March 22–28, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 11
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1464 86th Street (between 14th & 15th Ave.)
Established 1971
March 18-22 and March 25-29th
W.O.W.
Connecting with neighbors
Sometimes I can’t help
but feel trapped in my
bubble.
Yes, I can see other people
and hear their stories. But I
cannot always put myself in
their shoes, knowing I did not
share their upbringing or experiences,
and never truly felt
what they felt.
I’ve lived near the Park
Slope Armory for 17 years. A
YMCA branch debuted there
back in 2010, with a track,
gym, and fitness classes. But
the armory is also still home to
the Park Slope Women’s Shelter,
which for as long as I can
remember drew criticism from
some neighbors, who loudly
worried about living near its
potentially mentally ill or vulnerable
occupants.
Aside from seeing the ladies
hanging out and smoking
on the front steps, however, I
have largely kept my distance
from the shelter. I have tried
to be friendly, saying hi to any
women I see as I scurry past
to move my car or walk my
dog, but otherwise my contact
has been limited.
Last year, my friend and
neighbor, a local songwriter
named Terry Radigan, started
working to bring songwriting
workshops to the shelter.
The programming is similar
to work Terry has done for
a number of organizations,
including Songwriting with
Soldiers and my non-profit,
InspireCorps , which offers
musical and other artistic
therapy to kids.
Terry described the work
she does at the armory through
her Shelter Songs initiative
during a small fund-raiser I
recently held at my home.
“The armory was something
I always looked at, but
only knew by seeing a cop car
or an ambulance out front,”
she said, echoing my feelings
about the place as she tried
to solicit support, and hopefully
donations, from the attendees.
“But I went in and
said, ‘Let me see if I can sit
in a room with these ladies
for half an hour and get some
ideas going. The guitar is a
big softener. No one is afraid
of music.’ ”
She went on to recount
one of her first sessions at
the women’s shelter, where
she asked if anyone had ever
written a song, or played an
instrument, or sang.
“One woman, kind of the
ringleader, said, ‘I feel like
I’ve been smacked by a nail,
but the hammer’s not the one
that’s smacking,’ ” Terry told
us. “The woman looked at me
after she said it and asked,
‘What do you think of that?’
And I said, ‘I think that sounds
like a song.’ ”
Terry went on to sing that
song, named “Anger Raging
Snapping Turtle” by the
woman whose mind it sprung
from. And like most of the
songs she’s written with
shelter residents, the tune
features humor amidst the
pain, its light tone meant to
soften the heartbreak, fear,
and hopelessness that the lyrics
portray.
Inspired by Terry — and
my other neighbor Alice Braziller,
another longtime shelter
volunteer who teaches poetry
to its occupants — I recently
went to the facility to inquire
about bringing my percussion
workshop called Get in Tune
there.
I began to tie my dog Ginger
up outside, at the bottom
of the steps that I normally
pass at a steady clip. A woman
smoking nodded her cigarette
at me.
“You know this is a women’s
shelter, right?” she asked,
eyeing Ginger as if the residents,
including herself, were
not to be trusted.
But I simply smiled as I
walked up the steps.
“Yes, you can keep Ginger
company,” I suggested.
“She’s really nice.”
It broke my heart that she
thought I’d be afraid to leave
my dog there. I thought about
how much time this woman
spent being feared and distrusted,
about how long her
story had been ignored.
That experience only fueled
my desire to get to know
these ladies, and to try to help
them communicate in yet another
way. I am excited to help
Terry promote her Shelter
Songs program at the Park
Slope facility, and hopefully
recruit more songwriters for
the initiative so it can expand
to similar residences across
the city.
The songs it yields are
transformative — as is the
time Terry spends listening
attentively to the women’s
important, but too often ignored
stories.
Stephanie Thompson’s
“Talking to Strangers” podcast
can be found on iTunes,
Stitcher, and Google Play.
Fearless
Living
By Stephanie Thompson
INDUSTRY...
• Study the city’s rezoning
process in-depth with two urban
planning experts.
• Evaluate the lessons
learned from other ongoing
rezoning efforts in Bushwick
and Gowanus .
• Review Menchaca’s own
findings from the rezoning
process.
The local leaders hope to
conduct all five town halls by
the end of the summer, and
then begin a ten-week review
period that would include
three full-board meetings
of CB7, and three more
public hearings, before the
civic gurus ultimately vote
on the rezoning request in
November.
And until then, Menchaca
and Zuniga also want the
board’s five individual committees
to review specific
parts of the rezoning application,
and how it will affect
local housing, economic development
and employment,
the environment, transportation
and safety, and health and
education.
Zuniga added that CB7
members may hire outside
legal counsel to help
the panel through the process.
And he said that even
though the proposed timeline
may seem lengthy to some, it
should allow for enough time
to consider the issues that most
concern community members
— which the public review’s
official 60-day process would
not provide enough time for,
he claimed.
“We heard very clearly that
the community has grave concerns
about affordability and
about housing … but the system
is rigged — the Ulurp process
is meant to speed everything
along, so that there is no
time for us to have these kinds
of conversations and to think
long-term,” Zuniga said.
Industry City reps did not
reply to inquiries about how
long they plan to wait until
beginning the rezoning’s
public-review period, or when
they planned to communicate
their timeline to the community
board and local pols. But
a spokeswoman for the complex
said that its heads would
work with Menchaca to figure
out how best to move forward
in a way that would benefit
locals.
“We look forward to
working with Councilman
Menchaca to further the common
mission of creating economic
opportunity for area
residents,” Lisa Serbaniewicz
said in a statement.
Continued from page 1
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