I’m ecstatic to report that my new book, The View From Third Street, is, at long last, available on Amazon. It’s an unconventional memoir of my experiences as a cofounder of a weekly alternative newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press (AKA HIP) in conjunction with the 1972 trial of the Harrisburg Seven. Long story, but in that iconic trial, a group of anti-war nuns and priests were among those accused of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC.

The book has three main sections: the first starts with the founding and (often) muckraking reportage of the paper, the second focuses on the trial, and the third ends with a massive flood. It’s all tied together with the personal story of a young woman (moi) named Ani (the first three letters of my first name, conveniently, mean “I” in Hebrew). A member of my writers group urged me to use a different name because Ani is also a breed of “cuckoobird” but what the heck.

Anyway, at this point, I’d like to thank the friends, family members, librarians, historians– and the team at Henrietta’s Cafe in Harvard Square– who helped me research and edit the book–and who put up with me–er, I mean, encouraged me over the years it took me to write it.

I started working on The View From Third Street just as DJT was coming into office–thinking that there might be some parallels between his divisive reign and Nixon’s. Little did I know how tumultuous things would eventually become. I spent several years time-travelling–which was great, during the pandemic. I’d occasionally come up for air, look around, ask, “Is this still going on?” and head back to the 1970s. Now I seem to be pretty much living in the present, and hoping our nation will get back on track.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting here, writing articles, and letting you know about the book’s progress. And about the next one’s …and about the one after that.

If you’d like to receive email updates, please sign up to the left of this chunk–or email me at anita.m.harris at comcast dot net. Oh, and if you want to buy the book–click here!

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, Mass. More information about her, her work and her books is available at http://anitamharris.com.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge, Mass.

After Colleyville, how do we vaccinate against hate? Keep building bridges..

By Gordon Lewin | January 26, 2022

Erev Rosh Hashanah 1986: It was a perfect New England autumn day, with crisp air and the leaves beginning to turn colors.

As my wife and I walked through the Harvard campus on our way to Hillel services, we saw something strange and unexpected. The building we were heading for was surrounded by eight police cars with a policeman standing next to each car.

As we walked up the front steps of the auditorium, we saw eight additional policemen who were amiably chatting among themselves and saying hello as we passed by.

When services began, I expected the rabbi to say something. He didn’t. Perhaps he didn’t need to. A few weeks earlier, Palestinian terrorists had attacked a synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, with machine-gun fire and grenades. Twenty-two worshippers died during Shabbat services.

Istanbul was an ocean away, but Harvard is a high-profile place. Better safe than sorry. At the time, I was not alarmed.

Let’s fast-forward 22 years and across the continent to Stanford University. It’s another beautiful autumn day. My wife and I are walking to High Holiday services across a campus plaza to an auditorium being used by Hillel.

We arrive to find a contingent of four policemen out front. They were not greeting the worshippers. They were not smiling. It was the SWAT team, decked out in body armor and helmets while holding large weapons. As we walked past, they didn’t say hello. They were busy scanning the plaza for possible threats, which fortunately did not arrive.

Sitting inside, I had an unsettled feeling. On the one hand, I felt present at services. Yet I also felt the presence of heavily armed policemen outside the building protecting me while I prayed.

But police cannot not always be on hand, as we have witnessed over the past few years at attacks at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, Chabad in Poway and now Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.

I am grieving, and not just for those who have suffered. I am grieving for myself, for my loss of optimism.

My father and I once had a friendly disagreement about antisemitism. He grew up in a poor family in a rough neighborhood. Antisemitism was a daily experience for him. Jewish boys had to walk home from school in groups for protection against Irish gangs. Bigotry was commonplace and discrimination was everywhere. It was perfectly legal.

I grew up in the suburbs and went to excellent public schools. I have had unlimited opportunities. I understood antisemitism from my father’s stories, not from my actual experience.

So I thought antisemitism was slowly but surely dying out in America. In recent years, national surveys have confirmed that antisemitic attitudes have indeed been declining.

