by Vincent Katz
to Etel Adnan
I suddenly see a magenta light projecting from a building amid steam
Those are the stakes, you have to pull them up and move ahead
Listening to the opera on the radio, Saturday night, trying to
Figure out the composer, classical but not Mozart, there’s nothing on,
But the lights outside on new looming buildings and squat older ones
Tell a different story, one of endless occupation of space
In the opera, Iphigénie en Tauride, already the sky is getting dark,
Buildings to the west still reflect light, nearby brick chimneys darkening,
The day was so bright, so survived by one who was sick, who lay
On the sofa immobile, but then got up to have chicken soup and tea
And began to feel a little better, a new small metal chimney top,
Baker’s cap top spins listlessly to the left, I love the winter as much as
The summer, the lights that proceed up the building under construction
Glimmer slightly as if modestly wishing to excuse themselves,
A helicopter stands stark still in the sky blinking red and white lights,
Now it swivels like an insect, now moves slowly to its right, the sky
A slate color, broad and encompassing, flat yet wholly permitting
Different states of mind in the rattle of radiator pipes and yellowish
Lights on in the apartment buildings across the way and even further,
Out where other lives are gathering, far from this dark wall in front
A CITY MARRIAGE
A municipal marriage at Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building
They exit onto the sidewalk to applause
Huge Corinthian columns nestle amid yellow leaves
A happy group of 10, greeting, laughing, hugging, then settling down to smoking and chatting
Large red berries among the green and yellow leaves
THE TRUE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IS THE FIRMEST PILLAR OF GOOD GOVERNMENT
So it says above the august entry to the New York State Supreme Court Building, and we believe it, despite a slight error in the quotation
But how do we ensure the true administration of justice?
There’s a small area behind 60 Centre Street full of honey locust and ginkgo leaves
Now in autumn all yellow still mainly on the trees
You look up and see them against the grey courthouse granite
And are put under their spell
Two granite sculptures frame the back entrance to 60 Centre
Two women representing state and statute
Curious how—while for millennia women were granted little to no public role
—their scantily clad forms were often invoked to embody timeless ideals
A lock and a key are testaments to a terrible legacy and personal trauma
Keys to Lorenzo Pace’s Spirit sculpture anchoring Foley Square at the city’s civic center
Along with water, barks, and land, passages in pursuit of sustenance and horrific passages across
The firmest pillar of just government is memory
Centre Street
Centre and Pearl…
The center of a world, the civic center, a man stands in black suit, white shirt, dark tie, hands in his jacket pockets, hips slung forward, at the top of the imposing steps to the United States Courthouse
He’s exactly in the center, pondering he’s not sure what, just there for a moment in the center, rocking on the balls of his feet
He glances to his right, oblivious of the gigantic statement standing right in front of him
People get things out of a car, walk across the square, and there are two hot-dog stands
It’s not cold yet
A few blocks hence, sentinels rise, as they have for decades now, since the 1990s, Manhattan Sentinels, they rise to protect us, from the Latin sentire, to observe, but also to feel
One, quite phallic, on one side of the square rises between a highrise and that strange, Brutalist AT&T Long Lines Building
On the other side, three more sedate, functional sentinels stand guard opposite the African Burial Ground National Monument
Today, yellow leaves form a carpet on the ground near the Wedding Garden, people walk by, each in their own human rhythm
Even more than the sculptures, more than the paintings, the rain water that gathers on paving stones, collecting yellow honey locust leaves and reflections
The New York State Supreme Court Building, originally designed as imposing Roman-like circular edifice with suitably imperial pricetag,
Began life in 1919 with the smaller, less expensive, hexagonal design it presents today
Referred to as Temple of Justice, elusive term
First Citizen Augustus established Iustitia as a Roman divinity, temple to her inaugurated in 14 BCE
Thereafter, Roman emperors insisted on being linked with her
She was more idea, however, than goddess
With its porch fronted by 10 Corinthian columns, the building does give off a little bit of a Pantheonian air
The park across Centre Street used to be a swamp surrounded by three British prisons for revolutionaries
In the Bridewell, it was not uncommon for prisoners to die from wind and cold
Then, after the swampland became infested with mosquitoes, and the people with money moved out, it became Five Points,
Notorious gangland, observed in Jacob Riis’s famous photo of “Bandit’s Roost”
Freed slaves lived cheek by jowl with Irish immigrants
Since 1977, 1.88 acres of it have been called Thomas Paine Park
Paine’s Common Sense and other writings called for representative government
Held in place and supported by a ratified and difficult to change constitution
It was a gamble, but has in general provided greater freedoms than most other forms of government
Unfortunately, it also left the way open for neo-liberal freedom,
The recent “victory” of capital threatening destruction of the entire
