Hankster First Read: Colorado Open Records Act Goes to Senate

CORA [Colorado Open Records Act] black-out bill goes to senate (Center Post Dispatch) Despite concerns voiced by election activists, a Senate committee passed a bi-partisan bill last Wednesday that will black out Colorado elections, preventing reporters and concerned citizens from viewing voted ballots and election records during the two-month election cycle... Election integrity activists Marilyn Marks of Pitkin County, Harvie Branscomb of Eagle County, Joe Richey and Mary Eberle of Boulder County, Kathleen Curry of Gunnison County and others also testified against the bill.  


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Make independent voting easier  and Independents don't want partisan candidates:  Independents speak out about the election process in letters to the editor, while American Prospect puts its head in the sand...
• Linda Killian, Independent Rock Star! Maine Festival of the Book: Read on! (By Bob Keyes, Press Herald) With Snowe's announcement, Cecil found herself with a hot topic and a timely talking point for the festival. On Saturday, former U.S. Rep. Tom Allen and Washington political insider Linda Killian will present a panel discussion, "Politics Today: Swing and Independent Voters, Party Divides and Ideological Convictions."

OPEN PRIMARIES
Keep open primaries in S.C. (Post and Courier - SC) The hard-core party faithful might approve of legislation to require party registration in primary elections, since eliminating open primaries could strenghten their influence over the outcome. But it would remove a moderating influence that South Carolina needs as it elects its leaders.


WFP AND ALL THINGS NEW YORK

• Working Families Party raises for Hakeem Jeffries against Towns, citing CAFTA and Issa (By Reid Pillifant, CAPITAL NEW YORK)
• Pension and redistricting dominate the Albany conversation (By STEPHON JOHNSON, Amsterdam News)
• Boro pols slam new district lines - Accuse Gov. Cuomo of retreating on promise to veto (by Anna Gustafson, Senior Editor, Queens Chronicle) Some good government groups, including Citizens Union and the League of Women Voters, have praised the constitutional amendment, though Citizens Union has emphasized it did not support the 2012 lines as drawn. "Given the long standing resistance to enacting redistricting reform, and the high stakes involved, we applaud them in finding common ground on an issue that is at the core of political power in Albany and results in the legislature giving up power in the drawing of lines," Citizens Union said in a prepared statement.
  

PARTY-ISM
Have "outside" interested PR men hijacked the Republican Party? Kevin Baker explores the outsourcing of the body and soul of the Repubs...

EDUCATION
Eva Moskowitz expands Success Charter Schools network into middle-class Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods.


INDEPENDENT CULTURE
Charles E. Rogers, Amsterdam News, sez: Trust me you, your family and friends don’t want to miss the Castillo Theater’s fantastic “Sally and Tom (The American Way).”
   Full disclosure: The Hankster is a very big BIG fan of the Castillo Theatre and I could not agree more with Charles Rogers -- trust us, you do NOT want to miss this show -- and the run has been extended, so you get another chance. Watch for new dates in April/May

Political Theater: Sally & Tom (The American Way) Reviewed by Black Star News

POLITICAL THEATER
Sally and Tom at the Castillo (By Deardra Shuler, Black Star News) Given Jefferson’s anti-slavery position he would be delighted to see a black man as President and perhaps disappointed to see although President Obama expressed “change,” little has changed, given the unbridled hatred, disrespect, hostility, and disgusting behavior demonstrated by many members of Jefferson’s own race toward the presidency of Barack Obama.

"Sally and Tom (The American Way)" Opens at Castillo Theatre Featuring IndependentVoting.org's Jacqueline Salit as James Madison

POLITICAL THEATER

• Different Stages "Sally and Tom (The American Way)" opens at the Castillo Theatre Feb17 (By Charles E. Rogers, Amsterdam News) With beautiful music by Grammy-nominated songwriter Annie Roboff, this dramatic musical follows Hemings and Jefferson's love affair over a quarter century as it becomes a scandal in the press, produces five children and forces Hemings to confront the relative privileges of her life and the injustices of slavery.
• Musical about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Comes to Castillo Theatre, 2/17-3/25  (Broadway World) Fred Newman, who passed away in July, wrote the book and lyrics of Sally and Tom, which was originally produced at the Castillo Theatre in 1995. Newman served as Castillo’s artistic director and playwright-in-residence for 16 years and wrote 44 politically engaged, experimental plays and musicals. He shaped the Castillo Theatre from its founding in 1984 into a unique kind of political theatre—progressive without being partisan, artistically and philosophically demanding while being inclusive of diverse audiences.

