Neighbors and jazz lovers of all ages attended last week’s medallion ceremony at Miles Davis’s former Upper West Side residence, in which a medallion was affixed to the landmark against the backdrop of jazz pouring forth into the street. One former neighbor of Davis’s recalled visiting him in his home and seeing paintings he had produced, highlighting the dimensionality of his artistry.

The Harlem School of the Arts Advanced Jazz Combo joined renowned jazz musicians in rememberance of Davis.

“This is where [Davis] made so many ground-breaking compositions,” said Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, a prominent voice in the arts’ preservation movement and Landmarks50 advisory committee chair, calling him one of the most influential musicians in the world.

Many of his albums, explained Diamonstein-Spielvogel, were conceived in the house’s basement studio.
“Davis’s music reflected diversity before the word ‘multicultural’ was born,” said writer Quincy Troupe, who’s written extensively on Davis, addressing the crowd.

“He was like a portal,” added Troupe, highlighting the ways Davis could seamlessly channel his musical predecessors, like Charlie Parker.

“He was never afraid of failure because failure taught him what he needed to do.”
Troupe also called Davis the quintessential New World artist and a great poet, noting how closely his sound mirrored that of a human voice and his inclination toward the metaphorical.

“There was a scary intensity to the way he played,” said Troupe. “He also never wanted to become a museum piece; he knew nothing is forever.”

Troupe quoted Ralph Gleason who once said, “The greatest single thing about Miles Davis is he does not stand still. He is forever being born.”

Other notable artists, including Davis’s own nephew Vince Wilburn, also commented on his legacy and echoed his propensity to always push forward.

Percussionist and radio host James Mtume teared up as he noted he had not been back to Davis’s former residence in over 40 years.
“Miles Davis is more than music,” said Mtume. “He’s still in there.”

Photos by Alissa Fleck
Percussionist and radio host James Mtume payed tribute to Davis’ legacy.

“I met Miles 25 times and the 26th time, he met me,” said Saxophonist Gary Bartz, emphasizing the renowned musician’s particular brand of humor. “He taught me the essence of being a true artist.

Before the men joined together in performing in commemoration of Davis, jazz musician George Coleman added: “I loved him, he was a great man. Wherever he is, I hope to meet him again.”

In the morning hours of May 18, 32-year-old Mark Carson was gunned down outside a Greenwich Village pizzeria after being trailed and threatened with anti-gay slurs. Before opening fire early Saturday, the gunman confronted the victim and his companion on the street and asked if they “want to die here,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The tragedy, deemed a hate crime by the NYPD, follows a string of similar incidents throughout the city over the past two weeks.
While the perpetrator, later identified as 33-year-old Elliot Morales, was arrested following the most recent attack, State Senator Brad Hoylman, in whose district the murder occurred, says the city’s work does not stop at an arrest for one act.

“This recent rash of hate violence is a reminder that there’s still a lot to be done,” said the Senator. “It’s my hope that the LGBT community will not become complacent by our recent successes, such as marriage, and other advances in the struggle for equal rights.”

According to Hoylman, tragic acts such as those which occurred over the past few weeks reflect a society which fails to be entirely LGBT-friendly and has a long way to come.

“To take a couple of examples,” he explained, “we still don’t have state law protecting the rights of transgender people, homelessness among LGBT people is a growing problem and our social services safety net has been cut dramatically by state and local government.”

Sharon Stapel, the executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, told the New York Times that anti-gay violence actually seems to be escalating in the area where the attack on Carson occurred.

“The Village has always been a place where LGBT people have felt accepted and respected,” she said. “But the Village is not immune from this vitriolic anti-LGBT violence.”
While the area is home to numerous LGBT-friendly and owned establishments, and Carson reportedly loved frequenting the region, Stapel added the community is not as homogeneous as it may sometimes appear. Streets seen as tolerant of LGBT populations may border less friendly ones.

Still, there is a lot which can be done by community members to protect each other.

