Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing. My goodness, Frank, Being Frank
Speaker 2: right where the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone,
Speaker 2: and welcome to Being Frank. We're the only way to
Speaker 2: be is well Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebonno, and
Speaker 2: I'd like to thank you for joining us on what
Speaker 2: we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no
Speaker 2: conversation is out of bounds and all points of view
Speaker 2: are welcome. Our listeners are familiar with our routine. We
Speaker 2: record live to tape and I give you the dates
Speaker 2: so you have context and relevance. It is the twenty
Speaker 2: fifth of February, and we continue our celebration of Black
Speaker 2: History Month here at Being Frank. The Trump Administration's attempt
Speaker 2: to rewrite history to suit their vision of America continues unabated.
Speaker 2: That was on full display during the President's State of
Speaker 2: the Union address last night, and with the possible exception
Speaker 2: of our LGBTQ plus and immigrant communities, no group has
Speaker 2: been more targeted for this revisionist history than Black Americans.
Speaker 2: We have seen the video and the attempts to desecrate
Speaker 2: memorials dedicated to the Black experience in America, and perhaps
Speaker 2: the sting of these policies is felt mostly through the
Speaker 2: cuts in federal subsidies with minority art communities and the
Speaker 2: programs associated with them. The irony of these cuts is
Speaker 2: that they eliminate the very means by which minorities can
Speaker 2: lift themselves out of poverty that plagues so many of
Speaker 2: their communities. In just a minute, we'll welcome back to
Speaker 2: being Frank, a man who has dedicated his life to
Speaker 2: improving the lives of young people in underserved communities through
Speaker 2: theater arts. We'll be having some intelligent conversation on how
Speaker 2: he is coping with these changes now and what they
Speaker 2: might mean for the future. And for the second portion
Speaker 2: of our program, will see Witch Gears and we'll meet
Speaker 2: one of the creators and organizers of the nineteenth annual
Speaker 2: Polar Plunge that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars
Speaker 2: for medical needs of local children. Okay, now, please welcome
Speaker 2: back to being Frank. He's a playwright and the artistic
Speaker 2: director of the Shades Repertory Theater in Havistrow in New York.
Speaker 2: And he returns to being Frank. My friend, mister Samuel
Speaker 2: Harps Samuel, thanks once again for joining me.
Speaker 3: Always it pleasure to get a chance to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Love coming on your show.
Speaker 2: We appreciate that, Samuel, and we'll have some intelligent conversation,
Speaker 2: that's for sure. Let's again, it's been a while since
Speaker 2: you've been on the program. Tell us a little bit
Speaker 2: about Samuel Harps and your involvement with the rep theater
Speaker 2: of the Shades Repertory Theater.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, indeed. Well, first of all, Shades came about
Speaker 3: about twenty three years ago. I realized that I was
Speaker 3: living in the community of community theaters and none of
Speaker 3: those people doing any plays that with anybody to look
Speaker 3: like me or any of the kids that I was
Speaker 3: teaching at the time. Therefore, of course, like necessity is
Speaker 3: the creator everything, you know, I created a place in Habstaw,
Speaker 3: an underserved community where kids could first of all come
Speaker 3: and enjoy theater, and that broadened out into actually doing
Speaker 3: theater with the kids in the community. So it was
Speaker 3: just organically happened, just by no one else around here
Speaker 3: would do it. They were doing guys and dolls and
Speaker 3: damn Yankees in Oklahoma, and a lot of the kids
Speaker 3: in my community didn't sing, didn't even know where Oklahoma
Speaker 3: was and really didn't care. So we started doing original
Speaker 3: pieces in Habitstraw and it continued off for twenty two years.
Speaker 2: SA mean, why is it important for young people to
Speaker 2: see literally see people that they can relate to and
Speaker 2: hear music and lifestyles that they understand. Why is that
Speaker 2: so important?
Speaker 3: Well obvious, I think it's crucial, especially now historically or
Speaker 3: we it seems like a lot of possibility for a
Speaker 3: culture to be erased. We see what has happened to
Speaker 3: the Native American and looking at it from the outside
Speaker 3: looking in, it's like that couldn't happen. But slowly, but surely,
Speaker 3: especially in the last twenty years, we've been slowly been
Speaker 3: attempted to get erased, unless something like the George Floyd happened,
Speaker 3: of course, which kind of brings the black people back
Speaker 3: into the light. You know, we just kind of mows
Speaker 3: you along. But history has become important because it is
Speaker 3: possible that in one hundred years black people could be
Speaker 3: a blip on the radar, and we're not a blip
Speaker 3: on the radar.
Speaker 2: Same with that in mind, talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: some of the goals of the Theater of Shades Ultimately,
Speaker 2: what do you look to accomplish with the theater?
Speaker 3: It again, it took on a life of his arm
Speaker 3: Frank in a sense that we started doing original plays
Speaker 3: again because a lot of the high schools in the area,
Speaker 3: in Rockland in general, we're doing plays that were had
Speaker 3: no African Americans, no Latinos, and it's important for people
Speaker 3: to see themselves in theater or otherwise it means absolutely nothing.
Speaker 3: So the necessity came about with just doing original plays.
Speaker 3: What do you kids want to talk about? What's important
Speaker 3: to you? And that's where it began. After each performance
Speaker 3: we would do a Q and A where the kids
Speaker 3: would stay in character. Usually our plays centered around conflict
Speaker 3: resolution of some degree because that's what most of the
Speaker 3: kids were doing with dealing with in their lives, some
Speaker 3: sort of conflict. So with the Q and A, kids
Speaker 3: got a chance to remain in character and talk about
Speaker 3: their choices. And that became our signature with the theater
Speaker 3: with Haberstrow Youth Theater, and that carried on into Shades
Speaker 3: where I started to do it primarily historical plays. February
Speaker 3: is the I've always joked, the coldest and the shortest
Speaker 3: month of the year. For African American and for years,
Speaker 3: even back as far as I can remember, it was important, yes,
Speaker 3: but it always stopped that the civil rights movement. It
Speaker 3: was we came here, went through slavery, reconstruction, overcame, and
Speaker 3: then slid back down again and look at where we are.
Speaker 3: So again, the importance of art theater in particular is
Speaker 3: how we tell our stories through music, through dance, through theater.
Speaker 3: And if we don't have that and it's getting stripped
Speaker 3: away through budget cuts, I'll get to that in a minute,
Speaker 3: because again, our funding came from the community itself. You know,
Speaker 3: we start to get grants just from longevity contuity, just
Speaker 3: from being there. We get small grants here and there.
Speaker 3: But to keep the doors swinging open, we had to
Speaker 3: create an audience and the people did come.
Speaker 2: Well. With that in mind, Sam, let's talk about success
Speaker 2: first of all, and you can be personal with it.
