December 2005

�� Vol. XXVII, No. 4 December 2005 Lincoln vet Dave Smith (right) and Lt. Col. Fred Seamon march with the Veterans for Peace in San Francisco to protest the Iraq war. See page 13. The Veterans for Peace will be honored at the VALB Bay Area reunion in March 2006. See back page for details. Photo by Loren Sterling. The Volunteer Letter From the Editor Journal of the The enthusiastic response to our previous special Veterans of the issue, “The Cultural Legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln Brigade Brigade,” has been gratifying. The success of the re- an ALBA publication lated exhibition and lecture series at NYU’s King Juan 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 Carlos I Center (see page 1) is equally appreciated. New York, NY 10003 These programs represent ALBA’s maturing presence (212) 674-5398 on the New York scene, part of our long-term project of Editorial Board presenting significant cultural issues to the public. Peter N. Carroll • Gina Herrmann We are already planning our annual tribute to the Fraser Ottanelli • Abe Smorodin Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade for September Book Review Editor 27, 2006. It will feature an original musical perfor- Shirley Mangini mance, led by the acclaimed singer Barbara Dane and Art Director-Graphic Designer members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, that will Richard Bermack honor the Veterans For Peace. Soon afterward, New York University Press expects to publish a new ALBA Editorial Assistance Nancy Van Zwalenburg book, The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, edited by Peter N. Carroll, Submission of Manuscripts Michael Nash, and Melvin Small. Just a little further Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk. E-mail: [email protected] down the road, we are preparing a major exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York for the spring of 2007. This issue of The Volunteer showcases some of our re- cent projects: Antonio Muñoz Molina’s “Memories of a Distant War,” presented last April as the 2005 ALBA-Bill Museum Seeks Artifacts Susman Lecture; the winning essay of the George Watt Memorial student essay contest, “’A Lyrical War’: Songs The Museum of the City of New York of the Spanish Civil War,” by Laurence Birdsey, an ho- seeks to borrow objects, photographs, nors student at Davidson College; ALBA’s new website documents, and ephemera for an exhibition, teaching materials on Spanish Civil War Posters by Cary co-sponsored with ALBA, on “New York City Nelson and Children’s Art in Wartime by Tony Geist and the Spanish Civil War.” The exhibition and Peter N. Carroll. We’re also printing a lauditory re- is planned for the spring of 2007. Material view of ALBA Board member Peter Glazer’s new book, related to Brigade members from New Radical Nostalgia. Note, too, the on-going exploits of VALB York, homefront activity, artistic or literary peace advocates Abe Osheroff and David Smith, as well contributions, political debates, organizations, as the birthday boys, Moe Fishman and Milton Wolff. etc., is welcome. Please contact Sarah Henry The Volunteer is the successor of The Volunteer for at 212-534-1672 x3319 or [email protected]. Liberty, the wartime publication of the U.S. volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. It has been published continuous- ly since 1937, and we expect to sustain its growth into the future. To do that, of course, we need your support. We en- Advertise in the Volunteer courage you to subscribe, to offer holiday subscriptions to Beginning with the next issue, The Volunteer wel- your loved ones, to give a little more than usual this year. comes paid advertising consistent with ALBA’s —Peter N. Carroll broad educational and cultural mission. For more information, contact [email protected]. Public Programs Enrich ALBA Exhibit Spanish Civil War, particularly the massive anti-Nazi mobilization among the Jewish community, in contrast to the less emphatic response of the city’s German community. He observed that Italian enclaves in the city were largely supportive of Mussolini, though strong anti-fascist sentiment ran among Italian trade unio- nists. In the African-American community, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia galvanized a critical response, though the protest movement there was limited. Within New York’s Irish community, Wallace said, the Catholic Church dominated public res- ponses to the war in Spain. The church hierarchy supported the nationalist cause and decried the godles- sness of the Spanish Republic, though the Catholic laity was much more divided in its response. VALB poet Edwin Rolfe, one of the artists featured in the exhibit. According to Wallace, the considerable pro-fascist With “The Cultural Legacy of the Abraham Lincoln sentiment and action around the city was countered by Brigade” on the walls of NYU’s King Juan Carlos I far less ethnically definable groups. For instance, the Center, a series of lectures, panels, and film screenings Communist Party led