“Awareness is a key component,” said Hoylman. “Victims who have been targeted need to come forward even though it’s sometimes difficult, embarrassing or frankly inconvenient to report a crime.”

“Neighbors need to look out for each other and the community needs to continue to be vigilant,” he added.

Hoylman noted that various LGBT and anti-violence groups throughout the city, such as the Anti-Violence Project, the LGBT Center and GLAAD, are doing a good job in raising awareness, including organizing a march following the murder, but that still more is needed.
“We need more support from the community, whether financial or whatever, people need to get engaged,” said Hoylman. “Clearly we have more work to be done.”

On the night Carson was murdered, about 15 minutes before the bloodshed, Kelly said the gunman was seen urinating outside an upscale restaurant a few blocks from the Stonewall Inn, the site of 1969 riots that helped give rise to the modern gay-rights movement when patrons at a gay bar reacted to police harassment.

The gunman went inside the restaurant and asked if someone was going to call the police about him. Police said the gunman, identified later as Morales, told both the bartender and the manager, “if you do call the police, I’ll shoot you” and opened his sweatshirt to reveal a shoulder holster with a revolver and made anti-gay remarks, Kelly said.

Morales has a previous arrest for attempted murder in 1998, police said. Details of that arrest weren’t immediately clear.
Out on the street minutes later, the gunman and two others approached the 32-year-old victim, identified by police as Harlem resident Marc Carson, and a companion. One of the three men yelled out, “What are you, gay wrestlers?” according to Kelly.

The two men stopped, turned and, according to Kelly, said to the group taunting them, “What did you say?” – then kept walking.
“There were no words that would aggravate the situation spoken by the victims here,” the commissioner said. “This fully looks to be a hate crime, a bias crime.”

Two of the men kept following the victim and his companion, Kelly said, adding that witnesses saw the pair approach from behind while repeating anti-gay slurs.

The gunman asked the men if they were together and when he got an affirmative answer, Kelly said, “we believe that the perpetrator says to the victim, “Do you want to die here?’”

That’s when suspect produced the revolver and fired one shot into Carson’s cheek, Kelly said.
The gunman fled but was caught a few streets down by an officer who had heard a description on his radio spotted him and ordered him to stop, Kelly said. The suspected gunman threw his revolver to the ground and was arrested on the edge of the New York University campus.

Police found the mortally wounded victim on the pavement. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Authorities said they could not immediately identify Morales because he was carrying forged identification. But investigators learned his name after the forged ID was submitted to the department’s Facial Recognition Unit.

Of the other recent New York bias attacks on gay men, one was reported last week in the same neighborhood, where a 35-year-old man told police he was beaten up and heard anti-gay words after leaving a bar.

On May 10, two men trying to enter a billiards hall in midtown Manhattan were approached and beaten by a group shouting homophobic slurs, police said.

And on May 5, a man and his partner were beaten near the Madison Square Garden arena after a group of men hurled anti-gay slurs at them.

Multiple lawmakers have condemned the violence.
State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick declared that “New York is not open for bigotry.”
The New York City Anti-Violence Project plans to gather on Friday night, May 24, for what it calls a “Community Safety Night” .

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who represents the Village in her home district and is running to be the city’s first openly gay mayor, also spoke out against the violence witnessed by the city in the past few weeks.

“There was a time in New York City when hate crimes were a common occurrence,” said Quinn in a statement. “There was a time in New York City when two people of the same gender could not walk down the street arm-in-arm without fear of violence and harassment.”
“We refuse to go back to that time,” she added. “This kind of shocking and senseless violence, so deeply rooted in hate, has no place in a city whose greatest strength will always be its diversity.’’

Local libraries supportive of midtown renovations, speak out against budget cuts

The New York Public Library system is facing major changes and not everyone is happy about it.

The Committee to Save the New York Public Library (NYPL) has been rallying to stop the Central Library Plan, a plan to consolidate the Mid-Manhattan and the Science, Industry and Business Library into one building. The consolidating, they say would not only cost exorbitant taxpayer money, but would “threaten the 42nd Street Library’s status as one of the world’s great research libraries” and “endanger the architectural integrity of the landmarked building.”

