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Tag Archives: Earl Mays
New Inspiration for Eric Orr
Eric Orr sat at a wooden fold up table in his living room. His quick and then suddenly slow sharpie pen strokes created an echo that traveled throughout his Parkchester apartment. He sketched a version of Rapper Max Robot, a comic book character he created back in 1986. Despite Orr’s artistic safe haven being his home, he may make a change to his creative environment.
Orr grew up in Parkchester. A true Bronx native, he has lived there for 41 years. The neighborhood, he said, nurtured him as an artist. “The Metropolitan Oval is great I normally sit there and take in the environment and get inspiration from the people and I have always created right here in this apartment.,” said Orr.
He started out as a graffiti artist and was one of the few people to work with Keith Haring. In the early 80s, he created logos for various Hip Hop acts such as, Jazzy Jay, Afrika Bambaataa, Zulu Nation, and Lord Finesse. During this period, Orr created Rapper Max Robot, the first Hip Hop comic book character. Now 54 years old, Orr’s work today still consists of art and design.
His art allowed him to work for major record companies such as Jive, MCA and Uni. He designed items for the New Zealand based D.J. software company Serato and is going to New Zealand in November to paint a Mural for the company’s 15 year anniversary. “I will also be attending the upcoming Comic Con at the Jacob Javitz Center to promote Rapper Max Robot,” said Orr.
“I attribute walking with an open mind and taking in everything around me as my way of gaining inspiration,” said Orr. Open mindedness is a value Orr cherishes and he is disappointed at what he views as closed mindedness taking a toll in his community.
“When I first moved to Parkchester, the population was made up of whites and Blacks with a few Hispanics,”said Orr. There has been an influx of different minorities and demographics have shifted to a larger number of people from Hispanic and middle eastern decent from the previous black and white dominance. According to the Social Explorer, Hispanics make up a total of 39 percent of the population followed by African Americans at 20 percent. Over the past ten years, there was an increase of people migrating from Bangladesh who now make up about 15 percent of the population.
“Tolerance is a major issue in the area. We have families coming from different parts of the world and we need to learn their culture and be more understanding. They also need to be more understanding of our culture and what was here before they came,” said Orr. A series of hate crimes has plagued the Bangladeshi community. According to The Daily News, the most recent attack occurred back in August 2013 when a cab driver was attacked leaving his mosque in the Parkchester area. Incidents like this are what Orr refers to as closed mindedness reminding him of the judgmental prejudices that still exist in America.
Despite these incidents, his faith in the neighborhood remains. “I learned when I was in school the more banks your community has the more economically sound it is. We have 6 banks in the neighborhood. If they start closing then we should be concerned,” said Orr. While he loves his childhood neighborhood, he thinks it is time for a change. “I would like a change of environment and to be closer to a body of water,” said Orr. He cites water as being an inspiration to him.
As a result of working with Serato, Orr travels back and forth between the U.S. and New Zealand spending six months here and six months there. Among other things, he received a commission by Sky City, the owners of the Pin Needle skyscraper, to teach workshops to children in New Zealand. He is thinking about moving. “I love Parkchester, I love New York, but there is not enough water change, not enough culture change for me and that’s what I like about New Zealand. It’s on the other side of the world and doesn’t have the same mind set as us,” said Orr.
Posted in Profiles
Tagged Earl Mays, Parkchester, Profiles
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Joe Gould’s Secret Response
Joseph Mitchell’s is very descriptive in his writing and paints a clear picture of Joe Gould. Mitchell’s first draft Professor Sea Gull is written as a feature story. The writing is descriptive, but the language in this piece is dated at times. “Once in a while he trudges up to Harlem and goes to one of the establishments known as “Extensions of Heavens” that are operated by followers of Father Divime, the Negro evangelist,” is an example of Mitchell’s use of dated language. His references to African Americans, prices of things and describing Gould as a Bohemian keep the writing trapped in a time period.
The language in Mitchell’s rewrite, Joe Gould’s Secret, is more lively and timeless. The overall flow of the rewrite is that of a novel and not a basic feature. The descriptions are more compelling and the piece is organized different from Professor Sea Gull. This allowed Mitchell to develop Gould in a chronological order with more detail about his background. The reorganization further allowed the reader to connect more with Gould’s character. As a result, Joe Gould’s Secret is longer than the original. In this case, longer is better because the writing is more contemporary and easier to read through. The downside is that the essence of the time period that is written becomes blurred, but the reader is reassured by the mention of dates and specific historical events.
Mitchell’s writing clearly matured in between the original and the rewrite. He seem to have learned more about Gould the second time around. Mitchell’s opinion is clear because both pieces seem to be written from his point of view. Joe Gould’s Secret contains more of his opinion than his original. Mitchell’s uses first person in the rewrite to personally describe Gould. In Professor Gould, he is more neutral describing the situation in third person, but not from specific personal opinion. This is what makes Joe Gould’s secret more of a novel or modern feature.
