Press Conference to Save 186 Spring Street (by GVSHP)

New York State Senator Tom Duane:

“I believe just based on it’s architecture alone it deserves to be saved and yeah there’s been alterations but not enough alterations to take away from the historical significance of the bricks and the mortar and to allow a building of such historic significance to be destroyed is really a destruction of a very important part of our city our nation it sounds like an exaggeration but it’s not, OUR WORLD…I think that anyone who wanted to was welcome to stay overnight there when they were thrown out of their homes….”

New York City Council member Daniel Dromm:

“It’s hard to believe that when I talk to LGBT youth that they dont have any sense of LGBT history…When I was 17 years old I came from Long Island to this area…and this neighborhood represented to me the gay rights movement…and it was Arnie Kantrowitz and it was Bruce Voeller and Jim Owles who were the leaders…and I feel very fortunate to have known those people but most people in the LGBT community might not even know who they are that’s why we must preserve this building for history we must have this here for future generations and the contributions of the people who lived in this building were NOT minor contributions they were MAJOR, GROUND BREAKING, EARTH SHATTERING, HISTORY MAKING contributions…and by the way our LGBT youth need and deserve LGBT role models they need to have places that they can identify that they can say “Oh this is where it began it happened here on these streets….”

Allen Roskoff of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club:

“This house CANNOT be replaced what happened in this house must be remembered from the kitchen block table in the kitchen downstairs with the garden in the back to the community room upstairs with the chair that hung like a swing and the couches that we sat on this is a unique, incredible place where people’s lives were saved. The countless number of gay youth who would have committed SUICIDE and who would have remained in the closet to risk to their lives a lot of that was changed because of what happened in this house…so what happened here MUST be remembered and this house MUST be saved. The know nothings at City Landmarks the know nothing people sitting on landmarks talk about authenticity and the integrity of this house well I question their integrity and their lack of respect for our community they work for a mayor who supported George W Bush and they’re gonna tell us what house can be saved? No, this cannot happen. Jim Owles would want each and every one of us here FIGHTING to save this house…I’m here to save the memory of Jim Owles and what he represented and what he fought for…save this house and save the memory of people like Jim Owles”

Steve Ashkinazy of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City:

“I became involved in the work of the gay movement in 1971 and because of that work I fell in love with this neighborhood with its grittiness, bohemian liveability, and its tolerance…so I’ve seen a lot of changes here some good but too many not good at all what used to be an affordable and friendly community now has become a luxury mall local business can no longer compete with the rents that are now being paid by international brands who are so eager to have a flagship store in SOHO they don’t care if it’s profitable or not and many landlords are using underhanded tactics to get rid of rent regulated tenants and who are the new occupants of these apartments? Not local people who can put down roots and contribute to the neighborhood they are mostly people whose primary homes are somewhere else…the City Landmark Commission would like to tell you that the 186 Springstreet building no longer retains its original character and architectural elements to consider it a landmark. I say that this is nonsense any individual walking down Springstreet among its newer and older buildings have got to notice a small row of houses which are clearly much older than their surroundings. When they do they cannot help but reflect on the history of what this neighborhood was pre industrial, pre artist rennisance, and pre glitzy fashion mecca. Visually and architecturally 186 Springstreet is still a stand out with important stories to tell about the history of this neighborhood. One of those stories is the world changing revolution that took place under its roof…the world was changed here and our culture has evolved immeasurably. New York needs this landmark it must not be destroyed…lets see that a plaque is affixed properly to commemorate what occured here so one or two or three generations from now people passing by can stop and appreciate its historical significance.”    

THE GOOD NEWS:

WE HAVE SUPPORTERS! more and more people are joining to the fight to save LGBT history and our history in general. openly gay elected officials State Senator Tom Duane and Assembly member Deborah Glick, City Councilmember Rosie Mende, City Councilmember Daniel Dromm, City Councilmember Jimmy Van Brame,  City Councilmember Jessica Lappin, multiple gay rights and historic preservation organizations, hundreds of New Yorkers, and I’m pretty sure the followers of this blog!

THE BAD NEWS:

The LPC (the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission) will not designate the house a landmark citing the building was “too highly altered” and “lacks the requisite architectural integrity” to be saved.

Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation had this to say in response to LPC’s decision “It simply doesn’t pass the smell test when the Landmarks Preservation Commission will designate gas stations and much more highly altered buildings within just a few blocks of here and yet refuses to protect a building with the extraordinary history of 186 Spring Street, claiming it is “too highly altered” and “lacks architectural integrity”

Of more than 30,000 landmarked properties in New York City, the LPC has never landmarked a single one based primarily upon lesbian and gay history.  Only one site in the country is recognized as a historic landmark by the federal government for its significance to lesbian and gay history, the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village (co-nominated by GVSHP in 1999), the site of the Stonewall Riots, considered the birthplace of the modern gay-rights movement.  While recognized by the federal government, the Stonewall Inn’s significance to the gay rights movement has never been recognized by New York City’s own Landmarks Preservation Commission.(186 Springstreet press release)

