Archive for the ‘New York City’ Category

Gay Marriage Passes in NY but NYC Still not Friendly for Queer Communities of Color

7:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|New York|New York City|Politics|qtpoc · 4 Comments

28 Jun 2011

I learned that gay marriage became legal in New York state in a hotel room in Detroit while there for the Allied Media Conference. While I am not a huge advocate of marriage in general, acknowledging that I am coming from it privileged as a mostly straight someone who always has had the option of being lawfully wedded, it was the right thing. Equity. My older daughter and I were happy. There maybe were some members of our family (biological & chosen) who would get married now. But I was also disturbed by some of the media coverage and some of the reactions from the lgbt organizations.

Being at the Allied Media Conference and the week before at Netroots Nation and being with and among the queer community of color, I scanned the faces of the people recorded in the gallery of the New York State Senate. There wasn’t alot of color. There wasn’t alot of people who presented as women and did I hear chants of “USA”? I could have sworn I did. Away from my state and my city, I could step away from what I knew was celebration in corners of my hood. Why was everyone acting like that’s it, like the struggle is over?

My mind meant to queer people of color and queer youth of color in New York City and how they have been harassed and brutalized by the police for decades. Earlier this month, the organization FIERCE released a statement ( link will open as PDF) to the press denouncing the continuation of of quality of life initiatives made popular under former Mayor Giuliani.
From the statement:

On Tuesday, May 31, two plainclothes Detectives from the 6th
Precinct stationed themselves in an unmarked car outside of 147 West 24th
Street, the location of FIERCE, the Audre Lorde Project, Queers for Economic Justice, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project—four community-based organizations working with LGBTQ communities of color, homeless and low-income community members and
youth of color. The Detectives proceeded to stop and question FIERCE youth members. They did not have a warrant, but informed FIERCE staff that they had been ordered to question youth entering and exiting the building.

This Weekend in NYC : East Harlem Children’s Book Festival

7:59 am By Maegan La Mala · Books|New York City|youth · Comments Off

22 Jun 2011

Saturday, June 25th, 2011
11 am – 3 pm
PS 72/Lexington Academy
131 East 104th Street
New York, NY 10029

See books come alive!
Meet your favorite authors, listen to book readings, participate in art making activities and shop for your favorite titles. Parents, children, teachers and anyone else with a love of children’s books can celebrate diverse cultures with authors, illustrators and artists.
Admission is free and open to the public.

Ve como los libros cobran vida!
Conoce a tus autores favoritos, escucha lecturas de libros, participa en actividades de arte y compra tus libros favoritos! Padres, ninos, maestros y cualquier otra persona enamorada de los libros para ninos estan invitados a celebrar las culturas diversas con autores, ilustradores y artistas.
La entrada es gratuita y abierta al publico.

Today in NYC Lunchtime Rally Against Puerto Rican Gas Pipeline

7:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

9 Jun 2011

Here’s your chance NYC Ricans and those that love us. Today there will be a rally in front of 26 Federal Plaza, Downtown Manhattan, where the Army Corps of Engineers has an office. The rally will be a show of solidarity and unity against the way the proposed Gasoducto is being pushed on the people of Puerto Rico.

Thursday, June 9 · 12:00pm – 1:30pm
26 Federal Plaza (on Broadway between Worth and Duane Streets)

From the organizers:

On Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 12 pm in front of 26 Federal Plaza, local Puerto Rican leaders, activists and supporters of the Puerto Rican people and the environment, including the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights-NYC Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Union Theological Seminary, Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition, East Harlem Preservation, and Lafayette Presbyterian Church, will rally and demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deny the permit requested by the PR Electric Power Authority (PREPA) in which they propose to construct a dangerous natural gas pipeline over 92 miles long.

The gathering will take place just days before the National Puerto Rican Parade which has been dedicated to the natural environment of Puerto Rico. Ironically, it’s a natural environment that is threatened by this costly, unnecessary and destructive project.

Public opposition to the project is strong. Polls indicate that 70% of the citizens of Puerto Rico oppose the construction of the pipeline (El Nuevo Día – March 2011). On May 1, 2011, over 30,000 people marched together to protest the ‘Vía Verde’ gas pipeline. Different sectors of Puerto Rican society have manifested their opposition to this project, including Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas (which has been invited to participate in the parade), church groups, cultural organizations, academics, labor unions, community groups, and Puerto Rican citizens in the U.S. mainland

Recently all documentation pertinent to the evaluation of the natural gas pipeline project was transferred to US Army Corps of Engineers Offices in Florida. This disingenuous act represents yet another step to hide from public scrutiny and avoid an open and transparent public discussion of the projects merits and costs.

The Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority (PREPA) proposes to construct and install a 24-inch diameter steel gas pipeline approximately 92 miles long with a construction right-of way of 150 feet wide. The pipeline will transverse Puerto Rico from the EcoEléctrica Liquid Natural Gas Terminal to the northern thermoelectric power plants that only produces 20% of the total electric energy of the island.

To avoid compliance with basic regulatory standards and ignore procedural safeguards for the construction of such a high-risk project, the governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, declared a state of energy emergency designed to maintain secrecy, fast-track the permit process and thwart full public participation in the discussion of the project. The implications of this proposal for the future of Puerto Rico are too detrimental to accept. We need to break the dependency on fossil fuels while promoting economic development of the island with self-sustaining resources.

NYC Event This Friday : Gasoducto/PR Gas Pipeline ¿Verde or Muerte?/Green or Deadly? A Dialogue with Dr. Arturo Massol

10:59 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

5 Jun 2011

FRIDAY, JUNE 10

FROM 6:00PM – 9:00PM

UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

3041 BROADWAY @ 121ST STREET

A controversial gas pipeline (named Via Verde by the government and Via de la Muerte by everyone else) threatens the entire island of Puerto Rico. While opposition to the project is nearly unanimous, the administration of Gov. Luis Fortuño is determined to construct it no matter how many lives and communities are effected or how much permanent damage is done to the natural environment and historical sites of native Taino people. Already, on May 1st, tens of thousands marched under a torrential downpour to SAY NO TO THE GASODUCTO! Many more have also signed petitions against the project and Congressman Luis Gutierrez has eloquently ripped the proposal in Congress. During this special forum, we will be joined by Dr. Arturo Massol of Casa Pueblo, the dynamic Adjuntas, Puerto Rico-based community organization – and winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize – that is leading the effort to get this unnecessary, costly and dangerous project terminated. Renewable, sustainable energy sources are abundant in Puerto Rico and can be developed instead of this deadly project.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT JESÚS MANGUAL AT (917) 557-4791

OR VISIT:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151139824955696

Art or Exploitation : Living as an Immigrant in Corona, Queens

4 Jun 2011

Full disclosure : I am a resident of Corona, Queens and partially grew up in this neighborhood. So perhaps my critique, concern, and commentary comes from a personal place. I also acknowledge that I am not an immigrant. My parents came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico so their immigrant experience is different than that of the immigrants that live in Corona, Queens. I own that as well.

I was supposed to participate in a poetry event today at Immigrant Movement International, just a few blocks from where I live.
I wondered what was this organization that I was being invited to share space with? I have lived at my current address in Corona for a number of years and had never seen or heard of it. Also many years of being involved in the Latino social justice movement here in NYC had me thinking I was pretty aware of the different organizations doing work.

Turns out Immigrant Movement International isn’t so much of a movement but rather the art project of one Cubana, Tania Bruguera.

From her website on the project :

Tania Bruguera’s Immigrant Movement International, presented by Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art, is a long-term art project in the form of an artist-initiated socio-political movement. Bruguera will spend a year operating a flexible community space in the multinational and transnational neighborhood of Corona, Queens, which will serve as the movement’s headquarters. Engaging both local and international communities, as well as working with social service organizations, elected officials, and artists focused on immigration reform, Bruguera will examine growing concerns about the political representation and conditions facing immigrants.

As one of those artists, I decided not to engage Immigrant Movement International, in fact this blog post will be the extent of my engagement save when I pass the building when I am walking with my children to the park. I have to worry about the mobile police unit on my corner, how to pay for my own unfunded art space/home, and if a crime against a Latino family friend 20 years ago- an immigrant on immigrant crime if you will- well ever see justice.

Just as adventure tourism that claims to give a “border crossing experience” is problematic, so is an art project that claims to be movement.

