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It beats listening to nothing. My goodness, Frank, Being Frank right where the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to Being Frank. We're the only way to be is well Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebonno, and I'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no conversation is out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. Our listeners are familiar with our routine. We record live to tape and I give you the dates
so you have context and relevance. It is the twenty fifth of February, and we continue our celebration of Black History Month here at Being Frank. The Trump Administration's attempt to rewrite history to suit their vision of America continues unabated. That was on full display during the President's State of the Union address last night, and with the possible exception of our LGBTQ plus and immigrant communities, no group has been more targeted for this revisionist history than Black Americans.
We have seen the video and the attempts to desecrate memorials dedicated to the Black experience in America, and perhaps the sting of these policies is felt mostly through the cuts in federal subsidies with minority art communities and the programs associated with them. The irony of these cuts is that they eliminate the very means by which minorities can lift themselves out of poverty that plagues so many of
their communities. In just a minute, we'll welcome back to being Frank, a man who has dedicated his life to improving the lives of young people in underserved communities through theater arts. We'll be having some intelligent conversation on how he is coping with these changes now and what they
might mean for the future. And for the second portion of our program, will see Witch Gears and we'll meet one of the creators and organizers of the nineteenth annual Polar Plunge that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical needs of local children. Okay, now, please welcome back to being Frank. He's a playwright and the artistic director of the Shades Repertory Theater in Havistrow in New York.
And he returns to being Frank. My friend, mister Samuel Harps Samuel, thanks once again for joining me.
Always it pleasure to get a chance to talk to you. Love coming on your show.
We appreciate that, Samuel, and we'll have some intelligent conversation, that's for sure. Let's again, it's been a while since you've been on the program. Tell us a little bit about Samuel Harps and your involvement with the rep theater of the Shades Repertory Theater.
Yes, yes, indeed. Well, first of all, Shades came about about twenty three years ago. I realized that I was living in the community of community theaters and none of those people doing any plays that with anybody to look like me or any of the kids that I was
teaching at the time. Therefore, of course, like necessity is the creator everything, you know, I created a place in Habstaw, an underserved community where kids could first of all come and enjoy theater, and that broadened out into actually doing theater with the kids in the community. So it was just organically happened, just by no one else around here
would do it. They were doing guys and dolls and damn Yankees in Oklahoma, and a lot of the kids in my community didn't sing, didn't even know where Oklahoma was and really didn't care. So we started doing original pieces in Habitstraw and it continued off for twenty two years.
SA mean, why is it important for young people to see literally see people that they can relate to and hear music and lifestyles that they understand. Why is that so important?
Well obvious, I think it's crucial, especially now historically or we it seems like a lot of possibility for a culture to be erased. We see what has happened to the Native American and looking at it from the outside looking in, it's like that couldn't happen. But slowly, but surely, especially in the last twenty years, we've been slowly been attempted to get erased, unless something like the George Floyd happened, of course, which kind of brings the black people back
into the light. You know, we just kind of mows you along. But history has become important because it is possible that in one hundred years black people could be a blip on the radar, and we're not a blip on the radar.
Same with that in mind, talk a little bit about some of the goals of the Theater of Shades Ultimately, what do you look to accomplish with the theater?
It again, it took on a life of his arm Frank in a sense that we started doing original plays again because a lot of the high schools in the area, in Rockland in general, we're doing plays that were had no African Americans, no Latinos, and it's important for people to see themselves in theater or otherwise it means absolutely nothing. So the necessity came about with just doing original plays. What do you kids want to talk about? What's important
to you? And that's where it began. After each performance we would do a Q and A where the kids would stay in character. Usually our plays centered around conflict resolution of some degree because that's what most of the kids were doing with dealing with in their lives, some sort of conflict. So with the Q and A, kids got a chance to remain in character and talk about their choices. And that became our signature with the theater with Haberstrow Youth Theater, and that carried on into Shades
where I started to do it primarily historical plays. February is the I've always joked, the coldest and the shortest month of the year. For African American and for years, even back as far as I can remember, it was important, yes, but it always stopped that the civil rights movement. It was we came here, went through slavery, reconstruction, overcame, and then slid back down again and look at where we are.
So again, the importance of art theater in particular is how we tell our stories through music, through dance, through theater. And if we don't have that and it's getting stripped away through budget cuts, I'll get to that in a minute, because again, our funding came from the community itself. You know, we start to get grants just from longevity contuity, just from being there. We get small grants here and there.
But to keep the doors swinging open, we had to create an audience and the people did come.
