View allAll Photos Tagged commit
Another shot for the 'commit' theme. This time I've gone for religion. This is something which takes a lot of commitment and one commitment that I dont have.
I used to go to church every week when I was a kid as well as various church related groups. Part of growing up in Northern Ireland i suppose - religion is everywhere.
Now that I've been out and about in the real world for many years I have decided that whilst I believe that there must be something after death I cant commit to believing in traditional religion.
Religion has played a massive part in conflicts all over the world. I have first hand knowledge of the Northern Irish conflict and the part that religion played.
It doesnt matter if a person is Catholic, Protestant or Muslim (to name a few) they are all people and people are all equal!
I might not like religion but I do like the architecture!
This photo was taken near the corner of Barrow and Hudson Street in Greenwich Village.
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This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing vanything, walk both sides of the street.
That's all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
Oh, one last thing: I've created a customized Google Map to show the precise details of each day's photo-walk. I'll be updating it each day, and the most recent part of my every-block journey will be marked in red, to differentiate it from all of the older segments of the journey, which will be shown in blue. You can see the map, and peek at it each day to see where I've been, by clicking on this link
URL link to Ed's every-block progress through Manhattan
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...
This photo was taken near the corner of Gay Street and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village.
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This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing vanything, walk both sides of the street.
That's all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
Oh, one last thing: I've created a customized Google Map to show the precise details of each day's photo-walk. I'll be updating it each day, and the most recent part of my every-block journey will be marked in red, to differentiate it from all of the older segments of the journey, which will be shown in blue. You can see the map, and peek at it each day to see where I've been, by clicking on this link
URL link to Ed's every-block progress through Manhattan
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...
My head, it landed.....
TOTW: Lyrically Inspired..... Since I am so scared of commitment, I couldnt commit to 30 songs in 30 days, so at least I get to play along a little!
Janes Addiction- Three Days
I would provide you with a link so that you may listen to this song I love, but all the verisons on the internet were taken by a guy with a cell phone camera and it looked like he was filming during an earthquake, so I will spare you. I absolutley love this song, it is in heavy rotation on my IPod. When it comes on, I like to listen to it as loud as I can and I like to play air bass. Plus when I was younger I had quite the crush in Dave Navarro. I have outgrown that. He wears more eyeliner than me.
Three days was the morning.
My focus three days old.
My head, it landed
To the sounds of cricket bows...
I am proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...
Three ways was the morning.
Three lovers, in three ways.
We knew when she landed,
Three days she'd stay.
I am a proud man anyway...
Covered now by three days...
We saw shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one.
Shadows of the morning light
the shadows of the evening sun
till the shadows and the light were one...
True hunting is over.
No herds to follow.
Without game, men prey on each other.
The family weakens by the bite we swallow...
True leaders gone,
Of land and people.
We choose no kin but adopted strangers.
The family weakens by the length we travel...
All of us with wings...
All of us with wings...
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
All of us with wings!
Erotic Jesus lays with his Marys.
Loves his Marys.
Bits of puzzle,
Fitting each other.
All now with wings!
Oh my Marys!
Never wonder...
Night is shelter
For nudity's shiver...
All now with wings...
The BC Search and Rescue Association received $10 million in one-time funding from the Province to help bolster training, administrative support and equipment renewals.
Minister of State for Emergency Preparedness Naomi Yamamoto announced that the BC Search and Rescue Association will work with its membership to bolster ground search and rescue services across British Columbia. Once allocated, the funding will be spent according to the needs of the local ground search and rescue teams, replacing or updating equipment, providing administrative support and paying for new or additional training.
This investment builds on the $6.3 million that the BC government already provided this year to cover ground search and rescue operational costs for deployment, as well as training and equipment costs, and the insurance and liability for the members of the 80 groups serving across the BC landscape.
Across Canada, ground search and rescue teams take part in roughly 2,000 ground rescues each year; 65 per cent of those rescues take place in BC.
For more information, please visit:
my second page for Em's Art Journal Challenge. The word being "commit" I journaled a litte about how I find there is no proper German equivalent to that word.
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
COMMIT!Forum at the Westin Hotel in Times Square on October 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photos by Ben Hider)
Snapped this pic of this gorgeous M3 with a nun passing by. I thought of the sin of lust she was committing when she looked at it as she walked past. Let me know how you like it!
Brookline 2012
This runner was limping but would not stop. I did see another picture of him getting medical but it was taken before he got to me. Run on
The premiere of Generation Startup at the 2016 COMMIT!Forum, the Westin Hotel in Times Square on October 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photos by Ben Hider)
[Leo Frank Museum and Gallery Curator: Commentary submitted by anonymous audience member who examined a major section of Roy Barnes' speech at Mercer Law School. Tuesday, November 12, 2019. End of curator commentary.]
A polite open letter to Former Governor of Georgia, Roy Barnes:
Dear Roy Barnes,
Please consider this a polite request for you Roy Barnes to please step down as the senior advisor of Atlanta Georgia's Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU)
Please understand there is No pressure, No obligations, and No Rush but, Roy Barnes, many students of the Leo Frank case are asking that you please mull an option in the name of fairness and justice, to deeply meditate on stepping down from the Conviction Integrity Unit.
As the CIU's senior most advisor to DA Paul Howard, you have shown yourself publicly to not be fit for the position. You have been pushing hoaxes to the public of jury tampering, even if you pawn them off as reports from the time, you don't seem to have the temperament for this position as an impartial counselor. The things you are asserting at public meeting are beyond the pale and don't reflect someone with the calm disposition to look at the Leo Frank legal records with new eyes, nor dispassionate eyes.
Roy Barnes, with a smidgen of self-reflection, you might see with personal reflection that you don't, in numerous senses, have the curious scientist's spirit which looks at the facts first and then comes to the conclusions. You seem to be presenting only evidence of Leo Frank supposed innocence, and never seem to share the evidence that was against him. It's clear you have a biased agenda.
Roy Barnes, you don't seem to have the soul of a conscientious judge-- an arbiter who goes into a trial without preconceived determinations. A fair-minded jurist, does not take side at the beginning of an inquiry, he allows the facts, testimony, exhibits and evidence to lead him to the truth. Those kinds of mental architectures of a person with logical outlooks are needed to fairly evaluate, first the Case of Mary Phagan, especially the investigation and interviews, and the series of events which lead to the indictment, trial and appeals of Leo M. Frank.
Roy Barnes, you don't have the majestic symbolic mind posed by the beautiful women, lady justice, blind folded from illusions, with the scales of justice being held high with impartiality.
Question: Roy Barnes are you a thoughtful judge-minded modern day man who tries to be truly impartial in the 21st-century, or are you fighting for Leo Frank's defense team from the early 20th century? This question is asked of you, because, Roy Barnes, you have made your position clear that you think Leo Frank--who was convicted--is innocent and Jim Conley--who was not convicted of murder--is guilty of the murder.
Rhetorical question: With that position hard wired in your brain, how can their ever be prudence applied to reviewing the facts of Leo Frank's legal saga?
Roy Barnes, the citizens of Georgia are beginning to believe that you might possibly think that because Leo Frank was not protected while he was incarcerated in the penitentiary and therefore, wantonly assassinated, this some how causes a time travelers loop, where the lynching of Frank, creates an H.G. Wells time machine that goes back and stops Leo Frank from committing aggravated battery, sodomy-rape and slaying Mary Phagan.
Roy Barnes, the lynching of Leo Frank was ILLEGAL.
Roy Barnes the lynching of Leo Frank was IMMORAL.
Roy Barnes the lynching of Leo Frank was UNETHICAL IN THE EXTREME.
Roy Barnes the lynching of Leo Frank was EXTRAJUDICIAL.
but the lynching of Leo Frank is not a time machine, it doesn't cause a UFO to appear, that goes back in time and prevents Mary Phagan from going to the factory that day.
In other words Roy Barnes, the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, does not put you outside the office of Leo Frank on April 26, 1913, with an envelope filled with $1.20 in period coinage, for you to hand it to Mary Phagan, and tell her to never come back to the factory again.
Do you get that Roy? Do you get that prisoner's being killed outside the law is not ever justice? But that it also doesn't magically undue the heinous crimes convicted criminals had committed?
Are you getting this Roy? That we all agree with you that Leo Frank's lynching was a perversion of justice, but that it doesn't magically go back in time, and prevent the former Pencil manufacturing superintendent from beating the shit out of Mary Phagan in the National Pencil Company's second-floor machine department on April 26, 1913, during its noon hour?
Does that make sense, Roy Barnes? It's an honest question.
Do you get it Roy Barnes, that the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 doesn't go backward in time and prevent the former Pencil manufacturing superintendent from defiling Mary Phagan while she was unconscious, after he knocked her out cold, by slamming the young child's head onto the steel handle of a large drill press in the machine department?
Do you get it Roy Barnes, that the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, doesn't park H.G. Wells time machine in a parking space at your office, where you can go back in time at the last moment, and have a police conversation with Leo Frank to please kindly remove the garrote from Mary Phagan's throat, and lets think this through?
Do you get it Roy Barnes, that the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, doesn't let you go back to 1913, and rent a penthouse hotel room at the piedmont, where you can leisurely go down to the National Pencil Company at 11:30pm on April 26, 1913, and show Leo Frank a print out of the Wikipedia article on him, and all the con-artist books written on him, so that he changes his mind from raping and strangling Mary Phagan?
Do you get that Roy Barnes?
Do we Mercer Law Students and You Roy Barnes, have an agreed understanding and meeting of the minds that the lynching of Leo Frank was, pure and simple, was an act of murder?
Forget about the fact that the 60th Governor of Georgia Jack Slaton was the most prominent owner-partner of the law firm which represented Leo Frank up until his trial, defending him through his trial and state appeals. Lets forget that fact Jack Slaton was a corrupt Governor who should have recused himself and that it was unconstitutional that he commuted the capital punishment sentence of his law client. Lets put that aside for a minute, Roy Barnes.
The Lynching was still wrong.
But it doesn't make him innocent.
Convicted murderers don't get their murder convictions thrown out because they were vilely killed during their life of incarceration.
Do you get that Roy Barnes? Does that sink in?
Can you marinate on that Roy?
Do you see why you're not fit to be the highest ranking advisor on a committee whose job it is to look at the Leo Frank case without emotion, but logic? without emotion but empiricism? without hate crime hoaxes and shams about the shit in the shaft magically exonerating Leo Frank? Without the wishful thinking of the Alonzo Mann's 1980s perjury?
Roy Barnes, we Mercer students don't think you have what it takes in you to be honest, honorable and serve with integrity on the Conviction Integrity Unit.
Please do the right thing, and give it your best mulling, to step down from the conviction integrity unit, you're just doing more harm than good.
You're literally poisoning any chance of a fair hearing with repeated accusations about "reports at the time" of the jury being threatened with anti-Semitic terrorism on a daily (how many days does that total, Roy Barnes if it was everyday) basis during that 4 week trial (July 28- August 26, 1913).
Roy Barnes, Please we don't need that bullshit being flicked and flung around on TV. Everyone in Georgia saw you on 11Alive news, we saw you mouth those words.
Roy Barnes, How can you be the senior advisor of the Conviction Integrity Unit when you go around promoting the so-called reports at the time of jury tampering which have mutated over the years, when you have access to the courtroom records, newspaper reports from the time and the full appellate reviews of the Ga court of appeals, which never mention mobs terrorizing the jury on a morningly basis?
Roy Barnes, How can the case of Leo Frank be fairly evaluated when you were shown on TV via 11Alive saying that EVERY MORNING during the month long trial crowds shouted anti-Semitic terrorist threats at the jury, "HANG THE JEW OR WE'LL HANG YOU" as they walked to court?
Roy Barnes, We got you on film saying that. You repeated it at our Mercer Law School discussion, but this time you qualified it as something like "reports from the era"
Roy Barnes, If you decide you are a passionate member in Leo Frank's defense team, we ask you to present the full brief of evidence to every practicing attorney in Georgia and those retired too. While we're at it, lets have the whole bar study the trial transcript, published day by day, in the Atlanta daily newspapers (Constitution, Journal and Georgian) during the end of July to the end of August, and have them all closely review the Frank appeals with the highest and best in all of us.
If that's possible, Roy Barnes, we should at least try, we would like some checks and balances here, because you Roy Barnes, have lost your mind.
Roy Barnes, lets have a state-wide discussion of the full case of LMK with all law students and law professors in the borders of Georgia--is that unreasonable (?), that the full state of Georgia, and every citizen of the state of Georgia, is asked to read the original newspaper reports from the capitol's presses, published in the Atlanta constitution, Atlanta journal and Atlanta Georgian, and the questions and answers of the trial transcript in those newspapers?