My father was more pessimistic, even though he agreed that things were getting better. In fact, he once told me “no other country has been as good to the Jews as America.” However, he explained that life was good for the Jews in Spain until it wasn’t. Then there was Hitler. In Germany, the pessimists went to America and the optimists went to Auschwitz. Israel was important, because you never know what can happen in the future.

So what is happening now?

After the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, I consulted with a dear older friend who was a Holocaust survivor.

“Could we be facing a future Kristallnacht?” I asked her.

“Absolutely not. America is a totally different society,” she assured me.

Yet my friend would not move to senior housing on the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto, which I thought would be a good place for her. She was afraid of living in a Jewish apartment building. It could be a target.

That’s the fear right now. We all know it’s great being Jewish in America, even more so now than in my father’s lifetime. Yet the concern today is about safety when we are together.

I spent 12 years serving on public school boards. My worst fear was losing students to a mass shooting, as I pictured attending their funerals. Our school board received briefings on school safety plans and drills. We supported having a policeman on every high school campus. During my tenure, there were lockdowns, but no one was ever hurt.

That’s the reality of public education today, and parents still send their children to school.

Synagogue boards are now facing the same unenviable task of addressing security, something that was once taken for granted.

Yet no matter how important, building security is not the whole solution.

A few years ago, a scientist friend compared antisemitism to a virus that can go nearly dormant while smoldering in small pockets until it mutates; eventually producing a new epidemic. To him, that analogy explained how anti-Zionism has emerged as the new politically correct antisemitism.

So how do we vaccinate against hate? For starters, we reach out, we don’t hunker down. We plan more interfaith activities, not fewer. We stay involved in our broader communities, we don’t withdraw.

In Texas, Beth Israel’s mission statement proclaims, “We believe in interfaith inclusion and transforming Jewish isolation through engagement, participation and volunteerism.” When the chips were down, the Beth Israel congregation did not feel alone as it witnessed an outpouring of support from all communities of faith in Colleyville.

Safety and security is on everyone’s mind, and therefore on the agenda of every Jewish institution. It will be addressed. Yet, it is also important to remember that this is a time for building connections.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of J., The Jewish News of Northern California, which graciously allowed New Cambridge Observer to republish it.

On June 12, I had the privilege of introducing the zoom happy hour for classmates who attended the 51st reunion of my graduating class. I touched on some of the incidents I wrote about in my 2015 book, Ithaca Diaries, which is about our four years 1966-1970. Sometimes, I call the book “Gidget Goes to the Revolution” which, in a way, sums up my college experience. But 51 years later, I thought it would be important to reflect on the past as it relates to the present and future–rather a handful for a 10-minute talk–but I think I managed to do it. Here’s a link to the video; the script, which I did not follow exactly, is inserted below.

Hi, I’m so glad to see everyone here, and especially that we’re all still here after this difficult year. I know that some of us are disappointed not to be in Ithaca—but the good part is that friends from far away can be with us.  One such friend said he would join in if I provided free drinks…which I am…in my living room.  CHEERS!

51^st ANNIVERSARY OF GRADUATION 1970
 I’m sure you know that this is the 51^st anniversary week of our crazy graduation. With those three walkouts, and the demonstration on stage where Morris Bishop, the distinguished historian and leader of the processional hit someone over the head with the baton he was carrying… Many people think that it was Dave Burack—my gov instructor—who got hit over the head …Burack swears it was his roommate…In any case, the demonstrators got hauled off stage and into a cop car…The bear at the top of the mace got bent and has never been the same—nor, I think,  have we.

 I remember that really well…which is amazing because people were  passing a JOINT when we were standing in the graduation processional…and I was definitely stoned.

I WROTE ABOUT THAT IN MY BOOK, ITHACA DIARIES which is based on the journals I kept as an undergraduate: it starts with me arriving at Cornell freshman year carrying the pink suitcase my uncle leon gave me for my bat mitzvah—goes through draft card burnings, demonstrations against the war,  the straight takeover,  MY LOVE LIFE, WHAT WAS I THINKING Kent State…and  ends on graduation day….when, to my amazement,  I even led a demonstration.

I WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT ITHACA DIARIES LAST YEAR, AT OUR FIFTIETH but with the pandemic that really didn’t work out. So this year, Sally and Kathy asked me to introduce the social hour– they told me several times to be brief and to keep in mind that this is supposed to be a HAPPY hour. So I’m not going to reminisce a whole lot…I will just move the story ahead a little, wax a bit historical and philosophical, and then we’ll breakout out the drinks.  I mean..join the breakout sessions.

                                                                                    *

SINCE ITHACA DIARIES CAME OUT, I”VE BEEN WORKING ON TWO SEQUELS.

THE FIRST SEQUEL IS ABOUT MY FIRST YEAR OUT OF CORNELL— and I imagine that many of us went through similar experiences.   After all the turmoil on campus, and changes in the late sixties, I had no idea what to do with myself. (And of course, I was an English major…need I say more?) But as a fledgling feminist, I wanted to prove that I could do things: that anything a guy could do, I could do, too.  I got a bunch of short-term jobs.

WEST VIRGINIA First I got a job with the ILR School that took me traveling around the country to several hospitals,; in West Birginia, I had my first look at coal miners with black lung disease.

I WORKED IN A  POLITICAL CAMPAIGN  where one of the pols spent his days pretending to read the newspaper while staring at my legs…

THEN I WENT ON A ROAD TRIP cross country with two Brits I didn’t know, whose names I found on a bulletin board. They were both named John John, John, and I  drove cross country in a big black buick =–u drive it—and picked up every derelict and druggie, all the way from Miami to San Francisco.

AFTER THAT, I WORKED WITH DISADVANTAGED TEENS IN THE PHILADELPHIA GHETTO…AND FINALLY, I WOUND UP IN HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.  

That’s where the first sequel, which I’m CALLING PHILADELPHIA STORIES  ENDS.

HARRISBURG

SO, THEN, THE SEQUEL TO THE SEQUEL:  HARRISBURG
IT TURNED OUT THAT THREE OF OUR CLASSMATES, ED ZUCKERMAN, FRED SOLOWEY, AND VINCENT BLOCKER, WERE ALSO IN HARRISBURG, EACH FOR HIS OWN REASONS. WE AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE ENDED UP STARTING A NEWSPAPER THERE, IN CONNECTION TO A MAJOR POLITICAL TRIAL— IT WAS THE TRIAL OF THE HARRISBURG 8., WHICH HAD AN INTERESTING CORNELL CONNECTION. 

HARRISBURG 8 TRIAL
BERRIGAN: You may remember Dan Berrigan the anti war Priest, and poet who was deputy director of  Cornell United religious work. Anyway, while Dan Berrigan was in prison, Nixon’s FBI Director J EDGAR HOOVER ACCUSED DANIEL’s brother  Philip , who was also in prison, of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington DC.  Also accused were  former ILR Professor Eqbal Ahmad, and six others—mostly nuns and priests. I’m not kidding, I’m not kidding.

So, Ed, Fred, Vincent and I started a newspaper called the Harrisburg Independent Press—or—HIP- around the trial of the Harrisburg 8. That was how I became a journalist, the paper was amazing.

And, for the last few years I’ve been working on a book on my experiences at HIP.

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I WAS WORKING ON THE CONCLUSION. And I started wondering what the heck am I doing, why am I time traveling, going back into the past all the time?  

ONE REASON IS PERSONAL : AS WITH Ithaca diaries, I needed to understand on a personal level, just what had gone down, to get things straight in my head, this was such a formative period, in order to figure out what to do next.  

BUT ANOTHER REASON IS HISTORICAL/SOCIETAL.

