John Penley passes along word that, after tomorrow's show in Tompkins Square Park, there will be a "LET EM EAT CAKE/EAT THE RICH/ NO COMFORT ZONE street party" starting at 8 p.m.
First stop: the Economakis Dream Mansion on East Third Street near Second Avenue.
"This street fiesta will feature poetry by LES Jewels, music by Hank who plays on the street and others TBA. Afterwards we will go the the Mars Bar for beer. The Mars Bar is closed so it will be street. F the developer Donald Capoccia we will roast and eat him with bbq sauce."
Updated: In the comments, Penley notes that the protest will include a stop at the BMW Guggenheim Lab.
[Photo from the July 2008 protest outside the Economakis Dream Mansion]
I was all in until I saw Joel aka LES Jewels was involved. This event has lost any credibility it could have had.
ReplyDeletewe should all support Mr. Penley, as he is the only one who would bring this to the media eat the rich feed the poor throw the landlord out the door
ReplyDeleteI don't get the point of doing this now. The tenants are long gone from that building. Might be better to focus our attention elsewhere. I agree Jewels being involved sinks this protest's credibility.
ReplyDeleteI'll stop by, it sounds like fun. Any excuse to hang out by the Mars Bar is credible enough for me.
ReplyDeleteLES Jewels has been sober for 10 days and he is actually a good poet. He also read poetry at the original Economakis protest. We are also going to stop by the BMW Guggenheim lab where Jewels is going to read poetry. This is a Street Party and I don't give a shit about credibility unless it is street credibility. The Lab is supposed to be about comfort so this will be a no comfort exhibit for them. Advice to Lab Please let the 9th know about this because you may need them. HAPPY TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK RIOT REDUX. EV Please check the FB page link I sent to get the full details on this.
ReplyDeleteSTREET PARTY PROTEST WILL GO FROM ECONOMAKIS MANSION TO THE BMW GUGGENHEIM LAB FOR POETRY BY LES JEWELS AND MUSIC BY HANK AND OTHERS TBA THEN WILL GO TO SITE OF THE MARS BAR FOR BBQ REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER AND BEER. BRING PAINT AND BBQ SAUCE.http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/don_french_fry_me_GqZ9Dg1xSUIjWTTF0T0SkM
ReplyDeleteHow's the (r)evolution going?
ReplyDeleteO, never mind: jewels rules...
I don't understand what there is to protest. Someone bought a house fair and square, it WAS for sale. If I bought a house I certainly would want to do what I want with it.
ReplyDeleteStupid to target the lab, I think it's pretty cool even though I have not been. I understand the frustration but is it better focused elsewhere? Maybe I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteA : The theme of the BMW Guggenheim Lab is comfort zones in the city so we are going to create an old school LES no comfort zone for them. Makin it real. B : Economakis set a state wide precedent by evicting all the long time tenants from the building whose money he had taken for years so now that he has done it and thinks we have forgotten we want to make him feel uncomfortable again because he is a bad landlord [other tenants in his other buildings have told us thisso that is why we are starting the no comfort zone street party there. C : This is the 23 anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Riot and many people asked me to cook something up for the street so I did. This is more of a party with a protest element so lighten up and come by and have some fun. Whose Fuckin neighborhood ? No ours anymore but we are not dead yet so lets party and make the yuppies, landlords, real estate developers and 6 million dollar BMW promotion UNCOMFORTABLE once again.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed going to the BMW Guggenheim Lab. I got to watch a film I did not have the money to pay for in a theater. I like my events free and drama free. I am a long term east village resident and if my landlord sold the building and wanted me out I would have to comply. It's the law. Tompkins Sq. park was a
ReplyDeletede facto homeless shelter. The police did use excessive force to remove the tenants but gave the park back to everyone in the neighborhood. Made it safe for the people. we ALL pay taxes, rich or poor.