Roy Barnes, How do these said recordings on antique type writers compare to the Georgia Supreme Court's majority responses? Where they too prejudiced and part of the grand conspiracy to conspire against Leo M. Frank?
And does District Attorney Hugh Dorsey's side of the state's case, the one presented in that very same Ga Supreme Court report filing, sift him as a man seeking: justice for the child sweatshop assembly line attendant OR unscrupulous injustice of framing an innocent man with a commitment to judicial murder?
Several sections of Roy Barnes's November 12, 2019 monologue at Mercer Law School, stands out. The most prominent being, what Journalist-Author Steve Oney, called, "The Shyte in the Shaft":
Roy Barnes during his speech at Mercer Law School on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019, in his monologue acts as if it's axiomatically a hard-fact that the primitive freight elevator in Atlanta's National Pencil Company of 1913, could NOT have been used during the noontime hour of Saturday, April 26, 1913, to transport Mary Phagan's dead and defiled body, down from the second floor of the factory, down two flights to the factory's cellar. The supposition of his reason why it didn't happen that way, is because the police took the freight elevator down to the said basement on Sunday morning, April 27th, 1913, it crushed some feces in the ground tray of the elevator shaft. At face value, and with limited information about the incident, it could easily be believable for those unfamiliar with the reports provided by investigators.
To summarize, Barnes touches briefly upon The elevator's maneuverability with dramatics, "Boom", referring to the "the shit in the shaft" (as journalist-author Steve Oney labeled it), and the smooshing of Conley's feces at the said base tray at the hard dirt floor ground in the elevator shaft at the front section of the basement, below the street entry of the National Pencil Company. Roy Barnes hints at this as something which tends to impeach Conley's testimony about how he and Leo Frank moved the cadaver of Mary Phagan and his series of evolving affidavits eludes to how the events took place. The undercurrent of Barnes' statements are this provides more exonerating evidence for Leo Frank, as part of a larger suite of perceived opinions on evidence absolving Frank of the rape-murder for which he was duly convicted.
Roy Barnes, presenting limited information, tries to make it out like the elevator was automated and that it would go all the way to the bottom on its own, after presumably pushing a button? But that's not how the elevator worked based on the descriptions of it. There was actually a rudimentary pull cord to pause the elevator's descent or ascent (not modern computerize numeric floor buttons like we have today), it wasn't just that the elevator cut off on its own presumably flipping a power switch when it reached the basement, the driver of the vertical elevator car had control.
Jim Conley in his testimony at the Leo Frank trial and his affidavits finally talks about how Leo Frank was so nervous with the elevator control cord that he hints it might have stopped the elevator before it hit the bottom on their descent, and again too soon before they ascended to the above floors, going back up toward the second floor. Leo Frank was said in Conley's testimony to have stopped the freight elevator too short, and upon exiting it, he tripped inside the elevator car catching the floor as he was trying to get out of it and thus fell backward right onto Jim Conley.
Surprise, Surprise, Roy Barnes never mentions these above-detailed descriptions in his 2019 monologue on that particular incident, of using the elevator to move Mary Phagan's body away from the metal room, located opposite Leo Frank's business office, to the rear corner of the basement where it was intended to be burned in a furnace--which Barnes essentially cites as a reason among others, why Leo Frank is innocent, and supposedly proof that in the noon hour of Saturday, April 26, 1913, they didn't use the means to transport the battered and bruised corpse of the 13-year-old girl to the basement.
James "Jim" Conley's meticulous details in several evolving affidavits and his trial testimony no August 4, 5, and 6th, 1913, at the Mary Phagan murder trial, about these said events, tend to show Leo Frank's nervous-erratic demeanor immediately post-murder and his mishandling of the elevator brake cord.
The freight elevator likely would not go all the way down to the cellar tray by a matter of some inches, because police initially described during their initial investigation at 3:40 o'clock a.m. that there was lots of trash in that bottom-most tray, and also found Mary Phagan's parasol right smack in the middle of it (there is even a contemporary diagram sketch of it). The police described the contents of the tray and moved that trash around, in search of clews, they might have moved the trash enough or removed some of it, so that later when they took the elevator down, it could actually go down all the way completely to the bottom. Later that morning in the presence of Leo Frank, they took the freight elevator down on April 27, 1913, in the daytime morning, when they had done so, it smooshed Conley's natural deposit he left there in the said tray.
What Roy Barnes also fails to also mention is those first-responder police officers who investigated the crime scene that morning on April 27, 1913, specifically reported they saw drag marks from the elevator shaft entryway, 140 feet across the hard dirt floor to the rear of the basement, where garbage was normally staged before being burned in the furnace, a furnace that provided heat and hot water to the factory. He uses the excuse that he has limited time, to give the audience the information they need to make an informed decision, to instead focus on the then-present and then-former government officials and prominent citizenry who organized to hang Leo Frank on August 17th, 1915, in fulfillment of the Mary Phagan murder trial jury's unanimous decision to recommend "no mercy" for Leo Frank on August 25th 1913, to therefore have the defendant be sentenced to capital punishment, and Judge Roan's ratification the next day of that verdict and sentencing decision on August 26, 1913.
[End of their response on the "Shit in the Shaft Hoax" being used to Exonerate Leo Frank]
Further Research:
Article: Former Governor Roy Barnes Discusses Leo Frank Case at Mercer Law School
41nbc.com/2019/11/13/former-georgia-gov-roy-barnes-discus...
VIDEO: Former Governor Roy Barnes at Mercer Law School, November 2019
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIviA9GXGQI
Please download this video before it gets intentionally censored or deleted to erase the evidence. VIDEO (Recommended): 11Alive Roy Barnes, May 7th 2019
Further Reading:
Mary Phagan Case Website by Phagan-Kean Family
The Leo Frank Case Scholarly Research Library
The Leo Frank Archive
The American Mercury
APPENDIX
The Roy Barnes & Mercer Law School Flier Transcription
The Leo Frank Case With Former GA Governor Roy Barnes, Tuesday November 12, 2019, Noon to 1:00 o'clock P.M. in Bell-Jones Courtroom "Hear from one of Georgia's best trial lawyers about one of the State's most notorious lynchings and the renewed investigation into the evidence from the controversial trial."
Lunch Provided.
Mercer Law School
Macon GA 31207
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Noon-1 P.M.
Bell-Jones Courtroom
MORE EVIDENCE of Roy Barnes promoting anti-White, anti-Southern and anti-Gentile hate crime hoaxes.
1. Roy Barnes on Georgia Public Broad Casting (GPB), promoting the anti-Gentile hate crime hoax, Source: www.gpbnews.org/post/former-gov-roy-barnes-reexamining-ce...
2. 11Alive Georgia News, March 7th, 2019, Roy Barnes claims crowds of people were making death threats at the trial jury every morning, Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tgKcqOXyhc
3. Mercer Law School, November 12, 2019, Roy Barnes cowardly weasels-out because Mary Phagan Kean is present at the monologue and instead of him regularly saying the hate crime hoax was definitive (He speaks assertively), he promotes it here at Mercer Law College as "reports at the time." When Mary Phagan Kean isn't present he claims it "authoritatively" as if it's a definitive fact. Source: youtu.be/TIviA9GXGQI
TRANSCRIPT OF THE EVENT
[Jack Saw Speaks] Alright, good afternoon!
Thank you, everybody, for joining us despite the rain and the cold. I'm Jack Saw, I'm the president of Historians in Law School, it's a student organization here at school, and we're excited, together with the school, and with the help of our Dean Kathy Cox, to be sponsoring this event. And we're excited to see such a good turnout, including my fellow students and alumni. Welcome back, and welcome home. And current attorneys here in town. So I'll turn it over to Dean Kathy Cox to introduce our speaker.
[Dean Kathy Cox Speaks] Thank you, Jack, and good afternoon to all of you. I want to say a special word of welcome to Judge Hugh Lawson. We are always glad to have you here judge and to my friend, and fellow public servant former state representative, Larry Walker, from Perry, who served in the Georgia legislature with Governor Barnes and me, we're glad that both of you could be here along with so many other friends, alumni and students today. It's a real pleasure to introduce you to former governor Roy Barnes.
Governor Barnes is a lifelong resident of Cobb County, Georgia. He is a “double dog,” having earned his history degree and his law degree from the University of Georgia and the Georgia law school. He first went to work as a prosecutor in the Cobb County District Attorney's office after graduating from law school, before opening his own law firm in Marietta, where he continues to practice today.
The political bug bit him really early. He was elected to the Georgia Senate at age 26, becoming the youngest member of the state senate at the time. He served eight terms in the Georgia State Senate, rising into numerous leadership positions, and also being appointed as chairman of the Select Commission on Constitutional Revision, which rewrote the Georgia Constitution in 1983. So if any of you students want to know any interpretation about the Georgia Constitution, he's your guy! (At least my view! – Roy Barnes interjects) He and Larry Walker, both, wrote the Georgia Constitution that exists today.
He made his first bid for the governorship in 1990 and was unsuccessful in a primary Zell Miller who went on to win. But Roy Barnes came back two years later and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives where I got the chance to serve with him in the House and as a member of the House Judiciary Committee along with state representative, Walker.
In 1998 Governor Barnes was elected as the 80th governor of Georgia. He made education reform and improvements to education, public education, in Georgia a hallmark of his administration with efforts to reduce class sizes all over the state, raise accountability standards, require more discipline in classrooms, and other reforms.
He also concentrated on health care reform and remedies for urban growth and sprawl. He took on the very controversial issue of removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the Georgia state flag and he won that battle, changing the Georgia flag, but many believe that battle played a big role in his defeat for reelection in 2002. Nevertheless, he was awarded in 2003 the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage award, for his leadership in that effort.
Upon his defeat in 2002 Governor Barnes did something that really surprised the legal community, he did not go back to Marietta to start making money. He instead went to work for the Atlanta Legal Aid office as a full-time volunteer, for the next 6 months, committing his efforts and providing one of the strongest signals possible about what lawyers really owe their profession and the community.
He did eventually return to private practice of law, where he has continued to work as one of the most successful trial lawyers in Georgia and the southeast. He's known for successfully handling personal injury, wrongful death, and medical malpractice cases, along with mass tort cases, and complex business disputes.
There's a pretty well-known saying in Georgia that if you're in trouble, you want Roy Barnes on your side and you don't want to have to fight against him.
Governor Barnes, in my opinion, is one of the wisest and most astute political leaders Georgia has ever known, along with being one of the smartest trial lawyers ever to see a Georgia courtroom. It has been my honor to serve with him, and Georgia government. nd a special privilege to have him here as our guest today to talk about one of his most recent endeavors in the historic Leo Frank case. Please join me in welcoming former governor, Roy Barnes.
[Roy Barnes Speaks] Kathy read that just like I wrote it, so, I've got to tell you just one little side note. We had a lot of controversy is the judges know about Georgia's voting machines and I had this lady that came out to interview me. She says, “did you know they stole the election from you in 2002, with those voting machines?” I said, “No ma'am. I think I lost that all on my own.” so...
Van Pearlberg, who's here, used to be an assistant district attorney and is now in the Attorney General's office. Van and I are longtime friends. He's probably a better expert on Leo Frank than I am. So we're glad to have him. Now you're one of the Phagan's descendants. “I am, I'm Mary Phagan-Kean, the great niece.” [Mary Phagan Kean comments, Barnes continues] The great niece – this is Mary Phagan-Kean, who's the great niece of Mary Phagan.
I want to turn you back for over a hundred years in Georgia.
Really back to the time of 1913. Georgia was a lot different. It had just come out, about 25 or 30 years before, out of the Civil War and a good part of the state was still recovering. In fact, if you look at the tax digest in 1860, it was 1960 until the tax digest recovered at the same amount that it was in 1860.
Georgia was also torn. It was torn between the Henry Grady, New South and the Old South, that had been brought down in the Civil War. Grady and governors, were trying to attract to Georgia any industry they could because most of the people we're desperately poor.
Now, into all of that comes Leo Frank. Leo Frank, was born in Texas, but he grew up in Brooklyn and he went to Cornell where he studied mechanical engineering. He married Lucille Selig. The Selig family is still one of the greatest and most well-known families in Atlanta – Selig properties, Steve Selig, Slick Selig as his father was known.
Well, the Frank's uncle [Moses Frank] owned a majority of what was the National Pencil Factory which was on Whitehall but now is called Peachtree and they divided it up.
He was a member of the temple [Formerly the Hebrew Benevolent Society] which is now on Peachtree. And they were mostly reform – the temple was reform Jewish faith and it was led by a fellow that was considered a radical in many aspects and that is Rabbi David Marx.
