Pa’lante – Hurray For The Riff Raff
From el barrio to Arecibo, ¡Pa’lante!
From Marble Hill to the ghost of Emmett Till, ¡Pa’lante!
*
It was an exciting day, for a number of very good reasons. First we were to see our New York family, Tony Gerber and Lynn Nottage. This used to be a regular occurrence but since the covid-19 pandemic became rare. We hardly saw anyone last year in fact. We haven’t had anyone in our apartment for 15 months except for the landlady’s workers, and they always wear masks and usually come up the garden stairs from the basement apartment, working on the decking. Once ! We went to Lynn & Tony’s for some wine and sat around the fire at their new fireplace. We were all determined to be sociable because everything had become simply too weird, we were all too isolated. New York has behaved itself during the pandemic – 90% of people outside, probably more, are wearing masks, and the sense of a community under siege is immense, everyone pulling together, everyone being sensible. Quite a relief in fact. I think we went to Manhattan maybe four times after lockdown on March 12th. We’ve been huddled at home like millions of others, and we kind of got used to it. Online, on the TV, doing pilates to a disco soundtrack, face-timing family and going out to do shopping, and apart from Black Lives Matter last summer, not really going out for anything much. A day watching Kevin directing his first short film. An evening drinking in the bar where he works with Heidi & Edna and Charmaine. We went to Los Angeles three times this year for the ailing Tony Armatrading who had cancer and passed away on May 10th. Jenny went to England twice this year. But I’ve been here. And like perhaps millions of others, I quite liked going slowly bonkers in my own space, not eating out, not ordering takeaway or delivery, not having visitors, not visiting, not going to the cinema, the theatre, to see live music, go to a gallery, take a subway train. Doing nothing is pretty good it turns out.
But we’re both double-vaccinated, and masks are no longer compulsory outside in NYC. And we were in the astrological sign of Gemini…and we miss our friends !
And there’s a film screening today in The Bronx…a film they produced about The Young Lords, a radical NY Puerto Rican group from the late 1960s. We are going to support it.
But first.
Let me tell you a secret. Put it in your heart you can keep it. Jenny and I are proper sport nerds. We love to sit on the sofa with two cats watching some gladiatorial contest of skill and determination and fitness on the television. We like to go and see things live too, particularly World Cup competitions wheresoever they may be. But this Sunday morning started with football, live from Wembley at 9.00am England v Croatia in Euro 2020. It was June 13th 2021 and the competition was one year late thanks to covid-19. We had tea, porridge, toast and sport. Raheem Sterling converted a beautiful through ball from MoM Kalvin Phillips – and England had won the game. It was 11.00am and now we had an hour to get ready for the day, (after setting the TV to record the French Open tennis final at Roland Garros: Djokovic v Tsitsipas). First up – Facetime with the rentals – the parentals – my dad and his wife Beryl calling in from West Yorkshire. Lovely to see them as always. We had news, they had news, we shared news and the highlight was certainly that Anna, Beryl’s grand-daughter, had beaten a pack of hopefuls to a rather exciting strategic re-wilding eco-post in Melton Mowbray. A remote job and a part-time and probationary one for now, but we all knew in our hearts that she will sail forth from this moment into her chosen field. We sent love, and then we FaceTimed High Wycombe. The other rentals, Jenny’s parents plus Mandy & Lucy, had the clan round.
Pete, Mollie, Mama, Lua, Skye, Mandy, Lucy, Scarlett, Tom, Jamie with Rae, Jordan Grandad, Kimberley and Tia with Robert, Dominique and Khadija at the front
The Jules fam was gathered to see Jordan off on an all-summer long cruise of the Caribbean with his best dancing shoes (he’s a dancer) and we received this wonderful photograph of everyone. It was clearly one of those days. Special guest was the newest and youngest Khadija (Kim’s daughter) who cried throughout the picture moment like babies are supposed to. Then we ate our lunch – a Jenny creation via Jo Thornhill – persian fish curry in tamarind with mashed potato because I had a tooth extracted on Thursday and I can’t eat anything remotely solid for a week.
And so to the intrepid journey north. Tony and Lynn’s film TAKEOVER was screening in a park in The Bronx at 4pm at the Tribeca Film Festival and we’d agreed to come and support. Research suggested that the best way to get there (17 miles away) was the direct route – the NYC Ferry. A new stop had been added near us in Brooklyn Navy Yard, so just after 2pm we headed out and found it. Within minutes we were boarding our ferry north up the East River. As we did I marvelled and championed us – for despite living in Brooklyn for over seven years, this was my first time inside the Navy Yard – it’s a tricky place, and you can’t just wander in – trust me, I’ve tried. It is full of rusting cranes and industrial storage and gentrified office blocks, and includes the Steiner Studios where Boardwalk Empire was filmed among others. It was an auspicious moment of triumph.
We were both carrying a folding chair because the screening was on the grass in SoundView Park. The first stop was E34th St in Manhattan by the United Nations. We had to step down and catch a new boat north, way north. Neither of us had spent much time in The Bronx let’s be honest. Last year we’d been invited to the Botanic Gardens on Meisha’s birthday – really outstanding place – and in February 2020 I’d joined Josh and buddies from Brighton to see a tremendous Graffitti Exhibition at the Bronx Museum of The Arts on E165th St, concentrating on the decorated subways trains of the 1980s, and a collection of now-famous photographs by Henry Chalfant. Now sold in Fine Art Dealers, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls n’est-ce pas?
We’d also taken the Soundview Ferry before, in the first week it was added to the transit system. You see the Ferry is part of the subway/bus/ferry Metropolitan Transit Authority, the massively under-funded way New Yorkers get around their city cheaply. You can ride the subway from Brooklyn up to Harlem and beyond to the top of the Bronx for $2.75. That’s right. And the Ferry to Soundview from Navy Yard was $2.75 each. Even though we had to change at E34th St, the same ticket was valid. Hooray. Reasons to be cheerful one two three. As we boarded the second ferry it was already 3pm but that would get us there in time we calculated.
Or would it? We passed beneath the Queensboro Bridge, which I have cycled over three times doing the 5-Boro Bike Ride. It’s a beautiful old metal structure which transverses Roosevelt Island but doesn’t offer a way down there – it simply connects Manhattan & Queens. To get to Roosevelt Island you can get the brand-new ferry service – whoop! – or get on the famous cable car from E60th and 2nd Ave : We took this once when we were ticking off the Things To Do In New York. It certainly is a spectacular way to see Queensboro Bridge – it is right alongside it.
Further up Manhattan we stopped at E90th street in East Harlem, then carried on up past Randall’s Island, the old HQ of power broker Robert Moses, star of the best book I’ve ever read about New York City* and criss-crossed by highways, we dipped under some rail and road bridges and forged into Long Island Sound, past La Guardia Airport and Riker’s Island, a prison with such a bad reputation for its treatment of offenders that it is soon to be shut down. And then we were at Clason Point just before the Whitestone Bridge, and off we got. The end of the line for the Ferry, and there were dozens of folk waiting to get on to travel south into Harlem or Midtown and beyond. It wasn’t quite 3.30pm and we had done well, despite a fine dusting of rain as we crossed the water causing Jenny to wrap her new haircut.
*The Power Broker by Robert Caro
And then, suddenly, nothing happened. We tried to call a Lyft/Uber and there were none available. A bus turned up but it wasn’t going anywhere near the venue. It was way too far to walk, miles. Carrying chairs. No. Some other folk were waiting for a car and we discussed sharing since they were going to the Film Screening too but these car Apps don’t carry five people. They were three. We started to text Tony and Lynn. They were in traffic, stuck, lost. I announced that it was winter where we were because it suddenly became unseasonably cold. We were not quite surrounded by entirely amiable people riding on mobilettes, scooters, bikes, cars with balloons, lots of balloons doubtless celebrating a graduation, barbecues smoking and music pumping but not obnoxiously so, it was Sunday afternoon by the water in the Bronx and there were no taxis, we were going to miss our friend’s film and it was raining.
Then Jenny found a car. And Tony texted to say that there was a short film before theirs. And then the taxi arrived and we put our folding chairs in the back and got in. And then we got to the actual park. And our actual names were actually on the door of the screening area, which was actually outside and roped off, and thanks to Laura (and Willa!!) were were ushered gently to two very small chairs reserved in the grass whereupon we opened our garden chairs, checking to see if we were blocking anyone’s view, no, and sat down. Somebody kindly arrived with a large bag full of picnic food and drinks and a tablecloth. It was 4.05pm and the short film was playing. We’d made it. Within two minutes Lynn and Tony had arrived. They sat on the small black chairs, Melkamu was with them, and Sallie’s daughter Willa who had greeted us at the gate, masked and unrecognised by me (shame) I knew I’d met her before but thought because of the surroundings it was at Tony’s company Market Road Films. Willa is interning there now in fact…
“at the front”
Tony Gerber came to hug us and brought cold cans of IPA with him. Gotta love this guy. He introduced us to Felipe’s son who sat with us for a bit. Lynn Nottage came for a hug and we shared fascinating transport tales, as I just did above. And before long, the film started. Just after that Lynn’s brother Aaron arrived with his wife Cathy and their kids Elijah, Sasha and Malik and went to sit behind us. They actually live in Westchester which is just up the road ! Typical right.
