the constant threat of state violence, made its rounds during the Democratic Na- country in the world. clear leadership on the part of tribal elders tional Convention in Philadelphia last sum- Conversely, we’re also talking about the helped maintain discipline and decorum — mer, popping up on placards as if strategi- complete failure of American liberalism to two more values the left must reclaim from cally placed there so that Hillary Clinton offer an inspiring alternative to Trumpism. the right to steel itself for the days ahead. could use it in her acceptance speech and As our political leaders falter, the left’s Short-lived autonomous zones aren’t going January 2017

echo the masses. Trump supporters cyni- ability to muster strength from outside the to be enough against the multiple threats of cally folded the signs to read “love trump.” corridors of power will become more im- Trumpism. Shortly after the Army Corps of Love, after all, is a four-letter word. Actions portant than ever. Movements long siloed Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners give it substance. — feminism, Black Lives Matter, immi- permission to transgress on Sioux grounds, In October, when tribal leaders sent Clin- grant rights, climate justice — are converg- members of Trump’s “Native American Af- ton a letter urging her to speak out against ing, rightly seeing in Trump a threat to their fairs Coalition” announced plans to priva-

The IndypendenT the violence at Standing Rock, she called very existence. And yet we must avoid the tize 56 million acres of Native lands for oil 17 January 2017 January The Indypenden The T 18 FOOD

The RAdICAL ACT OF COOKInG

By Peter Rugh bellied, long-faced man you’ve spied through the win- many Irish-Americans of a bygone era, ham and cab- dows of a McDonald’s at 11 p.m., working an apple pie bage are among the recipes my mom mastered. Much here are few things I fi nd sadder than into his mouth through a single-serve box. of what she fed us she picked up either from her mother watching someone eat fast food alone. It’s I’m not sure whether it’s a family that prays or one or the copy of the Joy of Cooking she received as a a lonesome, melancholy sight. Don’t get that eats together that stays together. My mom used wedding present three-and-a-half decades ago that me wrong; I too have been that sorry SOB both expressions interchangeably. Growing up, my still sits, stained and tattered, on top of her refrigera- on the Q train, chomping a greasy slice folks always tried to make sure we were all seated at tor. My dad specializes in steak. He also bakes bread. Tof pizza under the Transit Authority poster reminding the same table in the evening. My parents shared the kitchen labor as best they riders they’re not in a dining car. I’ve been that soft- Shrimp scampi, stuffed peppers, apple pie and, like could, with my little sister and me begrudgingly

RECIPES FOR RADICALS add vegetable stock and let simmer until vegeta- 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg FILLING bles are tender. Add more stock to thin or cook 1 teaspoon ground cloves SUNCHOKE STEW longer to reduce to desired thickness. Serve with . INGREDIENTS: Brewing up a pot of sunchoke stew is one way to noodles, rice, or crusty bread and butter! STEPS: 2 ½ cups milk honor of the original inhabitants of the North- Add rum as desired or not at all 1 cup sugar eastern United States. Sunchokes, also known — FRANK CETERA Blend for 3-5 minutes, chill in the refrigerator 8 tbsp all-purpose fl our as Jerusalem Artichoke, are perennial plants na- and serve. 3 egg yolks (save whites for the tive to this region. They rise six to eight feet into Frank Cetera lives in Syracuse, New York where — BEATRIZ BECKFORD meringue) the air, with bright yellow fl owers at the ends of he is active in Green Party politics, the Commu- 2 slightly rounded tbsp of unsweet- their stems and an edible tuber that grows in the nity Development Credit Union and permacul- Beatriz Beckford is a radical momma, a cam- ened cocoa powder earth. Sunchokes were a staple of Native Ameri- ture landscaping the city. Frank's a foodie with a paign director at MomsRising and founder of the 1 tsp vanilla can tribes before the introduction of the potato. love for cooking at home using ingredients from National Black Food & Justice Alliance. Learn salt The tubers possess a luscious creamy-yet-fi rm the backyard garden at Bitternut Homestead more at BlackFoodJustice.org. texture when cooked, with an added nutty Collective on Otisco Street. STEPS: undertone. My favorite way to prepare them is Bring 2 cups of milk to just short of a boil in a "no-beef beef stew" in which the sunchokes While milk is scalding combine sugar, fl our, re- replace the beef medallions. It’s perfect for the MY ABUELA’S COQUITO maining milk, egg yolks, cocoa and a dash of salt holiday season. Plus, it doesn't hurt that this is a I make this recipe every year around the CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE Add mixture to a double boiler* one-pot meal. holidays. It’s my version of the coquito (Puerto My mom learned to make this pie when she was Add scalded milk Rican eggnog) my abuela makes. My abuela a girl. She taught my sisters and me to make Cook in double boiler until mixture reaches a INGREDIENTS: is the woman who politicized me early on. Not it when we were kids. Every year on the night pudding like consistency 1 pound sunchokes, scrubbed clean because she knew of Franz Fanon or Ella Baker, before Christmas, our family has "Pie Night" Stir in vanilla and chopped into one inch morsels she doesn't, but because she knew her name, and everyone staffs a station in the pie-making Pour into pre-baked pie crust 1 onion, chopped shared her struggle and built a life based on love process. This one has three basic steps: crust, 8 garlic cloves, roughly diced and self-determination. She survived devastating fi lling, and a meringue for the top. *Note: If you don’t have a double-boiler around 1 cup each of chopped celery, carrot, emotional and physical violence at the hands the house you can jury-rig one by placing a metal mushroom of an alcoholic who forced her to fl ee with her PIE CRUST mixing bowl just above water simmering in a 2 tbsp dried herbs — sage, thyme, children from Puerto Rico to the United States. saucepan. parsley, rosemary, oregano or a She had nothing and built everything. She taught INGREDIENTS: combination me to survive. She taught me to love myself and 1 cup all-purpose fl our MERINGUE TOPPING 1 bay leaf to love and see others. She affi rmed that doing ½ tsp salt 1 tbsp paprika so authentically, even when it was hard, would 1 tbsp sugar INGREDIENTS: 1 ¼ tsp nutmeg give me strength. That it affi rms our power. She /3 cup shortening Remaining egg whites ¼ cup cooking wine or red wine taught me there are people who would try to water 6 tbsp sugar vinegar take that power and that I would have to fi ght to ¼ cup tomato paste maintain it. She loved my brown skin and also STEPS: STEPS: understood the struggles it would bring. She Preheat oven to 425° Beat egg whites until thick (you should be able to 1 2/3 cups vegetable stock cooking oil prepared me for it with love. Her name is Rita, my Blend fl our, salt and sugar form "peaks") Salt and pepper to taste abuela, and I love her eternally. Blend in shortening Add sugar and beat again until mixture stands on My memories of my abuela's coquito are dear When very crumbly, add 2 tbsp. of water its own and has a glossy shine STEPS: to me. In the same way it gave her a piece of her Knead the mixture with your hands, and shape Spread meringue over pie, out to the crust Bring a few tablespoons cooking oil to medium beloved Puerto Rico, it gives me a piece of the into a disc Using a spoon, form decorative “peaks” in the heat in a heavy soup pot. Add onion, garlic, herbs love and support she had always given me. Roll out to an even thickness, a few inches larger meringue and bay leaf. When the onions are transparent, than a basic 9’’ x 1-¼” pie pan Place in oven for 8 minutes or until meringue is add sunchokes and other vegetables. Season INGREDIENTS: Place into pan and fl ute edges slightly browned the whole mixture with paprika and nutmeg. Add 2 cans coconut cream or, for a lighter Use a fork to poke holes in the crust, so it does — MOLLY KIICK salt and pepper to your taste. Sauté for a few version, coconut milk not bubble while baking minutes longer. 1 can sweetened condensed milk Bake for 12-15 minutes and let rest Molly Kiick grew up on a farm in Austin Town- Turn the heat up to high. Add wine and bring it 1 can evaporated milk Turn oven to 375° for browning the meringue later ship, Ill., and now lives in Brooklyn. Her proudest to a boil to deglaze the bottom of the pot. Reduce 1 teaspoon vanilla extract achievements are winning $300 in a dance heat back to medium. Add tomato paste and fl our 1 to 2 cups white rum contest and parallel parking a U-Haul truck. and simmer a few more minutes to thicken. Next 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon January 2017

