Seven Oaks Magazine.

The Lower East Side is no longer the progressive bastion of counter-cultural expression that it was in the 1960s, nor the vibrant working class community comprised of Eastern European and Puerto Rican migrants that formed its milieu in the mid-20 th Century. In fact, the shops that line lower 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd avenues and St. Marks Street cater more to the tourist crowds wanting to buy provocative t-shirts that read “I went to fuckin’ NY” or “I love this fuckin’ city” – understandably, locals tend to stay clear. On most nights, you can find the small street-level pubs, bars and restaurants packed with trendy suburbanites who’ve driven into Manhattan from New Jersey in their latest SUV duds.

Cynicism aside, the East Side still displays some of the rebellious character that produced the beatnik generation of the 1950s. As a Village Voice disclaimer recently stated, “the neighborhood’s essential spirit, its rowdy cornucopia of visual and performing artists, is as visible as ever.” Two weekends ago was a case in point. The 9 th Annual Lower East Side Arts Festival took place featuring a slew of artists, performers, and salient point-makers from around the city. During the daytime, artwork was on display along East 10 th Avenue. Poetry, dance, artwork and theatre were featured in the evenings at the Theater For the New City on 1 st Ave.

They really pulled out the stops in terms of getting high profile endorsements for the weekend proceedings – of course, New York City is the center of the world to many people, so I shouldn’t really be surprised at the number of progressive luminaries who pass through here. Howard Zinn spoke on the Friday evening and was featured on the first page of the program drumming up the growing surge of anti-Bush sentiment that seems to be simmering underneath many things in the States as the fall elections approach – at least this is the case in New York, I assure you. In another piece featured in the program, Arthur Miller wrote of the Bush regime’s dismantlement of hard-fought gains in public social policy. Miller indicated that it “would have been hard to believe that a modern Administration would so quickly and successfully dismantle the social network of protections built up for nearly a century.” To no surprise then, the festival was dedicated to “Free and Fair Elections” – a feat that India and South Africa can most recently lay claim to, but which has been notably absent in the so-called “land of the free” for nearly a decade.

Artwork on display reflected variations on this theme – namely issues that will undoubtedly become hotter as the ballot boxes (or dubious computer-operated polling machines) ominously approach. Seth Tobocman’s spray painted work “Enough” depicted the usual repulsion to U.S. soldier body counts – though not unfounded or unjustified given the current situation. Today, defacto conscription exists for many young Americans who require employment in the military in order to afford college or support a family. Many have recently had their stories related in The New York Times which depicted them as ambivalent, apprehensive and scared about their role in Iraq in the days immediately preceding their deaths. There was also “The Rat Race,” by Carla Lubit, an intricately assembled pyramid depicting rats crawling upwards through traps to get wads of cash. Performances were staged by numerous talented small theatre groups like Bangladesh Theatre of America (BTA) and Billionaires for Bush, who pose as high-rolling Wall Street neo-cons as a way to ‘help’ the former frat boy win the elections.

While the message of free elections was well received by festival goers, I think Zinn’s conclusive admonition that “the most powerful engine for bringing about some semblance of justice…has not been the ballot box, but the power of the people, in the streets” should be kept in mind. Maybe the Lower East Arts Festival was indicative of this potential, or maybe it was just a small oasis within a desert of gentrified and defeated American apathy.