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Kentler celebrates Richard Mock by Brian Abate Richard Mock: The Cutting Edge recently closed at Red Hook's Kentler International Drawing Space. The show included edition prints from Kentler Flatfiles along with a large installation of prints documented by artist and printmaker Dennis McNett of Wolfbat Studios. The walls of Kentler were plastered with more than 300 of his linoleum block prints, most of them making a statement, either satirical, ironic, humorous or just plain insightful.
A procession marched to Valentino Pier to celebrate Mock, as his exhibition at Kentler International Drawing Space ended. Many of those in attendance wore puppets made by printmaker Dennis McNett, paying tribute to Mock’s spirit. Florence Neal, right, led the parade. (photos by Teri Slotkin) A few of Mock's prints are reproduced below.
“Richard sadly died 15 years ago but I think it’s important that we keep his work alive and I think we’re doing that with this exhibit,” said Florence Neal, a friend of Mock and director/co-founder of Kentler.
Neal hopes that people who didn’t know about Mock’s work before have been introduced to him through this exhibition.
“I think we were both drawn to Red Hook,” Neal said. “It was and still is a really special neighborhood.”
Kentler International Drawing Space was founded in 1990 by Neal and fellow artist Scott Pfaffman.
Mock came from California and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1965, moving to New York in the early 1970s.
“Richard had a lot of people in Red Hook who cared about him and loved his work but a lot of people, especially younger people may not know about him,” Neal said.
Though Mock loved Red Hook, he also enjoyed traveling throughout the United States and making artwork as he did so. One highlight was working as the official portrait artist of the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid and working with athletes from all over.
Their mission is to bring drawings and works on paper by emerging and under-recognized local, national and international artists to the public, and to provide the opportunity to experiment, explore and expand the definition of art in society.
“Richard would engage with anybody that wanted to have their portrait made,” Neal said. “So it was a way to really get to know somebody and he really liked that. He had this way of really simplifying by getting people’s essence in his portraits of them.” Mock's prints illustrated many Op-Ed pages in the New York Times.
“Richard always spoke his mind whether it was on politics or social issues or art,” Neal said. “He sometimes lost jobs because of it but he never held back.”
Mock himself had spoken about his feelings towards the working class, saying “I like the warmth of the working class. When I drive here [Detroit] in my old pickup truck, I feel like I’ve hit paradise.” He also spoke about his work as an artist activist, saying “It’s [in] the nature of my being to attack the enclosing optical structures which are out to suck the planet dry.”
Artists from all over the world have had exhibitions at Kentler and it has given them a platform to showcase their work and gain recognition.
“We try to bring attention to artists who aren’t very well known,” Neal said. “Many curators selecting work from the Kentler Flatfiles have said to me ‘I’m embarrassed I don’t know these artists but this is really great work.’”
Neal is also proud that Kentler International Drawing Space offers K.I.D.S. Art Education programs including Drawing Together Family Art Programs which gives families and children an opportunity for handson exploration, critical dialogue, and empowerment through creative experiences. “Richard also enjoyed teaching printmaking to kids and he taught in various venues in and out of New York City,” Neal said. “He was a mentor to so many people and he was very, very generous.”
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Bridging Di-Vision: Homeless families receive free eye exams and glasses by Erin DeGregorio
W
omen in Need, New York City’s largest provider of shelter and services for homeless families, partnered with Brooklyn-based eyewear company Vontélle to kick off Healthy Vision Month, which is recognized annually in May. Together, they provided—and will continue to provide—free eyeglasses and eye exams for families experiencing homelessness across New York City. “At Vontélle, our mission is to address vision health disparities in deserving communities of color,” said Vontélle Co-Founder and CEO Tracy Green, who launched the company last July alongside Nancey Harris, Vontélle cofounder and COO. “That’s why, when we saw an opportunity to support WIN families with vision care who primarily are from Black and Latinx communities, it was a no-brainer for us to get involved.” Green, a former chief financial officer of a hospital, also noted the impact inaccessibility has, particularly on children experiencing homelessness, when they can’t receive regular eye exams. “Imagine as a 10-year-old if you didn’t have glasses,” she posed, “mainly because you’re in a shelter and your parents can’t afford them because they’re expensive.”
portant for us to discuss the visual needs of children, which are often overlooked,” ClearVision President David Friedfeld said. “Eyecare is essential for learning, development, and education.” Vontélle also enlisted the help of Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation, which generously provided a grant that covers the costs of prescription lenses for Win families.
Through this initiative, Vontélle is collaborating with several optometrists and organizations—including Optical Academy and ClearVision— to provide these pop-up, pro bono services to hundreds of families in Win’s 13 shelters until 2023. New York City-based optometrists Dr. Camille Cohen, Dr. Tomara Young, and Dr. Obinna Akano agreed to provide free, private eye examinations to homeless families through this initiative.
“Through this partnership, WIN clients wearing their new glasses (May 19, Sheepshead Bay, hundreds of Brooklyn). Photo credit: Women In Need / Vontélle families across New York City head Bay, 60 adults and children got will finally be able to have proper vi- their eyes checked out by four optomsion,” said Sharon Page, Steve & Mar- etrists. Of those 60, 35 people received jorie Harvey Foundation’s executive free frames and prescription lenses – director. “We are thrilled to play a role provided by ClearVision and Steve & in helping families in shelters receive Marjorie Harvey Foundation, respecproper eye exams and eyeglass lenses tively. that best suit their vision needs.” The second pop-up was held late July “Every New Yorker deserves equal at a Bronx site. access to high-quality optical care, regardless of where they live,” added Organizations or vendors interested in Christine C. Quinn, CEO and presidonating glasses or their time to be a dent of Win. “We are truly grateful to part of the Win-Vontélle initiative can Vontélle, the Steve & Marjorie Harvey visit www.vontelle.com. Foundation, the optical companies, and optometrists for providing Win families with the gift of sight that’ll help our kids thrive in school.”
“When I was contacted by the Vontélle team to get involved, it became im-
During the first eye exam pop-up, held May 19 at a WIN site in Sheeps-
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Opinion: Words by George guess it’s time for my Andrew Cuomo stories, at least those from my eleven years at the Star-Revue.
was to be closed, replaced by luxury residential towers to be built by the Fortis Property Group, a private real estate developer.
Actually, let me start off with something I can say about his Dad, someone who I respected as America's conscience, especially from his days as an analyst of the worst of the Bush years. It's true that today he is criticized for the growth of the NY prison system, something I place the category of nobody’s perfect.
At the time I didn’t think the governor, which by then was Andrew Cuomo, would get away with closing such a storied, and necessary institution. LICH served the health needs downtown Brooklyn, including Red Hook. We ran a series of stories trying to understand his motivations. I found that
have a good chance to defeat George Pataki and become the Governor.
He was not expected to have a primary race, but then Andrew Cuomo entered the race. It was a bitterly fought primary, in which McCall was polling ahead when just a few days before the election, Cuomo, not wanting to lose, withdrew. The NY Times characterized it thusly at the time: “It was a spectacular humiliation for a man who had entered the race in de-
Years before I began the Star-Revue, I was a staffer at the Brooklyn Phoenix, a noted downtown Brooklyn weekly paper published that chronicled the rebirth of Brownstone Brooklyn.
At each convention, we were greeted by the current governor, in those years it was Mario Cuomo.
Andrew, his son, who he loved, has been anything but his dad. Instead of personable and knowledgable, I would call him distant and nasty. My experience with him was focused on the Long Island College Hospital. For over 150 years, Cobble Hill had a world-class hospital that we called LICH. One day word filtered down from Albany that LICH, which had been taken over by the state under the previous governor, David Patterson,
the godfather to one of his daughters had an interest in making the state more friendly to for-profit hospitals. While these are common in red states like Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, they are heavily restricted in blue states such as Vermont, Connecticut, and New York. One of Andrew’s close friends was Jeffrey Sachs, a healthcare lobbyist whose client roster included LICH competitor Brooklyn Hospital. Cuomo was undoubtedly already thinking of a presidential run in 2016 and closing a money-losing hospital would both serve his conservative creds as well as helping out his buddy. To do his dirty work he enlisted Carl McCall, who he had appointed head of the SUNY Downstate Medical System, which ran LICH. McCall was a respected African-American leader who at one time led an unsuccessful fight to save Sydenham Hospital in Harlem. At various times he was a State Senator, president of the NYC Board of Education, and NY State Comptroller. In 2002 he was seen to
fiance of party leaders, and had proceeded to act the role of rebellious outsider. In the end, his decision to leave the race was a first step toward making peace with those same party leaders.” McCall blamed his subsequent defea to Pataki on Cuomo, saying that the primary race depleted him of resources that he needed in the November race. For years after his antipathy toward Cuomo was quite public. After his defeat, McCall returned to the private sector for his income, setting up a hedge fund. In 2006, Cuomo ran for and won the race for NYS Attorney General. Already planning a 2010 gubernatorial race, Cuomo knew that he needed Black support, meaning Carl McCall. As Attorney General, Cuomo investigated the NYS Pension system for corruption. In 2009, subpoenas were sent to a number of firms who had done business with the State. One of those was Convent Capital, McCall’s firm. Convent was never charged, and
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Last week Cuomo’s legal team held a press conference responding to the Attorney General's report, and my eyes widened when I saw who the lawyers were. One of the mouthpieces was a lawyer representing the firm of Walden, Macht & Haran, LLP, the law firm set up by that very same Jim Walden.
