Five Points streets intersection painted by George Catlin in 1827 (Gabriele’s journal – January 21, 1991) (Nick’s narrative – May 5, 2022) When I found the story of the ragman hermit, I xeroxed the page from the reference book, another talisman to be added to my medicine bag. The city had been recently clearing homeless encampments, but I knew now the Hill was beyond its jurisdiction, belonging to a greater domain. The spirit of the ragman and hermit was its…
New York Tongs under arrest ca. 1904 (Gabriele’s journal – June 18, 1991) (Nick’s narrative – May 12, 2022) By 1900, 7,000 Chinese had immigrated to the neighborhood, and Five Points was referred to as Chinatown. The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 had halted legal immigration from outside of America. It was a reaction to anti-Chinese sentiment, stemming from resentment about the willingness of the Chinese to work for far less money under far worse conditions than white laborers. The…
Roger Horne, a Mohawk Ironworker in the Raising Gang, ca. 1970 via the Smithsonian (Gabriele’s journal – October 17, 1991) (Nick’s narrative – May 19, 2022) Any hierarchy beyond these street-level drug sales was purposefully inscrutable, not just to the police, but to the players themselves. No one knew who was who in the war zone. With all the unknowns, my only viable path toward determining what actions to take, or not take, was to lay bare the underlying metaphysics…
Altered from original poster art by Lim Heng Swee (Gabriele’s journal – May 8, 1992) (Nick’s narrative – May 26, 2022) Then it hit me and everything became crystal clear in my mind. A couple yards away Tortuga was in the pond. His spirit graced me with an epiphany, a vision that melded past and future into a timeless present. For my morning walk and stalk, Tortuga had been directing me most days toward the library and research where I…