They were mostly German Jews that were members of that community and they were assimilationist and not isolationist.
The Orthodox, and some conservative but mostly Orthodox, believe in living in communities separated from other Jewish or Gentile communities, but the reform, and particularly at this time, with a German influence were assimilationists.
Those of you who have seen Driving Miss Daisy – Miss Daisy, her son was a member of the temple. The temple was bombed, by the way, in the 1950s [circa 1958] because they were very pro-civil rights [that was never proved] and another lawyer the time, Ada Garland's father, Reuben Garland, defended the fellow that was charged. Who, by the way, was acquitted and this was in the 1950s.
Mary Phagan was a teenage girl. She was raised in Marietta, she was buried in Marietta, where I'm from. And child labor was very common at the time. The first industry was really the manual type industry in textile mills, and children were the ones that generally worked there. It was accepted in society, at the time. She was owed a dollar and twenty cents for past wages. Now back then we had the first rapid transit, even though Cobb has none today, but we had the first rapid transit in Cobb County. It was called the trolley line and it was run by the Atlanta Northern Line. So there was a line, a street car that ran every hour going to Atlanta and another one that was returning to Atlanta. She rode the street line, the streetcar down to Atlanta, because the plant was closed, because we were having Memorial Day. Not Yankee Memorial Day as they called it at the time – Confederate Memorial Day, April 26th, [1913].
And she knew the plant was closed, but she also knew that Mr. Frank worked there and she wanted to get her dollar and twenty cents because her family needed it.
So the plant was closed and she went. There's no question she went there. No question she saw Leo Frank, in my view, but her body was found the next morning in the basement where the incinerator was. Now this is going to become important a little bit later.
There was two ways to get downstairs: one was with an elevator, but it was a very rudimentary elevator. It didn't have any brakes on it [False it did have breaks, by a hand cord]. It stopped when it hit the ground and you would jump and ran, then have a break. It just went up a couple of floors.
And then there was a ladder that went into the basement. Mary Phagan was found in the basement and there was soot all over her face. Her dress was hiked up and she was found early the next morning by a fella named Newt Lee who worked there. He was a janitor [He was the nightwatchman not the janitor], or you know, worked around the plant.
Of course, Frank and the police were called and all of that and Newt Lee was the first suspect. Now remember this was before the time of Miranda. It was before the time of anything that had any essence of being a due process, particularly if you were an African-American in the South.
And in fact, both as to Newt Lee and to Conley, Jim Conley, who we'll talk about it in just a moment, who became the star witness. The newspapers would have stories that I've read “Conley, & Lee, Being Sweated by the Police.” Now we can only imagine what “being sweated” was, but it was not uncommon even when I started practicing law. I hate to say this, for police officers to get carried away with rubber hoses and everything else.
The police pretty well ruled Newt Lee out and then the idea, the focus turned to Jim Conley. Now Conley was a janitor, a gopher, or whatever ,in the office. He gave three different statements, three different affidavits, which all changed through time. He became the star witness, and what he said was that Frank wanted to have sex with Mary [Phagan], and that he had taken her into the lady's room.
His office was on the same floor as the manufacturing and a wood lathe was there [in the machine department aka metal room[. And that he had hit her too hard. This was his final story. And that he called Conley up to take her down to the elevator. She was dead.
Now this is going to become critical later. Conley also said that they had mattress tick, which is that striped cloth that was around mattresses and then wrapped her in it to take her down there [to the basement of the national pencil company].
Conley also said that he took he and Frank together – took her down the elevator, you know the one that bump! [Roy Barnes is falsifying the story, Leo Frank controlled the elevator with a hand cord] And this became critical later, particularly to Governor [John] Slaton.
Frank was indicted based on that testimony and put on trial pretty well. The trial took about a month. Frank was represented by what probably was the best lawyer in Georgia at the time. His name was Luther Rosser.
The prosecution was represented by, up to that time, a lackluster prosecutor by the name of Hugh Dorsey. By the way, just as a footnote Hugh Dorsey and his wife's daughter would later marry Luther Rosser's son. Everything is connected. You know there's only seven degrees of separation.
Judge [Leonard] Roan was the [presiding] judge and was considered a very good judge and was. The difference in the trials were greatly different [then] than they are today. The Fulton County Courthouse was on Marietta Street at the time. There was no air conditioning, as you might imagine, so the windows were open during the day, and this is one of the things that Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Evans Hughes wrote about in the sense, in the case, was the mob outside. And somebody would sit in the window [not true], so is reported in the case, and holler out what the testimony was [not true], and there would be a roar of approval or a boo of disapproval [fake news, this was not the case].
There are some that say, and I've read some of these reports, that the jury was sequestered and was kept at the old Kimball house. And I have read some reports of, as the jury would come up from the Kimball house to go to the courthouse every day, parts of the mob would say, “hang the Jew or we'll hang you,” [This is the jury tampering hoax, Leo Frank's defenders promote to trick the public into thinking Leo Frank didn't have a fair trial] whatever it was, and all of them and I don't think there's a lot of dispute about this, there was a mob presence there [There was no misbehaving mob outside the courthouse, Barnes is misrepresenting the case]. The effect they had is open to dispute.
Well, to make a long story short, because I only have a little time and I want to get to John Slaton and the lynching. To make a long story short, Frank was convicted and sentenced to hang. Georgia let every sheriff hang his own folks at the time. Fulton County had what was called the Tower and he was to be hung there.
The case went to the Supreme Court of the United States, twice. There were two dissents -- Charles Evan Hughes and Oliver Wendell Holmes. And Hughes wrote, and I won't get into it, I read it last night again, about the influence of the mob.
John Slaton was governor of Georgia. He was called Jack. He was a rising star in Georgia politics and everybody said that he was going to be the next United States Senator. He was married to the wealthiest woman in Georgia. Her name was Grant, Sarah Frances Grant. She was called Sally. In fact, John Slaton is buried in the Grant Mausoleum at Oakland Cemetery, not his own. He was buried in his wife's mausoleum.
The case finally came up to him in June of 2015 [actually 1915]. Now, he had been watching the case and he had started his own investigation in the case.
We had crazy times of governors taking office back then. He was going out of office and Governor Nat Harris was coming in and Nat Harris was the governor who signed a bill allowing women to practice law in Georgia. And Nat Harris was the governor coming in and I'm sure, like every other governor, he'd say, “maybe it won't get there before I leave.” But he had been governor twice. We didn't have a lieutenant governor then. He'd been president of the Senate in 1911 when Hoke Smith died and he became acting governor for about 18 months and then Joseph Mackey Brown, the son of Joseph E. Brown, the Civil War governor, served one term in between and then Slaton came back and served the second term – when he caught the Leo Frank case.
He [Governor Slaton, part-owner of the law firm which represented Leo Frank at his trial and state appeals] read the entire month-long transcript. He did his own investigation. He took detectives and Hugh Dorsey to the scene and he came to the conclusion that there was not certainty as to the death penalty. He middled around as to whether he was actually guilty. He said there was not certainty. He wrote – and I'll leave it here with Kathy in case anyone wants to see it they can – he wrote a commutation order; Twenty-nine pages where he set out the evidence in detail.
He talked about all of the witnesses and things that had arisen since that time.
One of the things that he depended on was – remember Conley said that he and Frank had taken Mary Phagan down the elevator – and so the police, when they came down – and remember that elevator hit the bottom [not true, it had a hand cord break, Conley reported Frank controlled the cord and stopped it too soon] -- the police reports coming the next morning to investigate said that they found (I know this is indelicate) human excrement when someone had had a bowel movement under the elevator.
Well now, that is when they came to investigate and that was a turning point, as you'll see with him, one of the turning points, because he said, that if they had gone down on the elevator, it would have smooshed the excrement and they would have been smelling it. In fact, it was not until the next day that it occurred.
Another thing that he relied upon was this: Judge Roan, who had presided over the trial, had talked with Slaton and had written him a letter [It was a forgery], in which Judge Roan said, I have doubt, I have doubt. And if I had the power, he didn't think he had the power at the time, he was wrong and Governor Slaton tells him, yeah, he could have done it, I probably would have granted a new trial [Judge Roan did have the power].
There's a lot of litigation that's going on right now for a Georgia Supreme Court on the power of a trial judge sitting as a 13th juror. That is, the right to set aside and put their own judgment in.
And so, based upon that and the other facts – there was some hair on the lathe – and somebody testified (remember we didn't have scientific things like we do now), well, that looks like Mary Phagan's hair. After the trial there was somebody that found a microscope and looked at it and a doctor gave an opinion, “this is not the same hair.” That happened after the trial [The examining scientist was likely bribed according to other people stating they were bribed in the Leo Frank Georgia Supreme Court Records].
At the trial there had been women that had been brought up, “well, Frank tried to sexually harass me” and another group that says, “Oh, I've worked with him for years and had no problem whatsoever.”
Well, and in fact, Slaton received over a hundred thousand letters. He talks about it in his commutation order. He decided he was going to commute the sentence. And he wrote this order.
He went home and told his wife, Sally, and she said, “I would” and he said, “I don't know what's going to happen here to us.” And she said “I would rather be the widow of a brave man than the wife of a coward.” And he signed the commutation.
Let me read to you part of it:
“The performance of my duty under the Constitution is a matter of my conscience. The responsibility rests where the power is reposed. Judge Roan, with that awful sense of responsibility, which probably came over him as he thought of that judge before he would shortly appear..” Judge Roan had died in the interim. “...calls to me from another world to request that I do that which he should have done.
I can endure misconstruction, abuse and condemnation, but I cannot stand the constant companionship of an accusing conscience. Which would remind me in every thought that I, as governor of Georgia, failed to do what I thought to be right.
There is a territory between a reasonable doubt and an absolute certainty for which the law provides and allowing life imprisonment instead of execution. This case has been marked by such doubt.”
He was interviewed a little bit later after that and this is what he said:
“Two thousand years ago, another governor washed his hands and turned over a Jew to a mob. For 2,000 years that governor's name has been cursed. If today another Jew” [Leo Frank] “were lying in his grave because I had failed to do my duty, I would all through life find his blood on my hands, and would consider myself an assassin through cowardice.”
Now, he went out of office within four or five days, Slaton did.
What was the reaction?
Well, he had to have the state militia escort him to the train station to leave. He slipped back in from time to time but he stayed gone ten years, before he came back to start back practicing law. He was successful. He went on and was one of the, before a unified bar, he was president of the State Bar.
But he never, of course, held political office again.
What happened to Leo Frank?
Well, Leo Frank was in the Tower, the Fulton Tower, ready to be hung by the sheriff. And so Governor Slaton, before he released the commutation, had the sheriff take him to the state prison, which was not at Reidsville at the time. It was in Milledgeville, because Milledgeville had been the capitol of Georgia until 1868, when it was moved to Atlanta.
He was not there for long, until his neck was slit [July 17th, 1915] and he had a big gash in it by an attempt on his life. And then, remember the commutation was on June 21st, 1915.
By the way, Frank was scheduled to be hung the next morning [June 22nd, 1915]. So it was right upon...Slaton put it off as long as he could.
Well on August the 17th of 1915 [Actually it was the 16th] a group from Marietta got into the state prison in Milledgeville, brought Frank to Frey's Gin road, which is right off 75 and Roswell road in Marietta, and hung him.
This was not the first great stain on all of us, in the South. Is that is estimated there were more than 4,000 African-Americans lynched after the Civil War until the 1960s [60% of that number were African Americans, the other 40% were Whites and a small percentage were other]. The last one in Georgia was in the late 1940s at [name unintelligible] bridge, Walton county.
But this was the first case of a Jew being lynched. But remember this was a tough time in Georgia. The Ku Klux was not risen yet. But it soon did after this with some of the same folks that were lynchers. And they hated three folks: Jews, Blacks and Catholics, and in fact that's one of the reasons, even as a kid I can remember, prejudice against Catholics.
There's a great story that says Richard Russell, he was a great United States senator from Georgia, and his daddy was the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. There's a story that Dick Russell fell in love with a Catholic girl and was going to marry her and he went to his daddy and told him that he was going to marry her and he said, “Well, son.” He said, “You could marry her but your days in politics are over in Georgia.” And he never married. That's a whole 'nother story. Because there's a provision in his will that says he wants a gift to go to a certain person that is exactly [unintelligible] things like that.
But these were the leaders of the community.
There's a famous photograph of the lynching with Frank hanging there and to the right is the superior court judge, standing there. His name was Newt Morris.
If you get interested in this case, this case will drive you crazy, but if you get interested, the book you should read is 'The Dead Shall Rise' [2003] by Steve Oney.