Speaker 2: How do you define success? And then within your theater
Speaker 2: and the zeitgeist if you will love the theater, how
Speaker 2: do you define success there? And can you give us
Speaker 2: some examples?
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty two years is success. We started out with
Speaker 3: audiences with the youth theater. You have grandmothers, you have aunts,
Speaker 3: and you have their siblings and kids they go to
Speaker 3: school with that came to play they slowly it came,
Speaker 3: but Shain's Repertory Theater when we started to do plays
Speaker 3: by lesser known African Americans. We've been writing plays for centuries,
Speaker 3: so we started to do plays that spoke to the community.
Speaker 3: People started to come and that became our success. Just audience.
Speaker 3: Soon we were getting, you know, audience of one hundred
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty people, and that is how we measured
Speaker 3: our success, just lunge heavity, just being there in the
Speaker 3: community of community theaters and developing an audience. That's how
Speaker 3: I measure our success there.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned dealing with budgets, and that's the reality
Speaker 2: for everything. I mean, everything has to be paid for.
Speaker 2: Even when they say not for profits, there's still costs
Speaker 2: associated with it. You know, it doesn't run itself. And
Speaker 2: I know, especially with the slashing of the EI, you know,
Speaker 2: and that that certainly trickles down, and sometimes it's more
Speaker 2: than a trickle, it's a flood where you're in danger
Speaker 2: of being washed away. And this this past weekend was
Speaker 2: a prime example. I know, you you salvaged something that
Speaker 2: you had planned by doing a reading at ROCCA, the
Speaker 2: Rockland Center for the Arts set that up for us
Speaker 2: a little bit what that was supposed to be originally
Speaker 2: in how you managed to salvage it and do something
Speaker 2: positive too, working within the framework of of this budgetary restraints.
Speaker 2: Now if you can't.
Speaker 3: Yes easily, well, you know, every Black History Month for
Speaker 3: the last eight years, we've had funding from disca h
Speaker 3: New York Council of the Arts that was part of
Speaker 3: what they call a uh sort of a sub grant.
Speaker 3: Arts Council of Rockland gathered money and they were able
Speaker 3: to distribute it amongst people in Rockland County, so we
Speaker 3: would get a trickle of a you know, two or
Speaker 3: three thousand dollars, which is a theater at our level,
Speaker 3: which is good money. Our actors rarely get paid, but
Speaker 3: it's costuming because there are historical pieces and designers and
Speaker 3: things like that. But this year, actually last year, I'll
Speaker 3: go a few years back when it started with the pandemic.
Speaker 3: You know, the theater. Theater always finds a way to survive,
Speaker 3: always after for the American theater on that level of
Speaker 3: the total pole, we have to find a way to survive.
Speaker 3: But those money so it's a few dollars help. But
Speaker 3: suddenly we had moved up to Garnaville and the pandemic
Speaker 3: hit and we weren't able to get into our theater.
Speaker 3: We couldn't even get into the building for a year,
Speaker 3: so we weren't able to do anything. And again, if
Speaker 3: people aren't buying tickets, we're not getting any come. But
Speaker 3: the grant that came from a Corps thirty five hundred
Speaker 3: dollars sometimes five thousand, that would get us off the
Speaker 3: ground for every Black History Month this year. Last year,
Speaker 3: actually NISKA didn't give us a grant at all. A
Speaker 3: Corps didn't get large enough grant, so we had to
Speaker 3: of course scratch the Burning of New York, which is
Speaker 3: a historical peace. But it's sixteen characters and they're coming
Speaker 3: from all over, from Manhattan, they're coming from Westchester, so
Speaker 3: you know, how did they get here? Funding? It takes money,
Speaker 3: but we just got, you know, basically nothing last year,
Speaker 3: which led us to do a community poetry reading, which
Speaker 3: it's called reached out to community leaders, pastors, the assistant
Speaker 3: director of NAACP, lawyers, teachers, actors, and said, let's celebrate
Speaker 3: our literary figures, our James Baldwin's Our Langston Hughes r
Speaker 3: W B do bos Our County colin and for the
Speaker 3: public and talk about the last one hundred years of literature, poems, speeches, dedications.
Speaker 3: A two hour event and we put it out there.
Speaker 3: We had people that come to read. We had eleven
Speaker 3: community readers, and we always we get good audiences at
Speaker 3: ROCA because Black History Month, respectfully, all of our liberal
Speaker 3: friends or black friends, our Latino friends. You know, people
Speaker 3: come out for that one month because the focus is
Speaker 3: on African Americans. The other eleven months, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: we have to somehow get in the news probably other ways.
Speaker 2: So well, I was going to ask you, how do
Speaker 2: you continue that momentum? Sam You'll have you know, you
Speaker 2: build it. How do you continue it?
Speaker 3: It's what I do. I mean that sounds almost cliche,
Speaker 3: but you know, thirty three years I've been doing this.
Speaker 3: I mean it came to New York on an internship
Speaker 3: in my thirties. I didn't even grow up until I
Speaker 3: was thirty four, you know, mentally anyway, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Working on it, Samuel, don't feel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know. So anyway, I came to New York,
Speaker 3: I was raised as an army Brad Frank as you know,
Speaker 3: you know from way back. You know, my father fought
Speaker 3: in a couple of wars. I thought I didn't fight
Speaker 3: in the wars, but I was in the military. Both
Speaker 3: my sisters were wars my cousin's uncles, which brings me
Speaker 3: to that whole patriotic thing. People always talk about, how
Speaker 3: could you be patriotic? How could I not be patriotic?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. We've been fighting in wars,
Speaker 3: my actual my family had been fighting wars on the
Speaker 3: soil since the Civil War, So of course I'm patriotic.
Speaker 3: And when I do historical pieces and drag out these
Speaker 3: bits of history that people had never heard of, never
Speaker 3: read about. We didn't get in school. People didn't talk
Speaker 3: about the kids now, you know, even though we have Google,
Speaker 3: they can find out what they want. But for generations,
Speaker 3: you have this ignorance about who we are as a culture.
Speaker 3: You have your top ten figures, but you have generations
Speaker 3: of history that African Americans have stamped on the United
Speaker 3: States of America. And when you get scorned, when you
Speaker 3: get you know, I guess, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 3: you know, not the realm. You know, what I mean,
Speaker 3: in a country that you died for that continues to
Speaker 3: treat as second class citizens or even third class. You
Speaker 3: know now, So you know, Frank, when you touch, when
Speaker 3: we talk, when anyone touches on that chord, it it
Speaker 3: spurs me into passion. I won't say rage. Rage was
Speaker 3: in my thirties and forties.
Speaker 2: I hear you.
Speaker 3: I'm in my seventies now, so it's.
Speaker 2: Not rare too.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna be seventies.
