A small band of Takeittothebridge musicians demonstrated last week in front of the John Varvatos store opening in the space that was once CGBG's. It was a davey-vs.-goliath, spontaneous protest, but ended up hitting a nerve and getting some positive coverage in the press and real dialogue.

The John Varvatos store sells USED leather jackets for $1600, and t-shirts for $130. Converse sneakers -- the sneakers of all the poor kids in the neighborhood where I grew up - - are $110 dollars there, specially branded by Varvatos himself. Pants are $800.

We want to go out again tomorrow, to greet the glitterati who show up for the store's official opening night. We hope you will join us! This is an historic moment to NOT be silent about your music and your artistic community being co-opted to sell luxury goods.

This is not about one music space, or just about cb's, or whether you thought Hilly was a good businessman or not, or whether you gigged there - - but it is about the type of intense gentrification being used to sell the Lower East Side; it is about the co-opting of culture to sell overpriced luxury goods. This is about small music and cultural and community spaces getting pushed out of the city, so that the wealthy can position themselves as saving it (or just the buildings) ... but in fact, only using it as a marketing tool for their unaffordable wares.

Please meet us on the southwest corner of the Bowery and Bleeker Streets at 9:30 pm sharp! We'll have more humorous (and pointed) neon pink signs...PLEASE RSVP and let us know you will come and STAND WITH US AT THIS AWARENESS EVENT... help let nyc know that you want REAL music spaces to stay in NYC - - not gigs where you have to be a shill for $800 pants.

Best,
Norman and Rebecca
www.takeittothebridge.com

HHEAL [HIP-HOP EDUCATES AND ADVANCES LIVES] is a three-day festivity focusing on culture, education, and social justice presented by the Hip-Hop Association, in conjunction with the SocialServices of Hip Hop, We Got Issues!, Afro-Latin@ Project, and the New York State Youth Leadership Council. Additional support provided by African Ancestry, Third World Newsreel, Flocabulary, and Word Beats and Life.

Taking place from April 18-20 at the Raphael Hernandez School of the Performing Arts (IS 217) in the Bronx, HHEAL Fest combines the Freshest Youth Program, Hip-Hop Education (H2Ed) Summit,Town Hall Meeting and a special tribute by the first and only African-American, International Chess Grandmaster, Maurice Ashley, dedicated to the Founder of Hip-Hop - Kool Herc and the First Lady of Hip-Hop - Cindy Campbell in homage of their Jamaican roots. and a third day dedicated to a

I am sure you have all heard about this, as it is being forwarded widely throughout the community. As with the coming, sad forced closing of Downtown Music Gallery, this is something that CEAC, takeittothebridge, anyone and everyone - should be a part of protesting. I hope demos and protests follow.

200 people given only a few hours to remove themselves and their belongings (artists, creative people and the like) from this large loft/warehouse mixed use building on Kent Avenue, because of grain found in the basement - - grain for a matzo bakery that has been in the building 10 years and certainly was inspected before!! And when the tenants asked in desperation for time and permission to get into the building and move the grain out themselves, they were told they were not "qualified" and they were still forced from the building. Read the press release. Chaos ensued as people tried to find ways to get their belongings. It reads like something from the middle ages, what is happening to these people.

From today's New York Times:

It is something many musicians hate to do but have to do, and now they hate it even more. Rehearsing can be tedious and time-consuming, and in New York City, musicians say it is more expensive than ever.

Steadily rising real estate prices are taking a toll on all but the best-financed music groups and institutions. Small bands and ensembles feel the pinch when they book practice time in rehearsal studios, which charge $10 to $50 an hour, according to figures on nycMusicSpaces.org, a Web page maintained by the nonprofit group NYC Performing Arts Spaces.

In other cities, some groups in the hunt for affordable rehearsal space might begin as "garage bands." But few people in New York City have their own garages, and musicians say that finding an affordable place to practice is as much of a challenge for performers who make a living in music as it is for part-timers and amateurs.