The IndypendenT FRANK CETERA BEATRIZ BECKFORD MOLLY KIICK 19 SOME PLACESThe YOU CAN FINDIndypendenT

BELOW PICTURE THE HOMELESS KAISA’S CAFÉ 14TH ST 104 E 126TH ST. 146 BEDFORD AVE. MAYSLES CINEMA BEDFORD LIBRARY SEWARD PARK LIBRARY 343 LENOX AVE. 496 FRANKLIN AVE. 192 EAST BROADWAY COUNTEE CULLEN LIBRARY CROWN HEIGHTS LIBRARY HAMILTON FISH LIBRARY 104 W. 136TH ST. 560 NEW YORK AVE. @ 415 E. HOUSTON ST. MAPLE HAMILTON GRANGE lending a hand. I don’t want to give protein and we put it in everything. LES PEOPLE’S FEDERAL the impression that either were mas- Canned food wasn’t looked down LIBRARY FLATBUSH LIBRARY CREDIT UNION 503 W. 145TH ST. 22 LINDEN BLVD. @ ter home cooks, making every meal upon. Rather it was considered a mir- 39 AVENUE B FLATBUSH from scratch. The smell of Old El acle of modern science. HAMILTON’S BAKERY TOMPKINS SQUARE 3570 BROADWAY TUGBOAT TEA COMPANY Paso brand taco seasoning and those In the Atomic Age, our meals high- LIBRARY crunchy corn shells heating in the lighted our mastery over nature. We 546 FLATBUSH AVE. 331 E. 10TH ST. THE CHIPPED CUP oven still makes my stomach growl were fond of trapping our meat in 3610 BROADWAY OUTPOST CAFE with sentimental hunger. gelatin. “Jellied Chicken Salad,” for in- KEY FOOD 1014 FULTON ST. 52 AVENUE A As much as I envied friends whose stance, was a “men’s favorite,” accord- UPTOWN SISTER’S BOOKS parents allowed them to eat micro- ing to a recipe card from Betty Crocker, W. 156TH ST. & RED HOOK LIBRARY BLUESTOCKINGS AMSTERDAM 7 WOLCOTT ST. wave ramen in front of the television, circa 1971. We went on a tear for din- 172 ALLEN ST. I now understand that those meals we ner and dessert blends too. “Chicken FORT WASHINGTON HOPE & ANCHOR THEATER FOR THE NEW LIBRARY 347 VAN BRUNT shared were crucial in helping us tough Liver Mousse” with cognac and hard- CITY it through the hardships that came our boiled egg, “Prune and Marshmallow 535 W. 179TH ST. 155 FIRST AVE. JALOPY CAFÉ way from beyond the dining table. If I Coupes” — exotic dishes that empha- 317 COLUMBIA ST. was suspended from school or my dad sized American ingenuity over the drab MCNALLY JACKSON BOOKS 52 PRINCE ST. lost his job or we were in the midst of cuisine of Soviet Russia. BROOKLYN ALIGN BROOKLYN packing our bags to move to another “There is nothing in this world more 579 5TH AVE. 4TH STREET CO-OP BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL city, pausing, having a conversation political than food,” as Anthony Bour- 58 E. 4TH ST. 209 JORALEMON ST. DUNWELL DONUTS and sharing sustenance kept us both dain is fond of pointing out, “what 222 MONTROSE AVE. sane and together as a family, which people are eating and what they are THINK COFFEE BROOKLYN LIBRARY 248 MERCER ST. amounted to the same thing. not eating.” Or even more to the point, 1044 EASTERN PKWY. COBRA CLUB 6 WYCKOFF The dinners we each contributed “Who is eating and who is not.” FILM FORUM BROOKLYN COMMONS to were the most rewarding. I learned “Food is the fi rst thing, morals fol- 209 W. HOUSTON ST. 388 ATLANTIC AVE. STARR BAR meals can be a labor of love, cooked low on,” as Bertolt Brecht put it. 214 STARR ST. HUDSON PARK LIBRARY collaboratively and shared equally; Those of us fortunate enough to TIMES PLAZA POST OFFICE 66 LEROY ST. 542 ATLANTIC AVE. that mashed potatoes taste best when have access to food can put our morals those Idaho spuds are salted with a where our mouths are. We can support CINEMA VILLAGE BROOKLYN HEIGHTS QUEENS couple drops of sweat. local, sustainable farms and fi sheries. 22 E. 12TH ST. LIBRARY These days my parents are divorced Sure it can sometimes be a little bit 280 CADMAN PLAZA WEST COURT SQUARE DINER LGBT CENTER 45-30 23RD ST. but all of us still get together over the costlier than eating fl avorless Monsan- 208 W. 13TH ST. CARROLL GARDENS winter holidays and for a few days dur- to grub, but maybe we can try eating a LIBRARY COURT SQUARE LIBRARY ing the summer. We argue. We grate on little less in return for ingredients that 396 CLINTON ST. @ UNION 2501 JACKSON AVE. each other's nerves. We eat in peace. are healthier and tastier. Most impor- 14TH TO COUSIN JOHN’S PIZZA LONG ISLAND CITY Today in our busy-busy lives, cooking tant, we can cook with and share with 96TH ST 70 7TH