Philippe Theise

Submitted for class on Nov. 11, 2012

On the Broadway side of Father Duffy Square in Midtown, members of Iglesia ni Cristo, a Philippines-based church, form a fire line to distribute tote bags containing supplies and vouchers to homeless city residents on Tuesday, Nov. 20. (Philippe Theise)

Members of Iglesia ni Cristo, a Philippines-based church with congregations in New York, New Jersey, and over half the fifty states, assembled in Father Duffy Square in Midtown yesterday to celebrate their church and promote recognition of its foundation’s gifts to local charities.

The Felix Y. Manalo Foundation, so named for Iglesia ni Cristo’s founder, donated a total of $150,000 to the FDNY Foundation, the New York City Police Foundation, and the fund for the New York Health and Hospitals Corporation, or the Fund for HHC.

During the event, which the church dubbed “International Day for Humanity,” church members also handed out tote bags to homeless New Yorkers. The bags contained a fleece blanket, bottled water, toiletries, vouchers for use at local pharmacies, and the December 2007 issue of God’s Message, a church magazine.

FDNY Foundation President Jean O’Shay said that her organization’s share of the $150,000 will go towards helping the 800 fire department members that superstorm Sandy “seriously impacted.”

“So many [members] live in Gerritsen Beach, the Rockaways, Staten Island,” she said.

Joe Schick, executive director of the Fund for HHC, accepted two enlarged $25,000 checks, one each for Coney Island Hospital and Bellevue Hospital Center, from FYMF officials.

“Your gift is a gesture of powerful healing,” he told officials before a crowd that filled the inclined seating area above the Theatre Development Fund’s TKTS Discount Booth on 47^th Street, as well as most of the square.

Members of Iglesia ni Cristo, a church based in the Philippines with local congregations in Queens, Long Island, and northern New Jersey, pray during a gathering in Father Duffy Square in Midtown on Tuesday, Nov. 20. (Philippe Theise)

Schick later said that the fund will spend the money on the hospitals’ staff, patients, and infrastructure, and noted that the Fund for HHC itself has donated to disaster relief efforts in Haiti, Japan, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Many Iglesia ni Cristo attendees wore white sweatshirts, making the square look like a human mainsail from a southern perspective. As they alternately cheered and prayed, and as would-be theatregoers waited in line for bargain tickets, homeless men and women also waited to receive the totes.

Musa Fudge, who lives at a shelter on Ward’s Island, found out about the event at the Church of the Holy Apostles at 296 9^th Avenue in Chelsea.

“It’s fabulous that people come together, not just to receive something material, but the spiritual aspect,” he said.

Carlos Johnston and Gabriel Tucker also said they appreciated the vouchers and supplies.

Tucker, also a resident on Ward’s Island, said that he had just started a job in security in Manhattan when Sandy hit. The MTA bus that took him into Manhattan was out of service for four days, and it took him even longer to get back to work.

“Every little thing helps now. [It’s] money I don’t have to spend to replace some things,” Tucker said.

“I follow Islam myself, but I do not knock any religion, as long as it backs God,” he said.

Near the stage, Glicerio “Sergie” Santos III, one of four FYMF directors, said that foundation members “saw the tragedy back home,” and wanted to help New York City’s first responders and homeless population.

Rommel San Pedro, an Iglesia ni Cristo minister in Burlingame, CA who attended the event, estimated the crowd at between five and seven thousand.

Smiling, he also guessed that it might constitute “the most amount of Filipinos [ever] gathered in Times Square.”

Works in “Prisoner Art for Social Justice,” the inaugural exhibition at the New Gallery at John Jay College. (Philippe Theise)

“Prisoner Art for Social Justice,” an exhibition of mostly paintings at the New Gallery at John Jay College, offers windows into the imaginations of 11 men incarcerated in two Pennsylvania prisons.

The exhibition, on display through October 19^th, also brings realism and portraiture into the striking modernity of the college’s New Building on 59^th Street and 11^th Avenue.

Art for Justice, a nonprofit organization seeking to stimulate discussion about improving the criminal justice system, lent the pieces, which comprise the gallery’s inaugural show. The works depict both the threat and reality of imprisonment, as well as visions of freedom that transform and transcend the ordinary.

“These are men who never get to be heard outside of prison. They never get to express themselves, [their] deepest thoughts and feelings,” said Dr. Lisa Farrington, chair of the college’s department of Art and Music, who fought to secure space for the gallery.

The paintings of Art for Justice’s co-founder Charles Lawson anchor the exhibition.

“Life in Pennsylvania: Are You Comfortable Yet?” greets visitors with the unadorned image of an inmate sitting in a wooden electric chair, partially obstructing the word “commonwealth” in the background.

Lawson’s “What it is like to be Me” portrays a man in a hooded jacket who seems aware of an uncertain, unkind fate. But “Maroons” mixes history and fantasy, layering images of a man in a pinstriped suit, three women wearing kerchiefs, and part of a luminous planet. The figures may be real or imagined forebears; the planet may be a real or imagined earth.