Speaker 2: But it welcome to the club.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's turned to something else, which is again why
Speaker 3: I have to as a storyteller. I have to maintain
Speaker 3: a legacy of literature, poems, theater and movies. African Americans
Speaker 3: that are now doing movies. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: saw Sinners yet, but have you did you get a
Speaker 3: chance to see Centers? I did, Yes, Okay, it's it's
Speaker 3: everyone should see it. My daughter told me about it,
Speaker 3: and she told me about I thought it was a
Speaker 3: vampire fleet, but it's a lot deeper than a vampire fleet.
Speaker 3: And I heard Coopler on a show talking about it.
Speaker 3: Then all those subliminal meanings in it, everything that's going on,
Speaker 3: and it is again him screaming out. Look at us.
Speaker 3: We are here. It's screaming at screaming, and we've been
Speaker 3: screaming for how long? For one hundred and sixty six
Speaker 3: hundred years or so. But now's the time. You know,
Speaker 3: we have a broad audience and our music is changing.
Speaker 3: Our rappers are growing up, you know, into men who
Speaker 3: have experiences. There's something about experience. I wasn't a big
Speaker 3: rap fan when it came out, but what these brothers is.
Speaker 3: The comedians, the rappers, the composers, the playwrights, the writers,
Speaker 3: They're actually speaking and saying something. Now. I'm so proud
Speaker 3: of our literal our literary tradition. Moving on, so proud
Speaker 3: of what's going on.
Speaker 2: A perfect segue, Samuel. With that mind, I asked to
Speaker 2: prepare reading for it, and I know you have. I
Speaker 2: have two. I'd like to get to one. Now. Would
Speaker 2: you set it up for us and then read for us? Yes?
Speaker 3: I will. This poem is a short poem written by
Speaker 3: Content Culin called Hillburn the Fair. It's about Hillbury, New York.
Speaker 3: In brief. In nineteen forty three, Thirgood Marshall won a
Speaker 3: disparity case regarded integration in the schools of Hillburn. This
Speaker 3: is eleven years before Brown versus Board of Education, right
Speaker 3: here in Hillburn, where young black kids weren't allowed to
Speaker 3: go to the white schools in the areas. They had
Speaker 3: to go to a school that had the library, the
Speaker 3: indoor bathrooms, no gymnasium. Marshall came to Hilbert, New York
Speaker 3: and bought this case had won content. Colin wrote this
Speaker 3: poem they reference to that. It's called Hilbert the Fair.
Speaker 3: God have pity on such a city where parent teachers
Speaker 3: child to hate. God looks down on such a town.
Speaker 3: We're prejudiced. The great Bruise truckingly and evily. What should
Speaker 3: be liberties at state? It's by Kanti Columns, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I should mention also Joe Allen, Uh, the producer,
Speaker 2: created a wonderful documentary on that whole thing, called Two
Speaker 2: Schools in Hillburn. I highly recommend it. I believe he's
Speaker 2: going to be having a showing at the Nayak Library
Speaker 2: coming up soon, and I highly highly recommend it for everyone.
Speaker 2: What should what should people take from? You know, that's
Speaker 2: the beauty of poetry. They can take whatever they hear
Speaker 2: out of it. What do you think, uh, people might
Speaker 2: want to take from that poem acknowledgement.
Speaker 3: Basically, this is a nineteen that was in nineteen forty three, Frank,
Speaker 3: it could have been nineteen sixty three, It could have
Speaker 3: been nineteen seventy three, it could have been nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: three in a place like Hillburn. So I think people
Speaker 3: basically take from that. I mean, he was writing his poem.
Speaker 3: The last line what should be Liberty's it stayed is
Speaker 3: what people should read from that poem. Poetry is elusive,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's wide open for interpretation. I think
Speaker 2: those people that's why the practitioners of both arts, it's
Speaker 2: a joy because it's the challenge of it, you know what,
Speaker 2: you know, as perspective to say, we can discuss a
Speaker 2: little bit. So for people who are not familiar. We're
Speaker 2: from Rockland and that's w where this show emanates from,
Speaker 2: but because we stream it goes to other parts of
Speaker 2: the country in the world for that matter. You know,
Speaker 2: Hilbert is this tiny little place, and it ain't down
Speaker 2: south either. When we're thinking civil rights events and stuff,
Speaker 2: we think of Selma, a plant, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: This is a tiny little village about what thirty five
Speaker 2: forty miles from town Manhattan. That's kind of almost like
Speaker 2: a one stop like town. So it's amazing how this
Speaker 2: has played out in America, but all over America. And
Speaker 2: I don't think people realize that your thoughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the place the poem starts with, God have
Speaker 3: pity on this on such a city.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So you know, I mentioned a
Speaker 2: little bit about the State of the Union address last night,
Speaker 2: which was the longest in history. It already broke his
Speaker 2: record that he already held. Uh and certainly mixed feelings
Speaker 2: depending on what side of the aisle literally you were on.
Speaker 2: But but I thought the reaction, particularly with when al
Speaker 2: Green walked through the body of the of the event
Speaker 2: with the sign that you know, against the video that
Speaker 2: black people are not apes, and the reaction of what
Speaker 2: someone tried to grab it away. I forget the congressman
Speaker 2: who centered his name, and but but talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about how that all went down, and your feelings
Speaker 2: about the video itself and the reaction to it, the
Speaker 2: denial by the president and the refusal but most people
Speaker 2: to simply accept it. What what first you made?
Speaker 3: You made, of course mean the Obama Obama Michelle video.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, of course, yes, I call it. I call
Speaker 2: it the video because I don't like to give it
Speaker 2: more credit race this piece of turk if yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean this show otherwise I would, but yeah, I call
Speaker 2: it the video. What was again? I could? I was
Speaker 2: shocked and heart But as a black man, when you
Speaker 2: see something like that, is it rage? Is it righteous rage?
Speaker 3: It's I talked a few minutes ago about at seventy uh,
Speaker 3: I take nothing this man does I take with the
Speaker 3: great assault? What was most simple? I mean my thoord
Speaker 3: When I first saw the video, it's Obama that he's
Speaker 3: talking about, and you know, he's become a national institution
Speaker 3: in himself and as well as his family, and him
Speaker 3: not responding to it was a huge response. But now
Speaker 3: it's social media, so it's a it has a life
Speaker 3: of his own. It's bigger than Obama, includes all of us,
Speaker 3: me included. Whenever I see a caricature now, I if
Speaker 3: it came from a source, Frank, it would it would
Speaker 3: feel a lot worse being called the Inward on Main
Speaker 3: Street right here in town than it is coming from
Speaker 3: this guy, the actor math. Someone actually expected him to
Speaker 3: apologize for it. And fire his whoever linked it out
Speaker 3: there not taking responsibility at off of doing it, or
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's tough to talk about this guy.
