Joseph Campbell (found in Angel Orensanz Foundation's October Newsletter)
Wednesday evening I was invited to
volunteer at a special Rooftop Films Event.
Oh, I am so glad they thought of me!
It was held at an amazing space on the Lower East Side (LES), the Angel
Orensanz Center on Norfolk Street. When I arrived, the Director told me she was having me do coat check since I was "tiny & petite"..I wanted to kiss her. I am short, and the space was short..I'm afraid she may have had huge misgivings when I tripped and fell with a very loud "splat"!..Thank God, I was alone with a dear friend..although I could be heard all over the event space. As I look at my bruises, I am reminded of the many klutsy times of my life..From its Website: “The Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts was established in 1992 as an artistic and cultural resource open to artists, writers, thinkers and leaders from all over the world, and to the community around us. Over the years we have welcomed and been inspired by Philip Glass and Spike Lee; Arthur Miller, Alexander McQueen, Salman Rushdie, Maya Angelou and Alexander Borovsky; Elie Wiesel and Chuck Close.
We cooperate with PS1/MoMA; The Goethe
Institute and the Whitney Museum, New York; the Italian Cultural Institute, New
York University; Columbia University and Princeton University; the National
Russian Museum of St. Petersburg and the Royal Shakespeare Company of London;
The World Council of Peoples for the UN, the United Jewish Council and the
American Academy in Rome. We work with independent artists from all over the
world to develop here educational and artistic projects. The Foundation has
just opened a digital department of cultural and artistic projects with a
strong educational basis in the community.
We publish a quarterly magazine, Artscape; a
weekly TV program on MNN, and maintain an archive of 50,000 pictures of the
work of Angel Orensanz. We run a library of social and cultural history as well
as a collection of thousands of digital files and video of Angel Orensanz.
The Foundation prides itself in maintaining
the building at 172 Norfolk St., the former Ansche Chesed Synagogue (1849), in
its architectural integrity and in the tradition of the German Reform Movement
of the mid 19th century. Read more about the history of the building in the
information booklet "From
Ansche Chesed to Angel Orensanz" written by Al Orensanz, Ph.D (PDF format
7.6 MB - you need Acrobat Reader to view the file.)
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| Medora from Rooftop Films' website |
The film chronicles the story of a small town
basketball team, the Medora Hornets, throughout their varsity season in 2011.
We get to meet each of these players and learn their stories. It’s a deeply
personal look into the life of kids who have the odds stacked against them by
default. They didn’t create the recession; they were simply born where they
were born. In the same way, the once bustling town of Medora is a victim of
circumstance.
We’ve all driven by these towns on our way to
somewhere. The strange collection of houses on the side of the interstate, and
as you drive past you sit there thinking to yourself, “Who even lives here?”
Well, the people of Medora live here. The town is in a state of decline. After
two of its largest factories shut down, most people lost their jobs and the
town is now comprised of around 500 people. When asked to describe the town to
outsiders, one of its residents simply said, “Closed.”
What MEDORA does a good job
of reminding you of is that this town isn’t a bunch of images in an Urban Decay
photo book, there are real people living here who are struggling to survive.
This was the kind of town that once made up America, and even as they are
steadily becoming extinct, they’ve still got a lot of spirit. The boys that are
part of the basketball team each have their own problems to deal with, from
alcoholism to homelessness. It’s hard to keep their heads above water when the
world seems to offer them so little, and when they’ve seen so little of the
world. Leaving the town seems to be one of the primary options for a better
life, but Medora is their home. It’s a place that will markedly miss their
presence if they leave; going out into the world means leaving behind their
roots and even hurrying the destruction of the town they were born in.
Following
cleanup, I went to the after party at Lucy’s in the East Village on Avenue A
right across from Thompkins Square Park.
A cute old bar owned and operated by an adorable German lady, Lucy! I joined two of my co-volunteers for a couple
of hours; lovely to get to know them a bit more since we’ve spent so much time
together since July. It did get me home
at around 3:30am though. I do believe I
am falling right into the New York life of the city that never sleeps! |
| Seen @ Columbus & 82 |
From
there I headed up to Columbia University.
I’ve been there only once before, many years ago, doing the college tour
with Katie. I fell in love with it then,
wishing I could go back to college. Oh,
my, at night, it was beautiful. I truly
want to be a co-ed…Katie, interestingly enough, had sent me a list of lectures
that Eve Ensler was participating in. Ms
Ensler, the Tony award winning play-write (The Vagina Monologues) and activist
has been a hero in my family for many years.