Steve Oney came to see us in the eighties. I was always enthralled with the case and Tom Watson – one of the things I hadn't mentioned – Tom Watson, who was one of the great political leaders – Hugh Dorsey went on to become governor from this. Tom Watson went on to become a United States Senator.
Tom Watson had a newspaper called The Jeffersonian and he printed headlines in red [Not true, we have all the copies of his newspapers and magazines]. And it was scandalous, the reporting on the trial that occurred every day. “Jew pervert,” he used words like that in the headlines instead of being factual. [Barnes is wrong, Tom Watson did not comment on the 1913 Leo Frank Trial, until 1914. "Jew Pervert" wasn't published until the late summer of 1915 in Watson's Magazine.]
Here's some of the ones that were involved – Steve Oney has devised it up:
Joseph M. Brown. Well, he was governor from 1909 to 1911, 1912 to 1913, right before Jack Slaton. He was from Marietta. Charlie Brown, his grandson, just died last year. These folks are still around.
Newton Augustus Morris. He was the superior court judge and his great nephew is on the city council of Marietta. I once said, I said, “You can't be an old Mariettan unless you had an ancestor that was at the lynching of Leo Frank and it's just about the truth.
Eugene Herbert Clay. He was the son of the United States Senator. He was mayor of Marietta, but at the time that this occurred he was, what we called him then, the solicitor-general, the district attorney today. I always loved the old name, solicitor-general. I wish they hadn't changed it. They still call him solicitor today.
He is the one that presided and called the grand jury in to listen to evidence about who had taken Leo Frank and lynched him. Surprise, surprise, the grand jury returned a finding that it was “persons unknown” in the community.
John Tucker Dorsey. His son later, Jasper Dorsey, would be president of Bell South or Southern Belle as we called it back then. John Tucker Dorsey, he was one of the best trial lawyers there was. He was a member of the general assembly. He was chairman of the prison committee and that's probably how they got in so easily down in Milledgeville.
He served as district attorney for two years, John Tucker did. He had been twice convicted of manslaughter. I mean, folks were a little bit different back then, you know. And had served in imprisonment on the chain-gang and then was later pardoned by the governor so he could go to law school and become district attorney. He was a distant cousin of Hugh Dorsey, who was the prosecutor.
Fred Morris, he was a Marietta lawyer. He served his first term in the general assembly. He organized the Boy Scouts in Marietta and then went off to the lynching of Leo Frank.
Bowlin Glovitt Glover Brumby. Like I said, had every prominent family in Marietta. He owned the Marietta Chair Company, you know, the Brumby Rocker? This is where it comes from. Oney describes Brumby as the very image of an arrogant Southern Aristocrat and that nothing angered him more than Yankees.
The field commanders, those were kind of the planners, the field commanders was a fella named George Daniels. He ran a jewelry shop on the Marietta Square and was one of the founding members of the Rotary Club.
These folks were not riff-raff.
Gordon Baxter Gann. He was from Mableton, by the way, but he was ordinary and was former mayor of Marietta.
Newt Mays Morris. They called him “Black Newt.” Now Black Newt would whip 'ya. He ran the chain gang in Cobb County and they called him “Whippin' Newt” or “Black Newt.”
William J. Frey. He had been the sheriff of Cobb County from 1903 to 1909. He prepared the noose used to hang Frank and may have actually looped it around Frank's neck. Frey's Gin, Frey's Gin road, the location of where they hung him, was his property.
E.P. Dick Dobbs. He later became very prominent. His family moved north and he was the mayor of Marietta at the time.
L. B. Robeson was a railroad freight agent. He lent his car to the lynch party.
Jim Brumby, Grover Glovitt Brumby's brother – he owned a garage and serviced the automobiles before they went. It was a big affair to go from Marietta to Milledgeville at the time.
Robert A. Hill was a banker. He helped fund the lynching – made sure they had money for gas and other things.
George Swanson, who was the current Sheriff of Cobb County in 1915, and two of his deputies, William McKinney and George Hicks.
Cicero Holton Dobbs. He was a taxi driver and operated a grocery store. He was also my wife's grandfather, who knew nothing about this before Steve Oney wrote the book and was very upset about it.
This case had been whispered about for years and years and years and even among the Jewish community, Steve Selig, told me, he says, “We never mentioned the case, never mentioned it in the Jewish community.”
D. R. Benton was a farmer and an uncle of Mary Phagan's.
Horace Handy was a farmer.
Kuhn Shaw, that's J. F. Shaw's, who died about five years ago, father. He was a mule trader.
Emmett and Luther Burton. We had an Emmett Burton serve, this was the great uncle and grandfather of Emmett Burton who was on our county commission for several years. These were two brothers who were believed to have sat on either side of Leo Frank in the automobile that took him from prison to death. Emmett is said to have been a police officer and Luther, a coal-yard operator.
Yellow Jacket Brown. You know, everyone had a nickname. An electrician who rode his motorcycle to Milledgeville and cut the telephone lines before they got there, so that nobody could call out.
Lawrence Haney, a farmer.
What has amazed me about this case was: how could the best folks in town, the best and leading citizens of the county and of the city – how could they have gone crazy? I ask myself that in our national politics every once in awhile now. How could everybody have gone crazy?
What happened to Rudy Juliani?
I don't know. We could always have a discussion of that.
But what was it?
Now I know there's two or three things on the other side that everybody tries to bring up. One is, well, they just felt that they were carrying out the lawful sentence that was handed down to Leo Frank. That is what Newt Morris is reported to have said later.
And then, the other thing is, Luther Rosser and Jack Slaton had practiced law before [not before they were law partners during Leo Frank's trial and his appeals], and that Luther Rosser paid Jack Slaton off to commute the sentence.
Now let me tell you something. Jack Slaton had the wealthiest wife in Georgia and at that time, husbands, as you all know from studying law, managed the affairs of the wife. Why in the world, to destroy his political career which was very bright, would he have taken any money? And you cannot read this commutation order without seeing that it is a man that was greatly troubled about it.
So the last thing I'll talk about a little bit: was Leo Frank guilty?
I don't think there's any doubt, and there are few that I think that argue with this today is, he did not get a fair trial [False, the Supreme Court in their majority decisions ruled he had a fair trial]. Not under the circumstances that we would consider today – coerced statements, no scientific, all circumstantial [False, the witnesses later provided affidavits that Leo Frank's defense team tried to bribe them to retract their trial testimony].
The testimony of an accomplice.
There is a reason the common law and the law of Georgia says that, the testimony of an accomplice must be corroborated and a confession must be corroborated and the reason is because of how both of them might have been obtained.
I don't think he was guilty. I think Conley killed her. There's not any doubt in my mind that Conley killed her [Barnes opinion defies the evidence and testimony, and majority decisions of the judges at the time]. But at least there is substantial reasonable doubt as to whether Frank killed her [false statements]. There's two little things and then I'll try to answer some questions. I know we got started late and I know ya'll got other places to go.
There's two things that are happening. One is, the district attorney Paul Howard of Fulton County has created a commission to look into several cases.
One of them is this case [Leo Frank case] and another one is the Child Murders case. And they've got about a dozen, half a dozen to a dozen cases they're looking into to see, to make sure, that there's guilt. Now Wayne Williams is still alive and in the prison.
The other thing that has happened in all of these matters and I think is the import: what is the role of lawyers and judges?
Listen, we are trained to look at facts. There is only a little thin line that separates us from lynchers and a mob and it is lawyers and judges that are trained to not let passion and prejudice overcome us all.
And it is difficult. It is very, very difficult. And it is not an easy path. It is a tough path.
You know, we believe as lawyers, that everybody is entitled to representation. That was our theory all along, but not our practice. Read about the Scottsboro boys, read about through the history and the cases that you stay.
But it is required even more now than ever. That even though everybody cusses us as lawyers, and they do, you know, all the time. Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be lawyers. You know, it's the story instead of cowboys.
But it is the lawyers that have to protect the rights of the individual. And if we ever lose that, that we're not willing to sacrifice ourselves and our reputation and our prosperity, for the rights of those that we represent or what we know is right, then I want to tell you, we're lost, we're lost. It's a very thin line.
Always be the guardians against prejudice, hatred and passion. Sit back and use the skills that you're being trained in and they will be honed much more as you start to practice, to analyze critically, everything that you're presented with.
Thank you, and God bless you and I'll be glad to answer a few questions.
I know we don't have much time but I'd be glad to answer any questions. Yes, ma'am.
Audience Member Question: Was anyone from that long list of lynchers ever prosecuted?
No, nobody was ever tried. And what happened was, Luther Haines, who was [?] judge, good friend of Hugh, Luther Haines practiced law with John Tucker Dorsey, when he was a young lawyer.
And, of course, I was assigned to Luther's courtroom when I was a prosecutor and he and I were great friends until the day he died.
But he knew I was interested in the case and he showed me, one time, a file that John Tucker Dorsey had in his office and had a list of the names of those who were involved and that's the way Oney finally broke it. He broke it through two people. Through Luther Haines and through Bill Kent.
TRANSCRIPTION CONTINUED....
Continued Here.... www.flickr.com/photos/leofrankcase/49815166453/in/datepos...
[Leo Frank curator commentary: This Op-Ed-ish open-letter here within was sent in by eMail from a reader-subscriber to Flickr who is concerned about the Frank-Phagan affair and a firestorm of controversy which has erupted at Point Park University www.pointpark.edu in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
My apologies in advance for anyone offended by this submitted rant to the editor. I hope this will promote inquisitive dialogue and old fashioned research, not bitter partisan social-politics. I hope this recent kerfuffle will give us pause on why we must come together to deliberate over the facts of this case without bitter emotions.
As the curator of the Leo Frank Flickr Gallery, I present this public communication to illustrate the contentious nature over this hotly contested true crime cold case which refuses to gather dust, between Leo Frank's apostolic advocates, versus his modern-day POC and #metoo opponents--in the high hopes of inspiring students and scholars, alike, to calm and productive dialogue-- not angry tirades and accusations of ethnoreligious bigotry (Antisemitism).
Students of Colour recently launched an organized protest against Point Park University and its chancellor Paul Hennigan, regarding what the protestors believe is a "racist and Jewish supremacist theatrical play", titled, "Parade the Leo Frank Musical". The genealogy of the stage drama, originated on Broadway in central Manhattan, New York City, circa 1998.
The script's theme harkens back to an early twentieth century, Greek tragedy love story, of an out-of-place mundane business accountant in the dramatis persona of a Yankee Jew transplant, who moves to Atlanta, Georgia, so he can operationally manage a pencil manufacturing facility. Mr. Frank gets married to a Southern Jewish Belle, but their relationship is cool and at times estranged. As superintendent of the industrial factory, one of his child laborers is slain in his factory and he is railroaded for the crime in a kangaroo court. He is sentenced to death by hanging, but given a measure of clemency to escape the gallows, for a worse punishment spending life in prison having to look over his shoulder. So the protagonist is incarcerated, and eventually he is lynched by a mob of flag waving hillbilly gummos and redneck yahoos, but before being assassinated he slowly falls in love again with his estranged wife, who stoically supports him through his tribulations.
The organized PPU student-protestors see this compelling tale (which was primarily written and produced by two Jewish activists using creative-license) as odiously rehabilitating a bona fide White racist degenerate and killer-pedophile, who tried to frame innocent Blacks for his sexual assault and sadistic homicide of a little girl, one who was barely a teenager. She was by all local accounts a sweet, good-natured, 13-year-old child named Mary Anne Phagan. The PPU student-protestors believe, like many others familiar with the notorious scandal, that she is the real victim of this affair, not Leo Frank, who was duly convicted and lawfully sentenced to hang for the sex murder in 1913.
There are many people, now more than ever before, who feel very passionately about this hot-button subject concerning Leo Frank's innocence or guilt, many Jews familiar with the historical narrative believe the real perpetrators was actually Jim Conley.
Sexual abuse against both the female and male gender has forever been culturally secretive in hushed tones until the late 20th and 21st century, when the dispelling of this taboo caused survivors of intimate molestation to bring this endemic problem fully out into the open in a prolific manner.
What we need is more discourse between fair-minded arbiters, who can control their personal feelings and look at the case files without pre-determined positions, moreover, without tribal agendas and without specific goals of convincing people into belief about specific positions on Leo Frank's guilt or innocence. Conclusions should come last, not first. People should try to review the Phagan murder investigation without pre-conceived beliefs.
Viewer discretion is advised, the BDS movement is very controversial in America, so much so that the U.S. Congress and numerous state congresses have passed legal bills against the anti-Israel humanist cause of boycotts, divestment and sanctions. Those "chilling" laws once ratified have been challenged in various courts, and most of the anti-BDS laws have been struck down when challenged with litigation, resulting in judges ruling such laws unconstitutional.]
