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TRUMP’S REFUGEE SABOTAGE P5 SHADY DEAL IN CROWN HEIGHTS P8 ALSARAH & THE NUBATONES P14 YOUR DATA IS OUT

FACEBOOKTHERE IS USING OUR PERSONAL INFO TO MANIPULATE US. CAN WE STOP IT? PETER RUGH, P10 DAVID HOLLENBACH 2 COMMUNITY CALENDAR THE INDYPENDENT

THE INDYPENDENT, INC. 388 Atlantic Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 212-904-1282 www.indypendent.org : @TheIndypendent facebook.com/TheIndypendent JULY 5–JULY 19 ARAB STREET FESTIVAL borough of Queens. This AMERICAN MUSEUM OF share their horrible experi- BOARD OF DIRECTORS: THUs, times vary • $16 Food, musical performanc- July, in order of screening: NATURAL HISTORY ences of racial profiling Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, PERFORMANCE: CUER- es and art celebrating the Monsoon Wedding, Black 200 Central Park W., Mnhtn with some humor and for Alina Mogilyanskaya, Ann PXS RADICALES: RADI- Arab-American and North Mother, The Young Girls of the audience to learn. Schneider, John Tarleton CAL BODIES IN PERFOR- African cultural heritage. Rochefort. SUN JULY 15 Hosted by Marcela On- MANCE Great Jones St., Mnhtn SOCRATES SCULPTURE 2:30PM–5PM yango & Lauren Clark EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Immerse yourself in new PARK POETRY: BARG DAY CAVEAT John Tarleton and recent work by con- SAT JULY 7 32-01 Vernon Blvd, Queens Poets and musicians pay 21A Clinton St., Mnhtn ASSOCIATE EDITOR: temporary Latinx artists 5PM–10 PM • FREE tribute Barbara Barg. Peter Rugh as they respond to themes ART: FIRST SATURDAY THU JULY 12 Barg was a pre-Socratic, THU JULY 19 in the exhibition “Radical AT BROOKLYN MUSEUM: 7PM–8:30PM • $15 post- postmodern, pre- 7PM–8:30PM • $15 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Women: Latin American REIMAGINING INDEPEN- PANEL: LEGACIES OF THE apocalyptic poet and ART: SOCIAL FABRIC: Ellen Davidson, Alina Art, 1960–1985” on view DENCE BLACK AUDIO FILM COL- through these lenses THOMAS BAYRLE’S EX- Mogilyanskaya, Nicholas until July 22. Featuring Celebrate the voices of LECTIVE explored writing, music, PANDED NETWORK Powers, Steven Wishnia performance, visual art, immigrant and diasporic A discussion on the rel- performance, teaching, Organized in conjunction literature, music, and communities, artists evance of the Black Audio the ground, the sky and life with the exhibit “Thomas ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: everything in between, and activists working to Film Collective whose in general. Bayrle: Playtime” at the Frank Reynoso it centers a younger reimagine independence lyrical, essayistic films BOWERY POETRY CLUB New Museum until Sept. generation engaging with for their communities. brought together archival 308 Bowery, Bklyn 2, this panel will look at DESIGN DIRECTOR: Mikael Tarkela our current political and Popup gallery talks, per- footage and drew upon how younger voices take cultural landscape. formances, music, drinks the work of postcolonial TUE JULY 17 up questions around DESIGNERS: BROOKLYN MUSEUM and more. writers, feminist intellec- 6:30PM–8PM • $10 corporate production, Leia Doran, Anna Gold 200 Eastern Pkwy, Bklyn BROOKLYN MUSEUM tuals and queer theorists TALK: DISMANTLING THE political spectacle, digital 200 Eastern Pkwy, Bklyn to reckon with radically GAZE: A VISUAL PRIMER technology and urban SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: JULY 7–JULY 8 shifting social and political This program launches planning in their work. Elia Gran 9AM–5PM SAT & SUN • MON JULY 9 conditions in Britain and ICP’s new series, "Dis- Bayrle is one of the most $25 Suggested donation 8:30PM–9:30PM the through- mantling the Gaze," which important artists to have INTERN CONFERENCE: CRASH PERFORMANCE: AZU- out much of the 1980s and considers looking, power emerged during the West Erin Sheridan COURSE IN WORKPLACE CAR! ’90s. and visual culture in the German economic boom ORGANIZING A variety show featuring NEW MUSEUM #MeToo moment. Art in the 1960s. His thematic GENERAL INQUIRIES: Latinx and Hispanic talent [email protected] Want to build a union in 235 Bowery, Mnhtn historian and popular cul- investigations have ranged your workplace, but not — stand-up, storytelling, ture scholar Maria Elena from a visual analysis of SUBMISSIONS & NEWS TIPS: sure where to start? This characters, improv, music. THU JULY 12 Buszek presents hundreds mass culture and consum- [email protected] two-day training is for STARR BAR 7PM–9PM of years of visual culture in erism to reflections on you. Through participatory 214 Starr St., Mnhtn SCIENCE: MANHATTAN- one brief presentation that how technology impacts ADVERTISING & PROMOTION: activities, attendees gain HENGE concisely illustrates the global politics. [email protected] an understanding of the JULY 11–AUG 29 As the Sun sets on July gendered power struc- NEW MUSEUM stages of an organizing WEDs 7PM • FREE 12, it will be perfectly tures deeply embedded in 235 Bowery, Mnhtn VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: campaign and mastery of FILM: OUTDOOR CINEMA aligned with Manhattan's cultural production. Linda Martín Alcoff, Camille foundational organizing Curated by Film Forum and east-west numbered ICP MUSEUM THU JULY 19 Baker, Gino Barzizza, Bennett skills. Rooftop Films, the inter- streets. Astrophysicist 250 Bowery, Mnhtn 7PM–9PM • $5–$15 sug- Baumer, José Carmona, THE NEW SCHOOL national festival highlights Jackie Faherty will be your gested donations Valerio Ciriaci, Rico Cleffi, Federico di Pasqua, Renée 66 W. 12th St., Mnhtn Socrates Sculpture Park guide to the history and TUE JULY 17 HISTORY: HOMEWARD Feltz, Bianca Fortis, Lynne as a community space for astronomy behind this fas- 6:30PM–8:30PM • $10 BOUND: MEMORIES, Foster, Lauren Kaori SAT JULY 7 the many cultures that cinating phenomenon in a PERFORMANCE: PRO- IDENTITY, AND RESIL- Gurley, David Hollenbach, 10AM–4PM • FREE share one of the world's special presentation at the FILED IENCE ACROSS THE Gena Hymowech, Georgia FEST: 16TH ANNUAL most diverse places — the Hayden Planetarium. A space for people to CHINESE DIASPORA Kromrei, Gary Martin, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Charina Nadura, Mike Newton, Donald Paneth, Dean Patterson, Astha Rajvanshi, Mark Read, Reverend Billy, Jesse Rubin, Steven Sherman, Pamela Somers, Caitrin Sneed, Chris Stewart, Apoorva Tadepalli, Leanne Tory- Murphy, Naomi Ushiyama, and Amy Wolf.

VOLUNTEER DISTRIBUTORS: Erik Anders-Nilssen, Eric Brelsford, Chris & Pam Brown, Hank Dombrowski, Joseph Epstein, Ed Fanning,

May 2018 Kim Frazcek, Lew Friedman,

Mindy Gershon, Tami Gold, Allan Greenberg, Priscilla Grim, Zack Kelaty, Michael Korn, Jane LaTour, Dave Lippman, Ashley Marinaccio, Saul Nieves, Caroline Rath,

THE INDYPENDENT Liam Reilly, and Carol Smith. 3 JULY IN THIS ISSUE

Part of a series of public events 2018! A CAT PARTY IN BROOK- that highlights everyday resil- LYN

ience in Chinatowns around the Cats. They conquered the UT CONNEWITZ PHOTO CREW world. Mei Lum, Diane Wong and internet, now they are coming Huiying Bernice Chan have spent for Brooklyn. Pet them, take the past several years conducting selfies with them, have a drink ethnographic research and oral with them, admire their exquisite history interviews from New York beauty. Drink proceeds go to local to Johannesburg. rescues. WING ON WO & CO. PINE BOX ROCK SHOP 26 Mott St., Mnhtn 12 Grattan St., Bklyn