WHEN I FIRST STARTED WORKING ON THE HARRISBURG BOOK, TRUMP WAS JUST COMING INTO OFFICE, AND I FELT THE COUNTRY WAS DIVIDED, much as it was in the late 60s and early 70s.  I thought it might be interesting to draw some parallels between the present day divisiveness along the lines of  race, poverty, ethnicity, and corruption… and what was going on back then, under the Nixon administration, with race relations, the Vietnam War, dirty tricks and such.

SPIRALS: BROKEN PATTERNS:
 Then I thought about my first book, it’s called Broken patterns, and it’s about our generation of professional women in relation to our own mothers and grandmothers. It describes a spiral pattern in history—a spiral pattern that I think holds true for Individuals as well.

WHAT DO I MEANBY SPIRALS?  HERE I’d LIKE TO PONTIFICATE, A BIT, IF YOU WILL INDULGE ME…

Many of us—myself included—tend to think about progress in a linear way. That is, that to progress, we move forward in a straightforward path toward a goal.  But the older I get, the more I see that life sort of emerges in a series of starts and stops—that we get just so far, in moving toward a goal—maybe we reach it; maybe we get blocked… and then, as a society or as individuals, we tend to pull back to reassess, to reintegrate our own pasts, our country’s past, in order to move forward, once again.  

TODAY A TURNING POINT IN A SPIRAL
I think that now as a society we’re at a turning point in a spiral that’s kind of similar to where we were. 50 years ago. Now, as then, society is divided. Many have moved toward equality but others have been left behind.   As you know, there are issues of race, poverty, war, environment, how government should work, what kind of nation we want to be.  BUT despite all of the disruptions, the divisiveness, the protests,  the violence, I feel heartened that many of us are looking back historically, to understand how we got to this place so that we can regroup to find new ways of doing things.  I know that I’m painting with a rather broad brush—but I believe that==or I HOPE that– retreating a bit to reassess, will allow us move forward as individuals, and as a society, once again. END PONTIFICATION

COMING TOGETHER FOR OUR 51^st
 In the same way, coming together for our 50th, or 51^st reunion, gives us the chance to look back, to heal, to understand, to figure out where we’re at in order to find new ways to move forward in our own lives. I’m hoping that in our social… er happy hour, we’ll have a chance to catch up, figure out where we’ve been, where we are now, and  what adventures come  next as we enter this new phase in our lives.  TOAST WITH GLASS

One quick reminder—please use chat to catch up/share info or addresses with anyone you want to stay in touch with after the social.  

For some unfathomable reason, in the Peoples’ Republic, folks either do not know or do not care that the city’s covid rules now require both face masks AND social distancing, even in parks like Fresh Pond–with a possible $300 fine.

Running on Fresh Pond this morning before 7 a.m., I found that many people were respecting the order, but several runners ignored the requirement.

Social Distancing
A couple with white hair insisted on staying two abreast in the center of the path, refusing to budge when I asked them for some distance. They went so far as to tell me both that I should not have stopped on the path and that I should walk slower, until they got ahead of me. I am usually mild-mannered, but I confess, I lost it–resorting to the F-bomb–before I turned and sped up my pace in hopes of out-distancing them.

When I asked another woman –nicely–for some distance, she laughed at me .

Masks
When I reminded a twenty-something couple that masks are required, they ignored me; when I asked if they knew they could be subject to the $300 fine, the guy told me I should be heading clockwise. True, that’s a guideline, but it’s not a requirement, because not everyone goes all the way around the pond. I said, “I can’t make it all the way around.” He said, “That’s not our problem.”

Soon after that, I ran into a dog friend I’ve nicknamed “Smiley.” His human asked me how I was doing; I mentioned some of the above. She said she goes out even before 6:30 because “After 7, it’s too anxiety provoking. ” She added, “I don’t understand why people won’t help; we’re all in this together.”

I don’t “get it,” either. Yesterday, I asked a man, his wife with baby carriage and two children–none wearing masks– for some distance; they refused to move. He said, “I have a mask.” True….he did have a bandana, but it was around his neck. One day last week, when I reminded a runner (less than 6″ away) that masks are required, he called me a M’fucker. Also last week, a guy walking with his kids in Central Square pulled a knife on a runner who was not wearing a mask.

