East Villager • Jan. 7, 2016 by Schneps Media

The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown

January 7, 2016 • FREE Volume 5 • Number 23

In New Year’s tragedy, aspiring rapper is killed by Grand St. elevator BY YANNIC RACK

Bronx man was crushed to death by a faulty elevator in a building on the Lower East Side moments before the rest of the city joined to ring in the new year. Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, an aspiring rapper, was reportedly heading to a

New Year’s Eve celebration in the building when he stepped into an elevator at 131 Broome St. shortly before midnight on Dec. 31. When the elevator suddenly got stuck between floors, Hewett-Brown helped one of the tenants in the building, Erudi Sanchez, get out of it ELEVATOR continued on p. 23

Arcane process to pick Shelly Silver successor favors district leaders BY JOSH ROGERS

o who is going to be picking the successor to Shelly Silver, the former assemblymember who was convicted last month on corruption charges? If you are following the story, you already know it won’t be voters. Members of the Democratic County

Committee from Silver’s 65th Assembly District in Lower Manhattan will effectively crown the next legislator early next year when they select the nominee for the April 19 special election. But at least the public can easily see who the committee members are, right? SILVER continued on p. 5

The colorful world of Mr. Peeps...page 19 | May 14, 2014

David Lloyd Wilkie, the future Adam Purple a.k.a Rev Les Ego, in an early photo, possibly from high school, sent by his daughter Jenean.

The dark side of Purple BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

his is a true story…. I was born in Missouri in 1955. For the first 12 years of my life, I was held captive, and systematically brainwashed. I was indoctrinated and trained to be a sex slave. …” So began a woman’s monologue, entitled “Coming Out,” performed on Sept. 4 on the stage of an improv theater somewhere in the Northwest. Stagehands held up two large cardboard rectangles, each with a drawing on it

— one downstage, showing a young girl, the other upstage, a woman. As the narrator, hidden from view, spoke during the five-minute piece, several people first circled the drawing of the girl while holding up small signs with quotes, such as “Daddy loves you,” “Let the nice man kiss it,” “You like that don’t you!” “Let them watch, honey,” and “If it hurts use vaseline.” The woman went on to talk about how, as a young child, she was given pornography and sex toys, and taught to masturbate and achieve orgasm.

“It was part of daily life,” she said. “Everyone in the household participated. … We were posed and photographed. We were entertainment at parties and orgies. … It was my childhood reality. … “We moved from place to place, frequently and suddenly. This kept us isolated. … I did not know how to play or interact with others outside the home. … Instead, I was told that my purpose, my reason for existing, was to provide sexual pleasure for whoever wanted it.” The cardboard picture of PURPLE continued on p. 8

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THROWS DOWN GAUNTLET: Backing up his tough words against Assemblymember Deborah Glick in recent years, District Leader Arthur Schwartz has finally bitten the bullet. An article in the New York Observer last week announced that he has decided to challenge the longtime incumbent in this September’s Democratic primary election. Keep tuned for our coverage of this Village political throwdown in next week’s issue. CANCEL RUNNING? District Leader Alice Cancel was nominated to run for Assembly at the Three Kings party at Southbridge Towers on Wednesday evening, with her co-District Leader Pedro Cardi making the initial announcement at the party. That would pretty much lock up the key County Committee members from the Lower East Side Democratic Club, who are the coveted swing votes to pick the nominee. Despite repeated rumblings that Cancel would be running, her husband, State Commiteeman John Quinn, had repeatedly told us that she wasn’t interested...but, well... . “If my community wants me to serve, I’ll serve,” she said Wednesday night. From the sound of it, Cancel would also be a favorite at Grand St.’s Truman Club, where District Leader Paul Newell is still on the outs for running against Shelly Silver back in 2008. And yet another candidate has thrown his hat into the ring for the special election in the 65th Assembly District. John Bal, a longtime resident of Kenmare St. in Little Italy, says he wants to succeed the deposed Assembly Speaker Silver in representing Lower Manhattan. A former new York City police officer and Queens community board youth services coordinator, Bal ran against Silver about 25 years ago and said he got about 1,000 votes. Like others, he

PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY

District Leader Alice Cancel with her granddaughter Olivia at Wednesday night’s Three Kings party at Southbridge Towers.

said he’s very dissatisfied with the County Committee process that is unfolding to pick the Democratic nominee for the expected April 19 special election. He called us from, of all places, Thailand, where he said he hopes eventually to help out the locals. First, however, he is learning Thai in order to do that. “This is how I spend a lot of my vacations,” he said of his altruistic globetrotting. In addition, a meeting on Thursday about the County Committee process, which we’re told was to be closed to everyone except the eight local district leaders and the hopeful candidates, has abruptly been canceled — perhaps due to outrage that it was so closed and secretive! Meanwhile, another possible candidate, Don B. Lee, back from a trip abroad — apparently not Thailand! — told us he is still testing the waters. The Battery Park City resident assured us that, despite rumors, he was not once a registered Republican. “I never was — that’s just a myth,” he said. “I’ve been labeled worse.”

John Bal ran against Shelly Silver 25 years ago — and now wants his former seat.

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E.V. still among tops for chain stores Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005 by New York Press Association Editorials, First Place, 2014 Overall Design Excellence, First Place, 2013 Best Column, First Place, 2012 Photographic Excellence, First Place, 2011 Spot News Coverage, First Place, 2010 Coverage of Environment, First Place, 2009

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The Villager (USPS 578930) ISSN 0042-6202 is published every week by NYC Community Media LLC, One Metrotech North, 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 (212) 229-1890. Periodicals Postage paid at New York, N.Y. Annual subscription by mail in Manhattan and Brooklyn $29 ($35 elsewhere). Single copy price at office and newsstands is $1. The entire contents of newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2016 NYC Community Media LLC.

BY YANNIC RACK

he growth of chain stores in Manhattan slowed down this year, but the East Village remains one of the neighborhoods with the highest amount of chain retail outlets citywide, according to a new report. Placing third citywide on the Center for an Urban Future’s annual State of the Chains report, the 10003 zip code — which stretches between First and Fifth Aves. from 20th St. to north of Houston St. — boasted 163 chain stores in 2015, down by one from the previous year. That area includes part of the East Village, Union Square, Gramercy and part of the Washington Square district. Over all, growth in chain store locations across the city slowed down over the last year, with a 1 percent increase in the number of national retail locations compared to a 2.5 percent gain over the previous year — giving a sliver of hope to small businesses in areas that have seen many priced out in recent years. “It was very interesting to see that [the number of chain stores] is going down,” said Carol Crump, the managing director of the East Village Community Coalition, which has been working to save independent businesses in the neighborhood. “The East Village is a very attractive place but at the same time it’s one of the most vulnerable places, because we actually do have quite a bit of a community feeling and a very high number of small businesses,” she said. The coalition publishes a Get Local Guide every year — this year’s is the ninth edition — to promote local businesses, and it is working to establish an East Village Independent Merchants Association with grant money from the city’s Department of Small Business Services. Crump said the slowing trend of chain dominance reinforced what she has been noticing in the neighborhood. “I think people are really starting to love and appreciate the small businesses more, at least our local community,” she said. “But we do have a lot of influx,

FILE PHOTO

Starbucks is the leader in the number of chain stores in Manhattan, with 220 locations.

and it’s really important because the tourists that come don’t come to see a chain store.” Other nearby zip codes saw a jump in chain store locations, with the 10009 area — which covers the East Village east of First Ave. — seeing five new openings this year to reach a total of 30 (a 20 percent increase from the previous year), and the Lower East Side and

Chinatown, located in zip code 10002, registering one new location for a total of 48 (an increase of 2 percent). Greenwich Village and Soho, in zip code 10012, remained stable from the past year, with 114 chain locations. Starbucks leads the pack in Manhattan over all, with a whopping 220 locations across the borough, followed by Duane Reade / Walgreens and Subway.

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January 7, 2016

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Squadron pushes for reforming special elections SILVER continued from p. 1

Well, no. The city’s Board of Elections quickly sent The Villager its most complete list when this reporter asked this week, and presumably would do the same for anyone else, too, but the list is not readily available online. Even more disturbing than that, however, is that the names of some members filling vacancies on the committee may stay hidden from the public before the anointment. Cathleen McCadden, executive director of the Manhattan Democratic County Committee, said it is up to the local Democratic district leaders to fill vacancies, and many prefer not to release the names. “It’s the only power that they have,” she told me. Indeed one Downtown Democratic district leader, who was inclined to send me the most up-to-date list, told me there was resistance from fellow district leaders. But the County Committee’s leaders, if they were inclined, could also get the names to the public if they wanted. They don’t. There are 39 listed vacancies for the district’s 196 seats on the County Committee. Most members are not well known, but there are others who have

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been active in the community or in local politics, such as Virginia Kee in Chinatown, John Fratta in the Seaport, Diem Boyd on the Lower East Side and Tom Goodkind in Battery Park City. Perhaps the most noteworthy person on the committee is Judy Rapfogel, who was Silver’s chief of staff for the two decades he was Assembly speaker. There have been many calls over the years to let voters play the central role in filling legislative vacancies, but McCadden said there’s nothing wrong with the current system, particularly in this case, since the new incumbent will likely face a Democratic primary next September, only five months after taking office. “They’ll only be in office for a hot second,” she said, explaining that, in Albany, “it takes a long time to amass any kind of power.” She did acknowledge, however, that the winner will be able to reach his or her new constituents with taxpayer-funded mailings. Susan Lerner, executive director with Common Cause New York, which has long backed more-democratic ways to fill vacancies, said “even a short [term] incumbent is able to arrange things within their district for an advantage.” The current system “denies voters a real choice,” she added. Lower Manhattan is overwhelmingly Democratic,

tions of two of Albany’s “Three Men in a Room” — Silver and former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. The new bills would certainly be less costly than holding a primary and special election, and one nonpartisan special election might attract a higher turnout rate than holding two elections. But Rosenthal did not hold out much hope for passage in 2016. It may just be a matter of time as more beneficiaries see the problem. Two of the four candidates to replace Silver, Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar, have an advantage in the race since they are district leaders and have helped form the committee to decide their fate. They will also likely fill some of the remaining vacancies, but both said in interviews this week that they supported a more democratic way to fill vacancies. (As The Villager has reported in recent weeks, Yuh-Line Niou and Don B. Lee, are the other two who so far have expressed strong interest in running.) Both Rajkumar and Newell said the winner would likely have an advantage when she or he runs for re-election in September, but neither thought that was definite. “On the other hand, that’s four days [a week] in Albany and less time speaking with Lower Manhattanites,” Newell said.