And so to the film. Produced by Tony, exec-produced by Lynn, directed by Emma Francis-Snyder it is called TAKEOVER and is a documentary about Bronx group the Young Lords taking over the under-funded and run-down Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx for twelve hours on July 14th 1970.
“NARRATOR: This is a story from New York, not the New York of Manhattan’s Broadway, but for perhaps the toughest square mile in the city, in the South Bronx.
CARLITO ROVIRA: I was 14 years old when I joined the Young Lords. The Young Lords were a street gang that became politicized by the Black Panther Party.
We became visible as servants of the people.
One of our targets was Lincoln Hospital.
IRIS MORALES: That building was condemned 25 years ago. Condemned. Condemned for rich people and opened for poor people.
UNIDENTIFIED: It was a place that you went to to die.
UNIDENTIFIED: Lincoln was called the “butcher shop.”
MIGUEL ”MICKEY” MELENDEZ: Bloodstains on the walls. Bloodstains on the floors.
UNIDENTIFIED: And there was a rat in the emergency room.
DR. LEWIS FRAAD: We have seen children get lead poisoning while hospitalized at Lincoln Hospital.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We felt now was the time for us to say exactly how we’re going to respond to the killings of our people.
CARLITO ROVIRA: Our plan was to take over Lincoln Hospital.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We have to begin to stand up for the people, the Puerto Rican people, and say, “That’s enough. That’s enough.”
CLEO SILVERS: We have been asking for changes to take place. And you’ve paid no attention to us. You’ve thrown us out of your offices, and you’ve called the cops on us. And now we’re putting you out. We’ve taken over the hospital. We’re going to run it. You’re out. And I will walk you to your car.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We immediately announced that we were not leaving until the city made a firm commitment to build a new hospital.
About a thousand police were on roofs with high-powered rifles. They had vans all over the place.
If the police came in, it was going to be a bloodbath, because the police hated the Young Lords.
CLEO SILVERS: We were terrified.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: “Power to the people” means including people, to gain control of their destiny.
The Young Lords were ahead of our time in terms of recognizing that healthcare is a right.
DENISE OLIVER-VELEZ: We wanted a revolutionary change to the health system in this country. And we still do.
CARLITO ROVIRA: Because no oppressor is invincible.”
The Young Lords are a Puerto Rican social revolutionary group modelled on The Black Panther Party, and this direct action took place just six months after Chairman of the Panthers Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed by Chicago police, dramatised in the film Judas & The Black Messiah. The Young Lords knew that their peaceful direct action occupying a working hospital and sending the administrators and security guards home would possibly lead to bloodshed – their own. After a number of statements to the media and a long negotiation with the Mayor, plus a promise to upgrade the hospital, they all escaped via a back exit dressed as health workers, twelve hours after occupying the building. It was a very moving screening because the audience kept applauding various moments or raising their fists in solidarity with the action. And it turned out that many of those who participated were there, in their 70s, watching themselves in a movie about a group of radical Puerto Ricans taking direct action in 1970 in a Bronx park in 2021 full of Puerto Ricans playing baseball and hanging out with their families. Totally inspiring in other words.
Alynda Segarra
The song which played over the credits was called Pa’lante – I knew it, it was a song of the struggle and been covered by a few people. I thought I had it in my music library somewhere but I couldn’t identify the singer – turns out it was Alynda Segarra who is from the Bronx originally (now from New Orleans)and goes out under the name Hurray For The Riff Raff. Pa’lante is partly her own work, partly a famous poem by Pedro Pietri called Dead Puerto Ricans and partly the song itself Pa’lante which is a Spanish contraction of the phrase ‘straight ahead‘ in English, or “para adelante” – FORWARD ! Or in the Queen’s colloquial English : “Up The Workers!” She is quite an extraordinary artist having hopped freight trains as a teenager and collected americana genre songs before widening the genre to include Puerto Rican – or boriquen – music, which is her own heritage. It feels like a song that has been around forever but it is also possible that the first time I heard it was Sunday afternoon.
