A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early June, 2000 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early June, 2000 | Richard Grayson

Friday Morning in Apache Junction: 2012 Ballot for Arizona's Fourth Congressional District includes Americans Elect Party Candidate Richard Grayson

Our early ballot arrived in the mail today.

Thursday Morning and Afternoon in Apache Junction: Social Justice Forum at Central Arizona College's Superstition Mountain Campus

We spent most of the day today at an innovative and informative Social Justice Forum sponsored by Central Arizona College at its Superstition Mountain Campus in Apache Junction. The Social Justice Forum drew its inspiration in part from the well-known words of Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail": "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,"

and it included a terrific keynote address by Dr. Sue Warner, numerous concurrent presentations and sessions on different topics related to the forum's theme, an opportunity fair, discussions about community activism, a film showing, and more (also breakfast and lunch), all for a nominal $10 fee.

The concurrent sessions were held in rooms 442 and 444 on campus, and while everyone had to choose one of two or three during the four blocks of time from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, we got to attend some interesting presentations, starting with attorney Leo Valverde's "The New Face of Poverty" to start.

Leticia Berry, a CAC student who works at the Desert Vista Behavioral Health Hospital and at Parc Place Chandler, an adolescent inpatient treatment facility, delivered a highly informative presentation on the etiology and behavioral symptoms of juvenile sex offenders, their treatment, and how parents can protect their own children.

Another great session featured Dr. Kristen Bishop, a naturopathic medical doctor, leading a discussion on important women's health issues regarding pregnancy and birth -- as a doula, she contrasted various methods of natural childbirth with standardized U.S. hospital births -- and the factors affecting breastfeeding. We've been interested in women's medical care since being involved in an undergraduate campaign to get a gynecologist on the Brooklyn College campus and doing our political science major's seminar paper on the changes going on in reproductive health care back in the early 1970s, and we learned a lot from Dr. Bishop.

At 1 p.m., after lunch and an opportunity fair in which various local organizations of activists from places like the food bank set up tables in the courtyard, we got to hear Dr. Sue Warner, Central Arizona College's chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences, deliver a wide-ranging keynote address titled "The Broken Escalator."

The title came from a video she showed near the end of her presentation, a compendium of varied social justice issues facing the world today, from income and wealth inequality to demonization of "the other" to environmental justice.

As someone who's taught at colleges, law schools and high schools since 1975, we can always recognize a highly effective, inspiring teacher, and Dr. Warner did not merely lecture but skillfully engaged the audience in a thoughtful and provocative discussion.

One of several sessions concerned with LGBT issues -- we missed ones on bullied youth and coming out, affirming churches, and sensitivity training for parents, but we figured that having been active in gay rights for decades, we could learn more at other sessions on less familiar topics -- was a highly interactive presentation and discussion, "Equal Rights: A Call to Action," led by Stacey Jay Cavaliere and Bea Valezquez of One in Ten, an organization we've long admired.

They were master facilitators, funny and warm and intelligent and informative, and they made effective use of group activities, like our discussion using yarn, which effectively tied all the individuals in a varied group together.

A lighter but fascinating change of pace was CAC student Brittni Evans' presentation, "Star Trek: Adventures through Space and Equality," focusing on the social justice issues and messages of equality and inclusion that permeated Gene Roddenberry's original 1960s Star Trek series. (We remember our Midwood High School classmate Neil giving us a petition to sign in the spring of 1967 to stop NBC from canceling it after the first, low-ratings season. It worked, and the show lived long and prospered.)

Another CAC honors student, Jo Beaudry, then spoke on "The Psychology of Hate: Cognitive and Psycho-Sociological Effects of Hate Regarding the LGBTQ Community," a sophisticated presentation involving brain science and cognitive behavior therapy. It was very well-done. We should note that the technology so helpful in these presentations worked pretty flawlessly -- as a college instructor, we know how rare that can be -- thanks to, we think, Cristina Hatler, Melissa Gardner and others involved in the planning for this terrific event.

We had to get to the nursing home to help feed our mom dinner and then do some other work, and so we missed the pizza dinner on campus and the courtyard 8 p.m. screening of Paul Haggis' Oscar-winning film Crash and the discussion afterward. We've seen it a couple of times, first in 2004 in a Plantation, Florida, theater and can see how the movie's L.A.-based interwoven narrative works effectively as a critical reflection instructional tool for diversity and social justice issues dealing with race, gender, and ethnicity.

Speaking of L.A.: although we missed Hanukkah in Santa Monica in December, we're about to leave the backwater of A.J. and head out to spend Pesach in the San Fernando Valley. But we are grateful for everyone involved in making today's Social Justice Forum at Central Arizona College's Superstition Mountain Campus a reminder to us that we don't have to be in New York City, Los Angeles or Miami to find a community concerned with the issues we've been involved with our whole lives.