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so the Republican nominee stands little chance to win. One of the reasons there has been no reform, Lerner said, is that so many state legislators first get into office through a special election and are reluctant to change a system in which they benefitted. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal from the Upper West Side is the exception. She won the political insider game in 2006, but saw the problem with the system. “When I did run for the vacancy, a lot of people were disgruntled by the process,” Rosenthal, a former County Committee member, said this week. Soon after taking office, she sponsored legislation that would require a primary and special election to fill a vacancy but it went nowhere. This session she and state Senator Daniel Squadron of Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn are sponsoring similar bills that would set up nonpartisan special elections to fill Assembly and state Senate vacancies. Candidates would collect signatures to get on the ballot. “It’s a big concern that the process to fill vacancies is so complicated and obscure, especially after the year Albany’s had,” Squadron said in a statement, making a clear reference to the federal convic-

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January 7, 2016

Muhammad Shahidullah, center, was joined by state Senator Brad Hoylman, right, and local religious leaders at Madina Masjid, at E. 11th St. and First Ave., for an interfaith service.

‘We support you,’ pol, clerics assure mosque BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

ocal religious leaders and state Senator Brad Hoylman joined an interfaith service at the East Village’s Madina Masjid last month to show solidarity with Muslims in the face of the angry rhetoric coming out of the Republican presidential campaign. Muhammad Shahidullah of the E. 11th St. mosque led the service. Anthony Donovan, an advocate for forging ties between the neighborhood’s religious communities, said the area’s spiritual leaders had come there to show their support. “In these times [with] this injustice and the words that we hear, know that we are together,” Donovan told the gathering, as they sat listening on the mosque’s floor. “We stand up together with you. This is not your challenge. It is not a Muslim challenge. It is our challenge. It is something that we are all working against.” “We have our neighbors,” Shahidullah said. “They’re always with us when we face this kind of calamity.” He noted that Islam has been in America since the beginning. “If you trace the history…Muslims served in Washington’s army and they fought against the British colonialists,” he said. “This country is the land of the immigrant.” Shahidullah said he was happy that members of a nearby church had led the push to take down an ad on the corner that showed a lot of skin and offended local worshipers. “Some of our sisters from another church, Seventh St. I believe — you see that commercial on the side on the corner,” he said. “Three years ago there was a commercial that was almost naked. These sisters came forward to call the company to take it down. Since then we don’t see any nudity on the commercial on the side.” Hoylman in his remarks blasted efforts to restrict immigration based on religious grounds. “We talk about religious texts, I’m going to talk about another text, the

U.S. Constitution,” he said. “We’re all Americans, and the strength of our nation, our city and the East Village, lies in the diversity and talents of each and every one of us. We need you. We support you,” he told the Muslim congregants. “You are the essence of our strength. We will continue to surround you with love, support and most of all, solidarity.” In a follow-up statement, the senator said, “It’s important during this time that New Yorkers show their support for religious and ethnic diversity, which has helped make our city great, and in particular our Muslim community, which is being targeted by hatemongers for partisan political advantage. I’m outraged that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would suggest a religious test for immigration into our country. It’s unconstitutional and runs directly counter to the founding principles of our nation.” Bud Courtney from the Catholic Worker noted he had just fed scores of people at the group’s East Village soup kitchen before coming to the interfaith service. “We pray for peace, We pray for love,” he said. “This country once was great and can be great, if we learn to love one another.” Other religious leaders at the event, most of whom also spoke, included Rabbi Larry Sebert of Town and Village Synagogue; Fathers Christopher Calin and Michael Suvak of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral Protection Holy Virgin; Father Sean McGullicutty of Holy Redeemer / Nativity Catholic Church; Rabbi Gavriel Bellino of Sixth Street Community Synagogue; Reverend Chad T. Pack of Middle Collegiate Church, and Father David Kossey of St. Mary’s Church. In addition, in another interfaith event, members of various local religious congregations will gather on Sun., Jan. 31, for the Seventh Annual Spiritual Sounds, a free concert, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, at 131 E. 10th St. at Second Ave. EastVillagerNews.com

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The dark side of Purple: Gardens icon dies PURPLE continued from p. 1

the woman was now brought downstage and the picture of the little girl removed offstage, as the woman spoke about her adulthood and reclaiming her life after a childhood of sexual abuse. “For 30 years I fought it, decades of recovery work,” she said. “One by one, I rejected every lie I’d been forced to live… Free of the brainwashing, I began to feel and notice a new playfulness and a desire to connect with people on a personal level.” The people now circled the figure with signs saying, “Party girl,” “12-stepper,” “Waitress,” “Mother,” “Wife,” “Teacher,” “Caseworker,” “Staff member.” She spoke of moving cross-country, finding a home in an “intentional community” where, at last, a man she found that she could relate to held her hand and told her, “I see you. I see you.” “Those words set that little girl free. .. And here she is. She is me. That girl is me,” declared a white-haired woman wearing a microphone headset as she emerged from behind the cardboard rectangle. A tall bearded stagehand looking like a biker dropped the cardboard rectangle and held up a sign saying, “May all human beings be free from suffering,” and the beaming narrator pointed at it. As the audience broke into applause, the woman, clapping along, too, happily shouted above the noise, “It’s possible to heal!” before walking offstage. The name of the woman’s father, which was not spoken during the piece? David Lloyd Wilkie, better known as Adam Purple, a.k.a. the godfather of the urban community gardening movement.

Dies two days later She posted the video of the performance for public view on YouTube on Sept. 12. Two days later, Purple was biking across the Williamsburg Bridge when he suddenly collapsed and died of a heart attack. He was 84. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner gave his cause of death as heart disease — hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The Villager broke the news of Purple’s death in an article on Sept. 15. The report noted that Purple’s friends in New York City were having a hard time locating his family members to deal with the burial and other affairs.

January 7, 2016

A photo from Dec. 1966 of David Lloyd Wilkie at age 36 in Australia, perhaps on a boat or ferry. “For Jenean and Lenore — with my love, Lloyd,” he wrote on the back.

‘I read “The Kinsey Report” when I was age 10.’ Jenean “We’re here! We do exist!” the woman announced when she called The Villager after having read the article a day after its publication. But she soon revealed details of her painful experience of being abused by Purple, abuse she said that was shared by her younger sister and two stepsisters.

Sentenced to prison

In fact, when he was in his mid-30s during the 1960s, Purple was sentenced to two years in jail — and served at least nine months behind bars — in Australia for attacking one of his stepdaughters, after which he was deported from that country. While Purple is a symbol of environmental sustainability in New York and even around the globe, this dark chapter of his earlier life is known by few other than his immediate family. However, the woman said she wants the story to be told now in the hope that it will help others like

Adam Purple may have later claimed to be a member of the Intergalactic Psychic Police of Uranus, but in the early 1950s David Lloyd Wilkie worked for the U.S. Army news service.

her who are battling to overcome the crippling effects of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. “He really destroyed the lives of the children that were living with him,” she said. “He was pretty psychotic, it went beyond abuse. We, literally all of us, have struggled all our lives, those of us who knew him PURPLE continued on p. 9 EastVillagerNews.com

right after daughter posts video on sex abuse ‘You can keep it’

PURPLE continued from p. 8

and were affected by him. In his early years, he was really whacked out. He did LSD — a lot.” Told that The Villager was working on the article on the counterculture icon, longtime local activists reacted with a mix of disdain, concern and, in some cases, encouragement. “You’re going to kick him after he’s dead?” one local journalist responded disapprovingly during the memorial at La Plaza Cultural for Purple. “Just write something small and keep it vague,” cautioned another local journo. “You better really check that out carefully before you print anything,” urged a former squatter who said she used to know Purple when they were both “on the scene.” However, one longtime activist said, “It’s the truth, the people should know.” Another said, “It’s the truth… . People are building him up [to be a hero].” A cycling activist, told generally of the sordid story of what Purple did in the past, paused for a moment, then offered, “I can see that.”

Adam Purple, a new father again at age 52, in April 1982 with his only son, also named Adam, almost age 2, amid a riot of tulips in the Garden of Eden on Forsyth St.

