Galileo 2.0, p. 17 Volume 1, Number 26 FREE East and West Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown January 20 - 26, 2011 Ellen Stewart, 91, doyenne of La MaMa and all avant drama BY WICKHAM BOYLE New York Times, bastion of Ellen Stewart, the mercu- fact, attributes three possi- rial, magical, inventive, pre- ble dates for her birth, from scient founder and longtime 1917 to 1919. Her birth- artistic director of the famed place was Chicago, but her La MaMa Theatre, died in accent morphed. It was dif- New York City on Jan. 13. ferent when she spoke to the Stewart was my mentor, my press, her adoring audiences boss, my partner, the grand- or to her bad “babies,” and mother to my children — it could range from Geechee and to generations of us Louisianan, to across the who worked in New York world or become the grit- City or American or world tiest street-corner banter. theater, she was our mother. Like the theatrical form she Everything about Ellen spawned, global, multicul- Stewart is swathed in mys- tery and wonder. Even The Continued on page 5 Parents see red File photo after Black makes Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Theatre, was at City Hall in September 2004 for the announcement of the Fourth Arts Block deal with the city. Seven properties on E. Fourth St. between Bowery and Second Ave., plus several vacant lots, were sold for $1 each to Fourth Arts Block, a.k.a. FAB. Under the deal, the properties were permanently abortion remark dedicated for use by cultural, nonprofi t organizations, assuring that the theaters, dance studios and other artistic uses on the block would not disappear. BY ALINE REYNOLDS Lower Manhattan and the Cathie Black, the city’s resulting overcrowding in new schools chancellor, had its public schools. When he little to say at last Thursday’s presented his latest data to Ellen: The Mama of them all School Overcrowding Task Black on Thursday, showing Force meeting organized by an estimated need for 1,000 BY JERRY TALLMER her place of birth as Chicago, her place would have had a fi eld day word- Assembly Speaker Sheldon additional seats by 2015, It must be at least 30 years ago that of death as Beth Israel Hospital in this painting it for us, Ellen Stewart’s ever- Silver. But the little that she Black made a verbal gaffe I went to visit Ellen Stewart at N.Y.U. city, and says she “spent her childhood increasing incandescence. did say made headlines and that riled up the entire edu- Hospital. She was all dolled up in years” between Chicago and the rather This farewell is being written sev- sparked outrage around the cation community. bed in a fancy pink and yellow ruffl ed smaller Alexandria, Louisiana, though eral days before a Mass for Ellen was to city. “Could we just have some nightgown. “Hello, honey,” she said I always thought it was the other way be held Monday morning January 17, Task force member Eric birth control for a while? It in that wonderful, inimitable, sharp- round, Louisiana fi rst — Geechee ter- at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Greenleaf, a business profes- would really help us all out,” edged, soft-core Geechee English that rain — then Chicago. and 50th Street — a most appropriate sor at New York University’s joked Black. now none of us will ever hear again. “I It was all a sort of mystery, an locale in the light of what Ellen, in a Stern School of Business, The comment was died twice since you saw me last.” unwritten — never-to-be-written — profi le by me in Thrive, had recalled a has done extensive research Well, three strikes is out — or Faulkner novel. But once — just once few years ago about her arrival in New on the population boom in Continued on page 8 maybe 53 strikes of terminating illness, — when she was letting drop a little York in 1950 as an unknown would-be all told, since then. Ellen Stewart, bit about her days in Chicago before fashion designer. the creator and lifelong prime mover coming to New York, she hit me with A cab driver had charged her EDITORIAL, of Off Off Broadway’s world-embrac- a sunny little s--t-eating Shirley Temple 50 bucks to take her from Grand ing La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental smile, and then: “Some people used to Central Station to the Hotel Theresa LETTERS Theatre Club), departed this earth late think me pretty, you know.” in Harlem, but Fidel Castro, as it hap- PAGE 12 Wednesday night or early