Wednesday Evening in Apache Junction: Central Arizona College's 3rd Annual "Take Back the Night" at Justice Court and CAC Superstition Mountain Campus

This evening we had the privilege of attending Central Arizona College's third annual Take Back the Night event,

part of the well-known international movement that calls for the end of sexual violence and invites the public to join the college in its stand for safety and empowerment to "shatter the silence" and "stop the violence."

It began at 5 p.m. by the Pinal County Justice Court on Idaho Road,

where participants gathered

and heard a rousing and inspiring talk by Natalie Ehmka, founder of Pretty Feisty,

whose passion stems from her personal experience with drug and alcohol-related sexual assault - an incident that happened during her college years. An expert on sexual assault prevention, she had effective advice and support for young women and for those of us concerned about their health and safety.

Whistles were given out,

and the group marched with signs

over to the Superstition Mountain Campus of Central Arizona College,


where we heard presentations

by Apache Junction Police Chief Jerald Monahan, a consultant for the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative, who explained that most domestic violence victims don't report incidents because they fear not being believed and how police must take the attitude of "believe first." As the little girl sitting in front of us said, "Good job, Grandpa!"

The fabulous Divine Essence performed some powerful slam poetry and spoken word pieces dealing with topics like women's self-esteem and empowerment, domestic violence, and caring for the next generation as well as one's peers. She was quite charismatic, and it was nice to hear the sounds of New York City in her voice. On this day when the great poet Adrienne Rich has died, Divine Essence reminded us of how vital it is for the genuine voices of women to be heard.

In the middle of her own set, Divine Essence brought on Robert FlipSide Daniels, who also performed a couple of energetic pieces, one of which began sweetly as the story of a childhood crush but ended with an example of the unfortunate pervasiveness of domestic violence in our world.

Nev Kraguljevic, director of residence life at Central Arizona College, acted as MC, but spoke from the heart as the survivor of a childhood in a family where domestic violence took place.

This was the third annual CAC Take Back the Night,

with the earlier two events held at the college's Signal Peak Campus.

After all the speakers were given gifts by the college, little flashlights were distributed among the audience,

and we used our whistles to "make noise" and call attention to the issues regarding women's safety. Near the close of the event, we had a moment of silence to remember the many victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence among the women of the world.

We are grateful to everyone who contributed to Take Back the Night and are glad we got to attend. Adrienne Rich once said that what she and her sisters-in-arms were fighting to achieve was simply this: “the creation of a society without domination.”

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

As Take Back the Night shows, we want a world where women can be tigers.

“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” reprinted from Collected Early Poems: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 1993 by Adrienne Rich. With the permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company Inc.

Tuesday Evening in Apache Junction: Green Party Presidential Candidate Richard Grayson Votes in Arizona Primary at Cactus Canyon Junior High School

With less than an hour before the polls close in today's Arizona presidential preference primary, we went over to Cactus Canyon Junior High as we drove up Southern Avenue from spending time with our mom at the Apache Junction Health Center nursing home.

The nice poll workers there told us that we were the first Green Party voter they'd had all day, so we might have even carried our home precinct, number 40 in Pinal County, with our vote for ourselves.

This Republican voter was one of the few people there. We are hoping to finish at least fifth out of six candidates in today's Green primary and plan to concede early at our campaign headquarters so that our dad, brothers and brother's girlfriend can watch TV.

Wednesday Night in Apache Junction: Apache Junction High School Performing Arts Department presents "The Sound of Music" in the AJPAC

This evening we saw a charming Apache Junction High School production of The Sound of Music at the Apache Junction Performing Arts Center. Astutely and efficiently directed by Paul Lanphear, the performances were about as prhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifofessional as you get from talented high school kids. Since we've never seen an episode of Glee or High School Musical and have only seen one other high school production in the past thirty years -- Guys and Dolls at Automotive High School back in Brooklyn in 2009, we're certainly no experts in judging this kind of show, but we were quite impressed.

Let's just say that that student actors, sets, costumes, lighting, orchestra, and pretty much everything else has made a quantum leap in quality since we were in high school during the Punic Wars (okay, Vietnam). Our production of another Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I, in May 1965 at Meyer Levin J.H.S. 285 probably would seem really amateurish and clunky today although for the time it was probably pretty good. (Our director, Gladys Newman, had been a child star in movies with Maurice Chevalier, after all.)

The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959, and our parents saw it with Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel (whom we met a couple of times), but we were only eight and Mom and Dad didn't take us to our first Broadway musical until 1961's Milk and Honey.
But soon after it opened, Miss Ferrara, P.S. 203's music teacher, taught us to sing the inspirational "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" in auditorium; we can still clearly remember the typed lyrics projected behind her, with us wondering why the "e" was missing from "every."

