Happy Kwanzaa + East Coast Blizzard

HAPPY KWANZAA! Habari gani.

Photo courtesy of the Official Kwanzaa website.

Kwanzaa, which has been around since I was a year old or so, is not a holiday I've regularly celebrated, though occasionally I have participated in friends' and community-based Kwanzaa observations in the past. More than anything I try to take its seven principles (the Nguzo Saba) to heart, and not just during the designated holiday week. The principles are ones I remember memorizing as a child: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith).
These were concepts I not only memorized, but steeped in growing up in the 1970s, an era when various strands of political and social "liberation," collective economic principles, and cultural nationalism and resistence were in the air.

While this new decade marks a distinctly different moment, I continue to believe that many of these principles remain aluable not only for African Americans and for black people across the globe, but also for people of all races throughout this and other societies, especially now that we face sustained economic, political and cultural assaults particularly from those who already have most of the power and money.  Even if you don't celebrate Kwanzaa, do consider how these principles might apply to you and how you can apply them in your life and to the communities you belong to.

For a bit of comedy (or outrage, depending) around Kwanzaa, there's always Food Network star Sandra Lee's (in)famous Kwanzaa cake (which food writer Denise Vivaldo apparently created out of the air), in all its awfulness (and yet I'm strangely drawn to it):


***

I've been scoffing about the hoopla surrounding the current East Coast blizzard, since Chicago has already received multiple snowstorms, including a severe one that delayed my return a few weeks ago, but it really is coming down here in Jersey City. And it's cold, almost Chicago cold. Earlier today it was 24°F and now it's 21°F. It was a comparatively balmy 27°F in Chicago.

When I peeked out back, I saw easily over a foot of snow, and a view from the front door confirms the same.  According to the news, over 14 inches have fallen not too far south of here.  All of the local airports are closed, as are Amtrak from Maine to New York, and the Long Island Railroad also has been shut down.  The Philadelphia Eagles even canceled tonight's game against the Green Bay Packers, though I seem to remember teams playing in blizzards in past years, and even played in snow myself as a teenager, but perhaps the winds truly were too strong, and players, who make a lot more than they once did, have it in their contracts that they won't play in snow bowls if they can help it.

The trains that allow people to ride "in a hole in the ground," the MTA subway, are running, however, as are New York City's buses, but people all across the metro area have gotten stranded in snowdrifts. (I assume the PATH trains are still running, perhaps on the reduced schedule that the New Jersey Transit trains are.)  As I finish this entry, it's still snowing and the snowfall is forecast to continue until tomorrow morning, which means a day of digging out. Since early December, I've more than enough practice.


Snow in Jersey City, tonight

Snow in Jersey City, tonight

Snow in Jersey City, late this afternoon

Snow in Jersey City, late this afternoon

Snow in Chicago, December 6

Snow in Chicago, December 9

Snow in Chicago, December 9

Events from July & August, Part 5

People confronting an anti-gay protester, Jersey City Pride festival


Jersey City Pride festival


Bryant Park before a film


In Washington Square Park (this was the first time I'd been in the park since the renovations, which are still underway)


Art on the High Line, Chelsea


Wildflowers, on the High Line


The Empire State Building, from the High Line


Artwork on the High Line

Events from July & August, Part 4

At Printed Matter, Chelsea, for the book launch of Tan Lin's Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking (Wesleyan, 2010), and its related texts


Tan Lin and a colleague, at Printed Matter


Tan Lin's mother, Gordon Tapper (center), and a friend, at the Printed Matter book launch


Writers David Ebershoff and Gary Shteyngart at a midday reading, Bryant Park


Paulus Hook landing commemoration, Jersey City


Jersey City Puerto Rican Day festival


Jersey City Puerto Rican Day festival

MoveOn.Org Rally for Health Care Reform

Last night I participated in a small rally in Jersey City's Journal Square that MoveOn.org organized on behalf of health care reform, one of hundreds of such efforts across the country. The rally and accompanying candlelight vigil's aim was to sure that whatever bills President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress cobble together, the final version, which will be signed into law, include a robust public health insurance option. To that end we attendees, initially numbering about 40 or so and finally rising to about double that number, heard from a New York physician, a handful of people who'd experienced nightmares with the health care system, other healthcare advocates, and local MoveOn.org representatives who excerpts of Teddy Kennedy's speeches.

The gathering was heartening, especially by evening's end when people passing by decided to hang around, listen to the speakers, and sign up for future MoveOn.org activities, but I still am very worried about what the White House and the Congress are up to and what will come from their efforts. We've gotten all sorts of doubletalk from the White House, waffling in one direction or the other, after they'd already taken single-payer universal health insurance, which would surely drive down costs and provide health care for everyone, off the table before they even began.

