Bomb the facist architecture,the FBI,Pentagon,lobby row,etc but LEAVE the
INNOCENTS out Mongo.I am tired of your bullshit.(and those shitheads who
propagate it.)
Seniors, Peaceniks, Punks Set to Share Turf in Shaw
Center Targets Groups' Common Ground
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 22, 2003; Page B01
The aim of Shaw's new Arthur S. Flemming Center, headquarters for a dozen
nonprofit activist groups, is as ambitious as it is unconventional: It
seeks to reconcile the mohawked aesthetic of D.C.'s underground music scene
with the softer sensibilities of the historically black neighborhood's
senior population.
The large common area in the back of the 13,000-square-foot complex
illustrates the unlikely union. By day, the room will serve as a senior
citizens activity area run by Emmaus Services for the Aging. By night, slam
poetry, hard-core punk and radical politics will take over.
They aren't as different as they might seem, organizers said.
"The do-it-yourself punk philosophy, which basically says, 'Do what you can
with what you've got' -- that's exactly what has happened historically in
Shaw and with the seniors in the neighborhood," said Mark Andersen, an
activist who has spearheaded development of the 13,000-square-foot complex
of rehabbed rowhouses. "They have common ground, and that's everything the
Flemming Center is about."
Juxtaposition is a cornerstone of the center, which sits near the
intersection of Ninth and P streets NW and is scheduled to open next month.
Inside, Emmaus is setting up offices near the quarters of punk activist
group Positive Force D.C. The Gray Panthers will sit beside the Interfaith
Conference of Metropolitan Washington. The Catholic Worker Bookstore will
be one door from the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop, a radical media center.
"So we'll have the secular anarchists across the hall from the Christian
anarchists," Andersen joked. "There are a lot of these kinds of
juxtapositions in here."
Many stem from Andersen's own history of activism. The founder of Positive
Force and coauthor of a book chronicling D.C.'s hard-core punk scene,
Andersen in the late 1980s got involved with Emmaus, eventually becoming
outreach coordinator for the Shaw-based volunteer agency. Seeing that small
nonprofits might benefit from joining forces and moving in together, he and
the leaders of Emmaus started scouting potential properties for an
activists center in Shaw in 1995.
In 1997, Emmaus cobbled together about $300,000 in loans and grants to buy
the three large, conjoined houses that run from 1422 to 1426 Ninth St. NW.
To refurbish the properties, Andersen turned to such friends as Ian
MacKaye, guitarist and singer for the D.C.-based band Fugazi.
The band headlined a benefit concert for the center, and MacKaye, who is
renting space on the center's top floor, has pitched in to help some of the
activist groups handle start-up costs. Other musicians, including members
of the MTV-friendly, D.C.-based band Good Charlotte, have visited the
Flemming Center recently and pledged support.
"I know Fugazi donated some money for us, so we don't have to pay rent next
year," said John Judge, board member for the Washington Peace Center, one
of the groups planning to move in to the building next month.
Lucy Stokes, a Shaw senior who has led local anti-gentrification efforts
for years, said seniors welcome the newcomers at the Flemming Center, be
they punks or not.
"You would be surprised how much enjoyment just seeing a young face brings
to a senior who's been inside all month," said Stokes, who has volunteered
for Emmaus.
Andersen said he hopes that the volunteers from punk circles -- most of
whom come from white, suburban backgrounds -- get as much benefit from
interacting with the seniors.
"These folks [in the punk activist community] are not exactly indigenous to
Shaw, but they're eager to be a part of a project that desires to preserve
what's best about the neighborhood," he said. "Part of our hope is that
they learn about the history of Shaw and that that changes how they see the
world and its possibilities."
>From the outside, the center doesn't appear much different from the other
19th-century rowhouses that line the block. Emmaus bought the properties
before the city's new Convention Center project sent property values in the
neighborhood skyward. The houses were in disrepair: The roofs were rotting
through, and the interiors were crumbling. One of the houses, managed by
the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was infamous throughout
the neighborhood, Andersen said.
"It was a 24-7 shooting gallery-slash-crack house-slash-brothel," Andersen
said. "It was in really bad shape."
During the past year, the insides of the buildings were combined to create
a single complex with everything from lofty ceilings to a cylindrically
designed chapel to a kitchen, an elevator and a roof deck. The Rev. Charles
A. Parker, executive director of Emmaus, said the center will open next month.
The Flemming Center is named for the founder of Emmaus, who also chaired
the federal Commission on Aging and Commission on Civil Rights and the
Citizens Commission on Civil Rights.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
Link: http://www.dcinfoshop.org