“You don’t update a masterpiece,” wrote Ada Louise Huxtable of the proposed renovations in the Wall Street Journal this past winter.

Angela Montefinise, an NYPL spokesperson, disagrees. Montefinise says, among other pluses, renovations would be a boon to public library branches on the Upper West and Upper East Sides, some of which would greatly benefit from circulating funds.

“One of the benefits of the renovation of 42nd Street is that it would generate $15 million a year annually which can be put right back in the system, including the UWS and UES branches,” explains Montefinise.

Montefinise concedes many of the branches throughout the City are old and in need of repairs, which would be made possible through the plan as well as approximately $260 million of capital work going on around the system.

“While the renovations themselves are happening in midtown, they will benefit the whole system,” she says.

“I think there’s a perception that [the plan] is being done at the expense of other work – that’s incorrect. The funding for that plan is generated from the plan itself — such as real estate sales — and earmarked city money specifically for this project.”

Still, uptown, the consolidation plan is far from many’s minds as they consider more pressing concerns.

Sumie Ota, the network manager in charge of uptown libraries, says while the campaign to oppose major budget cuts is a main issue among library branches, local concerns have more to do with the day-to-day issues of keeping patrons happy.

“As far as allocating funds, the more money the better,” says Ota, “but our biggest concern is keeping the branches open and making our services available. The Central Library Plan is not on our minds.”

“Everyday I see people waiting for us to open our doors or waiting in line for computers,” she adds. “That’s what’s on our minds.”

The budget cuts Ota refers to amount to $47 million, or the largest proposed cut in the library’s history, according to Montefinise.

Montefinise says, in addition to an advocacy campaign to fight the budget cut, there will need to be increased strategic thinking — such as the Central Library Plan itself — as funds are slashed.

Currently, branches across the City are focusing on this effort to reach out to elected officials including sending letters to City Council members to fight the budget cut. The 67th Street library on the Upper East Side, for instance, has already sent over 400 letters to oppose the budget cuts.

The group Citizens Defending Libraries agrees the proposed budget cuts are a major issue currently facing the City’s public library branches.

“Mayor Bloomberg is defunding New York libraries at a time of increasing public use, population growth and increased city wealth, shrinking our library system to create real estate deals for wealthy real estate developers at a time of cutbacks in education and escalating disparities in opportunity,” notes the group.

Ota says there are major projects underway in her network including renovations and restorations, particularly to the Washington Heights and 96th Street branches.

Branch libraries, notes Ota, are also increasing their e-book presence in addition to circulating physical materials, while research libraries are increasingly digitizing their collections.

As far as the future of the consolidation plan, Montefinise maintains it’s never going to be of concern to libraries uptown.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there, and that’s a shame. I think internally employees certainly understand the benefits, and generally support initiatives that generate resources to help them serve the public.”

This past weekend was alive with innovation as Ideas City — a multi-day festival of presentations, exhibitions, workshops and panels which aims to take New Yorkers’ ideas about improving the city, and urban living in general, to the people to whom these ideas matter most — hit the streets.

Through the practice of parkour, The Movement Creative aims to highlight how the city is our playground.

Four days of demonstrations and performances, founded by the New Museum in the Bowery under this year’s theme of “untapped capital,” included ways to bring art and green space to public places, more efficient and environmentally friendly versions of items we already use on a regular basis and far more.

According to the event’s official website, Ideas City, founded in 2011, in addition to facilitating conferences and a massive outdoors street festival around the Bowery neighborhood, incorporates more than one hundred independent projects and public events that are “forums for exchanging ideas, proposing solutions, and accelerating creativity.”

The New Museum’s director Lisa Phillips explained: “As an institution dedicated to new art and new ideas, the New Museum strongly believes that the cultural community is essential to the vitality of the future city.”