Well. With that in mind, Sam, let's talk about success first of all, and you can be personal with it. How do you define success? And then within your theater and the zeitgeist if you will love the theater, how do you define success there? And can you give us some examples?
Yeah, twenty two years is success. We started out with audiences with the youth theater. You have grandmothers, you have aunts, and you have their siblings and kids they go to school with that came to play they slowly it came, but Shain's Repertory Theater when we started to do plays by lesser known African Americans. We've been writing plays for centuries, so we started to do plays that spoke to the community. People started to come and that became our success. Just audience.
Soon we were getting, you know, audience of one hundred hundred and fifty people, and that is how we measured our success, just lunge heavity, just being there in the community of community theaters and developing an audience. That's how I measure our success there.
And you mentioned dealing with budgets, and that's the reality for everything. I mean, everything has to be paid for. Even when they say not for profits, there's still costs associated with it. You know, it doesn't run itself. And I know, especially with the slashing of the EI, you know, and that that certainly trickles down, and sometimes it's more than a trickle, it's a flood where you're in danger of being washed away. And this this past weekend was
a prime example. I know, you you salvaged something that you had planned by doing a reading at ROCCA, the Rockland Center for the Arts set that up for us a little bit what that was supposed to be originally in how you managed to salvage it and do something positive too, working within the framework of of this budgetary restraints. Now if you can't.
Yes easily, well, you know, every Black History Month for the last eight years, we've had funding from disca h New York Council of the Arts that was part of what they call a uh sort of a sub grant. Arts Council of Rockland gathered money and they were able to distribute it amongst people in Rockland County, so we would get a trickle of a you know, two or three thousand dollars, which is a theater at our level,
which is good money. Our actors rarely get paid, but it's costuming because there are historical pieces and designers and things like that. But this year, actually last year, I'll go a few years back when it started with the pandemic. You know, the theater. Theater always finds a way to survive, always after for the American theater on that level of the total pole, we have to find a way to survive.
But those money so it's a few dollars help. But suddenly we had moved up to Garnaville and the pandemic hit and we weren't able to get into our theater. We couldn't even get into the building for a year, so we weren't able to do anything. And again, if people aren't buying tickets, we're not getting any come. But the grant that came from a Corps thirty five hundred dollars sometimes five thousand, that would get us off the ground for every Black History Month this year. Last year,
actually NISKA didn't give us a grant at all. A Corps didn't get large enough grant, so we had to of course scratch the Burning of New York, which is a historical peace. But it's sixteen characters and they're coming from all over, from Manhattan, they're coming from Westchester, so
you know, how did they get here? Funding? It takes money, but we just got, you know, basically nothing last year, which led us to do a community poetry reading, which it's called reached out to community leaders, pastors, the assistant director of NAACP, lawyers, teachers, actors, and said, let's celebrate our literary figures, our James Baldwin's Our Langston Hughes r W B do bos Our County colin and for the
public and talk about the last one hundred years of literature, poems, speeches, dedications. A two hour event and we put it out there. We had people that come to read. We had eleven community readers, and we always we get good audiences at ROCA because Black History Month, respectfully, all of our liberal friends or black friends, our Latino friends. You know, people come out for that one month because the focus is
on African Americans. The other eleven months, you know, you know, we have to somehow get in the news probably other ways.
So well, I was going to ask you, how do you continue that momentum? Sam You'll have you know, you build it. How do you continue it?
It's what I do. I mean that sounds almost cliche, but you know, thirty three years I've been doing this. I mean it came to New York on an internship in my thirties. I didn't even grow up until I was thirty four, you know, mentally anyway, and I'm.
Working on it, Samuel, don't feel.
Yeah, you know. So anyway, I came to New York, I was raised as an army Brad Frank as you know, you know from way back. You know, my father fought in a couple of wars. I thought I didn't fight in the wars, but I was in the military. Both my sisters were wars my cousin's uncles, which brings me to that whole patriotic thing. People always talk about, how could you be patriotic? How could I not be patriotic?
You know what I mean. We've been fighting in wars, my actual my family had been fighting wars on the soil since the Civil War, So of course I'm patriotic. And when I do historical pieces and drag out these bits of history that people had never heard of, never read about. We didn't get in school. People didn't talk about the kids now, you know, even though we have Google, they can find out what they want. But for generations, you have this ignorance about who we are as a culture.
You have your top ten figures, but you have generations of history that African Americans have stamped on the United States of America. And when you get scorned, when you get you know, I guess, for lack of a better term, you know, not the realm. You know, what I mean, in a country that you died for that continues to treat as second class citizens or even third class. You know now, So you know, Frank, when you touch, when we talk, when anyone touches on that chord, it it
spurs me into passion. I won't say rage. Rage was in my thirties and forties.