I’m very concerned about divisiveness and anger that’s plaguing our neighborhood, our city, and our country….but having lost a close friend to the virus, and nearly lost another, I find it difficult to keep calm..and to keep my mouth shut. I go outside a couple of times a day to relieve stress during this difficult pandemic; it’s not working!

Anyway, in case you have’t seem the new regulation, here it is:

Cambridge Face Covering Order

The City of Cambridge issued an emergency order requiring that face coverings be worn in all public places, businesses and common areas of residential buildings. The order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29, and applies to everyone over the age of five years old, with exceptions in alignment with guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control or Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Violations may be punishable by a $300 fine.

“While we are grateful to those in Cambridge who have been heeding our previous mask advisory and taking this issue seriously, we are concerned about the number of residents who continue to shop, walk, run and bike throughout the city without proper face coverings,” said Mayor Siddiqui and City Manager DePasquale in a joint statement. “We must all do our part in flattening the curve and make sure we are preventing the further spread of COVID-19. This mandate emphasizes the importance of wearing a face covering, not as an option, but as a requirement in our effort to combat this pandemic together.”

The order applies to everyone over five years old “without limitation, when on, in or about” public places, defined as:

• Sidewalks
• Streets
• Parks
• Plazas
• Bus stops
• Non-residential parking lots and garages
• Any other outdoor area or non-residential parking facility which is open and accessible to the general public.

The mask requirement also applies to anyone working in or visiting an essential business, as well as shoppers and consumers. Masks must remain on throughout shifts or visits to those businesses. The businesses covered under the order, include:

• Grocery stores or supermarkets
• Pharmacies
• Laundromats
• Dry cleaners
• Hardware stores
• Restaurants, cafes or similar establishments where prepared foods, meals or beverages may be purchased
• Local government buildings
• Commercial office buildings
• All essential businesses defined in Governor Baker’s March 23, 2020 Executive Order

In residential buildings of two or more units when people cannot maintain a 6 foot distance, masks will be required prior to entering any common area, including:

• Lobbies
• Hallways
• Elevators
• Stairwells
• Laundry rooms
• Garages or parking lots
• Walkways
• Yards and other outdoor common areas
• Mailrooms and other indoor common areas

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is the founder of the Harris Communications Group, and the author of Ithaca Diaries and Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and digital marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Once again, the Lacoste Keane gallery in Concord MA presents a stunning new show–in which ceramicist Ani Kasten uses the concept of visual poems to reflect on issues such as environmental collapse, social collapse, and inner and outer strife. 

.

In the show, Kasten creates sculptural compositions from fragments and debris. While some vessels are quite large, other, smaller pieces Kasten calls “poems,” are three-dimensional objects which she likens to written verse. A poem, says the one-time literature major, ” shears away everything but the most essential, evoking an emotional response through the sparest communication, constructing concepts and feelings into a hewn verbal form, without engaging narrative or logic.”

Kasten uses earth materials like clay and rocks as a metaphor to explore ideas of decay, disintegration and renewal. “Working in clay is about the search for balance between the natural tendencies of the materials and the craft that is brought about by contact with the human hand,” according to the gallery writeup. “Faced with monumental forces of nature and entropy, a sadness and feeling of futility is provoked with the notion that human hubris seeks to create lasting structure and survival in the face of decimation by forces outside of our control—earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, violence and war. “

In this work, Kasten “reveals emerging structures and constructs under stress, made by the human hand but fighting against collapsing infrastructure. They show the cracking, warping and erosion that are natural expressions of the material, and explore the beauty and sadness in building from wreckage, such as a little robot made from scavenged shards of something former, with two little ears made from fossilized hornets’ nests.