AVE. LIBRARY and eating with others is a radical act. others. The fl avors on our tongues will KEY FOODS 37-44 21ST ST. “Satisfy your craving for zero human act as a balm against alienation. EPIPHANY LIBRARY 130 7TH AVE. contact,” read ads for the restaurant A cousin of mine is an executive chef 228 E. 23RD ST. QUEENS DIVERSITY CENTER COMMUNITY BOOK STORE 76-11 37TH AVE. SUITE 206 delivery service Seamless, attempting renowned for his scallops. I asked him MUHLENBERG LIBRARY 143 7TH AVE. to appeal to the cynical side of New once what makes his so special. “Noth- SYD WACHS/ UNSPLASH 209 W. 23RD ST. JACKSON HEIGHTS Yorkers. “Cook when you’re dead or ing,” he said. “I just fry ’em.” For $10 PACIFIC STREET LIBRARY LIBRARY living in Westchester,” reads another. you can purchase a pound of scallops GRISTEDES 25 FOURTH AVE. 35-51 81ST ST. 307 W. 26TH ST. As Matt Phillips reported in Quartz fresh from Montauk. Fry them in but- BROOKLYN WORKS@159 in June, Americans are spending more ter with a little thyme for about four TACO BANDITO 159 20TH ST. money annually dining out, $54.857 minutes on each side and you and a 325 8TH AVE. BRONX billion, than they are at grocery stores, loved one can share a meal that would SUNSET PARK LIBRARY MOTT HAVEN LIBRARY $52.503 billion. Ironically, television cost $40 a head — if you are lucky —in COLUMBUS LIBRARY 4TH AVE. @ 51ST ST. 942 TENTH AVE. 321 E. 140TH ST. is awash with cooking programs. The one of Manhattan’s fi ne dining estab- CONNECTICUT MUFFIN Food Network and the Cooking Chan- lishments. My point is, some of the best MANHATTAN 429 MYRTLE AVE. BROOK PARK nel have stretched the culinary arts to food is often simple and you deserve it. NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK E 140TH ST. @ BROOK the limits of absurdity, serving up a Why should the rich be the only ones 537 W. 59TH ST. DEKALB LIBRARY 790 BUSHWICK AVE. HUNT’S POINT LIBRARY 24-hour barrage of competitions where who eat well? ST. AGNES LIBRARY 877 SOUTHERN BLVD. judges force participants to prepare Here at The Indy, we’re going to con- 444 AMSTERDAM AVE. MAYDAY SPACE three-course meals with ingredients tinue to cover struggles for communi- 176 ST. NICHOLAS AVE. THE POINT 940 GARRISON AVE. like candy corn. ties to have access to healthy food, for 96TH ST. LIBRARY 112 E. 96TH ST. WYCKOFF STARR COFFEE Not that there aren’t thought pro- farm workers to achieve justice, for a SHOP HIGH BRIDGE LIBRARY voking food programs out there, but healthy environment and economic 30 WYCKOFF AVE. 78 W. 168TH ST. it’s one of the great contradictions equality; in short, all the politics that ABOVE LATINO PASTORAL ACTION of our time that we are fl ooded with revolve around our plates. But we also BUSHWICK LIBRARY 96TH ST. . 340 BUSHWICK AVE. @ CENTER food entertainment even as we cook want to write about food itself, as a SIEGAL 14 W. 170TH ST. less and less. corporal extension of our politics. I SAVOY BAKERY Ingredients too are hyper-fetishized. would be wary of activists who don’t 170 E. 110TH ST. SWALLOW CAFÉ NEW SETTLEMENT 49 BOGART ST. COMMUNITY CENTER Boutique grocery stores aren’t just care much for a good meal if I were MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS 1501 JEROME AVE. for Manhattanites anymore. Most of you. Same as I’d be wary of activists LIBRARY LITTLE SKIPS 2017 January the cornfi elds where my family lives who don’t care much for literature or BROADWAY AND 114TH ST. 941 WILLOUGHBY AVE. in Northwestern Illinois have been sex. It’s a sign they don’t care much for 115TH ST. LIBRARY WANT TO HELP 203 W. 115TH replaced by big box stores, but there life, and that’s what we’re fi ghting for. METRO COMMUNITY DISTRIBUTE THE INDY? LAUNDROMAT CALL 212-904-1282 OR are at least two Whole Foods markets HARLEM LIBRARY 561 METROPOLITAN AVE. within a 20-minute drive that offer 9 W. 124TH ST. EMAIL CONTACT@ IndypendenT The exotic items like fl ax milk and vegan WILLIAMSBURG LIBRARY INDYPENDENT.ORG. 125 STREET LIBRARY 240 DIVISION AVE. sugar — yuck! 224 E. 125TH ST. During the Great Depression, eat- GREENPOINT LIBRARY ing for many Americans wasn’t so GEORGE BRUCE LIBRARY 107 NORMAN AVE. much about taste as it was vitamins. 518 W. 125TH ST. Milk was thought to be a super- 20 EXHIBITION

