Celebrating Community
It’s easy to think of Lonnie Holley as a bluesman. He fits the type: rural, Southern, self-educated, quick with folksy wisdom and deep, dark truth. But Holley is a philosopher poet, more like Son House when he put his guitar down, more like Van Morrison casting ruminations over flowing, nebulous music. Van Morrison had his blues, too, of course. The […]
In Arthur Miller’s 1955 play, A View from the Bridge, the narrator Alfieri describes our Brooklyn waterfront as “the gullet of New York, swallowing the tonnage of the world.” And the New York Dock Railway was the spoon that kept it fed. We could use such a spoon again, now that United Parcel Service has come to town. In 1982 […]
Today, tomorrow, and yesterday, too The flowers are dyin’ like all things do Follow me close, I’m going to Bally-Na-Lee I’ll lose my mind if you don’t come with me I fuss with my hair, and I fight blood feuds I contain multitudes So go the first lines of Bob Dylan’s first album of new songs in eight years. He […]
Displacement Is No Myth Across the country, gentrification continues to be a sexy political topic for those least vulnerable to its effects, booming in and echoing out of consciousness. Regarding gentrification and the Black church in NYC, displacement is top of mind. For those most negatively affected by gentrification; lower-income, and long time residents, mostly people of color, gentrification […]
Italy has always been a Catholic country thanks to the Pope living in Rome. That being said, ever since the XII century in the boot there’s a little Protestant community, called Waldensian Evangelical Church, which makes a lot of noise in both Italian and European public debate. The Waldensians number only 25,000 in Italy and 45,000 worldwide of which 5,000 […]
As the reign of the Anti-Christ mercifully nears its end, how else will 2020 be remembered? The pandemic, of course. 30,000+ New Yorkers dead. Hundreds of infected Red Hookers. A new Depression. George Floyd. Rage against the machine. The Pentagon confirms UFOs exist… What? UFOs exist!? Yeah, and it was barely news for ten minutes. Like many other thoughtful well-groomed […]