“We also believe that the cultural sphere is still a relatively untapped source of enormously powerful creative capital,” she added, “Especially in its potential to stimulate economic development and foster greater innovation in other fields.”

The Bable Waste Capital styrofoam sculpture represents an extension of the city built from its own refuse.

The Ideas City StreetFest, a family-friendly affair, included such highlights as a “sweat your own battery” lodge; more efficient means of turning urban landscapes into playgrounds; blueprints for the city’s “Lowline” (an underground park in development); mobile libraries and art studios and far more.

Meanwhile, the conference component focused on places untapped capital can be used in urban development, including “ad hoc strategies,” “waste,” “play” and “youth.”

While Ideas City has come and gone for now, affiliated global conferences continue to promote ideas for productive urban change worldwide and New Yorkers, continually on the very cusp of major urban rejuvenation, have had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with hundreds of projects underway in the city with an eye toward the future.

“The water is coming,” said Eric Klinenberg to community members and elected officials gathered at Cooper Union last week. Klinenberg, an NYU professor and author to one of the most famous essays about rebuilding New York City after Hurricane Sandy, went on to say there’s not much we can do about that fact anymore.

Indeed, the crowd was there to discuss proactive ways to rebuild the City in anticipation of rising sea levels, in particular the East River Blueway Plan, commissioned by Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh in collaboration with community boards in the area and the Lower East Side Ecology Center. The plan itself has been more than a year in development.

Stringer introduces new parts of the Blueway Plan

“The important thing to do is reduce greenhouse gases, but we also need to think about how to adapt and build our cities differently,” explained Klinenberg. “Our impulse is to rebuild, but after Sandy the new challenge is to pro-build.”

“We cannot go back to what we had before,” he added. “We have to build in anticipation of what’s coming next time.”

At the risk of sounding alarmist, Klinenberg made a comparison to rebuilding the City after 9/11 and talked about developing “dual use homeland security strategies.”

“We have a sense we need those [security strategies] but they haven’t made the City more pleasant,” he said. “We put up with them because we feel like we have to. Our systems do not have to be unpleasant.”

Klinenberg and others who presented at Cooper Union talked about seeing the waterfront as an opportunity—a way to prevent storm surges but also enhance the quality of everyday life in the community. The Blueway Plan covers the East River waterfront from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 38th Street, affecting the South Street neighborhood area, the East River Park waterfront and the Stuyvesant Cove waterfront plaza, as shaped predominantly by FDR Drive, though presenters discussed the importance of viewing the plan in conjunction with the entire coastal region.

The East River Blueway Plan is a social infrastructure, they explained, as well as a system intended to curb the impact of disasters. It’s also a springboard for the future.

“This plan is a model for initiatives to come,” said Roland Lewis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. “Our waterfront is a utility—it’s owned by thousands of folks and entities, but we all depend on the utility.”
He added the Blueway plan is a way of better understanding that utility, particularly the component of access.
“We are going to be re-imagining the entire region,” said Lewis. The Blueway project, which was developed in cooperation with hundreds of organizations, community members and elected officials, was developed in part from these community members’ answers to what the river has meant to them over time.

“The goals we identified came out of conversations with people,” said Adam Lubinsky, the managing principal of WXY architecture and urban design. “We viewed the community engagement process as an exchange of information and created a dialogue.”

The plan has since evolved with feedback to maximally improve waterfront resiliency while providing a space to educate and promote recreation. The project involves creating new biodiversity and green space as well as improving community access to existing green space and the waterfront.

“It’s going to take a lot of people to own [this plan] and make it happen,” said Lubinsky. “This is ours to take forward and ensure it becomes a reality.”

“The water is coming,” said Eric Klinenberg to community members and elected officials gathered at Cooper Union last week. Klinenberg, an NYU professor and author to one of the most famous essays about rebuilding New York City after Hurricane Sandy, went on to say there’s not much we can do about that fact anymore.