Another image shows a man’s face growing into the jungle around him. Butterflies form on his face, which emerges from green leaves.

Lawson is currently fighting a sentence of life without parole, and all but one of the artists in “Prisoner Art for Social Justice” are serving life sentences or are sitting on death row.

In two adjacent paintings, Daniel Gwynn depicts adolescents who must choose between academics and street life. In one work, a boy fixes his gaze forward while prostitution and a dice game take place to his left; in another, a crack vial and a pile of schoolbooks sit on opposite sides of a thin yellow line.

The show’s most arresting piece may be Van Mastrigt’s “Escape,” a precise rendering of brick apartment buildings and zig-zagging fire escapes as seen through a window. Mastrigt’s care in delineating each brick speaks of his reverence for the world outside.

In “The Cell,” Luiz David Gonzalez uses ground coffee to create the bare interior of a cell that seems more medieval than modern. It too stands out.

The exhibition is not the only one currently up on campus. Selections from photographer Jill Freedman’s late 1970s series, “Street Cops,” hang in the President’s Gallery in Haaren Hall. The stark images form a timely counterpoint to the works of the imprisoned artists an elevator ride away.

Walking between shows, Farrington spoke about the importance of showing art at John Jay, a liberal arts institution that focuses on criminal justice.

“This is the future of the justice system,” she said, referring to the student body. “They need to understand the people they’ll be defending and prosecuting.”

Dr. Lisa Farrington, chair of the department of Art and Music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, sits in the campus’s New Building on 59th Street and 11th Avenue. Farrington helped establish the art gallery in the building. (Philippe Theise)

Drummer Daniel Edelman, of the band GOD MODE, and Karen Halpenny clean drums outside the Greenpoint location of Scientific Laboratories, a practice space for musicians, on Tuesday, Oct. 30. (Philippe Theise)

Tenants at the Greenpoint location of Scientific Laboratories, a musicians’ rehearsal space, spent much of Tuesday, Oct. 30^th hauling out gear, disposing of soaked rugs, and mopping the floors after the building flooded during Hurricane Sandy.

“Everybody was in battle mode,” said Amanda Fucello, whose band rents space in the building.

Just inside the entrance at 8 Meserole Avenue, a supply of mops, flashlights, and jugs of anti-mold liquid were available for use. One tenant wore a headlamp, and recorded music came out of one of the rooms.

Outside and near the corner of Gem Street, Daniel Edelman, Karen Halpenny, and Jonathan Johansen disassembled and cleaned drum parts. Johansen, who plays with Edelman in GOD MODE, said that the instruments’ wooden shells were his biggest concern.

“Once they start to warp, the tonality changes. I don’t want to say they’re worthless, but close to it,” he said.

Another musician exited the building carrying two black guitar cases that were dripping water. He laid both down on the sidewalk, opening them and examining a seafoam bass and a light brown hollow body guitar.

Some tenants said they hadn’t lost much. Shauna Westgate, the drummer in Red Gretchen, said that her band had placed all of its equipment on shelves, which they had already built.

Musicians praised Richard Kelly, Scientific Laboratories’ owner and operator, for sending out an email on Sunday warning of the possibility of flooding during Sandy, and for placing sandbags at the front and side entrances of the building.

Despite his efforts, the water level reached approximately one foot in the corridors.

Fucello, whose band also elevated its equipment, spoke of “airing out” its space before practicing again. “[It’s] not super smart to spend hours in a room” that may contain mold and mildew, she said.

Several bands that rehearse at Scilabs, as the space is nicknamed, have upcoming shows, but none planned to cancel any. Edelman, GOD MODE’s drummer, said that he would borrow any equipment he needed for a November 9^th concert, and Nelson Nunez, of the Finks, said he still intends to play two shows in Boston this weekend.

As he mopped the building’s main hallway, Chris Balogh wondered aloud about having a benefit show for the Scilabs community.

In the meantime, Edelman said that composing, rather than gigging, might suffer in the aftermath of Sandy.

“This is going to put a damper on writing material, that’s for sure,” he said.

Back at the building the following evening, Johansen said that he’s focused on repairing drums and amplifiers for now, but that his band intends to build shelving to better protect its gear in the future.

He also appreciated Kelly “breaking his back” in the cleanup effort, and said that GOD MODE plans to continue practicing at Scilabs.

“We like it here,” he said.

José Emmanuel Machan Paiz, a Guatemalan immigrant and graduate of Bushwick Leaders High School in Brooklyn, sits in attorney Caroline Stephenson’s office. Machan Paiz, who has applied for deferred action from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that he and his friends are following the presidential election. (Philippe Theise)

On January 31^st, 2007, 14-year-old José Emmanuel Machan Paiz was playing soccer in Guatemala City. After the game, his parents told him that he would be leaving for the United States the following day.

I couldn’t say no, yes, maybe,” Machan Paiz said. “The next day I was coming here.”

Over the next five-and-a-half years, his journey took him to New York City, through Bushwick Leaders High School, and into the heart of the national immigration debate.