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An Open Letter to Paul Hennigan President of Point Park University,
This open letter is in response to your guest column in the Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle newspaper, April 8th, 2020, concerning the article titled, "Anti-Semitism in all forms, including BDS, has no place at Point Park". The link to this article is provided in the footer-section.
Dear Paul Hennigan,
As the president of Point Park University, you have an obligation to rise above the identarianism and politically correct fads of the day for grander and more universal truths that the real purpose of college is not to be a segregated safe-space, where students are mollycoddled, but a place where all of our preconceived notions, biases, and basic assumptions are to forever be challenged--that is, if we are to evolve upward and self-actualize as individual students among our species of the human family.
Your petty partisan politics and taking sides with the ethnic-religious group of Jews over non-Jews, men over women, people of European descent over POC, whether they be White, Black or every shade in between, is lowbrow and unbecoming of a University president.
Have you no self-reflection? Have you no understanding that as a president of an institution of higher learning, you are to promote coming together for dialogue, not censorship, and thus rising above such intersectional divisions? White men of the Jewish faith should not be regarded as a protected overclass, with everyone else, women, girls, POC and others treated as beneath them as an underclass, in a class based hierarchy. Shame on you, Paul Hennigan, it's time that you step down as president of Point Park University, you are clearly unfit for the position.
Leo Frank, Innocent or Guilty?
Who are you to say Leo Frank was wrongfully accused when you didn't even read the official trial transcript and appeals records? Just because a fictional drama written by White men who are of Jewish descent, decide to make their co-gender and co-religionist Leo Frank innocent, doesn't mean he was in real life. Soap-operas on stage, based on creative-license, seldom align with the real world when they pertain to complex legal cases.
In courts of law, facts and testimony are supposed to come before conclusions, but in your reactionary one-sided world view, apparently, conclusions come first, and forget about trying to colander the evidence. As president of a university, it is your duty to promote that students seek facts over fashions of the day, not prejudice and passion for a mirages. You did just that when you stated in your article to the Jewish Chronicle that Leo Frank was essentially framed.
You sided with an effete libertine who wailed his fists into the face of a 4'11" tall kid who refused to submit her virtue this petulant grown man. Mary Phagan might be a cheap plot device to you in the production of "Parade the Leo Frank Broadway Musical", but in real life, she was a real-life person who toiled her youth away in a dingy sweatshop industrial plant and died violently after being sodomized by a habitual pervert and fiend.
The poverty-stricken little girl never got to experience a full life, she was lost in the early spring of her potential life span into the 1970s or 1980s.
The "cheap little plot device" and throw away detail of the play could have been your Mother, your wife, your daughter, your sister, your friend, or any other close relation to you, but in your dismissive mind, she is never once mentioned in your article, as if her existence was never actually physical. Too Taboo?
Your problem is one we see in the comment sections on YouTube and online newspapers, people make judgments without knowing the background history. People seldom do their own independent research, they rely on pseudo-scholar academic intellectuals who repeat their fellow pseudo-academic activists predecessors, for the controlled "orthodox" narrative. Lets call it Britney Spears syndrome. People often naively believe the controlled narrative, because who has time to read the many hundreds of pages that the legal documents number, but in this case, they're thousands of pages, making it even harder. The perceived narrative in academia thrown around about the Leo Frank crime case is wrong and the appeals courts got it right.
We need university presidents who will rise above their own religious (Jewish), gender (Male) and racial (White) biases in search of true leaders who embody impartiality when it comes to reviewing evidence, testimony, paradigms, and structures. We need a university president who can be impartial even under pressure by powerful and influential forces.
You failed miserably to do that when you played the race card invoking anti-Semitism when it is totally uncalled for. You put Whiteness, Maleness, and Jewishness first, and threw POC, Women, and Gentiles under the bus. You chose the side which had enormous financial resources and still could not subvert the jury system in 1913 and appeals courts up until 1915. In fact even in 1986, when Leo Frank was posthumously pardoned, he was NOT officially exonerated of his conviction for the Mary Phagan aggravated rape and slaying.
The lynching of thirty-one-year-old Leo Frank on August 17, 1915, was a heinous vigilante crime and extrajudicial assassination, but it does not make him innocent of the aggravated assault, sodomy, rape and strangulation-murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan. It's sad that something like that needs to even be said to an adult such as yourself. When inmates are killed while under incarceration it does not newly backdate the nullity of their jury verdicts. You would think this understanding would be basic logic and common sense, but apparently it needs to be spelled out to you.
Leo Frank being kidnapped from the Milledgeville penitentiary and lynched near the invisible border of Marietta and Atlanta, does not overturn his jury verdict. No it doesn't. No inmate killed in prison, or ex-con killed after they serve their time, gets their conviction overturned without new compelling evidence. As of today, no evidence has come forward to exonerate Leo Frank. And it doesn't matter how many Leo Frank's pseudo-historian activists write books about his innocence by falsifying the record of history, using very fake news, nit-picking or forging parts of the trial transcripts, he still is a guilty man. The Georgia supreme court ruled in 1914-15 the evidence, testimony and exhibits presented at his trial sustained his guilt--that's not something you Frankies want to be made known to the public, but it is an incontrovertible fact.
Paul, maybe it's time you stop groveling and pitting one group of people against others in the media (The Jewish Chronicle), to maybe take the time for actually reading the Leo Frank Georgia Supreme Court records. Ya, Think? Hello?
When serial rapist-pedophiles are murdered as they are often when serving life in prison, it does not retroactively reverse their convictions. It doesn't make their murder justice either. Murder is murder, even if some people think it might be poetic justice. Many people think Leo Frank's lynching was poetic justice because he died being strangled to death, in a similar way that he strangled Mary Phagan to death, but murder is never justice. Murder is murder.
However, when homicidal pedophiles are murdered in cold blood during the serving of their life sentences it does not posthumously acquit the convict, were you aware of that? Why does that have to be spelled out?
We ask you this question because there are many people who seem to believe otherwise. Leo Frank's defenders sometimes give the impression they believe Leo Frank was automatically innocent because he was hanged by a vigilante mob. Not always the case, either. Some lynching victims were innocent, but not in this example.
Moreover, Leo Frank is one of the worst kinds of deadly child molesters, because he tried to frame, not one, but two African American men for the ghoulish rape and asphyxiation he had done, he snuffed out her life, so she wouldn't tell. And we know for sure, Newt Lee the African American nightwatchman was incontrovertibly innocent (neither modern Leo Frank's enthusiasts or detractors believes Newt Lee was guilty).
Jim Conley, on the other hand, confessed to being an accessory-after-the-fact, who helped remove the dead body of Mary Phagan from the machine-department's toilets, the ones situated at the rear section in the second floor of National Pencil Company's building, down to a long-narrow catacomb-like basement, two floors below. Conley described those events in detail to the jury on August 4, 5, and 6 of 1913. They had a ring of truth, especially in light of Leo Frank's trial statement to the jury on August 18, 1913, about his "UNCONSCIOUS" visit to the toilets in the rear of the second floor to account for why Monteen Stover found his business office vacant for 5 minutes at five past noon.
Hello, think about that for a minute, Jim Conley said he found Mary Phagan dead near the toilets in the metal room, on August 4, 5, and 6th of 1913, and Leo Frank sustained that by saying he had gone to those toilets at the time he told police he was alone with Mary Phagan in his office.
We gave you a distilled overview of that circumstantial evidence, but its up to you now to learn why it was significant at the Mary Phagan murder trial where Leo Frank was the defendant.
On BDS, Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions
Only in tyrannical authoritarian countries do people get chastised with threats or punished harshly for criticizing their governments and its leadership, or the government's allies. By trying to equate criticism and economic boycott of Israel for its longstanding civil rights violations, with accusations of anti-Jewish racism or bigotry (anti-Semitism) is disgusting. BDS is not anti-Semitic, in the same way, fight against Apartheid is not anti-White. And that counts no matter how much BDS is misrepresented by supporters of Israel. Palestinians are Semites too, not just the Israeli's. Is fighting for human and civil rights anti-Semitic for Palestinians anti-Semitic, when Palestinians themselves are Semitic? You use the term anti-Semitic as a misnomer and as a word to bully people who seek out a peaceful 2-state solution with respect to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Absolutely NO government or political body on this planet that we call home, live on and share with each other--in the past, present or future--is above criticism and protest for its injustices. Freedom to protest, speak out and boycott is the very hallmark of the first amendment, which all Americans have a right to that freedom of speech and peacefully protesting with their mouths and wallets. People have a first amendment right to promote boycotting Israel because of its war crimes, segregational practices, and Jim crow laws. Anti-BDS laws are being struck down in courts all over America as being unconstitutional. I think your letter should right now inspire us to double down and press even harder to have every single example of anti-BDS laws struck down in the USA. You can take that to the bank and cash it.
Perhaps you need a friendly reminder. Here is how Ivy League Cornell Law School describes the First Amendment:
"The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government."
Source: www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment
FOR you to use the scare-word, anti-Semitism as a pejorative, to cover up for the Israeli government's racism, xenophobia, extremist ethnonationalism, discrimination, Jim crow laws, segregation, religious bigotry, anti-Arab prejudice, anti-Palestinian identitarianism, sectarianism, and crimes against humanity directed at Palestinians is grotesque. You obviously have zero self-reflection skills if you think promoting the boycott of Israel over these human and civil rights abuses is anti-Semitism.
The controversial topics listed above about the Israel-Palestine conflict are not so controversial, since they are very well documented and there are hundreds of scholarly academic books on these subject, 10s of thousands of images and videos to back up these statements of Israel's inhumane abuses over the last 72 years.
It doesn't get much publicity, but the UN has passed many dozens of international resolutions against Israel for the above list of its actions cited broadly. Wikipedia is an excellent entry point, but not the last word on the matter. If you would like to begin with an introductory lesson about these socio-political topics in detail, which are in the hundreds of pages of reading material to start, go to Wikipedia. The whole world uses it as a starting point to learn about the Israel-Palestine conflict. As an administrator on Wikipedia, I can tell you these articles have millions of page views combined since their inception.
As the president of Point Park University, your job is to promote open dialogue about the Palestinian-Israel conflict, not try to scare one side into being silent with your odious insinuations, defamatory rhetoric, and false accusations of anti-Semitism conflated with those who wish to speak out against Israel and sanction it economically for its inexcusable violations of the Geneva convention.
You clearly do not have the temperament to be a president of a university if you are siding with a pariah which thumbs its nose at international law and the global community of 193 nation-states regarding ethnic cleansing and racial persecution through collective punishment. against Palestinians.
As the president of Point Park University, you should be promoting freedom of speech, and the right of people to challenge basic assumptions or preconceived notions, not siding with the war criminals in Israel's government and military. The boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement have every right to criticize and promote economic preference toward or against the government of Israel for its 72 years pattern of committing mass murder, collective punishment and human rights violations in the extreme against the Palestinian people. Stating this does not give Palestinian terrorism a free pass either. Terrorists should be dealt with harshly, but when Palestinian terrorists killed 6 Israeli's they responded by murdering 3000 Palestinian civilians, the majority who were civilian women and children. That's an example of collective punishment and it is a violation of the Geneva convention. People have a right to protest against such abuses, and the right to boycott Israel over it.
Misrepresenting the BDS movement and it's goals of promoting a two-state solution, is something very commonly orchestrated by those who are apologists and enablers for the Israel's crimes against humanity. Falsely conflating the BDS movement with anti-Semitism does not make the BDS movement anti-Semitic. No matter how numerous false statements and fake news are made about BDS.
In fact, there is a very sizeable portion of American Jews are members of BDS, and the whole point of BDS is not to end Israel, but to mend Israel, and to achieve a viable two-state solution with the Greenline as the border, not the one-state solution the present right-wing identarian government of Israel is slowly creating. News flash, the United Nations recognizes the borders of Israel as within its own 1967 Greenline and the State of Palestine as within its own 1967 Greenline. That's not controversial, it's based on international law.
The Leo Frank Case
You stated inside your article, "wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1915".
Leo Frank was not wrongly accused. You are not a jury or judge, especially since you didn't even bother to read the trial transcript published in the newspapers or the brief of evidence published in the Georgia supreme court files. You are most certainly not the Supreme Court of Georgia, which stated emphatically the evidence at the Mary Phagan murder trial sustained Leo Frank's guilt and that he had a fair trial. You are not the US Supreme Court which in both majority and unanimous decisions which decided against Leo Frank. You are just one man, who is taking sides with Jewish activist talking points, without actually reading the Leo Frank trial brief of evidence. Shame on you for your religious partisan bigotry and ethnic biases, without even reading the primary sources of the trial. You are allowed to have an opinion, but shouldn't you at least have a basic understanding of the courtroom proceedings that took place between July 28th and August 26th, 1913 ?