We loved the movie version of The Sound of Music came out a few years later, but even then we were aware that a lot of people considered the musical treacly. Another clear memory is reading in the New York Times Sunday Arts and Leisure section (required by our ninth grade English teacher Hazel Sanjour, who quizzed us on it Monday morning!) that Christopher Plummer, AKA Captain von Trapp, referred to the film as The Sound of Mucus.

And even as a teen, it seemed to us that The Sound of Music didn't have what we called the heft or bite of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, The King and I or South Pacific, which we saw at Lincoln Center with Florence Henderson, Giorgio Tozzi, and David Doyle a couple of years later. It seemed like there were no serious issues like racism or slavery dealt with in The Sound of Music, none of the spicy or suggestive humor of some of the other shows.

And famously, Brooks Atkinson's review of The Sound of Music in the New York Times, expressed disappointment over “the American musical stage succumbing to the cliche of operetta.” But he praised the show’s “melodies, rapturous singing and Miss Martin.”

But seeing this pretty terrific production of the show at Apache Junction High School has made us rethink the show as more than a collection of winsome kinder, inspiring nuns, and some of the best songs the classic Broadway musical ever produced.

The play actually takes place immediately before and after the Anschluss, after all; the stakes are really high, and there's a darkness at the edges of the lovely melodies (mostly in the form of the chilly and menacing Nazi Herr Zeller (Riley Brown here, in a nice turn) and the even scarier, in some ways, male ingenue Rolf (Colin Murphy).

There's also a way you can view The Sound of Music as a proto-feminist play, with two pedagogical duets with an older woman empowering another: first, early on with "My Favorite Things," when the Mother Abbess (a standout Katee Sharp, playing it with great power from her wheelchair) tells Maria how to face her new life outside the abbey with bravery; and then, in the reprise of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" when Maria (Gracie Turner, very strong and lively throughout) advises Liesl (Molly Wyman) to "wait -- a year -- or two" before she can experience the "adventure" of adult love.

And we hadn't realized how much Rodgers had made use of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical music here before we saw this production, which had a very effective chorus of nuns.

Anyway, most of the audience was there just to have a good time, and we can't imagine anyone was disappointed. As we said, the sets, sound, costumes, and music, as well as the pacing, seemed incredibly professional to us. The glitches you'd expect from a high school production -- now that we're sixty, high school students seem very young indeed, after all -- were very few and far between. And the whole production rang with an intelligence that banished the fleeting thought beforehand that we'd need an insulin injection afterwards.

Even the cutest of the cute Von Trapp kids, little Gretl (Eliza Brimley), didn't cross over from cute to cutesy, and the cast was uniformly professional by the standards of a high school or even college production. Some of the student cast members had really terrific voices, like Devin Murphy as Friedrich.

Of course most of the classic songs in the show -- the title tune, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi" -- seem like they would be hard to spoil in any way. But they were all performed with nice bits of business and decently executed choreography (probably the trickiest thing to pull off in a high school show, as one of our dance major students from Fordham's Alvin Ailey program once told us).

The most problematic character in the play for us always was Captain von Trapp, and both Bikel and Plummer expressed a degree of discomfort with the way the role was written. But we liked the way David Moeller played the Captain, not as a martinet whose chilly demeanor is finally warmed by the cheerful governess, but as a kind of obsessive-compulsive neurotic for whom Maria's music -- and the kids' -- works as a kind of antidepressant medication. (The play, of course, is a highly fictionalized version of the Trapp Family Singers, whose real story was a lot more messy in various ways. We once talked to a woman who knew Baroness von Trapp, and the real Maria apparently was not such a sweetie.)

Some of the songs were cut out of the movie and here proved to be remarkably effective. We really liked "No Way to Stop It," with the Captain's idealism no match for the cynical realism of Max (a funny and roguish Quinton Prunty, who comes close to stealing several of the scenes he's in) and Elsa (Dani Bloodgood, drily no-nonsense but sly and pleasant).

But of course the most memorable moment of the play come from the delightful musical numbers of Maria and the kids, and here Gracie Turner, Molly Wyman, Devin Murphy, Eliza Brimley, Vicki Cisneros (Louisa), Victoria Komashko (Brigitta), Zane Michalek (Kurt), and Abby Brimley (Marta) always come through. And when Katee Sharp rises from her wheelchair near the end of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," it provides an inspiring and thrilling end to the first act.

The cast got a well-deserved standing ovation at curtain call, and when we got out of the theater, we saw and heard them shouting "We did it!" and running around with the same kind of energy they exhibited onstage. They did do it, actually, and the people behind the scenes of this production -- especially the director, Paul Lanphear -- deserved a standing ovation, too. For five dollars, it was an almost obscene bargain, and the show has two more performances, on Thursday and Friday evenings at 6:30 p.m.