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Anarchist Seth Tobocman brings radical comic-book to the Lucy Parsons Center
“Die, yuppie scum,” chants the long-haired man, to the beat of a pounding drum. “You don’t need to fuck people over to survive.”

“Die, yuppie scum,” chants the long-haired man, to the beat of a pounding drum. “You don’t need to fuck people over to survive.”

The chanter is Seth Tobocman, anarchist and radical comic-book artist. You Don’t Need To Fuck People Over To Survive is also the title of his best-known graphic novel. Tonight, a rainy Saturday, he is telling a story to a packed room of ruffians at the Lucy Parsons Center, the South End book collective.

As he speaks, a slide show of his distinctive inked artwork flips by on a large screen. Eric Blitz thumps rhythmically on a drum and cymbal, as he has in the past with punk icons like Greg Ginn of Black Flag.

The story Tobocman tells is about a woman who loses her home in a foreclosure. She, along with her family of 12 and her community, has a standoff with the police. She wins, the police leave, and she keeps her home.

It’s a true story.

The room is enraptured by the tale. More graphics flip by, one reading, OBAMA TO BANKS: MY ADMINISTRATION IS THE ONLY THING BETWEEN YOU AND THE PITCHFORKS. Illustration after illustration comes to light: punks with mohawks, as Tobocman repeats, “It’s our fucking park” over and over again. He is telling the story of New York City’s Tompkins’s Square Park protests and squatting of the 1980s.

Tobocman is a master of performance-art/lecture/spoken word, and his fodder is the evils of the US government and capitalism. “Men who trade in human blood,” he says.

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Town-versus-gown tempers are boiling over near the Northeastern campus, as residents charge the giant school with ‘death by incrementalism’
Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers.

NOT GOOD IN THIS HOOD Through the early ’80s, abominable Mission Hill tenements were sometimes deprived of heat, water, and even windows.

Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers. That is not the case in Mission Hill, where folks who anonymously told the Phoenix about loud parties and constant intoxicated pandemonium there are instead scared that Northeastern students — whose keggers and illegal porch barbecues often rage until four in the morning — will smash bottles in their back yards and rearrange the side-view mirrors on their cars.

In fact, the incursion by Northeastern students into Mission Hill, the South End, and Roxbury is changing the face of those neighborhoods, and not just via the superficial evidence of broken glass, fire hazards, and mangled property that students leave in their wake. Multi-generational Bostonians are actually being displaced in alarming numbers, as their neighborhoods increasingly become extensions of the institutions that surround them, and as those colleges and universities continue to rapidly expand their campus footprints and inadvertently drive up real-estate prices.

Among the concrete harbingers of change that have particularly riled activists are: 52 existing affordable-housing units near the Mass Ave T station, which Northeastern now owns and can legally inhabit in 2023; that school’s magnificent Fenway concert hall that is the former site of the dearly missed St. Ann’s community church; and massive Northeastern facilities hovering above Columbus and Huntington avenues.

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Town-versus-gown tempers are boiling over near the Northeastern campus, as residents charge the giant school with ‘death by incrementalism’
Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers.

NOT GOOD IN THIS HOOD Through the early ’80s, abominable Mission Hill tenements were sometimes deprived of heat, water, and even windows.

Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers. That is not the case in Mission Hill, where folks who anonymously told the Phoenix about loud parties and constant intoxicated pandemonium there are instead scared that Northeastern students — whose keggers and illegal porch barbecues often rage until four in the morning — will smash bottles in their back yards and rearrange the side-view mirrors on their cars.

In fact, the incursion by Northeastern students into Mission Hill, the South End, and Roxbury is changing the face of those neighborhoods, and not just via the superficial evidence of broken glass, fire hazards, and mangled property that students leave in their wake. Multi-generational Bostonians are actually being displaced in alarming numbers, as their neighborhoods increasingly become extensions of the institutions that surround them, and as those colleges and universities continue to rapidly expand their campus footprints and inadvertently drive up real-estate prices.

Among the concrete harbingers of change that have particularly riled activists are: 52 existing affordable-housing units near the Mass Ave T station, which Northeastern now owns and can legally inhabit in 2023; that school’s magnificent Fenway concert hall that is the former site of the dearly missed St. Ann’s community church; and massive Northeastern facilities hovering above Columbus and Huntington avenues.

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Justice Is Served Dept.
A Mattapan man’s 28-month legal ordeal ended in a Northampton courtroom last week, as the Northwestern District Attorney’s office agreed to drop all charges against him pending an additional two months of incident-free pre-trial probation.

FREE AT LAST: Jason Vassell and his mother, Esmie James, are flanked by defense attorneys Luke Ryan and David P. Hoose after the hearing.