FRI JULY 20 SUN JULY 22 7:30PM–10:30PM • FREE 7PM–9:30PM • FREE MUSIC: ANOUSHKA SHANKAR/ BOOK LAUNCH: FIREBRAND MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND FEMINISM: THE RADICAL LIVES Melding Indian raga with OF TI-GRACE ATKINSON, KATHIE electronica beats, sitar mas- SARACHILD, ROXANNE DUN- ter Anoushka Shankar honor’s BAR-ORTIZ & DANA DENSMORE tradition while boldly embracing Breanne Fahs will read from her the future. She is joined by indie new book followed by a discus- singer and composer Shara Nova. sion of radical feminist tactics BRIC CELEBRATE BROOKLYN and activism in today’s political FESTIVAL climate. 141 Prospect Park W., Mnhtn BLUESTOCKINGS BOOKSTORE

172 Allen St., Mnhtn YUVAL HEN/DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON SAT JULY 21 11AM–6PM • $20 TUE JULY 24 MARKET: A MIDSUMMER ODDI- 7:30PM–10PM • FREE TIES FLEA MARKET MUSIC/FILM: RZA: LIVE FROM Feast your eyes on medical THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN history ephemera, anatomical Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA deliv- curiosities, natural history items, ers an epic audiovisual film expe- and osteological specimens. rience — a re-score of the Shaw BROOKLYN BAZAAR Brothers’ 1978 martial arts classic 150 Greenpoint Ave., Bklyn The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. With its themes of perseverance, SAT JULY 21 transcendence and brotherhood, 2PM–6PM • FREE the film was a formative influence FUNDRAISER: MEOWMANIA on Wu-Tang’s aesthetic. Now, May 2018 May THE INDYPENDENT THE TED RALL 4 LAW EDUCATION May 2018

THE INDYPENDENT 5 IMMIGRATION May 2018 May THE INDYPENDENT THE 6 NYC POLITICS

DISGRACEDBATTLE BROOKLYN OF PARTY THE BOSS REGAINS GRIFTERS INFLUENCE

By Theodore Hamm he helped elect found themselves in the headlines, pick for that position, Civil Court Judge Harriet although not because they were fighting on be- Thompson, has been part of a team of Brook- e’s retired, out of politics,” says half of the little guy. One Kings County Supreme lyn judges tasked with reducing the backlog of “ Brooklyn district leader Geoffrey Court judge accepted cash as wells as cigars and foreclosure cases in Brooklyn. While Thompson

Davis regarding former Demo- rum in exchange for favorable divorce proceed- reportedly closed nearly 400 cases in 2017,[5] ASAF SHALEV cratic party boss Clarence Nor- ings; another was caught taking $18,000 in un- whether she did so on terms favorable to lenders man. But then again, Davis adds, marked bills in court. Meanwhile, one of Nor- or borrowers is not clear. Her actions in such pro- “DoesH anyone ever really retire?” man’s surrogate court judges, Michael Feinberg, ceedings would be fair game if she faced a com- Since his return from prison in 2011, Nor- steered millions in excessive legal fees to a long- petitor in the race, however. man has indeed steadily reasserted his influence. time colleague. After Feinberg was forced out, his But at the moment, Thompson has no chal- Starting with Ken Thompson’s successful 2013 replacement was none other than Frank Seddio, lenger. According to veteran Brooklyn political effort to topple his nemesis, District Attorney who resigned two years later amid allegations that consultant Gary Tilzer, who has managed sev- Joe Hynes, Norman has played a key role in lo- he funneled campaign money to his inner circle. eral successful campaigns by judge candidates not cal elections. This past May, Norman effectively [4] backed by the party, the uncontested race is part chose the Brooklyn party’s candidate for surro- In 2003, Hynes began to investigate Norman, of a larger trend. “The reform political clubs in gate court judge on this fall’s ballot. his former ally, for allegedly “selling judgeships.” Brooklyn no longer care about challenging the Judge selection may sound not like a consequen- The editorial boards and Mayor Bloomberg machine,” laments Tilzer. “And the courthouse is tial move, but backing candidates is one of the cheered on Hynes’ crusade, although many insid- the lifeblood of the party.” party organization’s main functions. And picking ers suspect that the DA was motivated mainly by One reform-oriented group that is calling at- judges has been a primary concern of the current his anger at Norman because he felt that the party tention to party decision-making, New Kings Democratic boss, Frank Seddio. boss didn’t work hard enough for him to squash Democrats, recently was accused of “political Norman went to prison because of a slew of Sandra Roper’s upstart 2001 campaign vs. Hynes. gentrification” by a handful of black district campaign violations including extortion in civil Between 2005-2007, Brooklyn prosecutors—led leaders. NKD is organizing a “Rep Your Block” court judge campaigns. His return to backstage by Hynes hatchet man Mike Vecchione—brought campaign aimed at expanding membership in the influence raises important questions about the four trials against Norman. After scoring various party committee. “We’re trying to do basic things future of Brooklyn’s Democratic Party. That’s convictions for minimal campaign infractions, in like get open agendas for the committee meetings, especially the case because many insiders predict the final trial Vecchione nailed Norman for forc- yet we’re seen as the enemy,” says NKD president that Norman, via his ties to the ascendant Ha- ing civil court judge candidates to pay his pre- Brandon West. keem Jeffries wing of the party, will exert plenty ferred consultants. District leaders appear to fear that NKD’s ef- of influence when it comes to choosing Seddio’s Late in his ill-fated bid to fend off Ken Thomp- fort could eventually undermine their current successor. son’s 2013 bid to unseat him, Hynes began warn- power to pick the next party leader. Norman, ing of Norman’s role in helping Thompson’s among others, is taking a keen interest in who • • • campaign. But the charge didn’t help the six-term that figure will be. The current favorite is Walter incumbent, whose tenure was marked a large Mosley, who occupies the Clinton Hill assembly For various county party organizations, number of wrongful convictions. In last year’s seat formerly held by his mentor, Hakeem Jef- the local courthouses function like a Tammany race, Norman—via his longtime ally, political fries. Mosley has made no secret of his interest Hall patronage mill, albeit for white-collar types. consultant Musa Moore—initially supported Pa- in becoming the next party boss—and the only Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley, for exam- tricia Gatling, one of the two black candidates in question is whether he will challenge Seddio this ple, has long ensured that his cronies control that the race. After first pocketing between $18-30k September or two years from now. county’s surrogate court, where unclaimed es- from Gatling, Moore then began to work for Mosley’s ascension would expand Jeffries’s con- tates serve as a piggy bank for connected lawyers. Eric Gonzalez, pocketing another $30k from the trol over the party, and Norman has longstand- Crowley’s consigliere, Gerard Sweeney, reportedly eventual winner. Such handiwork puts the former ing ties to Mosley too. Seddio’s base is in South collected more than $30 million from 2006-2016 party boss on better terms with the current DA. Brooklyn but he’s also close to Borough President for his work “administering” the estates of people Eric Adams as well as Central Brooklyn Indepen- who died without heirs. • • • dent Democrats and other political clubs. Yet oth- The civil branch of Queens Supreme Court that er than control over the courthouses, ballots and Crowley and Sweeney run is considered by many While Norman has mostly operated behind other turf, it’s not clear what any of the factions of to be a “foreclosure mill.” Frank Seddio, whose the scenes, his name surfaced in the headlines last the Brooklyn Democratic Party actually stand for. law firm represents lenders[1], has been trying to year during the Bedford Armory controversy. BFC What is clear that Clarence Norman, still only help Brooklyn’s civil Supreme Court match that Partners, the project’s developer, pledged at least 66 years old, shows no signs of retiring anytime rep.[2] Two judges who have worked on behalf of $500k to the Local Development Corporation of soon. borrowers have both fallen out with Seddio (and Crown Heights that Norman oversees. Norman as a result, both were smeared in the New York was allied with Laurie Cumbo in her reelection May 2018

Post).[3] In her federal lawsuit against Seddio, for- bid last year against Ede Fox, who made the Ar- mer judge Laura Jacobson alleges that the party mory a central issue. Critics of the project fear boss helped ensure that a former bank attorney that it will only contribute to the area’s gentrifica- would oversee the accelerated foreclosure process tion, but political players gain far more by work- in Brooklyn. ing closely with developers than against them. During Norman’s reign in the 1990s-early The transfer of properties at Surrogate Court

THE INDYPENDENT 2000s as party leader, several Brooklyn judges also can accelerate gentrification. Norman’s 7 HOUSING

