Continuing their Legacies, those dead from AIDS

Emails on Newark Museum quilt show ignoring the Names Project, the most significant textile and community art project of the late 20th century. Appalling in Newark, NJ, home to the first hospital program for kids with AIDS; 2nd largest provider of hospital services to people with AIDS in US. I know at least 35 people in my building dead of AIDS in the past decade. Museums may have teaparties but a punch in the face to the legacy of those who died in the face of hate. We all have their legacies

Remembering WTC on 9/11, ten years later

Images of the WTC from 1976

Before the WTC 9/11 days

For most of my life 9/11 is the day my maternal grandfather died in 1965 at only age 61 (b.1904), in Chicago IL. The wonders of modern medicine would have kept him alive today, but he died of complications from a stroke in the 1950s. I remember circumstances around his death such as the funeral home, relatives. He is here with his daughter, my Mom on her wedding day in 1952. My grandfather was a pipefitter, yet he was dead before the WTC. I dunno know if he ever got to New York City in his life. My grandmother stayed in their apartment at 5225 West LeMoyne, Chicago. They had moved there on their return from California in 1963 or 64 until about 1984, when she became ill. For many years I have a recurring dream wandering around their neighborhood. However, I looked at photos online of the building and neighborhood today. The photos bear no resemblance to my dream images. The images seem more akin to the area of my Mom's maternal grandmother.. Addison and Kedvale, Chicago. Memories. RIP and always love for you!

Post Labor day "summer" fast pastels

Rainyday fast sketchs in da building store.. #90, 91 and #92.
#90 Los Arboles.. loved looking and sketching the shapes and colours in those trees this summer! Newark can be so lush.. certainly Branch Brook Park!

#91 Rain.. started with a fast sketch of a woman walking but couldnt figure out how to finish. She reminded me of my talk with a neighbor about the harrassment of Muslim women at an amusement park recently.. being denied rides if one wore the hajib. Dunno but outrageous harrassment, certainly a host of law suits to come. Maybe the drawing is just an angel...

#92 Remembering 2001. Somehow the work reminded me of the monolith in Kubrick's Space Odyssey 2001, and then the realization that 2001 was also the tenth anniversary of 9/11/01. Our new world reality, post 9/11.
Finally thought about the ending to the summer drawings now that it is post LaborDay. Looking for a regular social work opportunity (will teach part time). I also need to be around more social workers as the current political climate is so outrageous. Amazing that the Republican nihilists are so intent on getting rid of our first AfricanAmerican President, roll back social rights, and destroy the economy for the enrichment of the oligarchs.

Jack Benny, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson

Found an autograph of both Rochester and Jack Benny on the same paper (a Waldorf Astoria card). My Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ed routinely went to corporate sponsored dinners in NYC and around the country for his job in advertising. Amazing social history...

"Gaily, Jack Benny"

Summer email postcards/photos

This summer, a host of auto tour emails of sites in Utah, Colorado from a Cali buddy.

Now, snapshots as he visits his parents (now in their 80s) in Memphis.
Love the baby boy photos from 1960/61 Huntsville, Alabama!

Especially love him and his baby bottle but it is not uploading right, but I posted.

awwww!

"Queen Mary" and "Princess of Canada" 1950s cruise story

Happy Birthday to my Aunt Agnes, born September 3, deceased in the 1980s. The photo of her and my Uncle Ed on the "Empress of Canada" in the 1950s. An amazing ocean liner from what I have read online. Have to investigate more and add!! I also posted the passenger list of a Cunard trip they sailed.

The ship was originally named Empress of Japan but renamed upon WW2.

The Queen Mary first class passenger list is amazing social history. All the Mr and Mrs with no female name. Master this and that young guy. Mrs. x with maid. The Sirs, Ladyships, Lordships.

RIP the loved Aunt Agnes (and Uncle Ed). They lived at 2 Fifth Avenue, NYC, during the time of their cruises. My Mom spent most of her childhood summers staying with them, mostly on the UES when they lived off 5th in the East 80s.

My sense is that the Empress cruise took place after my Uncle retired in the spring of 1954, so probably 1954-58. In 1958, they sailed on the Queen Mary. 1958 was a big year as my GreatGrandMother died. And, my aunt/uncle donated the construction of Owens Hall, Our Lady of the Woods College, outside Terre Haute, Indiana. His sister was the Mother Superior.

Sent photos to my Uncle in Southern California (The last living brother of my deceased Mom). He and my Aunt go on at least a cruise a year. Waiting to hear his reaction to the photos.