Kristi was able to participate in “The Vagina Monologues” twice, in
Manchester, England and at UMass Amherst her senior year. It was an amazing evening: Thursday, November 7: The State of Female Justice in
America
Hosted by Laura Flanders (GRITtv) and featuring:
Cathy Albisa - National Economic & Social Rights Initiative
Kimberle Crenshaw - Columbia Law School / UCLA Law School
Eve Ensler - V-Day
Monique Harden - Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in New Orleans
Saru Jayaraman - Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Sylvia McAdam - Idle No More
…and more to be announced!
Join us as we explore why women experience economic, racial, and cultural violence; and ask ourselves what might real justice look like for women in America?
WHAT: THE STATE OF FEMALE JUSTICE IN AMERICA
WHEN: Thursday, November 7, Doors: 7:30pm, Program: 8pm
WHERE: Jerome Green Hall, Columbia Law School, 435 W 116 St, NYC
Friday
I headed to Chelsea to the Muhlenberg Library looking forward to Memoir writing
class as I had missed a couple, only to find out that Ben has put it on hold until
after the Holidays. No problem, I did
some errands in the area, including heading to Trader Joes..I love that
store..Back home to UES…Errand in regards to home sale in Milton..back downtown
to the Village..Eve Ensler had invited everyone present Thursday night to become
involved with Vday, February 14..the theme is to be “1 Billion Rising for
Justice.” Don’t mind if I do! So, I spent
a very interesting hour or so at the New School, and am now part of the
organizing committee. It sounds like it
will be an amazing day culminating “with
Everyone dancing their a…off” per Ms. Ensler at Hamersley’s Ballroom!
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| The 2nd restaurant in NYC that could have used Kris' collection! |
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| Vosges |
Saturday
I enjoyed my Philosophy class as usual. Then
I did some errands around the ‘hood, including the Green Market, picking up
some fresh fish and other goodies, literally.
I then headed down to Soho for a Daily Candy Bazaar. Cool idea, I am definitely not in the age demographic it was geared for But, surprsingly, Soho was not insane, as it usually is on a Saturday afternnon, so I thoroughly enjoyed the walk around. I treated myself to an amazing hot chocalate (white chocolate with lemon myrtle, lavender, and vanilla bean) at Vosges. I had been there before on a chocolate tour. And, then believe it or not, I crashed.
Lighting my first fire for the season, and thoroughly enjoyed
hibernating for the evening. |
| Fuentiduena Chapel |
Sunday
I met my NYC Friend and we bused our way uptown to the Cloisters, the medieval
branch of the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art ). A dear Milton Friend and bookclub member had
emailed me earlier in the week to tell me of a magical musical exhibit that she
had read about. From the Cloisters’
website: “The Forty Part Motet (2001), a
sound installation by Janet Cardiff (Canadian, born 1957), will be the first
presentation of contemporary art at The Cloisters. Regarded as the artist's
masterwork, and consisting of forty high-fidelity speakers positioned on stands
in a large oval configuration throughout the Fuentidueña Chapel, the
fourteen-minute work, with a three-minute spoken interlude, will continuously
play an eleven-minute reworking of the forty-part motet Spem in alium numquam habui
(1556?/1573?) by Tudor composer Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505–1585). Spem in alium, which
translates as "In No Other Is My Hope," is perhaps Tallis's most
famous composition. Visitors are encouraged to walk among the loudspeakers and
hear the individual unaccompanied voices—bass, baritone, alto, tenor, and child
soprano—one part per speaker—as well as the polyphonic choral effect of the
combined singers in an immersive experience. The
Forty Part Motet is most often presented in a neutral gallery
setting, but in this case the setting is the Cloisters' Fuentidueña Chapel, which
features the late twelfth-century apse from the church of San Martín at
Fuentidueña, near Segovia, Spain, on permanent loan from the Spanish
Government. Set within a churchlike gallery space, and with superb acoustics,
it has for more than fifty years proved a fine venue for concerts of early
music.” |
| From The Cloister's website; Janet Cardiffs The Forty Part Motet |
It
was indeed magical, mystical, and beautiful.
I had so many feelings, memories, rushing through me. Mostly Jake, my infamous uncle the Priest,
who has taken such an important place in my new life as I work on writing a
book about him..Once, again, Uncle John, thank you. We then decided to do a tour with a docent
from the MET. On first observation, She
seemeds like a dour Librarian..oh, talk about not judging a book by its cover..She
was delightfully entertaining and witty while sharing her great knowledge of
the Cloisters. A glorious afternoon
followed by another fire at home and a delicious, if I say so myself, dinner
(baked stuffed flounder..stuffed with spinach, coated with lemon and grated cheese,
with broccoli and spinach-mushrooms as sides).
Today
I scrubbed and cleaned the Hx3, caught up on emails, did some writing. And, I will head to my Cheers in NYC, Sojourn,
for some live music surrounded by familiar faces! Life is good.