Posted in Joseph Mitchell
Tagged Earl Mays, Joseph Mitchell
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Protected: Parkchester Provides Creative Inspiration
Posted in ProfilesDRAFTS
Tagged Earl Mays, Profile Draft
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Parkchester Community Background
Located in south central Bronx is Parkchester. It is a residential community situated on 121 acres of land and made up of 160 buildings. The complex was built from 1939-1942 and contains about 12,000 apartments. Approximately 40,000-45,000 people call Parkchester home. Parkchester’s website has the median income at around $50,000. According to the Social explorer, out of this population there are about 10,024 apartments that are rented and 2,926 apartments that are owned. There are also about 377 vacant apartments. The neighborhood is fairly diverse. The largest cultural group is Latinos making up 61 percent of the population. The second largest group is Whites comprising about 26 percent. African Americans make up about 20 percent. There have been an increasing number of people of Bangladeshi descent in the community. This cultural group makes up about 15 percent of the population.
Females have a high concentration making up about 52 percent of the population. Males make up about 47 percent. The median age is about 36. People under 18 years old make up about 29 percent of the population. There are seven schools in the area which include PS 106, Bronx Charter School of Excellence, Castle Hill Middle School, St. Helena Elementary School, St. Raymond’s Elementary School, St. Raymond’s Academy for Girls, and St. Raymond’s High School for Boys. There are a total of two Catholic churches, a Baptist church, a synagogue, and two Mosques located in the area.
The neighborhood has a distinct shopping area known as the Yankee Mall. The major stores include Macy’s, Starbucks, Walgreens, Sprint, AT&T, Dress Barnes, Footaction, GameStop, New York and Company, two Chase bank locations, Bank of America, HSBC Bank, Sovereign Bank, Applebees, Ellie’s Diner, Popeye’s, Burger King, Portabella, Rainbows, Radio Shak, Sleepees, Subway, Zales, Payless, Kid’s Place, Children’s Place, Metro Optics, seven bodega’s, six Chinese food restaurants, Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Little Ceasar’s Pizza, Step Ins Restaurant, A Jewelry store, two cleaners, five supermarkets, 4 barber shops/beauty salons, Blink Fitness, American Beauty School, a record store and a Post Office that service most of the general area in zip code 10462. There is a Carter’s currently being built. Also, the are currently about six vacant commercial locations in the area. The American Theater which has been in the community since its opening in 1943 closed its doors on September 16, 2013. This is the second theater closing in community board 9. Whitestone Cinemas also recently closed down last month.
The community also offers many services to its residents. It has its own security and maintenance forces. It also has the Kid’s bay boys and girls club for it youth. The area is a transportation hub. Parkchester has its own train station on the no. 6 line. It also has several buses that pass through the area such as: the Bx 4 and 4A, the Bx 39, Bx 36, Bx 22, Bx 40, Bx 42, the Q44 and M6 express bus. Despite these amenities, residents that own cars have difficulty finding parking. Other community issues include the closing of businesses that have long been in the community in order to make room for big name stores. Based on the Social Explorer, Parkchester is the start of the more economically affluent side of the Bronx stretching to Throggs Neck. Increasing rent prices is another potential community issue. The quality of education in the community is also a common issue throughout the Bronx and the area.
Parkchester’s Fruit Stand Man
At the corner of Metropolitan and McGraw Avenues, a fruit stand is set up every morning to serve passersby. This ritual has been carried out Monday through Saturday by its owner for over twenty years. The owner whose name is soon to be known should have an in depth knowledge about the demographics of the community. The stand is located on the block at the start of Parkchester’s sea of buildings with its distinct brick architecture. This fruit stand is one out of six street merchants that line this block. It is a hot commodity for these types of business people because it is located a block away from the no. 6 train station, its right before the start of Yankee Mall and it contains buildings that are not part of the Parkchester complex.
The main questions are how long have you been selling fruit in the community? Do you also live nearby? Surely, he should know of some of the key issues in Parkchester. The fact that he has definitely been in business for over twenty years should also give incite to where he sees business in the community going. The stand attracts all types of residents and shoppers he could possibly know a lot about the community activities that take place. The general area is consider to be part of Parkchester. Does he get to participate in the community planning and activism? Everyone in the neighborhood knows that on the corner is the fruit stand. Is there a formal claim to this space or has it become understood over the years?
Amanda Burden
Julie Satow’s profile makes all the journalistic stops in writing a piece that gives the reader the full picture. She has included commentary from people for Ms. Burden’s way of doing things and against it. Arguably, Satow’s seems to sneak in her point of view in the way she structured this article. The reader gets know Ms. Burden through her fashion sense and younger years socializing among society’s elite. This causes a problem because Ms. Burden’s first class status then haunts the story.
At times, her status makes her seem she could care less about the poor in lines such as, “gentrification is merely a pejorative term for necessary growth.” The kicker in this story makes me believe the author’s point of view is that Ms. Burden is out to make the city only for the well to do. The title further solidifies my thoughts on this. This article seems to be more of a pledge against gentrification disguised as a profile about the planning commissioner.