I hear you.
I'm in my seventies now, so it's.
Not rare too.
You know, I'm gonna be seventies.
But it welcome to the club.
Yeah, it's turned to something else, which is again why I have to as a storyteller. I have to maintain a legacy of literature, poems, theater and movies. African Americans that are now doing movies. I don't know if you saw Sinners yet, but have you did you get a chance to see Centers? I did, Yes, Okay, it's it's everyone should see it. My daughter told me about it, and she told me about I thought it was a vampire fleet, but it's a lot deeper than a vampire fleet.
And I heard Coopler on a show talking about it. Then all those subliminal meanings in it, everything that's going on, and it is again him screaming out. Look at us. We are here. It's screaming at screaming, and we've been screaming for how long? For one hundred and sixty six hundred years or so. But now's the time. You know, we have a broad audience and our music is changing. Our rappers are growing up, you know, into men who
have experiences. There's something about experience. I wasn't a big rap fan when it came out, but what these brothers is. The comedians, the rappers, the composers, the playwrights, the writers, They're actually speaking and saying something. Now. I'm so proud of our literal our literary tradition. Moving on, so proud of what's going on.
A perfect segue, Samuel. With that mind, I asked to prepare reading for it, and I know you have. I have two. I'd like to get to one. Now. Would you set it up for us and then read for us? Yes?
I will. This poem is a short poem written by Content Culin called Hillburn the Fair. It's about Hillbury, New York. In brief. In nineteen forty three, Thirgood Marshall won a disparity case regarded integration in the schools of Hillburn. This is eleven years before Brown versus Board of Education, right here in Hillburn, where young black kids weren't allowed to go to the white schools in the areas. They had to go to a school that had the library, the
indoor bathrooms, no gymnasium. Marshall came to Hilbert, New York and bought this case had won content. Colin wrote this poem they reference to that. It's called Hilbert the Fair. God have pity on such a city where parent teachers child to hate. God looks down on such a town. We're prejudiced. The great Bruise truckingly and evily. What should be liberties at state? It's by Kanti Columns, you.
Know, I should mention also Joe Allen, Uh, the producer, created a wonderful documentary on that whole thing, called Two Schools in Hillburn. I highly recommend it. I believe he's going to be having a showing at the Nayak Library coming up soon, and I highly highly recommend it for everyone. What should what should people take from? You know, that's the beauty of poetry. They can take whatever they hear out of it. What do you think, uh, people might want to take from that poem acknowledgement.
Basically, this is a nineteen that was in nineteen forty three, Frank, it could have been nineteen sixty three, It could have been nineteen seventy three, it could have been nineteen eighty three in a place like Hillburn. So I think people basically take from that. I mean, he was writing his poem. The last line what should be Liberty's it stayed is what people should read from that poem. Poetry is elusive, you know what I mean.
But yeah, it's it's wide open for interpretation. I think those people that's why the practitioners of both arts, it's a joy because it's the challenge of it, you know what, you know, as perspective to say, we can discuss a little bit. So for people who are not familiar. We're from Rockland and that's w where this show emanates from, but because we stream it goes to other parts of the country in the world for that matter. You know, Hilbert is this tiny little place, and it ain't down
south either. When we're thinking civil rights events and stuff, we think of Selma, a plant, so on and so forth. This is a tiny little village about what thirty five forty miles from town Manhattan. That's kind of almost like a one stop like town. So it's amazing how this has played out in America, but all over America. And I don't think people realize that your thoughts.
Yeah, yeah, the place the poem starts with, God have pity on this on such a city.
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So you know, I mentioned a little bit about the State of the Union address last night, which was the longest in history. It already broke his record that he already held. Uh and certainly mixed feelings depending on what side of the aisle literally you were on.
But but I thought the reaction, particularly with when al Green walked through the body of the of the event with the sign that you know, against the video that black people are not apes, and the reaction of what someone tried to grab it away. I forget the congressman who centered his name, and but but talk a little bit about how that all went down, and your feelings about the video itself and the reaction to it, the denial by the president and the refusal but most people
to simply accept it. What what first you made?
You made, of course mean the Obama Obama Michelle video.
Right, Yes, of course, yes, I call it. I call it the video because I don't like to give it more credit race this piece of turk if yeah, I mean this show otherwise I would, but yeah, I call it the video. What was again? I could? I was shocked and heart But as a black man, when you see something like that, is it rage? Is it righteous rage?
