Summer Highs...and Lows

It's Memorial Day on Monday -- the official start of summer in America. And in New York, that means that more bikers will take advantage of the lovely warm weather and hit the streets and bike paths in the coming months.

There's one memento mori that always stops me in my tracks on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It looks like any other bicycle at first, tied to a street pole or bike rack, but on closer inspection one realizes that it has been crudely sprayed white and sometimes it has flowers on the handle bars and a note explaining that it stands there to mark the spot where a cyclist was killed.

They are called "Ghost Bikes" and described here as "quiet and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street...They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel."

According to GhostBikes.org, these aren't a New York invention at all. "The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in over 100 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us." *Shiver*

Above, is a minimal ghost bike that I spotted just off the Williamsburg Bridge, a fantastic bike path between the Lower East Side and Williamsburg. It may not have a plaque or flowers, but it's a stark reminder, nonetheless.

Cuba on Her Mind

Mexican born photographer, Alinka Echeverria's sensitive work in progress is titled Cuba 1959: The Second Front. Echeverria (above), an ICP graduate, is concerned with collective memory. Editor At Large spotted her work yesterday in the Latin American Pavilion at the New York Photo Festival in Dumbo. For these portraits of men in their homes, she encourages veterans of the Cuban Revolution to reminisce. "The process of being photographed wearing their military uniforms and medals provoked in many an emotional journey into their past and created a space for self-reflection of their identity as veterans of a war that changed their nation forever," she writes. See her work below and here.

South Africa at the NY Photo Festival

Editor at Large went over to Dumbo to listen to Jodi Bieber talk about her new book on Soweto. It is quite an honor to be asked to give a talk at the festival and Bieber's work is certainly strong, interesting and even groundbreaking (though some photos made me think of Zwelethu Mthethwa's shack portraits and also of Lolo Veleko's "Smarties"). But we think Bieber could have been more prepared for the talk and more conscious of the fact that she was talking to Americans who have only the scantest knowledge of what life in South Africa was like during apartheid and what it's like now. For example, showing a photograph of black South Africans swimming in a public pool and commenting: "Before black people didn't swim," is not really enough information. Same goes for the amazing photo of the women with the boa constrictor wrapped around her body and the photo of the gay couple. Most speakers suffer from TMI (too much info). Bieber made us yearn to understand the context better and to know more.

Meanwhile, at the Tobacco Warehouse, I spotted the work of one South African photographer and one Swiss/Lebanese photographer who did a documentary in South Africa:

1. I loved Market Photo Workshop student, Simangele Kalisa's "Clothed" project. Kalisa grew up in Soweto. She says that she's using the title "Clothed" for a number of reasons. I like this one: "In most traditionally black Christian churches and movements in South Africa -- with most having their own uniform and therefore a particular semiotic system associated with dress and identity -- uniforms are called Izambatho (Zulu) or diaparo (Sotho) which translates into English simply as 'clothes'. Looking at the history of colonialism, and in particular how Africans were referred to as 'the naked'and colonisers 'the clothed,' it becomes apparent how identity can literally be fashioned by dress."




2. Mariella Furrer's hard-hitting black and white photographs document the realities of child sexual abuse beyond the headlines that are so hideous to read but also so easy to forget. "South Africa records one of the highest rates of child sexual abuse in the world," says her artist's statement. "Because the sexual abuse of children remains taboo, it is not spoken about openly and is, in a sense, invisible." This heartbreaking photo shows a child being examined for signs of abuse.

Lucky Fish

My latest crush: Lucky Fish's gorgeous screen printed South African-themed pillows. Bonus: They do T-shirts too, for kids and adults.

For more info e-mail: soluckyfish@gmail.com

Chocolate Secret

If you're as obsessed with Mast Brother's chocolate as I am -- especially the dark chocolate with almonds, sea salt and olive oil -- you'll be glad to know that you can get a slab for just $7 direct from the factory. Two blocks away, at the Bedford Cheese Shop on Bedford Avenue, they retail for $8. And at Wholefoods and Dean & Deluca you'll pay a whopping $9.

