As a mixed-raced child — Williams mother is white and his father is black — a pivotal early experience in which he was perceived as white and rich by a black woman in a “working class section” of Plainfield kindled in him a strong desire to be black. And it wasn’t enough to just be black. What he learned from the other boys in the barbershop that he patronized twice a month was that he had to learn to talk, walk, and carry himself with a particular kind of swagger, as defined by the 1990s hip-hop artists he and the other boys came to idolize.

But Williams, who is speaking tonight at NJCU, was different from those boys, and from the rappers they admired, in more ways than simply his mixed race; Williams’ father — who they called Pappy — held a PhD in sociology. His parents moved from the West Coast, where they met in what Williams describes as “the West Coast front of what at that time was called the War on Poverty,” to Newark, where Pappy ran anti-poverty programs for the Episcopal Archdiocese before opening his own academic and SAT preparation business out of their home in Fanwood. Pappy’s instruction was not limited to paying customers; from a very young age both of his sons, Thomas and his brother Clarence, were subject to a rigorous extracurricular study schedule.

It was Pappy’s persistence and his love, Williams says, that made it possible for he and his brother to escape the fate that befell so many of his peers who bought fully into the lie that is manufactured and sold to them by hip-hop culture. Hence, the subtitle of Losing My Cool is “How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture.”

Williams doesn’t hate hip-hop culture, and he’s careful to prove that it is still a part of his life. (See, for example, the playlist that he posted on his website.) But, he is critical of it. His memoir, in fact, began not as a memoir at all, but as a bit of cultural criticism. Back in 2007, while a student in NYU’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program, he was asked to write an op-ed piece as a class assignment. The essay he wrote, which was eventually published by The Washington Post, sought to separate black culture from hip-hop culture, as he noted, they had become conflated since the 1980s.

His professor at NYU, the author and journalist Katie Roiphe, was impressed with her student’s work and suggested that the argument he was making — that what many perceived to be black culture was really just street culture, and that street culture was not the best representation of black culture — could be more thoroughly expressed in a book-length work. With her encouragement, he took a semester off from NYU to write a proposal. After several months of writing and rewriting he secured an agent and then interest from no less than eight publishers.

As he composed his argument, he found that an effective way to flesh out each of his points was with a bit of personal narrative, anecdotes from his days growing up in North Jersey. It became clear as he worked with his agent on his proposal that these stories were the most captivating moments. The publisher he ended up choosing agreed that, as Williams puts it, “It’s probably not that interesting to read a whole book that’s an op-ed, or just an argument.”

As he shifted the direction of his book, he matched his reading to the style and tone he sought for his argument. He read a lot of James Baldwin, who he aptly describes as a “serial memoirist,” as well as fellow Jersey writer Junot Diaz, and Joan Didion and Ralph Ellison. From Ellison, he says, he learned how to approach his own argument effectively. In addition to his literary influences, the voices of his professors Roiphe and Paul Berman, and that of his father, informed his style and, he notes, allowed him to teach himself to write a memoir as it was happening.

From the very first chapter of Losing My Cool, New Jersey is more than just the setting, it becomes a character itself, informing and creating the world in which Williams came of age. Williams attributes this to what he calls Jersey’s provincialism. That is, even though it is at the heart of a major metropolitan strip that runs from Boston to D.C., one can feel rather insulated in the suburbs. He notes that the limited engagement he experienced with outside cultures, beyond the immediate hip-hop culture he and his friends adopted, is necessarily a result of place.

But more important to Williams than place is circumstance. He acknowledges that many people do not have the same advantage that he had in his highly educated and strict father, and yet he acknowledges that to a certain extent, an individual must be responsible for bettering him or herself. Quick to offer a helping hand, however, Williams acknowledges that as a writer he has the opportunity to put forth a positive example.

“As a black writer, it’s almost a moral obligation to show that there are different ways of being black than you’ll see on Black Entertainment Television,” he says, acknowledging that he doesn’t have the perfect answer, but hopes to be one of many positive examples.

The heart of Williams’ argument is actually inspired in no small way by Plato’s notion of “Allegory of the Cave,” the idea that many people are like prisoners trapped in a cave staring at the shadows on the wall and believing that what they are seeing is reality. The philosopher, Plato says, has the ability to see from outside the cave, to recognize that the shadows are cast by events happening behind the prisoners and the true form of reality is more than just the shadows.