Indeed, the crowd was there to discuss proactive ways to rebuild the City in anticipation of rising sea levels, in particular the East River Blueway Plan, commissioned by Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh in collaboration with community boards in the area and the Lower East Side Ecology Center. The plan itself has been more than a year in development.

Borough President Stringer introduces the latest developments of the Blueway plan at the meeting last week. Photo courtesy of Manhattan Borugh President’s Office

“The important thing to do is reduce greenhouse gases, but we also need to think about how to adapt and build our cities differently,” explained Klinenberg. “Our impulse is to rebuild, but after Sandy the new challenge is to pro-build.”

“We cannot go back to what we had before,” he added. “We have to build in anticipation of what’s coming next time.”

At the risk of sounding alarmist, Klinenberg made a comparison to rebuilding the City after 9/11 and talked about developing “dual use homeland security strategies.”

“We have a sense we need those [security strategies] but they haven’t made the City more pleasant,” he said. “We put up with them because we feel like we have to. Our systems do not have to be unpleasant.”
Klinenberg and others who presented at Cooper Union talked about seeing the waterfront as an opportunity—a way to prevent storm surges but also enhance the quality of everyday life in the community. The Blueway Plan covers the East River waterfront from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 38th Street, affecting the South Street neighborhood area, the East River Park waterfront and the Stuyvesant Cove waterfront plaza, as shaped predominantly by FDR Drive, though presenters discussed the importance of viewing the plan in conjunction with the entire coastal region.

The East River Blueway Plan is a social infrastructure, they explained, as well as a system intended to curb the impact of disasters. It’s also a springboard for the future.

“This plan is a model for initiatives to come,” said Roland Lewis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. “Our waterfront is a utility—it’s owned by thousands of folks and entities, but we all depend on the utility.”

He added the Blueway plan is a way of better understanding that utility, particularly the component of access.

“We are going to be re-imagining the entire region,” said Lewis. The Blueway project, which was developed in cooperation with hundreds of organizations, community members and elected officials, was developed in part from these community members’ answers to what the river has meant to them over time.

“The goals we identified came out of conversations with people,” said Adam Lubinsky, the managing principal of WXY architecture and urban design. “We viewed the community engagement process as an exchange of information and created a dialogue.”

The plan has since evolved with feedback to maximally improve waterfront resiliency while providing a space to educate and promote recreation. The project involves creating new biodiversity and green space as well as improving community access to existing green space and the waterfront.

“It’s going to take a lot of people to own [this plan] and make it happen,” said Lubinsky. “This is ours to take forward and ensure it becomes a reality.”

Hundreds of supporters came out to City Hall last week, clad in denim, to kick off Denim Day, an international movement which aims to raise awareness about sexual assault.
Numerous elected officials including presidents from each borough, and community based organizations including the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, the YWCA, the Center Against Domestic Violence and more rallied on the steps of City Hall to demonstrate the significance of Denim Day.

CITY HOLLAS BACK
n The City Council is teaming up with Hollaback NYC, an organization devoted to fighting street harassment. Last month, UpStart reported that Hollaback was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Knight Foundation Prototype Fund, to be used to develop a smartphone app that allows users to directly document and report street harassment as it happens. The City Council has also contributed $20,000 to the project and will insure that the app includes information about the legal rights and consequences surrounding street harassment in New York. The app is slated for release at the end of this year.