RAInBOW’S GRAVITy

Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York Museum of the City of New York Through February 26 love was created by four queer men, an important relic has never before gotten

Suggested admission: $14 Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, the attention it deserves. It would have been ©THE CECIL BEATON STUDIO ARCHIVE AT SOTHEBY’S Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sond- nice to know the subjects of these pictures, heim. Yes, it was based on Romeo but maybe that is lost to history. By Gena Hymowech and Juliet, but there are other inter- Gay Gotham is showing at an interest- pretations that can be made. ing — some would say terrible — time for ay Gotham, the new ret- The exhibit also examines theater, with queer culture. In the last couple of years, rospective at the Museum clips from Tony Kushner’s Angels in Amer- there has been a loss of important, purely of the City of New York, ica and Voyage to Lesbos by The Five Les- queer spaces and publications — lesbian provides a good overview bian Brothers, featuring a pre-Fun Home bars Cattyshack in Brooklyn and Meow of queer art in the last cen- Lisa Kron. The Lesbos clip, about a gay Mix in the East Village; the websites Gtury, but is far from comprehensive. Let’s woman marrying a guy to be “cured” of AfterEllen (which I wrote for), Techno- not assign complete blame to the museum, homosexuality, is a loving kiss-off to the Dyke and PrideParenting (which I was an however. Obviously, there isn’t enough 1960s, while Angels is one of the best ex- editor for); bookstores A Different Light room for everyone, or everyone who mat- amples of AIDS art ever, though the clip and Oscar Wilde Books; and print mags ters. But certain omissions are galling. chosen could be confusing to those unfa- Girlfriends, On Our Backs, HX, HX for Keith Haring and Nan Goldin, so much miliar with the work. Her and The New York Blade. a part of the queer 1980s New York art The museum features helpful guides to One might conclude that if queer spac- scene, are barely included. Robert Raush- places and neighborhoods. Something that es and publications are not succeeding it enberg and Jasper Johns, legendary artists might surprise the viewer is that Green- might simply mean they are not needed, who were also romantic partners, do not wich Village’s Julius bar was not always a but I believe we will always want to com- get their own spaces. Meanwhile, Har- gay bar, and in 1966 there was actually a municate with each other, to see ourselves mony Hammond, an artist whose work is “sip-in” to gain the right for queer people refl ected, to have spaces that are only ours,

far less important and far less interesting to be served. Another revelation, because to take part in connections that will in- MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, GIFT OF CARLPERMISSION VAN VECHTEN, OF THE 63.4.9. VAN VECHTEN USED TRUST. WITH (lesbians represented by ovals, anyone?), so much of queer history is whitewashed, is form our art. “Gay Gotham” shows not gets a wall. the role Harlem played: The Gumby Book only how important these kinds of spaces I could go on. A queer theater compila- Studio was a vital destination; lesbian once were, but why they must be preserved tion without the two Charleses (Ludlam Gladys Bentley a well-known star. for future generations at any cost. and Busch)? Without The Normal Heart, You would not expect to fi nd queer- A Chorus Line, The Boys in the Band? A ness in a 1932 movie, but Call Her Savage clip from the PBS reality show An Ameri- slipped some shout-outs in there, with talk can Family is delightful to look at — Lance of Greenwich Village and a scene with two Loud being a joy to behold forever and ever pansies, characters that epitomized effemi- — but is essentially one big tease, cutting nacy. Vito Russo called the scene “pos- off before we get to see Vain Victory, fea- sibly the fi rst representation of a gay bar turing Warhol superstars Jackie Curtis and in a commercial American fi lm.” There’s Candy Darling. also Harry Rose singing about frankfurter And then there is the exhibition’s title. sandwiches, so interpret that as you will. Whoever came up with it has forgotten George Platt Lynes’ work, especially that there are a couple of other letters in John Leaphart and R.X. McCarthy #375, LGBTQ besides G. his 1952 photo of a nude black man pos- Not to say the exhibit isn’t worth see- ing erotically with a nude white man, is the ing. It’s entertaining, highlights criminally very defi nition of groundbreaking. Greer underrated artists and showcases amazing Lankton is probably better known, though power couples, like Bill T. Jones and Arnie also a cult fi gure. The trans artist suc- Zane, Greer Lankton and Paul Monroe, cumbed to an overdose, but not before cre-

Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, and Rob- ating dolls of Andy Warhol and Vogue edi- Andy Warhol and Candy Darling, MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, GIFT OF CARLPERMISSION VAN VECHTEN, OF THE 42.316.231. VAN VECHTEN TRUST. USED WITH ert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff. tor Diana Vreeland. Lankton’s recreation New York, photo by Cecil Beaton There was no LinkedIn, OkCupid or of Warhol can be read as either a tribute or Patreon back then — artists created their a joke, seeing as how he is sitting on top of January 2017 own communities and romantic pairings a pile of money. Alvin Ailey, photo by Carl Van without the internet, in a time when their As you enter the exhibition, you are Vechten very existence was frowned upon by the greeted with Max Ewing’s Gallery of Ex- majority. Many likely don’t understand traordinary Portraits. A 1928 precursor to how much of mainstream culture was made Instagram, the installation features pictures Anna May Wong, photo by Carl by these outsiders. West Side Story is but of his friends and celebrities in a facsimile Van Vechten

The IndypendenT one example. That tribute to heterosexual of a walk-in closet. I am shocked that such 21 FILM

ShInInG neW LIGhT On BLACK

MASCULInITy overwhelm an audience through specta- the only thing that’s

cle, a play must often convey its meaning gotten worse. His dif- PERSONAL DAVID BORNFRIEND/A24/PLAN B ENTERTAINMENT Moonlight and power through an economy of lan- ference is more evident JOURNEY: Directed by Barry Jenkins guage and gesture. The pause can be as now. To the alpha boys Mahershala 111 Minutes, Rated R important as the word. Structure is all. at his high school he is Ali and Alex Theaters Citywide The best plays frequently have the feel a sissifi ed “faggot,” for R. Hibbert in of music or poetry, and as one watches which he is mercilessly Moonlight. this masterpiece unfold, at times it feels bullied. He is sullen By Mark Read like listening to a symphony or a deeply and withdrawn within a world that is soulful jazz concert. Jenkins’ fi lm adap- hostile to his very existence. His only arry Jenkins is certainly not tation loses none of the play’s musical, friend is Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), who the fi rst fi lmmaker to take poetic or theatrical qualities, and adds has adjusted into his own social role — on the subjects of urban to them the intimacy and visual refi ne- the jokester/clown — more easily than poverty, drug violence and ment of the fi nest fi lmmaking. Chiron. Their intimate encounter in the black masculinity. There is The drama unfolds in three acts, fol- fi lm is treated in much the same way as bluestockings radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe aB long and illustrious history of fi lms lowing the characters of Chiron and other important moments: unsentimen- 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 that have examined the bleak reali- his friend Kevin as they grow up, grow tal and emotionally true. The ensuing bluestockings.com ties of life under the humiliating and apart, then come back together again. betrayal and Chiron’s violent response, emasculating condition of multi-gener- Each act is strong enough to stand on its which lands him in prison, is the central ational poverty, of black lives cut short own as a short fi lm, but in combination, tragedy of the fi lm. or permanently scarred by unending they form a powerful and unsentimen- The consequences of Chiron’s ado- cycles of gang violence, of the stub- tal story about masculinity, sexuality, lescent violence are a stark reminder born dignity of the women and men survival and friendship. of what the school-to-prison pipeline SUN. DEC 25 • 2–4PM who struggle through seemingly insur- In the fi rst act we meet a young Chi- looks like, the foreclosing of possibility MEETING: NYC Black and Pink mountable odds. My personal favorite ron (played by Alex R. Hibbert) who that marks the lives of black men in this together with the Queer Detainee among these is Menace II Society, by suffers at the hands of bullies for rea- society. The fi lm’s third act fi nds Chiron Empowerment Project invite you to Allen and Albert Hughes, which still sons that he doesn’t yet understand, (now played by Trevante Rhodes) in At- our afternoon letter writing session. rings true more than 20 years later. but which he has begun to suspect are lanta, nearly unrecognizable as a drug What can you bring? Writing materials, Many others — John Singleton’s Boyz rooted in his difference. He fi nds ref- dealer not so different from Juan, but stamps if you want. We can always in the Hood, Spike Lee’s Clockers, and uge with a drug dealer, Juan (Maher- without a lover of his own. Ten years use more postage. Help us alleviate F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Comp- shala Ali), and his girlfriend Teresa have passed, and we can only guess at the isolation of prison! ton — have spoken truthfully to the (Janelle Monáe), who defy stereotype in what Chiron has been through. His af- ongoing racist violence of poverty and their unconditional acceptance of Chi- fect is absolutely fl at, emotionless, dead. WED. JAN 11 • 7–9:30PM its violent consequences, particularly ron’s nascent homosexuality. Chiron’s He goes about his business with the READING: Dr. Hiva Panahi, a lifelong for young black men. mother (Naomie Harris) has begun the calm assurance of someone accustomed advocate for rights and opponent of Barry Jenkins’ fi lm Moonlight is un- downward trajectory of drug addiction. to violence. But a phone call from Kevin human traffi cking, writes eloquently like any of these fi lms. In one of the more powerful scenes of (now played by André Holland), seem- about global struggles for freedom The fi lm looks and feels entirely and the fi lm, the young and very introverted ingly out of the blue, unsettles all this. and dignity. Her poetry refl ects the utterly new, not even vaguely referenc- Chiron asks Juan: “Does my mama do The harrowing emotional power of lives of women in Iran, as well as ing those previous fi lms in whose tradi- drugs? Do you sell drugs?” Juan’s af- this third act stems from how true the her experience as a refugee seeking tion it sits. While the milieu of Moon- fi rmative answers are not treated as a fi lm remains to the specifi city of its shelter in a foreign land. light shares some things in common horror revealed or a betrayal of trust, characters and their stories. It is an un- with these treatments — we know that as they might be in other fi lms. It is the fl inching look at black men whose lives SUN. JAN 15 • 4–6PM this world is perilous and violent — stark, harsh and inevitable reality of are profoundly shaped by external forc- TALK: Katherine Arnoldi will discuss there are no shootouts, no blood on the their two lives. It is neither melodra- es that simply and brutally limit their her new book, The Amazing True