Epilogue: Just as I finished writing this, Cuomo took to the airwaves to announce his resignation.
But not before he, the great proponent of women's rights, who set up the Women's Equality Party in 2014, so voters would mix them up with the WFP and hopefully deprive them of their ballot position next time, claimed he was unaware of how women's rights had changed. Then, after saying that the state is bigger than him, he listed all of what he considers his great achievements as governor. He finally got the word 'resign' out of his mouth, but granted himself two weeks, no doubt to do favors for those he thinks might get him elected President in 2024. Nixon, at least, said good bye and flew away.
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Just about every local politician joined the Cobble Hill protests to save the hospital. At one of those, I asked Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who had served on the Cuomo transition team, whether she had tried to reason with Andrew. She told me that he was refusing to take her calls, or anybody’s else's on the matter.
That was my introduction to the Mario's son.
Father Cuomo always impressed with his eloquence and sincerity. You could tell he was both pretty smart and pretty cool, at least to me.
I would have been happy to have voted for him for President, but for whatever reason he chose not to run, although he did think about it.
The next year, Cuomo made McCall the Chairman of SUNY Downstate, and a short time later LICH was given the axe.
The Cobble Hill Association found a lawyer to fight the closing – Jim Walden, of the firm Gibson Dunn. With his help, a community plan was crafted to try and maintain a hospital on the site. The plan failed, and with the help of then State Senator Eric Adams, the original plan, with Fortis building their lofty towers, is what was, and is, happening.
Every spring, our fearless publisher, Mike Armstrong, took his large staff to the Spring Convention of the NY State Press Association, held in Albany, where we always won a lot of business and editorial awards.
After his speech, he took as many questions as this disparate group of publishers could offer. The Press Association included weekly newspapers from all over the state, encompassing both dense urban cities and rural farmland. I couldn't believe how much he knew about every subject ranging from housing density to farm supports.
shortly after, McCall was publicly supporting Cuomo, who became governor in 2010.
?
I
Yet another unfavorite son
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August 2021, Page 3
Frank's RED HOOK - BROOKLYN
New play to premiere in Red Hook this month
Brooklyn’s Brave New World Repertory Theatre (BNW) will have its first post-pandemic, site-specific full production with the premiere of the play Dutch Kings by Kristen I. Spencer.
Tune ups Overhauls Flat tire repair/change Accessories Bicycle sales and Frank’s Bike Shop T-shirts
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“I wanted to write a piece that spoke to the scope of black masculinity and how their environment influences and affects the way they love on each other," Spencer said. "I grew up listening to my dad with his life-long friends, watching how they joked, how they expressed their bothers and their joys, how they hurt and persevered through the decades. It occurred to me that their specific love language was rooted in duality." The play will be performed outdoors on Richards Street between Visitation Place and Pioneer Street. The first preview will be August 15 at 11 a.m., opening will be August 15 at 3 p.m. with other performances on August 21, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and August 28 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for general admission, $18 for seniors and those under 18 and residents of the Red Hook Houses can watch for free with proof of address. For tickets contact Carol Klenfner at carol@klenfner.com, or 917-8600211. - Brian Abate
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Red Hook Open Studios returning this fall WE ARE BACK and GOING LIVE !!!! Artists and Makers: Open your studios to the public. SATURDAY & SUNDAY, October 9th & 10th, 1-6 pm REGISTRATION OPEN: $25 per artist FINAL DEADLINE 9/6, 2021 SPECIAL POST COVID EVENT :Reconnect with the Red Hook Artist and Maker Community at the Information Party on Saturday October 2th, 4-6 pm at Hot Wood Arts. 481 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn. Maps, balloons and posters will be available for pickup. Swag, too. Red Hook Open Studios needs volunteers to help promote and market the event, recruit artist/makers and do various important tasks such as hanging posters, distributing cards etc. Every artist participating can help with flyer and poster distribution in their neighborhoods. We, the organizers, are also volunteers! For registration and other information, go to their website redhookopenstudios.com
August 2021
Cobble Hill Cinema post-pandemic (hopefully) by Brian Abate
C
obble Hill Cinemas was able to re-open its doors to the public this March after approximately a year of being closed because of the pandemic. The theater, located on the corner of Court St. and Butler St., has been a staple of Cobble Hill since it opened in the 1980's. “The toughest thing was the unknown,” said Andrew Elgart, who works in management for the theater and is the son of the theater’s founder, Harvey Elgart. “We kept thinking we would open up and then it kept being pushed back. Also, we weren’t sure if people would want to come back and feel comfortable inside the theater. When we did re-open, it was tough but great. The people that did come were so grateful and happy to be back. It was like the same excitement as going to a movie for the first time again.” One factor that helped the theater get
through a year without customers was the Save Our Stages grant.
under the marquee, which was fun and beautiful,” Elgart said.
“It’s a grant for the arts and culture industry that gave us money to basically pay our bills while we were forced to close,” Elgart said.
While Elgart was happy that the theater was still able to be used, one of the toughest parts of the pandemic was letting go of all of the staff while the theater was closed to the public. Although unable to employ them for that stretch of time, he was able to stay in touch with many of his workers.
While the theater was closed to the public, Cobble Hill Cinemas rented out the theater to PS 58. That gave the students a place to go when they weren’t able to be inside the school building due to social distancing requirements. “I read in the New York Times that in Germany, schools were using the cinemas as remote-learning spaces and I thought instantly of Cobble Hill Cinemas,” said Carolyn Rogalsky, director of PS 58’s Carroll Kids Aftercare Program. “It turned out they had been reaching out to offer themselves to host learning and so a beautiful friendship was formed.” “We also had one couple get engaged
“We re-hired almost all of the staff,” Elgart said. “They are great people and they enjoy working here.” While Elgart is thrilled that the theater is open again, business has not returned to normal yet; however, the theater has had a few busy weekends. Some people may still be hesitant to go to movie theaters but many loyal moviegoers have returned to Cobble Hill Cinemas. Despite the struggles faced since re-opening, Elgart has a positive outlook on the future of the theater.
“Hopefully the future will be the same as it’s been so far for Cobble Hill Cinemas… To keep it a great local theater experience to go watch some films and escape for a few hours,” Elgart said.
Update on local flood protection measures by Brian Abate
N
ew York City officials came to the Atlantic Basin to celebrate the completion of the Interim Flood Protection Measures (IFPM) program. “With the addition of IFPM, low-lying, vulnerable areas in Red Hook get some added protection from potential storms,” said Emergency Management Commissioner John Scrivani. The Atlantic Basin design uses semi-permanent HESCO barriers with openings that allow for normal site operations. Those openings can then be closed off by just-in-time Tiger Dams 12-72 hours before storms. The IFPM program was completed in time for this year's hurricane season. “We were ahead of schedule and under budget,” said NYC Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Jamie Torres-Springer. While getting the IFPM program in place is good news for Red Hook, it will be a while before a permanent flood protection project is completed. Right now city officials are still working on a plan for permanent protection. “We are continuing to work with the
community to design a permanent coastal resiliency project that will provide long-term protections,” said Jainey Bavishi, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency. According to Torres-Springer there may be an announcement about plans for the permanent project coming in the fall but construction isn’t expected to start until 2024. Red Hook businessman Jim Tampakis has been pushing for better flood protection in Red Hook for years. He asked about the possibility of flood insurance relief for local businesses, and resident5sl. Scrivani said he wasn’t sure yet and would have to get in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA.)
Meeting with Amazon Tampakis has also pushed for lastmile warehouses in Red Hook to use the waterfront and other green modes of transportation rather than trucks and plans to meet with Amazon officials about that. In a press conference on August 4, Mayor de Blasio and DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman
talked about some his ideas. “[Let’s] get out of the truck business as much as possible,” de Blasio said. “Turn to rail. Turn to the water, one of our great possibilities that’s minimally used in this city. Look at this, one of the greatest coastal cities on earth, very little of our freight’s going on the water, a lot more could. Go to smaller vehicles, electric vehicles, human powered vehicles, even.” Gutman agreed, saying “As you’ve challenged us to re-examine and re-imagine how we move people in the city to reduce our dependence on private cars, we need to do exactly the same thing with freight for large diesel trucks.” Gutman went on to say “We can increase our use of rail. We can turn back to our rivers, which were our original highways, and use them just as we’re now doing for passenger ferries. We can do it for freight ferries, and it goes on and on. And then for the last mile, there is no reason for large, oversized trucks to be making local deliveries. We should create intermodal distribution centers in all five boroughs where
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things can be offloaded into electric carts and small electric vehicles for the last mile delivery.” There is still a lot of work that needs to be done and Tampakis will continue to fight for a better future for Red Hook. For now, gaining more support to use waterways and other green modes of transportation along with the completion of the IFPM program are important steps.
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Electric car racing returns to Red Hook by Nathan Weiser
F
ormula E returned to Red Hook in July- this year with some COVID restrictions.