By Georgia Kromrei 2018 re-election campaign, through three separate lim- ited-liability corporations. n a rent-controlled apartment on the first floor of Crystal Vizcaíno, a community organizer with the 231 E. 117th St., Andre Calderon is sweltering. Urban Housing Assistance Board (UHAB), says 105 E. The temperature in his home has averaged 85°F 117th St. has the worst living conditions she has seen in since mid-May. her career. When she visited Lucy Delemaco, a home- “I have to keep the door open,” he says. “What bound 93-year-old Cuban-born tenant who has lived aI way to live. I can’t turn the A/C on with the heat be- in her rent-controlled apartment since 1946, she found cause it will get the walls wet.” “conditions that were so bad, her home attendant could When Calderon first called 311 to complain he was no longer care for her,” said Vizcaíno. “The windows told the city does not take complaints for too much heat were open in the winter because the smell of mold was until June 1. A few weeks and several additional phone so strong. The only source of heat in the apartment was calls later, his radiator is still hot to the touch. the stove. There were five holes in her ceiling, and her Since the investment firm Emerald Equity bought apartment had not been renovated since the 1970s. Em- 231 E. 117th St. and 46 other East Harlem buildings erald Equity knew how she was living.” in December 2016 — the “Dawnay Day portfolio” — Delemaco and 12 other members of the building’s the tenants have experienced badly deteriorating living tenant association signed a petition calling for Emer- conditions, coupled with offers to pay them to leave. ald Equity to make repairs. Vizcaíno delivered it to the According to city Department of Housing Preservation company on January 10. Emerald did not respond. Two and Development records, there has been a dramatic in- weeks later, HPD placed 105 E. 117th into the Alterna- crease in the number of complaints about lead paint, tive Enforcement Program, a citywide list of 250 build- mold, pests, and lack of cooking gas and heat. At a joint ings the agency categorizes as “severely distressed.” meeting of the tenants’ associations from 105 E. 117th UHAB was hired by Manhattan Legal Services to and 231 E. 117th in March, resident after resident spoke organize tenants in Emerald Equity buildings in East about their children getting rashes from lead dust, pe- Harlem. They were able to finance it because the City riods without cooking gas, infestations of cockroaches Council approved increased funding to help tenants in and rats, and a desperate need for repairs. disputes with their landlords last November, a conces- “Do they think that because we are Spanish we are sion granted for supporting the upzoning of East Har- stupid?” Aracelia Gines asked. “That we do not know lem. our rights?” Tenants also got a boost from The Indypendent. Our Meanwhile, ArchRock, the building’s management February feature article on tenant organizing at 231 E. company, has been aggressively offering tenants cash 117th was distributed in other Emerald Equity-owned buyouts, hastily renovating vacated apartments, and buildings and also translated into Spanish and made renting them out for as much as three times what the available online. They are now organizing in six Emer- old residents were paying. ald buildings. This pattern is all too typical of how loopholes in the Management has sought to evade the protests. In Feb- city and state rent-regulation laws give landlords an in- ruary, ArchRock told tenants at 231 E. 117th that its centive to drive out rent-controlled and rent-stabilized office on East 115th Street had moved, and that if they tenants out and move wealthier, market-rate renters in. had any complaints, they would have to send them to a The state’s 1997 weakening of the laws let landlords post office box in Brooklyn. The tenants later discov- charge an automatic 20% rent increase whenever a ten- ered that ArchRock had relocated the office to a space a ant moves out, and enabled them to deregulate vacant block further east on East 117th Street, where the street- apartments once their rent got high enough. The state’s level windows are covered with thick black paint and minimal enforcement of its laws against illegal over- employees come in and out through an unmarked cellar charges has enabled owners to deregulate thousands of door. apartments illegally. “Of course they don’t want us to know where the The state’s rent-stabilization laws, which protect an office is,” says 231 E. 117th resident Maria Miranda. estimated two million rent-stabilized tenants in New “They don’t want to see me in their office complaining York and its suburbs, will expire in June 2019. Tenant anymore.” advocates are urging the state legislature to repeal va- Miranda, 63, suffers from asthma, and breathing in 2018 May cancy decontrol and the automatic vacancy bonus, and dust from her unrepaired bathroom has sent her to the tighten limits on how much landlords can raise rents for emergency room twice this year. Yet she has played a renovations. The Assembly has passed such measures leading role in the tenant organizing drive. several times, but in the state Senate, they have been Stopping at every flight to catch her breath, she slowly INDYPENDENT THE blocked by an alliance of Republicans and renegade climbed the stairs of 322 E. 117th St. in March. On the Democrats, with the tacit support of Gov. Andrew top floor, nearly all of the apartments were empty and Cuomo. in the process of being renovated. The sole remaining The Brookfield Properties hedge fund, which loaned tenant said he was leaving at the end of the month. He Emerald Equity $300 million to buy the Dawnay Day portfolio, has so far contributed $150,000 to Cuomo’s Continued on page 15 8 IMMIGRATION

ONE WOMAN’S STRUGGLE WITH HER HUSBAND IN DETENTION, AN UNDOCUMENTED HONDURAN MOTHER OF THREE TRIES TO TRIES TO HOLD HER FAMILY TOGETHER IN THE TRUMP ERA

By Erin Sheridan be detained in adult jails, were held in separate happens to me, I want to help my family.’ He facilities if they were not claimed by someone who didn’t want us to be homeless like before.” n late 2005, Ana, a Honduran woman in her could prove they were a relative. In January, Juan was arrested by ICE when mid-twenties, stood looking at the rubber In Honduras, Ana and her husband had man- he checked in. He was detained at the Hudson rim of a tire on the edge of the Rio Grande, aged to get by. She worked three jobs, and Juan County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jer- just across from the U.S. border. The smug- ran his own business. But life in Tegucigalpa got sey, one of three major ICE-maintained detention gler she had paid to escort her and her five- increasingly dangerous as gang violence escalat- centers in the state. year-oldI son from Tegucigalpa had just asked her ed. Gang members gave Ana’s brother-in-law, a The Hudson County jail has housed detained to take her clothes off. Wary of getting undressed police officer, a beating as a warning. The family immigrants since the mid-1990s. A 2016 report in front of a stranger, she refused. The coyote re- began receiving death threats. by Detention Watch documented an overall “poor sponded, “Then, you’re going to get wet.” “Over there, in the neighborhood that we are quality of life” as well as lack of adequate access “OK, then I will get wet,” she said to him be- from, you can’t wear your preference of the sport to medical care and legal assistance. fore lying down in the tire with her son, Michael, team you like if the gang is against it,” she says. It costs prisoners around $1 to make a phone in her arms. The man stripped down, climbed into “You can’t wear some types of shoes if they don’t call for 18-19 minutes. If Juan needs extra food, the water, and pulled the two across the flowing like it. It’s horrible.” clothes, or toiletries, Ana has to either buy them river and into the United States. The couple moved to Costa Rica after the birth through the jail commissary or send him money. Thirteen years later, Ana, a pseudonym she of their daughter, but left after she died. They Juan got a job inside the jail cleaning bathrooms, requested for fear of retaliation, now 39, is still were too devastated to focus on running their but quit after he was paid only $1 a day. undocumented, but has two U.S.-born daughters business, so they returned to Honduras, where the Michael has put off plans to go to college. He who are citizens. She has seen her husband, Juan, threats began again. has taken over Juan’s beverage-delivery business deported once—which got her and the children “We couldn’t make it anymore. We didn’t real- and is working 17-hour days to support the fam- evicted, leaving them homeless—and detained ize,” Ana says. “And we weren’t paying attention ily. three times, most recently for five months earlier to our son. He was staying with my mother-in- “He says, ‘Mami, my father hasn’t done noth- this year. Michael, now 19, is allowed to stay tem- law. We realized we were depressed. That’s why ing bad.” He repeats that, a lot. He told me three porarily under the Deferred Access for Childhood we decided to come.” days ago, “I can’t, I’m tired. This is so hard.’” Arrivals (DACA) program, and supports the en- In the United States, the couple had another On the evening of Juan’s arrest, Ana told her tire family by running his father’s beverage-deliv- daughter, now 10 — but Ana and the children be- two young daughters that he had driven to anoth- ery business while he was locked up. came homeless after Juan was seized by immigra- er state to visit a friend. Her 10-year-old, howev- Ana remembers the silence on the bank of the tion agents in 2009. er, quickly caught on. Several days later, she asked Rio Grande that day in 2005. It was two in the “The next day, my landlord came up and told Ana if she was getting a divorce. “I thought, “Oh afternoon. There were no helicopters, no Border me, ‘You have to leave the apartment because you my god, this is the time,” recalls Ana. Patrol agents ready to place her under arrest. won’t be able to pay,’” she says. “My husband had “When I said, ‘Mami, you remember, that Papi “I thought, they have to know that people are just paid rent recently. I got so scared, and my hus- was going to that big office downtown?’ Because passing,” she recalls. band was telling me, ‘You have to get out of there one day we came and waited, he went inside, and The coyote instructed her to walk toward a because they are going to come and get you.’” he came out with his permit when he was under U.S. Customs and Border Patrol outpost. There, “I found myself with my children outside in the that order of supervision. she surrendered to an agent who drove her to an snow. At night. So I went to the train.” “And she said, ‘Oh — so you mean that when office, sat her down in air-conditioned room, and Juan was deported to Honduras. He left Ana an Trump came in he made that order and he changed stared into her eyes for a quarter of an hour with- emergency fund, which she gave to the pastor at it?’ She’s a very articulate and strong 10-year-old out speaking. her church for safekeeping. She went back to work and when she says it she looks in your eyes… ‘I “He told me, ‘You are so — sinvergüenza.’ You as a housekeeper, and took refuge with the chil- hate him. Why is he doing that? That’s not fair.’” have no shame, you should be ashamed of your- dren in a city shelter. Juan got more death threats Ana’s younger daughter, 5 years old, doesn’t un- self. He told me in Spanish. He said, ‘How did you in Honduras, so he spent the family’s savings hir- derstand why her father is absent. “Sometimes she come here? Why are you here? And you had the ing a coyote to come back to the United States. tells me, ‘Give me my Papi.’ And I tell her that he’s audacity to bring this little boy here?’” “After my husband came, we left the shelter and going to come soon. I don’t know that if it’s be- Eventually, a female agent walked in, asked to we started again,” Ana says. But in 2013, Juan cause she feels that because of me he’s not there.” take over the case, and began asking Ana routine was detained for a second time. His lawyer was Ana recently graduated from community col- questions. She was taken to a shelter with her son, able to get him released on humanitarian grounds, lege with honors. She was ineligible for financial put on a bus with $60, and sent to meet Juan, with an order of supervision. That meant he had aid because she’s undocumented, but the school who had arrived several months prior. She did not to check in with Immigration and Customs En- gave her scholarships to help her finish. She also speak English. forcement (ICE) every six months. couldn’t complete an internship at a local hospital May 2018

