04.04—Welcome to PENN15 Plaza (no joke)
NYS Budget woes, Hollaback bystander training, and Yayoi Kusama’s Cosmic Nature
The biggest April fools joke in NY is that the state budget would be finalized in time for it’s April 1 deadline. After the year we’ve had, we learned it’s important to pay attention to EVERYTHING. Last year, as Coronavirus shut down much of the nation and world, Cuomo thought it was a good idea to cut funding to Medicaid and health services. As Assemblyperson Yuh-line Niou reflected at last year’s budget hearing (04.04.20):
“Cutting Medicaid in any other budget year means that New Yorkers suffer, hospitals go without, that nursing homes go without, and that there are staff shortages. But this year, cutting Medicaid means people will die.”
So much is at stake for our city and state in these budget negotiations—keeping public health clinics open, protecting tenant rights, and extending unemployment benefits to undocumented workers who were excluded from Covid relief—and yet, it appears Cuomo is more concerned with development plans around the newly opened Moynihan Train Hall that include an Empire State Building rival called…wait for it...PENN 15 (oddly not an April fools joke). Fortunately, our young legislators are fighting for us, camping out in the state capitol to raise awareness towards the budget process and make sure crucial measures are included. More below!
Also, artist in residence and job opportunities, Yayoi Kusama at the NY Botanical Gardens, y más!
Wanna put something on our radar? Leave a comment or email us at softpowervote@gmail.com.
ON THE RADAR
WATCH: NYS BUDGET LIVE BLOG
Real time coverage of the NY State budget negotiations. Dip in for a couple minutes if you can! It’s always worth seeing our electeds at work—the inspiring freshman class holding it down and the Dusty Dems embarrassing themselves.
ACTION: Sunday 04.04 3pm: #StopAsianHate Time Square Takeover
Hosted by @itskiarawilliams and @jackliang
WATCH: Thursday 04.08 12:30pm: Town Hall on Anti-Asian Racism, White Supremacy and Cross-Racial Solidarity. RSVP
WATCH: Various times, all month: HOLLABACK Intervention bystander Training
Help mitigate and stop street harassment and learn Hollaback’s five helpful techniques.
ACTION: Open Thread for residents of Senate District 22: What issues need to be addressed in SD-22? Senator Gounardes of CD-22 (South BK) wants to know. Reply to the open thread from the Senator! Cool idea, perhaps more electeds should use social to communicate with the public (LIKE OUR GIRL AOC).
The NYS Office of Cannabis Management is live!
This will be the portal through which the magic happens
Stay tuned for info on licensing, grants, initiatives, etc.
CULTURAL WORK
KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature Iconic contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama’s touch will be all over the NY Botanical Garden starting Saturday. On view April 10-October 31. Get Tickets
Yayoi Kusama is an iconic artist whose career spans decades and multiple art movements. Her Infinity rooms are social media eye candy, making the 92-yo artist one of the most relevant and coveted visual creators in the twenty-first century. Much like politics, sometimes society has to catch up to the visionary.
She had to overcome various traumas to get to this point—triggered by childhood agony, family disapproval of her creative practice, and watching her male art peers gain fame by stealing her ideas ultimately led to multiple suicide attempts, and hospitalization.
But Kusama is a resilient survivor. In 1966, she attended the Venice Biennale—the Olympics for visual artists—and staged a spontaneous, unaffiliated event, with the same silver orbs that will be on view at the NY Botanical Garden this year. She sold them off one by one for a couple of bucks until she was asked to leave by the organization. In 1993, she returned to the Biennale as a featured artist representing Japan, finally acknowledged by the country she fled to pursue her art.
The male-dominated art scene in New York City made it hard for Kusama to gain any acclaim for her work. Artists like Claus Oldenberg, Andy Warhol and Lucas Samaras are all cited as stealing Kusama’s style. Read more about Yayoi Kusama and watch the film about her life and work!
JOB LISTING: Kevin Beasley Studio, Long Island City. Beasley’s materially-oriented practice freezes everyday items like house dresses, durags, and umbrellas into structural silhouettes that echo the bodies that used to inhabit them. His lifesize “SLAB” sculptural paintings create landscapes with raw cotton as its canvas, studded with everything from audio equipment, clothing and ephemera. Also a DJ, Beasley’s 2019 Whitney Museum exhibition enclosed a cotton gin in a vitrine, the generous hum of the machine was siphoned into the adjacent gallery, which the artist manipulated during live performances. Any of this appealing to you? APPLY TO THIS GIG!
APPLY: Artist in Residence with Studio Museum Applications close April 19th for the Studio Museum Artist in Residence program which is exclusive to BLACK ARTISTS and has hosted icons like Kerry James Marshall, Simone Leigh and Jordan Casteel.
WATCH: 5 pm EST, Thursday, 04.14 Future Memory & Spatial Justice. NEW INC and Pioneer Works invite you to a conversation that explores spatial divides throughout time, emerging practices to re-claim dwellings and public areas, and the role of collective imagination in liberation. Featuring Pioneer Works Tech Resident Ariana Faye Allensworth and NEW INC members Ashley Jane Lewis and Eric Moed from oopsa (Office of Open Practice). Register!
SOFT POWER VOTE
Budget Tings
The NYS Budget is still in negotiations between the Gov, Senate, and Assembly after having blown it’s April 1 deadline… check out this handy lil thread explaining the budget process including the “big ugly” (not Cuomo).
Our young legislators, @annakelles @ZohranKMamdani @yuhline @JabariBrisport @votejgr @AmandaSeptimo, spent the night in the state capitol to fight for transparency in the budget process and to make sure THREE key tenant protections are included:
Tenant self-attestation: lowering the burden of proof that rental assistance is needed
Don’t let Landlords Opt-out: ie landlords cannot refuse rental assistance $$
Tenant protections for 1 year
WATCH: Assemblyperson Yuhline Niou of lower manhattan GO OFF on being asked to cut funding to healthcare amidst the MF COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, April, 4, 2020.
PENN 15… or how Cuomo is trying to ram through a $1.3B bond measure in the budget to build out around Penn Station. (and yes PENN 15 is real)
If you are enraged about the budget, contact your state representative.
Important Dates
05.28 Last Day to Postmark Voter Registration/Last Day To Register In-Person
06.02 Last Day for BOE to Receive Voter Registration Through Mail
06.02 Last Day for BOE to Receive Change of Address
06.15 Last Day to Apply for Absentee/Mail-in Ballot
06.21 Last Day to Apply In-Person for Absentee/Mail-in Ballot
06.22 Last Day to Postmark/Deliver to BOE Absentee/Mail-in Ballot
06.12 - 06.20 Early Voting for Primary
06.22 Primary Election Day
Soft Power Vote SPV Community Folder is still a thing!
Wanna put something on our radar? Leave a comment or email us at softpowervote@gmail.com.