A Mattapan man’s 28-month legal ordeal ended in a Northampton courtroom last week, as the Northwestern District Attorney’s office agreed to drop all charges against him pending an additional two months of incident-free pre-trial probation.

As previously reported in the Phoenix, Jason Vassell, a black former UMass Amherst student, was charged two years ago with aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a knife) following a February 3, 2008, altercation in his dormitory. Vassell’s “victims” in this case were two white non-student interlopers who shouted racial epithets at him, entered his dorm, and who (later testing proved) were drunk. The agreement filed last Friday revealed that Vassell was also intoxicated during the incident and was then experiencing “elevated stress due to academic and personal issues.”

First Deputy Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Dunphy Farris tells the Phoenix she had sought such a settlement since being assigned the case in December 2008. “My discussions have always been with the defense about Mr. Vassell taking responsibility for using a knife in a situation where a knife was not warranted,” says Dunphy Farris, “and my belief is this agreement solidifies that interest.”

Shortly after the incident, UMass students, faculty, and community members formed a Committee for Justice for Jason Vassell to organize rallies and raise money for his defense. Vassell’s supporters contended that he was the victim of a hate crime and acted only in self-defense.

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Two cases in federal court here in Massachusetts could help turn the national tide against DOMA
Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security payments and health-insurance subsidies.

Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security payments and health-insurance subsidies.

Now that law is under significant assault, a one-two punch thrown in a state that already issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A pair of lawsuits being considered in federal court in Massachusetts is taking on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and its definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. The much-anticipated results could change the national conversation about gay rights.

The outcomes of these two separate but complementary court cases would certainly affect the lives of the couples that have wed in Massachusetts since gay marriage was officially legalized in the state in 2004. But if the cases ascend the legal ladder as far as the Supreme Court, they could also have larger implications.

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After School Special
Boston University’s class of 2010 celebrates its commencement this weekend, and BU has invited the class of 1970 to tag along.

RALLY CAPS: Forty years ago this month, in the wake of the Kent State shootings and volatile anti-Vietnam sentiment on college campuses across the country, Boston University canceled classes and called off commencement. Instead of donning caps and gowns, the class of 1970 joined with students from throughout the region for an anti-war rally outside Harvard Stadium. Officials at BU have invited members of that class to join current graduates at the this weekend’s commencement ceremonies.

Boston University’s class of 2010 celebrates its commencement this weekend, and BU has invited the class of 1970 to tag along. See, the class of ’70 — my class — never had a commencement ceremony. On May 4, 1970, four students were murdered in Ohio by trigger-happy National Guardsmen during an anti–Vietnam War demonstration at Kent State University. And 10 days later, Guardsmen killed two people in Mississippi under similar circumstances at Jackson State. Dangerous times.

In an effort to defuse the tension after the Kent State shootings, BU canceled classes, suspended remaining finals, and called off graduation ceremonies. That, and Richard Nixon’s recently announced invasion of Cambodia, was the context for the class of 1970 losing its commencement. And this is what BU wants to make up for. (That potential alumni donors of my class are retiring and likely making out their wills around now may or may not be a coincidence.)

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Obama gave the green-energy project a green light. Now, a slew of messy coalitions are going to battle over the future of clean energy.
 
Thousands of years ago, the terrain beneath what is now Nantucket Sound was dry, and populated by the ancestors of the Wampanoag people, who continue to revere it.

Thousands of years ago, the terrain beneath what is now Nantucket Sound was dry, and populated by the ancestors of the Wampanoag people, who continue to revere it. When tribe members of the Mashpee Wampanoag look out over the sound, they see their past, an ancestral burial ground, and, every morning in a spiritual ritual, the rising sun.

That last element is particularly important to the Wampanoags, as their name translates to “People of the First Light.”

The tribe fears that, should the controversial green-energy Cape Wind project come to fruition, a small army of 440-foot-tall wind turbines (130, altogether) will not only disturb its ancestral grounds, but also obstruct its view of the solar orb as it rises in the eastern sky.

Had the federal government been quicker to acknowledge the tribe’s connection to the sound, the Cape Wind project might have been dead in the water from the get-go. But it was not until recently that a study commissioned by Cape Wind Associates, LLC, turned up evidence that “serves to corroborate [the Wampanoag] oral traditions” — prompting the National Parks service to ask that the Nantucket Sound be added to the National Register of Historical Places, a move that would have shut out Cape Wind’s proposed renewable-energy project in a 24-square-mile stretch known as Horseshoe Shoal.

Last week, however, the contentious Cape Wind project was approved anyway by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, further muddying what is already a particularly complicated quagmire.