‘Trained to perform’ “We were trained to perform. We were toys, not people to be loved,” the woman told The Villager. “In my piece I used ‘sex slave’ because the term ‘incest’ is so watered-down. It happened daily, until he went to prison. It was part of daily life, like coffee or cigarettes. At any time it could happen, at the dining room table, friends coming over, anytime, anywhere. A friend would come over, and who knew where that would lead. He called it ‘diddle’ whenever he would touch us. …” Asked what specifically Purple did to them or had them do, she said, “Oh, everything — that’s what we were about — our purpose. He trained us, with pornography magazines, films, comics. I read ‘The Kinsey Report’ when I was age 10.” Recalling another incident that scarred her, she said Purple once, using a lathe, made a bunch of dildos from wooden dowel rods in different sizes and shapes, then varnished them and hung them up to dry on a clothesline in the basement, then brought the prepubescent girls down to see them as they hung there. “We all got to pick one,” she said. “And then he showed us… . To this day, I cannot smell vaseline — it’s blocked.” She said she and even more so EastVillagerNews.com

Anne, Eve No. 2, in the Garden of Eden with their son.

her older stepsister, who was about a half year older than her, “received the most attention” from Purple. Purple was also part of the “swingers” subculture and an “orgy cult,” she said, where pretty much anything went, sexually speaking. She shared her story with The Villager in a number of phone interviews — and a collection of letters, family photos and documents pertaining to Purple that she mailed to

the newspaper — on condition that only her first name, Jenean, be used and that where she lives not be divulged. She even included in her package a rare copy of Purple’s “Zentences,” a handmade mini-flipbook of Zen koans that he personally inscribed for her. He originally made 600 of the books in Australia. One is in the New York Public Library’s Rare Books Division.

She basically sent everything she had that related to her father. “I just want to get rid of it. You can keep it,” she said. “I don’t want any of it back.” Purple’s friends in New York called her, after The Villager provided her contact number, to see if she wanted to help pay for the burial, but she declined. Jenean, who worked in the mental health field, said not long ago she finally figured out for herself that what she had was complex post-traumatic stress disorder — a recent addition to the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” “I put the pieces of the puzzle together for myself,” she said. Jenean sent The Villager about 10 letters to her from her father, including a colored-in hippie block letters birthday card signed “daddy” in 1969, other letters in the 1970s and early ’80s signed “david,” and, finally, one in 1985 on which his signature, at that point, had evolved into “adam david.” Purple was a former journalist and the letters are eloquently written. “If you wish to have any contact-relationship with me, i want to know exactly what you want — & i shall do my best to be-do just what you want,” he wrote her in a birthday note he sent from 321 E. 12th St. in 1968 when she was 13. After being deported from Australia, David Lloyd Wilkie briefly bounced around Haight-Ashbury, his daughter said, before landing on the Lower East Side in 1968. There he eventually took on his Adam Purple moniker and soon, dressed in purple tie-dye clothes, was living with a new wife, fittingly, called Eve, and working on creating his magnificent Garden of Eden, which at its height spanned five abandoned city lots. One newspaper clip from 1976 that his daughter sent referred to him cryptically as the “Riddle Man.”

Children of Eden “dearest jenean,” he wrote her on Jan. 3, 1979, when she was 24, “how utterly words fail me. none would express the quiet joy your letter brought me on a cold winter day. soon you will be half my age. your new sister was just two months old on new year’s day — having been born on november first at about sunrise (fortunate was i to be able to be present to witness a real miracle), she seemed naturally a nova dawn. her PURPLE continued on p. 10 January 7, 2016

Before the Garden of Eden, legend’s daughters enough so I took a walk to Greenwich Village and got in the wrong crowd. But I want to say that the first thing he did when I got there was to give me an enema. Really!! “So I spent the first part of the summer of my 16th year working in David’s garden and sleeping in Adam and Eve’s bed, not sleeping while they screwed and hoping they didn’t ask me to join in. Even Eve after she got pregnant wasn’t happy with David because he wouldn’t let her eat enough and especially non-macrobiotic items like eggs, cheese and milk, while she needed them. She left him, when I first went back in my 19th year and spent the whole summer working in the garden for/with David, but he finally insisted my tobacco go or I go, so I went.”

PURPLE continued from p. 9

mother, diane, and I have been together for about seven years — not a record, perhaps, but a good average.” (This letter refers to Nova Dawn, his third daughter, who he had with Eve. A year and a half later, on July 13, 1980, his only son, Adam David, was born by a different woman, Anne, who was also called Eve. Adam currently lives in Beijing, China, where he teaches English. Formerly, he was a Hasidic rabbi living in Brooklyn — his mother had Jewish ancestry. He did not want to be quoted in this article and asked that his last name not be used. Eve No. 1 reportedly now lives Upstate.) In the letter, Purple goes on to say how he was currently writing an article for Garden magazine about his Garden of Eden. “Remember how we used to glean horse manure from the pasture of the kurmond property?” he reminisced. “well, the circular Garden now represents seven tons of horseshit spread about five inches deep, etc. hopefully, there is no bullshit about this Garden!”

Growing the garden On May 8, 1980, he typed in red ink with occasional black letters interspersed seemingly randomly throughout the letter, “dearest jenean, a light rain is falling this morning, so i’ll try to get this note off to you before my dental appointment… . tuesday & wednesday i planted about 240 bulbs (dahlia, lily, begonia & gladioli) liberated from automated bulb factories in holland (bill me later!). all orange in the six sections of the third circle of The Garden. … so far, I have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, cauliflower, onions, lettuce, peppers, broccoli, carrots and beets. about 12 of some 20 trees (apple, pear, nectarine & black walnut) from a ‘bill me later’ nursery have begun to leaf out.” At the end of an Oct. 2, 1983, letter, he quipped (seemingly) about marrying her: “idle irony dept.: if you were free to do so, etc., what legal restraint would there be against us marrying inasmuch as you are not legally my daughter. it might make a polemic plot for funny fiction of unintentional irony. who knows, the legal restraints against incest might not apply…funny, huh?” He opened another letter to jenean, dated “the ides of march 1984,” with, “time out while i get stoned….” going on later, to muse, “you may wake up some morning and realize you were born a zen-taoist-anarchist in

January 7, 2016

‘An insane genius’ A photograph of Purple in a magazine profile, showing him scooping up horse manure in Central Park to fertilize the soil in his Garden of Eden.

a neo-fascist culture which perverts the former into itself. … the crocuses have been up blooming since the warmth of february & the roses are carelessly shooting out branch buds. … the tulips are greening too. …” He signed off, “must quit this to saw wood & rinse the sprouts & then get out to enjoy the sunshine.”

himself as the wrecking ball loomed over his urban oasis. A few weeks after Jenean’s first phone call to The Villager, her younger sister, Lenore, mailed her own package of Purple letters and documents to the newspaper. Yet, unlike her older sister, she did not want to talk on the phone, according to Jenean. “She was more seriously affected,” Jenean said. “She’s even more adamant about putting it behind her. Lenore ran away. She was on the streets young. She’s been beaten, battered, raped, jailed.”

‘We are survivors and there are more like us.’ Lenore

Pining for country life Finally, in a letter from Nov. 29, 1985, only about a month before the city finally bulldozed his beloved Garden of Eden to clear the way for a public housing project, Purple wrote to Jenean of how he was awaiting a federal appeals court’s decision on the garden’s fate. He added that their children — Jenean by now had a son of her own, Steve — should “do some or a lot of country living,” noting he had grown up in the country himself. “if I’m going to saw wood for winter heat, i’d just as well be in the country woods?” he wrote, apparently yearning a bit for the country life

Living with Purple Lenore put down her thoughts about her father in a fivepage handwritten letter to The Villager. (These two daughters and the sole grandson all usually refer to Purple as David.) She described her father as “non-caring, thinking life is a bunch of games, wanting to do everything his way.” The sisters returned to America after three years in Australia. “When I was 16 I wanted to know my, ‘loosely,’ Dad, I say now physical Father, and he sent Eve Purple to find me and I was planning a runaway from a group home I was in,” Lenore wrote. “I lived with Adam and Eve Purple for the 1st part of the summer. He didn’t feed me

Summing up her dad, Lenore wrote, “He’s hard, he plays, and he wants his way. He was an insane genius of our times. Unfortunately, one with a dark past, which he hid because it did not purpose his desires. He’d always loved gardening. When we were young, he taught us reading, gardening and love for telling stories. His IQ was almost off the charts. Let’s let it go at that. “I’ve almost recovered at 57, started recovery at age 50,” Lenore continued. “It’s been a lifetime of invisibility, confusion and suffering the symptoms of mental illness. It was in the genes on both sides of the family. “We are survivors and there are more like us — not caring to continue the long line of generational sexual abuse perpetrated on us.” Lenore added that an adoption record she enclosed “is to prove, contrary to what Adam Purple / David Lloyd wrote in his literature he passed out in Central Park, that [Jenean] and I were not abducted, he just lost custody.”