The organizers set up three separate “bubbles” for the three main entrance areas. The fans who entered at the E Village area got complimentary tickets and everyone who entered from the media entrance or who was associated with one of the sponsors or race teams could not go into the E Village area since those people were not COVID tested. The E Village, which had games, simulations, food and sponsor booths in previous years was very much scaled down this year. Local food establishments like Jam’It Bistro, Red Hook Lobster Pound and Dolce Brooklyn provided food for the E Village. Formula E and the associated teams and crew also accounted for 1,200 hotel rooms in the local area, and local residents staffed the event. 3500 free tickets were given out to Red Hook residents. What makes Formula E racing unique is each vehicle is equipped with the same electric battery. How the teams use the power while conserving energy makes all the difference during the race. Alberto Longo co-founded it in 2013 to create a sport focused on sustainability, and the circuit has really grown since then. On Saturday, July 10, the race started
at 4:33 and finished after the cars finished their extra lap. A unique part about Formula E is that a power boost allows fans to vote for their favorite drivers during the race. The drivers with the five highest tallies get extra acceleration in a specially marked zone, like a video game, which the drivers got to use in the second half of the race. Germany's Maximillian Gunther, who is on the BMW team, was the winner. Jean Eric Vergne, who is from France and on the DS Techeetah team, was second and Lucas Di Grassi, who is from Brazil, finished in third place in the Saturday heats. During both the Saturday and Sunday celebrations, there was an extravagant water display show from FDNY boats after the finish of the race. The post race podium honoring the first, second and third place finishers had a beautiful background next to the part of the course that had Lower Manhattan and the harbor in the background. Sam Bird, who finished in ninth place on Saturday, but won in Sunday, had a rough lead-up to the race. He had a crash into the wall in the practice session, which meant he couldn’t finish the session or be in the second practice. The mechanics and engineers worked on the car and got it ready six seconds before qualifying. “I think it must have been a record," Bird said. “It was pretty impressive. The crew got me on the grid ready
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for the race and we got it together. We worked on it, got some points yesterday and we delivered today. It was really amazing teamwork.” On Sunday they offered people from the media a lap around the race track. The fastest speed that I went was 172 mph and I was driven around the track by Bruno, who is a former professional driver. I got to zoom around the 14-turn course and really see how the drivers know when to slow down before the sharp turns, and how fast the car can accelerate. As I was speeding by I saw the views of the cranes in Red Hook and Lower Manhattan, as well as ads from sponsors like Boss, Michelin, DHL and ABB.
Finite power According to a Mahindra Racing pit crew member, there are 52 kilowatt hours in the battery to complete the race and only a finite amount of energy. The car is prepared after qualifying to get it through the race. Each car uses only two sets of tires during a double header weekend like this one, which means that those tires have to get them through all practices, qualifying and races. There are cylinders that will raise the car up on hydraulics to make it easier for the mechanics to work on parts of the car like the suspension. Sometimes it can take up until very close to race time to get the car ready, but the tuneup is often much faster.
Bird had the triumphant victory after starting Sunday in first and remaining there the whole race. Mitch Evans, Bird’s teammate on Jaguar, started in second place and remained in second most of the race until falling back to 13th due to clipping the wall in the final stages. “It feels amazing,” Bird said after winning on Sunday. “To bounce back like that takes strength from not only myself but the whole team. My side was crushed, defeated and tired but they did not give up. I am so proud of everybody in Jaguar racing for never giving up on the task at hand. This is just a reward for that.” Proving how important energy conservation is, Bird only had 6 percent energy left with one minute remaining and finished the race with just 0.2 percent battery. Cassidy had only 4 percent of battery remaining with 30 seconds and one lap left. Cassidy, who is from New Zealand, finished in second place in the Sunday race and was 4.167 behind Bird. Antonio Felix de Costa, who is from Portugal, finished in 3rd place 4.840 behind Bird. Three of Bird’s 11 victories in Formula E have come on the race track in Brooklyn. After the race, on the podium the head of major sponsor ABB gave a trophy to Cassidy and Eric Adams gave a trophy to Bird before the confetti and champagne celebration began with the harbor in the distance.
In NYC, a lot has changed. Your hurricane evacuation zone may have, too.
At BASIS Independent Brooklyn, a PreK–grade 12 private school in Red Hook, students learn at the highest international levels in a spiraling liberal arts program with advanced STEM offerings. Visit NYC.gov/knowyourzone or call 311 to find out your zone and learn what to do to prepare for hurricanes in NYC. #knowyourzone
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August 2021
Hypocrisy:
I
Hip Hop and Homosexuality by Roderick Taylor
t’s time to pick a side. Today, more adults than ever identify as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, many being people of color. The Black community’s relationship with sexuality has long been tied to respectability and racism. Black men and women are often seen as sexual objects, praised, feared, or rejected because of their bodies. The challenges presented to individuals due to their Blackness alone are substantial. Therefore, the desire for Black folks and other people of color to lessen the chances of discrimination is understandable. Add in the influence of the Black church, good or bad, and we have an environment that is harmful to Black queer people. Hip hop as one of the biggest artistic exports from the Black community is an audacious expression of creativity. Unfortunately, hip hop has also been a platform for many Black men to display toxic elements of masculinity, fetishize Black women, and gain fame doing so. In hip hop we see the same ‘brown paper bag’ cherrypicking of Black people deemed ‘worthy’ of recognition, or at least preferential treatment. Those deemed worthy are nearly always heterosexual Black men either wealthy, hyper-aggressive, hypersexual (in any combination), and light-skinned women. These standards are upheld by the larger society, but what makes it particularly harmful within communities of color, is the race factor.
Race is a social construct and a resource. Black people according to the race hierarchy have desired attributes, yet are seen as less valuable. Black folks grow up being told explicitly or implicitly, you’ll have to work twice as hard to get half as much. Understanding these conditions, it appears many Black men in hip hop are working twice as hard to pick the ‘desirable’ Black people and discriminate against those deemed unworthy–– Black queer people and dark-skinned Black women. Hip hop seems to be in a constant state of ambivalence ––– homophobia for Black queer folks, calls for equity for heterosexual Black men. The irony of some homophobic rappers chanting ‘Black lives matter,’ a movement started by Black queer women, is hell of uncomfortable to witness.
Until the success of Lil’ Nas X and to a lesser extent Frank Ocean, there was essentially only one route for queerness to openly exist in hip hop ––– the lesbian fantasies of rappers. Truthfully, rappers covet homosexuality in the form of submissive, light-skinned, racially ambiguous women engaging in homosexual activity for the pleasure of the men. Hip hop’s double standards and hypocrisy can be heard on numerous songs. “My girl got a girlfriend, chevy blue like whirlwind’ — Young Dro “Changing girls, change is fine, she don’t like girls, I’ll change her mind.” — Lil Wayne
“Taste her while I’m hitting [penetrating] you” — Trey Songz Currently, Lil’ Nas X is the most prominent, openly queer entertainer not only in hip hop, but in music generally. Since his departure from “Old Town Road,” Nas’ loud display of his sexuality has irritated a slew of rappers. Some rappers (Lil’ Boosie) have even gone as far as to threaten Lil’ Nas with physical harm. Others rappers like T.I regularly defend homophobic rappers, and colorist entertainers. [If homosexuals now have more rights than heterosexuals, just say that! If Lil’
Nas X can do his thing so can Da Baby,] said veteran rapper TI, in response to the backlash over rapper Da Baby’s statements on AIDS and homosexuality.
[if you didn’t show up with AIDS, put your cellphones in the air! If you a nigga and you don’t suck another nigga’s dick in the parking lot, make some noise!] Said Da Baby onstage at Rolling Loud festival.
Cam'ron's famous pink fur and pink phone.
followed up his statements by doubling down on his initial comments stating, [my fans aren’t nasty, my gay fans don’t have AIDS].
Unlike most other mainstream music genres, in hip hop Black men are the majority gatekeepers. To many prominent folks in hip hop, queerness is seen as an of-
"Until the success of Lil’ Nas X and to a lesser extent Frank Ocean, there was essentially only one route for queerness to openly exist in hip hop—the lesbian fantasies of rappers."
Many heterosexual Black folk’s critiques of the Black LGBTQ+ community, spiral into Qanon-like conspiracies. The critiques often include conspiracies of depopulation, feminization agendas, and the lazy coupling of average Black queer people, with some prominent white queer, media elites (also subordinate to heterosexual white men). There is a genuine disinterest in the wellbeing of Black people who do not conform to traditional toxic patriarchy, its pardons, its gaze, rules, and hypocrisy.
The collective of Black and Brown queer folks are not part of any established, white gay, media elite. The everyday Black queer person is not Anderson Cooper, Clive Davis, or Ellen Degeneres. The queer community is quite racially segregated. Arguablly, gay pride for example, is to Black gay pride, what July 4th is to Juneteenth. Black queer folks not only face discrimination from the general society for being Black, but they also face discrimination within the Black community for their queerness and then again, within the LGBTQ community for their Blackness––– dizzying. Hip-hop has ushered in decades of creativity and even profoundness into the world. Unfortunately, the genre routinely serves as a medium for mostly Black men, to display caricatures of masculinity, overrepresented in its most toxic forms, with communal support (queer Black folks included). There is no denying the importance of Black queer folks to popular culture. From everyday slang to fashion, dance, activism, music, etc. Black queer folks have contributed and continue to contribute as creators, front-line activists, and trendsetters. Queer Black people are no longer willing to be treated as workhorses, outcasts, or court jesters of hip-hop (or any community). The Black LGBTQ+ community needs and deserves better. It’s time to pick a side. Roderick Thomas is an NYC based writer, filmmaker, and Host of Hippie By Accident Podcast. (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident, Email: rtroderick. thomas@gmail.com, Site: roderickthomas.net)
In a failed attempt to quell the fire, rapper Da Baby
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fense to the structures and customs that allow rappers to gain recognition from within, and outside the Black community. Overindulgent and or dangerous drug use, infidelity, colorism, sexism, anti femininity, murder, and homophobia are all mainstays in hip hop. While the genre contributes greatly to the arts in several ways, none of the aforementioned should be the standard.
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August 2021, Page 7
Brooklyn Heights doctor promotes alternate therapies for depression
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commercial real estate broker in his mid 30s, Jerry has been taking ketamine—a so-called psychedelic drug popularly more associated with club kids than businessmen—therapeutically to treat his persistent depression. And according to him, it’s working better than anything else Jerry’s tried. In cognitive behavioral therapy for some time he had been also introduced to Lexapro, an anti-depressant SSRI drug like Prozac and Zoloft. It worked to some extent, but wasn't happy with it. “While it was mellowing me out, the side effect was to take my edge away, my ability, my desire to do creative work, which I need for my songwriting, my music” said Jerry who aspires to produce music,” Instead, it softened me, made me settle for relaxation. I was happier , yeah, but the ability to push myself and to concentrate on getting onto the next level, just wasn’t there.” Many of those seeking treatment to relieve persistent depression find the popular meds largely ineffective. They speak of their stalling out, taking them to a neutral space while they fight off their depression. And so some choose a short cut—ketamine therapy —to speed up the healing process. What Jerry is seeing is part of a blossoming new wave of psychotherapy; repositioning anesthetic and psychedelic drugs to treat depression, post traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) and similar mental ills. But while clinical trials of LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogens is underway for the treatment of such conditions, they haven’t been approved yet. But Ketamine, a little understood drug that is standard protocol anesthetic in
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by Peter Haley hospital emergency rooms, is already here, with medical treatment centers sprouting up from Long Island to Los Angeles. The American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists and Practicioners now represents some 400 members. Yet you’re asking yourself, wait a minute, isn’t Ketamine also an animal tranquilizer a so-called “club drug?” Well yeah, somewhat guilty as charged but, as it turns out, its ability to create dissociative and sometimes hallucinogenic altered states can also set the table for some significant personal behavior changes. Ketamine induces dissociative anesthesia—a trance-like state providing pain relief, sedation, and amnesia Experts believe ketamine treatment can temporarily alter the psyche of those patients stalled in depression and lead to transformative change. “Since the 1970’s, Ketamine has been a standard of care treating patients in operating rooms and emergency departments around the country”, says Dr. Nicolas Grundmann, an Emergency Medicine trained physician based in Brooklyn. He is the co-founder and chief medical officer of Ember Health, a mental health treatment center located on Court Street that administers IV (intervenous) ketamine for depression. He describes ketamine as “a well understood drug” in the medical community, “More than 300 randomized control clinical trials conducted over the past 20 years have demonstrated the efficacy of IV ketamine for depression.” Grundmann emphasized that ketamine’s use for depression is not a “Hail Mary” approach because “clinical trials have been conclusive, show-
ing efficacy 75% of patients with treatment resistant depression. Indeed, he claims, “83% of our clients at Ember Health succeed in alleviating their depression.” Given its positive results, IV ketamine has been endorsed as a treatment by the American Psychiatric Association of America.
of your taking advantage of the relative elasticity in the brain after a ketamine infusion to create new neural pathways. You want to grow on that.” Dr. Grundman refers to this elasticity as “adaptive learning, purposely trying to change your thoughts, and to work this out with your therapist. “
“The current debate isn’t around ‘does this work?’ but rather how do we best use this tool to help people?” explains Grundmann, “When administered in a safe, medically monitored environment, IV ketamine allows people with depression to reset their emotional reward system.
The therapy to be worked on is among the network of some 500 professionals throughout NYC area connected to Ember Health. Dr. Grundmann stresses that ketamine treatment doesn’t replace conventional psychiatric therapy or the therapist but rather enhances the opportunity for healing.
While traditional antidepressants numb their feelings, patients describe ketamine as helping them feel more like themselves.“
Ember sessions are 90 minutes long – Drug treatment itself on 40 minutes, with 15-20 minute prep, leaving 30 minutes for “tea and a debrief.”
How is this change possible? Let’s take a quick look at psychedelics and ketamine for starters.
Patients lie prone on a couch blindfolded to enhance the effect. Clients may record verbally their thoughts or write them down after in the debriefing.
Psychedelics induce a state of stimulatory as well as perceptual over-saturation of the senses. Conversely, ketamine is dissociative, a chemical substance that brings about a state of under-saturation of the senses and the perception thereof, and within this vacuum clients can reach a mystical state of insight. While psychedelics work by relaxing the brain’s inhibitory architecture, flooding the senses. Ketamine shuts this down. Jerry describes his ketamine sessions as a “very introverted experience, but also like your mind is taking off, flying around, It’s hard to describe.” But he also feels continued conventional therapy is still necessary because “a lot of the gains are the result
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The treatment can involve aromatherapy, music therapy ( with headphones) to contribute to the infusion’s “altered state” entrance. Most Ember patients will experience insight, perspective “shifts” reflecting the altered state situation brought on by ketamine, says Dr. Grundmann, “Most of our patients have a dreamlike take on the experience not so much out of body or hallucinogenic. The actual effect is how a person feels, making them more introspective, meditational." Ember Health is located at 26 Court Street, downtown Brooklyn.
August 2021
ON DECK The Unstoppable Sweetness of Being. Progressive rock isn’t known for being particularly fun-loving. It’s more often than not overly complicated, egg-headed eccentricism aimed at impressing disenchanted beardstrokers. Prog-punk pilgrim Tatsuya Yoshida has been banging his head against that wall of pomposity since the 1980’s, primarily with his mad duo Ruins (and its many offshoots). A wave of cartoonishly complex bands have followed in his stead, many quite fun, but few outside Japan have taken up the cause of letting the hot air out of the progressive rock balloon. London’s Cardiacs and various projects by Brooklyn’s Ron Anderson deserve mention here, but a notable exception is the Liverpudlian outfit Unstoppable Sweeties Show, whose songs would be inordinately catchy if they weren’t too busy to even hear and whose third album, Analogy to an Allergy, all but relegates this carefully crafted paragraph to the ashcan. As crazed as their previous three albums were, one could learn what to expect: interlocking parts moving at a considerable pace and sometimes shattering into pieces with the swooping yelps of singer Yashashwi Sharma bouncing across the top. But on Allergy, it all comes extra unhinged. Prolonged improvisations, studio duplicity, counting and screaming (not screaming lyrics, really just screaming), and sections that I take to be an a cappella comic opera about a doggie shelter make the latest Sweeties an exhilarating and exhausting surprise.
The album came out in June and buying the download will get you a 30-page PDF with the lyrics and sheet music, a long, bonus tale [that reminds me of Rebecca Curtis’s short stories in something like the same way the Sweeties remind me of early Genesis (which is to say, uh, sorta?) or maybe Gentle Giant, whom they actually cover on the new album], detailed spoilers on all the songs, a crossword, an improv game, photos, fan art, a recipe and some unsolicited advice. It’s worth it. Since the album’s release, the Sweeties have posted a remix of their track “How a Train Sounds” from their musical Bring Kath Her Breamcatcher. It’s titled, with all requisite integrity, “Choo Choo,” and is well worth a listen, as is the rest of their discography, all streaming in full on Bandcamp. You’ll be glad you did, if only for the calm induced once the record is over.
Unstoppable Sweeties Show, courtesy the band
Killing Popes and other social transgressions. On paper, I guess the Killing Popes are a jazz band. Their second record came out in June on the Portuguese label Shhpuma, an imprint of the decidedly jazz label Clean Feed. But if they are a jazz band (and I’m not convinced they are), they’re one of a decidedly transgressive variety involving instruments with cables, quickly shifting time signatures and well pounded drums, the latter courtesy group leader Oli Steidle.
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Residents, photo courtesy Poor Know Graphics
On paper, they’re also a duo, with Steidle joined by Dan Nicholls (keyboards, bass, sampler), down from the trio of their debut but buttressed on the new album by a guest guitarist, bassist, saxophonist and three singers, including the frighteningly focused Serbian vocalist Jelena Kuljić, who fronts another German jazz band that doesn’t play jazz, the fantastic Z-Country Paradise. She’s heard on three tracks on Ego Kills, the slinky despair of “My Life Is Not Your Game,” the punk-chaotic “King of Soap” and, on “Human Nature,” reading Emma Goldman through a vocoder. Elsewhere, the tracks are busy, layered and loud. There’s a lot of prog and a little humor, but the players don’t get hung up on showmanship, instead tying quick, tidy and artful knots, one after another. Ego Kills is available on CD and download and is streaming in full on Bandcamp
Eggs with a side of Iggy. A pair of eggs who aren’t egotistical, egg-headed progs, or at least don’t seem to be, is the Lancaster, UK, duo the Lovely Eggs. I wrote about their last album, I Am Moron, in these pages last year, when I called it “a perfect 40 minutes of tension and release” that “leaps from the speakers in layers.” I thought I’d have said something more quotable but there you go. They’ve since dispensed with the titular verb in a kind of a Claudius trip and enlisted the demigodic Iggy Pop to intone one word over and over for their incessantly catchy new single “I, Moron.” The 7” sold out in seconds but there’s a lovely claymation video on their website.
ON STAGE As venues begin to reopen and the second pandemic summer turns to another pandemic fall—it’s not over yet and the honor system “where a mask unless you’ve been vaxxed” policy profoundly befuddles me—musicians are in the curious position of starting to do shows to support albums they may have put out months ago. This blip in the time-hype continuum is what led me to accept the fearless Star-Revue publisher George Fiala’s longstanding offer for me to do a column. I want to promote shows by bands I consider
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worthy of promotion, but what to do if I already reviewed their new record? Get a fancy header, write in the first person, and refer back to what I wrote is the answer. So let’s talk a moment about the Residents and the Delta can just go to hell.