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Tech god Ray Kurzweil is a modern-day Edison. Now he’s battling to stay alive — forever
No disrespect to the man who let there be electric light, but Ray Kurzweil is Thomas Alva Edison on steroids.

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SON: Kurzweil dreams up many of his seemingly fantastical inventions at his office in Wellesley Hills. Here, he stands in front of a portrait of his father, Fredric, whom Kurzweil hopes to someday reanimate.

No disrespect to the man who let there be electric light, but Ray Kurzweil is Thomas Alva Edison on steroids.

That might not be evident on a visitor’s first trip to his Kurzweil Technologies, a sleek yet modest office in Wellesley Hills, which is rather ordinary looking for the headquarters of a futurist who’s striving to live forever.

Still, the 62-year-old inventor is aware of the Edison comparisons, and flirts with them himself. In the second-floor lobby of this building overlooking I-95 South is an early 20th century Ediphone — essentially the world’s first tape recorder (as well as a hulking piece of office furniture).

“Edison’s a model of the way I like to work,” says Kurzweil, a lean and tan tech kingpin, who, in his spare time, collaborates with Google co-founder Larry Page on finding feasible ways to convert the whole planet to solar power. “He’s the best example of a saying I like to repeat: ‘Failure is just success deferred.’ Edison didn’t give up [on the light bulb] after a thousand filaments didn’t work, or after a thousand failures. He learned that persistence pays off. People actually declare their own failures — they give up at some point. But if you have the right goal — if you persist with it, and the goal is worth pursuing — then generally you can succeed.”

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Mass Underemployment Dept.
When he campaigned to retain existing and deliver new employment opportunities for commonwealth residents, Senator Scott Brown was apparently making no promises to urban teens.

When he campaigned to retain existing and deliver new employment opportunities for commonwealth residents, Senator Scott Brown was apparently making no promises to urban teens. Such was demonstrated on March 9, when the Wrentham Republican voted against the Kerry-Murray Amendment, a stimulus extension that would have secured $1.3 billion (or 500,000 temporary jobs) for at-risk young people nationwide. (The bill was co-sponsored by Brown’s senior colleague, Senator John Kerry.)

Following Brown’s vote, organizers of all ages from across Massachusetts added Brown’s name to a long list of state and city legislators whom they’ve been lobbying for youth-job funding since February. And this past Wednesday, five teens and two older facilitators brought their message directly to the senator’s office overlooking Government Center, claiming that Brown’s (in)decision could lead to a loss of 6875 positions that were available to teens in 2009.

“These young men and women did a remarkable job,” says Lewis Finfer, executive director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network. (While the small group of teen organizers met with Brown’s aides this past Wednesday, Finfer joined several hundred of their peers, marching from City Hall to the State House with the same message.) He continues: “These young people simply couldn’t understand how the senator could on one hand claim that he wanted to bring more jobs to his home state, and then on the other hand do the exact opposite of what he said.”

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How Karen Keester made off with $250,000 — and became one of Boston’s most accomplished con artists
In late April 2006, shortly before the hearing to evict his tenant Karen Keester, Lee Gersch received a phone call from Keester’s twin sister, Michelle. She had just gotten divorced, Michelle claimed, and needed to move to Boston from Arkansas for a new job. She suggested that she and her cat could move right into Keester’s Beacon Hill flat.

STEALING BEAUTY: In her most recent run-in with the law, Karen Keester was charged with trying to steal a woman’s identity in 2008. Since coming to Boston, she’s fleeced neighbors, landlords, and other acquaintances of more than $250,000.

In late April 2006, shortly before the hearing to evict his tenant Karen Keester, Lee Gersch received a phone call from Keester’s twin sister, Michelle. She had just gotten divorced, Michelle claimed, and needed to move to Boston from Arkansas for a new job. She suggested that she and her cat could move right into Keester’s Beacon Hill flat.

“Wow,” thought Gersch. “This is perfect — Lee, you really lucked out this time.” It was not going to be easy to fill the ground-floor apartment at 40 Grove Street that time of year, a full month before the summer rush began. Renting the place without the expensive, time-consuming search for a tenant would be a boon to Gersch, who was busy managing six other buildings on the Hill.

He was about to suggest that Michelle meet him at the apartment the following Monday, but he paused. Even for a twin, there was something too familiar about Michelle’s flat Ozarks-bred intonation.

Though Karen Keester had moved out — or “voluntarily vacated,” in real-estate parlance — that week, Gersch still had a judgment against her for $5600 in unpaid rent. He knew his tenant to be eccentric, impatient, and aloof, but didn’t think she was vindictive. So he was surprised when he found she had stolen the racks from the dishwasher and refrigerator, peeled the finish off the kitchen counter, and left a mound of cat food in the middle of the dining room.

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