By Robert Heide In the summer of 1957 the founders of the Living Theatre Julian Beck and his wife Judith Malina went to jail with members of the Catholic Worker including Dorothy Day. They were protesting civil defense drills in New York City that they believed were held as a preparation for (nuclear) war that
-
-
Edith Stephen: From Sound into Silence
By J. Taylor Basker We lost our Westbeth icon, the dancer/choreographer/filmmaker Edith Stephen, on March 18th at 6:55 p.m. Her friend and neighbor, jazz guitarist Steve Berger, was holding her hand; there were six of us with her. My dog put his head and body flat, across from her—he knew she was gone. She was
-
Catching Up With Our Oldest Oscar Winner
By Richard Eric Weigle In July of 2020, film legend, EVA MARIE SAINT, became our oldest living Academy Award winner and our earliest winner for 1954’s On The Waterfront, after the death of Olivia de Havilland in Paris. She also happens to be our oldest living Hitchcock Blonde having portrayed the mysterious Eve Kendal in
-
Crystal Visions
By Dana Jean Costantino Oh, how I love crystals! It seems I’ve always got a few in my pocket, in bowls around my apartment, I meditate with them and I love walking into a crystal shop and seeing and feeling the energy they provide. Crystals have become so much more a part of the conversation
-
Transgender, The Facts
Abstracted from “A Scientist’s View of Almost Everything” by Mark M Green In the Science and Technology section of The Economist, February 20, 2021 issue, is an article, which talks about gender dysphoria, described as “the miserable feeling of being at odds with one’s sex.” A statistic follows: America had one pediatric gender clinic in
-
New York Mets 2021 Season Preview
By Anthony Paradiso On March 19th New York’s governor announced that Mets and Yankees fans will be allowed to attend games at 20 percent capacity by opening day of the 2021 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. This is music to the ears of baseball fans everywhere who appreciate the sights and sounds of the game
-
Refugees Fleeing Terror Face Prejudice in America
By Kieran Loughney Scenes of missile attacks, reports of girls denied an education, stories of people fleeing violence or being trained to engage in combat. Gleaned from news reports, this was all I knew of the life of citizens in Afghanistan. Then I met Fatima. As a child welfare worker, I had first encountered Fatima’s
-
No Greater Challenge
By Tom Lamia How is this impasse among us to be resolved? When and by what means can we expect to resume civility in our politics and in our daily lives? Will it come through policy persuasion? Or, from an erosion of cultural differences effected through birth rates, immigration rates, and education rates? Putting it
-
Looking for Love?
Lifetalk with Roberta Russell I live in the shadow of COVID-19, devoid of touching, or kisses, or any kind of physical intimacy. Living is useless without loving. The vitality and constant presence of Lexie, my unmasked, honed-in, snugly, white fluffy standard poodle, helps to remind me there is love. Not surprisingly, there is now an
-
Pill Bottle Recycling
By Ede Rothaus Want to contribute to reducing New York City’s carbon footprint? Improve medical care in developing countries while caring for the environment? Recycling your pill bottles is one small step in the right direction. Cincinnati -based Matthew:25 Ministries, accepts donations of empty plastic pill bottles for inclusion in shipments of medical supplies and
-
Smiling is Contagious
By Stanly Wlodyka Jiménez This past year, there’s been no shortage of reasons to feel glum, but common wisdom tells us that we ought to accentuate the positive, look at the glass half full, and smile though our hearts are breaking. Common wisdom also tells us that “it takes 43 muscles to frown and only
-
Cuteness Squared
By Keith Michael It’s Millie’s Birthday! She’s twelve. Of course, Millie’s resting up for later festivities in the day with corgi-shaped candles in a cream cheese cake studded with kibble amid celebratory clinking of flutes poured to the brim with Corgi gin. (I’m kidding.) It’s a normal day and she’s napping. Normally. But I AM
-
Greece’s Best Kept Secret
By Effie Panagopoulos It all started in 2008, when I was working as National Brand Ambassador for Metaxa, the old school Greek brandy that you’ll find in many a Greek liquor cabinet. A work trip to Greece turned into a mini vacation, and I found myself in Mykonos, at a beach bar. Like clockwork at
-
Off the Meter
By Jeff Hodges In 1971, when I took the New York City taxi driver test, I didn’t know whether Fifth Avenue traffic ran uptown or downtown. But I knew where the Empire State Building was, and that got me my hack license. I attended college during the day and drove at night. My teenage years