Metal, Meat and Meta. After two aborted attempts at touring to support their 2020 album Metal, Meat and Bone, the Residents are aiming to be at (le) Poisson Rouge on Sept. 2, playing both the recent album and the 1978 EP Duck Stab in toto. Metal, Meat and Bone isn’t the band’s finest flower (I wrote about that album here last summer) but a performance of the full concert for the launch of the Night Flight streaming service showed the songs are finding their energy. The real appeal, though, is the older portion of the show. Duck Stab in packed with fan favorites. Lead-off track “Constantinople” has been a concert staple but “Sinister Exaggerator,” “Laughing Song” and “Bach is Dead” have rarely if ever made it to the stage. Last time the band played in town, at the Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn in 2018, they were shut down after noise complaints. LPR’s basement theater should be deep enough to buffer the noise from NYUlandia above.
"Prolonged improvisations, studio duplicity, counting and screaming (not screaming lyrics, really just screaming), and sections that I take to be an a cappella comic opera about a doggie shelter make the latest Sweeties an exhilarating and exhausting surprise. "
August 2021, Page 9
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Support for Belarus is complicated
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s Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was greeted last July 28th by POTUS in the White House, a new signal of support was granted by the US to the Belarussian opposition which is struggling against the country’s dictator Lukashenko. Despite this, her struggle seems not to have strong ties with the Belarussian territory itself, where the president Lukashenko is making scorched earth in the opposition field, capturing or arresting activists and leaders, even making land an international flight to arrest the opposition figure Raman Pratasevich. Asking for an international action is therefore a sort of last-chance for Tikhanovskaya, who is seeing her net constantly dismantled in the motherland, meanwhile the net across diplomats, chancellors and the Belarussian community abroad is more and more entrenched day by day. Tikhanovskaya’s fate will depend upon which net is more useful to reach her goal. The answer has to consider many aspects of the matter, first of all the closeliness of Belarus to Russia, with a shared border lasting 1,312 km. Such a unity may undermine even the roughest embargo or the toughest
READER CONTRIBUTION: It was the Golden Age of NYC Newspapers by Larry Penner
“New York remembers an icon of journalism” (Joe Enright -- July 2021) was a great reading of past history. The passing of Pete Hamill closed the books on the glory days of New York City newspapers. Everyone looked forward to reading Hamill and Jimmy Breslin. Both Hamill and Breslin worked and knew every neighborhood. They knew their way around the streets and back alleys of the Big Apple. .
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by Dario Pio Muccilli, reporting from Italy sanctions, as Belarus is not an island like Cuba. Even if the other bordering countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine) will decide to close any traffic towards Minsk, the main economic partner of Lukashenko’s regime will be preserved. Putin, moreover, will not allow any foreign action on a land that, to be honest, was part of Russia till 1991 and where any foreign military presence would be an outrage, as it was for the US during the missile crisis of Cuba in 1962. We know how that ended. Therefore, as the embargo and military solutions are undermined by the same geographical position of the country, what's left? Diplomacy. Since German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck in 1881 set up the European and Colonization order during the Berlin Conference, splitting African countries according to economic and strategical interests and establishing a system of balance of power, it has been clear how diplomacy is not based upon ideas or upon brave people like Tikhanovskaya, but rather on a dirty system of Realpolitik.
to the US itself. The possible scenarios of such a revenge are not missing. Russia is used to showing off the firepower of its nuclear submarines in the Baltic Sea, where there are many US allies, including former Soviet republics where Russian capitalists still own a consistent part of the local industry and wealth. These include Lithuania, where Tikhanovskaya is currently exiled, alongside with its “sisters”, Latvia and Estonia. Such little countries would be too weak to face a Russian attack if not defended by the NATO alliance. But while Russia does not command an official military alliance such as NATO, the it maintains established ties with its surrounding nations that are similar and historically (if not ethnically) justified. Before reaching an open (diplomatic) conflict against Russia, we should also consider if attacking this country would be convenient in the perspective of involuntarily promoting an alliance between Moscow and Beijing. A worse perspective for the USA does not exist.
Therefore, a strong action of the US in Belarus could cause a crucial reaction of Russia in a country politically close
Moscow, to be honest, would have better advantages from a MoscowWashington alliance rather than from
In the 1960s, NYC was blessed with over 12 daily newspapers sold at thousands of neighborhood newsstands. I still remember many of Long Island’s own Newsday’s competitors from decades ago such as the Long Island Star Journal and Long Island Press based in Queens along with the short lived Suffolk Sun. The Bronx Home News suspended publication in 1948. The Brooklyn Eagle ceased publication in 1957.
left. The profit margin for individual newspaper sales adds up to pennies. Newsstand owners need additional revenues to survive. They provide newspapers and other products many New Yorkers depend upon on a daily basis.
The 1962 newspaper strike lasted for 114 days before ending on March 31, 1963. Prior to that New Yorkers had numerous newspapers. These included the New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Journal American, New York World Telegram & Sun, New York Mirror, The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Long Island Star Journal, Long Island Press and Staten Island Advance. It was an era when a majority of citizens received their news from newspapers, as opposed to television news. These broadcasts would be primarily local news, sports and weather, seldom more than 30 minutes. Technology and budgets were not readily available to send reporters out for remote coverage of national or international stories. Readers could select from morning, midday and late afternoon editions, available at thousands of newsstands. It was common to see many of several million commuters while riding the NYC Transit subway or Long Island Rail Road reading a paper to and from work. There were thousands of newsstands all over NYC. Today there are fewer newspapers and only several hundred newsstands
a Chinese friendship. Washington and Moscow should maybe unite their influence, as China is building the bases for a new Silk Road which will cut Russia and USA away from the Asian and African commerce, convincing even historical allies of both of them (respectively, Italy and the central-Asia republics) to be part of this imperialistic project. China is economically the biggest threat for the USA, its growth is unstoppable and no sanction would ever work against the “Dragon”, as the Chinese economy is often called. Russia is not so powerful, nor so rich, but it would be a strong ally for Beijing if the US does not seize the moment. But, turning back to the starting point, what should we do then with Belarus? We (even if there’s very little democracy regarding foreign affairs) should decide whether to prioritize human rights and freedom above economical interests or not. Realpolitik or the universal rights of a people? That’s the decision which will determine the future of that distant, previously widely unknown, Eastern republic in Europe.
As a result of the strike, the Daily Mirror ended publication in 1963. Even the remnants of three papers who combined into one, the World Journal Tribune had the best reporters and features from the old New York Herald Tribune, World Telegram and Sun along with the Journal American could not survive and folded in 1967. Today the Post, Daily News and Times continue to fight for survival. They face competition from other daily newspapers such as USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Long Island Newsday, Staten Island Advance, Journal News (Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Dutchess counties), Star Ledger & Bergen Record (New Jersey), Times Herald Record (Hudson Valley and Catskills). There are also freebies such as AM Metro New York. More people turn to all news radio, national network news such as ABC, CBS, NBC along with their local affiliates, NY1 (New York City), News 12 (Long Island), FOX-5, WOR-9, WPIX11, WLNY 10/55, PBS, along with ca-
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ble new stations such as CNBC, CNN, FOX, BBC and the Internet for late braking news which can sometimes become stale by the time it reaches print the next day. A growing population of new immigrants support their own newspaper, radio and television stations. I still enjoy holding a hard copy of a daily or weekly newspaper in my hands to read decades later. (Larry Penner is an avid daily and weekly newspaper reader since the 1960’s).
August 2021
Video: TransSiberian Express.
I
came across this free movie on YouTube when I was looking for films with Woody Harrelson.
I used to think Woody just played himself. A cool, funny, stoner type. Then I saw him in Out of the Furnace. He played a scary badass. A guy you would hate, and be terrified of. He’d beat the hell out of you. A guy who would never work at Cheers. So which Woody is the real one? Oh I get it. Woody Harrelson is right up there with Denzel and Meryl Streep. I eagerly clicked on it..
Even the opening credits were intriguing. The setting, Vladivostok Russia on the Chinese border. And who is the first person I see? Ben Kingsley.
He’s Grinko, a Russian drug cop. Alright. This is gonna be intense. And the first scene; eerie and amazing. Yeah; I’m in. Then we go to Beijing, China and see a church group of Americans. And there’s Woody who plays Roy. I didn’t recognize him at first, he looks so square and nerdy. And Roy’s wife Jessie, played by Emily Mortimer. I’ve never seen her before. She’s got more depth than Roy. She’s been around. I like her. As they head to the train station to go to Moscow Roy says “Are you sure you don’t want to fly?” “No.”
by Gene Bray put your finger on it. But this is not gonna end well. Then the climax hits and...wow. I didn’t expect that.
And Jessie? She’s got a big secret. It’s her movie now. Soon I realize the climax has just started. Now the tension is really ratcheting up.
And as I'm at the edge of my seat, here’s Grinko again. He’s got his charm, but right under that charm is the devil waiting to pounce. And Roy the nerd still can’t see it.
I’m getting sick watching Jessie in such panic. The train is rushing towards Roy and Jessie’s annihilation.
