i recently moved to hudson,ny which is 30 miles south of albany and 45 miles north of new paltz. i am working with an artists collective called time and space limited. i will post my recent experiences there in a reply since i can cut and paste there. peace
friends, my 1st 2 weeks of connecting and working with tsl http://timeandspace.org/tsl/ in hudson went very well. i worked on their main warehouse/offices/performance space and on the youth house. i met and made friends with many creative and interesting people. i moved into my apartment which is only 2 blocks from tsl and work. it is 2 bedrooms so i have space to welcome visitors. hudson is a town but has an inner city feel in the section of town that i live in. the houses are old and pretty run down and there are quite a few empty ones in need of rehab. the population is mixed with many african americans. there don't seem to be many latin american immigrants which makes it a lot different from providence which has had a boom in this population and our sassafras house neighborhood which was predominantly from the dominican republic. a nice thing about this inner city though is that there is lots of open space and woods within easy walking distance from the apartment. so me and my dogs are very happy to be able to take long walks where they can chase deer, rabbits and fox along with the many stray cats. regarding empty buildings, tsl currently has a 3 bedroom house behind the one i live in that is empty. they are looking to rent it to activist type people for $600/month. finding the right people for that house is something i would like to help with. they also have 2 old buildings on the next block that are currently used for storage but could possibly be better used. they have been feeling kind of swamped by the need to maintain and repair their many buildings so they are very happy that i showed up to help. our 1st phase will be consolidation of the buildings they already own and then there will be the possibility of further expansion by buying more. the expansion phase is something i would look forward to since we will then be expanding our activist base area. hudson is about 25 miles south of albany and 45 miles north of new paltz. i am looking at the hudson valley base area as stretching from albany to poughkeepsie which is 10 miles south of new paltz. there are many progressive creative cooperative people and projects happening in this area. i reported on some of them in my previous report on my visit to new paltz. here are a few updates and some new connections made in the past 2 weeks. hudson. tsl has an impressive building and network of projects and connections. the founders, linda and claudia, are activists and artists who have been working on this project for 25 years. they started in nyc and moved to hudson 15 years ago. they have theatre, film, and youth projects going. the youth project includes dance, silk screening, poetry and boxing. they also have a small garden that i ate some good vegetables from. kale and cabbage are going strong. i am looking to encourage more music in the mix including hopefully some dance parties. i went to one youth event held at the tsl center which included showing t shirts they silk screened and some good poetry readings along with some videos they made. the space was packed with many neighborhood youth, mainly african american. there is a lot of potential to expand this program. the current coordinators are maija and monique. along the local music line i also met a black guy at tsl who is developing a recording studio across state st from where i live. he also is a dj and has an internet radio station http://hudsoncityradio.com/ . i am sure i will be further connecting with him and hopefully developing some shows at tsl. also across columbia st from tsl a building is being renovated to become a music club. club helsinki is currently located in great barrington,mass. their addition to the hudson mix will greatly improve the music and social mix. http://www.clubhelsinkiweb.com/ also i stopped in a small west indian store where i saw posters for a reggae show in albany and a hip hop show case in hudson. the people were friendly and we talked much about reggae as a musical message bringer and the importance of connecting youth with this message. paulette wants to further connect with local youth projects and provide food. i will be further developing that connection. the reggae show in albany is a beres hammond and marcia griffiths for the love of it concert on 1/22/07 at the washington avenue armory. beres hammond and marcia griffiths are both often mentioned by robert roskind in his rasta heart book as teachers of the one love philosophy which he sees as jamaica's world transforming contribution. i will be going to that concert with julia walsh. also i met a jamaican rasta in the post office and we talked about reggae, peace and love, youth and music, and the reggae scene in albany. apparently there is a club there that often has reggae music. i will be looking into this further as this could greatly help our albany area connections. also at tsl i met bobby who lives at the germantown anarchist youth collective. germantown is about 20 miles south of hudson. here's the link to their site http://www.germantowncommunityfarm.blogspot.com/ . andi suggested that they would be good people to move into the empty tsl house. i am sure that further connections with them will be developing. also at tsl i met rebecca who lives at the triform camphill community. they do cleaning at tsl. she said they have 70 people involved at their community. they have apprenticeships, a farm, and some businesses. their focus is on working with somewhat disabled people. i had previously seen their community mentioned on the hipforums communal living forum. here is their link. http://triform.org/ new paltz. i didn't get down to new paltz but i did talk with julia walsh, the founder of the synthesis youth network, a few times. she was very busy finishing up her thesis for her masters degree in social movements. she'll be sending me a copy which i will forward to nwrforums. i will be reading it and giving her some suggestions as she wants to develop it into a book. she said that the 60main coffeehouse is doing better than ever with more volunteers, better fund raising, and continuing good networking and events. here's their link. http://60main.org/ . also she took a couple of people up to the 5 acres of woods that they own. the people have experience in wilderness training and shamanic training and are interested in living there and being involved with the primitive living and spiritual retreat that she envisions developing there. also previously they had a wilderness gathering of 10 local youth at the land. so that project is moving forward and will gain much momentum in spring and summer. new paltz is a more happening town than hudson since it has a university and many restaurants, bars and clubs. it's downtown is a tourist atrraction and has many interesting alternative cultural type shops. hudson's main st is primarily antiques and art galleries. i'll be heading down to new paltz more often as i settle into the hudson valley. catskill. catskill is across the hudson river and 6 miles southwest from hudson. andi and margo live in that area. i went to their house a few times for dinner including a solstice gathering of a dozen people including a couple from boughton place http://boughtonplace.org/ , a woodstock/rainbow connection, and a riverboat captain and his theatre oriented wife and daughter. i've known andi for 20 years as we started nwrzine and toured together. he has focused on the hudson valley and is who brought me out there. i will be doing some construction work with him. margo is an herbalist and youth theatre director. she will be doing a play at tsl and is well connected with the catskill community center. they have some great kids also. commonfire. i didn't get down to commonfire this trip but i got their recent newsletter and they are doing well. their house is considered probably the greenest in the northeast and their activist oriented cooperative living collective is developing well. they are also planning their next expansion moves. here is their link http://commonfire.org/ so my connection with the hudson valley and tsl is developing well. i like living there. i like the interesting people and work. i look forward to much accomplishment over the next year and into the future. one of my suggestions to linda is the need to develop a variety of businesses connected with tsl so they won't be so dependent on donations. construction and real estate will probably be one into which we can develop apprenticeships for the local youth. also i suggested possibilities like child care, elder care, clothes, seminars, tours. guess we'll see how things develop. peace nwrfred