It's I talked a few minutes ago about at seventy uh, I take nothing this man does I take with the great assault? What was most simple? I mean my thoord When I first saw the video, it's Obama that he's talking about, and you know, he's become a national institution in himself and as well as his family, and him not responding to it was a huge response. But now it's social media, so it's a it has a life of his own. It's bigger than Obama, includes all of us,
me included. Whenever I see a caricature now, I if it came from a source, Frank, it would it would feel a lot worse being called the Inward on Main Street right here in town than it is coming from this guy, the actor math. Someone actually expected him to apologize for it. And fire his whoever linked it out there not taking responsibility at off of doing it, or you know, it's it's tough to talk about this guy. I can't even mention his name, and I think I
got that from my mom. She can't mention his name. I take no. With what he's doing and or attempting to do to the country is just so baffling. I mean, everyone knows and sees this. For he's not missed out on any demographic women blacks. Ah, you know. Now you've got poor White's not liking him. And that's when it really gets scary, you know, because he's touched on everything. He's touched on everyone, you know. So I'm passed being
angry with him and more angry with the country. But on the other end of that, I'm not an eternal optimist. But to see Americans, soccer moms, athletes, black white, young olbgqs or whatever are speaking against their turning away invitations to the White House. There the courts are making their way slowly, but surely you have a army of lawyers that are fighting against what he's doing. Uh, you know.
So it's it's disheartening and sometimes encouraging to see a no King's rally in a place like Oregon or Memphis or Alabama, you know, with the Rainbow people. That kind of gives me that hope that we might be able to last at least in the midterms and possibly after. But they will last this mstruck other than them getting us into a war. I came into I came into today saying I'm not going to be heavy on the politics. But you brick at that. In God, this guy, you know,
I everyone's political. You cannot be political and living in America anymore?
Well yeah, you know. And again even with this show, and obviously we're discussing arts in it, but it's our lives, you know what I mean, talk politics, Well, then you can't talk about living in America. Yeah, not anymore, you know, early on now surely.
Like with the opioid epidemic, when African Americans went through the crack epidemic, and what we got was just say no, okay, but respectfully, Once a young white girl of one white boy in suburban Cleveland gets addicted because they hurt their lead playing soccer, it's a pandemic, you know, it's an epidemic. You know, because now they're suddenly looking at it. I've seen people in New York City in an eight year period in the eighties, thirty three thousand people died of
an overdose. And we got just say no, I'm going to get off this high horse in a minute. I just want to give them picture of the fact, the fact that we've had an epidemic, an opioid epidemic all of a sudden, because it's reached the suburbs. Now say with them stripping people off the street, now okay, and suddenly white people are like, oh, they're they're they're snatching people, white people off the street. Now it's craziest and endemic.
You know, I could get snatched off the street in any day for three quarters of my life, No for since I was an eight year old, so due to math, I could get, you know, snatched off the street a legal ailing or not. But now you're snatching people off the street. You're shooting, You're shooting white women in SUVs
in the streets of American cities. Look at that. You've got a man that can go to another country, take a man out of his country, go up any ship that's in coastal in waters, and nobody can do a thing. He frightened the woman so bad that she gave him hurt Nomail Peace prize. How do you get someone in your Nobail peace pries? Anyway, now we have suddenly people are looking across the board at what this guy is
actually doing. It's affecting white people. White people are saying, who's going to cut my lawn in the summer, who's going to raise my kids? They have some of these women that they're snatching off the street and sending to Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico. They raised three generations of white kids in the suburbs. They cut your lawn, they deliver your food, you start snatching them off the street. Okay, during the pandemic is one thing, but now it's become an epidemic because they
see the loss. There was a play that was written called A Day Without a Him Mexican back in the seventies, where a black play right wrote a play that a day people woke up and there was no more Mexicans nowhere. It took three days. Who's going to take my kids here? Who's gonna cut my grass, Who's going to pick our tomatoes? Who's going to cut the chickens? Who's going to pick the cotton. You know, who's the backbone in this country.
So the backbone has been handed from African Americans who created this country, helped create this country, to the Mexicans. And once they disappear and they're not here, you start to see. We saw it during the pandemic when people couldn't go to high end restaurants in the city. They had to rely on Jose or Hector to bring the food to their door. Okay, so or the elderly. All the Somalians they're talking about in Minnesota, they take care
of the elderly. Ninety percent of some volumes there are in their country where doctors and nurses, they couldn't take care of their own mother and father, but they would come here. And suddenly you start taking those people away, and now we have an epidemic. Now it's really horrible. I hope we last this thing. I really do hope we can survive this onslaught Okay, because the country America
does not look like America. The next poem I'll read after the break was written by License Hugh and it is actually called let America Be America Again, and it was written in nineteen twenty three. But you hear the words to it, it's quite frightening, it's quite telling.