Mast Brother's Chocolate Factory
105 North 3rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211-3927, United States
(718) 388-2625

Funky Chairs

I stumbled on a literal treasure chest of reupholstered furniture in Williamsburg this afternoon. Funkiture by Caitlin Conlow has beautiful second hand and antique chairs covered in Congolese fabric, starting at around $100. Also on offer, an apple green Art Deco writing desk, peacock feathers for $2.95 each, and fabulous striped scatter cushions.

Funkiture
94 South 1st Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
347.400.3172

High Five

Best brunch in Williamsburg/Greenpoint: Five Leaves.

Try the house made Bircher muesli with poached pears, sugar plums and spiced creme fraiche or the Ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter, sliced banana, blueberries, strawberries and maple syrup. Even the house cured gravelax is scrumptious, right down to the sourdough roll it is served on. And we haven't even sampled the lunch offerings yet, but we hear that the BLAT sandwich with bacon, kettuce, avocado, tomato and cumin/lime mayo is a winner as is the radicchio and watercress salad with roasted acorn squash, feta and red onion. For gorgeous pics of the place by Will Femia, go to www.fiveleavesny.com and click on gallery.

18 Bedford Avenue
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 383-5345

Shag-adelic Shopping

On a corner on Roebling Street in Williamsburg you'll find a quirky erotica store called Shag Brooklyn. No, it's not owned by Austin Powers (as far as we know), but it is our new number one place to purchase "French Titties" -- glittering nipple caps usually worn by Burlesque dancers. Shag also has a large and equally titillating selection of adult toys and a fabulous collection of funny, sexy $4 cards. Take a look at it all at www.weloveshag.com or head to 108 Roebling Street.

The Brooklyn Book Festival

I went to hear Dave Eggars, the editor of the literary journal McSweeney's Quarterly Concern in conversation with the Nigerian-born author, Chris Abani. Eggars most recently wrote What is the What, a novel based on the life story of a Sudanese Lost Boy, Valentino Achak Deng. All author proceeds to the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Achak Deng, 26, wasn’t at this talk – he’s studying international diplomacy at a college in Pennsylvania. “It’s strange for him,” said Eggars. “One day he’s a sophmore, but next week he’ll come to New York to speak at the Clinton’s Global Initiative.”
Eager to take any money made from the book to Marial Bai in Sudan to build a primary school, Achak Deng waited patiently for four years for Eggars to finish the book. Now he has started the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation in Sudan. He’ll take it over once he has completed his studies.
Eggars’ slide show showed the village of Marial Bai, razed to the ground during the war, now rebuilt as a returnee camp. “We went to see what could be done,” explained Eggars. “It was a listening tour.”
Achak Deng is particularly concerned with assisting young women in getting a secondary education. “Eventhough attitudes in Sudan are changing, it is still the tradition to marry off 13 and 14 year olds.”
One slide showed Achak Deng talking to two fourteen year old girls. One wanted to be a doctor; the second, a nurse. “Valentino who is usually very optimistic, told me that they will not reach their goals, not in this generation, but in the next,” said Eggars. “The men are becoming open to change and to women’s empowerment. The returnees like Val have brought with them a more progressive attitude from their time in the West.”
After taking in the needs of Marial Bai, Achak Deng has changed his original plan. “We realised that there are enough primary schools. So everything was adjusted according to the community’s needs,” explained Eggars. “Now he’ll set up a teacher training college, a secondary school, and a micro loan program for single mothers who are entrepreneurs.”
Eggars and Achak Deng are also working on another book that will form part of the McSweeney’s Oral Histories collection. They are telling the stories of women who survived the war. While listening to the stories, Eggars said that many times he and Achak Deng had to stop and ask the women if they were OK to continue. “They would say, ‘I’m not afraid. Let’s keep going’,” says Eggars. Many Sudanese girls were kidnapped and sold into slavery or to men who they would be forced to marry. They often endured horrific beatings and rape.

By Nadine Rubin. A version of this appeared as my Made in Manhattan column in the South African Sunday Times.