-
Big Trouble for New York Daily News
By Carol Yost The parent company for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune has agreed to be acquired by Alden Global Capital, its largest shareholder—a hedge fund. Tribune Publishing, formerly publicly traded, will now be private; the deal is valued at $630 million in a transaction that is expected to close in
-
Fauci’s Division at NIH Accepts Grant Applications to Cure HIV/AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. Fifty percent of people living with HIV/AIDS have HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Today’s powerful anti-HIV drugs do not eliminate HIV-associated mental decline, even in individuals who achieve undetectable viral levels in their blood. On October 20, 2020, the NIH issued a call soliciting proposals to develop methods to cure HIV infection,
-
Housing that Heals
By Kathryn Garcia Over the last year, COVID-19 has exposed deep vulnerabilities and worsened a crisis that has long plagued our city: affordable housing. Even before COVID-19, more than half of New Yorkers were “rent-burdened.” During the last eight years, our current mayor has stood by and allowed homelessness to increase by an unconscionable 23
-
Observing Pascha: The Traditions and History of Greek Orthodox Easter
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Easter is arguably the most important holiday in the Christian tradition, no matter what denomination you belong to. The Western world uses the Gregorian calendar to mark the dates of many festivities each year, including Easter. In 2021, the holiday is taking place on April 4th for most Christians; however, for those
-
A Dynamic Theatrical Family Affair: From Florida to the Village and the Jersey Shore
By Robert Heide Often now in these difficult times of COVID virus, living through a new Great worldwide Depression with over a half million American deaths and over sixteen million out of work with many staying indoors to keep safe and also trying to maintain good health and some measure of sanity, we know it
-
Ilona 101: A Course in Philosophy of Life
By Mia Berman There’s Sophia. Liza. Rihanna. Gaga. And then there’s Ilona. I call her the Queen of Gusto. Turning 101 on March 27th, Ilona Royce Smithkin has portrayed Marlene Dietrich, drawn Tennessee Williams’ eye, painted Ayn Rand, sketched countesses in Berlin, and designed hats (“At 12 years old I had a whole clientele,” she
-
Misfolded Proteins and Disease
Abstracted from “A Scientist’s View of Almost Everything” by Mark M. Green There was an article in Science dated August 5, 2005 entitled, “Preventing Alzheimer’s: A Lifelong Commitment.” Science is a highly regarded magazine read by almost all scientists and from every discipline of science. The article begins by talking about research on how intellectual
-
Firefighters
By Jeff Hodges When Smoky Mike and I started shooting fires, we had to sleep in one of the fire trucks or get left behind. We’d snooze until all hell broke loose and then roar off into a cacophonous landscape of fire and smoke—if we were lucky. After all, it was reality television and we
-
Celebrating the Bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence
Freedom Fighters Who Changed the Course of History By Anastasia Kaliabakos Ever since I was a young girl, Greek Independence Day—March 25th—has been very important to me. Not only is it my Pappou’s birthday and my YiaYia’s name day, but it also marks the beginning of the near decade-long battle for Greek liberation from the
-
The Role of a Community Newspaper in Curing AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. Library Journal referred to Harvard’s Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide as “the journal of record for LGBT issues.” Larry Kramer called it “our intellectual journal, for better or for worse.” Last month, The Review ran our report in WestView News as its online feature, see glreview.org/dr-fauci-moves-to-cure-aids/. What is the role of
-
A Tale of Two Economies
By Siggy Raible “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” So begins Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859. Set in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a time leading up to the French Revolution and our own War of Independence, Dickens paints a morally
-
Super Hero IX: California Yankee in Kings County Court Street
By Robert Kroll Like the Connecticut Yank in King Arthur’s Court, it was not obvious whether I had wandered into a local asylum or into a circus. If it were the former, clearly the inmates were in charge. If the latter, it was either the clowns or the lion tamers who ran things. The five-floor,
-
Do You Feel Isolated? Have You Gained Weight?