“There are good things and there are real things and it takes thought and sense of purpose to seek those things out,” Williams says. “Kim Kardashian is on the cover of every magazine right now, and that’s a shadow.”

His Platonic reading carries into hip-hop culture as well. He has come to believe that the best way to encounter that culture is with an ironic tone — not ironic in a funny sense, but in the sense that “there is a difference between what is being said and what is meant,” he explains. “You don’t actually have to believe that keeping it real means that if someone looks at you the wrong way you have to respond in a violent manner.”

Though many already look at hip-hop with this detachment, it was a lesson Williams had to learn with the help of his father and his insistence on education.

Williams will be speaking on this very topic this evening at New Jersey City University. Additionally, he will be reading from his book and talking a bit about how he came to write it. This is one of many speaking engagements for Williams since the book was published last year; in each lecture he makes an effort to be the positive example that he insists young people need. He talks, particularly, to young men and women of color and reminds them that there are many ways to “be black.”

“Young people respond to that,” he says. “They’re happy that someone who is not 75 years older says that to them.”

THE DETAILS

Thomas Chatterton Williams will be speaking at the Michael Gilligan Student Union at NJCU tonight at 5PM. His book, Losing My Cool, will be released in paperback on April 26.

All photos: Edwin Hadi

Earlier this month, thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses descended on Journal Square for their annual convention, this year centered on the theme “Remain Close to Jehovah.” Similar meetings will take place at a variety of locations all around the world throughout the rest of 2010 and into 2011. In the tri-state area the gatherings will continue through September.

At the Jersey City location, however, attendees had the unique opportunity to meet in a very special place, the historic Stanley Theater.

The Witnesses acquired the Stanley in 1983 and renovated it in time for the formal dedication of the building in 1985. Remarkably, because no one in the organization is paid, all the work was done by thousands of volunteers.

Though the Stanley is used regularly as the Assembly Hall for Jersey City Witnesses, it was especially effective in providing an elegant as well as spacious setting for the convention, which gathered an estimated 3,000 attendees on each meeting day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Nearly every space of the expansive theater was put to use for the convention, with the main events taking place in the auditorium. There, on any given hour of each day, attendants could hear symposiums and sermons relating to the theme, as well as experience some special events such as baptisms and a drama production.

According to Howard Carroll, a news service overseer for the Hudson County circuit of Witnesses, an effort was made to make non-members in the area aware of the conference and to welcome them, via a flier emphasizing the free admission and the lack of collections taken. “How can you draw close to God?,” it read.

Although it is unclear how many guests responded to this invitation, if they did attend, they’d likely be easy to spot. Even on the balmy Saturday afternoon when I visited the convention, all the Witnesses were dressed in formal attire — suits for the men and dresses for the women. Carroll explained that Jehovah’s Witnesses dress up to show respect, similar to the way people used to dress up for ball games and, appropriately for the venue, movies.

Yet, despite the serious, solemn dress, every Witness I spoke with was full of joy and excitement for the conference.

Many, like 19-year-old Britney from Paterson, cherished the opportunity to reconnect with old friends that they may not have the opportunity to see often. She was born into the organization and baptized 11 years ago.

“I get to see a lot of the friends that I only get to see on these occasions,” she said. “Even if you don’t get to personally talk to them, you do feel a certain kind of spirit just being around them.”

Shawn from Clifton, another lifelong Witness, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Getting to see all the people who are doing the same thing as you is very encouraging,” he said, adding that the actual information was a big draw as well. Many of the other attendees referred to the support that comes from the various speakers, who give them tips and advice on how to be a better Witness.

Perhaps one of the most striking things about the convention from the perspective of an outsider was the diversity represented by the attendees. People of all ages and races filled the theater and the adjoining rooms, including overflow seating for those who could not find a seat in the main auditorium.

Bobby Irvin, a Jamaican musician and old friend of the late Bob Marley, summed up the experience of the convention using a famous phrase of Marley’s.

“Everybody is just in one love,” he said. “In Oneness.”

Irvin looked around the theater as crowds began to pour out of the auditorium and as a line of new converts shuffled into a shallow pool for baptism.

“It’s very beautiful,” he added with a smile.

Obviously, I don’t say this to make the case that I’m some kind of early rap adopter or that my musical tastes, even as a young child, were extremely overdeveloped (or, underdeveloped, depending on your view), rather I note that to indicate that by 1987, less than a decade after hip-hop’s inception, it had reached me where I was, and taken hold.