Trouble Down Under Jenean and Lenore lived with Purple and his second wife, Romola, after they moved to Australia, where Purple worked as a journalism teacher. Their birth mother had earlier been institutionalized back in America. They frequently moved, which Jenean said was “what you do when your dad’s a pervert.” The National Archives of Australia confirmed that David Lloyd Wilkie and his family immigrated to Australia in 1964. Due to “legislative issues” — because he died less than PURPLE continued on p. 11 EastVillagerNews.com

say their lives were an abusive hell on earth PURPLE continued from p. 10

30 years ago — the New South Wales Police Force Information Access Unit could not provide details confirming Purple’s arrest, jail sentence and deportation. However, according to an Australian court document that each sister provided her own copy of to The Villager, in July 1966, when Jenean was 12 and Lenore 10, Romola turned Purple into the police for having allegedly sexually assaulted the oldest of the two stepsisters twice when she was 11, first when they were living in Rooty Hill, a Sydney suburb, on Sept. 12, 1965, and then on July 20, 1966, in Kurmond. In both cases, Purple allegedly assaulted the girl and then immediately after “further committed an act of indecency on her,” according to the court document. The court record — “Wilkie v Wilkie,” from June 26, 1967 — by which time Purple was serving his prison sentence at Long Bay Penitentiary, in Sydney, details the judgment in a custody battle between the stepmother and Purple over Jenean and Lenore, which the stepmother won. “At the present time, he is under sentence of two years’ imprisonment which was imposed on him with a non-parole period of some nine months,” Supreme Court Justice Colin Elly Begg stated in his written ruling.

‘He will say anything’ At one point, the document shows Begg frustratedly saying of Purple, “I would not accept the word of the respondent at all on any matter unless it was completely and fully corroborated by unimpeached external evidence. I doubt very much if he really understands the sanctity of an oath.” At another point, he stated, “The impression Wilkie gave me is that he is a man who will say anything to suit his own convenience.” To illustrate how Purple wouldn’t tell the truth, Begg referred to “a certain vulgar placard” in Purple’s home that two witnesses, a doctor and his wife who had visited him, testified about in court. “One of them said [Purple] spoke of how he had got this placard and had told them in the letter he had sent to America for the placard he had referred to a description of himself as the Rev. D.L. Wilkie,” Begg wrote. “He also told them he had been visited by authorities from the Postal Department.” However, Purple denied in court that he had ordered the placard, inPURPLE continued on p. 20 EastVillagerNews.com

PHOTOS BY CHRIS ORTIZ AND LINCOLN ANDERSON

Adam Purple was very proud of his mini-flipbook “Zentences.” The pages are split in half on the top and bottom, allowing innumerable combinations forming Zen koans, or paradoxes to be meditated upon, offering intuitive insight, and simply amusement. He originally made 600 of them when he was in Australia. This rare existing copy was inscribed to his daughter Jenean. But she sent it to The Villager and said to keep it, since associations with her father are filled with dark memories for her. She sent the book as it was originally sent to her, wrapped in a swatch of light burlap underneath a piece of cellophane and fastened with masking tape. Purple’s grandson, Steve Mason, created a sort of automated “Zentences” online, which can be found at http://phenomenon.org/ intense/zentences, and which is also available on the Web site http://www.zentences.com . January 7, 2016

Of heartbreak and hope; We can’t lose Theatre 80 TALKING POINT BY ALAN KAUFMAN

ast April, a broken heart brought me back to the East Village. While on a book tour in Europe I had met a Berlin writer with whom I fell deeply in love. Trapped in a dead marriage, she flew to me in San Francisco where for months we lived warmly together and made plans to relocate to Manhattan. But at the last possible moment, without warning, she returned to her loveless Berlin life and I, completely shattered, landed here alone. That month, a gas line illegally tapped by a greedy landlord exploded on First Ave. and E. Seventh St., killing two people and injuring 140 others. The media called it “The East Village 9/11.” Each day I walked past the ruins where locals stood in shock, some weeping. In a way,

the building’s charred remains resembled my own torched insides. I knew that the only chance to get free of my pain was to try and help those who had suffered loss greater than my own. I went to Lorcan Otway, owner of Theatre 80 St. Mark’s, with the idea to hold a relief benefit concert for the East Village fire victims. Without hesitation, he agreed. In five furious days I organized the event. On all sides of me help appeared: Jim Storm, Clayton Patterson, Isaac Hindin-Miller, Roderick Romero, Jackie Rudin, Jennifer Pugh and so many others. On April 12, to a sold-out audience in Theatre 80 St. Marks, Patti Smith and a broad array of local talents, including David Peel and The Lower East Side, Jesse Malin, Chris Riffle, Mollie King, On-ka Davis, The Bowery Boys, Tammy Faye Starlight and others, performed a historic concert, to which everyone from Sting and Yoko Ono to Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam and Gertrude Stein of The Boris Lurie Foundation donated close to $50,000. It all went to GOLES (Good Old Lower East

Side) to assist the very worst cases affected by the disaster. And what did Lorcan get? Not a cent. He got what I got: a bettered heart. What he helped me to do, with the devoted help of his lovely wife, Jeannie, was to allow community to respond creatively to tragedy. What he did was to offer his stage for healing to occur for all of us. He upheld a belief I share that New York City really is and always will be about being one big crazy family where talented people somehow help each other to go on, endure, creatively thrive, live their dreams. I know that Lorcan fights each day to keep his theater’s doors open, despite the radical changes going on around it. For he knows that so many individuals depend upon his efforts. He has turned the place into a humane communal hub for Off Broadway theater, recovery meetings, a congenial tavern for after-hours fellowship and even a Museum of the American Gangster. (Before becoming Theatre 80, the building had been a mobster hideout.) Imagine if it were sold off, if

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Where’s Eleanor plaque? To The Editor: I walked by 20 E. 11th St. earlier today, and I did not see the plaque informing us that Eleanor Roosevelt had lived there. Eleanor Roosevelt moved to Manhattan in 1933, the year her husband was inaugurated, and lived at 20 E. 11th St, a row house, as a plaque on the building informs us. In 1942 she moved to 29 Washington Square West, an apartment house, where another

plaque informs us she lived until 1949. Eleanor lived in New York City with her girlfriend, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt lived in Washington with his girlfriend. This is an important part of history. Was the 11th St. plaque removed temporarily because of repairs? I don’t know. I certainly hope it comes back soon. Everybody should be able to know where the former first lady lived after the inauguration of her husband. George Jochnowitz

IRA BLUTREICH

greedy developers were to build in its stead yet another faceless and unaffordable glass-and-steel condo-hive, peddled off to overseas investors who will purchase them for their kids to drop in on two weeks of a year for epic vomitous drunks on Avenue A. Such tenants leave the flats empty for the rest of the year. That’s how San Francisco has been made into a ghost town. I know: I’ve lived through it. New York is fast getting there. To lose Theatre 80 would not be just one more sad tale of the way in which developers have made the East Village unrecognizable to itself, but a death blow for this still culturally dynamic district. Theatre 80’s demise would be the downfall of not only a great legacy but of ourselves. Each day that we would pass this wonderful venue’s ruins we would see ourselves mirrored in its destruction. Each day that we would note its absence, we would know that we too are expendable, as individuals, as families, as a community, as a history, and it would be as though we had never been here at all.

What of protesters’ rhetoric? To The Editor: Re “Unity rally thumps Trump over anti-Muslim rhetoric” (news article, Dec. 24, 2015): The protesters chanted, “Racist, fascist, KKK — Donald Trump go away!” KKK — really? I don’t recall Trump lynching anybody or even burning a cross. A bit over-the-top? Monica Lee

Love Steve on the L.E.S. To The Editor: Re “Tribes’ Steve Cannon is at it again” (news article, Dec. 17): I need to get over to Steve’s to sign an oversized photo print of him that I had in a show at his place. Somehow, it went from me, to his wall, to him, but that was a perfect solution for the piece. Love Steve and his whole, long and generous contribution to the culture of the Lower East Side. Thankfully, he was able to stay on the L.E.S. Great article, Bob Holman, and let’s hope people are listening. Steve needs to be listened to. Clayton Patterson

Cuomo and de Blasio’s cold war. 12

January 7, 2016

E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@ thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published. EastVillagerNews.com

Seeing the LES plainly for what it really was NOTEBOOK BY ELLIOT JAGER

y the time I came on the scene in 1954, the Jewish Lower East Side was basically finished. I don’t mean to irk former Grand St. neighbors or more recently arrived denizens, but those who yearn nostalgically for the “good old LES” most likely had little firsthand experience of the real thing. Irving Howe’s epic history of the East European migration to the United States, and of the LES as a landing point, is decidedly not a work of nostalgia. His evocative “World of Our Fathers” wraps up a good few years before my bar mitzvah when I was 13 by describing the dismal scene off Delancey St.: abandoned buildings, shuttered synagogues, Hebrew-lettered signs covered over by Spanish-language posters with garbage and glass littering the streets. The neighborhood’s boundaries ran from 14th St. at the north to the river on the east, First Ave. on the west, and the Brooklyn Bridge at the south. In its heyday, around 1910, there were half a million Jews in this area. That’s about the size of the entire population of today’s Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, my LES was overwhelmingly populated by Puerto Ricans. The remnant Jewish community of roughly 20,000 — many elderly and poor — was preyed upon by neighborhood louts. Raised Orthodox, I worshipped in the Sassover Rebbe’s stiebel, or storefront synagogue, on Eighth St. between Avenues D and C. It was within easy walking distance of our apartment in the Jacob Riis Houses project, though a bit risky for a boy wearing a yarmulke. Today, most of the neighborhood’s synagogues are gone — some firebombed, like the Sassover Rebbe’s; others turned into condos, churches, even a museum. I imagine this description resonates as uncomfortably parochial with folks residing in today’s gentrified, multicultural, cosmopolitan — and ever-more white LES. Anyway, by the 1960s most of my coreligionists had moved out of the LES — as far away as acculturation and economic circumstances would take them. Others, though, found safe haven nearby in the lower-middle class cooperative apartments built by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union along the Grand St. and East Broadway enclave. My mother and I were not so lucky. When I was eight or so, my Holocaust-survivor father essentially abandoned us. Traumatized by his EastVillagerNews.com

Elliot Jager as young boy with his parents on the Lower East Side in the 1950s.

wartime experiences and feeling dislocated in America, he decided to run off to Israel. It was a Hail Mary pass — you should forgive the expression. He and my mother had talked about emigrating and this was his way of trying to force her hand. But with no money, my father’s doubtful work prospects, a wan child in tow, and an elderly, infirm mother to care for, she thought it prudent to stay put. Eventually, my parents divorced, which made me quite an anomaly in our traditional community. He disappeared, became even more fervently Orthodox, changed his name, and started a new life somewhere in Israel. There was no child support. What’s more, for 30 years he and I didn’t see or speak to each other. My mom had no way to support us, so had to endure the shame of applying for public assistance — we called it “welfare.” She could pay only a fraction of my tuition at Yeshiva Chasan Sofer, a religious day school on Broome St., so I was granted a scholarship reserved for the indigent. We were desperate to escape from the high-rise Jacob Riis projects where crime was rampant, the elevators reeked of urine, and we were just about the only Jews left. City policy, though, forbade New York City

Elliot Jager today, a journalist in Israel.