The President, like a weathervane, has allowed the hot and toxic air emanating from the right and enabled by the mainstream corporate media, increasingly to set the terms of the discussion. Instead of laying out clear principles and selling them nonstop, with Democratic support, he has gone silent for long stretches, failed to actively and enthusiastically challenge the lies and misstatements about the bill, and refused to publicize and humanize the issue. One minute he is for the public option, the next he and his surrogates suggest he isn't (or--Rahm Emanuel--might not be). One minute he is admitting that he (Rahm Emanuel) cut a deal with Big Pharma, laying out the odious terms, the next minute he says he didn't do so.

Health care in the US is in crisis; doing nothing about it is not an option. But throwing together a crappy bill that does nothing to transform the current situation, just to have something to sign also isn't and cannot be an option.

The same has been true of the Congress, whose leaders, especially in the Senate, continue to be too pusillanimous despite now having close to an absolute majority to pass legislation. The three House bills include forms of public health insurance, as does Kennedy's HELP panel's bill, but the key Senate Finance bill, from Max Baucus (written by him and sextet of moderate and conservative Democrats and Republicans), is unclear. Baucus's original guidelines for a bill, from last year, sounded pretty progressive, but his just released sketch of a bill sounds like a disaster, with reduced subsidies for poor and working-class people and no public option.

Are Baucus's newest set of guidelines a sop for his health care industry funders, a ploy to placate the GOP and Democratic fiscal whiners who were silent when George W. Bush dynamited the deficit open with tax cuts and war spending, a skeleton to be fleshed out with the House's more liberal plans in conference, or something else?

None of this came up at the rally. In fact the faith that people there appeared to have that the President and the Congress would do the right thing was strong, by my observation. I hate to be more cynical, but as in 1992, on the big issues this administration has represented one disappointment after another. I am hoping--and will do my part to ensure that--this extremely important effort will not turn out to be yet one more to be added to the list.

Participants in the MoveOn.org health care reform rally and vigil

Participants at the rally and vigil

Participants at the rally and vigil

A participant with a flyer

Our local newsperson, Mike Gilliam of Channel 9 News; he aired a very sympathetic and thoughtful piece on the rally

JC LGBT Pride

This past Saturday was Jersey City's 9th LGBT Pride Celebration, organized by Jersey City Lesbian and Gay Outreach. Despite living here for a decade and a half, I'd never made it to one. New York's Pride celebrations, yes. New York's various Black Prides, including the era of dual and dueling ones, yes. Brooklyn Pride, yes. Pride celebrations in Boston, DC and Atlanta, yes. I'd even participated in readings, sat on panels and hosted workshops at some of these. But never here. So this year I made sure to pen in the date and not miss it.

There were a series of events leading up to Saturday, including a flag raising, various parties and a youth ball, including a get-together hosted by ChillFest, which runs year-round film series. Saturday's festivities began at noon, along a 3-4 block strip of Montgomery Street, all the way down to Exchange Place on the waterfront. Like many small city prides, Jersey City's is an affirmative, informal affair, with local business and not-for-profit organizations of all sorts setting up informational booths, a mainstage featuring performances, and lots of food. The morning began under heavy, gray clouds, and it was fairly cool and rained intermittently, but from what I could tell, the rain wasn't keeping that many people away. The performances were strong, and I personally didn't come across a single person who was unfriendly or full of attitude. One thing I especially enjoyed was seeing the diversity of people who were present: folks of every gender, race and ethnicity, economic background, age, family type, and so on, were out and about, a reflection of the city and of the region. Next year if I'm home and not traveling, I'll not only be here, but I'll volunteer.

A few photos of the events:

A member of the bowling league

Singer Dy'ari performing

The crowd at Exchange Place

Booths, looking towards Exchange Place

The St. Matthew's Lutheran Church booth

More bowlers

Another one of the booths

The founders of Benitza Arts, an eco-friendly clothing and arts company

Metrobears booth

Commencement Day + Life Thus Far + Photos

Today is Commencement Day at the university, so I can now say to all of the students, mine and others', undergraduate and graduate, CONGRATULATIONS! I won't enumerate all the wonderful students I've had the opportunity to work with over the last few years who've finished up this June, but they've been terrific, and I wish them all the very best, in full confidence that they will all make their distinctive marks upon the world.