Had Ana crossed into the United States in 2018, After Donald Trump became President, their because she does not have a Social Security num- she and her son would likely have been separated. lawyer warned that Juan was likely to be deport- ber. In April, the Trump administration decided it ed. “I started to get anxiety, real anxiety,” Ana Michael has expressed interest in studying busi- would prosecute all people crossing the border says. “My husband started to work more. He was ness. Ana hopes to continue her education to be- without visas on criminal charges, instead of civil getting skinny, his eyes were really red because he come a nutritionist and get an M.S. and PhD. “In charges, and jail them if they did not return im- just worked. You know why? Because he wanted

THE INDYPENDENT mediately. Their children, who could not legally to save money. He was thinking, ‘If something Continued on page 15 9 May 2018 May THE INDYPENDENT THE 10 11 SOCIAL MEDIA May 2018 May May 2018 INDYPENDENT THE

THE INDYPENDENT 12 MIDDLE EAST

IN PALESTINE, GO TO HOSPITAL, GO TO JAIL

By Jaclynn Ashly collaborate with Israeli authorities for a host of May was charged with illegally possessing weap- reasons. ons and was sentenced to three years in prison. ohammad Abu Habsah, 18 “The fact that Palestinians are injured is taken In prison, he continues to suffer from his inju- years old, spent nearly two most often by the Israeli army as a de facto ad- ries, his mother says, explaining that one of the weeks at a hospital in Bethle- mission of guilt,” Yusef told The Indy. “The fact nails that doctors inserted into his leg to hold it hem in the occupied West Bank that you have been hit by a rubber bullet or live together has broken. Her son needs treatment in after Israeli forces shot him ammunition means you must have been present at order to fix it but prison officials have refused to Mwith live ammunition during protests three years the protests.” transfer Raghad to a hospital. ago. Bullets fired by an Israeli sniper struck him in However, rubber bullets and live ammunition “He is still recovering,” his mother says. “It’s both legs as he attempted to run away after clash- are often used by Israel as a means of crowd dis- very difficult for him to balance and he falls over es broke out between Palestinian demonstrators persal. Therefore, many bystanders can also be a lot. His body is still sensitive and weak.” and the Israeli army. injured and fall onto Israel’s radar when seeking Yet while Jihan constantly worries about her Other protesters carried Abu Habsah, then medical assistance. Israeli authorities have also son’s condition in Israeli prison, she feels grateful 15, away, bringing him to the Arab Rehabilita- been known to withhold medical treatment from that he is still breathing. Raghad’s friend, 21-year- tion Hospital in northern Bethlehem, where he injured detainees in order to use it as leverage to old Raed al-Salhi, was shot multiple times during received treatment for 12 days. The day he was coerce Palestinians into cooperating during inter- an Israeli army raid in 2016 and succumbed to his released from the hospital after undergoing sur- rogations, Yusef said. wounds a month later. gery, Israeli forces raided his home in Bethlehem’s During his 18-day detention, prison officials “Raed was like a son to me,” she said, glancing Dheisheh refugee camp. did not change Abu Habsah’s bandages, causing at Raghad’s photograph. “When he was killed I It was 3 a.m. his wound to become infected. Then, three days cried so hard for him and his family. I thank God Abu Habsah recalls being awoken by an Israeli after he was released from custody, Israeli forces that my son will be able to return home one day, army commander, who squeezed his leg directly raided the Dheisheh camp — a near nightly oc- but for Raed and others who have been killed, in the location of one of his bullet wounds while currence in the West Bank — and released live they will never be able to come back to their fami- he was sleeping in his bed. The soldiers refused to ammunition on its residents. He was shot again lies. The suffering never stops here.” allow Abu Habsah to take his crutches or his med- in his left leg. An Israeli army spokesperson denied the allega- icine with him, the teen said. “One of the soldiers Abu Habsah, who was forced to dropout of tions raised in this article. carried me over his shoulder for a few minutes. school owing to his injuries, says many of his Then he just dropped me and I fell to the ground. friends are reluctant to seek treatment for wounds I kept telling them to help me, but the soldiers ig- sustained by Israeli forces, fearing that they too nored me. I was forced to limp by myself.” will become the target of arrest. The Palestinian youth was handcuffed, blind- He is just one of the countless young Palestin- folded and driven away in a jeep. Owing to his ians in the Dheisheh camp who have been injured, injuries, the soldiers brought him to an Israeli arrested or killed by Israel. military hospital where staff gave the injured teen When Jihan Shamroukh’s son, Raghad, was aspirin and wrapped a bandage around one his shot in the leg by Israeli forces three years ago dur- wounds before transferring him to an interroga- ing a predawn raid into Dheisheh, he was taken to tion center in Gush Etzion — an Israeli settlement Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center nine miles bloc in the occupied West Bank built in violation away. The 19-year-old spent a month handcuffed of international law. to a hospital bed. Upon his release, Israeli soldiers There, Abu Habsah was interrogated for almost told the teen that he would be permitted to return two weeks. “I was in so much pain at the time,” to his home in Dheisheh, but once he was healed he told The Indypendent. “They kept asking me they would come to arrest him, according to Ji- about my injuries and where I sustained them.” han’s recollection. Yet before his captors even examined him, Abu Raghad began to slowly heal, she said, making Habsah says they knew the details of his injuries: his way from the bed to crutches. But as he got “They even knew the exact locations where I had better, his family knew the day that Israeli forces been shot.” would arrest him was approaching closer. Dawoud Yusef, the advocacy coordinator for “Each night, we would all wear our day clothes, the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group, Adda- in case the soldiers came,” Jihan told The Indy meer, says Abu Habsah’s experiences are common as she clutched a photo of Raghad in her hands. among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. “Before Raghad would sleep, he would place his During protests or clashes, mostly young Palestin- boots beside his bed. He thought at any moment ians pelt rocks and the occasional Molotov cock- the soldiers would come to take him.” May 2018

tail at Israeli soldiers, who shoot tear gas, rubber A year after the teen was injured, the Israeli bullets and live ammunition at the protesters. forces finally came. Conducting an overnight raid, Palestinians are often arrested by Israeli forces they ransacked Raghad’s room and said they had after sustaining injuries during protests and Israe- found pieces of weapons — an allegation Raghad, li authorities collect intelligence on Palestinians now 22, and his family vehemently deny. He has who seek medical treatment, often with the co- since been held in Israel’s Ofer detention center

THE INDYPENDENT operation of members of Palestinian society who near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and in 13 NUCLEAR WEAPONS

WILL THE TRUMP/KIM BROMANCE MAKE THE WORLD SAFER?

By Mark Haim nuclear-weapons capabilities. These actions are fuel- have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more ing a new arms race with Russia and China. This is powerful one than his, and my Button works!” onald Trump’s boosters are still cheer- very costly, dangerous and completely unnecessary. Measured against the pushing-to-the-brink-of-nu- ing his nuclear summit with Kim Jong- And this “do as I say, not as I do” double standard clear-war position we were in in 2017, Trump’s cur- Un. Some are even talking about a No- creates an incentive for non-nuclear states to develop rent diplomacy with North Korea is a big improve- bel Peace Prize. Many Democrats, on weapons and obtain a deterrent to discourage aggres- ment. Even if the results of their summit were more the other hand, are calling Trump out sion like the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 or the U.S.- photo-op than substance, it is far better to be sitting Dfor, as they see it, giving away the store. They argue led NATO assault on Libya in 2011. Both of these re- down and talking, than it is to be threatening what that he gave Kim credibility and a long-sought cancel- gime-change wars have devastated the countries they should be unthinkable, launching a nuclear war. lation of war games on the North’s border while es- ostensibly were out to help and left them embroiled in The joint statement signed at the end of the summit sentially offering nothing more than a vague promise violent internal conflict to this day. is quite vague. It includes a pledge that the “DPRK to “denuclearize” — whatever that means — at some commits to work toward complete denuclearization of uncertain time in the future. the Korean Peninsula,” but there is no explanation as The U.S. peace movement has for decades worked NORTH KOREA IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT to what “complete denuclearization” means, on what to free the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons timeline it would be attained or how it would be veri- but has profoundly disagreed with the Trump ad- It also might help to recall that as many as three mil- fied. There is also no indication whether “complete ministration on almost every front. Can, or should, lion North Koreans were killed in the 1950-53 Ko- denuclearization” includes the removal of nuclear- peace advocates and their progressive allies support rean War, about 20 percent of the population. The armed U.S. military forces from South Korea or the Trump’s supposed détente with the North? Moreover, United States dropped more than half a million tons waters surrounding Korea. As such, this is pretty hol- should they support denuclearization if it only entails of bombs on the North, as well as napalm. As Air low rhetoric. But hollow rhetoric is an improvement North Korea surrendering its modest arsenal, when Force General Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air over bellicose rhetoric. the movement has, for decades, demanded that nukes Command during the Korean War, put it, “We went Trump has also come in for significant criticism for be abolished, mutually, verifiably and universally? over there and fought the war and eventually burned “giving without getting.” It is noted that he agreed to And, as always, there is the question of how we get down every town in North Korea.” cancel U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises with from here to there. Almost no North Korean family went unscathed, no corresponding concession by the North Koreans. Consider: Our government and those of other nu- and this helps explain their animosity towards and In point of fact, these exercises, or war games, should clear-armed states are universally opposed to nuclear fear of the United States. It also helps to understand never have been held in the first place. As Trump not- proliferation — the spread of atomic weapons to cur- why they find the huge U.S.-South Korean war games ed, they are “provocative.” Mobilizing tens of thou- rently non-nuclear states — but have been steadfastly right on their doorstep as threatening. It is always sands of troops, on land, in the air and on the sea and opposed to giving up their own nuclear capabilities. possible that, under the pretense of an exercise, their staging mock invasions close to the border of another When the so-called “Ban Treaty,” which would out- adversaries could launch a surprise attack. country is clearly unacceptable, and, due to the am- law all nuclear weapons, came before the United Na- biguous nature of the mobilization, could easily be tions last summer, 123 nations supported it (out of suspected of providing cover for an actual military 178), but not one of the nine nuclear-armed states got TRUMP ON KOREA assault. Imagine how the United States would have on board. reacted during the Cold War if Cuba and the Soviet It is also worthy of note that the United States is Donald Trump’s foreign policy has ranged from er- Union held similar exercises off the coast of Florida. legally bound by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed ratic, at best, to very destructive. He has pulled the in 1968 and ratified in 1970. Ratified treaties are, un- United States out of the Paris climate accord and the der the U.S. Constitution, deemed “the highest law Iran nuclear agreement, two important steps forward WHAT DO THE KOREAN PEOPLE WANT? of the land,” but our government consistently ignores undertaken under President Barack Obama. And, in Article VI, which reads: moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, he has While it is hard to know what the people of North inflamed the Israel-Palestine conflict even further. He Korea want, as it is not an open society, we know Each of the Parties to the Treaty has insulted foreign leaders, including major U.S. al- from multiple polls that the overwhelming majority undertakes to pursue negotiations lies, while heaping high praise on brutal despots. He’s of South Koreans want an end to the tensions, a peace in good faith on effective measures continued and expanded current wars and threatened treaty ending the Korean War, mutual recognition relating to cessation of the nuclear new ones. And it seems like he sees one of his main and steps toward disarmament. In fact, a recent poll arms race at an early date and to jobs on the world stage as being an arms salesman, indicated that 88 percent of South Koreans support

nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty hawking the wares of the military-industrial complex the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration, which calls for 2018 May on general and complete disarmament hither and yon. peace between the two Koreas and steps toward dis- under strict and effective international Perhaps the most disconcerting moments of his armament. Their wishes seem to dovetail with those control. presidency came in his war of words with North Ko- of many in the Korean diaspora, which were laid out rea in 2017. He threatened that the North Koreans in a pre-summit statement of unity by Korean-Amer- INDYPENDENT THE The United States, however, has not taken the trea- “will be met with fire and the fury like the world has icans and allies. ty seriously, except to use it to pressure non-nuclear never seen,” and tauntingly dismissed Kim Jong-Un as Will North Korea disarm? Time will tell. But it is, states. In fact, through its periodic “nuclear posture “little rocket man” and “a sick puppy.” He not only of course, not just up to the North Korean leadership. reviews,” it has made clear its intention to maintain threatened to unleash a nuclear attack that would A lot depends upon how they perceive the intentions a nuclear arsenal in perpetuity. And our government “totally destroy North Korea,” but in an adolescent has adopted a $1.2 trillion plan to “modernize” its (and cartoonishly symbolic) outburst he stated “I too Continued on page 15 14 MUSIC