Reading this made me incredibly angry. Only ONE LGBT landmark in the entire country and the LPC doesn’t even recognize it! I thought LGBT history was more important to this country than that…. Though, it makes our struggle seem more daunting we must never lose hope. The fact that there are so few LGBT landmarks just makes this fight that much more IMPORTANT. I know there are multiple causes on everyone’s mind at the moment but don’t let this one slip through the cracks!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. REBLOG THIS POST

2. Click on the links and find more information and especially read the 186 Springstreet press release by the GVSHP

3. Write a letter in support of 186 Springstreet

4. A large part of this fight is creating AWARENESS. Here are the following organizations I have emailed

GLAAD (already lended their support)

GLBT History Museum

Gay and Lesbian Task Force (already lended support)

Leslie Loham Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in SOHO

and many many more. I focused on the LGBT community when I was writing out these emails but it’s important to remember that saving 186 Springstreet is important to all of us regardless of sexual orientation this is OUR history that NEEDS and DESERVES protection.

Here are just a few to get you started:

New York Historical Society

Museum of the City of New York

Greenwich Historical Society

NEW YORKERS this is your opportunity to put your city knowledge to the test and contact any LGBT or historical societys and museums that you know of and make sure they know about Springstreet!

Of course we are very lucky to have among it’s residents be the two people very special to this blog and it’s followers; Kathleen Hanna and Adam Horovitz. If you are involved in the fan communities for these individuals now is the time to bring up Springstreet. Write your own blogs, post in message boards, Facebook, Twitter, and TELL ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS

That’s the best I can do for now. I need some brainstorming time and to do more research on preservation and saving buildings. This is my first time doing anything like this. WHAT WE REALLY NEED is people who have done this before lawyers, activists, ect…. if you know these people please GET THEM INVOLVED. If you are one of these people PLEASE GET INVOLVED and if you have any suggestions or ideas for me you can contact me through twitter 

my personal thank you to Andrew Berman and the GVSHP for their hardwork and continued dedication to save this building

Thank you to everyone who is currently fighting this fight with me

and thank you all for reading

-hannahorovitz

girlgangzine:

“Pussy Riot is extremely radical. Advocacy from celebrities & western governments/organizations/feminists with their own agenda does not change that. The fact that they are experiencing their 15 minutes of fame does not change that. (…) Lastly, oppression is not a competition. We all come from different places of privilege and oppression but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together.”

I didn’t sleep. I barely left my computer screen. Mainly because I didn’t want to stop posting about them. I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t do everything humanly possible to fight for their freedom in those last hours. It’s what has taken the edge off and not left me feeling completely defeated. A few hours of sleep lost was a price I gladly paid. Those posts before the verdict wouldn’t have been the same had I written them after. I was following the mostly text live feeds and grew anxious when I saw Pussy Riot had already arrived in  the court an hour before they were supposed to be sentenced. I worried it would be a five minute sentencing so I did post after post (we know now there was nothing to worry about.) By the time I found the live video stream inside the court I knew the verdict was guilty. My heart sank when the camera did a close up of Nadya. I thought to my self I should be taking screen caps of this not just for this post but for the future posts I would do and for prosperity. This MUST be documented we can never forget the injustice that was committed this day. But I couldn’t bring myself to do anything besides watch Nadya standing there handcuffed next to her sisters also handcuffed inside their cage while armed gaurds watched them. (Does the Russian government think that being a feminist gives you super powers? what are they so afraid of?) I saw a glimpse of Nadya’s husband and it made me think of her four year old daughter and of Masha’s young child the ultimate human cost of this trial. Those children will be without their mother. What kind of morality is that? I started to tear up at that moment. I was praying more than I have in the last couple of months. I put the seven year jail sentence out of my mind it was NOT going to happen. I prayed for any sentence under three years. At that time I hadn’t remembered that the minimum sentence was two years. How do they stand there smiling, laughing even? Why are they not screaming at the judge, banging on their cage or crying. How is it that I sit here watching on my computer screen in tears and they are not. They are the strongest women I have ever known, perhaps because they knew they had won. No one could take their inner freedom away and they were more free than those on the outside.

The Russian language is usually so beautiful to me and one of my favorites to hear, however when I heard the judge drone on and on and ON it was the most irritating sound in the world! I finally had enough and read an interview JD Samson had done before about Pussy Riot and the reading she had set up the night before. What she said really connected with me. “I’ve been speaking out in support of pussy riot since the beginning, when they were put in jail, so for me it’s always been very close to home. Obviously being in a performance art project that is based completely in activism and conceptual art is something that really speaks to me, so it’s like looking at my sisters across the ocean. Seeing them get put in jail for what I get paid to do was really incredible to me and I feel like they would do this for me; they would go out there and create visibility and get the world to support. I figured it was my responsibility to do as much as I could, so I’ve literally spent 24 hours a day on Pussy Riot.” I’m not much of a performance artist or visible in any sense of the word but I felt just as connected to Pussy Riot and yeah I didn’t put together benefits or get legal representation or any of the amazing things JD and so many others did but I did make freeing Pussy Riot my life. I was so sad for JD when she found out the verdict right before doing an interview about Pussy Riot on Democracy Now! Her tweet “Crying on the way. These are tears of revolution. They are somehow salty but born out of the human body. We need to hug.” described perfectly how I was feeling. I was out there in the streets with her in spirit. Wish I could have been there sister!