April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Denim Day was a small but important piec. Denim Day originated in protest of a court ruling in Italy which claimed a woman could not possibly have been raped because “her jeans were too tight.”
“We have zero tolerance for sexual assault and respect starts with all of us,” said Borough President Scott Stringer.
Julissa Ferreras, chair of the City Council’s committee on women’s issues, called last week’s turnout on the steps of City Hall the largest yet.
“There’s nothing fairer than a woman getting justice for rape, regardless of what she’s wearing,” said Ferreras. “Women cannot fight this alone.”
Ferreras pointed to the disturbing statistic that 18 percent of women in our country have been raped.
“I’m five months pregnant with a boy,” said Ferreras. “He’d be wearing jeans today if he could. It’s never too soon to educate.”
Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito said as long as women are not seen as equals, sexual violence will persist.
“Unequal pay sets a paradigm,” explained Mark-Viverito. “Media representations also translate.”
Madeline McKnight, a college student from Manhattan, was presented an award at the rally for an insightful essay she wrote on the subject sexual violence (read her op-ed on page TBD).
Community participants and elected officials were quick to point out rape is not the only act of violence which must be eradicated. They noted we must work to put an end to domestic violence as well as street harassment, which is rampant in the City.
“Street harassment also plays a role,” said Ferreras. “A woman should not have to worry every time she walks past a construction site or a bodega. We also stand against this.”

Photos courtesy of Dan Wonderly [WonderlyImaging]

In my last column, I featured a group of poets trying to kickstart their way to literary benevolence by way of crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

No sooner had I published my column than I heard of a local poet and all-around artistic sensation hoping to publish his first book by the same means. “Kickstarter fatigue?” I posited in my last column. On the contrary—Alexander Norelli says Kickstarter is really just beginning to blossom, particularly for literature lovers like himself.

For Norelli, there’s no shame in self—or group—publishing. Not to mention the end result is so much more than just a book—there is also an incredible sense of ongoing community and support.

“I’ve never really tried very hard to get published, mainly because I never wanted to write anything but my own poems,” says Norelli. “I never had much luck getting them published. Now I feel is the time to make a book of it—it’s an intuitive feeling.”

He adds: “2013 sounds like a good year to start out on an adventure.” (We hear you, Norelli.)

Those entrenched in the literary world know there’s a certain stigma surrounding self-publishing, but Norelli is quick to dismiss that.

“My great grandfather did a lot of self-publishing so I never saw it as being a low-brow thing, it was more a way to get your ideas into the world,” he says.

“There is talk about self-published books not having the same editorial process and so the work can’t possibly be as ‘good.’  This is a myth, it’s my belief that good vs. bad in poetry is the wrong question, I think it should be interesting vs. dull.”

A major part of the process for Norelli has been learning the logistical aspects of publishing beyond putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

“The tools that exist today are amazing and make the process accessible to anyone willing to take on a little debt to learn a new skill,” he explains. “Some elitists might fret ‘now everyone can write a book’ but I don’t see any harm in self-publishing, it’s a liberating challenge–like running a marathon.”

Prior to launching his campaign, Norelli did briefly toy with the idea of funding the project himself.

“I remember hearing a story about Spike Lee funding Do the Right Thing with 26 credit cards and was inspired to just take the risk and go for it. I was thinking I would just put it all on a credit card with the hope it paid off somehow.”

But he kept going back to Kickstarter, and what the platform represented to him.

“I just didn’t see much poetry being done through it, and most that I did see was journals and group projects. I didn’t really see any poets trying to get their own books published– though it took me a while to realize that was in fact an opportunity and not an impediment.”

He adds: “I really like the inclusive aspect of it.”

“Doing a Kickstarter helps get people to believe in you, because you really do have to put yourself out there. Making a video made me really nervous, but in the end I just laid it all out there. We are still very early in the age of Kickstarter—few technologies are as empowering to people wanting to realize their dreams.”

Norelli draws inspiration from many sources, but, while times have certainly changed in the publishing world,  he was encouraged to learn Leaves of Grass was initially self-published by Whitman.

“Leaves of Grass wasn’t published by some big publishing house pre-vetted by the greatest poets of his time,” explains Norelli. “It was a risk, a huge one…not only was he a poet he was an entrepreneur, shamelessly so, which I think is truly venerable.”

Some writers have luck with publishing houses, he explains, but Norelli has never been fond of the process.

“I never really liked the set-up of sending your work out for approval and resting all your hopes and dreams on someone else’s judgment—months of anticipation to have some young reader go, ‘boy does this suck!’”

“While a complex editorial process might heighten what is already there, half obscured, it won’t ever put into something what isn’t there in quality to start.”

If anything, Norelli points out, self-published books occasionally suffer from poor design choices. He hopes with his newfound skills he will be able to create “the whole package.”

His advice? “The more you learn to do yourself, the more empowered you will be, and the less expensive the process.”

If his book gets funded, Norelli plans to distribute them himself as “[he’s] always had a thing for the mail.”

“Distributing the books is something I really am looking forward to, not only because I like the mail, but because I look forward to sending the book out to people who are interested in what I am doing,” he says.

And New York City has certainly played a role in shaping the local poet’s process as well: “The loneliness you find here is unlike any other place. Here, loneliness is just another color in your palette. Writing requires more than a bit of solitariness to get done, at least in New York you don’t seem like a recluse because you are holed up in your studio for weeks or months.”

“New York normalizes the habits of the artist and allows them to get work done,” he adds. “Here it seems you are in the thick of the ferment.”

Ultimately, Norelli hopes and believes Kickstarter, and whatever similarly positive, artist-friendly platforms crop up in its wake, will help push the boundaries of what is currently being done in literature.

“Kickstarter is just a means, it is not an end in itself,” he says. “While the many editorial levels in traditional publishing houses can help bring out the best of a work, I would not say they are conducive to trying new things, or testing anything established to make sure what is taken for granted deserves to be.”

For many New Yorkers—and Americans in general—when they think of feeding the hungry, they think of scrounging through their pantries for canned goods to donate to food banks or helping serve food at a shelter over the holidays. And therein lies the problem, says the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH). While these are good ways to help out, they are far from the best or more effective ways to beat hunger.
At a conference and training session at Barnard College last week, NYCCAH and a number of other nonprofits discussed productive ways to target the major hunger problem in New York City at its very root.
For one, explained Louise Feld, senior policy advocate at Citizens’ Committee for Children, we need to become more familiar with the face of hunger in the city.
“A lot of volunteers go to the soup kitchen on Christmas because that’s all they really think of when they think of hunger,” said Feld. “We can better engage volunteers by educating them on what the issue looks like.”
“We equate hunger with homelessness,” she added. “It’s not just the person on the subway asking for food. The vast majority of people [who are hungry] have homes they are struggling to keep.”
Feld explained low income people affected by hunger often forgo food purchases to pay rent, utilities or for Metrocards to get to their jobs, and then feel judged for unhealthy food choices which are often more affordable.
Many teachers are not even aware the children in front of them in their classrooms are going hungry.
NYCCAH and its affiliated nonprofits stressed the importance of concrete solutions. One program the groups promoted is the proposed Breakfast in the Classroom program.

Currently, all children in public schools in the city are eligible for free breakfast before school, but many do not engage with this resource due to time constraints or perceived stigma by others. Decisions about the program are also made on a school-by-school basis rather than across districts, which makes the implementation process slow and incremental.
Another positive solution is financial donations to food banks and similar organizations.
According to Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, “People want to personally serve the food and that’s a component, but the pantries need money so they can buy in bulk, buy what is fresh and don’t have to be dependent on what people find in their homes.”
Rosenthal also noted there is a greater sense of dignity and empowerment in going to a pantry and being able to choose the food one wants.
James Arena-DeRosa, the Northeast regional administrator of the USDA Food & Nutrition Service, said New York kids affected by hunger are hit especially hard during the summertime.

Children taking part in the NYCCAH’s Breakfast in the Classroom program.

“New York runs some of the biggest summer programs in the country,” said Arena-DeRosa. “But to reach more kids we need to reevaluate our methods.”
“Thirty million kids get school lunch and 20 million get school breakfast—in the summer those numbers plummet,” he added.
During the school year, 80 percent of public school children are eligible for free or reduced price lunch.
Arena-DeRosa also noted kids in the city are too disconnected from their food, and must be better educated about self-reliance and what to eat.
Borough President Scott Stringer said, “When I became BP, I thought about representing the wealthiest people in the world but I wanted to help the ones who were really struggling. There are so many people in the richest borough who suffer every day.”