Speaker 3: I can't even mention his name, and I think I
Speaker 3: got that from my mom. She can't mention his name.
Speaker 3: I take no. With what he's doing and or attempting
Speaker 3: to do to the country is just so baffling. I mean,
Speaker 3: everyone knows and sees this. For he's not missed out
Speaker 3: on any demographic women blacks. Ah, you know. Now you've
Speaker 3: got poor White's not liking him. And that's when it
Speaker 3: really gets scary, you know, because he's touched on everything.
Speaker 3: He's touched on everyone, you know. So I'm passed being
Speaker 3: angry with him and more angry with the country. But
Speaker 3: on the other end of that, I'm not an eternal optimist.
Speaker 3: But to see Americans, soccer moms, athletes, black white, young
Speaker 3: olbgqs or whatever are speaking against their turning away invitations
Speaker 3: to the White House. There the courts are making their
Speaker 3: way slowly, but surely you have a army of lawyers
Speaker 3: that are fighting against what he's doing. Uh, you know.
Speaker 3: So it's it's disheartening and sometimes encouraging to see a
Speaker 3: no King's rally in a place like Oregon or Memphis
Speaker 3: or Alabama, you know, with the Rainbow people. That kind
Speaker 3: of gives me that hope that we might be able
Speaker 3: to last at least in the midterms and possibly after.
Speaker 3: But they will last this mstruck other than them getting
Speaker 3: us into a war. I came into I came into
Speaker 3: today saying I'm not going to be heavy on the politics.
Speaker 3: But you brick at that. In God, this guy, you know,
Speaker 3: I everyone's political. You cannot be political and living in
Speaker 3: America anymore?
Speaker 2: Well yeah, you know. And again even with this show,
Speaker 2: and obviously we're discussing arts in it, but it's our lives,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, talk politics, Well, then you
Speaker 2: can't talk about living in America. Yeah, not anymore, you know,
Speaker 2: early on now surely.
Speaker 3: Like with the opioid epidemic, when African Americans went through
Speaker 3: the crack epidemic, and what we got was just say no, okay,
Speaker 3: but respectfully, Once a young white girl of one white
Speaker 3: boy in suburban Cleveland gets addicted because they hurt their
Speaker 3: lead playing soccer, it's a pandemic, you know, it's an epidemic.
Speaker 3: You know, because now they're suddenly looking at it. I've
Speaker 3: seen people in New York City in an eight year
Speaker 3: period in the eighties, thirty three thousand people died of
Speaker 3: an overdose. And we got just say no, I'm going
Speaker 3: to get off this high horse in a minute. I
Speaker 3: just want to give them picture of the fact, the
Speaker 3: fact that we've had an epidemic, an opioid epidemic all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, because it's reached the suburbs. Now say
Speaker 3: with them stripping people off the street, now okay, and
Speaker 3: suddenly white people are like, oh, they're they're they're snatching people,
Speaker 3: white people off the street. Now it's craziest and endemic.
Speaker 3: You know, I could get snatched off the street in
Speaker 3: any day for three quarters of my life, No for
Speaker 3: since I was an eight year old, so due to math,
Speaker 3: I could get, you know, snatched off the street a
Speaker 3: legal ailing or not. But now you're snatching people off
Speaker 3: the street. You're shooting, You're shooting white women in SUVs
Speaker 3: in the streets of American cities. Look at that. You've
Speaker 3: got a man that can go to another country, take
Speaker 3: a man out of his country, go up any ship
Speaker 3: that's in coastal in waters, and nobody can do a thing.
Speaker 3: He frightened the woman so bad that she gave him
Speaker 3: hurt Nomail Peace prize. How do you get someone in
Speaker 3: your Nobail peace pries? Anyway, now we have suddenly people
Speaker 3: are looking across the board at what this guy is
Speaker 3: actually doing. It's affecting white people. White people are saying,
Speaker 3: who's going to cut my lawn in the summer, who's
Speaker 3: going to raise my kids? They have some of these
Speaker 3: women that they're snatching off the street and sending to Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico.
Speaker 3: They raised three generations of white kids in the suburbs.
Speaker 3: They cut your lawn, they deliver your food, you start
Speaker 3: snatching them off the street. Okay, during the pandemic is
Speaker 3: one thing, but now it's become an epidemic because they
Speaker 3: see the loss. There was a play that was written
Speaker 3: called A Day Without a Him Mexican back in the seventies,
Speaker 3: where a black play right wrote a play that a
Speaker 3: day people woke up and there was no more Mexicans nowhere.
Speaker 3: It took three days. Who's going to take my kids here?
Speaker 3: Who's gonna cut my grass, Who's going to pick our tomatoes?
Speaker 3: Who's going to cut the chickens? Who's going to pick
Speaker 3: the cotton. You know, who's the backbone in this country.
Speaker 3: So the backbone has been handed from African Americans who
Speaker 3: created this country, helped create this country, to the Mexicans.
Speaker 3: And once they disappear and they're not here, you start
Speaker 3: to see. We saw it during the pandemic when people
Speaker 3: couldn't go to high end restaurants in the city. They
Speaker 3: had to rely on Jose or Hector to bring the
Speaker 3: food to their door. Okay, so or the elderly. All
Speaker 3: the Somalians they're talking about in Minnesota, they take care
Speaker 3: of the elderly. Ninety percent of some volumes there are
Speaker 3: in their country where doctors and nurses, they couldn't take
Speaker 3: care of their own mother and father, but they would
Speaker 3: come here. And suddenly you start taking those people away,
Speaker 3: and now we have an epidemic. Now it's really horrible.
Speaker 3: I hope we last this thing. I really do hope
Speaker 3: we can survive this onslaught Okay, because the country America
Speaker 3: does not look like America. The next poem I'll read
Speaker 3: after the break was written by License Hugh and it
Speaker 3: is actually called let America Be America Again, and it
Speaker 3: was written in nineteen twenty three. But you hear the
Speaker 3: words to it, it's quite frightening, it's quite telling.
Speaker 2: And since you previewed it, why don't we Now we'll
Speaker 2: do that and then we'll wrap up. We'll go to
Speaker 2: the break instead. But I think timing is perfect, since
Speaker 2: it's seemed to be so appropriate for this moment. If
Speaker 2: you would, would you read the Poemston Years.
Speaker 3: It's a rather long poem.
Speaker 2: That's fine. I'm sure it's wonderful. This has been terrific.
Speaker 2: Please we want to hear it.
Speaker 3: Okay, It's called Let America be American Again. Lesters wrote
Speaker 3: this poem in nineteen twenty four when he returned from
Speaker 3: Paris for the first time after leaving America. They're coming back.
Speaker 3: Let America be America again. Let it be the dream
Speaker 3: it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on
Speaker 3: the plane seeking a home where he himself is free.
