A few weeks ago I met the Council Member at Large in Hoboken at the Hoboken Art and Music Festival. There was a work of art in YES Gallery by the Marvelous Artist Joel Liscio who I have written about in these pages before. He creates collage pieces of different sizes, and he happened to have brought one to YES Gallery when I first opened that had a variety of current affairs photographs from the cover of Time Magazine circa 2019 included in it, and that particular magazine had a group of the Democratic Leadership in the United States. Shortly after that, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ran together and were subsequently elected, but at the time that he made the piece we didn't yet know who Joe Biden's running mate would be, so Joel titled it "Who Knew?" when he brought it to the gallery in 2022.
There are some topics I stay away from in the gallery, religion, politics, anything too risqué or anything violent, because I want people to feel comfortable in the gallery and not have to feel as if they are being asked to take sides or make statements or agree or disagree with anything they see. I want visitors of every age and every background to feel welcomed. When Joel brought that piece along with the others in his collection, he didn't know if I would take it because of the political images, but I thought it was a wonderful piece and so very well made and aesthetically pleasing that I gladly included it, knowing that if anyone asked me if it was meant to be a statement, I could explain the story behind it.
When Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic candidate for President, I started seeing all kinds of Artists creating pieces especially for this historic time, and the Hoboken Dems were a group that I became aware of that were having events and that had at least one Artist's work as part of a promotion. I wanted to get in touch with them in some way and when I went to the Hoboken Art and Music Festival I saw someone at a table there for the Hoboken Dems, and it turned out to be the Council Member at Large. He was very busy that day speaking with people, so I waited my turn and quickly explained why I was there, he gave me his number and I gave him my card, and the following week he visited the gallery to talk about having an event there.
This past Thursday night was the night that we chose, and it was such a beautiful evening. The group of people who attended were all so wonderful, and Joel who is also a Sommelier chose the wines with his always wonderful palate. The marvelous Cosmo Gallaro and marvelous Jack Mork who have played at the gallery before provided music from some experimental pieces they've been working on recently, and the refreshment selections curated by one of the members of the Hoboken Dems were so special and lovely. When the Artist OnlyTheArts heard about the event he sent me a message saying that he was planning to make me some Kamala Harris T-shirts. He had been making them and was nearly out, so he did a special screen printed run of what he has titled "Mamala" shirts. He brought me a framed version too along with the shirts on the night of the event, so now YES Gallery has a little bit more of politics than before, but in this historic time it feels right.
The Hoboken Dems are such a supportive community grass roots organization that the focus of they work that they do is so much about all of the things that are important to me and have been for my whole life, from the time that as a young child I learned from my own family about the community issues that affect us all. In my adult life everything that I do and believe in has community and youth development based aspects, and that is why YES Gallery is what it is. I felt on the night of the event that my parents were smiling over everything that was happening there, and the community space that has been created seemed to grow even brighter.
An Evening With Hoboken Dems
At YES Gallery
With Featured Artwork And Sommelier Selections
By Joel Liscio
Experimental Music
By Cosmo Gallaro and Jack Mork
Mamala T-Shirts By OnlyTheArts
And Wonderful Refreshments Curated By
A Member Of Hoboken Dems
Blessings,
Jannie Susan