The first time I met Oneika Mays was in the sanctuary of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. A quartet of musicians from the New York Philharmonic was playing a Mozart sonata, and between movements Oneika spoke about how metta—the Hindu and Buddhist practice of offering loving kindness to all beings—is like sharing a […]
Gwendoline Riley broke boundaries when she came out with her sort of existentialist, prize-winning novel, Cold Water, at age 22. Cold Water is full of humor that is wry, dark, and dry, and narrated by a young woman working in a distinctly American-style bar in Manchester. Gwendoline Riley herself worked in such a Manchester bar and
Book:s THE PALM HOUSE, by Gwendoline Riley Read More »
Bowery Poetry (formerly known as The Bowery Poetry Club) is being reimagined, according to Bob Holman. Possibly America’s most well-known poet, due to his extensive presence on PBS over the years, Holman is the founder of Bowery Poetry and the author of 20 volumes of poetry. Though he is a globetrotter and champion of endangered
DOWNTOWN IN THE BOHEMIAN CONTINUUM Read More »
Like many people in lower Manhattan, David Siffert has grown tired of the New York State’s legislature failure to address the concerns of his community. He’s long been a community activist, but running for public office was a new idea. “I’ve just gotten tired of waiting,” he says. When Assembly Member Deborah Glick decided not
Op-Ed: Impatience is a Virtue, by Edward Yutkowitz Read More »
Last week Mayor Mamdani released his “Block by Block: The Housing Plan for A New Era” which aims to support, with public and private financing, the construction of 200,000 new “affordable” (a term largely undefined) homes and preservation of another 200,000 lower income and rent stabilized units over the next decade in NYC. The Plan
As temperatures rise with the coming of summer, so too do political tensions as primary day approaches. On June 23, voters will head to the polls and decide who will carry their party’s nominations for November’s races. Due to the high density of registered Democrats, these primary elections are usually more competitive than November’s. The
Whitman: The lower Manhattan primary field this year Read More »
Political meet-and-greets are a funny hybrid, with two separate goals folded into one gathering. You go to get to know a candidate who may be only vaguely on your radar, and an hour or two later the campaign manager is passing out palm cards and pointing to the QR code that leads you straight to
Meet-and-Greet and Assess and Vote Read More »
Public housing must remain public. The name really says it all. This should not be a radical idea. It should be the municipal equivalent of “water is wet.” And yet, after forty years of historic disinvestment in housing, the assault is shifting. It is no longer only the housing that is being assailed. It is
The Budget Line That Ate Public Housing Read More »
In 1948 Allen Ginsberg wrote Jack Kerouac “Don’t you see we both suffer. That’s really the basis of our friendship.” The Beats brought suffering to the surface. In the 1970s we were a people defined and united by our pain. The more you suffered the cooler you were, like those kids in high school who
ROOTS OF THE BEAT PUNK GENERATION, PART ONE Read More »
Three years ago, my friend Vittoria Fariello approached me. She wanted to tell me about a bill she was advocating for. She knew I was generally inclined to support labor issues, civil rights, and human rights. She told me the bill introduced by Council Member Christopher Marte, would make it illegal for home-care attendants to
Schrödinger’s Home-Care Aide Read More »