Speaker 3: America never was America to me. Let America be the
Speaker 3: dream the dreamers dreamed. Let it be that great, strong
Speaker 3: land of love where never keenes connived, no tyrant scheme
Speaker 3: that any man be crushed by one above. It never
Speaker 3: was America to me. Oh, let my land be a
Speaker 3: land where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath.
Speaker 3: But opportunity is re real, and life is free. Equality
Speaker 3: is in the air we breathe. There's never been equality
Speaker 3: for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free.
Speaker 3: Say who you that mumbles in the dark, or who
Speaker 3: are you that draws your veil across the stars. I
Speaker 3: am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart. I ad
Speaker 3: the debro bearing slavery scars. I am the red man
Speaker 3: driven from the land. I add the immigrant clutching the
Speaker 3: hope I seek, and finding only the same old stupid
Speaker 3: plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
Speaker 3: I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Speaker 3: tangled in that ancient endless chain of profit power gain
Speaker 3: of grabbed the land of grabbed the gold, or grabbed
Speaker 3: the ways of satisfying, satisfying need of work. The men
Speaker 3: of take the pay, the Malians who have nothing for
Speaker 3: our pay except the dream that almost deed to day. Oh,
Speaker 3: let America be American again. The land that never was,
Speaker 3: has been yet and yet must be the land where
Speaker 3: every man is free. The land is mine, the poor
Speaker 3: man's Indians negroes me who made America, who sweat and blood,
Speaker 3: whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose
Speaker 3: cloud in the rain, must bring back our body dream again. Sure,
Speaker 3: call me an ugly name you choose. The steal of
Speaker 3: freedom does not stain from those who live like leeches
Speaker 3: on the people's lives. We must take back our land again, America.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I say it, Plain America never was America
Speaker 3: to me. As yet I swear this oath. America will
Speaker 3: be out of the rack and ruin of our gangster's death,
Speaker 3: the rape and rot of graft and stealth and lies.
Speaker 3: We the people must redeem the land, the mines, the plants,
Speaker 3: the rivers, the mountains, and the endless plain, all all
Speaker 3: the stretch of these great green states, and make America
Speaker 3: again of owning everything for one's own greed. I am
Speaker 3: the farmer, bondsmen to the soil. I am the worker,
Speaker 3: so to the machine. I have the negro servant. To
Speaker 3: you all, I am the people, humble, hungry, mean, hungry
Speaker 3: yet to day despite the dream beaten, Yet to day,
Speaker 3: All pioneers, I'm the man who never got ahead, the
Speaker 3: poorest worker, bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one
Speaker 3: who dreamt all basic dream in the old world, while
Speaker 3: still the serf of kings who dreamt the dream so strong,
Speaker 3: so brave, so true that even yet its mighty daring
Speaker 3: seams in every brick and stone, in every ferret turn
Speaker 3: that's made America the landed has come become. Oh, I'm
Speaker 3: the man who sailed those early seas in search of
Speaker 3: what I've meant to be my home. For I'm the
Speaker 3: one who left dark Ireland's shore, and Poland's plain and
Speaker 3: England's grassy laid and torn from black Africa strand, I
Speaker 3: came to build a home land of the free. The
Speaker 3: free who said the free not me, surely not me.
Speaker 3: The millions of relief to day the Medians shot down
Speaker 3: when we strike, the millions who have nothing in our
Speaker 3: pay For all the dreams we've dreamed, and all the
Speaker 3: songs we sung, and all the hopes we humed, and
Speaker 3: all the fledge we've hung, that America the America again.
Speaker 2: Wow. In a word, epic, absolutely epic, and I listened
Speaker 2: to every.
Speaker 3: Word nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Written in nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 2: What does it mean to you personally when you hear that,
Speaker 2: when you speak it? What does it mean to you?
Speaker 3: What brings in my ear is this man broke this
Speaker 3: in nineteen twenty four and it could have been written
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four easily. Every words, it's screaming. He
Speaker 3: could just come back from Europe, from Paris, where he
Speaker 3: was treated differently like a human. He came back. And
Speaker 3: this is before before passport were passports, and Langston had
Speaker 3: got tagged by the FEDS for being a communist any
Speaker 3: black man back in the nineteen twenties versus red scare
Speaker 3: going on. You go to Europe and you come back
Speaker 3: w B. Debo's legson hughes Bob and went through it,
Speaker 3: you know, Roberson, Yeah, this goes on right, So he
Speaker 3: gets he stopped and gets hassled, and he wrote this play.
Speaker 3: So again it means let America be America again. That's
Speaker 3: what rings true. I'm screaming at now, Let America be
Speaker 3: America again. And it's been many things, you know, two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty years of an experiment. You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Do you remain optimistic, Samuel.
Speaker 3: I I.
Speaker 4: Do.
Speaker 3: I do, Frank, you know, I have a slew of
Speaker 3: friends that think I'm almost Pollys Pollyanna optimistic. But there
Speaker 3: is no way a country this strong, these sort of
Speaker 3: values are screwed up as it is, you know, cannot
Speaker 3: survive this guy. I mean, that's that's my hope. Okay.
Speaker 3: And again, as I said earlier, Frank, when you see
Speaker 3: soccer moms at No Kings marches, you know, you have
Speaker 3: soccer moms in Minneapolis that are feeding refuge to Bali
Speaker 3: refugees that are out in the streets, you know, warnting
Speaker 3: people of ice coming, that are making sandwiches, peanut butter
Speaker 3: and jelly sandwiches that are going to hole depot, feeding people.
Speaker 3: Soccer moms. That's the hope I got. Okay, you know, yes,
Speaker 3: America has this God, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: here for a moment, man, you know. But it that
Speaker 3: my hope really goes in the fact that me as
Speaker 3: a as a veteran, my sister fought it kuwait, my
Speaker 3: other sister was in Desert Storm, my father fought at
Speaker 3: Vietnam and Korea. And then you're looking at the black
Speaker 3: Americans that fought in the Civil War. They fought for freedom.
Speaker 3: This is gonna sound so freaking cliche, but they fought
Speaker 3: for freedom. To believe, I don't think the word negro
Speaker 3: is even in the Constitution anywhere. But a group of
Speaker 3: white men with good morals went into a room and said,
Speaker 3: this is what's right, this is what's good about humanity.
Speaker 3: That's the hope that we have. That's the hope that
Speaker 3: we fight for. That's why you know, these soccer bombs
Speaker 3: are out there. That's why nineteen year old black men
Speaker 3: were signed up to a military. It's not to get
Speaker 3: a free education. Okay. People are fighting for their country.
Speaker 3: They're fighting for a belief. That's my hope. You know,
Speaker 3: the lawyers that are coming forth, how many you don't
Speaker 3: see as meaning mega hats as it used to be.
