Summer, Sun, and Local Food

After a long break from posting due to vacaction, half of CAE taking an insanse summer class schedule, and other general summer craziness we are restarting our blog. 

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We are well into the days of summer by now, and in New York (along with weird weather and hot days) this means the farmer’s market…seemingly endless tables of the freshest and tastiest produce, milks, cheeses, meats, and fish.  And the best part is, it’s all LOCAL!

If you’re ever around Union Square on Wednesdays or Tribeca on Saturdays, you should stop by and visit Patrick.  When he’s not slaving away printing shirts, he spends his days as a fish monger. 

 

To celebrate summer and warm weather and fresh vegetables and local eats and all those other good things, we thought we’d feature our awesome Know Your Roots Shirt.  Now you can wear a soft shirt, perfect for summer that also puts the word out about healthy food choices.

Beet the System + Be Good to Your Mother

Alice's recycled journal is fun + functional!

Can’t Afford Em Crafts–the bastard child of Can’t Afford Em Buttons–is the collective effort of several radicals-cum-artists living in the South Bronx. We make our various crafts, including decoupaged record & Atari clocks, hand-bound books and journals, and handcrafted jewelry, from recycled materials, and then sell them on Etsy so we “CAN afford” rent (har dee har, get it?).

One of our resident artists, the delightful Alice Orman, had her work featured on the Seattle Examiner’s blog, in an article about what to get your oh-so-fickle-yet-environmentally-conscious mother in these economically distressing times. Her design, a simple-yet-functional journal, upcycled from discarded cardboard and hand-bound, features a whimsical hand-drawn beet and many blank pages just begging to be jotted on–and all for only five bucks!  Think about how many different ways you blow five bucks in a day.  And then think of your mom.  Presto!  Instant Mother’s Day present.  You probably didn’t need that third organic-fair-trade-shade-grown coffee with organic-non-GMO-soymilk anyways.

To find more exciting, local, and affordable crafts, take a gander at our Etsy page at CantAffordEmCrafts.etsy.com.

Welcome to the Bronx, Now Get Out. ♥, DOB

With the recent wave of building occupations–from the New School to NYU to Picture the Homeless–the spotlight has been on housing rights, anti-gentrification movements, and community ownership of property.  Of course, in the absence of any reasonable response from the city–you know, like using some of those swank, vacant new condos to house folks who don’t have any place to sleep at night–the people are ready to fight back.

Take the case of Mr. Jeffrey Acea, a resident of Boriquen Court–a real estate tax-exempt specialized housing facility for the disabled and senior citizens–on East 138th Street in the Bronx  While living there, Mr. Acea has suffered repeatedly less than standard living conditions, including leaking ceilings, falling plaster, rats, roaches, and no functioning bathroom.  One need only check the NYC Department of Buildings and HPD to see the laundry list of open violations on this building.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Acea was paralyzed from the waist down.  As of 2004, he was diagnosed with Leukemia and has been undergoing chemotherapy.  Because of his health issues, he has been unable to work and has a $14,000 annual fixed income.  At times, Mr. Acea was in and out of the hospital, causing him to fall behind on his rent payments.  Recently, he was taken to court for rent arrears by Foxy Management–less than one month after Jeffrey reported the conditions of his apartment to HUD.  The lawyer representing Foxy unconscionably persuaded Jeffrey to agree to a stipulation of paying half his annual income–nearly $7,000–by April 29.  (As predatory housing lawyers do, when preying on the financially insecure.)  The lawyer indicated that under no circumstances would a payment plan be accepted.

As such, Jeffrey Acea faces imminent eviction if we do not act promptly.

Jeffrey is a fundamental pillar of the community.  For decades, he has been volunteering his time by teaching children art at the Mott Haven Public Library as well as at Haven Art Gallery.  He has organized and led dozens of trips for children from the South Bronx to museums, art galleries, and historic landmarks around the city.  He gives everything he has to those who have less.   Now is the time to give back.

THE SOUTH BRONX STANDS WITH JEFFREY Solidarity Party

When | Saturday, April 25, 6pm until…

Where | 335 East 140^th Street Bronx (6 train to 3^rd Ave/138^th Street, exit at Alexander Ave, walk two short blocks north to E. 140^th Street, take right and we are the first house on the left)

Join Us | Please join us for an evening of fundraising for Jeffrey. There will be music, food, marshmallow roasting in the garden, a silent auction of Jeffrey’s art work and a report back on where Jeffrey’s case stands. We need your support – together we can stop the eviction!