Musical Drama Explores Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings'
American Story of Love, Slavery and Compromise


Jacqueline Salit, the president of IndependentVoting.org, long a player in New York City and national politics, is currently playing on a different stage - at the Castillo Theatre on 42nd Street, where she's appearing as Founding Father James Madison in a revival of Fred Newman and Annie Roboff's political musical, Sally and Tom (The American Way).

Running at the Castillo Theatre for six weeks from February 17 through March 25, Sally and Tom (The American Way) examines the 30-year relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, a relationship that produced five children and embodies the wrenching conflict between democracy and slavery,and its legacy of racism that continues to shape America to this day.

In this polarizing presidential election year, with the meaning of "the American way" itself being hotly contested, Salit makes her acting debut in a play that examines the extreme power struggles and ugly campaigning that shaped our nation's course in the early years of the Republic. In an ironic twist, Salit - a political independent who is outspoken against party control of American politics - plays the author of the Constitution, a man who deeply opposed political parties but ultimately founded one.

Salit has a 30-year history in independent and insurgent politics. She managed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's three successful campaigns on the Independence Party line and was a key strategist in the effort to bring non-partisan election reform to New York City. Her book, Independents Rising, published by Palgrave Macmillan, will be in stores in August. "This is a totally new experience," Salit says of her role as a Founding Father. "I've performed as 'myself' at political gatherings and on TV. But it's very different to be playing someone else - a man, at that - who lived over 200 years ago. In this production, Madison is both a man of his time and can look back at his - and the country's - inhuman compromises. Performing the part hits me very hard every time we do the show." Salit shares the role with veteran actor and director David Nackman. The dates of the performances in which Salit will appear can be supplied.

Under the direction of Gabrielle L. Kurlander, the play is performed on three stages in its own surreal "history museum." The audience is seated throughout the performance space and among the exhibits, and is encouraged to interact with the conflicted history of our nation.

In addition to Salit and Nackman, the cast for Sally and Tom (The American Way) features Ava Jenkins and Adam Kemmerer in the title roles, as well as Sean Patrick Gibbons and Brian D. Hills. Musical direction is by David Belmont with Michael Walsh, choreography by Lonné Moretton; sets by Joseph Spirito and costumes by Emilie Charlotte Knoerzer.

The Castillo Theatre (Dan Friedman, artistic director, Diane Stiles, managing director) is located at 543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. February 17 through March 25. Tickets are $35 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. Group rates are available. Tickets can be purchased through the Castillo Box Office at 212-941-1234 or at www.castillo.org.

SALLY AND TOM (THE AMERICAN WAY)
Book & Lyrics by Fred Newman
Music by Annie Roboff
Directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander

Castillo Theatre
543 West 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)

Sen. Jimmy Higdon: Independents Say They Should Be Able to Vote in Kentucky Primaries

DR. OMAR ALI: Americans are Open
His message: Islam 'part of American culture' (North Raleigh News) "What's important is to not make a distinction between Americans over here and Muslims over there," Ali said. "I think that Muslim Americans have the same response as other Americans, which is a sense of relief."

KENTUCKY'S CLOSED PRIMARIES CONTROVERSY
The Pros and Cons of Kentucky's Closed Primaries (Stu Johnson, NPR Radio WKMS) Higdon has heard from independents who tell him they're taxpayers, they help pay for elections, so they should be able to vote. The state senator argues the first political party that voluntarily opens up its primary will enjoy an unfair advantage during the general election....
Read more about the fight for open primaries in Kentucky at Independent Kentucky

POLITICAL AND ETHICAL REFORM

• Fixing Congress (U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, Boston Review - This article is part of Fixing Congress, a forum on the causes of legislative partisanship and corruption.) States with party-registration laws further protect extremists by outlawing independent as well as opposition voters. With a firm grip on their districts and no worries about alienating voters in the other party, gerrymandered extremists are often the loudest voices in Congress.
• Ending the Permanent Campaign (Norman J. Ornstein,Boston Review) Externally, adopt on a wider basis the California system of open primaries to provide opportunities for a wider range of moderate candidates to win nominations and elections. Even better, adopt a version of the Australian system of mandatory attendance at the polls. 

2012

• Newt Gingrich to (finally) announce 2012 run on Wednesday - Gingrich tweets that he'll be on Fox News to 'talk about my run for President.' (Politico) 
• Jon Huntsman's South Carolina Debut Suggests It's Wrong To Write Him Off (by FRANK JAMES, NPR) Meanwhile, the very thing that could hurt Huntsman with the GOP activists whose support could be crucial to winning the early primaries and caucuses — his role in the Obama Administration — could help Huntsman in a general election if he could get that far. Many independent voters like politicians willing to work across party lines.