Enterprise, before its arc can bend all the way to Justice
An abolitionist, Paine defended freedom of expression, envisioned a league of nations:
My country is the world, my religion to do good
One sees statues and assumes they reside where originally dedicated, but this is often not the case
The statue of Abraham de Peyster, for instance, now sits at
The northwestern entrance to Thomas Paine Park, kitty-corner to a Starbucks
It was rededicated on July 8, 2014, the 357th anniversary of de Peyster’s baptism
NYC’s mayor in the late 17th century, he was also an acting governor for the king
Needless to say, he amassed fantastic wealth
Two hundred years later, his great-great-great-grandson commissioned the statue
Originally sited on Bowling Green, it was vandalized and in the 1970s
Given a new pink granite pedestal in Hanover Square near the bottom of the island
After 9/11, Hanover Square was rededicated to British victims of the attacks
And de Peyster was sent packing, this time to Thomas Paine Park, where in 2013 he came to rest
One wonders where he’ll move next
A short walk away from Five Points, yet, crucially, still above the palisades,
One enters the precinct of the African Burial Ground
The African Burial Ground is a National Monument, one of 130 in the country,
Many established by presidents following the precedent set
by Teddy Roosevelt’s 1906 Antiquities Act
In New York City, we have the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island, Castle Clinton,
Stonewall, and the African Burial Ground
Barack Obama established more national monuments than any other president
About Stonewall, he said, “Stonewall will be our first national monument to tell the story of the struggle of LGBT rights. I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country—the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us.”
He also established the Cesar Chavez National Monument, the Harriet Tubman
National Monument, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, the
Honouliuli National Monument (an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during WWII), the
Pullman National Monument, memorializing the 1894 railway strike led by Eugene Debs, and
the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, in honor of suffragist Alice Paul and
the National Women’s Party, among more than 20 others
He quadrupled a maritime national monument first established by George W. Bush,
expanding the area surrounding the western Hawaiian archipelago to half a
million square miles, the maximum allowed by international law
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument contains some of the world’s northernmost and healthiest coral reefs, including the world’s oldest animals, black corals over 4,000 years old
The hope was for a network of “blue parks,” that other countries would follow suit, similarly protecting large areas of ocean
Papahānaumokuākea is a sacred zone, from which all life comes and to which it shall return
A Hawaiian creation myth tells of a mother figure, Papahānaumoku, associated with the Earth, and Wākea, a father figure representing the sky
Joining together, they made the Hawaiian archipelago, today still home to myriad endangered and unidentified plant and animal species
The African Burial Ground, though, was not established by Obama
This large area, just north of the official city limits of the time, was discovered in 1991
The excavations for a government building revealed not simply bones but burials
Bones had been discovered before, but they had not been given importance by their white discoverers
By the late 18th century, slave labor was essential to New York’s white populace, and there was a large slave population of African descent
New York was the second-largest slave city after Charleston
The Dutch had had slaves in New Amsterdam with possibilities of manumission and prohibitions against “arbitrary physical punishment”
When the British took over in 1664, those things changed
Backbreaking labor and harsh physical punishment were essential to how households and businesses functioned,
Bolstered by the classic practices of separating families and suppressing communication
There were some free African Americans, and there were some few possibilities for meeting
But the lives of even the free African Americans were severely limited
In 1697, Trinity Church gained control of burials and prohibited the burials of those of African descent within the city limits
The new area for burials of African Americans was next to the Collect Pond, later to become the swampy area that became Five Points, now Foley Square
But it covered quite a large area, from what is now Thomas Paine Park to City Hall
On maps from the time, you can find it located as “Negros Buriel Ground”
In the early 1990s, during excavations for the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway,
The remains of 419 women, children, and men were discovered
After some debate as to what this signified and what to do, and much activism from
African American stakeholders, who knew exactly what it signified and exactly what to do,
In 2003, these souls were reburied, this time with full public honors, in a manner determined by the stakeholders, by chosen ritual, music, dance, and incantation in the Rites of Ancestral Return
And that historic civic and cultural accomplishment
Does show the arc bending a little more toward Justice,
Which Plato defined as doing the right thing because it is right, not for some external reward, and Cornel West defined simply as public love