Speaker 3: It's become shameful when two years ago, mega hats was everywhere.
Speaker 3: You know, I got sick of seeing it. I'm not
Speaker 3: saying that they're not out there, but America is better
Speaker 3: than that, much better than that. The people that I
Speaker 3: you know, in the military, next to and even through
Speaker 3: sports and theater. You know, and this cliche goes on.
Speaker 3: I had white fans that used to say it, but
Speaker 3: some of my best friends are white people. You know.
Speaker 3: That wasn't always true. I could actually say that somebody
Speaker 3: really good friends a white people yeah, forty years ago,
Speaker 3: it was some of my best friends are black people.
Speaker 3: You know. You know joke, if you've got more than
Speaker 3: three black friends, you know you're in the club, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? Yeah, keep if if I have
Speaker 3: to counter black friends, you know you'll have enough of them.
Speaker 3: But anyway, Frank, that's that's my take.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: In America, we uh live on a hope two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty year experiment that has this taking this Knox,
Speaker 3: taking his bruises, taste, taking his Nazis, taking his wars,
Speaker 3: and somehow find the way to survive this guy. There's
Speaker 3: no way we have an orange haired.
Speaker 2: I'm going to he's a family or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I said, I won't go there anyway.
Speaker 2: So what's what's what's in the future for for Samuel
Speaker 2: Harps and Shade Repertory, And then we'll go to a break.
Speaker 3: Yes, still doing place. I mean, we have the Burning
Speaker 3: of New York coming in the fall of twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: which is another historical event happened down on Wall Street
Speaker 3: where thirty eight people were hanged, you know, black, white,
Speaker 3: pregnant male female for an illigit conspiracy. It's that a musical.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so but anyway, that's in the fall, so
Speaker 3: I'm just going to keep doing my thing again. I've
Speaker 3: been on historic this historical quist since we're receiving an
Speaker 3: ancestral dot com kit for my six year birthday. I've
Speaker 3: been looking into my own history and the history of
Speaker 3: African Americans. So that's what I'm doing work place.
Speaker 2: Maybe you'll come back and and talk about that in
Speaker 2: the future. It's always a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 3: Love to Likewise, Frank.
Speaker 2: Likewise, Samuel Hart's playwright, executive artistic and executive director of
Speaker 2: Shane's Repertory Theater in have Astro in New York. We
Speaker 2: really appreciate all of your intelligent conversation. Thank you so much, Frank,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Samuel. Take a quick break. We'll come back,
Speaker 2: switch gears a little bit and have a little bit
Speaker 2: of fun with Robert Noyes, who is one of the
Speaker 2: originators and coordinators for the legendary Polar Plunge. This is
Speaker 2: being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono will be right
Speaker 2: back with more right after these brief commercial messages. Please
Speaker 2: don't go anywhere yet.
Speaker 3: Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 4: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: Hudson River Radio dot com. This is Hudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Gubono and
Speaker 2: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 2: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
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Speaker 2: We're back Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lobono, with
Speaker 2: thanks once again to Samuel Harps from Shade's Repertory Theater.
Speaker 2: That was a terrific first segment and we're going to
Speaker 2: finish strong Switch Gears a little bit with a new
Speaker 2: guest joining us now is Barbara Noise. She is one
Speaker 2: of the originators and coordinators for the Polar Plunge. And
Speaker 2: you knew I was going to use this because I
Speaker 2: stole it from you. Barbara. Let's make some noise. You
Speaker 2: know you said it. I told you I was going
Speaker 2: to steal it. So here we go to tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit of Barbara. Tell us about the origins
Speaker 2: of how you started poular. It's nineteen years now, what
Speaker 2: put that in your head? Tell us about it as
Speaker 2: an event. Obviously it's going to involve people jumping into
Speaker 2: cold water, but let's get a little bit more specific.
Speaker 2: How did this all come aback?
Speaker 1: And I can't believe it's nineteen years because nineteen years ago,
Speaker 1: my friend Mike Lynchin myself we're talking at a Toastmasters
Speaker 1: meeting and when you meet people, you ask what they
Speaker 1: like to do, and this idea of Paula plunging came up.
Speaker 1: I myself have been plunging for over thirty years.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: I started out at.
Speaker 1: The in Coney Island and doing it there, and I decided,
Speaker 1: you know, I love it. It's as much fun as a
Speaker 1: marathon and not even the prep work. So that that
Speaker 1: appealed to the lazy part of me.
Speaker 2: It's so cold.
Speaker 4: I did know it was.
Speaker 1: There was snow on the beach, and this woman warned
Speaker 1: me because I was with my two younger sided twins,
Speaker 1: and she said, you're gonna die. And I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: not on my plan.
Speaker 2: But so I'm glad, not today anyway, but today that day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll have to negotiate that other second part. But
Speaker 1: so anyway, when I was talking to Mike and he
Speaker 1: was saying that he liked to do what he had
Speaker 1: gotten down to the Jersey Shore, we thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to do it up here in southern Rockland.
Speaker 1: Then since I did was born, we thought, well, maybe
Speaker 1: not only just doing it, but doing it for a
Speaker 1: kid that needed help. And there's so many families that
Speaker 1: experienced children with medical difficulties that really have huge expenses
Speaker 1: and they need a way to be able to deal
Speaker 1: with those expenses and still worry about getting their kids well.
Speaker 4: So we found a family.
Speaker 1: Emma Monahan was our first Penguin Plunge recipient, and since
Speaker 1: I was a police officer in South Nayak, we were
Speaker 1: able to do the Penguin Plunge under the auspices of
Speaker 1: the PBA. So it was this five oh one C
Speaker 1: three thing. So now that we had the idea, you
Speaker 1: have to figure out a place to do it, and
Speaker 1: that was the tough part. I actually plunged secretly all
Speaker 1: along the Hudson River south of Congers to find a
Speaker 1: nice enough beach to jump into, and it was hard
Speaker 1: because some places it was rocky, some places it was mighty.
Speaker 1: Some places you had to climb over a wall. And
Speaker 1: since I wanted there to be a festive party atmosphere,
Speaker 1: it also had to have a big enough area that
Speaker 1: we could have some music and some food and some
Speaker 1: people to join me and Mike in this quest. So
Speaker 1: the first place we found was actually Hooked Mountain, which
Speaker 1: is really nice, which is run by the state of
Speaker 1: New York, which probably didn't have as much skin in
Speaker 1: it as much as I would have liked. So they
Speaker 1: told us we could use hook Mountain, but it's closed
Speaker 1: during the winter, so if it snowed, we were out
Speaker 1: of luck if we had to give them money. And
Speaker 1: we had to, of course, like figure out a way
Speaker 1: for people to park. So Upper Nike was so kind
Speaker 1: of letting us park on North board away because usually
Speaker 1: you can, so that was our plan, but they said
Speaker 1: if it snowed. They weren't going to open the gates,
Speaker 1: and as luck would have it.
