Up until now we have been vicariously revisiting another time and, in so many ways, another place via the Mass and Not Quite So Mass Media. As my 1960s Big Apple life experience is so limited, I thought it wise to invite a couple of more knowledgable people to bring the contentious and for many like myself puzzling decade into clearer focus through the words of eye witnesses. This week, on the topic of “Activism,” we have the pleasure of the first visitor; Gil Fagiani who is a really not so old friend, co-activist, and colleague to speak about “The Sixties in New York, Revisited.” His “An Italian American on the Left: Drugs, Revolution, and Ethnicity in the 1970s,” Italian Americans in a Multicultural Society, edited by Jerome Krase and Judith N. DeSena (1994) was one our our assigned readings
Gil Fagiani was a founder of the radical political organization White Lightning (1971-75). He went on to co-found other organizations, such as: Italian Americans for a Multicultural U.S. (IAMUS, 1992), the East Harlem Historical Organization (1992) and the Vito Marcantonio Forum (2011).
A translator and writer, he has authored nine collections of poetry. His most recent book of poetry, Logos, published by Guernica Editions, was inspired by the 14 months he spent in a South Bronx drug program as well as his political activism of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
A Clinical social worker and addiction specialist, Fagiani directed Renewal House, a residential program for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in Downtown, Brooklyn for 21 years. In 2014, he was the subject of a New York Times article by David Gonzalez, “A Poet Mines Memories of Drug Addiction.”
Fagiani has just completed a book-length memoir, Boogaloo Barrio: Ten Weeks That Shook My World. Set during a period of social upheaval, it tells the first-person story of a white, suburban-raised college student, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, who experiences discovery, hope, and love in a neighborhood once branded New York City’s most notorious slum—El Barrio, or Spanish Harlem.
Jerome Krase
March 30, 2017 — 3:40 pm
Gil Fagiani gave a most informative, insightful, and passionate presentation in class on his life and activism experiences in East Harlem as well as what led him to those efforts. The way he presented much of it, via his poetry made the point I think that the creative spirit of the decade was as strong as that for social justice. For those interested in following up with his continuing creative and activist productions can peruse these websites: https://www.pw.org/content/gil_fagiani and http://www.italianamericanwriters.com/fagiani.html. Here is a link to a New York times article about him: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/nyregion/a-poet-mines-memories-of-drug-addiction.html?_r=0
As to readings for next week’s Class on The Civil Rights Movement we have only one from the Required Readings: United States Department of Labor. The Moynihan Report. (1965)
Recommended Readings for the next, and prior, classes have already been sent to you and will be added to additional Resources. They are: “The Pentagon Papers” Archive link; “The impact of The Pentagon Papers 40 years on;” The Story of Silent Spring
; They Wished They Were Honest: The Knapp Commission and New York City Police Corruption; Helen Gurley Brown, Who Gave ‘Single Girl’ a Life in Full, Dies at 90; “The Town Hall Affair;” and Reviews of writings by Norman Mailer and Kate Millet.