Uncategorized

Tompkins Square Park t shirts at Tompkins Square Park

Hey again bloggers or whoever could be reading this blagh. And do I even remember how to sign into this blog being that it was eight months ago since I last posted anything on this blagh.

And there has been a host of headline news of the day of that Iran/Israel gog and magog war, ICE and the police state, ai data centers bringing in the beast system and the new world order powered by 5g, robots on the streets everywhere, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and other natural and man made haarp disasters, that alien invasion that never happened and other current events have since come to pass since I last rambled anything on this blagh. And sometimes reading the news makes me wonder if the apocalypse is going to take place as planet earth seems as if it’s becoming a dystopian nightmare and going to hell in a hand basket.

And so another year of one of those many spring and summer events that take place in that neighborhood of Loisaida, the Lower East Side or the East Village for real estate marketing purposes in that city of New York has rolled around. 

And this is the story of another attempt to vend those banned Tompkins Square Park t shirts at, well during, another one of those Shows in Tompkins Square Park concerts with a Facebook event invite that reads something like:

The New York City Parks Department has banned these Tompkins Square Park t – shirts because of the logo on them.

And I am planning to vend banned Tompkins Square Park t – shirts for $10 each at, well during, the 38th Annual Tompkins Square Park Riot Reunion concert Sunday, August 2nd, 3 -7pm. 

And this concert was part of a two day show with ABC No Rio August 1st with a bunch of punk rock bands to commemorate the 1988 Tompkins Square uprising.

And Food Not Bombs was serving some really cool free vegan food near the corner of 7th Street & Avenue A in the park on this day as well.

And there are always the coolest stories about those Tompkins Square Park t shirts from people who have bought those shirts. And if I could interpret some of those stories of people who have bought those shirts from those photos that find themselves posted above, it would be the story of  technologyartist. Andreas, who has that really cool Tompkins Square Park photo book and has more than a few Tompkins Square Park t shirts by now. And it would be the story of chililovesobituary who is the drummer in that band Disassociate who bought a shirt and played later that day, and the story of copper_and_wool_films who actually had a Tompkins Square Park t shirt with him that was washed so many times that the black shirt was faded grey and the threads of the shirt were starting to wear out, but the stencil was still holding up. And it is the story of Ilhan from that really cool club nublu on Avenue C in the East Village who bought one of those Tompkins Square Park t shirts also. And then there was Mathias, someone from the squatter scene in the nineties who helped John the Communist make those posters and flyers for those Tompkins Square Park protests and Squatter May Days from long ago who bought a t shirt. And John’s banners remain. And though he didn’t buy one of those Tompkins Square Park t shirts on this day, there was Ellis Roberts who was at the riot reunion concert with a memorial for John the Communist who passed away this year with his memorial on Facebook saying something like:

We will set up a small memorial for John The Communist Potak at the Tompkins Square Riot Reunion Concerts on Saturday and Sunday. 

John was a controversial figure in the neighborhood but in my estimation he made the movement more radical and as one of the originators of the Tompkins Square Gatherings (Squatter May Day 1986) he should be remembered as the struggle continues.

And there is Chino Garcia from that neighborhood of Loisaida who has since passed away a few weeks ago, who’s abandoned community cultural building from the nineties, CHARAS, still sits there in Loisaida. Save Charas!

And a host of people have passed away since I last posted on this blog. 

One generation passeth away and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever and the only thing constant is change and some stories do not end as you expect. Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. And what if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State.

Standard
Uncategorized

Loisaida Festival 2022

Capturelo

EF7BA921-035F-48BF-B7C9-82CE10082AF7

607EBE96-81B2-4669-BD02-7C9AE8DD5990

41DF3F0C-EFA6-48F8-9C7B-58C84BBF29B6

60ECC02D-354B-41C8-B572-EACCDB80E807

And in between reading about the corruption of The People’s Convoy, there was a Loisaida Festival in that city of New York in that neighborhood of the Lower East Side or East Village for real estate marketing purposes, that I found myself at the other day, vending #flagsoftheworld & #iloveny necklaces, magnets, key chains & pins for $2 each and Tompkins Square Park t – shirts for $10 each in front of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space – MORUS at 155 Avenue C, NYC, during the Loisaida Festival, Sunday, May 29th, 12pm – 5pm, an all-day festival of artists, activists, and vendors on Avenue C. And in all honesty, the only photos I took at this festival are those few that find themselves posted above.

” As a living history of urban activism, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) chronicles the East Village community’s history of grassroots action. It celebrates the local activists who transformed abandoned spaces and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and gardens. Many of these innovative, sustainable concepts and designs have since spread out to the rest of the city and beyond.”

“The 2021 musical lineup included: world-renowned Mexican singer & actor Fernando Allende; Afro-Caribbean/electronic music project ÌFÉ; Puerto Rican folk singer Chabela Rodríguez; Afro-Brazilian Samba Reggae All-Female band Batalá New York, and acclaimed local contemporary R&B Soul-Jazz artist duendita as well as pop-soul singer song-writer Linda Díaz, the winner of NPR’s 2020 Tiny Desk Contest. It also featured a short film by the Puerto Rican theater troupe Y No Había Luz, a Cuchifritos cooking demonstration by María Bido part of La Cocina de Loisaida, a monologue by Loisaida Artistic Residency recipient Haus of Dust, and much more… Last year’s theme, ¡Viva Loisaida!, celebrated the Lower East Side’s roots, and the elements that characterize the neighborhood, and its residents, their resiliency, creativity, unity and growth. The official artwork for the 2021, 34th Annual Loisaida Festival was created by João Salomão, a local Brazilian artist also known as PIXOTE, whose distinctive style is heavily influenced by the Brazilian Pixação graffiti tradition. The commemorative poster for the 2021 festival was inspired by the LES punk and hip hop’s NYC graffiti scene of the late eighties and nineties that helped form João’s artistic practice. With the 2021 design, the artist also payed homage to Loisaida’s documentary photographer Marlis Momber, well known locally as the co-producer of “Viva Loisaida”; a 1982 film documenting life in the late 70’s Loisaida neighborhood. 

Since 1987 the Loisaida Festival has been the largest community celebration festival event in Lower Manhattan, and grows annually in size, excitement, and impact. Produced by Loisaida Inc., founded in 1978 and one of the last remaining Puerto Rican community organizations in the neighborhood, the Loisaida Festival epitomizes over four decades of the struggle and success of the Puerto Rican/Nuyorican diaspora that settled in the Lower East Side as had thousands of immigrants and migrants over the 19th and 20th Century. This historic place – the Lower East Side— our ‘Loisaida,’ as poet, Bimbo Rivas, coined it in the 70’s, is still the ‘Gateway’ to America, a community that embraces diversity, welcomes difference, celebrates arts and culture, and preserves, in amber and performance, the voice of all that came through this LES portal to settle in this country.” 

Have a great festival day and more, (considering that we are living in crazy times…..).

Standard