domestic efforts to support the have drawn enthusiastic audiences to the exhibition. Republic. Of course, the young men and women who vo- At the launch party in September, co-curators James lunteered to fight for the Spanish Republic proved the Fernandez and Elizabeth Compa described the diver- extent to which the war and its ramifications reached sity of the show, calling attention to the serendipitous the general population and spurred citizens to act. discovery of hidden art in the ALBA collection. A third round of panel discussions, on October 28, fo- Among the gems Compa cited were three sketch cused on the U.S. film industry’s depictions of the Spanish books containing notes and pencil drawings of warti- Civil War. Art Simon, a professor of English and Film me Spain. The artist was a little-known member of the Studies at Montclair State University, and Peter N. Carroll, New York Artists Union, Meredith Sydnor Graham, who teaches film and history at Stanford University, an African-American volunteer who was killed at addressed the relationship between U.S. wartime poli- Brunete in 1937. Fernandez linked the exhibit to the cy and the release of such films as Blockade, Casablanca, progressive “Cultural Front” of the 1930s that ins- and The Fallen Sparrow. They also linked these movies pired artistic creativity and political awareness. to the postwar anti-communist campaign in the film in- The second lecture, “Gotham and the Spanish Civil dustry and the Hollywood blacklist that affected such War,” was presented on October 7 by Mike Wallace, co- Lincoln veterans as Alvah Bessie and Edwin Rolfe. author of Gotham, the extensive history of New York Other programs included Peter Glazer’s “The Skin of City. Wallace’s lecture focused primarily on ways that the World: Spanish Civil War, Image/Music/Text” and the various ethnic communities in New York responded Paul D’Ambrosio’s lecture on the life and work of Lincoln to the rise of fascism in Europe and the outbreak of the vet and painter Ralph Fasanella. THE VOLUNTEER December 2005 1 ALBA in the Classroom: New Website Resources By Fraser Ottanelli at San Diego and from Columbia Puffin Foundation, Ltd, and the While fighting for its survival, University’s Avery Architectural Program for Cultural Cooperation the Spanish Republican government and Fine Arts Library, curators Tony Between Spain’s Ministry of devoted considerable energy and Geist and Peter Carroll illustrate the Culture and U.S. Universities. resources to the physical and psy- trauma of modern warfare as seen The new programs are part of chological well-being of children, as through the eyes of children, the ALBA’s continuing activities to bring well to the education of a population main victims of war and violence. the history of the antifascist struggle with a high rate of illiteracy. As part For centuries, under the con- into our nation’s classrooms. of the educational series “For Your trol of the Catholic Church, Spain’s Fraser Ottanelli is the Vice-Chair of ALBA. Liberty and Ours,” ALBA is proud to educational system did not believe announce the release of two new mul- in the need for ei- timedia programs that deal with these ther peasants or important aspects of the Spanish women to read. One people’s struggle against fascism: of the main accom- “They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s plishments of the The following multi-media educational Drawings during the Spanish Civil Republic was to re- programs are available at no cost: War,” http://www.alba-valb.org/ verse that pattern by “The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939: An curriculum/index.php?module=7, developing a mod- Overview for Students and Educators” and “The Spanish Civil War Poster: ern and democratic www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=5 Art in Politics in the Struggle for educational system. “Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War” Democracy,” http://www.alba-valb. Similarly, an im- www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=1 org/curriculum/index.php?module=6 pressive production “African Americans in the Spanish Civil War” Far from the war’s violence, of full-color post- www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=2 the Republic established Children’s ers that combined Colonies, staffed by teachers, medi- strong graphics “Tools for Teachers and Educators” www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=4 cal personnel, and social workers, with brief slogans to provide comfort and security to made it possible to “They Still Draw Pictures: Teaching Materials” over 200,000 refugee children. To communicate basic www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=3 help deal with the trauma of war messages and build ”They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s and separation from their families, support among a Drawings during the Spanish Civil War” children were encouraged to draw population with a www.alba-valb.org/curriculum/index.php?module=7 pictures of their experiences.

Load more