/* fivel rothberg */

A newly minted store selling “skateboards, flowers and dry goods” makes its presence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn by reaching out to young skaters, families, and putting on free community events.

Park Deli’s owners, Valentine Leung and Michael Sclafani are young entrepreneurs and new parents who are holding it down by keeping their side jobs as a dress designer and window decorator.

This Saturday - May 30th - I’ll be conducting a low budget video lighting workshop with fellow IMA students Laurie Sumiye and Sebastian Gutierrez at the 6th annual Grassroots Media Conference. It’ll be in the morning slot 10:30 - 12:00 at Hunter College.

And Hunter’s own Veralyn Williams was on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show along with Jennifer Nedbalsky, a founder of the GMC and Giovanni Mato, editor-in-chief of Word on the Street.

Here are some photos from the “Youth Action” screening last night. It was put on by the Grassroots Media Conference crew and hosted by Youth Media Reporter at the Academy for Educational Development. Filmmakers that have made work through Educational Video Center, and Casa Atabex Ache were on hand to show and talk about their work. There were also some peeps from the Ghetto Film School who are going to Brasil to work on a narrative piece, damn I’m jealous.

You’ve been swinedled

okay. it may be embarrassing but that’s why it’s so funny. noam came home with some obscurely patriotic in-class assignment. they were supposed to write letters to prospective immigrants to the U.S. in order to convince them to become citizens. and noam’s letter had a line in it like “illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes.” so i kinda freaked, got pissed and wrote the teacher an email which probably reads like a nutty letter to the editor.

the best part is that in the teacher’s follow-up reply he wrote that noam essentially has problems with authority figures. he corrects them when they’re wrong. or otherwise. i wonder where he gets that from???
———-
On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Marc wrote:

Mr. Rothberg,

I just wannted to touch base with you and see how you thought the meeting went yesterday while I was there and after I left. I saw the final IEP, without any changes, and just wanted to make sure that your feelings were expressed.

Additionally, Noam is complainiing of a sore throat and wanted me to ask you if someone could drop of lozengers for him.

—– Original Message —–
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 2:21:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: IEP

Hi Marc,

Unfortunately I just got this email, and school is coming to a close anyway, so I’ll bring him some lozenges when I pick him up. Thanks for letting me know though.

I thought the meeting went well. Noam seems to have improved greatly since last year. I think a lot of it just has to do with him getting more mature as he gets older.

Honestly, I’m not sure how much meeting with Ms. Rizzo is actually helping. He seems to seriously dislike her. I wonder whether or not it would be better to have a ‘happy’ kid who isn’t frustrated at school. Or have a frustrated kid, who might be helped by her tutoring even if he dislikes it.

However, he’s always taken it personally when he gets corrected. As you mentioned yesterday when I saw you, he’s been aggravated by your corrections. Which is interesting because, that’s what teachers do… and he’s never mentioned it to me before I brought it up with him after school.

On another subject, I was concerned to hear that you told the students that “illegal” immigrants do not pay taxes. That is unfortunately not true. Undocumented immigrants work often resort to using false social security numbers in order to work. This way they pay into the U.S. social welfare system yet reap none of its benefits. Further, more and more immigrants are being detained for no good reason. Our very unfair economic system depends on undocumented immigrants to do a lot of hard work for little money. You can find out more about all of this here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/immigrant-detention/page.do?id=1641031
and a .pdf fact sheet can be found here: http://archdiocese.la/ministry/justice/peace/pdf/Factsheet-JusticeforImmigrants.pdf

Also, all of this nation’s residents are illegal immigrants, unless you’re 100% native american.

If I understood the lesson incorrectly - because it was translated through Noam, then let me know. I’d be happy to be wrong about that.

Best,

Fivel

———

Mr. Rothberg,

I neglected to mention that we spoke of Migrant workers, not illegal immigrants. The story mentioned “aliens” and Noam was fixated on that. He also felt the term was not appropriate, which he stated in class. I brought up the definition to show him what it really means (he thinks it means little green men from space).

We do need to work on his understanding that since he is a student, it is not appropriate to correct adults, especially Administration, regardless if they are correct or not.

—–
Mr. Rothberg:

I think the issue with Noam’s information was the fact the that he neglected to tell you WHEN the story and facts took place. The story we were discussing took place in the 1880’s, not in recent years. The facts are presented to the teacher to share with the students by the company that creates the textbooks. I interpret them and share what I know. I also showed a video presented by a different company, however, again, this information is from the 1880’s.

Maybe that added insight helps explain the lesson.

++++

New York Times Special Edition, audio vignette

This is a three-minute audio vignette about the New York Times Special Edition. On the morning of the action, I followed a Brooklyn couple, Michelle and Maikel, as they spread the good news of the war’s end to perplexed New Yorkers.

The music clip is from Podington Bear.

Here is a slideshow of photos from the distribution day of the New York Times ‘Special Edition’.  This past Wednesday, new media organizing met old media propaganda, Situationist style.   Email and text messages sent by an ad-hoc crew of Lefties got hundreds or thousands of volunteers to help hand out the faux New York Times.

I began by tagging along with a middle-aged couple, both proud dumpster-diving artists and subversives.  I recorded our brief adventure with my still camera and audio recorder.  Here are the photos: