Coler and the Chronopolitics of the Pandemic

Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center is located on Roosevelt Island.

Host: J. Khadijah Abdurahman

This episode of SOS is dedicated in memory of Roy Watson, a devout Muslim, activist, OPEN DOORS member and Coler resident who died on Tuesday, April 6th of COVID-19

Featuring Professor Gabriel Winant discussing his recently published piece in n+1 magazine, Coronavirus and Chronopolitics

Vince Pierce, member of OPEN DOORS and resident of Coler sharing his experience on the frontlines of PPE shortages and the spread of COVID-19 at Coler. 

Jennilie Brewster, project lead of OPEN DOORS sharing the challenges faced by community supporters in advocating on behalf of Coler residents as COVID-19 patients are being transferred to Coler and mixed in with the 500 residents who already lived there

Niti Parikh, Creative Lead of the MakerLAB @ Cornell Tech discussing her efforts to develop face shields and distribute them to hospitals who need them

I was in jail at Rikers Island for drug possession. Eight days after my release, I got drunk, blacked out, and fell. I wound up in the hospital with a broken neck, paralyzed.

Before I joined the Reality Poets two years ago, I was doing nothing. Now I’m a motivational speaker and a poet. My most important message is stay away from drugs. Be a leader. Some of my friends didn’t make it to 25. Drugs destroy your families and relationships and can take your life.

I have a friend who moved from Harlem to Queens. Some guy offered him drugs when he was just a kid. He had enough sense to say no and keep it moving. I wish I’d had that much sense.

                                          — Roy

Bios

OPEN DOORS is an arts-and-justice initiative on Roosevelt Island, based in the long-term care facility where many members live. OPEN DOORS is also a creative community that ripples out across New York City and beyond. At the center of this network are the Reality Poets—black and Latino men who use wheelchairs largely due to street violence and who work to save lives through art.

Gabriel Winant is a historian of the social structures of inequality in modern American capitalism. His work approaches capitalism as an expansive social order—not confined to the market alone but rather structurally composed of multiple, heterogeneous spheres. He focuses on the relationship between economic production and formal employment on the one hand, and the social reproduction and governance of the population on the other. Broadly, he is interested in transformations in the social division of labor and the making and management of social difference through this process.

Vince Pierce Seven years ago, he was robbed at gunpoint. The bullet put him in a wheelchair, and he wound up at Coler. Vince joined OPEN DOORS two years back, and  told them his ambition was to produce music. They found a great producer who came in every Friday to teach him.

“Now I’m paying it forward. I got a grant to start a music school. I'm working with kids who don’t have the money for studio time, teaching them how to produce and that they're bigger than what their environment expects them to be.”

Jennilie Brewster is an artist who works in various forms. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, The Rumpus and Armchair/Shotgun and her paintings and installations have been shown in museums and galleries around the country. She has received fellowships from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the UCROSS Foundation, and the Headlands Center for the Arts, among others. In 2019 New York State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright honored Jennilie as a "Woman of Distinction" for her work with the arts-and-justice initiative OPEN DOORS, which Jennilie founded in 2016. She lives on Roosevelt Island in New York City.  

Niti Parikh is a designer/maker currently leading the MakerLAB at Cornell Tech. She has over 10+ years of experience in the field of Interior Architecture and Sustainable Manufacturing.

Featured Guest: Mass General Oncologist Dr. Aparna Parikh

Dr. Aparna Parikh shares her experience of being quarantined due to testing positive for COVID-19 and her analysis on how physicians are responding to the pandemic.

Opening Performance by Advocate of Wordz, award-winning writer, educator, performer, curator, and resident artist at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café.