Kasten says that “In the act of scavenging, building and creating the visual poems, ” she is “searching for beauty and harmony in the act of piecing back together what may seem like meaningless detritus of a collapsing world, reclaiming a tenuous and fragile feeling of meaning and purpose.”

In my view, she is successful in doing so. The pieces look delicate–as if they could fall apart at any second. But with their pastel colors and seemingly -haphazard-yet-powerful shapes reaching out in many directions, they exude tremendous energy–inviting the viewer to enter into Kasten’s exploration and expression of the tenuous-yet-enduring relationships of natural and human forces.

At Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St Concord MA 01742, through February 8, 2020.

—Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency, also in Cambridge.

It’s not often that I walk through a gallery with a smile on my face, but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday, at the opening of Lacoste Keane’s “Vessel Re-imagined,” a ceramics exhibit in Concord, MA, curated by Brooks Oliver, of Dallas, Texas.

The show includes pieces by five artists, each contributing new insight to the vessel. As pointed out on the gallery website, a vessel is “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask–and a fundamental and important form connected to human civilization.” The first known clay pot, found in China, is 20,000 years old.

The first installation to catch my eye (immediately above) looked, from a distance, like a quilt but it was, in fact, a set of 12 plates made by Margaret Kinkeade of Kansas City– exhibiting the interplay of art and function. According to Kinkeade’s Web site, her work often focuses on American folk art and traditional craft…and on “the domestic object as souvenir, the collection as identity and community connection through shared work–especially that of women.

The idea of community connection through shared work came through clearly in Kinkeade’s second installation, (below). At the opening, attendees were encouraged to eat bread and butter off of small clay salad plates, and then hang the used plates on the wall to form a grid. The inclusion of visitors in both using and hanging the objects both exemplified and questioned the utilitarian aspect of vessels–because when hung on the wall, the plates were transformed into objects of art and decoration.

I was quite taken by the work of Lily Fein,  a Massachusetts based young art graduate, who approaches the vessel through the pinching and coiling method. According to a Lacoste writeup, “her works are painstaking and time consuming to make as each vessel is coiled and pinched to form. Using the challenging medium of porcelain, she creates each vessel from the base and builds the work up by pushing the walls from inside and outside. The abstract qualities are revealed by each fingerprint and mark making. The stippling on her works is meditative as the continuous application of dots on the surface involves complete focus and involvement from the artist. Each work holds special memory of the artist and her energy.”  The work below is called “Twisted Figures.”

Heesoo Lee‘s ethereal vessels (below) are inspired by nature and landscape and “combine the painterly with the sculptural. Her poetic imagery is created by using layers of underglaze and china paint on scenes built up and sculpted on clay. These works are reminiscent of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Newcomb Pottery. I found the detail amazing.

I found wonderful surprise in the work of Zak Helenske, (below) who is interested in the development of form and the exploration of pattern.  He looks to industrial and architectural examples as points of reference using the language of geometry as his path of communication.  According to Lacoste, “One sees in his work a connection to architecture and geometry in which the haptic—the sense of touch is important.” I especially liked his combination of architecture and “pots,” and was intrigued by how his seemingly “puzzle-like” pieces were put together.

Finally, curator Brooks Oliver, who  obtained his MFA from Penn State and is a ceramics educator at the University of North Texas, endeavors to “reimagine and reinterpret the familiar functional vessel”. In doing so, according to the gallery Web site, “he challenges the viewers to examine the grey areas in art and craft, form and function and mass production versus handmade. On the surface his works are sleek and industrial, but closer examination reveals the maker’s marks such as seams that have not been sanded smoothly or glaze applied by hand.  All leaving slight unevenness on the object’s surface. Oliver’s minimalist work never ceases to question the public’s perception of the vessel. One can treat them as beautiful works of art, yet the void within the object renders them functional in some instances. “

The show will be at Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St. Concord, MA, until September 28, 2019.