HER TRUTH

By Camille May Baker hips didn’t stand out too much. I wore glasses that made me look a little bit more androgynous. n 2009, the singer-songwriter Shea Diamond was re- If I dressed as my truth, I would get stopped on the bus on leased after serving a 10-year sentence at a series of the way to transferring to the new facility. The wardens them- men’s prisons in Michigan for armed robbery. She com- selves would come out and say, “No, you’re not coming to my mitted the robbery, she says, in order to procure funds facility.” It’s the most humiliating and degrading. You’re hand- for a gender-affirming surgery. cuffed. And then get there, and to be rejected and told “You’re IDiamond (whose first name is pronounced “SHE-uh”) has too feminine. You’re a man, as we want you to clearly identify come a long way since then. Her first EP, Seen It All (Asy- yourself as, but you don’t look the part. So we cannot have you lum Records) was produced by songwriter Justin Tranter who interrupting the normal operations of this place.” has worked with Justin Bieber, Linkin Park and Gwen Stefani It was a double-edged sword. There was no way for you to among others and is due out June 29. The first single from win. the record, a sexy-soulful-amplified take on colorism, “Keisha Complexion,” was released in May. To what extent were you able to make music while you were The Indypendent reached Diamond by phone in Los An- incarcerated? geles where she now lives. We discussed her new EP and her experiences as a transgender woman in prison where she wrote For me, music was my escape. They give me my TOP/LOP for her first song, a somber and probing anthem about femininity nothing. They thought I was crazy. I was singing and writ- and tackling adversity, “I Am Her.” ing songs and stuff. They put me in segregation — I was still smiling when I came out. I found a joy in everything. When I THE INDYPENDENT: You talk about how you’ve always was in segregation, I found acoustics. Although I couldn’t see identified as female, even when you were a child. I read that anybody, they could hear me. So I was able to sing “I Am Her.” your mother used to whisper in your ear as you were singing So I had the inmates in there singing “I Am Her.” It was like a in the church choir that your voice was too high. What’s party up in there. I would lay on the floor and sing. You know, your relationship to music like? it took away the hours that you spent in there, the days you spent in there, the months that you spent in there. To the point SHEA DIAMOND: For me, music is the essence. It’s just as that you lost sight of the calendar days. close to me as my breath. And so the music to me was just like the thing that saved my life. If I wasn’t able to hum, if I wasn’t So you have an EP June 29, “Seen It All.” able to sing little notes, I don’t know if I would be able to have made it through those rough times. Sometimes I needed to sing I’m so excited! It has a lot of good beats and stuff that the myself to sleep. When I was incarcerated, that was a very dif- people who are behind the music have thrown in there. It’s like ficult moment for me and I needed some additional strength. a little bit of everything. There’s just, like, a special bit of love in the project, just some extra magic that was added. It seems like that’s where you really began to come into your own as an artist. Tell us about your first single off the record. What was the genesis behind it? I began to actually write more aggressively. I began to write down my feelings about the church, about my sexuality, about “Keisha Complexion” is glorifying the dark complexion. The my identity — just about everything in life. And just about forgotten-about complexion. For so long, access to the world experiences I had in relationships and all that stuff. I started to of beauty has only been available to light skin. So “Keisha figure out how to make the best version of a song I could, not Complexion” is revamping the word “ebony” and giving a having any idea of structure. twist to the words “ebony complexion.” There has been like a bit of a backlash from “Keisha Com- It must have been a challenge being a trans woman in a plexion,” which is very surprising. The backlash that comes men’s prison. is: “Is that a man?” So, I would just like to address that once and for all. And I began to be punished within the system for my feminin- Trans people are who they say they are. Why would you be ity. What happens inside is you introduce a trans woman into a so rude, why would you be so malicious, as to call a woman masculine world. Being that you hold the secondary feminine wearing a dress, calling herself “her” — her pronouns being sexual characteristics of a male female, that presents a security “she” and “her” — why would you wait to call her “female”? issue. You become a threat to the safety of the institution. So Now that I’m living my truth, now why am I a man? they don’t want you on the compound — they don’t want you May 2018

to come outside. So a lot of times they punish you by keeping This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and conci- you on “loss of privileges” or “termination of privileges.” So sion. you stay on “TOP/LOP” a lot. They have you in protective segregation. Your femininity is always under attack. I would come into certain facilities and tone down my femi- ninity. I made sure I didn’t have any homemade makeup on,

THE INDYPENDENT made sure my breasts didn’t stand out too much, made sure my 15

of the 17 HPD lawsuits still pending. “Which lawsuit?” the they could get $3,000 a month. I pay $1,068.” HED:TK man, dressed in slacks, loafers, a crisp blue dress shirt, and María Martínez accepted $22,000 to leave the one-bed- Continued from page 7 a Bluetooth headset, responded, telling the reporters they room apartment in East Harlem that has been her home for could expect a call from “the guy you met on the street” 18 years. She said the last straw was when ArchRock told hadn’t had gas for months and was tired of cooking on a before he disappeared into the cellar. her that the rent would increase from $1,392 to $1,500. If hotplate. Repeatedly asking a tenant to leave their home after they Emerald Equity can rent it to a new tenant for $3,000, it Tenants in multiple ArchRock-Emerald Equity buildings have declined a buyout, or trying to buy tenants out without would recoup the $22,000 it spent buying her out in about in East Harlem described similar efforts to get them out. a formal written offer, are both illegal. But it is a tactic that 14 months. The strategy appears to be two-pronged: render living con- often works, is highly profitable when it does, and poses a Martínez says she would have rather have stayed in her ditions unbearable, and then offer them buyouts or reloca- problem for tenant organizers who can’t keep pace with the apartment, “with my friends nearby,” but she moved to tion to Emerald Equity properties in the Bronx or Yonkers. buyout mill. Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter in May. From 2014 to 2016, before Emerald Equity acquired the “The same person has knocked on my door six times since “They’re emptying the buildings faster than we can orga- Dawnay Day buildings, HPD filed 36 lawsuits demanding Christmas, offering me money, or the Bronx,” said Edgar nize them,” says Crystal Vizcaíno. that their owners make repairs or correct violations. The Gonzaga, 32, who has lived at 322 East 117th all his life. He department has since filed 74 such suits, more than twice as pointed at gaping holes in his floor and ceiling where a gas many, against Emerald. pipe was installed after the gas line broke, leaving he and his In April, reporters confronted an ArchRock employee family unable to cook. “They’re trying to make us miser- outside its East Harlem office, asking him about the status able,” he said. “They know if they renovated this apartment,

you ask me, my health is really, really bad.” HED:TK “It’s important to speak up — what’s Continued from page 8 happening and how we suffer, so that maybe people can understand the realities summer, what I’m planning to do is buy the of these communities,” she continues. “We books for microbiology and another sort of can’t stay quiet, we can’t stop moving. We biology class — to start to read and learn have to move. We have to do something. the material and do something in my free That’s why I have decided to tell my story.” time. If I’ve got some,” she says. But she needs financial aid, and the fam- Note: Shortly before The Indy went to ily’s economic status depends on whether press, Ana’s husband Juan was released Juan can stay in the U.S. He was released from detention but will have to reappear from detention in early June, but his future in court. He returned to work the next day. is uncertain. Their son Michael will be able to attend his “Sometimes I feel so depressed, but then first semester of college. I remind myself that I’m fortunate as a mother, as a student, as a wife,” Ana says. “I can’t give up. Because if I give up, my whole family falls. It’s a lot of pressure. If

United States will have to ing toward a more peaceful HED:TK do its part to create an at- future.” He further stated, Continued from page 13 mosphere of mutual trust. “Congress has a key role to And liberals and those play in making sure this is of the United States. They on the left, while standing a meaningful process, not would clearly be more like- firm against Trump’s over- just a series of photo ops.” ly to make moves in that all agenda, need to recog- If you agree, please urge direction if they saw a de- nize that, just as a stopped others to support steps to escalation of tensions and clock tells the right time a peace. U.S. moves toward making couple of times a day, some peace. On the other hand, of Trump’s actions could Mark Haim is a longtime seeing the United States be worth applauding. Ber- advocate for peace, justice, 2018 May reject other agreements, nie Sanders gets this, and sustainability and climate including the Iran nuclear in a prepared statement, action. He serves as direc- agreement and the Paris while noting it was “very tor of Mid-Missouri Peace- climate accords, does not light on substance,” he de- works, a grassroots activist INDYPENDENT THE help. If Donald Trump re- clared the Singapore meet- group. ally wants a Nobel Peace ing “a positive step in de- Prize, he will clearly have escalating tensions between to do more than just have our countries, addressing one meeting gushing praise the threat of North Korea’s on an autocratic leader. The nuclear weapons and mov- 16 SPORTS