Story of a Teenage Single Mom. The 2017 January street, no fatal confrontation between matic nor trivial. It is painful. agency. I felt sadness, shame and out- book details Arnoldi’s struggle to go friends or rivals and, most importantly, Juan’s absence from the second act rage as the fi lm came to its tender con- to college. In 2000, Arnoldi started no clear resolution or message. Struc- is treated in a similarly unsentimen- clusion, but more than any of these, I a class action lawsuit with New York turally and tonally, it holds more in tal manner. When the teenage Chiron felt a kind of gratitude for being invited Civil Liberties Union against the NYC common with Richard Linklater’s Boy- (Ashton Sanders) needs a place to crash to bear witness to these lives.

Board of Education for coercing her IndypendenT The hood than Boyz in the Hood. due to his mother’s now-severe drug and other teen moms to leave high The fi lm’s surprising and unconven- problems, he takes refuge with Teresa school. tional aesthetic likely has something to at the home that she shared earlier with do with its genesis. It is adapted from Juan, who is now gone. He might be a play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look in prison; he might have been killed. Blue, by Jenkins’ fellow Miamian Tarell It doesn’t come up. In the intervening Alvin McCraney. Without the ability to years, Chiron’s mother’s addiction isn’t 22 REVEREND BILLY’S 'TIS THE SEASON REVELATIONS yOUR TRUMp ChRISTMAS