But approximately 15,000 people of African origin were buried in this region, and the vast majority still lie under buildings
In some real way, they are still propping up the economic activities that are engaged in daily in the rectangle bounded by Chambers and Duane, Broadway and Centre
So many things were recovered:
A woman buried with beads and cowrie shells around her waist
Brass buttons found with a male skeleton probably fastened his trousers
Usually, people were buried not in clothing but wrapped in shrouds
People were buried in full-size coffins, covered, with coins over their eyes
Their heads toward the west, so that they would face the east when they arose
Only small groups were allowed to congregate for the daytime-only burials
But we can be certain leave was taken with ultimate respect and all due honors and rituals
In 1794, the burial ground was closed, the land was filled in, lots were sold, and building on top of the burial sites commenced
More rage and sorrow must have accompanied those whose friends or relatives had graves in that place
The burials were by force abandoned and lay forgotten for almost two centuries
The plaque at Lorenzo Pace’s Triumph of the Human Spirit sculpture reads in part:
“This sculpture is dedicated to all the unknown and unnamed enslaved Africans
Brought to this country including the 427 Africans excavated near this site which
Is now the rediscovered New York City African Burial Ground”
He includes a drawing of the lock and key he inherited from his uncle, the lock the
artist’s great-great-grandfather had to wear during his enslavement
Nearby, circular plaques embedded in the plaza floor bear short historical statements
One reads, “The Powder House gibbet was the site of the ‘Slave Conspiracy’ executions by hanging. Executions by burning at the stake occurred further east on Magazine Street. Judge D. Horsmanden described the events in his journal.”
That’s a pretty cryptic statement to describe an alleged insurrection in 1741 for which there was no direct evidence
Bitterly cold winters, poverty, tensions between poor whites and blacks, but also the fear that poor whites and blacks could be joining forces against rich whites,
Fires that could have been started by anyone, always the pretext, then mock trials,
And ultimately over 100 people hanged, burned at the stake, or exiled
17 black men, two white men, and two white women hanged at the gibbet on the narrow strip of land between Collect Pond and Little Collect
Farther east, on Magazine Street, 13 more were burned at the stake
Below that insufficient statement on the plaque, marking the edge of the circle, run the words, “…unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today, many different events are occurring daily around Foley Square
People are suing and getting sued, corruption is being investigated
And overlooked, evidence is not sufficient for conviction, is the defendant
Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? What i
s a reasonable doubt?
Some are convicted, damages are determined in the form of money
And many are simply part of the machinery, going about their lives as usual,
Selling coffee to strangers, delivering briefs from one hallway to another
On the Criminal Courts Building, the voice of sixth-century Justinian:
JUSTICE IS THE FIRM AND CONTINUOUS DESIRE
TO RENDER TO EVERY MAN HIS DUE
But what exactly should be every person’s due?
That is something worth thinking about
Today, another marriage at the Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building
On the steps outside, it’s as though she’s onstage in Vegas
In a tight white dress and fluffy white jacket, she holds up a bouquet of white flowers
Taunting her friends almost—You see it? You want it?—higher she holds it
Turns away from them and swinging her arms wide tosses it backward over her head
A wooden palisade like a stockade has been built up in the street to protect some work
We can’t see who the lucky recipient is
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank the following for their contributions to this book. To Deborah Garrison, the book’s editor, for her poetic intelligence, subtlety, and grace; she, above all, is responsible for the fact that this book exists at all and specifically in the form in which it does. To Todd Portnowitz, for being the perfect shepherd for this project, for his care and diligence every step of the way. To Vivien Bittencourt, Ada Katz, Alex Katz, Isaac Katz, Oliver Katz, Anne Waldman, Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal, Elaine Equi, Jerome Sala, Audrey Coombe, Steve Dickison, Norma Cole, Andrei Codrescu, and Bob Holman for their helpful comments and support. To Beat Streuli, for the inspiring humanism of his street photography, and for letting us use a detail of his photo on the jacket of this book.
The poems in section 2 first appeared in the chapbook Figures of Beach and City, published in 2018 by Libellum books and Bookstein Projects, both of New York. In the mid-1970s, the author met the painter Paul Resika at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. They spoke briefly about poetry, and the encounter remained in the author’s mind. Some forty years later, he looked Resika up and asked if he could visit his studio. The titles of the poems in this section come from titles of gouaches by Resika found in his publication Figures on the Beach [n.d., circa 1991]. In addition, “Broadway for Paul” and “Lincoln Plaza” were written after visiting the artist’s studio on upper Broadway.