KAYFABE NATION

By Philip Yiannopoulos two rivals in Madison Square Garden, patriotic chants of U- S-A! U-S-A! erupted throughout the venue. Twenty-nine years t’s Saturday night inside a Knights of Columbus event later, in that same arena, Donald Trump was inducted into the hall in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey and the Dagger Mik pro-wrestling Hall of Fame, smiling amid a torrent of boos. Drake is here to wrestle. Variously colored paper stream- Five years after that, the same U-S-A chant that once greeted ers and fishing line — decorations from parties past — Sergeant Slaughter rang through the halls of Congress during dangle from the ceiling. In the center of the room, a Trump’s first State of The Union address. freshlyI assembled 15-square-foot wrestling ring quietly waits To date, the current lonely behemoth in televised wrestling, to be relevant. The black fiber ropes that surround it are taut, WWE, still builds characters up just to tear them down. The ready for performers to cling to them as if for their very lives. Mexicools ride to matches on lawnmowers while Cryme Around the room devotees clump together, some wearing T- Tyme, two black guys who steal stuff from other wrestlers, ex- shirts supporting The Ugly Ducklings, The Fraternity, or Dan- ist to “parody racial stereotypes,” according to their website. ny Moff — some of the crowd’s favorites. A concession booth But such parodies exist because there is a market for them, runs business in one corner of the hall. Its menu, scrawled in a market exploited by Trump when he carved a path to the a sidewinding hand, offers offers potato chips, pretzels and White House by describing Mexican immigrants as murderers pink hot dogs served on Bunny Bread buns. A man with a and rapists and tweeting out fake black-on-white crime sta- goatee changes seats a few times and eventually settles on a tistics. spot that will later force him to whisk his small son out of the aerial path of what may be an Abercrombie and Fitch model in • • • bright purple spandex. The Pabst Blue Ribbon knocked over in the process only adds to the excitement. “The best character is the one that is yourself, but with Some fans have zealously followed the melodrama of the the volume turned up,” Mik Drake explains with hard-earned Battle Club Pro league and its earlier incarnations for decades. wrestling-world wisdom. They cheer and boo the cultural descendants of circus folk and There’s a word for this: Kayfabe. It defines wrestling’s brand competitive brawlers that created America’s unique pastime of of suspension of disbelief, the protection of both melodramatic “sports entertainment.” The rest of us are just catching up. narratives and the physical moves that create the fighting illu- When the The Dagger takes the ring for his part in a three- sion. way free-for-all, he sports only gold lamé briefs and matching In the early days, Kayfabe was the carnival worker’s code knee pads above his shiny white boots. After every dropkick, word for when a mark, a member of the crowd, was nearby, he falls as a horizontal line — his body just faster than his warning off-duty wrestlers to hop back into character. There mane of tight-curled hair, which drops like a Cousin Itt with are numerous theories regarding the word’s origin. Some sug- muscles regularly treated with L’Oréal Sublime Bronzer. His gest it is a portmanteau homage to Kay Fabian, a mythical old- entire 246-pound body slams against one inch of foam pad- time wrestler who may or may not have ever existed. Another ding above a bed of two-by-twelve wooden planks that span theory states the term derives from the British phrase “keep structural iron trusses. He continues wrestling through a cavey,” or be on the lookout. Regardless of its origin, the code bloody nose. survived through a century of American wrestling’s ups and “Am I screwin’ up by not going down the, you know, Gen- downs, its vagabond circus days, meager turnouts through the eral Life 101 path?” The Dagger, who has been wrestling for Great Depression, the subsequent post-war Golden Age, the twelve years and working as lawyer for nine, muses later. Yet televised oversaturation that led to the sport’s decline in the such doubts pass quickly. His environmental law job in Man- 1960s and early ’70s and its rebirth when the WWE began to hattan serves only as a safety net, something to support him monopolize the national market in the following decade. until he makes it to the big time: World Wrestling Entertain- During the Vietnam era, when America watched its children ment, Inc (WWE). slaughtered in the jungles of Vietnam (and alternately doing the slaughtering), wrestling performers and fans began the • • • sustained wink that carries through to today. The intention behind Kayfabe morphed from protecting industry secrets into Modern professional wrestling began to coalesce in a tacit agreement between audience and performer that artifice America when the Civil War forced men of different back- spawned from even the smallest kernel of truth is more enter- grounds into military camps around the country. The bivouac taining than reality. The public’s appetite for a story grew with tedium punctuated by hunger, disease, death and gambling its ability to bite into it. Superstar Hulk Hogan, for instance, led to the competitions and, in effect, the melding of fighting boasts a ten-inch penis, yet the endowment of the man who styles. Thus met the tripping maneuvers of the Vermonters, the portrays him, Terry Bollea, admitted to being more modest in free-for-all and its nasty, Western Frontier rough-and-tumble nature before a judge. cousin, the classical Greco-Roman, the innovative Cornish With everyone in on the game, pointing out non-sequiturs side-hold, the gentlemanly antebellum upright and the Irish and logical plot holes equates to narrative murder. In the wres- collar-and-elbow. tling universe, individuals have gone through extreme lengths As the initial democratic system of fighters competing es- to protect kayfabe. Take, for instance, Nelson Scott Simpson’s sentially at random failed to draw audiences, a need for larger- years-long dedication to his character “The Russian Night- than-life characters arose. Showmanship, more than ability, mare,” Nikita Koloff, that involved legally changing his name sold seats. That could mean having an enormous or deformed and hiring an “interpreter” to translate his remarks when he physical presence, charisma to rival Casanova or enough Bible spoke in public. (Simpson was born in Minnesota.) recall to impress the masses. And what’s a hero without a vil- Likewise, today, our political moment craves melodrama. lain? Beginning in the 1880s, as wrestling evolved from the Talking heads speculate on the next act of porn stars and for- travelling carnival scene, promoters discovered melodramatic mer FBI directors. We don’t want facts but moral conclusions. feuds were the most dependable way to sell tickets. Of those Fans of the president crave a 1,933 mile-long wall that would narratives, the most marketable was whatever form of xeno- cost billions of dollars — passionately arguing for it while May 2018

phobia was en vogue at the time. Racism worked, too. aware that it will probably never happen. Kayfabe guides our This model, a century later, led to creations like The Iron current age of political amusement but wrestling fans were Sheik in 1980 — just months after the Iranian hostage crisis — there first, perennially happy to find a reason to pull their hair and his nemesis, Sergeant Slaughter, a balding cross between out and shout “how could he do that?” Smokey the Bear and the drill instructor from Full Metal Jack- Yet, while parallels abound between wrestling and politics, et. The Sheik was a popular love-to-hate heel, directed to stir one defines itself as entertainment and the other currently only

THE INDYPENDENT up anti-Iranian sentiment. During a 1984 match between the acts as such. Fans of wrestling are lawyers, journalists, police 17