Hip-hop is just over 30 years old now, only slightly my elder and that of the millennial generation, but the impact that it has had on the world, and specifically on the United States, is immeasurable. It has reshaped our country’s landscape, revolutionized race relations, redefined popular culture, and, according to Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, it has given rise to a new majority.

This and much more will be Chang’s topic when he comes to speak at New Jersey City University on Monday, April 19. As a featured guest in NJCU’s University Lecture Series, Chang will give a lecture entitled “Hip-Hop and The Colorization of America.”

Jeff Chang has been described as a “radical historian,” and this is true, as long as the full meaning is attached to both words. That is, by covering topics most often overlooked by academia, Chang has cut out a niche for himself conducting serious (but not stuffy) academic research in areas traditionally labeled and looked at as simply popular culture. The Chicago Sun-Times called Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop “the best-argued, most-thoroughly researched case for hip-hop as a complete and truly American culture.”

In addition to his work in history, Chang also writes for several magazines, including Vibe, for which he covered the 2008 presidential election and penned the magazine’s cover story on Barack Obama. Additionally, he has written for The New York Times, Mother Jones, and The Nation, and he served as the Senior Editor of 360hiphop.com. On top of all of this, Chang is credited with founding the independent hip-hop label SoleSides (which became Quannum Projects) and launching the careers of several of underground hip-hop’s most influential MCs and DJs.

The NJCU lecture will combine the focus of Chang’s study of hip-hop from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop with the subject of his forthcoming book Who We Be: The Colorization of America, which investigates the change in American culture after the civil rights era.

You can bet I’ll be at this event (and not just because I teach at NJCU). In my hand I’ll hold a notebook and pen to vigorously take notes, and on my feet, of course, will be My Adidas.

On Tuesday night many of Hudson County’s business owners gathered at the former Jersey City Medical Center (or as it is now known, The Beacon) for the inaugural event of the Hudson County History Series.

The evening began with a short lecture by Changing Jersey City authors Cynthia Harris and Leon Yost, in a newly restored lecture hall. Ulana Zakalak, The Beacon’s Historic Restoration Consultant, explained that the hall, like much of the complex, had been in a state of complete disrepair. Water stains and faded paint marred the walls and ceilings where now, due to meticulous research including analyzing samples to determine the original paint colors in the room, shimmering golds and rich blues recreate the art deco look of yesteryear.

After the lecture and then some socializing and snacking on hors d’oeuvres, guests were treated to a tour of some the more intricately rehabilitated features of the Beacon, followed by a sneak peak at the ongoing restoration and development of the property.

Zakalak headed up the historical portion of the tour, showing locations such as the original entrance to the hospital which boasts a bas relief sculpture lining the room entitled “From Myth to Medicine,” the lobby, the new community library and perhaps most exciting, notorious former Jersey City mayor Frank Hague’s office on the ground floor, which has been converted, appropriately, to a poker room.

From there, George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest Equities, the real estate company that owns and operates The Beacon, treated guests to a sneak peak of the newest renovation to the complex, the Mercury Lofts building. The tour included a look at a 3,700 square foot sample loft that covered half of the space on the building’s second floor as well as a walk through much of the yet to be renovated space.

This event was the first in a series that promises to go above and beyond the kind of affairs that the Chamber of Commerce regularly hosts by offering business networking opportunities with a side of history.

James Fisher is the kind of history professor you wish you had. Sure, he looks the part, round glasses and floppy hair, but what most recommends him is his energy. Not energy as in some kind of new age-y good aura, but literally his enthusiasm and passion for his subject, whether that be history, theology or the subject of his latest book — wherein all his other interests seem to merge — the Port of New York. 
As a New Jersey native, the often-untold stories of the mostly Irish waterfront workers on both sides of the Hudson River are a source of endless fascination to Fisher, and, whether talking to him about it, or reading his book, his excitement about the subject is contagious. 

On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York, Fisher’s fourth book, was published last year by Cornell University Press and is the result of over ten years of research, interviews and writing begun when Fisher and his wife lived in the Midwest and completed after they moved, with their son, back to New Jersey.  

In many ways, Fisher sees the composition of On the Irish Waterfront as a joining of often-disparate fronts. In addition to the backing of Cornell University Press, the book was funded by a grant from the University of Notre Dame and joins two disciplines that don’t often meet, American Catholic studies and American history. 