The ominous music is getting more intense. So is Grinko. Jessie is frantic; terrified. I gotta hit pause. An hour later my stress hormones have stabilized, so I turn it back on. And I’m right back where I was. Climax after climax. I’m gonna blow a fuse. Finally Roy sees the light and we see him become a hero. It’s his movie now. But he’s a doomed hero. And he’s beautiful too. This movie is a 90 minute roller coaster ride.
Gene Bray is a Red Hook resident who likes to watch movies and listen to records on Van Brunt Street.
Now Jessie is looking at a giant mural of a map showing the long route to Moscow. With ominous background music. I’m really in now. As the ride begins, so do the bad omens. They weren’t worried, but I was.
At the first stop a young couple shares their cabin. They dont look right. Especially him. He looks like a daring risk taker, and a man without morals. He’s the exact opposite of the church going Roy. He hides behind his good looks and charm. It works on Roy, but not on Jessie. As the train heads deeper and deeper into the unknown, I’m getting more and more uneasy. You cant
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August 2021, Page 11
Tough and Urgent Documentary “Homeroom” Earns Top Marks by Dante A. Ciampaglia
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eter Nicks’ exceptional documentary Homeroom, which debuts on Hulu August 12, is the third film in a trilogy focused on the residents of Oakland, California, and their fraught relationship with public institutions. The first, The Waiting Room (2012), centered on health care, specifically Highland Hospital; The Force (2017) was concerned with policing. Homeroom tackles education — Nicks admits to being inspired by The Wire, and it shows in the trilogy’s subjects — and when the opening card appears on screen, telling us the film follows the senior class of Oakland High School through the 2019-20 school year, the heart stutters at what we’re in for: the pandemic, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the death rattle of the Trump presidency. We get all that over the film’s 90 minutes, as well as these kids’ everyday struggles with police profiling and brutality, fears of immigration crackdowns, and minimal encouragement and fewer expectations. Those are
"Then comes one police killing of a Black person after another after another, and when George Floyd is murdered this group of teenagers, like so many others around the country, take to the streets." Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue
vivid threads in the Oakland tapestry Nicks weaves, but Homeroom serves a dual purpose: a microcosm of the city’s failing public education system and a vital real-time document of some of the most consequential months in American history. That it’s captured through the eyes and lives of teenagers from marginalized communities makes it all the more potent. Their witness to the ceaseless grief and existential crises of 2020 must be part of the story we tell of this time, and thanks to Nicks it’s an experience that’s impossible to exclude — or ignore. And it’s quite the experience, held together by Denilson Garibo, who is as close as we have to a main character. Along with Mica Smith-Dahl, Denilson is one of the student leaders who sits on the Board of Education, Denilson is a vocal activist for the 36,000 students of the Oakland Unified School District. The first half of the film is focused on the fight to remove officers from the Oakland Police Department from the city’s public schools. It’s a fight that goes about how you expect, at least until a cop in Minnesota murders George Floyd, and while hurt and insulted Denilson and his classmates power through with an optimism and perseverance that is breathtaking and a tonic for our cynical age. That he puts himself so out there, as the representative for his fellow students — his generation — despite his family’s undocumented status is immeasurably brave.
Throughout the film, we see Denilson and his friends struggle to cobble together a senior year that will lead them to college and new opportunities while also leaning hard into the parties and senioritis of the final days of high school. (God, I wish I had the kind of fun these kids have while I was in high school. #nerd) When we meet them they’re at the cusp of something…
Then comes COVID. Schools, parties, their city all come to a stop. Then comes one police killing of a Black person after another after another, and when George Floyd is murdered this group of teenagers, like so many others around the country, take to the streets. Suddenly their SAT scores and the picayune details of what happens between classes is irrelevant. The activism that made up part of their identities a few months earlier becomes who they are, Denilson most
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of all. He avoids the larger protests at first — reports of brutal police crackdowns leaves him worried about his and his family’s status and what would happen if he were arrested — but his friends convince him he’s needed. Denilson is the student voice of police reform in Oakland, and now fate has given him, and the cause, a massive opportunity to realize actual change. When we see him leading a march to the home of Oakland’s mayor to demand the long-overdue removal of Oakland cops from their schools, it’s the kind of rousing moment we all sought during the darkest days of the pandemic. And when the school board revotes on the measure, via a Zoom meeting, we’re given the kind of celebration and catharsis many of us have been denied over the last 17 months.
It’s easy to say Nicks was in the right place at the right time to shoot Homeroom, but that would undercut the deep relationships he has built in the community through his previous films. It would also undermine the very personal tragedy haunting the film. Early in production, his teenage daughter Karina died from an accidental overdose. (Homeroom is dedicated to her.) The director clearly has a deep well of empathy for his subjects, but he also clearly understands the challenges and fates facing these young people, already at a crossroads, as they grapple with a battery of crises big and small in a world that doesn’t think they have a voice worth hearing. It’s easier to say only Nicks could have made this film. One episode captures the full range of tools — cinematic and humanistic — Nicks brings to Homeroom. During the first half of the film, a group of Oakland High students sit in an Oakland PD auditorium for a kind of community meet-and-greet with members of the force. The police are there to answer student questions and listen to their experiences, and while a few kids speak up — to make a statement, to get a read on the cops’ feelings on excessive force — the others look like they’ve been lured into a trap. They avert their eyes, sneak glances at officers, fold themselves up into their seats. They want answers, but not on the cops’ terms; they don’t want to be there, but they can’t leave. It’s easy to see this as a funhouse mirror reflection of the interactions many, if not all, of the young people
(continued on next page) August 2021
panic attack but is something of a technical marvel.
HOMEROOM (continued from previous page)
have had with police on the streets or in school: at the mercy of this heavily-armed authority figure, they have to take whatever they get as passively as possible to get out alive. The scene at Oakland PD only lasts only a few minutes, but it comments on everything that came before and haunts everything we see after. It’s importance is outsized, but what makes it powerful is its stillness, it’s quiet, its reverence — not for the authority, but for the students.
So much of Homeroom is propulsive and kinetic and dominated by the kids. (Adults appear so infrequently and so rarely in the foreground that it’s a legitimate shock when they do.) Classrooms are hives of hyperactivity and phone checks and socializing despite hapless teachers trying to maintain control; individual experiences are a cacophony of pings, buzzes, and notifications amidst the IRL antics of their friends. It’s a testament to Nicks and his editor Kristina Motwani that the film not only never becomes a 90-minute
the outside world — creating a cinematic version of the disorientation familiar to anyone who has ever spent five minutes on Twitter or TikTok. But it’s the world these teenagers know, and it’s the only way they’ve ever socialized: in real life and on social media, not necessarily in that order and often at the same time.
Before watching the film, I thought it was impossible to replicate in reality and without the aid of special effects the sensation of being bombarded by an endless stream of data and content. But Homeroom pulls it off. The moment where that clicked for me was about midway through, as a group of students stand around making conversation while buried in their phones. A bunch are focused on President Donald Trump’s first impeachment — some excitedly share the news he has been impeached; others don’t believe it really happened; they share screens to catch up with each other. But one kid is obsessing over a picture of Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian, specifically how they look alike. The kid can only get distracted attention from their friends until, finally, Denilson looks up, asks about the Baby Yoda thing, and then goes back to the impeachment and updates on the fight to expel city police from the school, everything whizzing by with the same amount of weight and import and attention.
Replicating that experience feels somehow transgressive when compared to traditional documentary filmmaking. But it’s also true to the students and their story — which is the highest compliment you can give to Homeroom. This is an important document, but also an urgent and empathetic portrait of the American teenager in the third decade of the 21st century.
If this is the final entry in Nicks’ Oakland series, it ends on the highest of notes. But the filmmaker has said he was also inspired by Michael Apted’s UP series, which checked in with a group of kids every seven years for decades. If ever a cohort deserved similar treatment, it’s the spirited, resourceful, and courageous Oakland High class of 2020.
This kind of scene repeats, over and over and over again — high school seniors navigating social apps and videos and news and requests and intrusions from
Quinn on Books: Unsolved Mysteries Review of Mona, by Pola Oloixarac, Translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris Review by Michael Quinn
W
aking up on a Palo Alto train station platform, covered in blood, with no memory of what happened or how she got there, Mona, the title character of the third novel by Argentinian writer Pola Oloixarac (translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris), outpaces self-discovery by running away. Rather than try to sort out what’s happened to her, Mona, a gifted Peruvian writer, spontaneously accepts an invitation to attend a literary conference in Sweden, abandoning her doctoral work at Stanford along with text messages from a persistent, neglected lover. Before heading to the airport, Mona vapes, pops a Valium, and ties a scarf around her neck to cover the bruises. So much for the great escape: As the old saying goes, wherever you go, there you are. While Sweden is bucolic and beautiful, Mona skulks around in her filthy prescription sunglasses and a trench coat, looking down on her fellow writers and eavesdropping on their conversations like an unhappy spy. Although her debut novel is up for Europe’s most prestigious literary award, Mona seems less like a promising ingénue than a bitter has-been, full of disdain for the literary world she inhabits. “The phony solidarity of having a ‘Latin’ culture in common with other writers was something that had always repulsed her,” Oloixarac writes. Yet Mona is aware of both the trappings and advantages of a persona; she describes herself (to herself ) as “playing the part of an overeducated Latina adrift in Trump’s America.” Though she doesn’t recognize it, Mona is not so different from the other 12 award finalists, who hail from countries all over the world, and who vacillate between feeling insignificant and like rock stars. Despite having opportunities to bond, Mona remains
at a stoned remove, observant and privately critical, while the group attends panels, compares publishers, and gripes about things like TED Talks (“‘Everyone just goes around saying the same thing. Exactly the same thing!,’” one kvetches). An Iranian writer, having convinced himself he has no chance to win the big prize, uses his opportunity in front of the captive audience to make a pro-Muslim speech— “‘Europe is pregnant! Pregnant with our children!’”—much to Mona’s amusement. It’s not so much his ideas that excite her, but the disturbance he creates. Mona perks up in chaotic situations where others are made as unhappy as she is.