And since you previewed it, why don't we Now we'll do that and then we'll wrap up. We'll go to the break instead. But I think timing is perfect, since it's seemed to be so appropriate for this moment. If you would, would you read the Poemston Years.
It's a rather long poem.
That's fine. I'm sure it's wonderful. This has been terrific. Please we want to hear it.
Okay, It's called Let America be American Again. Lesters wrote this poem in nineteen twenty four when he returned from Paris for the first time after leaving America. They're coming back. Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plane seeking a home where he himself is free. America never was America to me. Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed. Let it be that great, strong land of love where never keenes connived, no tyrant scheme
that any man be crushed by one above. It never was America to me. Oh, let my land be a land where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath. But opportunity is re real, and life is free. Equality is in the air we breathe. There's never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free. Say who you that mumbles in the dark, or who are you that draws your veil across the stars. I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart. I ad the debro bearing slavery scars. I am the red man
driven from the land. I add the immigrant clutching the hope I seek, and finding only the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, tangled in that ancient endless chain of profit power gain of grabbed the land of grabbed the gold, or grabbed the ways of satisfying, satisfying need of work. The men of take the pay, the Malians who have nothing for our pay except the dream that almost deed to day. Oh,
let America be American again. The land that never was, has been yet and yet must be the land where every man is free. The land is mine, the poor man's Indians negroes me who made America, who sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose cloud in the rain, must bring back our body dream again. Sure, call me an ugly name you choose. The steal of freedom does not stain from those who live like leeches on the people's lives. We must take back our land again, America.
Oh yes, I say it, Plain America never was America to me. As yet I swear this oath. America will be out of the rack and ruin of our gangster's death, the rape and rot of graft and stealth and lies. We the people must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, the mountains, and the endless plain, all all the stretch of these great green states, and make America again of owning everything for one's own greed. I am the farmer, bondsmen to the soil. I am the worker,
so to the machine. I have the negro servant. To you all, I am the people, humble, hungry, mean, hungry yet to day despite the dream beaten, Yet to day, All pioneers, I'm the man who never got ahead, the poorest worker, bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt all basic dream in the old world, while still the serf of kings who dreamt the dream so strong, so brave, so true that even yet its mighty daring seams in every brick and stone, in every ferret turn
that's made America the landed has come become. Oh, I'm the man who sailed those early seas in search of what I've meant to be my home. For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, and Poland's plain and England's grassy laid and torn from black Africa strand, I came to build a home land of the free. The free who said the free not me, surely not me.
The millions of relief to day the Medians shot down when we strike, the millions who have nothing in our pay For all the dreams we've dreamed, and all the songs we sung, and all the hopes we humed, and all the fledge we've hung, that America the America again.
Wow. In a word, epic, absolutely epic, and I listened to every.
Word nineteen twenty four.
Wow.
Written in nineteen twenty four.
What does it mean to you personally when you hear that, when you speak it? What does it mean to you?
What brings in my ear is this man broke this in nineteen twenty four and it could have been written in twenty twenty four easily. Every words, it's screaming. He could just come back from Europe, from Paris, where he was treated differently like a human. He came back. And this is before before passport were passports, and Langston had got tagged by the FEDS for being a communist any black man back in the nineteen twenties versus red scare
going on. You go to Europe and you come back w B. Debo's legson hughes Bob and went through it, you know, Roberson, Yeah, this goes on right, So he gets he stopped and gets hassled, and he wrote this play. So again it means let America be America again. That's what rings true. I'm screaming at now, Let America be America again. And it's been many things, you know, two hundred and fifty years of an experiment. You know, it's amazing.
Do you remain optimistic, Samuel.
I I.
Do.
I do, Frank, you know, I have a slew of friends that think I'm almost Pollys Pollyanna optimistic. But there is no way a country this strong, these sort of values are screwed up as it is, you know, cannot survive this guy. I mean, that's that's my hope. Okay.