If I riff briefly about Puerto Rico you’ll learn that the original Taino people (who called the island Borinquen) were visited by Chris Columbus in 1493 and centuries of slavery and immigration from the Canaries & Spain later, Puerto Rico was born. It became a US territory in 1898 and Puerto Ricans had the right to travel to the USA mainland in 1917. However they cannot vote and they do not pay federal tax, and Puerto Rico is neither independent nor a State of the US. Over 80% of the latins of New York City are from Puerto Rico and they have contributed hugely to the city in the area of music particularly : Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Eddie Palmieri, Ricky Martin, Ray Barreto, Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi and Hector Lavoe are some of the Nuyorican stars of the diaspora from the 1960s to now. Salsa is a Puerto Rican New York music. Rafael Hernandez‘ name comes up a lot, the songwriter who composed the great tune El Cumbanchero covered by many (I have a reggae version by Sly & Robbie that kicks ass), and the wonderful boleros Silencio (see My Pop Life #88), Lamento Borincano and Preciosa. Our sole Puerto Rican friend is darling Edna Benitez who lives in the Lower East Side with Heidi Griffiths, we watch football matches together and go for walks and see theatre shows. She was raising money for months for the victims of Hurricane Maria which swept through the buildings and infrastructure of the island in 2017. No one knows how many died, and Trump threw a few paper towels around but gave the island next to nothing. The Young Lords certainly have something to kick against, historically and now. They are the workers of New York often on less than minimum wages. The island itself lies between the Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and although I have passed through San Juan airport I have never stayed a night on the island, and thus in my RB spectrum analysis I have not been there. An oversight methinks! Maybe we should retire there…
We had to leave the Tribeca area after the Q&A with the director Emma Francis Snyder and Young Lord Felipe Luciano, pictured right and now 70 and a pastor, so he’s not taking questions, just delivering a potent sermon about self-esteem and reminding us that South Bronx is still the poorest and worst-served neighbourhood in the United States. Jenny met one of the women, Cleo Silvers and we both talked to Felipe Luciano and gathered just outside of the screening area to celebrate, talk and drink wine. The atmosphere was electric I have to say, what the film was saying and how it was made, and where we were watching it. But also why it was made. I talked to Emma the director and needed to know where the idea had come from, going back seven, eight years she had been looking for examples of non-violent direct action for a college thesis, and found this historic moment and then decided to start gathering witnesses and some years later approached Tony and Market Road Films. Astonishingly much of the documentary is made up of re-creations and re-enactments using actors – but so hand-held and grainy that it matches the old footage from 1970, the TV coverage and the still photos. It brilliantly brings a moment in history to life, and for me opens out the idea of a documentary to an exciting new place. I know it’s not the first time re-creations have been utilised, but the idea of making a moment come back to life where there’s no footage found or otherwise is itself revolutionary.
By now the drink was sliding into my moments and we were bonding merrily – for example Malik, the youngest of the Aaron/Cathy family is now at 15 years old the tallest, and is super-proud of this fact. He’s also the only one not fully vaccinated and he’s super-paranoid about that. Aaron was accusing him of going on tiptoe for photographs so I took a few to test the theory.
Malik, Elijah and their dad Aaron seem to all be the same height?
I told them the terrible story of going to my new doctor on Thursday – straight after my molar extraction, and being weighed (can’t remember) and measured….ohhh this is So Traumatic…I was 5 ft 9 inches. Dear reader, I have been six feet tall my entire life. I’ve lost three inches !!!! Are You Fucking Kidding ME Star??? I mean I know that I am scheduled to shrink a little but already?? Three Inches??? Fuck’s sake where’s it all gone? And when I straighten up and pull my stomach in I’m still 5’9”. They laughed. They told Jenny they thought I was brave to tell them. Later Malik was still talking about height – so I told him he was heightist.
Going home we took the blue line from Soundview to E34 then the red line to Brooklyn Navy Yard
The journey home was another taxi to Clason Point where true to form a Ferry was standing by to take us south – only three people on it this time. It was a sunset steam back to East 34th Street and rather stunning. I was drunk remember and we had snacks.
We got back to midtown and disembarked. The next ferry was 25 minutes away so we opened our garden chairs and sat on the quayside. At that moment the last rays of the setting sun hit the skyscrapers of Long Island City across the East River.
It is fantastic to me that we can experience huge areas of New York City from the water. Tony and Lynn & Mel and Willa drove back from The Bronx to Brooklyn, down FDR Drive I’m assuming, three lanes each way, no traffic lights. Tony texted me when they got home, we were still sitting on our chairs. The final ferry ride found us sitting inside for once watching Williamsburg slide past on the left until we docked at the Navy Yard.
“The best way to travel in New York” I said to the ferryman as we left the boat. He smiled at us. “I agree – that’s why I work here!” he said.
Brooklyn Navy Yard
And I couldn’t get the song out of my head. Or the film. Or the people I’d travelled two hours on a boat to see. Inspiration isn’t the word. I feel fired up. Truly. I woke up the next morning still humming from the day before, full of plans for the rest of my life, to stop wasting time faffing about, thinking about myself and my 1st world problems, and to start to try and inspire the youth. We have to inspire the ones who come behind us. What else are we here for after all?
Postscript – I measured myself with Jenny’s help last night and I can confirm that I am 5 feet 10 and a half inches high. So yes, I am slowly being sucked into the centre of the earth by the forces of gravity, and thus being compressed down into my sacral area, but not that fast….
The video was shot on the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017
Magicmenagerie's Blog 