lower east side

Four Letters Down (I Come From)

by Jose 07.18.2010

“Four Letters Down” (I Come From) by Jose Vilson (draft) But where I come from isn’t yours I come from disjointed alphabets, incongruent pronunciations of antique names, Burgundy stoned buildings arranged vertically, inorganically With pathways tight enough to hear the shrill screams of murder and mayhem But wide enough to feel like it’s not everyone’s [...]

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I Am A Community Organizer: The Genesis

by Jose 09.08.2008

This morning, on my doorknob, I got a flyer from some group detailing the negative aspects of Daniel Squadron, a young man who’s running for New York State Senate, representing Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The whole Lower East Side has been abuzz with community activism and political stationing, not so much about the presidential candidate [...]

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Gentrifuckation (part 1)

by Jose 02.20.2008

Every morning, this is what my walk to the train station looks like: That thing I circled is The Ludlow. At first, it doesn’t look too obstructive … Then, as I start to walk down Houston St., I realize how much it blocks my damn sunlight, the energy I feed off of every morning. It [...]

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A Tale of Two Lower East Siders

by Jose 10.30.2007

I’m a resident Lower East Sider. I don’t teach around here, but my heart, soul, and body still resides here. So when news from this area comes out, my ears perk up. We’ve had some of the more peculiar and iconic events happen around these parts, yet they hardly get recognized because 1) people didn’t [...]

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