The book chronicles the lives of the major, predominantly Irish, politicians, gangsters, union leaders and priests whose combined stories inform the broader history of the region in the early half of the twentieth century. Fisher points out that due to an almost unbreakable code of silence on the docks on either side of the Hudson, prior to the writing of this book not much of this story has been told; the most notable exception being the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront starring Marlon Brando. And the film itself factors into Fisher’s book in a large way as he details the true story behind the movie, that of “labor priest” Father John Corridan, depicted in the film by Karl Malden. 

“I’m one of those characters who …” Fisher pauses briefly to consider his words before continuing. “I’m probably a little quirky and I do these off-beat kind of things, but I like the idea of being part of a communal enterprise. I like the idea that it was part of a series at Notre Dame which was designed to put the Catholic American stories into the mainstream of American historical narrative more than they ever had before.” 

And certainly this “communal enterprise” is one of the features that make the book most accessible to a wider audience. There is plenty of rich information for history buffs and those with interest in Catholic social teaching, but there is also a particular appeal for those of us whose lives, like those of the characters he profiles, straddle the Hudson.  

The importance of Jersey City on the culture of the waterfront is not lost on Fisher. Pointing out that it was often ignored by the New York media, he posits that the most powerful figures in the history of the waterfront were those, like infamous Jersey City mayor Frank Hague, that had controlling stakes on both banks of the river. This fact, he adds, was really only ever known to Hudson County residents. 

“People like Hague and others who were here, they always had a lot of action going over there,” Fisher says. “It never worked the other way. Nobody from the West Side of Manhattan ever said, ‘I want to get into the Jersey City market.’ But if they had, they would have understood that that was, of course, the key to control and authority in the port.” 

As Fisher sees it, the importance of Jersey City in the region has not dwindled since the heyday of the waterfront, though it has changed. The legacy of that time, he says, can be seen not only in the fact that Irish-Americans have always played a part in Hudson County politics, including our own Mayor Healy who Fisher says is a “kind of liberal incarnation of the old school,” but also in the influence that Jesuit education has had in the region. 

“In every American city like this there was pressure on the Jesuits to move their schools and colleges out of these urban settings, but in almost every case they refused. They dug in,” he explains. “So the Catholic scene in Jersey City really did help make this transition. To make the change,” he says, referring the city’s urban renewal. 

James Fisher, himself, has become a part of the story through his role as professor of American religious history in the Theology Department of Fordham University, a Jesuit school. And he uses his classes as an opportunity to inform his students not only of the significance of Catholic education in the region, but also the important place of Manhattan’s West Side on the story of the port, which he does by taking his classes to the piers.  

More personally, Fisher also fits into the Irish-Catholic history of the port as a kind of outsider-insider. His family has strong roots in the area, his mother grew up in Hudson County and his father attended Saint Peter’s Prep in Downtown Jersey City, though Fisher did not grow up in Hudson County and, for that reason has always felt “somewhat estranged.” 

“I grew up in eight counties in New Jersey,” he adds. “My family was the upward mobile Irish descendancy, post-war. But all my relatives grew up around here, so there’s a little bit of that distance. I don’t make any claims to being an insider. But I’m the product of it in a way … Spiritually, emotionally as an Irish-Catholic, this is where I’m from.” 

Last fall I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Fisher at Saint Peter’s College in which he tailored his talk toward his Jersey City audience and affirmed the place of the city in not only the region’s history, but also in the story told in his book. That evening, Fisher was particularly personal about his family life as well, perhaps because he was in the company of many friends and colleagues (he taught for a while at SPC and his wife teaches there still), or because his son, who is autistic, was in attendance. 

“This book would not have been written without Charlie,” Fisher said of his son. 

“Seeing my son’s experience and some of our experience advocating for him and his education got me out of myself for the first time in a way that I could look more broadly at political systems,” he says when I talk to him later. “It offered a broader perspective, gave me a little more compassion and humility.”

“I just know it made me a better person, so there had to be some consequence,” he concludes.
 
This compassion and humility is evident not just by Fisher’s preference for talking about his family or his subject matter over himself, but it’s also evident in his writing. Reading his book, it’s clear that Fisher is aware that he is dealing with the lives of real people. He never reduces them to caricatures or stereotypes. 

James Fisher’s success in the On the Irish Waterfront is a direct result of his passion for history and theology, yes, but also for education, art, and, ultimately, for the people of the region.

This holiday season you’ll have plenty of opportunities to revisit the classics, whether for you that means A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, or, as it is in my family, the musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and simply titled Scrooge. And when there are days where the temperature reaches into the mid-60s in early December, these old standbys are often the most tangible manifestation of the season.