By engaging the local community through public workshops, events, actions, and partnerships with immigrant and social service organizations, Immigrant Movement International will explore who is defined as an immigrant and the values they share, focusing on the larger question of what it means to be a citizen of the world. Bruguera will also delve into the implementation of art in society, examining what it means to create “Useful Art”, and addressing the disparity of engagement between informed audiences and the general public, as well as the historical gap between the language used in what is considered avant-garde and the language of urgent politics.

Since when is a funded art project coming into a neighborhood a movement?
Read more…

Coors to Pull EmBoricuate Ads?

4:22 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City|Puerto Rico · Comments Off

3 Jun 2011

There have been various reports that MillerCoors have pulled the disrespectful EmBoricuate advertisements.

Can anyone confirm this?

I have not been on mass transit today to check if any of the ads have been indeed taken down.

Edited to add on Saturday 6/4/2011 – The EmBoricuate are still up in at least one subway station in Queens, NYC. Let’s see if it gets pulled.

Small Victory : NY State to Temporarily Pull Out of Secure Communities

7:31 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia|Immigration|New York City|Politics · Comments Off

3 Jun 2011

Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would be temporarily opting out of the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, following much campaigning by local and national advocates and activists. In the meantime the program ill be investigated for “not meeting its stated goal and serious consequences for witnesses, victims of crime and law enforcement.”

The announcement has garnered strong support from various organizations and individuals including the former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, faith leaders, and local politicians. Even a poll via the local NYC newspaper, The NY Daily News, shows a majority feeling like the S-Comm program discriminates against immigrants.

Pero the celebrating may be premature. Remember that when Illinois announced that they were opting out of S-Comm, ICE head John Morton paid a special visit to say that they couldn’t. An equally problematic situation would be the adoption of a law on the statewide level, like the Smart Act, that states that enforcement programs must meet certain criteria, like only really going after the “bad” or criminal immigrants. This would be problematic because looking at the bigger national picture, the federal government has yet to really look at immigration reform in a real way beyond more enforcement.

This is a suspension – not a complete opt-out. A ver what will happen next.

¡Live from Cuba! Roxy la Rusa en Nueva York, June 15

9:03 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture|Events|New York City · Comments Off

1 Jun 2011

Some of my favorite writers/performers are joining in this one of a kind event.

The celebrated Cuban writer and avant-garde performer Pedro González Reinoso is visiting the United States from Santa Clara, Cuba, where he performs regularly as “Roxy la Rusa,” an old Russian woman who became stranded in Cuba during the Cold War and who writes very intense, neo-baroque-style, stream-of-consciousness fragments of experimental fiction and social commentary, as exemplified in his last collection, “Vidas de Roxy,” (The Lives of Roxy) which was published in Colombia in 2009 and reprinted in 2010.

Part drag show, part comedy skit, part literary presentation, “Roxy la Rusa” is anything but forgettable and has been delighting audiences at regional colleges, Miami, Montreal and Boston, where enthusiastic crowds have awaited “her” with outrageous adoration.

Joining Roxy will be the Puerto Rican writer and performer Carlos Manuel Rivera performing as “La Tonga” and Orlando Ferrand-Rodríguez, a New York-based Cuban poet and visual artist who will be sharing memoir and poetry regarding his childhood and adolescence on the island. Cuban music will be plentiful and the Phoenix is a comfortable bar/lounge with great drink specials and prices.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Phoenix, 449 E 13th Street at Avenue A (L train, 1st Ave)

8PM – 9:30PM – 21+, FREE

This Weekend in NYC

8:18 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|Books|Events|New York City · Comments Off

27 May 2011

It’s the first unofficial Summer in NYC weekend and that means plenty to do. Check out some ways to kick off warm weather season that will also feed your head/heart.

Sunday

Puerto Rico is Talking Gas : Green Way or Death’s Way?

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Environment|New York City|Puerto Rico · 5 Comments

25 May 2011

I have seen alot more coverage of the struggle against the dam in Aysen, Chile than I have about another potentially environmentally devastating project in the Latin America that is the U.S., Puerto Rico.

Via Verde or Via de la Muerte, depending on who you ask, is a gas pipeline being pushed by the government of Luis Fortuño in Puerto Rico. The Gasoducto project would run through delicate ecosystems as well as through sacred Indigenous Taino areas. On May 1st, thousands marched in Puerto Rico to protest the way the project is being pushed through without transparency or input from the people of Puerto Rico.

Here is Congressman Luis Gutierrez speaking on the issue:

VivirLatino