Because Machan Paiz entered the U.S. before turning 16, and has maintained continuous residence, earned a degree, and garnered no criminal history, he satisfies the requirements for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the federal program that grants approved candidates a renewable two-year period in which to live and work without threat of deportation.

“When I heard about this process, it [made] my whole family and I happy, because we knew it was going to give us opportunities to go to college,” Machan Paiz said.

His family includes his 17-year-old brother, Maicol Leonel, who left Guatemala in September 2009 to join José and their father in Queens. Arrested after crossing the Arizona border, Maicol eventually began working with Brooklyn immigration attorney Caroline Stephenson, who volunteers with Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND, to apply for asylum.

In an affidavit supporting Maicol’s application, Victoria Paiz, José and Maicol’s mother, claims that her sons left their home country to escape recruitment and harassment by members of Mara 18, a criminal gang whose activities pervaded life in her former neighborhood in Guatemala City.

One section describes an evening when Maicol found a friend lying dead on an athletic field, shot, her son thought, for refusing to join the gang. Another section recreates a bus ride during which gang members threatened Paiz’s life as she sat with José.

While his brother’s application proceeds through an overburdened immigration court system, José hopes to gain the deferral that will allow him to focus on his goals of studying computer technology and graphic design at Queensborough Community College, which he hopes to enter in January, and of becoming a DJ. He enjoys hip-hop, house, merengue, and reggaeton, and listens to New York radio stations such as Hot 97.

However, since President Obama established Deferred Action via executive order, its continued existence may depend on who wins today’s election. Speaking to the Denver Post on October 1st, Mitt Romney said that those who had already secured deferred action would retain it under his presidency; one day later, the Boston Globe reported that Romney’s campaign stated that he would bar additional deferrals if elected.

As of today, José’s application for deferred action is still pending. The possibility of a Romney victory concerns him and his friends, who are also immigrants.

“If the president don’t stay in [office], it’s going to be hard for us to go to college and make our goals,” he said.

Attorney Caroline Stephenson in her office in Crown Heights. Stephenson said that her clients, most of whom are West Indian, worry about access to health care, education, and transportation should Mitt Romney be elected president. (Philippe Theise)

Stephenson reports that her other clients, the majority of whom are West Indian, share José’s concern about a potential Romney presidency.

“People are scared. Very scared,” she said. “[They’re asking] ‘Will I be able to access certain basic things?’” such as health care and education.

Stephenson also said that Romney’s idea of “self-deportation” is vague and unrealistic.

“No one fully understands what that is about. I don’t understand what it means myself,” she said.

“No one volunteers to return home.”

While José waits for the results of the election and his application, he has a message for those who would deny young undocumented immigrants a chance to live in the U.S.

“They need to give us an opportunity to show them how we are, we can make this place better. To give us just one opportunity in this life.”

On Sunday, September 23rd, Dmitry “Mitch” Pankov and Collin Scotese of Overall Murals painted a new sign for W.H. Christian & Sons, a Greenpoint company that opened in 1924. Overall also created the Tom Lawless Whiskey mural on North 11th Street in Williamsburg, and has worked on projects for the Whitney Bienniale, the Jewish Museum, and various restaurants and cafés in New York.

Mitch, who owns the business with his partner, Angel Saemai, has a background in studio art and graffiti. He prefers the traditional look of hand-painted work to that of vinyl signs, which are less expensive to make.

I asked Mitch how often he’s painting these days. It turns out that the regular workweek can’t accommodate all of his projects. “It’s Sunday,” he said, laughing.

Mitch and Collin work on the sign for W.H. Christian & Sons, Inc., a Greenpoint business, on Sunday, September 23rd.

Collin, who studied art history in college, began working for Overall after Mitch painted a sign at the restaurant where Collin’s brother is a chef.

Mitch, who went to art school in Russia, enjoys the projects that present new challenges.

The surface of brick is “super porous” and recessed, Mitch said. Painting on it creates a traditional effect.

Collin and Mitch work side by side above the southern end of Franklin Street in Greenpoint.

(‘Nuff said.)

The work progresses into the mid-afternoon.

Working solo near day’s end, Mitch adds light green lines to the sign.

Mitch descends to the street to have a look.

The artist takes it in.

By applying charcoal dust through porous paper, Mitch outlines W.H. Christian & Sons’ phone number on the yellow oval.

The nearly finished sign above Franklin Street. Mitch returned the following morning to complete the job.

Hassan Achmad stands in front of his food cart near Madison Square Garden on Thursday, August 23, 2012. (Philippe Theise)

Hassan Achmad sells Halal food from a cart near the corner of 31st Street and 7th Avenue by Madison Square Garden. The menu, which features standbys such as falafel, chicken, and lamb, doesn’t appear to have a particular national identity, but Achmad cooks his yellow rice with salt, black pepper, rosemary, and a little sugar, ingredients he would use in his native Morocco. Speaking in a mixture of French and English, Achmad said he hopes to study business here and become an investor. After he made a chicken and lamb sandwich on a pita, I asked him if he had any investment ideas as yet. “J’imagine,” he said, a sentence that, in this city, needs almost no translation.