Here in Jersey City a new, if not somewhat unlikely, story is quickly climbing to “classic” status: today marks the opening night of local “theater in the raw” group J CITY’s third-annual performance of “A Tuna Christmas.” This play, with its funny name and Texas setting has proven to be the perfect addition to the holiday season, like the amusing Southern cousin you only get to see around Christmastime.

The plot centers around an annual yard decorating contest in the little town of Tuna, Texas. It would seem that the contest is the victim of a saboteur, referred to by the locals as the “Christmas Phantom.” The town’s people of Tuna are represented by 22 unique and hilarious characters, played entirely by the two male cast members, Kellis Carroll and Clay Cockrell. As I sat and watched the play during dress rehearsals this week, I met a couple of little people, two very well-endowed women and their love interests, a couple of old ladies and, of course, the town’s passionate — and high maintenance — theater director.

Our town’s theater director is J CITY’s Sandy Cockrell who, with her husband Clay, and Kellis, are the three founding members of J CITY, which officially launched in 2006. Sandy and Clay moved to the area thirteen years ago and began performing and producing plays in New York City. It wasn’t until about four years ago, however, that they made the decision to make their theater company’s home here in Jersey City. Homeless for several years, the theater company staged plays wherever there was space.

“We were doing shows when a space opened up,” Clay says. “They invited us to the courthouse, in the rotunda. When a space opened up, that’s when we would get to do a play.”

They also performed at Grace Church Van Vorst before landing in their new home at St. Michael’s Church in Hamilton Park. Meeting the pastor of St. Michael’s, Father Vic as he’s commonly called, was a “miracle,” Sandy says.

“[During] Cinco de Mayo at The Merchant, we met Father Vic,” she continues. “He’s been so generous in saying, ‘Come down, and when you got on your feet a little bit you can donate to the church, what you can.’”

For “A Tuna Christmas,” J CITY transformed the church basement into a stage onto which the actors and audience cast their imagination and, in short time, are able to see whatever the scene calls for, be it the inside of a small restaurant or the living room of a house.

This will be the third year that J CITY has performed “A Tuna Christmas” and the third time Sandy has directed and Kellis Carroll has acted in the production. Clay explains that when they first produced the show, J CITY had just started up and his responsibilities as executive producer took precedence. But when the other actor moved away, he took over and, as Carroll notes: “He fit all the costumes!”

When this trio chooses the plays they will perform in any given year, Carroll explains, they select scripts that contain a universal truth. “Everyone can know there is a truth being told,” he says. “We tell a story simply, but in a sophisticated way.”

Clay adds that when Sandy reads through scripts, she picks those that she not only wants to do, but ones “she has to do.” He points to the group’s last production, a jarring piece about marital infidelity entitled “Passion,” as an example.

“This is too hard,” he says he cautioned Sandy. “It’s a really scary script that’s so raw.” But, he says, each time she responded: “We have to do this.”

“A Tuna Christmas,” on the other hand, is more lighthearted and fun, more suited to the holidays.

“It’s a total comedy, almost to the point of farce.” Carroll, who is originally from Texas, explains. “[But] there are also these small poignant moments that come out of nowhere and grab you.”

“A Tuna Christmas” opens tonight at 8 pm at The Underground Theater at St. Michael’s Church (252 9th St.). The show runs Wed.-Sat. until Dec. 19. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online.

Sure. Yes. Those are all good options, but this past Saturday there was a better option, and one that, I’m afraid, not as many of us took advantage of as we should have — “Designer Days: Handmade for the Holidays” at the Jersey City Museum.

The atrium section of the museum was transformed into a veritable shopping mall of gift ideas — all local, green and artsy — from members of the Jersey City Craft Mafia and _gaia. There was a wide assortment of jewelry, clothing, hats, ornaments and original artwork on sale, all expressing the diversity and vivacity of our little city.

And if that wasn’t enough, I had the chance to attend a lecture by Leon Yost and Cynthia Harris in which they showed slides and commentary from their new book Changing Jersey City, A History in Photographs. The slideshow took the audience on a tour through long-forgotten rooms in the old Jersey City Medical Center, on a ride on the old elevated train, to the locations of the oldest public schools in JC and face to face with many of the people that made our city what it is today. (Unfortunately, I missed our mayor’s musical performance of holiday tunes — but you can’t win ‘em all.)