Housing Authority tenants to transfer from one project to another. By dint of perseverance, my indefatigable mother was nonetheless able to convince housing managers to transfer us to the low-rise Vladeck Houses on comparatively safe Gouverneur St. It was from there that one night I looked out of my bedroom window and witnessed the Shneer Synagogue, an imposing pink Moorish

structure at 290 Madison St., go up in flames. The historic structure had originally been built as a Baptist church in 1856. The travails of the LES were emblematic of the city in general. In any single year of the 1970s, more New Yorkers were murdered on the streets of their city than Israelis killed by suicide bombers during the five years of the second intifada in the early 2000s. Even attacks on police were not uncommon. In January 1972, for instance, Officers Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster were gunned down by militants on 11th St. and Avenue B. By 1973, we’d clawed our way into Cooperative Village on Grand St. with the help of a credit union loan. In the coming years, the city experienced a slow and uneven renaissance that saw New Yorkers’ quality of life — my own included — considerably improved. On a visit to Israel during the early 1990s, I met my father for the first time since he’d walked out. Since I moved to Israel in 1997, bit by bit we’ve built a relationship. As a Hassidic Jew, he believes that it is spiritually imperative I have a son of my own. It’s become his obsession. Yet nature did not take its course, nor did IVF treatments produce a miracle for me and my wife. I now see that the process I have undergone in coming to terms with what it means to be a childless man, in trying to make sense of my relationship with my father, and in searching for meaning within Jewish civilization is, somehow, inextricably tied to my experience of growing up fatherless on the LES. Now, well past middle age and from 6,000 miles away, I find myself captivated by David Simon’s television tour de force “The Wire,” set in contemporary Baltimore. In many ways, it’s led me to rethink how I ought to look back at my own New York City upbringing: True, I was fatherless and poor in a tough neighborhood; but I was blessed with an innately capable mother who taught me values, virtue and empathy. My community, though moribund and imperfect, was nonetheless committed to mutual aid. Ritual and tradition offered a framework for life. So while I can’t identify with hipsters hankering after tenement museums, potato knishes and kosher-style delicatessen, this curmudgeon is not shedding any tears that my LES has been supplanted by something — apparently — kinder, gentler and, I pray, more humane. Jager is a Jerusalem-based journalist and author of “The Pater: My Father, My Judaism, My Childlessness” January 7, 2016

C.B. 3 mulls P.C. Rich, trolley site, R&D uses BY LESLEY SUSSMAN

he city’s plan to redevelop the P.C. Richard & Son site at 124 E. 14th St. has drawn the watchful eye of Community Board 3, which says it will strongly oppose any redevelopment of that property that does not support the everyday needs of the surrounding community. The store, which has operated on the city-owned site for 19 years, recently announced it will close its doors in February when its lease expires. New York City’s Economic Development Corporation has already called for proposals to redevelop the property and wants to replace the electronics shop mainly with tech startup offices. In a statement, E.D.C. President Maria Torres-Springer said, “The current site of the P.C. Richard store will serve as a new tech hub in Union Square, capitalizing on the academic and transit advantages offered by the neighborhood and its proximity to the Flatiron District. This is just one example of how we are finding creative uses for the assets we have in a city where space is harder and harder to come by.” However, at its Dec. 22 full board meeting at P.S. 20, at 166 Essex St., C.B. 3 made it perfectly clear that while it “strongly supports modern job creation within its district,” its first priority is to develop a strong local economy that is “diverse, affordable, supportive of independent small businesses and reflective of the residential community.” In a resolution passed by the board, C.B. 3 said it will specifically oppose any new chain store being located at the site, as well as a college dormitory and any eating or drinking establishments — due to a proliferation of such businesses in the neighborhood — and will only support retail businesses that are affordable to the local community. The board’s resolution also stipulated that if the city decides to build any housing there, it must be “100 percent permanently affordable.” Board members also expressed disappointment that they were not given the opportunity to collaborate with E.D.C. before its call for bids from developers was announced. At the C.B. 3 meeting, Linda Jones, the chairperson of the board’s Landmarks Committee said that the city’s announcement last month of its plans for the site caught board members totally off guard. “We were surprised to hear about it and to learn that the deadline for bids was Dec. 29,” she said. “But we were able to get that extended to Feb. 1.” In another matter, C.B. 3 also expressed its concern about the future

January 7, 2016

PHOTO BY CLAYTON PATTERSON

The Lowline Lab, which opened in October in an old Essex St. Market building at 140 Essex St., is a free laboratory and technical exhibit designed to test and showcase how the Lowline would grow and sustain plants underground. The Lowline Lab includes a series of controlled experiments in an environment mimicking the actual Lowline site. It’s open Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through March 2016.

development of the old Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal space located underneath Delancey St. The abandoned terminal is part of the Essex Crossing redevelopment project planned for that area. The trolley terminal, which is leased from the city by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, has been dormant since 1948 and is located at the foot of the bridge, where the proposed Lowline park would be constructed. In a proposal passed by the board, C.B. 3 said it worried that the site “may be used for a purpose that would encourage luxury development and displacement of low-income residents.” The board requested that E.D.C. allow community input regarding any future utilization of the old trolley site. After the meeting, Jones told this newspaper that she was “surprised” that E.D.C. had announced bids for that site without any community consultation, and that the board wants to sit down with the city agency to discuss the matter. In other board action, C.B. 3 said that an application by the new Russ & Daughters Cafe at 127 Orchard St. to expand its operation was unkosher. The legendary 100-year-old appetizer shop, which recently opened this new full-service restaurant

counterpart serving Jewish comfort food, is applying for a full on-premise liquor license that would allow the cafe to display liquor bottles behind its bar and play unamplified live music once a month. C.B. 3 voted to deny the application unless certain stipulations were met, including that the cafe continue to operate as a full-service kosher-style dairy restaurant and that it only play recorded ambient background music and that there be no DJs. The board also said it wants to make certain that the restaurant “will not have happy hours, will not host pub crawls or party buses, and that the cafe have a closed facade with no open doors and windows,” so as not to disturb neighbors. Also at the Dec. 22 board meeting, Councilmember Rosie Mendez reported on some of her latest activities. Mendez said she and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer have proposed legislation that would create a bicycle safety taskforce. She said that over the next two years, 10 town hall meetings will be held in every borough each year to discuss the impact of cycling on individual neighborhoods. Mendez also reported to the board and the more than 50 local residents who attended the meeting that she and Councilmember Daniel Dromm had opposed a recently passed a bill that will require the city to provide

$20 million for private and religious schools’ security guards. In total, the city will provide $19.8 million for at least one private security guard in each nonpublic school, including yeshivas and other religious schools with 300 or more students. Despite public opposition to the hotly debated bill, introduced by Brooklyn Councilmember David Greenfield, the legislation was approved overwhelmingly by a vote of 43 to 4. Mendez said she wanted to see these millions of dollars invested, instead, in the city’s “resource-starved public schools.” Also at the board meeting, Adam Chen, a spokesman for Public Advocate Leticia James, said that James has called on TD Bank to terminate financial backing of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson. Chen said that the guns used in the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people were killed and 21 were wounded, were manufactured by the gun-making company. He reported that James had sent a letter to Mike Pederson, TD Bank president and C.E.O.; Bharat Masrani, TD Bank board chairperson; and Bob Dorrance, TD Securities chairperson, C.E.O. and president, asking them “to immediately review and terminate, to the extent possible, their agreement with Smith & Wesson.” EastVillagerNews.com

Do androids dream of Village East?

Fest brings Philip K. Dick’s themes to the screen

COURTESY THE FILMMAKERS

The Mongolian Emperor becomes obsessed with the Sea of Tranquility in “Genghis Kahn Conquers the Moon.”