UNIONS AND THE DEMS
Richard Trumka: Talking Loud and Saying Nothing (By Mike Elk, In These Times) The AFL-CIO has not talked of restarting the Labor Party experiment in the late 1990s, which several unions, including Trumka’s own the United Mine Workers, backed. Indeed, the labor movement has bowed to the wishes of the Democratic Party by not fostering electoral efforts like New York’s Working Families Party in states that allow fusion balloting, such as Ohio. In other words, the labor movement has no plan to declare political independence from the Democratic Party other than to spend money on electing Democrats through its own channels, rather than giving it to the Democratic Party to spend.

THEATER
The Castillo Theatre Dares to Dream (By Deardra Shuler, Black Star News)  If you live in an area that does not offer much hope you often dream of being somewhere else.  Anywhere where the grass is greener and the beaches are cleaner.  “License to Dream” is a play featured at the Castillo Theatre, located at 543 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, which bring youngsters from East New York together with underpaid dance instructors in East Hampton, in a bid to teach one another the art of dance.  And, along the way, respect each other’s culture and learn that no matter who you are, you can dare to dream.

Dr. Lenora Fulani and Former NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson in Harlem This Friday

This Friday, April 15th - 6pm  Dr. Fulani Interviews Bill Thompson, Former NYC Comptroller  Join us for an interesting conversation about politics and the civic life of the city -- a great opportunity to take an inside look at the city and state government.         Harlem State Office Building 163 W. 125th Street, second floor If you haven't yet, please RSVP by calling (212) 962-1699 It's Friday night, you're in New York City, and you're looking to meet some interesting people. You can go to a museum or have dinner with friends, you can go see a Broadway play or an Off-Broadway play, AND..... if it's the 3rd Friday of the month, you can take a step off the beaten path and step into the world of Lenora Fulani. Dr. Lenora Fulani is one of the country's most significant black leaders and the leading black independent. She helped establish the current independent movement with her 1988 independent run for President of the United States in which she became the first woman and first African American to be on the ballot in all 50 states. She also qualified for federal primary matching funds. Fulani hosts a monthly forum called Interviews by a Black Independent (on the 3rd Friday of the month) at the Harlem State Office Building (you'll need picture id to get in) on 125th Street in Manhattan. She interviews her guests in an intimate setting on the 2nd Floor Gallery with a diverse audience of political and cultural independents.  Introductions are made, interview ensues, and Q&A from the audience makes for a really interesting and important community dialogue where you can get to know some of the movers and shakers in the NYC intellectual community. Last month Dr. Fulani interviewed New Federal Theater founder Woodie King, Jr. (see below) and this week we are treated to a conversation with former NYC Comptroller and recent candidate for Mayor Bill Thompson. Look for me and say hello!! See you there! NH Here are a couple of photos from the March event: Lenora Fulani talking with young people who attended the Woodie King Jr. interview in March 2011 Did you miss last months Interview with Woodie King Jr?   Actor Moshe Yassur, Woodie King, Jr., and Jim Horton, Assistant Managing Director of Castillo Click here to listen to it, or here to download it on iTunes! Woodie King, Jr. is the founding director of the New Federal Theater, a pioneer in Black theater and a progressive with a long track record of speaking out on behalf of the poor and excluded. Mr. King directed Fred Newman's Mr. Hirsch Died Yesterday at the Castillo Theater (in which Lenora Fulani made her stage acting debut)

Marian Rich: How I became an Independent

by Marian Rich

NYC Independence Party activist Bryan Puertes asked me to write about how I became an independent so here goes…

I grew up in the Sixties on the Upper West Side of Manhattan – a bastion of political liberalism – in a household of staunch Democrats.  In our home, politics was always a topic of discussion. I remember going into the voting booth with my mother and pulling down the lever for JFK (I was 4).  My father was blacklisted in the 50s for his support of the Civil Rights movement within the Actors Equity union – I was taught from an early age that racism and poverty were not be be tolerated.  My mother was a working woman and she made no attempt to cover over the oppressive nature of her roles as wife and mother.  It was a no-brainer – our family was supportive of all of the liberation movements of the Sixties, and we were - quite naturally - Democrats.