JOHN QUILTY JOHN ShOppInG GUIde Dear Reverend Billy, ease. Try writing it out. Your ravings I'm a gay man. I've always felt that might read like a Mayo Clinic doc-blog my queerness was the very foundation or resemble Phillip K. Dick. The point of my politics. But since the election, is, dark things are not necessarily para- By Indy Staff got so much racist bile piled up inside you some progressives have claimed that lyzing. Kafka’s protagonist woke up as a Illustrations by Gary Martin that you don’t know what to do with it. the Democrats’ defeat was the result of cockroach. You can too. Play with your This pure, 24-karat gold septic tank is the focusing on identity politics, that going angst, embrace it. Let your disease en- thing for you. For the Trumpaphile on the forward we have to focus solely on eco- tertain you. go, check out our portable Make America nomic issues and dial down on "lesser" Great Again colostomy bag. Now you can issues. I feel as if these folks want me • • • spew bile at the water cooler or while fl ying to closet my identity politics. I fi nd this the friendly skies. attitude very upsetting — and a bit of Dear Reverend Billy, I know you are a betrayal. not much for shopping. Neither am I. — Bru in Hell’s Kitchen But there is so much pressure this time of year to give gifts. How do I show the TRUMP MASSAGE CHAIR Dear Bru, people in my life I care without buying Feel what it’s like to have Trump’s hands all We're working through a time of confu- into the commercialism in the air this over you. (Pussy guard not included). sion, when some of best strategists are time of year? fl ummoxed. If there is a return to sexual — Jen from FiDi fear spreading across the land. Be defi ant by being proud and sexy and yourself. Giving has nothing at all to do with big Moderate your exposure to people that retail. Santa is a Macy’s invention from TRUMP WIND-UP DOLL hold reactionary opinions about "iden- the 1800’s and has absolutely nothing to No strings attached. Just ask Trump what tity politics." Work with people who do with giving. he thinks of Rosie O’Donnell and listen to honor who you are. You owe nothing at all to the guilt- him go. Meanwhile, be cautious of fallacious tripping “Black Friday” myth. It is not identity politics. You know, the kind that unpatriotic to walk away from the whole says, “No matter who you are you too violent mess of American commercial TRUMP TACO BOWLS can travel to Davos. You too get a spin Christmas. It is, in fact, your gift to Make dinner grande again. Prove to the at the roulette wheel called Meritocracy.” the Earth. The holidays cause not only Mexicans who live next door that just be- Beware of false prophets cause you strongly suspect they are murders who don’t give a crap and rapists that doesn’t mean you don’t about people; be they BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS have mucho respect for their cuisine. Each gay, straight, white, yel- WHO APPEAL TO US AS A Trump Taco Bowl kit comes with packets low, red, black or brown COLLECTION OF SPECIAL of Trump-brand sour cream for putting the and cover up their con- INTERESTS. white on top. TRUMP-PENCE HOME tempt for humanity by ABORTION KIT appealing to us as a col- Trump and Mike Pence plan to make sure lection of special interests. mind-altering boredom, but also climate women won’t have access to birth control. change and habitat devastation. Cast But the special ladies in your life can always • • • all those sweatshop tchotchkes into the perform abortions at home. Each kit comes LAKE OF HELLFIRE! with a plumbing snake, blood bucket and a Dear Reverend Billy, as the days are Start laughing until you cannot stop shovel for burying the unborn. getting shorter I'm fi nding it harder to laughing. Clear the giving palate. You stay motivated. How do you suggest don’t have to buy a gift to give a gift! I keep this seasonal disaffective disor- Hah! Hah! Hah! (not ho ho ho). . . der, or whatever it is, from infecting This year we are beginning to heal TRUMP TANNING HELMET my brain? from evil giving. We start slowly and Block out “facts” from the dishonest, lying thoughtfully with a caress. Keep noth- media while receiving a soothing, full fron- — Daria from Mott Haven ing — NOTHING — in your home tal dose of ultraviolet radiation. It’ll leave from commercial Christmas. . . except your face orange and your mind smug and Dear Daria, the mistletoe. Beneath those spiky leaves satisfi ed. For just $29.99 more, we’ll in- I lived in California for a long time and give the gift that keeps on giving — grow clude a bottle of stupendous Trump bleach. I suffered a seasonal disaffective disor- that caress into sexual abandon. It’s good Now your hair will scream Aryan! (Trump TRUMP ON A CROSS der for 71 straight seasons. In the almost for the climate. Tanning Helmet not safe to wear while Take a stand against white genocide and mockingly wonderful sunshine I found driving or operating voting machine.) string this gorgeous diamond encrusted myself seated with crossed legs at a side- Reverend Billy is an activist and crucifi x around your neck. It features our walk café, sipping a cappuccino at 2 in political shouter, a post-religious Lord and savior Donald Trump on the the afternoon, having done nothing up to preacher of the streets and bank cross. Everyone said his political career that point except suffer mild existential lobbies. Got a question for Rever- was dead but he resurrected prejudices we discomfort, which actually felt fashion- end Billy? Just email RevBilly@ thought were buried back in the Sixties and able. The French have a word for it. Indypendent.org and unburden ascended to the White House. January 2017

How do you keep “whatever it is” your soul. from infecting your brain? This season is something. What I mean to say is, it is material, physical — a thing. That is your opening. Follow the path of this in- MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN fection — out of your malaise. SEPTIC TANK

The IndypendenT Dramatize the symptoms of your dis- If you are anything like Trump, you’ve 23 PEOPLE BEHIND THE PAPER

START SpReAdInG The neWS

By John Tarleton on the same page and have a space like The Indy where a MARIE-CLAIRE PICHER variety of left opinions can be discussed. hanks to foundation support we received Any business where community is important shouldn’t this fall, The Indypendent is in the process of hesitate to carry the paper. For us, it’s good marketing. doubling its print circulation. We are placing It says who we are and what we’re about. We’re proud to outdoor news boxes around the city. We are be associated with The Indy and with the Left and with also putting wire news racks at public librar- independent media. Ties and other venues. None of this would be possible without the help of Bill Koehnlein volunteers who maintain the boxes and fi nd new venues East Village where the paper can be shared. Here are the fi rsthand sto- I have been politically active since I joined the civil rights ries of several of the unsung heroes who are helping build and peace movements as a teen-ager in the early 1960s. a grassroots media revolution. For many years I worked with The Brecht Forum/New York Marxist School and also work with The Theater of Arun Aguiar the Oppressed Laboratory which was founded in 1990. I Canarsie, Brooklyn think The Indypendent is a really fi ne paper. There’s a lot Canarsie is a working-class, mostly Caribbean and Af- of New York City-oriented coverage — something the city rican-American neighborhood out here at the end of the defi nitely needs from left media. It’s in the tradition of in- L train. Last spring, I organized a Bernie Sanders fi eld dependent, non-sectarian left media like the old Guardian offi ce when I realized there would not otherwise be one weekly newspaper based here in New York whose demise in Canarsie. We connected with 200 people and built a was a big loss for the Left and left media when it collapsed core group of 20 who did phone banking and block-by- in 1992.