Lose Extra Fat Permanently Without Costs by Doing What it Takes By Roberta Russell From the stoop of my Federal townhouse on West 9th Street, a weathered copy of WestView News addressed to a former tenant caught my attention. I wondered if contributing to WestView News would be a way to connect and contribute to
-
Keeping Love
By Lynn Pax As I sat at my father’s bedside toward the end of his passing, I saw him take an invisible (at least I couldn’t see it) glass from someone (who I also couldn’t see), bring it to his lips, drink and smiling, hand it back. He pointed to the wall behind me. There
-
Pronto Translations: Loving Languages is Good Business
By Joshua B. Cohen I’ve always been a lover of languages. As soon as I could read, I’d browse through the dictionaries and grammar books that my parents had collected as a result of their various attempts at mastering a foreign tongue: a Hindustani grammar book that my father had saved as a result of
-
Village Cigars at Sheridan Square May Be Listed for Sale
By Roger Paradiso When I heard this news, I immediately thought of all those trips down Seventh Avenue where the iconic Village Cigars store stood as a welcoming gateway to the Village. And if you took a subway you had two trains taking you right next to the store. Those entrances were almost part of
-
New Owner Steve Cohen Breathes New Life into the Mets
By Anthony Paradiso Last November, Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for $2.4 billion from the Wilpon family, who had owned the franchise since 2002. Cohen outbid former New York Yankee All-Star player Alex Rodriguez and fiancée Jennifer Lopez. (In the July issue of WestView News, Hannah Reimann wrote that Steve and Alexandra Cohen
-
City Council Candidate Brought Synchronous Learning to Her District…For Free
By Leslie Boghosian Murphy As we all know, schools were forced to close abruptly when the Covid-19 pandemic began last spring. By summer, most parents knew that there would have to be some sort of remote or distance learning in the fall. After weeks of helping our children with their online homework, we also knew
-
Voters for Animal Rights Endorses Erik Bottcher for City Council
Voters for Animal Rights (VFAR) has endorsed Erik Bottcher for City Council, District 3, citing his strong track record in city and state government and his commitment to promoting the well-being of animals and the environment. VFAR has nearly 8,000 supporters in Council District 3, making this a significant endorsement in the Democratic primary. “Throughout
-
David v. Goliath: Schwartz Sues to Stop Election Petitioning
By Penny Mintz Arthur Schwartz is running hard for city council in Council District 3. Running for office is a time-consuming endeavor, to say the least. But that has not stopped Schwartz from continuing to use his considerable legal acumen to try to push people and government to do the right thing. For forty years
-
Dr. Fauci Moves to Cure AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. One year before the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Fauci attempted to direct the research prowess of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) toward curing what is still a largely incurable and festering global disease, HIV/AIDS, but with the explosion of COVID-19 that momentum was stopped abruptly. While right now the world is racing to
-
Embrace the Absurd
By Siggy Raible | The New York Times reported on January 10, 2021 that Elon Musk “is now the world’s richest person thanks to a yearlong rally in Tesla’s share price… According to the Bloomberg [a billionaire in his own right so he ought to know] Billionaires Index, Mr. Musk’s net worth was $195 billion
-
My Trip to Bellevue
By Jeff Hodges In 1971, I got my jaw broken in a melee on Second Avenue. I was outside my apartment when I saw some guys beating up a hippie. I approached one of them and asked him to knock it off. His reply was to spin around and hit me solidly in the jaw.
-
Joan’s Shanghai
By Joan Klyhn Joan’s Shanghai is a memoir of a childhood in Shanghai in the ‘30’s and ’40s of the 20th century. I am primarily writing it for myself, extending it to my friends, and now to the many people who have shown themselves fascinated with this period in the past. The School Lunch Food