Read more here.

************************************************
This story originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Allegro, the
newspaper of the New York City musicians' union (Local 802, American
Federation of Musicians). You may reprint it as long as you credit the
original source and author. See www.Local802AFM.org. for more information.
************************************************

ALLEGRO (Local 802 American Federation of Musicians Newspaper)
Volume CVII No. 10 October, 2007

Fight ‘Pay to Play’ - How the 169 Bar Rips Off Musicians
by Marisa Friedman

This August, trumpet player and Local 802 member Shane Endsley played at the 169 Bar in Chinatown — a popular local bar nicknamed the "Bloody Bucket" because it was notorious for numerous brawls in the 1950’s and 60’s.

On Wednesday, Mike Wolfe will be on WNYC (93.9 FM and 820 AM on your radio dials. ) You can also stream the broadcast by going to
www.wnyc.org

The show is between 2 and 3 pm, and the talk will be elaborating on a recent article he wrote for TimeOut NY about Brooklyns Underground Music clubs:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/11083/the-scene-rises-to-the-top

It will be a phone-in show, and a great chance for people to call in and broaden the discussion of what is happening to NYC's
music and cultural scenes, being pushed further and further and further out til there is nowhere to go.

Around the time of our arrests (our next court date is July 18th), communicating to so many artists and people all over Europe and the world about what is happening in their communities as well as Manhattan, I was particularly shocked to hear from Stephen Piccolo of the Isola Arts Center about the destruction, that very same week, of their arts center in Milan. It is quite heartbreaking reading of how the situation there, where Isola (meaning "Island") is, mirrors the loss and change we experience on the Lower East Side. The East Village has seen bulldozers before, and tanks even rolling down 1st avenue to evict squatters, activists, artists... none of this is new unfortunately - but it does feel like the last vestiges of what was a really vibrant cultural exchange and mix being erased for the paler, corporate disney-land version. We look to Europe as our saviour and model, but I have been told by many writing to us at Takeittothebridge that the situation in many cities and countries is actually precarious, and the arts funding and support and programs are something they have to constantly be vigilant about and fight to maintain.

You can read at Stephen's blog about Isola Arts Center and their fight to save it:
Stephen Piccolo

and find more about Isola on the Centers own website:
About Isola Arts Center

The blog is in english, and he has put a link at the bottom where you can sign your name to their petition. I really encourage people to offer them support as they have so graciously done for us. Thanks for taking time to read their story.

Dear friends: Please remember this important benefit in honor of a friend to us all and musical comrade, to benefit the Musicians Emergency Fund. More info can be found at: http://www.myspace.com/lancecarterdrumz -
hope to see you there...

LANCE CARTER ::R.I.P:: 5/11/55 - 11/01/06

May, 31 2007 at ~ LANCE CARTER MEMORIAL BENEFIT ~
THE KNITTING FACTORY MAIN SPACE, New York,
Cost : $25

~~~~~~ BENEFIT for the MUSICIANS EMERGENCY FUND for the JAZZ FOUNDATION OF AMERICA in memory of LANCE CARTER ~~~~~~ with CASSANDRA WILSON, MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, MARC RIBOT, ELLIOT SHARP'S TERRAPLANE with Curtis Fowkles, Alex Harding, Dave Hofstra & Eric Mingus; CHARLES BURNHAM; HARRIET TUBMAN with Brandon Ross, Melvin Gibbs & JT Lewis; ERIC MINGUS with Catherine Sikora, PERCY JONES & TUNNELS with Marc Wagnon and Walker Adams; ROBERT MUSSO & FRIENDS with Raoul Bjorkenhiem, Sim Cain, Dave Dreiwitz, Elliot Levin & John Lunar Richey; SONS OF SHARROCK (former members of the Sonny Sharrock Band) with Pheeroan akLaff, Ed Cherry, Melvin Gibbs, Erik Lawrence & David Snider