Pointless rage. Have been here always, 39 years and counting, birth to now. Not rich - 5th floor walk up and glad to be an 'original' yet happy to meet the incoming masses - great neighborhood then and now - interesting things all around - outstanding city - artists abound - people good bad ugly beautiful - one man and his saxophone one corner and new 'lab' on the other, and they coexist. Put your energy into yourself. Frustrating to see 'local' people enveloped in pointless "protest". There is merit in change, and melancholy only takes you so far.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous 5:08 p.m. The East Village I live in now isn't the East Village I moved into 25 years ago, but some of the change, including cleaning up Tompkins Square Park, has been for the better. Change happens. That's life. I loved living here 25 years ago, and I love living here now. The East Village rocks, and it belongs to all of us, not just a band of cranky old protesters.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous one and two you are the cranky old farts and some of the entertainment coming is very young. This is a STREET PARTY so you are the cranky ones not us. PARTY PARTY PARTY get it I don't think either one of you who are really what you say you are because if you really were old skool LESers you would have the guts to put your name on your comments so until you do I will assume you are fakes.
ReplyDeleteWhat have people got against the Guggenheim Lab? They took over an empty lot that had tons of rats in it. Nothing appeared to be happening with that lot, but now maybe even when the lab is gone it will continue to be used, rather than returning to its previous state.
ReplyDeleteA party protest. It's such a ridiculous concept that it sounds like it could have been fun in an ironic way. Did anyone go? Were people dancing in the street?
ReplyDeleteI know I might be a little old school and I will get some flack for this but why is our local hero JP doing an interview with the NYU blog!!!!! And why is he donating his amazing work to this yuppie school!!!!!! I know he wants recognition but take it back. Give your prized photos to a community college not NYU. It's insane and a waste of your resources to support a school that is destroying downtown.
ReplyDeletehttp://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/locals-john-penley/
I will say it one more time I did not donate my photos to NYU. My photos are in Tamiment Library at NYU. Tamiment is a PUBLIC LIBRARY and is a completely independent left labor radical library. The photos are part of the Squatter archive. Anyone can go and use Tamiment. I help all student journalists even ones that go to NYU.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:08 and 7:37 are the same person. The points, tone and comments themselves are nearly identical.
ReplyDeleteYou got your BMW/Guggenheim Foursqaure Swarm badge, what else do you want from us? Pack up your stupid tech shanty shack and take it back to Minnesota already with your sad ass.
Dude, it's one of the NYU libraries, part of the NYU Bobst library system:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/
It's for yuppie spawn who spend $30,000 a year to study radical labor movements so they can pontificate about them.
JP's work ought to be where real people can access it. Take it back and create your own online archive.
What is JP protesting xactly?? Yuppie scum? Landlords? Would he rather have junkies renting out his roof top as a shooting gallery?
ReplyDeleteI am an NYU student so I know everyone hates me already but I have to share... I wouldn't call this a public library by any means. It is an NYU library. You don't have to show an NYU ID to get in to the library but you do have to show a drivers license or state ID card to get in. Ironic and wrong because the truest of radicals don't carry ID. So it isn't really open to everyone. If you are an illegal Mexican or a survivor of the '60s who refuses to get a government issued ID you aren't going to get in to this library. I can go in whenever I want. I know it's not fair but it's not my fault. NYU pays for the upkeep of this place so you do have to follow their rules.
ReplyDeleteJP doesn't like students (which is redick)!, Landlords (I need mine to make repairs) or yuppie scum (whatever that means).. he is a crank.
ReplyDeleteI'm what you people would surely consider "yuppie scum." I can assure you that nothing about what you're doing makes anybody the least bit uncomfortable. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteResponding to the poster above, I have to agree with him or her. I am not a yuppie, but the yuppies I know in the neighborhood (and some of them are quite nice) have no idea any of this stuff is even going on. They don't keep up with protests and read blogs lamenting the end of the East Village. They're just living their lives. I am not sure what the protesters think they are accomplishing. I think it is a social outlet for them. A way to feel like they are viable.
ReplyDeleteI too think the Gug is a bit misguided as a protest area. The plan is to leave the space for the neighborhood to have a garden, block party space, a place to chill.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the East Village is going the way of the West Village... Greenwich Village is the new Greenwich Ct. Give the "breeders" a few years, however, they will finish their "experiment" in city living and when their kids are of a certain age, they will all head back to the lilly white suburbs in which they came from.