block canvassing. I maintain a couple of Indy boxes along Second Avenue GALANTE ALI I began distributing The Indypendent after I saw a call near where I live. It’s a very busy pedestrian area. The for help in last month’s issue. I began by approaching the box located at Second Avenue and Fourth Street is located three public libraries here in Canarsie about carrying The right in the middle of a number of theaters and restaurants Indy. One of the libraries now accepts a stack of papers as well as the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Associa- while the other two are going through the process of re- tion. It’s positioned right next to a box for AM New York viewing the paper. We also have a number of senior cen- and another box for the Village Voice. It’s gratifying to see ters and community centers in Canarsie that I am reaching the Indy box there because it’s our media. And judging by out to. the speed by which the box gets depleted you know people I recently attended a holiday party at a senior center appreciate it. where I personally placed about 60 copies of the paper into the hands of individual people. Only a couple copies Lew Friedman were thrown in the trash or left on the table. The rest were Park Slope, Brooklyn taken home. I am a retired New York City public school teacher. Back One person I met at the party is a retired mailman. I in the late ‘60s, I used to deliver an underground newspa- told him I would bring back copies of the next issue and per called The Rat to shops and stores in Brooklyn. It did he could be the one to go around and hand the paper out a lot of coverage of the Vietnam War and the resistance to each person. And he said, “Great, – I love that – I’ll to it. do that!” These days, I’m helping The Indypendent. I monitor a Placing one of the outdoor boxes by the Canarsie-Rock- couple of their new outdoor boxes on Seventh Avenue near away Parkway subway station might be a good idea. Most where I live. I keep track of how the papers are moving people travel to and from Canarsie by train. There are also make sure the boxes remain clean and that there’s always fi ve bus lines that drop off at that station so there’s a con- a display copy in the window. stant stream of people. Besides the boxes, I try to get The Indy out on Facebook My goal is to achieve saturation coverage in my neigh- and email. I have almost 700 friends on Facebook and a borhood. The Indy is a great educational tool for an al- big list of names, a lot of them local, who are interested ready aware community. For those who end up reading it, on email. When I go away for several weeks this winter, I think it will add to their level of sophistication and un- I have a friend in the neighborhood who will help with derstanding of the multitude of issues confronting them. watching the boxes. The Indy is covering so much great news—real news, as Pam & Chris Brown opposed to all that fake news we’ve been getting, includ- COURTESY OF PAM BROWN COURTESY OF LEW FRIEDMAN South Slope, Brooklyn ing from The New York Times. There’s a lot of good anti- We run Align Brooklyn, a wellness studio that offers yoga, racist coverage in The Indy, which is crucial, as well as pilates and chiropractic services. Earlier this fall we placed articles on climate change and the environment. Recently one of The Indypendent’s wire racks on the sidewalk in The Indy had an issue on the impact of Trump’s election front of our business at Fifth Avenue and 16th Street. and what he can do to us. This is important news and It holds several hundred papers and I’m amazed at how analysis to get into the hands of more people. 2017 January quickly the papers are taken. The people coming through our business care a lot about politics and the world. They Want to get involved in helping build The Indy’s circula- understand wellness is more than individual. It’s societal tion? Email us at [email protected], or call 212- as well. 904-1282. For more about how to contribute fi nancially To maintain the rack, it’s just a matter of the last person to our continued growth, turn the page. IndypendenT The working at night putting it inside the door and then we put it back out in the morning. It’s really important to expand the circulation of The Indy, especially now that we’re entering the Age of Trump. Having voices outside of corporate media may be one of the only things that can save our democracy. It’s also important for the Left to get The IndypendenTWe’re growing like never before — dou- bling our print circulation as we roll out outdoor news boxes across New York City and prepare to launch a beautiful new website early next year that will be fully mobile compatible.

With Donald Trump soon to become the next president, The Indy is stepping up in a big way. But will this growth be sustainable?

To continue expanding in 2017 and beyond, the support of our readers is more important than ever. We still have to cover all our reg- ular expenses, and we have to print more papers than ever before. To stay on track heading into 2017, we have to raise $40,000 in our year-end fund drive. Will you help?

When you give to The Indypendent, you are supporting:

• Original, on-the-ground coverage of grassroots social movements here in New York and around the world.

• Critical writing and analysis for a broad public audience on issues of race, gender and class; war and peace; the environment, and much ELIA GRAN more. TO MAKE A GIFT, WRITE A CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO “THE INDYPENDENT” AND SEND IT TO: 388 ATLANTIC AVE., 2ND FL., BROOKLYN, NY 11217. • The continued growth of our arts YOU CAN ALSO GO TO INDYPENDENT.ORG/DONATE AND MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION OR A RECURRING MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION, A and culture section. GREAT WAY TO SPREAD YOUR GIFT ACROSS THE YEAR. • Our long tradition of training and nurturing the next generation of WITH A GIFT OF $75 OR MORE, YOU CAN RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF THE UPDATED EDITION OF REBECCA SOLNIT’S HOPE IN THE DARK: radical journalists. UNTOLD HISTORIES, WILD POSSIBILITIES. YOU CAN ALSO RECEIVE THIS PREMIUM BY SIGNING UP AT INDYPENDENT.ORG/DONATE AS A MONTHLY DONOR OF $10 OR MORE. If you like what you see in the Indy, please give today! Whether you can give $27, yeS! I WOULd LIKe TO MAKe A GIFT: ≠$27 ≠$50 ≠$75 ≠$100 ≠$250 ≠$500 ≠$1000 ≠$ $50, $100, $200, $500 or $1,000, it makes SIGn Me Up AS A MOnThLy SUSTAIneR: ≠$5 ≠$10 ≠$20 ≠$25 ≠$50 ≠$100 ≠$ a big difference. nAMe AddReSS Thank you for your support, CITy STATe: ZIp: eMAIL The Indypendent staff phOne pAyMenT InFORMATIOn & volunteers CheCK: pAyABLe TO The IndypendenT. MAIL TO 388 ATLAnTIC AVe., 2nd FL./BROOKLyn, ny 11217 CRedIT CARd nAMe On CARd # eXpIRATIOn dATe: CVC: ≠yeS, Send Me A COpy OF ReBeCCA SOLnIT’S hOpe In The dARK.