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Tag Archive for 'history'
Tags: history, new york, projects, public space, religion
Tags: art, genius, history, literature, politics
James Baldwin is a goddamned prophet. Each time I read his words I’m left standing, stunned, without words. I’m not even sure how much I can understand of what he’s writing, but I what I get is something about the mess of humanity– the devastation and cruelty and beauty of people, of how we love each other and tear each other apart.
I seldom underline in my books, but I have to keep a pen in my hand when I read Baldwin because it helps me remember. There’s much in there that I need to remember. So I’m going to write some of it down here…every now and again…because over the next bunch of months I’m going to read all of his books. I can’t bear not to. I can’t afford not to.
Right now I’m reading Just Above My Head. I’ll start with something that’s pretty easy to swallow. Before we get into the shit.
I was traveling before the days of electronic surveillance, before the hijackers and the terrorists arrived. For the arrival of these people, the people in the seats of power have only themselves to blame. Who, indeed, has hijacked more than England has, for example, or who is more skilled in the uses of terror than my own unhappy country? Yes, I know: nevertheless, children, what goes around comes around, what you send out comes back to you. A terrorist is called that only because he does not have the power of the State behind him–indeed, he has no State, which is why he is a terrorist. The state, at bottom, and when the chips are down, rules by means of a terror made legal–that is how Franco ruled so long, and is the undeniable truth concerning South Africa. No one called the late J. Edgar Hoover a terrorist, though that is precisely what he was: and if anyone wishes, now, or in this context, to speak of “civilized” values or “democracy” or “morality,” you will pardon this poor nigger if he puts his hand before his mouth, and snickers–if he laughs at you. I have endured your morality for a very long time, am still crawling up out of that dungheap:all that the slave can learn from his master is how to be a slave, and that is not morality.
James Baldwin, Just Above My Head, 1978
Tags: activism, friends, history, media, politics
In the winter of 1997 i was living on Avenue A and 5th Street. I was just finishing college and pretty clueless about…well…most things. But for the purposes of this post, let’s be more specific and say that I was pretty clueless about the squats and the anarchist scene on the Lower East Side. At that point, the only experience I had resembling an interaction with that scene was walking into Blackout Books and getting vibed…hard.
One morning, just after my 23rd birthday, I was walking down Avenue A and saw a whole bunch of police barricades set up on 5th Street between A and B. I asked someone on the street what was going on and they said that the city was about to demolish a building on the street. There had been a small fire in the squat in the middle of the block, and the city was using this opportunity to rid the neighborhood of the building and its residents.
I ran home and grabbed my super8 camera and walked down towards the barricades. I started shooting. I only had one cartridge– about 2.5 minutes. While I was standing on the street, I ran into an acquaintance who lived opposite 5th Street Squat. She let me come up into her apartment and shoot from the fire escape.
The city demolished 5th Street Squat that afternoon, in defiance of a court-issued injunction. The residents’ clothing, belongings, identifications, and even pets were inside. As was Brad Will. Story has it that it was a space heater in Brad’s room that may have caused the fire. Maybe this is had to do with why he would pull something as crazy as defending the building while a wrecking crane was smashing it to pieces. But I imagine, had he not been responsible for the fire, he would have defended the building in the same exact way.
Three weeks ago, while doing video journalism for Indymedia, Brad was shot and killed by plainclothes police (paramilitary) in Oaxaca and a community of people in and beyond New York City are filled with grief and rage. There is a lot of organizing being done in the wake of Brad’s death to show solidarity with the popular movement in Oaxaca. I think he would be proud of his friends.
Over the last ten years, as my own late-blooming activism began to take shape and direction our paths crossed more often and I got a chance to know Brad a little– though not well enough. This footage I shot of him back in 1997 was my first and clearest memory of him– and also a visual representation of one of the most politicizing moments of that part of my life. It’s sad to be digging it out under such shitty circumstances, but important to share.
For more on the situation in Oaxaca, check here.
For the Shadow’s article on 5th Street Squat check here.
Flash Video: 
Tags: activism, history, media, politics, projects
well. it’s not that late. but this working full-time stuff, it sure makes 1am feel late. my friend asked me tonight what the hell i was making a blog for. i didn’t have the answer. other than that i wanted to figure this shit out– because i obsess over figuring these kinds of things out. but the main reason, and the reason why no one will ever see this– is because i need a more dynamic journal. i handwrite things so infrequently that my already illegible penmanship has become totally indecipherable even to me. i have a text document that’s been running now for years– it has music, voice, images, writing…all kinds of things. but it’s clunky. and ugly. and i can’t get to it when i’m travelling because it exists on a harddrive. so, i thought i’d give this a crack.
anyway, the thing that concerns me most is the ability to embed files. so many of the projects that i’m working on or have worked on are in some digital format that i’d like to store here.
this past summer, before i started the full time job, my friend sumitra and i came up with the idea to create a media history timeline. it was based on project south’s curriculum. the top is above-ground media history– including technological developments, regulatory precedents, well-known milestones, and notable trends. on the bottom is a more ‘underground’ or resistant media history. the dichotomy is somewhat arbitrary and admittedly simplistic. but, i thought it would be interesting to create some sort of graphic representation to illustrate some developments in the world of media, both parallel and divergent– and, more importantly, to create something that media activists, media makers, and educators can use as a tool to teach and learn about the legacy of independent media and also to help us situate ourselves in a trajectory…a history that came before us and a future that we will continue to shape. goodnight and good luck.
