Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Trades for all Jacks

This article outlines the truth, the whole truth, and nothin but the truth so help us $$

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html?_r=1

In the world of the 4th Ward, ATL, Ga I have seen what Mr. Friedmen is talkin about in the decline of skills. Decades go by and kids have kids who are taught the only trade they know. Slingin' drugs. I had watched them from my upstairs porch and seen the elaborate dance of purchace, drop off, hand out, decoy, buyer, side man, sucker.....
It works. As much as the law says they are fighting it, it works and is thriving and will continued to be passed on to the child on the block who is old enough to count $20s.

Lets ponder a moment about the possiblity of these kids engaging in a different trade. Someone happened to teach them to build a chair, or sew a dress, or paint a picture. And caught in that wild idea of encouragement, these kids might actually continue to foster their newly found skills. The boy who stands on the corner in freezing temperature for the dope boys is now secure in a job that will be useful to him forever. Skills are jobs which cannot be outsourced. You need your plumbing fixed? Haircut? They didnt send those jobs to India.

This is an organization in LA that helps to re-habilitate former gang members into usful memebers of the community.
http://www.homeboy-industries.org/index.php
instilling a sense of  pride in the workmanship of trades is equally as important as the knowledge itself.
Friends of mine I hold in the highest of respect are ones who uses and utilizes the trade skills they have.  its godddamn upstanding!


Now, some photos of children in the neighborhood who are tragically close to learning the slingin trade. if only there is a way to intercept.........





Friday, October 23, 2009

Children's books are the new radical lit: A memo on pubic space

"...the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. Then one day someone discovered that if you walked as fast as possible and looked at nothing but your shoes you would arrive at your destination much more quickly. Soon everyone was doing it. They all rushed down the avenues and hurried along the boulevards seeing nothing of the wonders and beauties of their city as they went.
No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all."
--The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 1961

Not only a beautiful commentary on the nature of people's bad habits, but a necessary warning to the kids about the infection of apathy.
I am trying to look up. Look around. Look this way that way sideways by ways and its best done when you avoid the highways. What is there even to see on the highway? Slabs of grey. Specled spots of milti colors cars. People sitting arms out head straight not a sign of life in the pretty polished box.
If we spend all of our time in the car-box, we miss the world as it is growing and dying around us. I saw a bush with bright purple berries on it yesterday as I was walking home. They were hidden behind othe plants and as I looked at them four yellow butterflies circled and danced around my legs like the welcoming committee of this little garden.
Thank you feet you take me to better places then any car ever could.

The space which exists between private spaces, also known as public space, has come under attack. We funnel ourselves from one point (A) to the next point (B) in whichever forms we choose, oblivious to the solid spaces we exist in in the meantime. We remain engrossed in whatever thought or distraction we have obliged ourselves to and which make us seemingly blind to the streets and wall and aesthetic surrounding us.  For this reason we have lost our control over our own spaces. Spaces paid for with our own dollars. Not out of purpose or plan have our distractions taken us over, but by pure human nature. And in that nature itself has been reduced more and more until we are left in a foreign territory conquered and marred by concrete and sparsely bandaged with foliage. In our surroundings we find ourselves in we are reflective of what we see. Mundane, standard, expected, most occasions drab. The world seems to have lost its flair.

In other parts of the world, they have purposely structured their public environment to be a cause of joy, ease, and excitement for its residents and visitors. Structures, sidewalks, alleys, and plazas are a place to easily exist and were designed for people to find comfort and accessibly to their community. Walking areas are beautiful, decorated along the stone walls are etchings or murals. There are plenty of places for gathering, whether it be a pavilion or a bench. They are conducive to size of people and not bowing to the car as most important. Places that have spent the time to think out a plan structure for the city, based on nothing else but the people who will exist in it, have mapped out a system that  belongs 100% to the people who not only utilize the spaces, but are monetarily responsible for them as well.

When we think about public space as ours it takes only a few seconds to realize there is a great void in the accessibility and design  in what we have set up. Huge looming walls with no character or shade from the elements are almost like an attack on the pedestrian who finds him or herself next to it. The most heavily influenced by the space in which they exist are children. To look around your neighborhood and see an influx of heavy traffic, trash, and empty land is to feel unworthy of anything better. When the only grassy area to play in is the remnants of a house now full of broken glass and nails, the message they are getting is one of apathy and disinterest. The people in charge don’t care about it, so they should not bother to either.

And now....photographs of the world I see when I take a gander