And again, as I said earlier, Frank, when you see soccer moms at No Kings marches, you know, you have soccer moms in Minneapolis that are feeding refuge to Bali refugees that are out in the streets, you know, warnting people of ice coming, that are making sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that are going to hole depot, feeding people. Soccer moms. That's the hope I got. Okay, you know, yes, America has this God, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go
here for a moment, man, you know. But it that my hope really goes in the fact that me as a as a veteran, my sister fought it kuwait, my other sister was in Desert Storm, my father fought at Vietnam and Korea. And then you're looking at the black Americans that fought in the Civil War. They fought for freedom. This is gonna sound so freaking cliche, but they fought for freedom. To believe, I don't think the word negro
is even in the Constitution anywhere. But a group of white men with good morals went into a room and said, this is what's right, this is what's good about humanity. That's the hope that we have. That's the hope that we fight for. That's why you know, these soccer bombs are out there. That's why nineteen year old black men were signed up to a military. It's not to get a free education. Okay. People are fighting for their country.
They're fighting for a belief. That's my hope. You know, the lawyers that are coming forth, how many you don't see as meaning mega hats as it used to be. It's become shameful when two years ago, mega hats was everywhere. You know, I got sick of seeing it. I'm not saying that they're not out there, but America is better than that, much better than that. The people that I you know, in the military, next to and even through sports and theater. You know, and this cliche goes on.
I had white fans that used to say it, but some of my best friends are white people. You know. That wasn't always true. I could actually say that somebody really good friends a white people yeah, forty years ago, it was some of my best friends are black people. You know. You know joke, if you've got more than three black friends, you know you're in the club, you know what I mean? Yeah, keep if if I have to counter black friends, you know you'll have enough of them.
But anyway, Frank, that's that's my take.
Man.
In America, we uh live on a hope two hundred and fifty year experiment that has this taking this Knox, taking his bruises, taste, taking his Nazis, taking his wars, and somehow find the way to survive this guy. There's no way we have an orange haired.
I'm going to he's a family or.
Yeah, yeah, I said, I won't go there anyway.
So what's what's what's in the future for for Samuel Harps and Shade Repertory, And then we'll go to a break.
Yes, still doing place. I mean, we have the Burning of New York coming in the fall of twenty twenty six, which is another historical event happened down on Wall Street where thirty eight people were hanged, you know, black, white, pregnant male female for an illigit conspiracy. It's that a musical. But yeah, so but anyway, that's in the fall, so I'm just going to keep doing my thing again. I've been on historic this historical quist since we're receiving an
ancestral dot com kit for my six year birthday. I've been looking into my own history and the history of African Americans. So that's what I'm doing work place.
Maybe you'll come back and and talk about that in the future. It's always a pleasure to have you here.
Love to Likewise, Frank.
Likewise, Samuel Hart's playwright, executive artistic and executive director of Shane's Repertory Theater in have Astro in New York. We really appreciate all of your intelligent conversation. Thank you so much, Frank, Thank you, Samuel. Take a quick break. We'll come back, switch gears a little bit and have a little bit of fun with Robert Noyes, who is one of the originators and coordinators for the legendary Polar Plunge. This is being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono will be right
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Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Gubono and as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter. We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
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That was a terrific first segment and we're going to finish strong Switch Gears a little bit with a new guest joining us now is Barbara Noise. She is one of the originators and coordinators for the Polar Plunge. And you knew I was going to use this because I stole it from you. Barbara. Let's make some noise. You know you said it. I told you I was going to steal it. So here we go to tell us a little bit of Barbara. Tell us about the origins of how you started poular. It's nineteen years now, what
put that in your head? Tell us about it as an event. Obviously it's going to involve people jumping into cold water, but let's get a little bit more specific. How did this all come aback?
And I can't believe it's nineteen years because nineteen years ago, my friend Mike Lynchin myself we're talking at a Toastmasters meeting and when you meet people, you ask what they like to do, and this idea of Paula plunging came up. I myself have been plunging for over thirty years.
Wow.
I started out at.
The in Coney Island and doing it there, and I decided, you know, I love it. It's as much fun as a marathon and not even the prep work. So that that appealed to the lazy part of me.
It's so cold.
I did know it was.
There was snow on the beach, and this woman warned me because I was with my two younger sided twins, and she said, you're gonna die. And I'm like, no, not on my plan.
But so I'm glad, not today anyway, but today that day.
Yeah, we'll have to negotiate that other second part. But so anyway, when I was talking to Mike and he was saying that he liked to do what he had gotten down to the Jersey Shore, we thought it would be fun to do it up here in southern Rockland. Then since I did was born, we thought, well, maybe not only just doing it, but doing it for a
kid that needed help. And there's so many families that experienced children with medical difficulties that really have huge expenses and they need a way to be able to deal with those expenses and still worry about getting their kids well.
So we found a family.
