Code Pink House can be pretty intense. So I was delighted that Saturday night to go to a concert by the DC Labor Chorus - a group of union workers who like to sing and are led by Elise Bryant, a beautiful force of nature with a big voice. The chorus has sung at 33 demonstrations this year, plus holding two concerts. Hearing this good music and singing along filled my heart.
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| That's Elise, holding the "ATU On Strike" poster. You can see posters of some of the other issues they've supported. |
The next day, Paki and I walked at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, just across the river in Anacostia, Maryland. It's a national park along the Anacostia River, a tidal river even further up. So there are paths along the tidal marshes and ponds where they have water gardens in the summer. So good to be outside, see herons and ducks, and the sun shining back at us across the water. Then we went to the local Busboys and Poets restaurant. for lunch There are several of them around Washington, started by an African American entrepreneur -- very supportive of labor and workers, murals on the walls and art for sale in their bookstore reflective of African American experience. The place was packed and it's large. Good food, too.
Paki had been to that neighborhood in Anacostia because it is the site of the MLK march each year in February. She had seen signs for the Frederick Douglas house, and always wanted to visit. So that afternoon we went there.
Fascinating man -- born in slavery, his fiancee (a free African American woman) bought him a train ticket to New York and that is how he succeeded in escaping from slavery. Once he was free, they were married. He was a passionate and stirring speaker, and became a speaker for the abolitionist movement, traveling all over the free states. When he published an autobiography, naming his former slave owner, it was too dangerous to stay in the US -- laws at that time supported slave owners sending bounty hunters to catch runaway slaves and return them to their owners So Frederick Douglas went to Britain for an abolitionist speaking tour. The English were so impressed that they raised the money to buy his freedom. He returned to the US a free man, and became a statesman for the abolitionist cause, corresponding with President Lincoln and continuing to speak. After the Civil War and emancipation, two communities were started in the Anacostia area -- one exclusively a development for white Northern European Christians and the other for African Americans. The founder of the exclusively white development built this beautiful mansion on the top of a hill, overlooking Washington proper. When the white developer went bankrupt, Frederick Douglas was able to buy the house, an appropriate location to entertain as a statesman. Frederick Douglas eventually was named Marshall of the District of Columbia, the first time a black man was confirmed by Congress for a Federal position. Later he served as ambassador to Haiti. He also vigorously supported women's right to vote. When his wife Anna died in 1882, he was lonely in the big house, his children all living in the Rochester, NY area. In 1884, he married his secretary, a white woman. Interracial marriage was legal in Washington DC even then. Truly an amazing and deeply American story, for better and for worse.
The next day I drove back to NYC and then up to W. Mass for a couple days. It was the end of Elona's semester at UMass and we needed to pack up her room and bring everything home. Next semester she will be studying abroad in Cuba! I had so many chores to do in Northampton that I didn't have time to visit many of my friends there. Sorry it was so hectic a trip. And then back to Ridgewood, where I'll stay for the holidays with my girls (women).
More of Samoa's gigs to go to!! First the Roots and Ruckus Festival at Jalopy Theater in Redhook. If you're in the city and you like folk music, roots music, or just lively fun music, it's a great place to go -- the center of all that music in NYC.
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| The Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues, many of whom toured Japan in October, performing at Jalopy Tavern. |
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| Samoa's band, The Four O'Clock Flowers, with Ernie Vega, guitarist extraordinaire. |
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| Back to Sonny's Bar for the Big Band version of the Four O'Clock Flowers, with Samoa, Ernie on electric guitar, bass, drums, sax and accordion/piano. They play alot of rhythm and blues, and old blues. Samoa and I danced a couple times when they were playing an instrumental. Too much fun! |
And back to Dead Rabbit with Conal Fawkes. It's a pricey, popular bar with a special mystique which they are intent upon keeping. When guests arrive, they are sent to the downstairs bar and only brought upstairs as seats become available, which could be a long wait. The upstairs bar is kept packed at all times, all of which gives it the feel of a special place for folks in the know. They cater to young Wall Street types and tourists who don't flinch at the $17-19 for a cocktail. There is a thick book with a crazy story about the adventures of a rabbit in an apocalyptic time who ends up dead, I guess. It's too dark in there to actually read it. But there are pages and pages of cocktails listed in order of how boozy they are. Each one is made of many, complicated ingredients, including liquors from all over the world, herbal infusions and bitters. They are delicious! But the management only wants their special clientele. At the end of the night, the manager pulled Samoa aside and told her, if she wanted to bring a guest (me), she should call ahead and check first. I think I was loving the music and clapping too much -- didn't fit into their mystique.
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| Hearing her sing makes me happy. |
Spending quite a bit of time in the apartment, just catching up on this blog, resting and hanging out with Samoa and Elona, in between their busy schedules. Thursday, Elona wasn't working and we went to the Christmas Market in Union Square to find some gifts. We were very successful, which was a good thing, because it was cold and my toes and fingers wanted to go home about the time we had everything we needed.
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| Elona and her sweetheart Finn, waiting for hot pretzels. |
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