By the time I was 12 (1968) I found myself in the highly politicized Jr. High School 44.  Our teachers were dodging the draft, the school was racially polarized, and in social studies we were debating the war in Vietnam and who we were going to support in the Democratic Party primary (the Republican Party didn’t seem to exist).  Many of us kids were for McCarthy but I stood with my family tradition of supporting the Kennedys and campaigned for RFK.  I used to do street work for him outside of the Democratic Party office on Broadway and 72^nd Street. The campaign got a kick out of me since I was their youngest volunteer.

Then in 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and shortly thereafter Robert Kennedy.  It was a horrible time – we were deeply sad, angry and fearful.  I campaigned for Hubert Humphrey because he was not Richard Nixon. I suppose it was that year that I began to question my allegiance to the Democratic Party or any political party – I started to see that something was terribly wrong with “the system.”  Richard Nixon won the 1968 election and I remained politically engaged but no longer identified as a Democrat.  I was disgusted with business as usual politics.

In high school I started to identify as a leftist.  I didn’t know to call myself an independent but I was.  I was an independent leftist.  I remember that as a freshman at Syracuse University there was a rally against Nixon during the Watergate hearings and hardly anyone else was there.  That worried me.  I wondered why, on a campus with thousands of students, we couldn’t pull out a crowd to protest.  I questioned if protest alone was ever going to change anything.  I took some time off from college and traveled and finished as a transfer student at Sarah Lawrence College.  I studied Marxism and Women’s History and theatre.  I started to think about the role of culture in changing the world.  I attended No-Nukes rallies in the early 80s.  I got married and my husband Steve and I would spend weekends “shopping around the left” – trying to find a place to hang our political hats.

We lived on the Upper West Side and we kept running into organizers in the neighborhood who were engaged in a variety of appealing efforts – the Coalition of Grassroots Women stands out - I always stopped at their table.  We were intrigued by posters in the neighborhood about an African American woman named Barbara Taylor who was exposing the political corruption in the Democratic Party.  Then one day in 1982, I saw this green bus in the neighborhood; on the back of this bus were two women who were campaigning as independent candidates for Governor and Lt Governor – one was Jewish (Nancy Ross) and the other was Black (Lenora Fulani).  I thought I had died and gone to (political) heaven. Who were they and what was going on?  Shortly thereafter I met two organizers on the corner of 110^th St. and Broadway and they asked me to sign a pledge card to pledge my vote to Ross/Fulani in order for an independent party, the New Alliance Party, to get ballot status in New York State.  I signed.  And I guess that was the “official” day that I became an independent.  That was 28 years ago and today I am a proud member and builder of the NY Independence Party.

Marian Rich is a long-time independent political organizer, an Artistic Associate of the Castillo Theatre, and one of the members of the Castillo Theatre's Brand New Improve Show.

We Are With You Kyoto: Personal Statement from a Postmodern Independent (Arigato gozaimasu!)

It's been quite a couple of weeks for personal statements on The Hankster. Last night was Utah League of Independents'  Randy Miller's BBQ, NYC Independence Party's Bryan Puertas has a few things to say about why he's an independent, and independent attorney Harry Kresky started a blog.

So, I want to dive in too!

I just got home from the 12th annual Otto Awards and I have to say, this event blew me away! I am a child of the sixties. I grew up in the 1950's under segregation in the South (Arkansas to be exact) in a (fairly proud and unrepentant) southern Kennedy Democrat family. I'm a slightly more recent (1983) but long time builder and supporter of the All Stars Project, and I think the Castillo Theatre, Diane Stiles, Dan Friedman, and Fred Newman are the cat's meow. Yes yes yes, I think radical cultural and intellectual work by smart independent people is important for the continued existence of the species... AND I think this Sunday's event was a real knock-out no matter where you come from or where you're at or where you're going!

In particular I was very very moved by the Black Tent Theatre, which I just learned today, started in 1968 in Tokyo Japan.

As it happens, I lived on a US Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo Japan in 1969/70 -- Fujisan in sight. My stepfather, a guy from a poor working-class family in North Carolina, who met and married my mother around 1964/65, was in the US Air Force. We (one of my many weird transitional "we" units) ended up -- after my stepfather's one year tour of duty in Vietnam, and the year that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis -- at Yakota Air Base, Japan, a short 30 minute train ride to Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan.

As I shared with Makiko Ota of Black Tent Theatre today, one piece of political theater that I will never forget, and that had a big impact on me at that time, was a huge Japanese student demonstration (and there were many) that surrounded Tachikawa Air Base.