As the president of Point Park University, you should actually read the 1913 Leo Frank trial brief of evidence and appeals records (1913, 1914, 1915) before making such uninformed statements. It's un-academic, and un-scholarly, to make such statements when you, in fact, never read the legal transcripts which were transcribed and published in the newspaper accounts from Atlanta Georgia in late July through late August in 1913. The questions and answers of the trial are in the Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Georgia and Atlanta Journal in their following daily newspaper columns.
Making such statements that Leo Frank was wrongly accused, is a great injustice and unbecoming a president at an institution of higher learning. So before you make false statements about the Leo Frank case, you might want to actually do the summer reading assignment first, because it's obvious you haven't and you're embarrassing yourself when double-down on it.
Sincerely, Students of the Leo Frank Case in Partnership with the Students of Point Park University.
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Environmental portrait options for PR and Point magazine.
GUEST COLUMNIST OPINION
Anti-Semitism in all forms, including BDS, has no place at Point Park
PPU President argues university's point of view
By PAUL HENNIGAN
April 8, 2020,
As we all have been focused on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has upended our lives, I wish everyone in our community good health and safety. Also, I want to ask for your attention on another very important matter, which is anti-Semitism and groups such as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
I have listened to several conversations over the last few weeks that have highlighted concerns from the Jewish community in Pittsburgh regarding Point Park University, anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.
As the president of Point Park University, I want to assure the Jewish community that at every level of the university and across the university campus it is understood that any form of discrimination or hatred is not tolerated. All forms of anti-Semitism, which includes support for the BDS movement, generally defined as Palestinian-led campaign promoting various forms of boycott against Israel, has no place at Point Park University.
Recently, I was able to have meaningful discussions and an exchange of ideas with Jeff Finkelstein and Josh Sayles from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Jim Busis, CEO and publisher of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, as well as other prominent members of the Jewish community. Point Park is continuing these outreach efforts with representatives of the local and national Jewish community, as well as with Chabad and Hillel Jewish University Center in Pittsburgh.
In discussions with Jeff and Josh, I understand that my decision to postpone Point Park’s production of the important work “Parade” needs to be more publicly addressed. As many of your readers know, “Parade” is the award-winning musical about the trials and lynching of a wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1915. It was to be directed by Tony- and Emmy-winning director choreographer Rob Ashford.
I made the difficult decision to postpone “Parade” because, in my judgment, proper educational and university community resources were not in place to support this important piece of work. In no way did I intend to signal to the community that the production was canceled or that the Jewish story could not be told at Point Park. Point Park is fully committed to presenting “Parade” and fully supports its importance to social awareness and societal change. This experience has provided us a broader opportunity to take a holistic approach at how each conservatory program can be a teachable moment and opportunity for engagement and understanding around social and civic issues expressed through art.
In a similar vein, it has come to our attention that some members of the Jewish community are aware that Dr. Channa Newman — a professor of French and cultural studies and chair of the department of humanities and social sciences — recently filed a lawsuit against Point Park in which it is claimed, among other allegations, that she has been discriminated against and harassed as a result of her age, national origin, race, religion, and sex. Dr. Newman also claims that she has been retaliated against. Because the matter is now in litigation and out of respect for Dr. Newman’s continuing relationship with the university, Point Park must limit any public comment.
This being stated, the University disagrees with the allegations of unlawful conduct raised by Dr. Newman and her attorneys — including their description of how the university and some of its faculty treated Dr. Newman and responded to her concerns. In the administration of its educational programs, activities and employment practices, Point Park is firmly committed to the concept and practice of equal employment opportunity and the pursuit of diversity. As part of this commitment, the university embraces, supports and actively pursues a policy of inclusiveness that recognizes, values and reflects the diversity of the community it serves and the world in which we live.
Going forward, Point Park intends to defend itself against Dr. Newman’s claims. At the same time, she remains, as mentioned, a member of the Point Park community who will be afforded the respect and dignity afforded to all students, faculty, and staff.
In times of crisis, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life synagogues, Point Park University joined with the Jewish community, WQED and others to foster a dialogue of sensitivity and understanding. It is Point Park University’s continued mission to shine light on challenges, bring understanding to the table and open doors for all. PJC
Paul Hennigan is president of Point Park University.
jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/anti-semitism-in-all-fo...
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News Article at Pittsburgh Post Gazette : Student protests lead Point Park to postpone 'Parade' musical.
Photo of Sharon Eberson
Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
seberson@post-gazette.com
Point Park University announced Wednesday that the student production of “Parade” that was planned for April has been “postponed indefinitely.”
The award-winning musical is about the trials and lynching of a wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1918. It was to be directed by Tony- and Emmy-winning director-choreographer Rob Ashford, a Point Park alumnus (Class of ’83) who was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2010.
Mr. Ashford has been involved in discussions regarding the show throughout the process of making this decision, said Chris Ann Hayes, a Point Park spokeswoman, who added that Ashford is traveling in Asia and unavailable for comment.
“Point Park looks forward to welcoming Rob to campus to engage with the students sometime in the spring,” she said.
Students in Point Park's Conservatory of Performing Arts theater program have threatened a walkout unless their demands to address racial and gender insensitivity are addressed. Their concerns have already forced the cancellation [of the musical].
Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/01/Point-Pa...
Conservatory Theatre students, who previously forced the cancellation of the provocative musical “Adding Machine,” took issue with “Parade” because it concludes that the guilty party in the rape and murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan was James Conley, a black janitor and Frank’s main accuser. That conclusion is based on historical research but has never been proven.
There are few minority roles in the musical, which is another point made by the students. The Tony award-winning book for “Parade” was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry (“Driving Miss Daisy”), whose great uncle owned the factory where Frank and Phagan worked.
The Point Park students will instead present “Pippin,” which was a 1973 best musical nominee and the 2013 Tony winner as best musical revival.
Paul Hennigan, president of Point Park, said in a statement: “Over the past three weeks, leaders of the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University and the Conservatory of Performing Arts have held wide-ranging, honest discussions with students, faculty, and staff regarding issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
“As we continue our dialogue and work together to enhance the culture at Point Park in a way that will lead to a more inclusive community, we have made the decision to postpone indefinitely our production of the show ‘Parade,’ which was scheduled for April.”
Mr. Hennigan began meeting with students after they made a list of demands following a troubled audition and rehearsal process for “Adding Machine.”
“It is clear to me that our priority as a university must be our students, and we cannot allow a production to move forward that could overshadow our educational and developmental mission,” the statement said. “We also would not be serving the best interests of our loyal patrons or the show ‘Parade,’ a widely acclaimed and important musical that generates robust conversation about social awareness and societal change.”
Point Park's buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner Rob Ashford.
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/04/30/Rob-Ashf...
Point Park University alumnus Rob Ashford is pictured Tuesday, April 30, 2019, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Point Park University. The Tony-winning choreographer announced he will direct Sharon Eberson Point Park's buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner, Rob Ashford
After “Adding Machine” was canceled, Conservatory students instead performed a “Reclaiming” cabaret. That show concluded Saturday at the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s Highmark Theatre.
The program was a single page listed the actors’ names with the statement: “We present to you the cast of ‘Adding Machine, the Musical,’ the recently canceled Point Park production. The intention of this cabaret is for the students and all those affected to reclaim the process, narrative, and space. Each student has chosen a piece that uniquely fits their meaning of reclaim.”
The final number was from “Pippin,” assuring that there was still “magic to do.”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
Source: www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/18/Student-...
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Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Got a news tip? 412-263-1601
localnews@post-gazette.com
Dec 2, 2019, 9:08 AM
Point Park University appears to have averted a walkout by Conservatory of Performing Arts Theatre students, who have made demands of school administrators to combat what they see as institutional racial and gender insensitivity.
A list of demands was sent on Nov. 22 and the walkout had been planned for Monday, if certain short-term demands were not met. University president Paul Hennigan and COPA dean Steven Breese will meet with the students Tuesday night, which was one of the conditions to avoid a walkout.
“Our students have the full support of President Hennigan, and he is looking forward to meeting with them and discussing next steps,” Point Park spokesman Lou Corsaro said. “Both he and Dean Breese are committed to devoting the time and space necessary for this very important conversation.”
Student actors aired their grievances Nov. 21 at a town hall meeting — attended by 200 classmates, staff and faculty — at Point Park’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, Downtown. As a result, a production of “Adding Machine: The Musical,” a show based on a 1923 play and including a raw view of societal racism, was canceled.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Point Park promises to address student concerns over diversity, inclusivity, and equity
Students said they felt unsafe and unheard when they expressed concerns about casting and rehearsal practices, as well as the content. Their subsequent list of demands includes “a time and place set for a Conservatory of the Performing Arts Theatre Department meeting on the discussion surrounding ‘Parade.’ ”
The history-based, Tony Award-winning “Parade” is about the lynching of a Jewish man, Leo Frank, wrongly accused of rape and murder, and presents what is considered to be a likely theory of who committed the crime. It also has very few roles specifically for people of color. “Parade,” scheduled for March, would bring back Point Park alumnus Rob Ashford, a Tony- and Emmy-winning director-choreographer who was in the ensemble of the original Broadway production.
The theater season so far has included a production of “Good Grief,” written by Point Park alum Ngozi Anyanwu, and Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” directed by alumnus Steven Wilson. “Good Grief,” which was first produced off-Broadway, was directed at the university by Reginald L. Douglas of City Theatre,
“Adding Machine: The Musical” was to be directed by Pittsburgh-based Tlaloc Rivas. Tome Cousin, who was to choreograph, has been contacted about helping to put together a cabaret for students who missed out on performing in the production.
Mr. Cousin, a Point Park Distinguished Alumnus who works on productions at both Point Park and Carnegie Mellon University, spoke up at the town hall meeting to give his unique perspective on the school’s history. He is a founder of the Black Student Union, when Point Park was a college and when there were three minority theater students. The school became a university and there was an enrollment and diversity explosion, Mr. Cousin says, “but the system didn’t catch up with that, so there are still limited roles to play involving students of color.”
In the case of “Adding Machine,” despite a racially diverse creative team, Mr. Cousin agreed with students that “there was a great insensitivity from the director to the cast in how things were handled, how the language was handled, and so I think it was blown out of proportion from day one about the race issue — the play is really not about that. … It became very messy, like a bomb inside of a bomb inside of a bomb.”
And it exploded into the list of demands, with the threatened student walkout. The Theatre faculty has been made aware of the students’ demands, as well as a conciliatory response from Mr. Hennigan.
Sharon Eberson
Student protests lead Point Park to postpone 'Parade' musical
After their success with shutting down the production of “Adding Machine,” students were inspired by protests over racism at other universities, such as Salisbury in Maryland and Syracuse in New York, to continue their protest.
“Currently, all over the country, the student bodies of different universities are speaking up in healthy ways to begin the conversation of change,” said the Point Park letter that was “endorsed by the Governing Body of COPA Theatre Club and its constituents, as well as Point Park University’s Black Student Union.”
Among the short-term demands already met are the cancellation of “Adding Machine” and the meeting with Mr. Hennigan.
The students also were seeking explanations of how and why productions are chosen. The current season was picked by Rob Allan-Lindblom, a former dean and Playhouse artistic director, who remains on faculty after stepping down from his administrative posts last year. Mr. Breese took over the positions in July.
The students point out that there are no people of color on the theater faculty, although the school invites frequent guest professionals of color.
Students have asked for, and Mr. Breese has already committed to, student participation in future programming choices. They also are looking for some guarantees of sensitivity and inclusivity training for faculty members, as well as an effort “to further diversify our COPA Theatre faculty.” Another demand states: “In every audition room and creative team of a show we produce, there needs to be at least one person of color and one woman.”
Mr. Cousin, the choreographer, has traveled the world to combat tokenism in theater and has written the book “The Franklin Project” — Franklin for the lone Peanuts cartoon character of color. It is subtitled, “Interviews, Essays and Articles on Diversity and Non-Traditional Casting for Theatre Performance.”
“There is not one thing these students are asking for that I would not agree with,” he said.
Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/01/Point-Pa...
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Point Park's buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner Rob Ashford.
April 30th, 2019
Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
seberson@post-gazette.com
What with directing Glenn Close in a new movie musical, celebrating the success of “Frozen” on Broadway and having his portrait added to Sardi’s Wall of Fame, you wouldn’t think Rob Ashford could find time for a job in Pittsburgh.
You’d be wrong.