The overwhelming impression I had as I walked back home through the rain to my apartment is that there is so much here in Jersey City that many of us don’t know a thing about. There’s the history which some great writers and historians are doing their best to make us aware of, from Bob Leach to Yost and Harris to James T. Fisher, an author I’ll be profiling here in a couple of weeks.

But in addition to the history, there’s an entire present that too many of Jersey City’s residents know too little about. There are events like “Designer Days” going on all over the city, there are artists and craftspeople, musicians and writers, theater groups and scholars doing work here that is worthy of so much more attention than they receive, due, in no small part, to our proximity to our overbearing big brother.

But the good news is we can remedy this. Check the calendar here at JCI for the latest on events, read the daily News Roundups and Best Bets, read the other local media, and get involved in what is going on in our city.

In her presentation, Harris showed pictures of well dressed young people sitting around a checkers board at one of the city’s many athletic clubs of yesteryear. She noted that in lieu of anything better to do, this is how our historical counterparts passed the time. And she showed a picture, and explained the use of, a dance card.

But we don’t need checkerboards and dance cards; there’s so much going on, all we need is to be a part of it all.

Photo: Tatsuro Nishimura

Flood Warning! If the New York Times is to believed, residents of Jersey City should be prepared for high waters beginning today.

Sure, the forecast calls for rain, but that’s not the half of it. Today is also the opening night for The Attic Ensemble’s presentation of Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2006 tear-jerking play, Rabbit Hole.

The play is rooted in the deep sadness that comes from the death of a small child that takes place months before the play’s opening scene. “[It] inspires such copious weeping among its audience that you wonder early on if you should have taken a life jacket,” the Times noted in 2006.

The Attic Ensemble’s presentation marks the directorial debut of Brendan Applegate, a native of Elizabeth, and three-season veteran of the theater group. Applegate joined the Ensemble after losing his job and subsequently responding to an open casting call. He joined the show and, as he says, “I haven’t left since.”

In the intervening years Brendan has participated in all aspects of producing a show, both onstage as well as behind the curtain. He is particularly excited about staging Rabbit Hole, because of “the cast and the wonderful material that we get to work with.” Plus, he quips, “It’s a real comedy.”

The Attic Ensemble has been putting on plays, poetry readings, stand up comedy nights and fund raisers in Jersey City for 39 years. From its humble beginnings in an attic space in Jersey City the group continued to grow and relocate to various venues around town, now taking up residency at the Barrow Mansion on Wayne Street.

It’s not always easy for the Attic, or for any arts group in Jersey City, to lure residents out of their homes, or, in many cases, away from Manhattan, to see a local performance. But, as Applegate points out, “It’s a lot cheaper to come to your backyard and see a great, high caliber show, instead of going to the city.”

With this performance, the ensemble sought a play that would challenge not only the audience but the performers as well. Typically, Applegate says, when a play is selected a few things factor into it: will it bring variety to the season, will it help the theater group reach new goals and higher artistic pursuits, and does it introduce a new and exciting challenge? Ideas are submitted to artistic director, Art Delo, and he proceeds to put together a schedule for each season.

As the second show in the Attic Ensemble’s 2009-2010 Mainstage Season, Rabbit Hole “is a vehicle for a strong season,” Applegate explains. “It holds up.”

There was a strong turnout in response to the casting call for Rabbit Hole and from that field three actors who are new to the company join two Attic alumni in the production. At a dress rehearsal just a couple nights before the play was set to open this week, the inside of the Barrow Mansion was transformed into a modest, quaint home. It is in this home that Lindsay-Abaire’s story of overcoming heartbreak unfolds. And it is there that the audience, as Brendan Applegate puts it, “gets two spend two hours outside of their lives, and in someone else’s.”

Rabbit Hole
Written by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Brendan Applegate, presented by The Attic Ensemble.
Opens at the Barrow Mansion (83 Wayne St.) in Jersey City on Friday, Nov. 13.
Tickets are available by clicking here or visiting www.atticensemble.org.

Cynthia Harris and Bob Leach chat with festival-goers (Photo courtesy the Jersey City Free Public Library)

This past weekend’s rainy weather did little to dampen the spirits of the city’s bibliophiles as evidenced by the consistent stream of traffic flowing through Saturday’s second annual book festival held at Van Vorst Park.