Speaker 4: It snowed.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: I was devastated, like, I'll bring my shovel, I'll shovel it.
Speaker 1: But luckily the sun came out and melted all the
Speaker 1: snow away. So we went down to the beach and
Speaker 1: we had a very small crowd. Jimmy Shutz is our
Speaker 1: DJ and our MC and he plays spin some tunes.
Speaker 1: We had a strong man that can pull a fire
Speaker 1: truck with his teeth, so he offered his services. It's
Speaker 1: like those are in services I knew I needed, but
Speaker 1: it was so much fun. Of course, the fire department
Speaker 1: was there because we put diveries in the water so
Speaker 1: that people don't go beyond a certain point.
Speaker 4: Because safety is always passed.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about that this is done safely,
Speaker 2: done safely.
Speaker 4: So we did it, you know, we did it. It
Speaker 4: was wonderful.
Speaker 1: The family came down, Frank, We all had a good time.
Speaker 1: We raised eleven thousand dollars the first time, able to
Speaker 1: give a check to the family and felt the warm
Speaker 1: glow of helping someone else. And then I got a
Speaker 1: letter at the police department and this woman had told
Speaker 1: me about her daughter and she was a single mom
Speaker 1: and she needed help. The daughter had neurofib with mitosis.
Speaker 1: Could I please help her? So all Mike again said Mike,
Speaker 1: what do you think should we do it again? He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: why not? It was fun, It was really fun and
Speaker 1: it was so we went again, and this time not
Speaker 1: to deal with the state. The village of Nayak very
Speaker 1: kindly let us go at Memorial Park.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 1: We had a fun time. It did rain though, like
Speaker 1: it was a really big fan of the rain. That's
Speaker 1: really not a fun thing. But we raised fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars franc It was awesome and we thought we were
Speaker 1: done until the little girl looked at me and she said,
Speaker 1: could you help my chemo buddies? And at that point
Speaker 1: I knew we had to form a separate organization from
Speaker 1: the police Department's PBA, and we became the Penguin Plunge
Speaker 1: because we'd like to be literative and we were off
Speaker 1: to the races. And so as a result, we've been
Speaker 1: keep going year after year. The first Sunday March only
Speaker 1: one Sunday we had to cancel because the fire department
Speaker 1: had a lot of emergencies a day before due to
Speaker 1: a big storm. But we've been plugging along and have
Speaker 1: given away through the generosity of the community more than
Speaker 1: a million.
Speaker 2: Dollars, more than in the night million night in eighteen years,
Speaker 2: more than a million dollars. So you were adding to
Speaker 2: that total of a million plus this year. That is amazing, Barbara.
Speaker 2: It's greaz and I'll be there. I'm telling you, not
Speaker 2: going in the water. Anybody who knows me knows how
Speaker 2: much I hate the cold weather. My social media posts.
Speaker 2: I'm a Sicilian. I can't get hot enough of it.
Speaker 2: But I will be there with my camera every year
Speaker 2: to catch you crazies who actually do this. But it
Speaker 2: is really a fun of how many participants do you
Speaker 2: anticipate this year?
Speaker 1: Well, that's always up to the day, so if it's
Speaker 1: a nice day, you usually get more people. We've had
Speaker 1: as much as seven hundred people go in.
Speaker 2: Wow in the water, in the water and actually go wow.
Speaker 4: They go in the water.
Speaker 1: I don't not going to say how deep they go
Speaker 1: in the water because the Hudson itself is really reflective
Speaker 1: of the tides. So sometimes when the tide is high
Speaker 1: and I haven't checked for this weekend. If the tide
Speaker 1: is high, you get to go deep or quicker, which
Speaker 1: I think is easier to do than going in inch
Speaker 1: by inch by inch. And some people will go in
Speaker 1: for two seconds because people bring their kids in and
Speaker 1: they're like those little birds at the sea shore where
Speaker 1: they run in and they run out and and they're
Speaker 1: all scream going in, which is actually a good thing
Speaker 1: because it displaces the cold on your body. But when
Speaker 1: they come out, when someone told me they go, I
Speaker 1: was just amaze at all the smiles, like people were
Speaker 1: so happy. And that that's really important of the Penguin
Speaker 1: Plunge too, because yes, money is at the heart of it.
Speaker 1: We want to raise funds for these kids, but it's
Speaker 1: also that sense of community and it is good to
Speaker 1: help someone else. A lot of times we forget that,
Speaker 1: like by giving to someone else, you actually get more
Speaker 1: in return. And it's the sense of accomplishment for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. And I really think that you would
Speaker 1: like it. Maybe you don't know that you would like it, well,
Speaker 1: even though you do so much already, we just you know,
Speaker 1: put it in there.
Speaker 2: Maybe well, say, all right, so let's give specifics. How
Speaker 2: could people give money? Sunday right March first.
Speaker 4: It is much first.
Speaker 2: Okay, give the specifics if you would please.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're going to be there from twelve to
Speaker 1: two at Memorial Park. Right now, we're just hoping that
Speaker 1: there's enough snow moved away from that area. But as
Speaker 1: it stands right now, everything well, I.
Speaker 4: Know it will work out because it will.
Speaker 1: But from twelve to two, we're going to be at
Speaker 1: Memorial Park when people gather, and people don't always gather once.
Speaker 1: That's why we wait till later in our in our
Speaker 1: event to jump into the water, so everyone gathers. We
Speaker 1: have free food that has been generously donated by a
Speaker 1: lot of local businesses, Rockland Bakery, Nightcot Bagels, Strawberry Plays.
Speaker 1: We get some food, we get coffee, We have chili.
Speaker 1: People make chili. If you want to make a pot
Speaker 1: of sauce, welcome to it. And people like get comfortable.
Speaker 1: We have some music. We have in the past we
Speaker 1: had horses, but people just get really excited, get revved
Speaker 1: up to go in. Then we have we introduce the families.
Speaker 1: When it gets closer to one o'clock. We're selling fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty tickets. We have lots of swag, We have
Speaker 1: sweatshirts with T shirts such as I'm wearing that a
Speaker 1: lovely t shirts has in case it's cold, blankets in
Speaker 1: case it's colder. And then we do our raffle ticket.
Speaker 1: We have a raffle that we have and we'll pull
Speaker 1: the raffle tickets in front of everybody, so someone we'll
Speaker 1: go home with ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Wow, I do.
Speaker 4: It's pretty exciting. That as exciting as going in the water.
Speaker 2: It's good. So can you estimate, you know, it depends
Speaker 2: what kind of contributions are you expecting for this year?
Speaker 2: Can you put a dollar amount on what would you
Speaker 2: think might be reasonable to anticipate this event? Might want?