Thursday Pretty? As my mother would have pens, had taken over the whole Hotel morning, January 13, 2011. said, Cleopatra isn’t in it. Sheer café- Theresa. Somehow she found another MENDEZ GETS She may have been 91. She may au-lait gorgeous is what Ellen was, hotel. have been more. Ellen wasn’t going and ever more so as the years went by “Monday morning the man on the TOUGH ON ASTHMA to tell you. The New York Times gives and the fragility burned ever brighter. PAGE 22 her birth date as November 7, 1919, Fragile — but oh my! Henry James Continued on page 4 145 SIXTH AVENUE • NYC 10013 • COPYRIGHT © 2011 COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC 2 January 20 - 26, 2011 ,IRQO\« ,FRXOGWXUQP\ ROGHOHFWURQLFV LQWRVRPHWKLQJ .L[@V\Y -YLL;:OPY[ JUHHQ -PUKV\[OV^ H[[OLL]LU[Z -YLL9HMÅL (SSYLJ`JSLYZ HYLLSPNPISL[V LU[LY[V^PU HUL^(WWSL 4HJ)VVR(PY Photo by Helayne Seidman A family member cried as she was taken in for questioning by police after a shoot- ing on E. Second St. near Avenue C on Jan. 12. L>HZ[L ;LUL>HZ[L,]LU[Z:WVUZVYLKI`;LRZLY]L POLICE BLOTTER >,(**,7;!>VYRPUN UVU^VYRPUNJVTW\[LYZTVUP[VYZ WYPU[LYZZJHUULYZRL`IVHYKZTPJLJHISLZ;=Z=*9Z+=+ accomplice, described as a black woman, WSH`LYZWOVULZH\KPV]PZ\HSLX\PWTLU[JLSSWOVULZ 7+(Z E. 2nd St. shooting between ages 35 and 40, in a red or orange coat with a hood, a dark hat and carrying 1HU\HY` ¶WT A family dispute in an apartment at 225 a purse, was acting as lookout, police said. E. Second St. around 9 a.m. Wed., Jan. 12, Anyone with information should call Crime :<5 <UPVU:X\HYL7HYR5VY[O7SHaH·4HUOH[[HU ended with gunfi re and a 33-year-old man Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or make in critical but stable condition at Bellevue a report online at www.nypdcrimestoppers. :(; ,HZ[YK:[)[^U:V\[OLYU )Y\JRULY·)YVU_ Hospital with a gunshot wound in the abdo- com or text to CRIMES (274637) and enter :(; )V^SPUN.YLLU7HYR)LH]LY:[·4HUOH[[HU men, police said. TIPS577. All calls are confi dential. :<5 8\LLUZ)V[HUPJHS.HYKLU7HYRPUN3V[·8\LLUZ The shooter, also male — identifi ed in a New York Post item as the victim’s cousin :(; ;LRZLY]L >LZ[YK:[YLL[·4HUOH[[HU — fl ed, police said. The victim, reportedly a Found shot in fi re :<5 7YVZWLJ[7HYR>LZ[YK:[·)YVVRS`U construction worker, was visiting a female rel- ative in the second-fl oor apartment between :(; 9PUN.HYKLU9P]LYZPKL+Y)[^U:LHTHU Avenues A and B when the shooting occurred, Firefi ghters found a man, 63, dead of )YVHK^H`·4HUOH[[HU police said. Police are investigating and there a gunshot wound to the head in the bath- :(; /HIHUH6\[WVZ[-\S[VU:[·)YVVRS`U were no arrests as of Tues., Jan. 18. room of his fourth-fl oor apartment at 362 E. 10th St. on the afternoon of Wed., Jan. :<5 3LUV_/PSS5LPNOIVYOVVK/V\ZL,[O:[· 12. The alarm came in at 2:49 p.m. and 4HUOH[[HU Woman thrown, mugged the fi re, confi ned to the fourth fl oor, was :<5 >LZ[UK:[)[^U*VS\TI\Z(]L )YVHK^H`· under control by 3:56 p.m. according to the Fire Department. The blaze was under 4HUOH[[HU Police are seeking public assistance in investigation but was believed to have locating a man and a woman wanted in started in the victim’s apartment. Police =PZP[[LRZLY]LJVTYLJ`JSPUNMVYTVYLPUMVYTH[PVU connection with a Sat., Jan. 8, mugging of said a .32-caliber revolver was recovered HUKSVJH[PVUKL[HPSZ a woman at 5:26 a.m. in front of 608 E. in the bathroom where the victim, Mike Ninth St. between Avenues A and B. The Zecchino, was found. The victim, a resident -69(33;/05.:(773, man grabbed the victim, 26, from behind, of the apartment for 30 years, is believed 4HJP7HK P7VK /RZHU(DVW6LGH demanded her bag, threw her to the pave- to have committed suicide. He was said to :HSLZ (JJLZZVYPLZ ment and fl ed with the bag, police said. be a hoarder whose disorderly apartment :LTPUHYZc7YVMLZZPVUHS :`Z[LTZMVY=PKLV(\KPV (FRORJ\&HQWHU The mugger was described as a black man was crammed with various articles. The HUK[OL.YHWOPJ(Y[Z between ages 35 and 45, wearing a dark Offi ce of the Chief Medical Examiner was knit cap with white trim, a gray hooded >9+:;9,,; ;,2:,9=,*64 jacket and a long coat with fur trim. His Continued on page 6 January 20 - 26, 2011 3 Lumpur, Malaysia. She’s volunteering there with a group called eHomemakers — urban women who make baskets out SCOOPY’S of discarded newspapers and magazines and sell them to sup- port their families. Skouras, who is also an N.Y.U. graduate, will be in Malaysia from Jan.