At heart, Mona’s an escapist: “it was the sensation of losing consciousness that Mona associated with pleasure.” Alone in her hotel room, she gets stoned, peels the Band-Aid off of her laptop’s camera (she’s paranoid about being spied on), and masturbates with a partner, Franco, on Skype. Rather than Franco, showing off is what turns Mona on. She’s hurt by his inattention—even when she’s the one with her eyes closed: “When she reopened them, Franco was staring intently at something else on his screen, focused on something that wasn’t her.”
Although Mona recognizes herself as “a total nympho for terror,” in her darker moments, alone, she doesn’t know what she’s really afraid of—or why. The bigger problem is, the author doesn’t know, either. Reading Mona is like reading a notebook full of Oloixarac’s undeveloped ideas: a 12-year-old girl who goes missing in Lima; a group of strange men, wondering around Sweden like a wild tribe; a fox with its throat slit, along with another decapitated animal. These all feel like clues but they don’t add up to a satisfying mystery.
her classmates, and is then confronted by them when they discover it). But Mona never gets her comeuppance. She doesn’t get much of anything at all. Oloixarac isn’t sure what to do with this prickly, unlikable character she’s created. A tidal wave of magic realism at the novel’s end does them both in. Even when we find out what happened to Mona at the train station, it feels like a cheap play for sympathy—Oloixarac’s, not Mona’s. That Oloixarac would turn Mona into such a paint-by-numbers victim is the biggest mystery of all.
Mona’s superiority complex would’ve been narratively satisfying had it been exposed (like in the children’s classic Harriet the Spy, when the 11-year-old wouldbe writer loses her notebook with harsh criticisms of
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Books by Quinn Love Letter to New York Review of Marvelous Manhattan: Stories of the Restaurants, Bars, and Shops That Make This City Special by Reggie Nadelson Review by Michael Quinn
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Nothing is as irresistible as authenticity. After all, one of the things that has always drawn people to the city is the promise of freedom to be who we really are. Paradoxically, this sometimes involves a process of reinvention. In 1925, Nadelson’s mother, driven by a “fierce need” and “ambition to become someone else,” moved to New York from Canada, changed her name (from Sarah to Sally), and joined the Communist party. Nadelson writes, “My mother felt that life would not be much worth living without New York City.”
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Now that the city’s opening up, where are you looking forward to going? Should you be willing to venture across the river, author Reggie Nadelson has some swell suggestions. Her new book, Marvelous Manhattan: Stories of the Restaurants, Bars, and Shops That Make This City Special, compiles a list of oldschool New York institutions (collected from “The 212,” her column for The New York Times’ T Magazine), almost all of which, incredibly, survived this past year. Nadelson writes, “The places in this book are the places I love, my personal favorites, restaurants or shops that have history for me and that seem to me evidence that New York is still alive, that it is still the real thing.”
Nadelson grew up on East 10th Street and now lives downtown. The pandemic brought out the love-it-or-leave it attitude she inherited from her mother: “As the lockdown began, I watched Soho residents clear the shelves of groceries, pack up their Mercs and Jeeps, and head for the Hamptons or the Hudson Valley. My fellow stalwart New Yorkers and I saw them go and, with a certain bravado, thought: Bye-bye. More space for us.” Deeply personal, Marvelous Manhattan forgoes the usual guidebook structure. Rather than corral its entries by type, Nadelson starts near where she lives and winds her way uptown, pointing out spots along the way. She gives a little history about each place, introduces us to some of the owners, and makes recommendations about what to eat, buy, or experience. Her vignettes are like little character sketches. Russ & Daughters, world-famous purveyors of smoked salmon, bagels, babka, and the like, also provides the “nutrients you get from eating Jewish: comedy, history, nostalgia.” A real New York success story, what started as a humble storefront on Orchard Street in 1914 now includes the shop on Houston Street, a nearby café, a Jewish Museum outpost, and a huge baking facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard—still run by generations of the same family. Nadelson writes, “In a way, Russ has give me a sense of my own past, even of my own Jewishness, a very particular kind of secular New York Jewishness—
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and a desire to reclaim it.” Italian specialty shop Di Palo’s on Mott Street is a delicious trip back in time (“In 1950, half of Little Italy was Italian; by 2000, it was down to 6 percent”), whereas the Upper East Side German butcher Schaller & Weber is “peppy as a polka but contemporary as a Berlin rock club.” Donohue’s Steak House, also on the Upper East Side, “has the kind of patina that comes with generations—not patina in the designer sense, but the emotional luster that is produced by seventy years of staff attention and customer affection,” Nadelson observes, whereas Keens Steakhouse in the Theater District (“dark and secret, tables and booths set in deep corners”) has her panting over the food: “This is like sex with your clothes on, and nobody hurries you to finish.” Some places are worth it for the atmosphere alone. The Hungarian Pastry Shop on the Upper West Side, across the street from St. John the Divine, and a hub for Columbia University students and writers of all stripes, still has a beatnik coffeehouse vibe (“no Wi-Fi, and the lighting is not great, but the coffee refills are free, and the pastries are large and sweet,”) whereas Caffë Dante in Greenwich Village has managed to retain something of its heritage while bringing its look, menu, and service into the 21st Century: “The sight of a few white subway tiles might have sent some locals into paroxysms of despair, but if you don’t embrace change in New York, you can drown in nostalgia and misery.” Of course, as anyone who’s lived in New York for a while realizes, our own pasts become inextricably linked with the city’s. We mourn the vanished places of our youth and worry for the ones that are still managing to hang on—even if we no longer frequent them. Marvelous Manhattan is a good reminder to step up that commitment. Returning to the Village Vanguard, Nadelson is shocked to realize that there’s “no room in the world that sounds as good for jazz as this one in Greenwich Village.” Up at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, Nadelson is reminded of the greats—Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker—who had not only performed at the club, but had invented modern jazz—“dissonant, complex, strange, hard, seductive, and gorgeous in a cerebral way”—while doing it. She writes, “The music, the clubs, the idea of it all, is, for me, wrapped in a web of nostalgia for both my youth and a disappearing New York; melancholy, too, because so much of the music, even the sharpest, most angular bebop always seems tinged with the blues.” Places disappear; people do, too. For Nadelson, the loss of her mother is a keen one, but her spirit lives on in her daughter’s shared passion for the only place they’d ever want to call home. Whether as an introduction to New York’s special spots or as a reminder that they’re just as vibrant as ever, Marvelous Manhattan will make you fall in love with the city—either for the first time, or all over again.
August 2021
Jazz by Grella Vision 25 Delights Red Hook & LES
J
by George Grella
azz is always on the move, and that’s why it is the music closest to my heart. I care about living in society, the world around me, the people around me, I’m interested in what they do and think and how they work together. Put that together with the rhythmic brilliance, the incredible musical skill, the beauty of hearing ideas pour forth straight from the heart and mind—something as fulfilling as conversations with close friends after long separations—the sheer excitement of phrasing and inflection, the intelligence, humor, and hipness… I mean, how is it that everyone on earth is not crazy for jazz? Every time a musician puts their hands to the keyboard or strings, the mouthpiece or microphone to their lips, they have at their disposal a century of practices, styles, and ideas (this is usually called a tradition, but that word has such strong implications of chauvinistic ossification that it’s better to see the component parts) to channel, build from, take or leave.
Pop music—and there’s plenty of pop music I love— makes illusory progress, only to fold back on itself and recycle a previous style in new hues. Pop music is like fashion, something that we like to have in our lives that suits our taste, but also subject to trends, herd mentality, and full of sensations that, in retrospect, can be baffling. Jazz is like life, accumulating experiences and knowledge, but also superior because it inherently progresses into the future, while we as individuals can only hope each day finds us wiser and more mature. That makes the return of the Vision Festival—jazz is back, baby!—that much more welcome and important. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a hiatus in 2020, and so this year’s version, held at Pioneer Works in Red Hook and The Clemente on the Lower East side, was the 25th. Like every year, the festival honors a notable figure, this year that was the great and deeply undervalued Amina Claudine Myers, and as always it brings together the leading voices in the freer style of jazz centered around bassist William Parker; familiar names like pianists Matt Shipp, Dave Burrell, and Cooper-Moore, drummers Gerald Cleaver and Andrew Cyrille, saxophonist David Murray.
These are about the finest figures of the wisdom and maturity in free jazz. And as festival artistic director Patricia Nicholson Parker told the Brooklyn Rail in a New Social Environment interview, these musicians, who are New Yorkers, get the bulk of their gigs in Europe and beyond, and so the Vision Festival is one of the few opportunities to actually hear your neighbors play live.
And, again, all this music is on the move. Coming up fast is a younger generation that includes bassist Brandon Lopez, guitarist Ava Mendoza, and tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and trumpeter Jaimie Branch, two real new stars on the jazz scene, the kind of musicians who you should pay attention to, because every note they play is bringing the music into the future. Their sets at Pioneer Works (a great space with frustratingly poor sound engineering), the last Thursday and Friday in July, were highlights of the seven days and nights of 45 concerts.
their 50s), and, I am 100% certain, an anti-Trump Democratic voter, if not a member of the DSA or a self-styled anarchist.