***

The end of the school year means my return home, and my unshakeable belief, despite years of contrary evidence, that I'll finally have some (more) time to devote to my creative work. This week, however, has proved that life always has its own plans for us, and this is especially the case when you own a home (or condo, or any other costly piece of real estate for which you're responsible for the upkeep). As I've noted on here before, a great deal--perhaps half--of my time spent at home in New Jersey has coincided with the presence of contractors. This has included the initial renovators and subsequent repairers--the painters, one of whom moved to Hollywood to direct films, another of whom coughed so badly that I thought his lungs would fly out of his mouth as he hovered on a ladder high above the backyard; the electricians, a gaggle that included one who set off sparks as he was installing a light and wondered why I looked ready to call the fire department; the plumbers; the succession of roofers, one of whom went mad and another of whom had the brilliant idea of covering our then-unlined chimney in chicken wire and stucco (we passed on that); a porch builder who promptly vanished from the tri-state area after some of the wood cracked within a week of his installing it; the doormaker-carpenter, the only sane and economic of all the doormaker-carpenters we've dealt with, who'd gone to MIT and produced work worthy of a prize; innumerable hucksters whose mercurial behavior made us wonder how they managed to stay in business at all; and so on--and others unforeseen, like the representatives from the private water contracting company our municipal water company, now privatized, employs. These skillful people not only cracked a 100-year-old water pipe once while deinstalling our water meter, but recracked it while putting it back in! And so now this pipe, which was dripping, is now seeping water, which a series of towels are sopping up. Every day this week, the water company contractor has assured me--promised me--he will show up "after 8 am," though that has meant 11:30 or not at all, if he "forgets." So today, after both C and I called first thing in the morning, I waited, he showed up, we chatted about the state of the pipe, he denounced Jersey City's placement of trees on the sidewalk and galvanized lead, we inspected the curb and learned that 100 years ago, the developers had thought through infrastructure placement quite well, and so now rather than shutting off the entire neighborhood's water supply, they may be able to target their efforts and fix this pipe (replacing it would be the best option). I am sincerely hoping they complete this sooner rather than later (and that, though I had to broach the subject, no lawyers have to get involved), since in adulthood no season ever feels more fleeting than the summer.

***

When we were packing up things in Chicago, C asked if we could spend a little time having lunch at the nearby beach. For all of my time in that city I've always lived in walking distance of one and, as past photos on here will attest, I've walked and snapped shots of them. My favorite time to visit them is when a heavy fog is blanketing both them and the Lake. We went and sat on a (not so comfortable but convenient) bench on the concrete walkway and observed people lying out on the sand, walking their dogs, dipping into the water, and basically enjoying a break from the drear of weeks of cold mornings and rain, and this got me thinking about how this essential feature of Chicago life is almost never portrayed on film or TV. When movies and TV shows depict contemporary Chicago, we see the skyscrapers, the immense suburban homes and the bungalows, the El, sometimes the (remaining) projects, some of the city's unforgettable cultural and architectural highlights (the Art Institute, Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, etc.), the baseball stadia (especially Wrigley Field), various restaurants (i.e., anything having to do with food), and the Lake.

But interestingly enough, rarely do they show the city's beaches that line the Lake for miles, from Rogers Park (Howard and Jarvis Parks) all the way south to the Indiana border (Rainbow Park and Beach). As a result, I imagine that many people, like C., are probably unaware that Chicago, like Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, San Diego, and Miami, just to name some of the more obvious US examples, has pleasant, sandy beaches, real beaches, at its doorstep. (In noting this I'm not suggesting that Lake Michigan is the same as either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, or that the sand or beach quality is the same.) Yet I have not met a single native Chicagoan, or anyone who's lived in the city for a while, even those resident far inland to the south, north, or west, who doesn't know about the city's beaches. I also didn't know how extensive or pretty the the beaches were for a good while.

This leads me to ask J's Theater readers, when you think of the cities and towns where they you or have lived, what are some notable aspects or features that everyone who's a native or a longtime resident knows about, but that are never depicted in films or TV shows? What are some of those major hidden elements of the city that might transform how people think about it? Please post a few of these in the comments, and append your name (or a name) in case screenwriters happen upon this blog page (not likely, but you never know).

***

And to conclude today's entry, a few photos from the last few months.


A late-night snapshot of artist in his studio in Rogers Park

Morse Avenue El (towards Lake Michigan)

Harris Sockel, the literature honors student I supervised, holding the students' cake at the lit honors celebration (part of his thesis topic is highlighted in the lighter frosting to the left: J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. (He also was co-winner of the Best Senior Literature Major award: congratulations, Harris!)

Marvelous poet and scholar Evie Shockley, reading at the university

Election day a few months ago, Jersey City

The ubiquitous signs (in NYC and Chicago)

One of my favorite NYC statues, Gertrude Stein, in Bryant Park

Gray's Papaya in the West Village, recession special (and they were already a great deal)