“Surprisingly, it turned out well,” Jersey City Free Public Library assistant director and festival chair Sonia Araujo said on Saturday, noting that people turned out despite the weather. “It seems to be flowing. People stay awhile … they’ve spoken to the authors. And the authors have sold their books and did their signing. Bottom line is we’ve done well. We met our goal.”

Though some of the authors and attendees made longing references to last year’s beautiful weather, they too shared Araujo’s optimistic outlook. “The rain sort of dampened things down, so to speak,” Steven Hart, author of The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America’s First Superhighway, punned. “But we’ve had a pretty steady flow. I’ve sold a few books.”

This year’s festival was titled “A Tale of Our City,” and surveying the broad range of topics covered by the writers in attendance certainly tells a story about the varied interests and the diverse population of Jersey City. Meandering from table to table, one was likely to come across super-hero children, teen prodigies, African belly dancers, recovering workaholics and, of course, corrupt politicians.

The variety didn’t stop with the subject matter however. This year’s festival hosted authors in such varied genres as memoir, narrative nonfiction, self-help, fiction, children’s stories and even a couple of graphic novels.

In addition to selling and signing books at their individual booths, most of the writers in attendance had the opportunity to read from their works. These presentations had the quality of making even more personal the authors’ words. In some cases this meant interjections in between written sentence to explain or simply orate tangentially, in other cases the weight of the words in some of the more intense works brought the author to tears. Such was the case with Patricia Je, author of The Long Road Here, a moving account of Pherrys, a victim of child abuse.

Each author was extremely willing to engage their readers and potential readers, cordially thanking them for their interest and answering any questions that might arise. The Independent took advantage of this opportunity for full access to Jersey City’s best and brightest authors. What follows is a brief survey of the writers in attendance on Saturday and their works, organized by subject matter.

Our Storied Past

The most popular subject matter at the book festival was, without a doubt, Jersey City history. And perhaps the most popular author to write on the subject in Van Vorst Park on Saturday was Helene Stapinski. Her book, Five Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History, first published back in 2002, is in its ninth printing, is used as a textbook for college courses on New Jersey history and garnered her a modicum of celebrity on its release.

“It’s about corruption in Hudson County,” Stapinksi explains, “and all of the small time criminals in my family.” She says the book asks the question: “Is it because of the corrupt nature of the town that people steal stuff, or is it that people who do illegal things put those people in office?” She works through this question by weaving her own family’s history into the fabric of the history of the area at large.

On Saturday, however, she read from her new book Baby Plays Around, which tells of her days playing in a rock band on the Lower East Side in the 80s. She showcased a passage about her first true love — which we found out was not a person but her brother’s drum set.

Stapinski says a third book is in the works. “I got two kids too,” she says. “And I freelance; I do stuff at the Times. It’s hard to keep all these things in the air at one time, but it will be out.”

Stephen Hart says The Last Three Miles tells the story of “the first superhighway project in America, which was the Route 1 extension. The last portion of it was what is now known as the Pulaski Skyway.” A bloody labor war erupted around the construction, involving none other than Jersey City’s most notorious mayor, Frank Hague.

“It also deals with the rise of the automobile,” Hart continues. “This really was the first superhighway in America. And for that reason it was designed along engineering principles from the railway.”

This, he reasons, explains why the Skyway has traditionally been considered such a treacherous drive, a fact he got to know well while living in Jersey City during the 80s and working in Hoboken later.

The fascination, particularly in the Hudson County area, with the subject matter of his book has prompted Hart to consider writing a “full length biography of Hague, a real serious, straight out and thoroughly researched” account of the famous political boss’ life.

Other writers making Jersey City’s history their focus were Charles Caldes, author of a number of books about railroading and two in particular that deal with local matters in both pictures and text. Jersey City’s Journal Square tells of, as Caldes puts it, “the greatest 12-14 acres in the world, in its day.” Caldes is also the author of Jersey City’s Hudson River Waterfront, Book One: The Pennsylvania Railroad. Both books are full of amazing photographs that tell the city’s history in brilliant visual detail.

And of course local storyteller Bob Leach made an appearance at the festival with his book Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe as well as two new books entitled The Parade of the Shantytown Dead and How Frank Hague Became a Hero. Leach was joined at his table by Cynthia Harris, manager of the library’s New Jersey Room and the co-author (with photographer Leon Yost) of the forthcoming Changing Jersey City: A History in Photographs, to be published later this month by Schiffer Publishing.