Emma Monahan was our first Penguin Plunge recipient, and since I was a police officer in South Nayak, we were able to do the Penguin Plunge under the auspices of the PBA. So it was this five oh one C three thing. So now that we had the idea, you have to figure out a place to do it, and
that was the tough part. I actually plunged secretly all along the Hudson River south of Congers to find a nice enough beach to jump into, and it was hard because some places it was rocky, some places it was mighty. Some places you had to climb over a wall. And since I wanted there to be a festive party atmosphere, it also had to have a big enough area that we could have some music and some food and some
people to join me and Mike in this quest. So the first place we found was actually Hooked Mountain, which is really nice, which is run by the state of New York, which probably didn't have as much skin in it as much as I would have liked. So they told us we could use hook Mountain, but it's closed during the winter, so if it snowed, we were out of luck if we had to give them money. And we had to, of course, like figure out a way
for people to park. So Upper Nike was so kind of letting us park on North board away because usually you can, so that was our plan, but they said if it snowed. They weren't going to open the gates, and as luck would have it.
It snowed.
Oh wow.
I was devastated, like, I'll bring my shovel, I'll shovel it. But luckily the sun came out and melted all the snow away. So we went down to the beach and we had a very small crowd. Jimmy Shutz is our DJ and our MC and he plays spin some tunes. We had a strong man that can pull a fire truck with his teeth, so he offered his services. It's like those are in services I knew I needed, but
it was so much fun. Of course, the fire department was there because we put diveries in the water so that people don't go beyond a certain point.
Because safety is always passed.
I want to talk about that this is done safely, done safely.
So we did it, you know, we did it. It was wonderful.
The family came down, Frank, We all had a good time. We raised eleven thousand dollars the first time, able to give a check to the family and felt the warm glow of helping someone else. And then I got a letter at the police department and this woman had told me about her daughter and she was a single mom and she needed help. The daughter had neurofib with mitosis. Could I please help her? So all Mike again said Mike, what do you think should we do it again? He's like, yeah,
why not? It was fun, It was really fun and it was so we went again, and this time not to deal with the state. The village of Nayak very kindly let us go at Memorial Park.
There.
We had a fun time. It did rain though, like it was a really big fan of the rain. That's really not a fun thing. But we raised fifteen thousand dollars franc It was awesome and we thought we were done until the little girl looked at me and she said, could you help my chemo buddies? And at that point I knew we had to form a separate organization from the police Department's PBA, and we became the Penguin Plunge because we'd like to be literative and we were off
to the races. And so as a result, we've been keep going year after year. The first Sunday March only one Sunday we had to cancel because the fire department had a lot of emergencies a day before due to a big storm. But we've been plugging along and have given away through the generosity of the community more than a million.
Dollars, more than in the night million night in eighteen years, more than a million dollars. So you were adding to that total of a million plus this year. That is amazing, Barbara. It's greaz and I'll be there. I'm telling you, not going in the water. Anybody who knows me knows how much I hate the cold weather. My social media posts. I'm a Sicilian. I can't get hot enough of it. But I will be there with my camera every year
to catch you crazies who actually do this. But it is really a fun of how many participants do you anticipate this year?
Well, that's always up to the day, so if it's a nice day, you usually get more people. We've had as much as seven hundred people go in.
Wow in the water, in the water and actually go wow.
They go in the water.
I don't not going to say how deep they go in the water because the Hudson itself is really reflective of the tides. So sometimes when the tide is high and I haven't checked for this weekend. If the tide is high, you get to go deep or quicker, which I think is easier to do than going in inch
by inch by inch. And some people will go in for two seconds because people bring their kids in and they're like those little birds at the sea shore where they run in and they run out and and they're all scream going in, which is actually a good thing because it displaces the cold on your body. But when they come out, when someone told me they go, I was just amaze at all the smiles, like people were
so happy. And that that's really important of the Penguin Plunge too, because yes, money is at the heart of it. We want to raise funds for these kids, but it's also that sense of community and it is good to help someone else. A lot of times we forget that, like by giving to someone else, you actually get more in return. And it's the sense of accomplishment for a lot of people. And I really think that you would
like it. Maybe you don't know that you would like it, well, even though you do so much already, we just you know, put it in there.
Maybe well, say, all right, so let's give specifics. How could people give money? Sunday right March first.
It is much first.
Okay, give the specifics if you would please.
Okay, So we're going to be there from twelve to two at Memorial Park. Right now, we're just hoping that there's enough snow moved away from that area. But as it stands right now, everything well, I.
Know it will work out because it will.
But from twelve to two, we're going to be at Memorial Park when people gather, and people don't always gather once. That's why we wait till later in our in our event to jump into the water, so everyone gathers. We have free food that has been generously donated by a lot of local businesses, Rockland Bakery, Nightcot Bagels, Strawberry Plays. We get some food, we get coffee, We have chili. People make chili. If you want to make a pot of sauce, welcome to it. And people like get comfortable.