Contact | Mychal Johnson, 212-810-0562

Get Your Craft On @ the Anti-Depression Session

Get your thrift on.

Your favorite Bronxites are leaving their borough (gasp!) for the unknown wilderness of … Brooklyn! Catch Can’t Afford Em Buttons on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3 at the Brooklyn Lyceum’s FREE Anti-Depression Session Craft Fair! All crafts will be priced under $30–so come buy yourself a spring treat, do your holiday shopping, or learn how to knit your very own scarfette (or, alternately, find out what the heck a scarfette is and why you’d want one).

We know, we know: you’re broke.  You’re saving your pennies for your monthly trip to the Co-op.  You’ve switched to non-organic kitty litter (the horror!).  All the better that the event is FREE.  Even your broke ass can afford that.

So screw Target and long live local economies.  We’ll see you at the Brooklyn Lyceum (227 Fourth Ave in Park Slope; R train to Union Street) from 11am to 6pm.

New School Militarization Condemned by Students, Faculty

A banner drop, and whole lotta cops.

In a well-documented and egregious display of unnecessary force, the NYPD attacked students occupying the New School’s Graduate Faculty Building on 65 Fifth Avenue on the morning of Friday, April 10, 2009.  The New School in Exile organizers peaceably occupied the building early Friday morning, displaying banners from the roof and using a megaphone to announce their reasons for the occupation and their demands.  (For full details of the occupation, including an FAQ, video footage, and moment-by-moment reports, please check out www.newschoolinexile.com.)  Shortly after the occupation began, the riot-gear clad NYPD was called in at President Bob Kerrey’s request.  Students were subsequently pepper sprayed while attempting to leave the building, and were unapologetically beaten by the police, to a chorus of “Shame!  Shame!”.  Twenty-two arrests were made, and several students were unable to receive medical attention until they were released from jail, 24 hours later.

Since Friday’s cop-violence-free-for-all, there have been numerous displays of support and solidarity with the student occupiers.  At Saturday’s NYC Anarchist Bookfair, attendees were abuzz with information about the arrestees, and video footage of the morning’s events spread like wildfire.  After the fair, many anarchists attended the CATastrophe, where a dance party at the Union Square subway station morphed into a roving street party, during which several windows were smashed.  Some party attendees marched to Kerrey’s house, where they were met with further police violence.  And, most recently, several student and faculty groups–among them the Graduate Faculty Student Senate, ACT-UAW Local 7902, and the Lang Faculty Senate Committee–put out statements of solidarity with the occupiers, and several condemned the University’s use of police force against its own students.

The frontline of militant pigs.

The NYPD made a lame attempt at promoting its agenda by releasing its own video of the event.  The New York Times covered the occupation in two separate articles, one of which acknowledges the dubious nature of the NYPD’s “polite” as a “tea party” video footage.  With street surveilance of cop actions becoming more and more prevalent (and necessary), it seems the pigs will need to watch their backs a little more closely if they intend to get away with such unrestrained machismo violence.  As for the occupiers, the results of their actions and demands remain to be seen.  But if President Bob Kerrey and Vice-President James Murtha know what’s best for them (and have actually read any of the aforementioned solidarity statements), they’ll accept responsibility for the outrageous events of Friday morning, and resign posthaste.  Or next time they might just have the whole damn school to reckon with.

An Anarchist Book Fair, Bronx Style

You Are Free, The Event is Free.

Can’t Afford Em is organizing with the Bronx Anarchist Fair folks to produce some HOTT, hand-silkscreened propaganda to promote the event, which is on April 4, 2009 from 11am-6pm. Bx@F organizers have been working ’round the clock lining up radical workshops, skillshares, roundtable discussions, movie screenings, a really really free market, childcare, and awesome vendors. AND–check it out–there will be Spanish language interpretation available as well.

The Bronx Anarchist Fair will be the first event to kick off “Anarchy Fest 2009″, a tragically-titled week of awesome anarchist events (please erase from your mind all images of PBR-guzzling gutter punks giving the “rock on” sign) that will culminate in the annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair on Saturday, April 11, 2009 at Judson Memorial Chuch in Manhattan. You can check out Can’t Afford Em’s handmade wares at either event!

We’ve (finally) entered the information age.

We’ve just begun to exercise our blogging muscles, but we’re still lightweights so please be patient with us! Can’t Afford Em Buttons is proud to still be kickin’ it here in the South South Bronx, where we make our cozy home in the Red Roots Community Arts Space. Keep checkin’ back for updates, mad hot tees, buttons, and other radicalness.

Can’t Afford Em is “steeped” in the radical tradition.