City Comics

Perhaps two of the most interesting offerings at this years book festival were from authors in a non-traditional media, the graphic novel. Amy Bogin, who moved to Jersey City several years ago from Central Jersey, has been documenting the past year of her life as a web comic at www.glassurchin.com in which she appears as a spiky hedgehog and her friends and family appear as other animals.

She recently compiled the first 140 comics into a book entitled The Glass Urchin, Book 1: Milkshakes and Highways. “This book has a story that anyone can read, but it also has a little bit of a local flavor,” Bogin says. “I love Jersey City. It inspired me.”

The book will be available on Bogin’s website as well as the original web comics and she continues to update the site twice a week with new installments.

The Glass Urchin will appeal to a mature comic book reader, young adults who can identify with her characters’ job struggles, relationships and outlook on life. Another author at the book festival, however, had more of a traditional comic book reader in mind for his audience: children.

Anthony Fletcher, who signs his work Artoni, was at the book festival to promote his entertaining and educational comic, C2 and Posse: Inner City Heroes. “It’s the first of its kind to portray inner city teenagers of different ethnicities as heroes,” he says excitedly. “They’re heroes because they’re embracing, developing and using human attributes, which become their superpower … And there are no guns.”

Artoni has lived in Jersey City for about 12 years, working out of his apartment doing graphic design for several Manhattan fashion companies, but with the debut of C2 (pronounced C Squared), he is “going national,” with national distribution and trying to build up his company Artoni World Productions.

The C2 mission statement is “Waking up mankind, one mind at a time,” and this mirrors Artoni’s goal to use his comics as a means not only of education for children, but also for education.

Here to Lend a Helping Hand

Several authors at the book festival were promoting self-help or inspirational books. Dustin Dumas Weeks worked in the investment banking, currency trading and technology fields in Europe, New York and Silicon Valley. In a short period of time she lost her job, found another and then was laid off from that job as well. The experience offered her a moment to take stock of her life.

“I reflected on ‘What can I do differently?’,” she says of that time. “I was working 80 hours a week.”

She began by making a list of the things that “will never happen to me again.” That list became her book, Lessons from a Recovering Worker Bee. It features 26 lessons “on how to maintain your work/life balance while also accelerating your career.”

Weeks self-published the book and had influence on every aspect of its creation from the manuscript to the layout to the cover design. She was fortunate enough to receive endorsements from real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran and BET founder Bob Johnson.

Sheila Allen knows something about work/life balance as well. As the wife of a local pastor, Allen made it a priority to manage her time in such away that neither her family nor the church was shortchanged. Her book, Career, Ministry and Family: Can They Complement Each Other? explores this tension and offers suggestions for people struggling to find that balance between a profession, a family and even a ministry.

Several more authors at the festival were promoting works of fiction, like Jessica F. Baggett, a New Jersey City University sophmore, aspiring filmmaker, musician and writer who garnered attention from the local media when she recently published her first book The Keys to Life, which is about a teenage musical prodigy.

Sandra Catena, author of The African Belly Dance, crafted a tale about an Italian American from Newark who shocks her family be becoming a belly dancer. The book meticulously describes the art of belly dancing before taking a turn toward mystery novel set against an exotic West African backdrop.

New to the writing scene was Jane Pedler, who was at the festival as a first attempt to share her writing with the world. She had several homemade short story packets on sale, each story inspired by tintype photos of anonymous people that she buys on the internet.

Early in the day Mayor Jerramiah Healy could be seen perusing the authors’ tables and meeting attendees, himself braving the rain to appreciate Jersey City’s burgeoning literary scene. (The event was a joint effort between Healy’s office, the library, the City Council and the Division of Cultural Affairs in conjunction with the Van Vorst Park Association.)

Plans for next year’s book festival are already in the works and, according to Sonia Araujo, seven authors have already signed on.

“Jersey City needs this kind of thing to promote the arts and literacy,” Araujo says. Continuing with a proud smile she added: “This is a wonderful event.”

Authors with areas of expertise ranging from rock and roll, baseball, Jersey City history and folklore will be reading from their work and answering questions. In addition there will be a special area for children, an opportunity to sign up for library cards several vendors, music and even belly dancing.

The Independent, which is a sponsor of the festival, will be there meeting and interviewing as many attendees and authors (including Bob Leach, who we featured a few months ago and who will be in attendance), culminating in a full rundown of the day’s events.

Come out to Van Vorst Park on Saturday between 10 am and 4 pm to celebrate Jersey City’s rich literary heritage and meet the authors that are writing us into the future.