Photos–except for the first one, in chartreuse, c. Anita M. Harris

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

On Chance and Materiality: sculptor Rafa Pérez’s first East Coast exhibition

I’m looking forward to East Coast solo exhibit of the Spanish sculptor Rafa Perez–to be held from 3-5 pm at the Lacoste/Keane Gallery, 25 Main Street, Concord, MA, on August 3, 2019.

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain, Perez studied ceramics at the Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona. According to a gallery press release, he has been making abstract sculptures for over 30 years.

Though prolific and well exhibited in Europe, Pérez has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at Minnesota State University in 2018.

Perez’s work is the result of two important factors – his masterful handling of the clay body while letting the unpredictability of the firing be an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied, he wrote, “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.” In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.
Lucy Lacoste, the founder of our gallery surmises, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain Perez studied ceramics at the Although prolific and well exhibited in Europe, says Lacoste/Keane founder and co-owner Lucy Lacoste. “He has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at the Minnesota State University in 2018.”

Lacoste describes Pérez’s work as the result of two important factors: “… his masterful handling of the clay body and the unpredictability of the firing, which becomes an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied. “

Perez writes “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.”

In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.

Lacoste says, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox– much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

An opening reception with Rafa Pérez will be held on Saturday August 3, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, with an artist talk on Sunday August 4, 2:00-4:00 pm. For details call 978-369-0278 or email info@lacostekeane.com.

 

You might (or might not) know that many years ago…well, at the dawn of prehistory, in 1971, before Watergate, before Woodward and Bernstein, before the Internet and before the current president’s attacks on the free press… I  helped found a weekly  newspaper in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  

The paper, called the Harrisburg Independent Press, or, HIP (unfortunate acronym, I still think) was created to cover the trial of the Harrisburg 8—a group of nuns and priests and such who were accused by then FBI director J Edgar Hoover of conspiring to kidnap Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger and blow up underground heating tunnels in Washington, DC (no, I’m not kidding)– and to report issues and concerns besetting the city, the state, and the nation.

Formed as a nonprofit, HIP was supported largely by subscriptions ($5 for six months, $8 a year) and advertising (the local dirty movie theater owners appreciated our not censoring their ads, tho one of them did ask us to airbrush a certain bodily area out of a photo).

The paper, which ran for nine years, became known for its muckraking, community and creative spirit. For example, in the very first year, our reporting led to the shutdown of a migrant camp and to new statewide labor regulations.  HIP also covered housing, education, prison reform, government corruption –as even sports and the arts.  Perhaps most notably, HIP beat the traditional press by uncovering safety problems at the nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, as acknowledged in the national news.

Anyway,  I’ve been working on a memoir of HIP and my days of independent newspapering…and am most grateful to a group of former staffers who recently scanned and archived every issue. 

Those staffers, led by Jim Zimmerman, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Website where those issues will be housed and readily accessed by current and future journalists, researchers and other citizens. The team has set a goal of $6000—to be reached by COB August 18, 2019.

 With just over a month to go, they’ve raised more than half that amount.

I’m writing in hopes that you will donate to help them raise the rest of the dough by August 18 so that the project will be a go.

What’s in it for you?
Rewards!
If they reach their goal,

-For a $25 contribution, you get a CD of the complete set of issues—some 300, in all.

-For $100 you get a t-shirt with a HIP logo

-For $500 you get a poster suitable for framing: your choice of (1) the front page of the first issue from 1971, or (2)  the front page of the August 1978 issue: headlined “Meltdown: Tomorrow’s Disaster on Three Mile Island.”

The HIP team is hoping that other alternative newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s will follow their lead so that the amazing journalistic work of those times will not be lost to future generations.

Here’s a link to the kickstarter page.

—Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia Journalism School, she held a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and fellowships at Radcliffe, the Boston University College of Communications, and Tufts Universities. She taught journalism at Harvard, Yale and Simmons Universities. She is the author of Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity (WSU Press/Cambridge Common Press) and Ithaca Diaries, (Cambridge Common Press), a memoir/social history of Cornell University in the late 1960s. She is currently working on a book about the Harrisburg Independent Press.