Thinkers in Residence spend time on 14th Street over the festival weekend reflecting on 14th Street, patterns of movement, artists, pedestrians, publics, personal reflections, and participation. Their responses take the form of writing, walking, image-making, poetry, or on-the-spot conversations with the public.

And now the observations of Christine Licata, Day 4.

the #weightofwords

Postal relay boxes work as storage containers for mail carriers as they make their rounds. Carriers can replenish their bags on the go, removing the need to constantly return to the distribution center (or carry everything at once). They are most prevalent in cities where USPS workers make deliveries on foot, and the boxes are either filled by the carriers themselves or postal workers in trucks who make larger delivery runs.

Duties and Requirements of a Letter Carrier
Activity, Continuous, Intermittent, Hours Daily
Lifting/Carrying, 10 Pounds, 70 Pounds, 8 or More Hours
Sitting, 4 or More Hours
Standing, 6 or More Hours
Walking, 6 or More Hours
Climbing, 2 or More Hours
Kneeling, 2 or More Hours
Bending/Stooping, 2 or More Hours
Twisting, 4 or More Hours
Pushing/Pulling, 2 or More Hours
Simple Grasping, 8 or More Hours
Fine Manipulation, 8 or More Hours
Reaching Above Shoulder, 2 or More Hours
Driving a Vehicle, 6 or More Hours
Temperature Extremes, All types weather, 8 or More Hours
High Humidity, 6 or More Hours
Fumes/Dust, 3 or More Hours

Carrier may be required to work up to 10 or 12 hours per day or longer as service needs require. Carrier may be required to lift up to 70 lbs from floor to waist height or higher.
www.postalemployeenetwork.com/carrier-duties.htm
https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/

#invisible #relayboxes
#aiop #14thstreet
#thinkerinresidence @edwoodham @thelululolo #day4

#shelter #Arcángel  #the8thorder 

Between the racks of canned beans and rolls of toilet paper in a bodega a staircase hides beside the shelves.

It leads to a cavern where, for the past 14 years, the bodega owner has quietly housed scores of homeless men, some with violent pasts and mental illness. He takes them in, from local park benches and street corners, unable to bear the idea of anyone out in the cold.

Here, beneath the shelves of instant soup and paper towels is an unauthorized shelter in its most primal form — a dank unfinished basement, cavelike and fetid, where the men sleep on pallets amid pools of dark water on the cement floor. But there is real warmth, the men say. It comes from behind the deli counter, where seven days a week, stands the welcoming bodega owner, Candido Arcángel.

The shop is zoned for commercial use, and the basement does not have the required certificate of occupancy to permit people to live there. Mr. Arcángel has not made the necessary applications to the Department of Buildings to convert it into habitable space, which would require an inspection to determine if it is safe to do so.

The absence of permits has not deterred Mr. Arcángel, who says his reasoning for opening his basement to the homeless is simple. “Because they don’t have,” he said. “And I do.”

Because Mr. Arcángel’s makeshift shelter is likely illegal, he asked that the precise location and name of his store not be disclosed. Between six and a dozen people live in the basement at any given time, he said. Edited from #nytimes #SarahMaslinNir #2018

LuLu LoLo is my heroine. She has more brilliance and power than can be seen with the naked eye, heard with un-muffed ears, or touched with a (singular palmar creased!) hand. Thank you for being #beyondfabulous LuLuLoLo.

Curator of AiOP INVISIBLE. She is a New York based international performance artist, performing in six Art In Odd Places festivals; a playwright/actor of eight one-person plays; an activist, and Board Member of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition. www.rememberthetrianglefire.org

LuLu LoLo is visible in her invisibleness as an AiOP artist. In 2018 LuLu “Offered a Seat to the Elderly”. Her performance in 2015, “Where are the Women Monuments?” highlighted the lack of public monuments honoring women in New York City and was featured in the New York Times. In 2017 as “Mother Cabrini, Saint of the Immigrants,” LuLu offered compassion to the people of New York City, and Charlottesville, VA (AiOP: MATTER). Other AiOP performances: “Loretta, the Telephone Operator (2013),” “The Gentleman of 14th Street (2011),” and “14th Street NewsBoy (2009).

LuLu has received a 2018 Puffin Foundation Grant in Theater and was a Blade of Grass Fellow in social engagement and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Writer in Residence. www.lululolo.com

#invisible #thelululolo
#aiop #14thstreet
#thinkerinresidence @edwoodham @thelululolo #day4