TC Cannon: At the Edge of America

TC Cannon was a Native American (Kiowa/Caddo/French) painter, poet, musician, and Vietnam vet. His Kiowa name was “he who stands in the sun”, he trained in the Southern Plains style of painting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and he passed away in 1978 at the too young age of 31. During his lifetime his work was often interpreted as political and subversive; now it’s clearly so much more: earnest and insightful portraiture; aesthetically emblematic of its era; plaintive and relatable on a personal level. The feeling strongly impressed upon me by his work was patience.

TC Cannon with his father in Vietnam

If you’re interested in all the academic takes on TC Cannon, and want to hear his poetry read aloud, this is a great playlist

I care deeply for the preservation of indigenous American peoples and their cultures. It has taken so long for mainstream perceptions of colonization to change from ‘a fight they lost and we won’ to . . . .the genocide it was. Going to the annual Bear Mountain powwow with my grandfather (who also snail-mailed me related anthropology and archaeology articles, yup, I’m old) helped me learn the difference between considering a cultural outgroup and consuming it. Decades later, as the cultural appropriation debate rages, I find myself reaching back for clarity in the distinction.

This is a TC Cannon song ‘handed down’ in the family of one of his buddies

I’ve never visited the Southwest or the Plains but hope to someday. In his work I see a lot of Gaugin, a very little Catlin. I’d love to see the settings.

His sister still sells his work and manages his estate: http://www.tccannon.com/

Support the Native American Rights Fund: https://www.narf.org/

Go to the Powwow I went to as a little girl: https://www.crazycrow.com/site/event/bear-mountain-powwow/

the Museum of the City of New York

I’m a Native New Yorker. It’s the second sentence in my professional bio. It’s about 70% of my personal identity (New Yorker first, dog lover second, art/culture/history fan third, Buddhist fourth, Real Estate Agent fifth, Youtuber sixth, aspiring world traveler seventh . . . friend and sister eighth?!?! yikes . . . all other social roles of incidental significance . . . )

I’ve also been one of those white ladies you would truly regret asking about her ethnicity, because my family goes all the way back in the city. My heritage is a rather perfectly proportional reflection of the second generation rise of various immigrant populations into socially acceptable circles, from the arrival of the Dutch in New Amsterdam onwards. I’ve seen enough eyes glaze over to now lightheartedly summarize with “standard East Coast blend,” “lots of white,” “history’s a mystery!”, “miscellaneous Euro”, etc.

All this to say, I didn’t think anyone could tell my anything about the history of New York I hadn’t learned from the explicit and tacit teachings of my grandparents. i was wrong! The Museum of the City of New York has the best teaching exhibits I could imagine on both the demographics of the city over time AND its social, political, economic and cultural evolution. I spent many hours there, and could spend MANY more.

New York has unfortunately always been rife with nativism, classism and prejudice. I wish more New Yorkers would visit this museum to learn some FACTS. Perhaps the part I enjoyed most was seeing tourists from many different countries (I heard German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Polish?, Spanish and Italian spoken in the galleries that day) taking the time to deliberately watch the detailed, map intensive video exhibits, and then discuss what it meant to go from being whatever-they-are to being an assimilated New Yorker.

In this country we often ask what it means “to be a real American,” and so often ignore the far more important question of what it should mean to become American. This is a question us citizens can answer constructively, together, without judging each other’s ancestry.

I may always cringe when I hear myself on voicemail or see myself on film, with the nasal, lockjawed pronunciation and incessant supra shoulder gesturing that will mark me as a New YAWKUH for the rest of my days. I may want to go far, far away for as long as I can. I do still love the city though, and this museum does a great job explaining it. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

If, as a native, I could choose one essential takeaway for anyone visiting, it would be this: please remember New York City’s history of peaceful protest and social advocacy!

A Quiet Walk In A Rainy Garden

The formal garden in Central Park on a quiet, empty, rainy spring day:

Gritty Sh*tty Tribeca

I . . . never loved Tribeca. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down a multimillion dollar cast iron palace à la Blake Lively and Harry Styles, but the reasons celebs love it tend to be the very reasons plebes hate it. Street life is nil . . . many brunchy bistros, all with very expensive potted plantings rotated biweekly; the occasional superbougie toy shop or book store; dive bars, dollar pizza places, graffitied vacant storefronts, and brutalist highrises mix indiscriminately with the sedate, darkened lobbies of luxury condo buildings made from gutted Victorian factories and warehouses.

Façades remain deliberately gritty and retail deliberately shitty for the discreet, impressionist lifestyles of the überrich: going about their business in chauffeured black cars, they do not participate in street life; from afar (say the huge windows of a $20 million loft apartment) the graffiti and grime are picturesque and “old school New York.” Dollar slice shops are headspaces to glance at punk teenagers and daydream, NOT a dietary option, symbol of class polarization, or symptom of an urban food desert.

For all my disdain, I understand how the neighborhood remains aesthetically inspirational for many. So here are some themes I like in Tribeca!

1. The neon lighting shops along Canal. This has been an electrician source place for at least 70 years, and they don’t bother doing anything with their windows at all, which is fun!

2. Graffiti . . . this is what the tourists come for!

3. Brutalist architecture and public sculpture

4. Art Deco

5. City Hall Park. Small enough for a peaceful pretty stroll, and the golden statue Civic Fame is visible from almost anywhere in the neighborhood, calling like a beacon of serenity.

And here are two unique spots I just like:

1. The Ghostbusters fire station? How have I lived 36 years as a native New Yorker and not realized this?

2. Philip Williams Posters. Local legend since 1973 and he’s in the shop every day, a decorator MUST

Hanging Around the Brooklyn Museum

Every time I go to the Brooklyn Museum, I spend the whole day there. I fully intend to venture out towards the other attractions of Prospect Park, I just get sucked into the place! It’s the perfect size museum to do in a day, special exhibitions included; the cafeteria is scenic and peaceful for a solo casual meal and the restaurant is viable for a business meeting.

On a beautiful day, the sunny plaza in front is also a great place to sit and eat something from the food trucks that line up outside. There’s usually popcorn, ice cream, pretzels, hot dogs/fries/classics and halal available.

Unfortunately photos were not permitted in the Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving exhibit, so stay tuned for an additional post discussing that with professional images.

Meanwhile, I checked out Infinite Blue, a collection of art & objects dating from 3500 BCE to the present focusing on “spiritual, powerful, beautiful blue”; Arts of Korea, featuring decorative arts through the centuries and Kwang Young Chun: Aggregations, very recent work from a contemporary South Korean artist; Eric N. Mack: Lemme walk across the room, the first NYC solo exhibition by the artist; and the iconic permanent installation The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.

I was losing steam by the time I sauntered through One: Egúngún, and finished my visit breezing through the permanently installed Period Rooms and Decorative Arts collection I am so familiar with.

The Brooklyn Museum permanent collection is also so great at teaching American history through art; it’s a lot more digestible than the American Wing at the Met.

For me, the fun in going to museums is noticing little things I never have before. On this visit I noticed how Klimt must have been familiar with and inspired by 18th and 19th century Korean or Chinese portraiture when creating his famously gilded, ornate, abstract, two dimensional backgrounds; I also got up close for the first time and observed how 3D and textural the best stained glass is, with rocks cut like rocks, and petals softly rounded like petals. The effect was sadly impossible for me to catch on camera in the limited time I had before the gallery closed!

I wasn’t able to eat in the neighborhood, but at least I took the time to stroll past the Brooklyn Public Library and Grand Army Plaza monument to the next subway stop. What a lovely day!