The Tony- and Emmy-winning director/choreographer was at the Playhouse Tuesday to announce that he will lead Point Park University Conservatory students in a production of the musical “Parade,” in a just-announced season packed with buzzy projects.
Point Park’s muscle-flexing 2019-20 theater season is built on the strength of its Downtown digs and award-winning alumni such as Ashford (Class of ’83), who will direct Close in the movie musical of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.”
Other highlights include the premiere of the musical “Pump Up the Volume,” based on the 1990 Christian Slater movie, and “Good Grief,” the off-Broadway hit by alumnus Ngozi Anyanwu and directed by City Theatre’s Reginald L. Douglas.
“Pump Up the Volume” is the second premiere production in collaboration with New York-based RWS Entertainment Group, following “The Old Man and the Sea” in January.
RWS head Ryan Stana is a Point Park grad, as is Rachel Stevens, who returns to direct “The Wolves.”
Florida native Ashford was in Pittsburgh for the opening of the Playhouse and has long been in talks with artistic director Ron Lindblom about returning to the place that gave him his start as a performer.
He proposed “Parade” as the project and said he is grateful that Point Park President Paul Hennigan was onboard quickly.
Point Park University’s 2019-20 Conservatory Theatre
Company Season
Oct. 18-27: "Good Grief" by Ngozi Anyanwu, directed by Reginald L. Douglas (Rauh Theatre).
Nov. 8-17: "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, directed by Steven Wilson (PNC Theatre).
Dec. 6 – 15: "Adding Machine: A Musical" by Joshua Schmid and Jason Loewith, directed by Tlaloc Rivas (Highmark Theatre). Based on Elmer Rice’s 1923 play.
March 13-22, 2020: "Parade" by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, directed by Rob Ashford (PNC Theatre).
April 3-12, 2020: "Pump Up the Volume" by Jeremy Desmon and Jeff Thomson, directed by Dave Solomon (Highmark Theatre)..
Details: www.pittsburghplayhouse.com or 412-392-8000.
Ashford has a long history in the development of the award-winning show, about the real-life 1913 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was wrongly accused of murder in the South.
“The idea of blind prejudice against someone you’ve never met or don’t know at all, just by the way they look or how they worship … It seems like now is a very appropriate time to do ‘Parade,’ certainly in Pittsburgh, but also in Charlottesville. Too many places.”
The Broadway show, directed by Hal Prince, won Tonys for book writer Alfred Uhry and composer Jason Robert Brown, but closed after just 85 performances in 1999.
It was Ashford’s finale as a performer, and it stayed with him as he became an award-winning choreographer.
“I've always felt like ‘Parade’ deserved another life and another look. It's always been with me,” said Ashford, in a phone conversation from his home in Morocco, days before he traveled to Pittsburgh for the season announcement.
There were more unassuming name drops as he described how he helped reshape the musical that he will direct here. It started with choreographing “Guys and Dolls,” starring Ewan McGregor and Jane Krakowski, for director Michael Grandage in London’s West End.
It was Grandage who told him, “‘You do realize you are a director who is working as a choreographer,’” and Grandage, the artistic director of London’s Donmar Theatre, who gave Ashford his directorial debut: “Parade.” Ashford reimagined the show with a cast of 15 (down from the original 40) by having actors play multiple roles. Uhry and Brown joined him in London, and there were new songs added and cuts made.
“We created a different version of the show, and that is the version they license now,” and the version he will direct in Pittsburgh in March 2020.
“We had high hopes” for a new Playhouse, Hennigan said, when talks began to build it Downtown 15 years ago but nothing quite like the announcement made Tuesday.
Then, nearly four years ago, talks turned from construction to what the Playhouse could be as part of the university’s urban campus.
“We came up with the concept that it would be not just a performing arts center, but a full-service entertainment center, where we would be constantly creating and bringing in nationally recognized artists into an interdisciplinary facility.”
Ashford returns to Point Park on the heels of Tony winner Anthony Cervillo, who came to Point Park during the current season to star in the world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea.”
“The first time Rob Ashford saw the new building, the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I want to do something here,’” Hennigan recalled. “And Anthony Cervillo said, ‘I want to come back.’ There’s something about the building, the vibe, the ethos; it’s really really attractive to a lot of people. It has completely surpassed all expectations.”
Ashford will be in the building on Forbes Avenue presumably after he has finished his movie directorial debut. He has worked as an assistant to Kenneth Branagh on theater and film projects, but he’s flying solo for “Sunset Boulevard,” working again with Webber after he choreographed the 2012 Broadway revival of “Evita.”
The rest of the cast has not yet been announced, but when asked who his dream casting for Joe — the William Holden role in the movie, opposite Gloria Swanson — he said, “I can’t tell you that! They’d kill me.”
Although the script and full cast aren’t ready yet, he and his star have been busy preparing.
“We are right in it,” he said. “She is super smart and intuitive, as you would imagine, and she is a movie star, but she's not when you are sitting there working — she’s a working actor. She wants it to be as best it can be. It's about the story, the story, the story.”
From Glenn Close to Point Park students, Ashford said he is just excited to be coming back.
“I had such a wonderful time in college and working with CLO and Don Brockett and all the other wonderful things I got to do in Pittsburgh. … I’m always thankful for that and always looking for a way to give back.”
When he was in Pittsburgh for the opening of the Playhouse in October, he walked around the Pittsburgh Cultural District and discovered for himself that, “This is a theater town!”
When he was a student, theater and dance majors by the dozens would have to go back and forth by bus to the old Playhouse in Oakland. Now, with the facility steps away, the Playhouse is busy with students who do all the work, from marketing to getting sponsorships.
“And there can be hundreds of students working here up until midnight,” Point Park’s Hennigan said. “I think it will be one day be going 24/7.”
Another thing that wasn’t Downtown when Ashford was here in the 1980s, was a certain bakery that has made its way there from Shadyside. It has the one thing that the director-choreographer is most looking forward to from his college days:
“A burnt almond torte from Prantl’s,” he said.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
Article Source:
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/04/30/Rob-Ashf...
Further Reading:
Point Park University
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Park_University
Mary Phagan Case Website by Phagan-Kean Family
The Leo Frank Case Scholarly Research Library
The Leo Frank Archive
The American Mercury
Period Newspaper Articles from the Capital of Georgia
Constitution 1913: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-constitution-newspa...
Constitution 1914: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-constitution-newspa...
Constitution 1915: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-constitution-newspa...
Constitution 1916, 1919, 1922: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-constitution-newspa...
Georgian: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-georgian-newspapers...
Journal: archive.org/details/leo-frank-atlanta-journal-newspapers
As part of over $80 million in emergency preparedness funding provided by the Government of BC, the BC Search and Rescue Association will be receiving $5 million in one-time funding to provide essential supports to first responders (such as critical incident stress management and technical certifications), fund the continuation of the SAR prevention program, AdventureSmart and will also support the acquisition, maintenance and upgrading of equipment, including communications equipment and rescue equipment.
Learn more:
Who said Animals has no eternal life ?
But be sure you are saved in Jesus, he is the only way to be saved for mankind who have sinned. Animals didn't commit sin, but they are made under man's dominion, so they have to go through man's fall and misery. But all animals will be renewed. This world will all burn up. Why strive so much for wealth of this world. It does nothing, Thieves will potentially steal them and rust / elements will ruin them. Rather store our wealth in heaven , where no rust and thieves to steal them. Just be contented of just enough and spend time with God. Anyway, here's one verse that assures us animals go to heaven.
Psalm 148: 5- 10
“Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!”
A verse to encouraged people who love animals and have beloved pets which passed away. They will come back to you and be renewed, if you are saved in the Lord. You will be reunited with them. They can talk too :) I can imagine having a conversation with a chicken, a bird or a Cat, how awesome that will be :))) lol Reunited with my missing Cats, missing cockerel and dead dogs :) and other animals ....
*Do Pets Go To Heaven - There's Evidence with Dennis Callen from the TRIBULATION Now Radio
Picture from my archives 2009.
Taken at Luxor Cattle market
using my now defunct P&S Nikon Coolpix P5100
just before I had my first DSLR camera. I like it better the
DSLR, as it's a pockect camera, I don't have the hassle bringing on a journey.
Nov 17, 2022
Philadelphia -
Drexel and UPenn University students, faculty, and community activists rallied on the Drexel University campus to demand university officials commit to help save nearby UC Townhomes residents from being evicted.
Below find excerpt from letter to Constituent Services Senator Gillibrand concerning an unlawful lockup resulting in me notifying a cousin and an aunt as to what had happened to my life, since being forced from China by March 2006, after five semesters of disruptions to my work, then study while residing in China.
That incident occurred in February 2011, while I was then over 5 years isolated 100%, and enduring forced unemployment, with all areas of my life interfered with by the source.I had endured from 2006 to 2010 abuses and set-ups in all housing, in addition to coerced institutionalization that sapped from an RBC Wealth management trust, over $140,000. By January 2010, I had from months earlier made public the situation using my name on the internet. Through facebook people from my hometown and graduating class became aware of these public blogs. In January 2011 I made communication with my 90 year old aunt who lived just over an hour away from Binghamton, and since 2006 December I was kept isolated from by Michael J. Kehoe, who was in the service to this abusive program.
The letter to Constituent Services sent September 8th, 2017.
In the two quotes below I hope to indicate some aspects of what is happening in this now over 10 years program or operation, that uses the public to keep the victim, I, in constant isolation and continued, and virtually pervasive attack or abuse.
“McCoy argues, the CIA developed a “specifically American” torture paradigm: eluding detection and avoiding obvious brutality, “
-Review of The Trauma of Psychological Torture
J. Patrice McSherry
Social Justice. 37.2-3 (Summer-Fall 2010)
_______________________________________________________________________
The following quote from the quote and source below will give the reader here some indication as to what I mean by the use of the public to commit crime, abuse, harass, and keep the victim isolated within controls of the source of this: “…..the work of Stanley Milgram at Yale University showing that “almost any individual is capable of torture,””
“At some date, the CIA “identified three key behavioral components integral to its emerging techniques for psychological torture” according to McCoy (2006, p. 32). The work of Albert Biederman at the Bureau of Social Science Research in Washington, D.C., Irving Janis (Yale University), Harold Wolff and Lawrence Hinkle (at Cornell Medical College in New York) on “the role of self-inflicted pain in Communist interrogation”; the work of Stanley Milgram at Yale University showing that “almost any individual is capable of torture,” and the work of Donald O. Hebb at McGill showing “the devastating impact of sensory deprivation.”
-RICHARD E. BROWN. ALFRED MCCOY’S CONFUSION ABOUT HEBB, THE CIA, AND TORTURE … Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 43(2), 205–213 Spring 2007. Published … RICHARD E. BROWN is Professor of Psychology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (www.uio.no/studier/emner/jus/ikrs/KRIM2950/h11/undervisni...)
My RBC Wealth Management Account, a trust, was taken control of by 2006, as I was abused and forced into situations by way of my enlisted siblings and RBC trustees. In 2006 January the RCB Trust of mine contained $200,000 and a cash Retirement Fund by 2012 worth $50,000.
The trust was key. My father, Donald J. Kehoe, of Norwich in retrospect was spied on, his plan for our inheritance known to the source of this abuse.
John Joseph Kehoe, MA. I was born and raised in Upstate, NY. I graduated from New Paltz College, SUNY, in 1990, with a degree in Sociology, and minor of Anthropology. Before entering New Paltz I acquired an Associate Degree in the study of psychology from Herkimer County Community College . In 2001 I entered graduate studies University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies for a Master in Chinese Studies. I did this after spending 5 years working, as well as studying Chinese language in Taiwan. I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
By taking control of my trust, and denying me social freedoms, while isolating me from all people I knew anywhere in the world, the source of this was able to place me in Binghamton, NY, all places I visited, and my home controlled by them for abuses using the public.
Much was sexual humiliation based, such as the Broome Library that became a controlled setting every time I visited.
Children were used as props by the source of this, in repeated scripted actions that used adults, and carefully used themes that were accusations of pedophilia. Strangers, some regular patrons, and the children were repeatedly used in this day in and day out. Throat noises were used in varying ways, while since 2008 I was enduring physical abuses in sync with the environmental abuse.
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Jim Kehoe who wrote in April 2014, in the lead up to our High School Reunion: John Kehoe brother of Jim Kehoe of Aspen CO was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia in 2006.” explanation: jimjkehoesnowmass.wordpress.com/
Those responsible for this weapons research and behavioral experimentation spent the years 2006 and 2007 creating a false history of mental illness. I am not mentally ill, and never in my life, have I been.
