2004-05-23 - 1:53 a.m.
The other day I met Valeda at her house in Redhook. After coffee and the Hope and Anchor (one of my favorite places ever, despite the fact I have been there a total of twice) we walked down quiet cobblestone streets to a beautiful pier. It was surrounded by old brick warehouses and a pebbly beach with a huge dead fish on it, and by some rocks that someone had painted “Red Hook Rules” on. I sometimes am overcome by surprise and happiness that places like this still exist in New York City. These gaps, vacant places, moments and locations that catch me when I least expect it. But of course, this is exactly the kind of thing that developers are trying to squelch. They are trying to make the city a simulation of itself, an urban disney world that erases what makes the city “real” with a constructed memory of what the city “was.”
It felt ominous, as we continued our walk past the brick warehouse which will soon contain a Fairway and luxury housing units. Right by the Brooklyn Working Artists Council and a real sunken ship. Next, after admiring a vacant lot with a stoplight in the middle of it and a single building that had amazing brickwork, Valeda pointed out an old shipping building, 3 floors of brick, with all the windows boarded up . This is where the planned IKEA would go, if the developers succeed in changing the zoning laws, they already own the building, which they would knock down and replace with a big blue and yellow box.
As we walked back to her apartment, we talked about what each place we passed could be if our society’s priorities were different. What if all the buildings were turned into affordable housing and people who live in the projects now in Red Hook worked restoring the buildings they could live in? What if all the vacant lots were community gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and parks? When you stop to examine the actual space of a city like New York it becomes so obvious that the only reason there is poverty, hopelessness and homelessness in the US is because there are greedy, capitalist, racist, sexist exploitative systems in place. What else can explain these urban spaces and the transitions they go through? It makes me think that the transformation of society is closely connected to the transformation of the spaces in which we carry out our lives. If our society was committed to everyone in it there would be enough affordable housing and green space - the space for these things is there, the vision and values of those who have power are not.
So this got me thinking about what kind of role I would play and what kind of community action is necessary for the transformation of these spaces. Because I think making a space into something that a community needs is incredibly empowering, it gives hope. Of course, for me this also brings up a lot of issues of who do I see as “my” community in New York, or who is the “community” who would be doing this transformation? How can I be not just another white person telling poor people of color what they “should” do?
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Thanks to the hard work of my friends I have a new zine out. That’s right, Indulgence #9. I wrote in a letter to my friend Rebecca Ann (and Reba, if you are reading this, the letter and zine are coming soon!), “Today was a really perfect day, about 10 of my friends came to help me bind my new zine at the Booklyn offices in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. So it was 10 people, who didn’t all know each other when they came, sitting around a big table eating homemade vegan cookies and binding books. Even though I felt slightly guilty for putting my friends to work, they seemed really excited to be in the space of Booklyn, learn a new stitch and work on the project with me. So cool.” When I talk about community, this is a big part of it. Sharing skills. Helping each other out with our projects.
Here is more about the zine if you are interested:The zine is quarter sized, printed on off-white paper with a letterpress printed cover (also creme colored) and laid out in three sections, bound together by hand with a coptic stitch. The writing is pieces about home, family, growing up white and middle class in New England, my thoughts and feelings about the war on Iraq and the anit-war movement, reflections on my time studying in Cuba this past winter and what it taught me about being an "american" right now, and reflections on love and vulnerability as a queer woman in a heterosexual relationship. It also includes many line drawings, mostly of cities and animals.
This zine is US $5 postage paid to me at Eleanor Whitney/ PO Box 150318/Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA, you can also pay-pal me the money at killerfemme@yahoo.com. I also love equal trades, so email me first if you are interested in trading.
Also, about sharing resources and helping each other out, my friends Meredith, Katie and Jack just launched a beautiful website selling fabulous handmade goods from Portland, Oregon. So please go check out http://www.nevertwice.com.