Speaker 1: My dream is to get so when we are the
Speaker 1: culination of everything, and this is not just the one
Speaker 1: event we do.
Speaker 4: So after we finish raising money for families through.
Speaker 1: Other activities as well, we present them with a lovely,
Speaker 1: beautiful check. And I would hope, my hope is that
Speaker 1: each family, each of the three families we're helping this year,
Speaker 1: will get fifty thousand dollars each.
Speaker 4: That is my hope. That is what I'm counting on.
Speaker 2: That's extraordinary.
Speaker 4: So it's actually crazy. It's even like it.
Speaker 2: Is, and it's obviously fun for you. It's fun to
Speaker 2: participate in and as you mentioned, you feel good when
Speaker 2: you do good, so people shouldn't dismiss that.
Speaker 4: Now, and it is.
Speaker 1: The families have told me that it means so much
Speaker 1: to them to see everyone come out there for them
Speaker 1: for their child. Two years ago, one of our recipients
Speaker 1: turned sixteen. A boy turned sixteen at the Penguin Plunge
Speaker 1: and a thousand people saying happy birthday to him, as
Speaker 1: any teenage boy would love. Right now, he was crying
Speaker 1: with Joe. I mean it was it was so touching. It.
Speaker 1: I mean, so many parents come later on, I'll bump
Speaker 1: into them in places and like that. Really that was
Speaker 1: really special. That really made a difference. We have families
Speaker 1: themselves also that connect with each other sometimes, and again
Speaker 1: like we don't do just children that have cancer or
Speaker 1: children with neurofibromatosis or other rare diseases. So a lot
Speaker 1: of times you feel, especially with those rare diseases, you
Speaker 1: don't know someone else that's going through the same thing.
Speaker 1: So we can connect those parents together. And what's really
Speaker 1: amazing sometimes is when the kids become friends and we've
Speaker 1: had kids in the past that are now grown up,
Speaker 1: because again, nineteen years is a crazy long time, that
Speaker 1: are now on the committee. Like Molly McGovern is one
Speaker 1: of our committee members. She's a teacher down in the city.
Speaker 1: That sixteen year old boy not only is he on.
Speaker 4: Our committee, but his whole family's on our committee.
Speaker 1: And Brielfham last year she wants to do things for
Speaker 1: the Penguin Plunge. One of the things we do is
Speaker 1: we at Christmas time we go around and do a
Speaker 1: personal parade at their houses and the kids just love that,
Speaker 1: and I know that the other kids want to be
Speaker 1: there for those other kids because it's crazy, it's silly,
Speaker 1: it's simple, but it's fun. And we want people to
Speaker 1: feel very special. When you go through a hard time
Speaker 1: like that, you feel alone and you feel it's just
Speaker 1: such a huge thing. And we also celebrate the siblings
Speaker 1: of the kids because it's hard to have you know,
Speaker 1: your brother's sisters sick. So we want everyone just to
Speaker 1: feel the joy that we feel by knowing these heroes.
Speaker 1: And they're such warriors, they're they're fighting things like sometimes
Speaker 1: if I complain about something little, I'm like, hey, that
Speaker 1: is nothing compared to what these families go through.
Speaker 2: So that's Sunday, Marchday, March first, March, Manyak Memorial Park twelve.
Speaker 2: I can wear a park Okay, come down and make
Speaker 2: some noise with Barbara. Yes, that's happy to do it.
Speaker 2: Barbara has I had to you set me up for it.
Speaker 2: I couldn't disappoint. You're a joy.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Thank you so much, and I
Speaker 4: can't wait to see you.
Speaker 2: And yeah, Sunday, I'll be there, not necessarily promising a plunge,
Speaker 2: but I'll be there do my thing. We offer a
Speaker 2: special thanks to our listeners because they take time to
Speaker 2: give us a voice in there lives. Remember, we offer
Speaker 2: a fresh topic just about every week. Catch us wherever
Speaker 2: and whenever you get your favorite podcasts that includes Apple's Spotify,
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and all the others. Check us out on the
Speaker 2: Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Like us and leave a
Speaker 2: comment too. I want to leave you with my last
Speaker 2: two things, some original music and an appropriate slogan. And
Speaker 2: since our first half of our program the theme was
Speaker 2: a great black writers, well here's another one. Tony Morrison,
Speaker 2: who was also a Rockland resident, and she said, I
Speaker 2: know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it's
Speaker 2: important not to ignore its pain, is also critical to
Speaker 2: refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains
Speaker 2: information that can lead to knowledge, even wisdom like art. Okay,
Speaker 2: I can't say it better than that, folks. I'm going
Speaker 2: to have some fun with some closing music from my
Speaker 2: friend Peter Danish, who was in Europe now producing his
Speaker 2: play there, and he left us to have a little fun.
Speaker 2: This is he said, quote unquote. I'll just read it
Speaker 2: to you and let him explain it. It's a song
Speaker 2: from a new musical he's working on about a New
Speaker 2: York City record producer who moves to Nashville and is
Speaker 2: surrounded by Maga types. He develops an alter ego he's
Speaker 2: also Maga and tries to understand their point of view,
Speaker 2: and he gives us a spoiler alert this it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Sounds like fun. Let's give it a listen for our engineer,
Speaker 2: Neil Richter, you know him as the mail man he
Speaker 2: always delivers. I'm your host, Frank Lobono, and we hope
Speaker 2: to have you join us on the next being. Frank,
Speaker 2: We're the only way to be is frank, Thanks everyone.
Speaker 3: One slanderhul geez.
Speaker 5: S not forna see sophist dude. Democracies on the room,
Speaker 5: Whispers of a battered sigh lost beneath the bitter crime.
Speaker 5: Hearts are heavy, silent screams. Were living in shattered dreamer.
Speaker 3: America?
Speaker 6: You really us down, rolling dreams scattered on the ground.
Speaker 4: Once we sold, Now we'revo.
Speaker 5: America, eurailians down, voices were raised or word not heard?
Speaker 5: His empty promises of serv we trade each China's for
Speaker 5: the crown.
Speaker 6: Won by evil pompers. Clown Why is a many steaks
Speaker 6: once unit and know we stand.
Speaker 3: Step ba honest.
Speaker 5: Longing poldays when we.
Speaker 3: Can America really as down.
Speaker 6: Broken trees scut around ground once we flood, Now we're
Speaker 6: by America, you realist stuffs and bad.
Speaker 3: Stakes that.
Speaker 6: What you're dying now spa save out coming for the
Speaker 6: days when we care.
Speaker 3: A maveric you feel stone.
Speaker 5: Globe in trees scattered on brown.
Speaker 6: Full swe so were at cot you f f stop.
Speaker 5: America, Hue faery were sta.
Speaker 2: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 6: Mm hmm