BY SEAN EGAN

hile most may only know Philip K. Dick for the plethora of big-budget spectacles based on his writings — often loosely, and inconsistent in quality (see “Blade Runner,” “Minority Report” and both versions of “Total Recall”) — he has long been a titan among science fiction fans, and for good reason. “I was absolutely taken aback,” Daniel Abella recalls of his first time reading Dick’s work. “Something about Philip K. Dick almost hit me as sort of a gnostic sci-fi writer, someone trying to answer the funEastVillagerNews.com

damental questions that, basically, many western philosophers have tried to deal with for all these thousands of years.” After Abella’s fandom inspired the organization of a small screening in 2011 that was very warmly received, and after he realized Hollywood adaptations never quite captured the heart and themes of the author’s work, he recalls thinking, “Well this is an opportunity to show the other side of Philip K. Dick.” The result was the Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, of which Abella serves as Festival Director. Now in its fourth year, the four-day fest boasts 80 films from all over the world. While the con-

tent and format of these features, shorts and documentaries vary wildly, there’s an underlying ideology to the selections. “We like films that are not just splashy and visually attractive,” says Abella, “but with a story — particularly, stories that really challenge and ask who we are as humans, where we’re going. It’s not just about action films, and Tom Cruise jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It’s about something more interior, more internal, a little bit less dramatic, but nevertheless very important. This is what really gives us a sense of purpose.” This much is clear in a number of short films on the schedule. “The Fu-

ture Perfect,” a time-travel narrative, is able to prod at questions about love and the value of human life by using little more than one on-screen actor, a sparse, futuristic set, and the disembodied voice of Zachary Quinto (putting his Spock monotone to good use). The central figure in “Requiem for a Robot” is a robot constructed primarily from cardboard boxes, but manages to consider artificial intelligence and interpersonal relationships seriously. Meanwhile, even those that have more of an emphasis on visual effects use them as an aid to exploring headier ideas, as is the case in FEST continued on p.16 January 7, 2016

Games, talks, flicks honor and invoke P.K. Dick FEST continued from p. 15

“Bears Discover Fire” (based on the Terry Bisson story), and the at-once loopy and meditative “Genghis Kahn Conquers the Moon.” In addition to shorts, the festival includes the NYC premieres of three narrative feature films: “The Incident,” starring Raúl Méndez (of Netflix’s “Narcos” and “Sense8”); “Chatter,” a film concerning a Homeland Security agent monitoring a couple’s video chats and discovering their home is haunted; and “Counter Clockwise,” a dark comedy/mystery involving time travel and familial murder. Three feature documentaries will also be shown, including one on Philip K. Dick himself. The judges of this year’s films are sci-fi luminaries David Brin, David Hartwell and Paul Levinson. “The central focus of the festival is film, but then we also have panels and new media,” notes Abella — one example of the latter being a demo of the Dick inspired video game, “Californium.” “One of the things that ran through Philip K. Dick is [that] reality is not as solid as it appears

COURTESY THE FILMMAKERS

A rural community is rocked when “Bears Discover Fire,” in a Terry Bisson adaptation.

to be,” observes Abella — and the first-person game gets to the heart of this, as players control a writer navigating a shifting, 3D California landscape. “It’s not just a game where the objective is body count,”

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Abella notes. “It’s about entering multiple realities.” The idea of a fluid reality and multiple points of view extend to the festival’s panels — which have, in previous incarnations, included discussions on ethnic diversity in science fiction and a talk on time travel from University of Connecticut professor Dr. Ronald Mallet. “It’s a way to not just see a film, but to interact, and get a little sense of what scientists are bringing,” Abella explains. This year, he’s most excited for the panel on UFO experiences, which follows the NYC premiere of “Travis: The True Story of Travis Walton,” a documentary examining an infamous 1975 UFO abduction. The panel is a further expansion of the festival’s mission to provide a space for open, mind-expanding dialogue, touching on any and all subjects, no matter how out of the ordinary. It’s the kind of thing that deeply interests Abella, who be-

lieves that science is not nearly as cold and calculated as it is often made out to be, but intertwined with creativity and spirituality, and that examining different planes of existence is a worthwhile endeavor. For freethinkers, as well as those who fear ridicule from a wider public, “Our festival is at their disposal,” he offers. “We’re looking to create a community of people, of like-minded people,” Abella concludes. “Just bring people together, get a sense of belonging, a space where they can share experiences without being judged as lunatics, or weird, or strange. But no, this is part of who we are as human beings. I think Philip K. Dick would have felt at home.” The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival runs Jan. 14 –17, at Village East Cinema (181-189 Second Ave., at E. 12th St.). Tickets: $20 per program. For a full list of programs, visit thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com.

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January 7, 2016

COURTESY THE FILMMAKERS

A family is trapped on a so-called “infinite road” in the Spanish-language feature “The Incident.” EastVillagerNews.com

Just Do Art

The festival-focused edition BY SCOTT STIFFLER

Of course it’s got plenty of that, as Carl milks every drop of comedic potential out of the inspired premise: Busey mounts a one-man production of Shakespeare’s much-interpreted classic, in a bid to prove he’s survived working for Donald Trump with his “acting chops” still intact. Focus, though, remains elusive, as Busey uses multimedia, hand-made puppets, beat poetry narration, and song to put a certifiably nutso spin on the melancholy, faux-crazy Dane’s daddy-issues revenge tale. Like some gullible members of the “Hamlet” cast, audiences and critics have been falling hook, line, and sinker for this show — which won the Outstanding Solo Performance Award at FringeNYC 2014, and will be touring the world this year to coincide with the 400th anniversary of William “He’d Either be Flattered or Horrified” Shakespeare’s death.

THE STEM FEST

How do you wrap your head around the weighty topics of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? Well, first, you give it an acronym — STEM — and then you challenge experts in each field to deliberately expose themselves to the show business bug. The result is a noble, if somewhat unpredictable, experiment known as the STEM Fest, in which said number crunchers and lab rats collaborate with storytellers, comedians, playwrights, and musicians. On the fest’s opening night, Jan. 7, “Long Story Long” (7 p.m.) has teacher, host, and STEM educator Eli Reiter expanding the slice-of-life narrative format you’ll find at showcases like The Moth into 30-minute storytelling sessions. Joining Reiter for half-hour endeavors of their own will be Jeanne Garbarino, a Ph.D. in metabolic biology who serves as Director of Science Outreach at Rockefeller University, and Herman Pontzer, a professor of Anthropology at Hunter College who lists “drinking beer” among his interests (when he’s not investigating energy expenditure among Hadza hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania). At 10 p.m., “This Week in Science: The Kickass Science & Technology Tour” is a stage version of the weekly web and radio show that injects opinion and irreverence into the past seven days’ worth of notable developments in the broad, bold, titular field of inquiry. Kirsten “Dr. Kiki” Sanford brings her doctorate in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology to the table, along with a sassy attitude — and is joined by part-time car salesman and self-proclaimed “opinionologist and science enthusiast” Justin Jackson. Zoologist and giant panda disrespector Blair Bazdarich rounds out the trio. These west coast folks made the trip to NYC just to be in STEM — so be nice, and buy them a drink at the venue’s very own in-theater bar! Drinks bought in-house are EastVillagerNews.com

COURTESY “THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE”

The “This Week in Science” crew asks big questions about the news you missed during the past seven days — Jan. 7 at the STEM Fest.

also a must, for the Sat., Jan. 16, 8 p.m. show — when the roving Astronomy on Tap series touches down at STEM, on a mission to mix alcohol-based brain cell murder with grey matter-building infotainment with their “Pop Science!” presentation. It will discuss things like genetic engineering, cybernetics, space exploration, neuroscience, and microbiology — along with installments of audience favorites, like the sobering Countdown to World Robot Domination. DJ Carly Sagan and MC Tycho Brewhaha reward your knowledge (or at least your spirited participation) with prizes from the trove of Neil Tyson’s Trash Treasures. This tipsy foolishness is all for a good cause: proceeds will benefit Astronomy on Tap’s free NYC events and DonorsChoose.org. On Sat., Jan. 9, beginning at 1 p.m., the STEM Fest offers a decidedly more family-friendly event. The stage and video educational organization Conservation Theater teams up with Wildlife Theater

(The Wildlife Conservation Society and Central Park Zoo’s outreach program) and Jersey City’s Liberty Science Center for a “Cool Kids Conservation Celebration” — a day of live performances about animals, science, and how young audience members can use what they learn to make the planet a better place for wildlife, and our lives. The STEM Fest takes place Thurs., Jan. 7–Wed., Jan. 16, at The Kraine Theater (85 E. Fourth St., btw. Second Ave. & Bowery). For tickets ($4–$18), visit horseTRADE.info.

GARY BUSEY’S ONEMAN HAMLET AS PERFORMED BY DAVID CARL

Writer and performer David Carl’s adaptation of “Hamlet”— as performed by actor and reality TV star Gary “You Can See the Crazy in His Eyes” Busey — is so very, very much more than an extended stop at the site of a celebrity trainwreck.

Thurs.–Sat., Jan. 14–16, 10:30 p.m., at the PIT Loft (154 W. 29th St., btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.). For info and tickets ($20), visit buseyhamlet.com.