We have some music. We have in the past we had horses, but people just get really excited, get revved up to go in. Then we have we introduce the families. When it gets closer to one o'clock. We're selling fifty to fifty tickets. We have lots of swag, We have sweatshirts with T shirts such as I'm wearing that a lovely t shirts has in case it's cold, blankets in case it's colder. And then we do our raffle ticket.
We have a raffle that we have and we'll pull the raffle tickets in front of everybody, so someone we'll go home with ten thousand dollars.
Wow, I do.
It's pretty exciting. That as exciting as going in the water.
It's good. So can you estimate, you know, it depends what kind of contributions are you expecting for this year? Can you put a dollar amount on what would you think might be reasonable to anticipate this event? Might want?
My dream is to get so when we are the culination of everything, and this is not just the one event we do.
So after we finish raising money for families through.
Other activities as well, we present them with a lovely, beautiful check. And I would hope, my hope is that each family, each of the three families we're helping this year, will get fifty thousand dollars each.
That is my hope. That is what I'm counting on.
That's extraordinary.
So it's actually crazy. It's even like it.
Is, and it's obviously fun for you. It's fun to participate in and as you mentioned, you feel good when you do good, so people shouldn't dismiss that.
Now, and it is.
The families have told me that it means so much to them to see everyone come out there for them for their child. Two years ago, one of our recipients turned sixteen. A boy turned sixteen at the Penguin Plunge and a thousand people saying happy birthday to him, as any teenage boy would love. Right now, he was crying with Joe. I mean it was it was so touching. It. I mean, so many parents come later on, I'll bump into them in places and like that. Really that was
really special. That really made a difference. We have families themselves also that connect with each other sometimes, and again like we don't do just children that have cancer or children with neurofibromatosis or other rare diseases. So a lot of times you feel, especially with those rare diseases, you don't know someone else that's going through the same thing.
So we can connect those parents together. And what's really amazing sometimes is when the kids become friends and we've had kids in the past that are now grown up, because again, nineteen years is a crazy long time, that are now on the committee. Like Molly McGovern is one of our committee members. She's a teacher down in the city. That sixteen year old boy not only is he on.
Our committee, but his whole family's on our committee.
And Brielfham last year she wants to do things for the Penguin Plunge. One of the things we do is we at Christmas time we go around and do a personal parade at their houses and the kids just love that, and I know that the other kids want to be there for those other kids because it's crazy, it's silly, it's simple, but it's fun. And we want people to feel very special. When you go through a hard time like that, you feel alone and you feel it's just
such a huge thing. And we also celebrate the siblings of the kids because it's hard to have you know, your brother's sisters sick. So we want everyone just to feel the joy that we feel by knowing these heroes. And they're such warriors, they're they're fighting things like sometimes if I complain about something little, I'm like, hey, that is nothing compared to what these families go through.
So that's Sunday, Marchday, March first, March, Manyak Memorial Park twelve. I can wear a park Okay, come down and make some noise with Barbara. Yes, that's happy to do it. Barbara has I had to you set me up for it. I couldn't disappoint. You're a joy.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much, and I can't wait to see you.
And yeah, Sunday, I'll be there, not necessarily promising a plunge, but I'll be there do my thing. We offer a special thanks to our listeners because they take time to give us a voice in there lives. Remember, we offer a fresh topic just about every week. Catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts that includes Apple's Spotify, iHeartRadio and all the others. Check us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Like us and leave a
comment too. I want to leave you with my last two things, some original music and an appropriate slogan. And since our first half of our program the theme was a great black writers, well here's another one. Tony Morrison, who was also a Rockland resident, and she said, I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it's important not to ignore its pain, is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains
information that can lead to knowledge, even wisdom like art. Okay, I can't say it better than that, folks. I'm going to have some fun with some closing music from my friend Peter Danish, who was in Europe now producing his play there, and he left us to have a little fun. This is he said, quote unquote. I'll just read it to you and let him explain it. It's a song from a new musical he's working on about a New York City record producer who moves to Nashville and is
surrounded by Maga types. He develops an alter ego he's also Maga and tries to understand their point of view, and he gives us a spoiler alert this it doesn't work. Sounds like fun. Let's give it a listen for our engineer, Neil Richter, you know him as the mail man he always delivers. I'm your host, Frank Lobono, and we hope to have you join us on the next being. Frank, We're the only way to be is frank, Thanks everyone.
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