They used hospitals, family and others, to create this false history, and why? BECAUSE: the media and or others will use this, in the event the the source’s goal can cause me to go retaliate using lethal force in one of their many protracted abusive set-ups that use citizens, families libraries and their staffs and patrons.
2011 September 29th, I ran to NYC, from a set up trap in San Antonio, that was a nightmare, with housing, and stores, my entire immediate family, all employed by the source of this weapons research and behavioral experimentation (secret human testing).
THAT San Antonio TRAP was to make me go retaliate targeting my sister, who was purely and simply acting as a puppet in her relations to me, based on the lie that I was a pedophile. That is why my sister roped me into getting an apartment with a lease, while I had no possessions with me, no friends, in the area, and still isolated. I had come from a 4 month unlawful lock-up that used anti-psychotic medication to abuse me (violate or torture).
Binghamton housing was another trap,,….and hotels saved me, by 2010, when I got out of the conspiracy that held me at poverty level and trapped me in weapons research controlled housing.
What this nation is doing, through this corrupt operation, and will not stop, is using people, in many situations, even family and a few close friends in their overall campaign of abuse, isolation, torture and dispossession of my potentials 100%.
This is very important to consider, the fact that anyone enlisted directly, such as strangers, businesses, my siblings, the few friends involved, all such people have no idea or even clue as to the drawn up plans, goals, and workings of the source of this.
Why would anyone accept abusing someone, as the abused is literally isolated, not knowing what the source is attempting to accomplish? Does it ever appear in the minds of the enlisted people that are directed to conspire and trick me or abuse me, that they may be the target set up by the source of this for retaliation, in the event that their plan is to BREAK ME PSYCHOLOGICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY AND INDUCED IDEAS TO RETALIATE? My sister Sue and her family were to potential targets in San Antonio. The source of this set my sister up, directed her dealings with me and purposely made her dupe me and trick me then screw me. The housing and abuse on social media, as well as the severe physical (arms; legs; chest; etc) torture I was enduring that used the weapons systems based on energy was all designed to ‘break me’. After that the source would attempt to get me thinking of killing my sister and her family. Read below how this plan took shape in Binghamton, while I pulled out of the conspiracy to house my with Mike Kehoe.
They will never stop until an authority stops them.
Their goals still today is to get me to “lose it” and make a scene, in other words give up my fight, in the face of helplessness and desperation that is endless, while the abuse breaks me emotionally, so the source could get me to murder some person or entity that has involved themselves in this, or just leave me lingering in this status quo since 2006, hoping it induces suicide. Any official recognition of this, by police or another, is something they will fight to to end.
Unlawful Confinement for Torture 2/2/11 4 months. Excerpt LETTER TO CONSTITUENT SERVICES SENATOR Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
(Excerpt is below)
The events accounted to some extent below included as a goal of the source of this, getting me to move to San Antonio, Texas. The source had enlisted my sister directly after May 2010. In May 2010 I had finally gotten out of the conspiracy that used Mike Kehoe my brother, who’s job was to force and coerce me into housing while I was at the same time under abuses, in the community. Mike Kehoe’s reward was getting close to $5000 dollars from my RBC Wealth Management Trust every six months since late 2007, while receiving other funds from my trust, for his private use, in the thousands of dollars, since December 2006.
My sister’s eldest son, at 27 years old, and no education beyond high school, with only experience of moving trucks in an oil yard, moved into an over $150,000 a year job sometime between my lock-up and my sister’s success in coaxing me to San Antonio, and luring me into a year long lease at an apartment.
San Antonio was a set up. The apartment complex and area , social media on the internet, were all used for abuses, sexual humiliation, while I was isolated and saw no one for 3 months, before I broke the lease and escaped on my own to NYC, September 29th, 2011.
A NOTE ON HOSPITALIZATION, FORCED MEDICATIONS USING ANTI-PSYCHOTICS AND WHAT THIS MEANS TO THE OVERALL GOALS OF THIS WEAPONS RESEARCH
Medications for psychotic individuals can be used on the healthy person by abusers or torturers:
“The same principles, however, can be used on healthy individuals to manipulate their brain chemistry and change their behavior and emotions. These drugs can be used on individuals as a form of psychological torture”
source: Neuroscience—and the new weapons of the mind, By Robert Bruner and Filippa Lentzos Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (27 October 2017) thebulletin.org/neuroscience%E2%80%94and-new-weapons-mind...
details of a February 2, 2011 unlawful confinement last 4 months.
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Excerpt of one of my letters below to Constituent Services Senator Gillibrand September 8th, 2017.
The incident below in the letter to Senator Gillibrand’s Constituent Services office, was a crime evidently committed due to contacting Senator Maurice Hinchey’s Office and Senator Gillibrand’s office, concerning the Weapons Research that I am victim of. Furthermore, it came a day after I for the first time since being pervasively victim of the actions of this Weapons Research, contacted the flowing people and told them facts about being held in Binghamton, NY against my will, while my RBC Wealth Management account was taken control of, $70,000 or more going to the pockets of Jim and Mike, who were and still are cooperative and given rolls by the source of the Weapons Research. The people I had contacted and told them by way of telephone what had happened to my life were: my aunt Hermene Kehoe in Sherburne, New York, whom Michael Kehoe kept me isolated from while I resided in forced rentals while at poverty level expenditures from 2006 December onward to 2010; Kathy Banks of Denmark Maine, who is my cousin and Hermine’s daughter.
It should be stated that from the GBHC four month confinement in 2011, and the subsequent experiences I encountered after being lured to San Antonio, Texas to live, by my sister Sue and her family, and from the 2007 month and a half long confinement, that these confinements are to shatter any hopes of being free, for after these two confinements I experienced forced rental (Binghanmton) / coerced rental (San Antonio).
Binghamton General Psychiatric Ward: April 14th 2007 to June 1st 2007
Greater Binghamton Health Center February 2, 2011 to May 20th 2011
I experienced a forced rental in the 2007, that was a set-up for extreme torture and abuse using Coolidge West Side / 602 Partners of Johnson City and Binghamton. The GBHC lock up was designed by the source of this, to intimidate me from speaking to government officials. It was also to get me to submit to my sister’s requests based on her being enlisted by the source of this. Lastly, and certainly not least, doctors and staff at first Binghamton General where I was placed for one or two days, and at GBHC acted on a script handed to them by the source of this, that included flashing printout copies of my blogs, that since 2010, I used my full real name. These blogs were all about the abuses at the forced rentals in Binghamton, and the abuses in the Broome Public Library and businesses. This worked because I erased my blogs when I got out after 4 month confinement. This was to get ready for the housing abuse in San Antonio, that was to push me to retaliate using lethal force, perhaps at my sister, who after I moved in, as instructed by the source never saw me, never visited, never invited me out.
That housing abuse took place at Huebner Country 8727 Huebner Rd San Antonio, where staff and the offices were used in the sexual humiliation themed abuses. This included facebook accounts being used as well for sexual humiliation.
The false claim that was intently stated to me after I was locked up was a form of intimidation. This ceased my communication with Kathy Banks. I resumed my communications with Kathy in 2013, though the source of this had eventually connected with them, and I was met with inhospitable communications when I would telephone. This happened in 2013, and included someone burping repeatedly on the line as I talked to my cousin Kathy. Prior to this, her son Henry Junior, was instructed to answer every phone call I made and mumble on the phone without saying any words.
“Psychiatric drugs used to treat anxiety, depression, or mania can force a person to experience those same emotions. These drugs work by returning overactive or underactive neural signaling associated with mental disease to normal levels. The same principles, however, can be used on healthy individuals to manipulate their brain chemistry and change their behavior and emotions. These drugs can be used on individuals as a form of psychological torture—or could be deployed on the battlefield to quickly incapacitate, or change the emotions of, a large group. Additionally, due to growing knowledge of the neural mechanisms active during memory formation, it may become possible to enhance or delete memories—or even, using emerging brain-stimulation techniques, transfer thoughts from one individual to another.”
-Neuroscience—and the new weapons of the mind Robert Bruner and Filippa Lentzos Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (27 October 2017)
In the following I had been criminally locked up in psychiatric hospitals of psyche wards, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the doctors assigned to me. All such lock ups involved administering neuroleptic or anti-psychotic drugs to me. The 2007 April occurred on April 14th, 2007 and lasted to May 30th or June 1. Apart from this 2007 unlawful confinement my trustees, Bill Kehoe now of Law Office of Wayne Clark, LLC Ellicott City, Maryland and Matthew E. Kehoe – RBC Wealth Management – Wellesley Hills, MA, sent money to all of these 2006 confinements from my inheritance, or my RBC Wealth Management Trust. Each cost was over 900 dollars a day. Over 20,000 dollars or closer to 35,000 dollars is my estimate. Albert Kukol, in Vestal, NY was witness to the records sent to me in April or May 2010, that showed these payments. Albert Kukol Levene Gouldin & Thompson Llp – Vestal NY
April 2006: 2 weeks West Pines Behavioral, Wheat Ridge, Denver Colorado.
July 2006: 2 weeks A facility in Grand Junction with Dr. Lowell Stratton, Psychiatrist in Grand Junction, CO
September 2006: 2 weeks South Coast Medical Leguna Beach, California Rosenfeld, Dr. Irwin I 23121 Plaza Pointe Dr, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 Phone: (949) 837-7071
April and May 2007, One month and a half: Psychiatric Services, Binghamton General Hospital. Dr. Martinez.
February 2011: four months: GBHC Greater Binghamton Health Center, Behavioral Health Mental Health Facility 425 Robinson St, Binghamton, NY
The 2007 April unlawful confinement, entailed an officer at my home in the hallway, at 260 Washington Avenue, Binghamton, holding my hands up in the air out of my view, with one hand, while using a razor or another object, knife, to cut my palm. The on looking officers all were witnesses to this, but included in the scripted conspiracy from the source of this overall crime. 260 Washington Ave was a forced rental.
Also, through all my experiences in Binghamton while I was literally held hostage there against my will, such as grand theft from 11 Arthur Street, Apt. 9 Binghamton, and the extreme conditions that included regular trespassing and vandalism to clothing and tampering with my space, from December 2006 until I left 11 Arthur Street on June 31st, 2010, I had no police report, though often called police. Concerning protracted and repeated trespassing and the theft of box loads of books, compact discs, and clothing that totaled close or more that $8000 (majority taken from September 2007 to end of February 2008 the police told me “you have to do a better job of locking your door.
The one police report I did make, was one that was provoked in a conspiracy, due to theft of some documents I carried. That took place about February 1st, 2011, and it was a call to the Broome County Sheriff. The results of this is that the police had a legitimate record of my location, North Street Motor Lodge 2100 North St, Endicott, NY. On February 2, 2011, there was a knock on the door stating that I was a threat. When I ask to take with me legal documents for a legal case, embezzlement, with Albert Kukol, Vestal my lawyer, the officers stated no. I lost everything in my motel room. This was the only police report taken in my entire time in Broome County, being placed there against my will in December 2006.
September 8th, 2017
John Joseph Kehoe
************
New York, NY *****
Phone *********
j__________@______.com
Social Security Number **********
The Honorable Kirsten Gillibrand
780 3rd Ave #2601
New York, NY 10017
Dear Senator Gillibrand,
In addition to the two letters sent to you, I would like to make a brief statement. First ask that your office investigate the false claim that was used to house me in Greater Binghamton Health Center being transferred there from Binghamton General on February 3rd, 2011. That claim, false, was used to intimate me from talking to government officials. It stated that I made death threats to kill my family and Senator Gillibrand. That came not even one month from the horrible shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, and seems to have acted on that shooting, taking advantage of a national tragedy to induce intimidation aimed at me.
All the following people listed below knew of the falseness of this claim and at least the higher up people such as Suresh Undavia, Marie St. Phard, and the two Greater Binghamton Health Center Doctors, had face to face contact with the source of this cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
(The claim was not presented to me until I was trapped, literally, on the psychiatric floor of Binghatmon General).
Suresh Undavia, MD, and the nursing staff present in Bingahmton General with me on the psychiatric floor I was in.
Two members of the Broome County Sheriff Department, who acted on script when they knocked on my door at North Street Motor Lodge, February 2nd, 2011.
Marie St. Phard of Greater Binghamton Health Center who I met with in Greater Binghamton Health Center, asking that I collect my possessions from North Street Motor Lodge in Endicott.
A Cuban Doctor head of the male wing of Greater Binghamton Health Center
A French Doctor who earlier had worked in London. This doctor acted on script when intimidating me about my blogs that use my name that are concerned entirely with this illegal cruel, inhuman and degrading operation. He knowingly held me in the hospital based on the desires of those responsible for this. He acted for them in regards to intimidating me about my online accounting of this.