Hot Off The Press

Syracuse, New York – The Hawley-Green Quarterly has hit the streets!
For the past two months, I’ve been working on creating a newsletter for historic Hawley-Green, an up-and-coming neighborhood located a few blocks from downtown.
Years ago, the area was teeming with crack heads and prostitutes. But vigilant and concerned residents, many of whom are gay, have injected major TLC into the neighborhood and turned it around.
I moved to Hawley-Green last summer, when I came to Syracuse for graduate school. I rent an apartment on a street lined with giant old trees and century-old homes. Seedy characters still linger, but the area definitely is on the upswing.
Every community needs its own publication, a forum where residents can exchange ideas and plug into what’s happening in their ’hood. And I really believe in this neighborhood. That’s why I decided to create the Hawley-Green Quarterly, a seasonal newsletter intended to capture the pulse of this community and keep residents informed and engaged.
The project entailed writing content, taking photographs, recruiting contributors, designing the publication, selling ads, etc.
A special thanks to Ben Gembler, a 20-something resident, and Dominick Battaglia, a towering and charismatic Italian guy who owns the local butcher/grocery store. (The store’s motto: The Meat People.) Dominick, Ben and I went door-to-door two weeks ago to sell ads for the newsletter. These guys were true believers! And we sold more ads than I initially had space for.
After a gazillion hours of work, this monster project is finally finished. Today, I picked up 1,400 beautiful copies of the 6-page, full-color newsletter at the printers. A gang of kids helped me deliver them to homes this afternoon. The newsletter also will be distributed at businesses and community events.
Hooray hooray!
(JM)

Viva la Line

Newark, New Jersey -- I'd like to include a picture in my profile. Does anyone know how to do that? I was told I could post it in a blog entry and then paste the link in my profile, but it's not working. Hmph.

So, I was perusing my digital photo library today and came upon this shot of me taken one evening in January at Gallery Aferro in downtown Newark.

Friends and I attended an event there called "48-Hour Line." The gallery walls became a giant canvas, as visitors, using a graphite stick, helped draw a continous line for two solid days, from noon Jan. 11 to noon Jan. 13. The stick had to be in constant contact with the wall, and you had to keep it moving while passing it to the next participant.

The communal project was the brainchild of artist Ryan Brown, who has done similar events in Berlin and NYC.

I remember sipping hot green tea brewed by Brown in the nippy gallery (no heaters). I drew the word "VIVRE," which means "to live" in French. I was donating a kidney to my mother two weeks later, and that word was constantly on my mind. (JM)