WinterWorks: A FESTIVAL OF NEW ONEACT PLAYS

At some point while touring in the 1975 production of “Shot in the Dark” with Patty Duke and John Astin, actors Robert Elston (19341987) and Elizabeth Perry made a pact that once home in NYC, they’d form “a workshop where theater artists could expand their abilities, reach into all areas of creativity in the theater, and regain the breadth of expression that was afforded ‘a simple player’ before the age of specialization.” Folk singer Susan Reed, old touring chums Astin and Duke, and Janet Hayes Walker (who would go on to form the York Theatre Company) shared their vision — and were among the founding members of The American Renaissance Theater Company. Still active and vital today, with the expanded mission of developFEST continued on p. 18 January 7, 2016

They came from the cold: Winter festivals FEST continued from p. 17

ing new American plays and performance pieces, ARTC’s WinterWorks 2016 Festival is currently presenting 10 works running in rep — all tackling, from different angles, the theme of transformation during and after various phases of life. Program A zeroes in on the lines we draw (and cross) to get by. Program B dissects the dynamics of relationships, and Program C takes the theme into comedic, absurdist realms. Through Mon., Jan. 18 in The Shop@ Cap 21 (sixth floor of 18 W. 18th St., btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves). All performances 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For the schedule, visit americanrenaissancetheater.com. For tickets ($16 general admission, $10 for ages 30 and under, $40 for the thee-program package), visit brownpapertickets (keyword, ARTC) or call 800-838-3006.

THE TranscendentalFest AT METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE

Having already staged literary luminary celebrations in the form of a Twainathon, a Poefest, and a (no moshing, please!) Melvillapalooza, the East Village theatrical heritage

PHOTO BY JEANETTE SEARS

David Carl plays Gary Busey playing a Danish dude feigning insanity, in a version of “Hamlet” the Royal Shakespeare Company wouldn’t dare attempt.

tribute trove that is Metropolitan Playhouse turns its gaze — and turns over its stage — to the works of The Transcendentalists, for this year’s edition of the Living Literature Festival. One-acts, full-length works, and musical interpretations, all by emerging artists, take their cue from the American Transcendentalist

Movement, as lived by the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sarah and George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, and others. In a program of two short plays, Nina Davis’ “Leaving Brook Farm” charts what rises from the ashes after a March, 1846 fire devastates a

Utopian community — while Toni Schlesinger’s “The Fifth Woman,” set in 1870, adds a plus-one to Louisa May Alcott’s famed novel by tasking an ambitious rookie reporter with following a hot tip that leads down a dark road. Walt Whitman’s work gets put through the prism of gospel, hiphop and spoken word, in actor/vocalist John Slade’s “Whitman Sings.” Food for thought as April 18, 2016 approaches comes in the form of Dan Evans’ “The Poll Tax Matter.” Set in Concord, MA, circa 1846, it gives the comedic treatment to Henry David Thoreau’s night in jail, after refusing to pony up money to the state — as, he maintains, a protest against slavery. With a chatty drifter and a young fugitive slave as cellmates, Thoreau begins to mull over matters that will eventually form the philosophy, and practice, of civil disobedience. Jan. 11–24: Mon.–Sat., 7:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat., 9 p.m., Sat. & Sun., 2 & 4 p.m. At the Metropolitan Playhouse (220 E. Fourth St., btw. Aves. A & B). Opening Reception: Mon., Jan. 11, 9 p.m. For tickets ($15-$18, $12 for seniors, $15 for full-time students, $10 for children under 10), call 800-838-3006. For schedule and online tickets, visit metropolitanplayhouse.org.

PHOTO BY CHRIS JENSEN

“Whitman Sings,” starring John Slade as Walt Whitman, is performed at Metropolitan Playhouse’s TranscendentalFest. PHOTO BY MICHELE BECKER

Deb Armelino and Marc Castle, on the verge of behavior that stays in the titular Nevada town of “Vanya Goes Vegas” — part of the WinterWorks one-act festival.

January 7, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com

Buhmann on Art

‘Mr. Peeps’ embraces otherworldly landscapes, colorful creatures BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN

n her fourth exhibition with Mike Weiss Gallery (“Stefanie Gutheil: The Home of Mr. Peeps”), the artist invites her audience to dive deep into her imagination. Her saturated compositions frequently embrace otherworldly landscapes that are populated with a colorful array of fable creatures. Stylistically, these paintings can border on the bizarre, perhaps sourcing from German Expressionism as much as children’s book illustrations. It is one of Gutheil’s key strengths that her language can be easily discussed in reference to the work of Max Beckmann, Alfred Kubin, or the German author and illustrator Annegert Fuchshuber. At first glance, her works appear playful. Upon closer inspection, however, they reveal an underlying sense of empathy for the mysterious subjects at hand. It would be far-fetched to claim that this Berlin-based artist is seeking to address existential themes — but her protagonists are not meant to merely entertain us. In fact, they seem to ask something of the audience as well. As their uncensored “otherness” transforms into loneliness, they face us, pleading for acceptance. Through Jan. 30 at Mike Weiss Gallery (520 W. 24th St., btw. 10th & 11th Aves.). Hours: Tues.–Sat., 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Call 212691-6899 or visit mikeweissgallery.com.

IMAGES COURTESY MIKE WEISS GALLERY

“The Home of Mr. Peeps” (2015). Oil on canvas. 74 3/4 x 90 1/2 in. (190 x 230 cm).

Installation view of “Stefanie Gutheil: The Home of Mr. Peeps.” “A Walk in the Forest” (2015). Oil on canvas, 62 x 50 in. (157.5 x 127 cm). EastVillagerNews.com

January 7, 2016

Notes from underground; What a long, strange trip it was; PURPLE continued from p. 11

stead saying his wife got it. “I remember it — and right where it was,” Jenean told The Villager. “It was Uncle Sam with a top hat and striped vest and God with a long white beard, wearing a robe. Uncle Sam is kneeling and God was behind him, ‘One Nation Under God.’ ” The doctor’s wife further told the court that at a meeting at Purple’s house she was shown “a magazine depicting nude portions of anatomy of white and dark people… .” Again, Purple denied he owned the book.

Wife charged ‘cruelty’ In considering the wife’s charge of “cruelty” against Purple, the judge cited a fight that Romola said broke out between them while driving with their kids in the car after Purple “emphasised [sic] certain aspects of the way in which a woman should act to make a man satisfied.” Begg also noted that Purple reportedly “committed adultery” with a young student from Sydney Technical College, sleeping with her at his home after kicking his wife out of the bedroom. “It is apparent…the respondent has led a life in which sex has played a very large part,” Begg observed. Meanwhile, Purple accused Romola of having sex with other men at the couple’s home, but the judge, again, said he would believe the wife over anything Purple said. Another court document, from California Superior Court in June 1968, pronounced that Jenean and Lenore were free from Purple’s parental control since he “has been convicted of a felony, to wit, child molestation.” Many of the letters that Jenean and Lenore provided detail the stepmother’s frequent pleas from Australia for their well-to-do maternal grandparents to send cash. Their grandfather was a vice president at The Reliable Life Insurance Company in St. Louis.

Acid and abuse The sheaves of letters from Romola to the grandparents — many handwritten or typed on blue “aerogramme” paper — occasionally note her concern that Purple had been using LSD. In a letter from Oct. 28, 1966, she wrote that her eldest daughter “complained to me that he still molested her when I left the house to go to work… [and] Jenean had come to me complaining that ‘Daddy wouldn’t let her alone at night.’ ” Purple had previously promised her he would stop abusing the eldest stepdaughter.

Shunned shrinks Also, Romola wrote that Purple could have avoided jail if he had only accepted psychological help, but he refused. On May 15, 1967, she wrote, “Lloyd was sentenced Friday. He refused to co-operate with the Psychiatrist. Had he done so, he would have been out on bond & under treatment. Since he refused to see any psychiatrist after the first one, he was

January 7, 2016

sentenced to 2 (two) years ‘Hard Labor.’… He will never be able to get a decent job unless he goes for treatment.” Earlier, on April 14, 1967, his wife had written, “He was found guilty on two counts of assault (indecent) & sentencing has been postponed… pending his examination by many competent Psychiatrists. The Judge said that this was the most demented man ever to appear in his court.” For his part, some of Purple’s letters focused on his efforts to send funds to his family, such as when he wrote to Romola on Sept. 26, 1966, saying, “My pay for this week will presumably be for four days because I did not get out of Parramatta Gaol until about noon today and so missed today at work. I trust that you will be able to meet the mortgage payments so as to help us avoid a mortgage sale for the time being.”

Claimed innocence On March 19, 1967, he wrote to the children’s maternal grandparents, proclaiming his innocence, and asserting that his second wife was not a fit guardian for his daughters: “I write now to reaffirm to you that I have been and am very much interested in the long-term welfare of Jenean and Lenore, to whom I have a very close blood tie and to affirm to you that [my wife’s] charges against me (including those she induced her own daughter to be a party to) are false in fact and without basis in reality.”