I was 15 or 16 at the time.As it turns out, Johnson High School (a former so-called Kami Kazi training school during WWII) was now a Department of Defense radical outpost for anti-war protest and educational innovation. My schoolmate and friend Dan Brown was showing up to school in a white lab coat with the word "MORATORIUM"  painted in large black letters. Another classmate and friend Ray Castro ran the student bookstore that included revolutionary works by Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung.

During that year we were often warned not to go off base, or not to travel to Tokyo because of the massive student demonstrations. Japanese police do not carry fire arms because of US requirements after WWII, but they wore and still wear very scary armor-like gear. In the demonstration that I witnessed, the Japanese student protesters wore similar gear. The Japanese students of the sixties were very militant and there were many communist and other sectarian left groupings. As an American "dependent" of US military service personnel, raised as a Southern liberal with a hatred of racial prejudice and injustice, I was very sympathetic and perhaps somewhat of a young optimistic operative.

My friend Beth and I often made the trip to Ueno Park. Invariably high school students wanting to practice English would ask us what our position was on US involvement in Vietnam. The Vietnam War was as offensive to our Japanese contemporaries as it was to us, and we proudly and invariably represented ourselves as emissaries of the American people with a simple statement: We oppose the war in Vietnam. Yes, we are opposed. We all smiled together and took pictures, no doubt as proud of our connection through language as we were of the however faint recognition of our historical moment.

My friend Debbie and I played Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band's anti-war statement "Don't Worry Kyoto" on the juke box in the BX (Base Exchange, not Bronx!) Cafeteria at Tachikawa over and over and over just to irritate people (Fond memories!! This would have been early 1970. The B-side of this record, produced by John Lennon was "Cold Turkey".)

I'm just now re-discovering this history myself.

Black Tent -- Thanks for being there - and everywhere! Nice to see you here now!

Arigato gozaimasu!!
-NH

history redux

The Hankster recommends: Castillo's Eva Brenner's Heiner Muller's hamletmachine (dramaturgy courtesy of Castillo's Youth on Stage! director Dan Friedman, music and lyrics inspiration by prominent American Muller director Fred Newman) is an absolute standout. Amazing accomplishment of bringing European avant-garde together with American postmodern philosophical sensibility on common turf: the Castillo Theater on 42nd St. -- not Disney, not Mickey Mouse. Cudos to the ensemble and the production team.

Castillo's Eva Brenner's Heiner Muller's hamletmachine (dramaturgy courtesy of Castillo's Youth on Stage! director Dan Friedman, music and lyrics inspiration by prominent American Muller director Fred Newman) is an absolute standout. Amazing accomplishment of bringing European avant-garde together with American postmodern philosophical sensibility on common turf: the Castillo Theater on 42nd St. -- not Disney, not Mickey Mouse. Cudos to the ensemble and the production team.

Joe Hill was always on the line

Hankstertube continues to get lots of hits and positive comments on Brian Mullin's rendention of Joe Hill. Please enjoy... see also Joan Baez tribute to Obama . Or here's Phil Ochs rendition...(the traditional renditional....) ...the union was the only friend he had!

btw -- Brian Mullin will be directing the next play at Castillo Theater in Manhattan -- This is one of the few plays written by the late Aimé Césaire, one of the great surrealist poets of the 20th century and a founder of the Negritude Movement. First produced at Castillo in 1995, the new production will feature a core group of performers from Youth Onstage! and will be directed by Brian Mullin, Program Manager of the Youth Onstage! Community Performance School.

Joe Hill was always on the line. Carry it on!  Or go yonder...

-NH

PTW 2008 Blogging the World Carl Weber

Avant-Garde Olympic Closing Ceremonies

I'm watching the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and I must say, this is the most avant-garde production I have ever seen outside Fred Newman's Castillo Theater.

The opening and closing ceremonies were truly a showcase of creativity, innovation, performance, fearlessness, and collectivity. But also of great great beauty. A most beautiful performance.

Hats off to the Chinese people.

They should be very very proud. And speaking for at least some of the American people, and possibly some portion of the world's people, WE are very very proud of the Chinese people and their committment to twisting our perceptions of space and time. We have all grown another head!

Beijing, Beijing
Ch
Xie xie
Toa chi
Doh je
Gracias
Graci
Arigato
Merci
Thanks

The Hankster says: Don't Miss The Movement

Ms. Conscience performs The Movement at the top of The Hankster blog. From the Castillo Theatre's political cabaret "Songs to Make Revolution By" at Performing The World 4 on hankstertube. Plus other standout performances by the ensemble...

...The truth is we're gonna make it happen!....