Telling them that fascism is bad, as Amirtha Kidambi and her band Elder Ones did, before Lewis’ set, may make them feel good about themselves but doesn’t make a single mark on society.
Lewis, on the other hand—and Branch the following night—spoke eloquently about society without saying a word, he let his rich, soulful sound, Jaimie Branch and Lester St. Louis at Pioneer Works the energy of his lungs and mind, speak for him. He led his quartet, with Aruán Ortiz on piano, bassist Brad Jones, and drumvisations from the likes of Fay Victor, Lisa Sokolov, mer Chad Taylor, that can be heard on his 2020 album and Chinyelu Ingram. Generation IV is another Molecular, in a roiling set. The group made a churning vocal group, a quartet of Myers (who also plays piano sound, like one long shout from the chest and full of and organ in both groups), Richarda Abrams, Pyeng emotional power, but just under control enough so that Threadgill, and Luna Threadgill-Moderbacher. Their everything was clear. Lewis’ has already played soulful, regular set is a survey of famous gospel songs and Nefunky jazz and done some hellacious mixtures of jazz gro spirituals like “Steal Away” and “Oh Mary Don’t and hip hop, now he’s digging deep into the human You Weep,” and also Myer’s excellent original gospel experience and it’s exciting as anything happening. song, “Call Him.” Branch led her unique combo, Fly or Die, with cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Jason Ajemian, and Taylor again on drums. Familiarity with her playing never prepares one for the power and charisma she projects from the stage. There’s a cutting brightness to her sound that makes me think of Miles Davis’ at his most extroverted, blasting out attitude on Jack Johnson and Live-Evil. Fly or Die is a lean band with a steely groove, plenty of space to fill in with communication, a nice wise-ass edge, and Branch’s own singing and spoken comments (very much musical) about how shit is fucked up and bullshit.
Though stylistically very different, Fly or Die was a companion to Third Landing, a group that played at The Clemente on July 25. Fronted by Mendoza and the Last Poets’ Abiodun Oyewole, this was a slashing free rock band supporting plainspoken outrage about the state of things. Oyewole laid out the injustices, and spoke about how “America should be a paradise.” He didn’t bother with a solution that ended in an -ism, instead Third Landing made music about the gap between human behavior and human systems and humanity, best expressed by making music, itself. He didn’t preach to the choir, he grabbed their lapels and made sure they saw the world outside the church. The choir was there, though, and it belonged to Myers. All of July 23 was handed over to her and it was a marvelous evening. Myers lead three different groups, her Amina Claudine Myers Voice Choir, Generation IV, and her Trio. Myers is one of those musician who we do not get to see enough, even though her range of achievement is stupendous. The Voice Choir, an octet that includes Myers, delivered an extended suit of new spirituals and tremendous, scat-based vocal impro-
The experience of both of these groups was fulfilling, the music beautiful and soulful in a older-fashioned way, but also modern, bluesy, a musical living church that is much needed in a country where the public face of Christianity is of a narcissistic and solipsistic perversion of grace and the political authoritarianism of white grievance and dominance. Myers music making is about human failings and aspirations, the same humanity that Oyewole spoke of. Her Trio, with Jerome Harris playing bass, guitar, and adding some skillful polytonal singing, and drummer Reggie Nicholson, was an absolute knockout. There was singing, but no words, just music that was even more modern blues and soul and funk than jazz. When she moved to the organ, it was a thrill that had the hips and shoulders bobbing and weaving.
That was some of the most formal music of the festival, the bulk of which was free improvisation, and the bulk of that somewhat disappointing. Perhaps with the pandemic, people are out of practice. Shipp played a fantastic 45 minutes, with Parker and violist Mat Maneri. The pianist had a leaner sound than usual, focusing on lines and etched articulation, rather than harmony, and had a bouncing, even joyful, drive. Ideas just flowed and flowed from the trio, everything fresh. Burrell and alto saxophonist Darius Jones played a set that same night, and it took them awhile to find completely sympathetic common ground, but when they did, things went deep. But most everything else was a good-natured mess, everyone sincere and full of energy, but no one much listening to each other. It happens, and if the musicians were just so fucking glad to be playing again that making it work went out the window, that’s not much to complain about.
They were also successful in making music that belongs to the current social and political situation but that is still music. Since the ‘60s, a lot of free jazz has been heroically trying to address all-American subjects like racism, police violence, authoritarianism, and more. The effect of that on society, unfortunately, has been so slight as to be effectively non-existent. Music doesn’t change worlds, if it works it might change individual minds. The kind of jazz listener who comes out to the Vision Festival is most likely white, older (at least in
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Amina Claudine Myers Trio
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August 2021, Page 15
A Hippy Commie Remembers by Joe Enright
I
first met Roberto “Robby” Jimenez (not his real name) in 1994 when he was a Detective who needed some intel on a sensitive target. Since I knew Brooklyn much better than Robby, a proud son of Union City, New Jersey, he persuaded me to accompany him on some night-time reconnaissance work. Parked in a car for hours on darkened Brooklyn streets tends to lead to looong conversations and it was soon apparent we viewed the political landscape through different lenses. Or as Robby would frame it, “Face it, Joe, you’re a hippy Commie.” To which I’d reply, “Shut up, Robby, you ignorant slut.” I think our common Catholicism and Mets/Jets suffering gave us a faster path to mutual acceptance, but truth be told, we never let politics define who we were, let alone our work. In law enforcement everybody ultimately sees themselves on the same side: defend the weak, take down the bad guys. Of course there were some exceptions, like the mobbed-up corrupt NYPD Lieutenant we were then surveilling. He was code-named BLT for Bad Lieutenant (belated apologies to Harvey Keitel). The side he took depended on who had more cash. After BLT, Robby and I worked other interesting cases. One of them involved the mysterious disappearance of two tenants in an old brick building near the Fulton Seaport. Suspicion fell upon their ornery landlord until he too disappeared, much to the delight of the tabloids, leading to the assign-
ment of the most Detectives in NYPD history. But that’s a story from another time, when you could still buy a plane ticket at the boarding gate. On 9/11 Robby Jimenez was coming out of the Battery Tunnel just after Mohammed Atta murdered his passengers and doomed 1,400 others in the south tower. He pulled over and began assisting first responders. Suddenly all the criminal investigations we worked on didn’t seem so important. For instance at 5 pm one New Year’s Eve we found ourselves in a glass and steel tower overlooking Times Square executing a search warrant against some corporate crooks. There was a terrorist threat against the throngs we watched below us, growing ever larger, as we waited for the warrant to be amended. The careless prosecutors had specified the evidence was on the 44th floor but the computer server, where all the goodies resided, was on the 43rd. For those of you who believe cops have no scruples, here is some evidence to the contrary, although admittedly a small sample size: as the hours slowly passed, not a single Detective argued we should stroll down the stairway connecting the two floors and clone the network server so we could all get the hell out of there. Sure, we wanted nothing more than to welcome the New Year with our loved ones. However, like Meat Loaf, we would do anything for love, but unlike BLT we would not do that, even after we learned the warrant couldn’t be amended because the prosecutors were all out partying.
We eventually found a PC that wasn’t password-protected and used it to legally siphon all the financial data from the server a floor below. A painstakingly slow process. We didn’t finish until 3 am, but we did manage to enjoy some Auld Lang Syne beers at a cop bar near Foley Square well after the last call. That’s when Robby told us he was going to take some deal for reservists who returned to active duty but could still collect their cop paycheck. He said it was all about making more money, but we knew the real reason: he wanted to make more of a difference. His official title was Senior Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy, and he held a position he would later describe in his LinkedIn profile as “operational manager of a strategic level unit.” HaHaHa! I n fact Robby was a member of the United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams – a SEAL. We fell out of touch, but there’d be occasional updates, like a photo of Robby in a Humvee surrounded by a gaggle of kids in some brown rocky landscape. Years later out of the blue I got an email from him via a super-secret-y channel while I was working in a secret-y FBI corner. He was stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Khost in Afghanistan and he needed some intel on a sensitive target he was going to meet in a nearby village the next day. Believe it or not we found that the target had left some deep footprints in Detroit.
Good for Robby to know when the villager pretended to be a purely local yokel. Pretty soon, we had a regular electronic correspondence going back and forth until one day in late April 2011, he sent a message that he was going offline for a while but not to worry. A few days later bin Laden met his maker and Robby broke his silence. He wanted to send me an American flag that had been flown for 9 minutes and 11 seconds at the FOB. But our correspondence had come to the attention of the over-seers who monitored super-secret-y traffic. After some serious ‘splaining, we henceforward had to stick to our own “comms chains.” During multiple tours Robby rarely saw the sea but he made it home safe, unlike 30 of his SEAL brothers who died in Afghan combat before Navy brass returned special operations units to their “maritime roots.” The last time I saw him he was giving a training lecture at Fort Hamilton. He was back in law enforcement about to start a dangerous undercover assignment. We had an adult beverage in Bay Ridge and I hugged him goodbye. “Thanks for your service, Robby,” I said. And Robby replied, “I did it just for you, Joe, you hippy Commie bastard.” Brooklynite Joe Enright is recently retired from a 42 year career in law enforcement.
"Of course there were some exceptions, like the mobbed-up corrupt NYPD Lieutenant we were then surveilling." Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue
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August 2021