“It doesn’t help to tell people what to do,” added Stringer. “It helps to ask people what they need. We want our children to eat healthy but then we don’t have farmers’ markets or community food banks [in East Harlem]. We also have to think strategically about how to use our rooftops.”
In a conference breakout session on hunger policy and volunteer advocacy efforts, Triada Stampas, the senior director of government relations at the Food Bank for New York City, said those who vote in city elections are disproportionately not representing those who suffer from hunger.
Stampas said we need to urge more democratic participation in the democratic process, which is why her group encourages voter registration at soup kitchens and food banks to educate people and allow them to take more control in the election process. In turn, her group informs government hopefuls who in the district will be voting and what is important to them.
“We tell candidates that in their district we are doing voter registration at food pantries,” said Stampas.
The speakers also pointed to the bipartisan support for cutting food stamp benefits by 10 percent by November, which they say would be a dramatic cut for those who already struggle to get by. The funding to pay for healthier school meals in 2010 came out of future food stamp funding, according to Stampas, and President Obama promised he’d put the funds back, though no serious commitment has been made at this time.
“No one has made Obama expend political capital to prevent those cuts,” said Stampas. “That’s where advocacy comes in.”
“The hunger cliff will go into effect unless Congress takes some action,” she said, for which she holds the President partially responsible.
Stampas and others urged volunteers to participate in voter registrations and also get on the phone with members of Congress and elected officials.
Above all, noted Stephanie Shin, a speaker who has experienced issues with hunger firsthand, we have to work to get rid of the prejudice surrounding hunger in the city.
“This can happen to anybody,” said Shin. “It can happen to you, your friends or your kids and some people just don’t know where to get help.”

“This is a show for the New America, where the majority is the minority,” said Jesse Hardman when he introduced the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s first edition of “Where I’m From” at last weekend’s live taping at Webster Hall.

Isaac Kataly and his band Lifelong Project

 
“Where I’m From” is an onstage radio show, celebrating New York’s diaspora populations in a sort of media mashup of live performance and spoken commentary.
Hardman opened the show by talking about his experience in a United Nations camp in the Sahara desert during the Arab Spring. He watched several cultures come together in celebration of the arts despite language barriers. The experience, among others he’s encountered as a reporter, made him realize “the world is migrating like never before.”
The show also featured commentary on some of New York’s many untold culture stories. Photographer Annie Ling, who was recently featured in the New York Times, relayed the plight of the Chinese immigrant men who were living in tiny cubicles at the 81 Bowery tenement, sacrificing better living conditions to send home all the money they made working.
Their former residence, however, is currently on lockdown, meaning their lives have been upended and they are just one of New York’s many “floating populations.”

About a hundred people came out for the live recording at Webster Hall.

There are a lot of stories behind closed doors in this city, Ling explained, and “Where I’m From” aims to start pulling back the curtain on some of them.
The show was interspersed with lively musical performance. Isaac Katalay, who left the now Democratic Republic of the Congo seventeen years ago, and his band Lifelong Project performed and discussed their music, which reflects social and global justice according to band members.
The event also featured renowned immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas, whose incredible story “lying [his] way in” was featured in the New York Times. Despite his undocumented status, Vargas has been extremely open about his story, writing fearlessly about the undocumented experience for many major publications.
Vargas calls himself the most privileged of the undocumented and is hoping to help people think more deeply about how we define what an “American” looks like and helping immigrants like himself “be treated as full humans.” One thousand people get deported daily, he told the crowd, and people have many misconceptions about what it means to be an illegal immigrant, particularly with the focus on the Mexican-U.S. border when so many undocumented individuals are in fact European.
Vargas said a benefit of social media today is its capacity to test our empathy quotients and have a better understanding of the world beyond where we live and what we see everyday.
“The age of defining people as minorities is over,” said Vargas, adding, half-jokingly, that he’s “making a film on white people.”