Briefly reconnecting Like Lenore, Jenean did have some contact with Purple early on once he came back to America, but eventually she found it increasingly difficult to maintain the relationship. She recalled that, at first, “We were warned to stay away from him, and to have nothing to do with him. “We didn’t know where he was, his time in New York when he began to gather a group of people that looked up to him,” she said. She was referring to the “Purple People,” cult members who once followed him, all dressing in purple, keeping vegetarian and shunning leather garments, including leather shoes. “He mailed me some pot when I was 23. I was terrified of him, to be quite honest. … Marijuana was always an issue for him,” she said. He encouraged her to read and discuss with him “Stranger in a Strange Land,” Robert A. Heinlein’s sexually charged sci-fi novel. She did finally visit her father on Forsyth St. in 1980 when she was around age 25 and he was being filmed for the early TV reality show “Real People.” “Of course, I adored it,” she said of his sprawling Garden of Eden. In an April 9, 1980, letter to her, however, he expressed suspicion of the TV show, writing, “regarding the ‘real people’ situation, it appears at least possible that the film interviewing was done, not for actual public broadcast, but for cia/fbi police film files.” And Purple still seemed to long for her inappropriately, or at least claimed he did. “He was still carrying on with it,” Jenean said. “He said, ‘Maybe someday you, me and Lenore can have a threesome.’ ”

Generational abuse She believes Purple was sexually abused by his own mother after his father died in an electrical accident and the mother sought a new partner among family members, so it was a case of “generational sexual abuse.” Similarly, Lenore said an aunt she was close to told her Purple’s mother also was sexually abused. “He didn’t think he did anything wrong,” Jenean said. “He’s doing us a favor, don’t you know? How to give pleasure to a man — that’s what it was about. “I don’t blame him,” she said, forgivingly. “I’m glad he at least had people who respected him,” she said of Purple’s New York friends, including the young activists from the cycling group Time’s Up. He lived in a room in their Williamsburg, Brooklyn, headquarters over the past few years. Speaking of biking, Jenean does it herself — one phone conversation with The Villager was while she was on her bike running an errand — and she wears purple and violet, too, just like her father. “I live closer to the land than most people who follow him,” she said a bit defiantly, admitting, “He might have influenced me.”

‘I’m done healing’ Reflecting on her terrorized childhood and her long, hard-won healing process, she said, “I should write a book about it. I’m not going to. That YouTube video, that was it. I’m done. I’m done healing from it all.” Of her wanting to get the message out about complex PTSD, she said, “My father would probably appreciate that this would have have an educational component,” and laughed.

Grandson slams Mr. Purple This week, Jenean’s son, Steve Mason, went public with his criticism of the new Mr. Purple restaurant in the Hotel Indigo, at 180 Orchard St. Mason, who lives in San Francisco and works in tech and computer graphics, said he only found out this past Monday about the swanky nightspot — incredulously named after his ultra-low-impact-lifestyle grandfather. The restaurant appropriated Purple’s name just two months after his death, and even includes a mural of him. Mason promptly fired off a blistering letter about the inappropriateness of the eatery’s name to local blog Bowery Boogie. Later the same day, he e-mailed The Villager, saying that he knew the newspaper had been talking to his mother about the dark side of Purple’s legacy. “It’s something that I’ve known about for a long time,” he said of the sexual abuse. He said he was never that close to his grandpa, finding him “cantankerous and very narcissistic,” in addition to being leery of him due to his mother’s experience. “Basically, he wasn’t a good family member,” he said, adding, “but I was happy he had a group of people in Brooklyn that were some semblance of family.” Yet, Mason did visit him a few times in New York City. “I tracked him down about 15 years ago through PURPLE continued on p. 21 EastVillagerNews.com

Grandson: Purple was difficult, but Mr. Purple is crazy! PURPLE continued from p. 20

an anarchist bookstore,” he said, probably referring to Blackout Books. “He was extremely intelligent, very scholarly — and you wouldn’t expect it from his appearance.”

Working the system Mason met his grandfather in the Mexican restaurant Trez Aztecas, at Allen and Rivington Sts. “Adam Purple comes in and says he eats there for free every day because he gave them $1,000 when they couldn’t pay rent,” he recalled. “He was collecting Social Security and had no expenses. He basically had 50 grand in cash on him or stashed away at all times.” In one of Mason’s favorite Purple anecdotes, his grandfather then surprised him by pulling a cell phone out of his pocket and answered a call. “He said, ‘I know all the drug dealers from around the neighborhood. They give me their burners.’ ” Speaking of phones, Mason said, “He was very paranoid about the government. Whenever I called him, he felt that the FBI was listening in because he was a dangerous person to them, because he was aggressively against the form of society. He was calling for a world strike, a world s–t -in on the White House lawn, the abolition of money. “His whole thing was f—ing the system and getting stuff for free. Whenever he sent us mail, he would put glue over the stamp so we could wash it off and reuse it.” Regarding his letters, Mason said Purple sometimes used the symbol for Uranus instead of the letter “H.” The symbol sort of looks like an “H,” plus Purple, well, apparently just liked the word play of “your anus,” he noted.

Family issues Mason said his uncle, Adam David, Purple’s son, is in his mid-30s, around his own age. “He grew up on Forsyth St.,” Mason said. “He was there when the garden was demolished. He was a Hasidic rabbi for a little while. He went to Israel for a couple of years and learned Hebrew and Aramaic. He came back, dropped out of Hasidism and went to L.A. “I’m the most together of all of his children,” Mason said. “I’m definitely the most-straight person — I have a career and a job and an apartment. I avoided the Adam Purple shockwave.” EastVillagerNews.com

PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

Part of an “Omtober” ’93 letter from Adam Purple to his daughter Jenean, mentioning an upcoming photo shoot of his Garden of Eden by Harvey Wang for Life magazine. “what do you think of this brand-new letterhead?” he asks his daughter. “hipp, huh!”

Echoing his mother, he said her younger sister, Lenore, has had it especially tough. “She ran away at 13 and lived with the Rainbow Family for 30 years — as hardcore hippie as you can imagine,” he said. “She worked at a KFC for three years, it was like the first job in her life. She lives in a trailer.”

Restaurant revulsion For all of Purple’s negatives as a family member, Mason said, in terms of his grandfather’s environmentalism and radical values, “I really admire what he believed in and respect his tenacity.” Mason said he wrote Scott Gerber, head of the Gerber Group, which is behind the Mr. Purple restaurant, to express his disapproval. “I don’t know if he understands how deeply inappropriate it is for him to use his name,” he said. “Adam Purple was a vegan and they are serving hamburgers, plus highpriced cocktails.” In addition, he said he has high hopes for legislation, introduced in

May and currently in committee in the New York State Senate, Bill S5650, that “provides that a property right exists in a deceased individual’s persona for seventy years after the death of the individual.” In other words, it would be a violation to use, for commercial purposes, a person’s name, photo, image or other likeness, voice, signature or even mannerisms without written consent from his or her estate / family members. Without getting into specifics, Mason, in his letter to Gerber, also alluded to Purple’s history of sexual abuse. “I mentioned that there are aspects of his history that are extremely unsavory and would not reflect well on the bar,” he said. “It would be as if Disney named a ride after Roman Polanski — basically, that they are sitting on a P.R. time bomb.” Scott Gerber did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Two narratives If publicizing Purple’s troubled past helps get the restaurant re-

named, Mason said, so be it, he supports it. Lower East Side documentarian Clayton Patterson said of publicizing the story, “The question is — who has the rights, the kids or the memory [of Purple the legendary activist]?” “It’s like a priest who abused kids, or like Bill Cosby — if you get 30 women complaining, you can’t dismiss them all,” he reflected. Told that Purple’s older daughter has only finally healed now at age 60, he said that clearly shows the seriousness of what she went through. Hopefully, the two narratives can somehow coexist and inform: on the one hand, the story of a family that finally healed from domestic sexual abuse, and, on the other, a man who built a new life for himself — and a glorious garden — on the Lower East Side and left a lasting legacy of environmental consciousness. Yes, Adam Purple was a man who was at once the “ultimate hippie” — yet perhaps a symbol, too, of 1960s excess and experimentation gone horribly wrong — a classic New York character — and, for many, a hero — though, clearly, a deeply flawed one. January 7, 2016

January 7, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com

After saving others, man dies in Grand elevator ELEVATOR continued from p. 1

and into a hallway. But when he tried to follow her himself, the elevator suddenly dropped, pinning him between its ceiling and the floor. “When I got into the elevator, I felt it dropping and I thought my feet would get caught in the gap but the man pushed me out and said, ‘Happy New Year,’” Sanchez told The New York Post. “I saw he was trapped and the elevator was crushing him. It was awful,” she said. Residents reportedly tried to rescue the 25-year-old in vain. A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said officers from the Seventh Precinct responded to a 911 call shortly after midnight and found Hewett-Brown unconscious and unresponsive, still pinned by the elevator and severely injured. He was brought to NewYork-Presbyterian/ Lower Manhattan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police. According to news reports, the party that Hewett-Brown had hoped to attend continued until the wee hours. Residents at the building, which is part of the Grand Street Guild complex and whose apartments are for low-income tenants, have reportedly complained for years about faulty elevators. The building owners, Grand Street Guild East HDFC, were slapped with two Environmental Control Board violations last year, and Department of Buildings records currently list three open violations dating back to a 2012 inspection. Jay Yablonsky, the director of property management at Wavecrest Management, which operates the property, said the company was working

Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, was killed in an elevator accident on New Year’s Eve at one of the Grand St. Guild buildings.

with D.O.B. and police to determine the cause of the fatal accident, but wouldn’t comment on the complaints or violations. “The safety of our residents is our paramount concern,” he said in a statement. “The elevators underwent a complete modernization in 2011, and are regularly inspected and serviced by a licensed elevator maintenance and inspection agency.” In the meantime, Hewett-Brown’s mother has set up a gofundme page that is trying to raise $15,000 for the young man’s funeral. “I’m not surprised that he would commit this selfless act,” Miranda Brown wrote of her son in a

Residents say they have long complained about elevator problems at the Lower East Side highrise complex.

post on the fundraising Web site. “He was a good person, he would help anyone [and] even give you the shirt off his back if he had to.” As of press time, two days after it was created, the page had attracted around $7,400 in donations, with contributions steadily coming in. Residents of 131 Broome St. are meeting at 7 p.m. on Thurs., Jan. 7, to discuss elevator safety at their building.

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