I can’t remember how long I had been listening to the untranslated feed but I got bits of translations from other mostly text feeds. My sorrow quickly turned to anger. It was like everything I imagined all the homophobic, sexists in this society would consider a wet dream only this was being said loud and clear without shame. There was no ‘just kidding, can’t you take a joke?’ to hide behind. They were dressed innapropriately for church wearing “tight” and colorful clothing when they kneeled their dresses rode up (their above knee length dresses might haved ridden up and shown their opaque tights…how shocking) they were’nt wearing head scarfs (yes, but their entire heads were covered…) The judge continued to say that one of them was imitating “demonic attacks” I can only assume that she was referring to the flagrant moving of limbs…she definitely definitely never wants to see my dance moves. They were engaged in “homosexual propaganda.” There were several refences to feminism as being anti Christian, blasphemous and sinful. feminism is a sin…wait that sounds familiar. Oh I know because I know people who say that they went to my High-School.

Two hours in I found a translated feed on Youtube and in the comments were nothing but sexist, homophobic bullshit which at that point made me want to throw my computer monitor against the wall. In English the judges droning was even worse. Why did she talk about Katja father? What did that have to do with anything? Just to say she didn’t do everything her patriarch wanted her to do because she was a feminst? And of course she would NEVER have been a feminist had she not been corrupted by Nadya… I have to say making the youngest one the ring leader/brainwasher is a new one for me. I think the most upsetting thing the judge said is when she talked about their mental health. Please correct me if I am wrong because I haven’t had any sleep and the details are fuzzy but to me it seemed like she was saying they were mentally ill but not to the point where it would affect their sentencing at all. As if to say ‘There’s something wrong with you but I won’t show you any mercy’ She spoke of feminism as a “disorder”  You can draw many paralells to this and what happened in Soviet Russia and even to America when women were being institutionalized for hysteria (Gloria Steinem wrote an amazing book that dealt with this issue I’ll edit the post with the information when I find it)

I’d like to give a shoutout to beastieboysgallery for helping me keep my sanity. Towards the third hour I started to tune everything out. it sounded like this blah blah sexist comment blah blah shameful comment. I wanted to scream TELL US THE FUCKING SENTENCE ALREADY! This was not a mistake I knew what the judge was doing she was punishing Katja, Masha, and Nadya beyond their sentence. She was putting them through cruel punishment by making them stand in handcuffs for THREE HOURS while telling them everything she deemed they did wrong and making an example of them to all the Russian people for having the audacity to dissent. I have seen shameful judges in my lifetime but this one by far is the most shameful I have ever seen.

Two years in prison is a victory. I know it seems preposterous to think of it that way but it’s the MINIMUM sentence had we not lent our voices to this fight they may have gotten the full SEVEN YEARS.

I was mad as hell after the sentencing but I’m turning that anger into positive action. I will take my cue from Nadya and I will laugh and smile.

It’s already a day after the trial I hoped to post this sooner but time got away from me and focus…and this heat is oppressive. I’m sorry I didn’t post more but I have alot planned. I thought after hearing the sentence this campaign to free them would be less urgent and not feel like I had to think about it day and night but its just the opposite. I feel more involved now more than ever. I will not stop until they are free. To the Beastie Boys fans that follow this blog please be patient as I focus on this for the next couple of weeks and I thank you for your patience. And to all my followers who love this blog no matter what I post and to those who stand with me in solidarity in the fight to free Pussy Riot I give my sincerest thank you

-hannahorovitz (no relation to Kathleen Hanna or Adam Horovitz) 



 

Pitchfork: When you first heard about the case, did it even cross your mind that it could still be going on this long?

KH: From my sheltered American perspective, I thought, “They will get three days.” Because the charge of hooliganism sounds like a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon if you are from America. Like, “hooliganism”? Did they put a whoopie cushion on someone’s chair? Five months is a crazy amount of time to be away from your children, but I don’t know if people in Russia think it’s all that crazy.

Of course me and Kathleen Hanna thought they were only going to be in jail for three days. 5 months is insane for their so called “crime” and 2 years is certifiable! I ask for your patience and understanding today as I have gotten zero sleep and I will be quite emotional…I’ll try my best though and I’ll Pussy Riot just like I planned.

-hannahorovitz

Everyone is always asking me, “How do we restart riot grrrl?” And I’m like, “Don’t.” Because something’s organically going to happen on its own; you can’t force it. Who wants to restart something that’s 20 years old? Start your own fucking thing. This could be a part of a lot of people starting their own fucking thing.

-Kathleen Hanna

I completely agree. I don’t want 1991 to just start all over again. We need NEW IDEAS that’s why Pussy Riot was and is so exciting and important. They were inspired by riot grrrl but didn’t just make a carbon copy they used it as a stepping stone and made their own thing adding this amazing performance art element to it. I really hope this is the start of a lot of people doing their own fucking thing.

-hannahorovitz

Expect quotes from this interview throughout the day tomorrow!