KAYFABE NATION

officers — citizens on all sides of the political spectrum. They are fans because it’s fun a post-workout protein shake. The Dagger rarely goes out on dates and never drinks and harmless entertainment. But things get murkier when we begin treating entertain- alcohol. He is cultivativating his inner wrestling self — uber competitive, “almost to a ment as real and the real as a imaginary. In this moment, when people yell until they sociopathic level,” he says. feel things are true, swapping truth for kayfabe passion, it is easy for the real to be After the Battle Club Pro match, The Dagger arrives home to his tiny, shared apart- obscured behind spectacle. ment in Manhattan. He turns on the TV and reviews tape of his performance so he can get better and eventually make it to the WWE. He’s been in talks with them, the • • • leader of the wrestling world, but nothing has been inked yet. It’s only a matter of time, he believes. If not the WWE, perhaps he can make it big in the All Japan Pro Wrestling The Dagger Mik Drake wears a suit to work at his environmental law firm where he league. “Wrestling is unlike other sports,” he says. “You tend to peak later, 35 to 40, writes legal briefs on a computer that runs on a buggy version of Microsoft Windows. think back to, like, Hulk Hogan.” In the office, none of The Dagger’s coworkers know about his double life. He keeps The Dagger eventually lies down on the futon he uses for a bed in the living room it secret to avoid the headache of questions he’s faced before when word of his other that doubles as a kitchen. The room around him is sparse, its white walls mostly bar- identity spread around previous office water coolers: Hey, so where do you get the little ren. A poster of Rocky Balboa triumphantly raising his fist in the air hangs across the outfits? How do those boots feel? So when am I going to see you on TV? room from his bed. This is a place of transition — why would The Dagger spend time He compares his love of wrestling to his colleagues’ weekend hobbies like acting, decorating when he could be leaving for Florida or Tokyo or Los Angeles any day now? playing soccer, writing poems. “It just so happens that this one involves me in my un- If asked about the bruises and cuts on his face at the office on Monday, he has a go-to derpants, jumping around and fake fighting other grown men,” he says. response ready. “I’m in a fight club, like in the movie, but I can’t talk about it,” he’ll say, However, as far as The Dagger sees it, no one else in the office aspires to be on then add with a laugh, “It’s from pickup basketball.” He is happy to let them choose Broadway, win the World Cup or a Nobel prize for Literature — not in the way he the truth that suits them. wants to be a professional wrestler. He recently turned down a promotion at work so he could keep up with his workouts and the related cryotherapy and sports massages he undergoes to stay in shape. When The Dagger enters Trader Joe’s in Manhattan he makes a b-line for the fro- zen grass-fed beef burgers and Jasmine white rice, ignoring creative displays aimed at those with a desire for flavor before fuel. Two tupperwares each with 400 grams of rice and 200 grams of cut-up patties are his only daily intake, with the exception of May 2018 May THE INDYPENDENT THE 18 BOOKS REVEREND BILLY’S TRUMP HELP HOTLINE GOING UP & DOWN IN NEW YORK duction. Sorkin proposes Jane Jacobs- style “incremental change, community CITY participation… infrastructures of all kinds, and design.” What Goes Up, The Right Buildings are the largest source of and Wrongs to the City greenhouse gas pollution in New York by Michael Sorkin City, comprising 67 percent of total Verso Books 2018 emissions. What Goes Up argues for requiring carbon neutrality, outlaw- Building & Dwelling ing oil-fired boilers and vastly reducing by Richard Sennett traffic. The city already bans No. 6 oil Farrar, Straus & Giroux in boilers and plans to phase out No. 4 2018 oil by 2030, but many landlords will just switch to natural gas – another fossil fuel. Sorkin thinks deeply about archi- By Bennett Baumer tecture and design – weaving hot takes on new buildings; he likes the Oculus ew Yorkers dislike many but says it cost too much – but would do things. Subway delays. better to think about the environmen- That smell during sum- tal effects of building operations, such mer. But what New as how we will heat and cool spaces. In Yorkers really dislike is writing about Hurricane Sandy, Sorkin real-estateN development. recognizes “real but painfully slow” That new building either blocks your progress on greening buildings, but view, gentrifies the block or brings those warns that we may “wind up so many people to the neighborhood. Two new Canutes, bashing away with our feeble books on architecture and urban studies swords at the relentlessly rising seas.” make the case for sustainable real-estate What Goes Up cites urbanist Jane development. Jacobs and makes the requisite White City University of New York Spitzer Horse Tavern reference, but Columbia’s School of Architecture professor Mi- Center on Capitalism and Society se- chael Sorkin’s What Goes Up is a series nior fellow Richard Sennett’s new book, of pithy and piquant essays on the twin Building and Dwelling, gives a fuller problems facing New York and many treatment of Jacobs’ ideas. other large cities: affordability and cli- Sennett’s urban landscape is com- mate change. posed of the ville (the built environment) Self-styled progressive Mayor Bill de and cité (city living). He posits that these Blasio won election in 2013 on a “Tale two concepts became divorced, creating of Two Cities” campaign and central to closed cities marked by the dominance his election and re-election was his af- of vehicles, segregation, regimentation fordable-housing plan. The mayor’s ten- and control. Building and Dwelling year plan to create and preserve 200,000 seeks ways to open cities. Most people “high-quality, affordable homes” is his know the story of Jane Jacobs’ criti- administration’s legacy project; he up- cism of Robert Moses’ mega-planning dated the goal to 300,000 units in late schemes, but Sennett is more interested 2017. The plan depends on enticing pri- in the rivalry between Jacobs and mid- vate real-estate developers to opt into century socialist architectural critic inclusionary zoning bonuses (greater Lewis Mumford. Jacobs championed density in exchange for some permanent local decision-making, gradual devel- affordable units) and billions in public opment, “eyes on the street” to combat and quasi-public money in low-interest crime, and spontaneous street life her loans to construct or renovate afford- in beloved low-rise Greenwich Village. able housing. The plan, in theory, would Mumford thought that stressing local provide housing for over half a million decision-making and action could not people, as many as now live in public address the scale of New York City, as housing or receive Section 8 rental as- infrastructure projects that affect the sistance. entire city need more than a “bottom- In his essay “Ups and Downs,” Sor- up, cellular framework.” He argued for kin lauds de Blasio’s plan, but laments garden cities and democratic-socialist that the burden to produce and preserve planning for all aspects of people’s lives housing falls on cities, as decades of con- (health, shelter and work). servative federal power has greatly di- Building and Dwelling can at times be minished public housing funding. Also, opaque, and perhaps even “incoherent,” he adds, “there’s a huge elephant in the as Sennett himself has acknowledged. room, which is the possibility – indeed, The author writes of the flaneur mean- probability – that even with the com- dering through a city taking it all in, and plete success of [de Blasio’s plan], the at times the book meanders. He does, net number of affordable housing units however, address the long-term threat in the city will fall, and substantially.” of climate change — and warns against The city government has to work against what he calls “stoicism of the bad sort, May 2018

both right-wing attacks on public hous- i.e. try nothing because nothing can be ing and the state’s slow phaseout of rent done.” regulations. It does not set the federal housing budget or have power over the rent laws. That leaves a city mayor with only zoning incentives and municipal

THE INDYPENDENT money to entice affordable-housing pro- 19 THEATER

THE BOYS ARE BACK ON BROADWAY

The Boys in the Band Booth Theatre (222 West 45th St.) loose. They were Michael self-esteem. Bomer, Carver and Watkins Through August 11 (Parsons), uptight, newly sort of fade into the background. sober; Emory (de Jesús), an I have a feeling with increased rehears- effeminate sort; Bernard al time and better direction, this version By Gena Hymowech (Washington), the only of Boys could have been something spe- black character, whose hu- cial that resonated with a new generation. hen The Boys in the mor and lightheartedness cover up his Unfortunately, like the 1970 film, it’s out Band premiered off- sadness and vulnerability; Hank (Wat- of tune, albeit for a different reason. Broadway in 1968, it kins), who left his wife; Larry (Rannells), was cutting edge, a re- Hank’s lover; Donald (Bomer), Michael’s alistic look at gay men loyal, neurotic friend; Cowboy (Carv- Wwritten by a gay man. As Paul Rudnick er), a prostitute bought for the birthday put it in the documentary Making the boy; Harold (Quinto), the birthday boy, Boys, “This play opened at a time when “a 32-year-old ugly, pockmarked, Jew everything was still taboo.” It became a fairy”; and Alan (Hutchison), a suppos- smash hit, but as Michael Musto noted in edly straight friend of Michael’s. that same doc, the movie suffered from Sadly, I never felt like the actors were bad timing. By 1970, Stonewall had hap- totally inhabiting these well-written pened, and modern gay men could no roles. Quinto has the unenviable task of longer relate. playing a character once played by the So why revive it? Well, for one, it’s a great Leonard Frey, an actor who almost great history lesson, and for another, so totally dominated the original movie — many of its themes have no sell-by date: he was a bitchy presence you couldn’t the pressure to be beautiful, self-harm, help but love (or at least I couldn’t). Har- unrequited love, polyamory, addiction, old is Michael’s conscience and emotion- suicide, the importance of friends when al babysitter; he takes a perverse pleasure you’re queer. How queers socialize, how in kicking Michael while he’s down. But we define ourselves, and how we listen Quinto plays him like he wouldn’t hurt a to music have changed — and we have soul. During the play, Harold gets high, rights that would have seemed unthink- and Quinto takes that direction too much able 50 years ago — yet people will al- to heart, removing the crispness from the ways be people. role. He’s got the sarcasm down, but his I’ve seen the film and love its humor, emotional distance weakens the charac- emotion, story and acting. I didn’t even ter. His Harold could take or leave what think about how negative it made gays is happening, and his angry speech to look until more recently. I see it as a work Michael at the end — the beating heart about a particular time and a particular of this whole play — falls flat on its face. group of people. These men are not sup- I thought Parsons was an excellent posed to stand in for every gay man. If choice for Michael, because who is Big you are the kind of person who expects Bang’s Sheldon if not a straight Michael? each gay film to act as a protest for gay He at times evokes who Michael is, and rights, then, yeah, you may not like it. adds a new layer of geekiness (no surprise If you lived in a pre-Stonewall world, or there), but he’s just not as uptight as the have just dealt with a lot of homophobic character demands, and like Quinto, crap in your life, then, yeah, you might he’s too nice. His evolution into a mon- feel triggered, understandably. I person- ster is hard to believe. Emory’s intense ally don’t think these characters are evil, annoyance provided comic relief when and I don’t think every representation expressed by Cliff Gorman. His anger of us has to be perfect. That being said, at Alan served as a weapon against that Boys can be uncomfortable to watch in character’s hypocrisy. In this version, we 2018 – the amount of shame some of don’t see a really pissed-off Emory. And these men feel and the way Michael takes when you have a softer Michael, Emory his anger out are admittedly just awful. and Harold, you lose a giant chunk of The revival stars , Andrew that pre-Stonewall pressure-cooker feel. Rannells, , , Hutchison is missing that haunted look Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian the original Alan (Peter White) had, the

Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washing- one that showed how frightened he likely 2018 May ton and . This new cast is was of his gay feelings. On the positive out, and can be so without risking los- front, he gives Alan an interesting aggres- ing their careers. The main challenge for siveness that one might interpret as a pro- them is understanding the mood of 1968, tective mask, so no one thinks he’s queer. INDYPENDENT THE and connecting with the play’s spirit. Oh, I was really pleased with Rannells — he’s and it would be nice if they could make it got a gift for physical comedy, and is a their own, too. more fun Larry than Keith Prentice was. The plot? Friends are meeting at an Washington has more charisma than the apartment to celebrate a character’s original Bernard, too, and plays him in birthday when all emotional hell breaks such a way that you feel he has added